Passage Read: 1 Kings 2-5
Meditation Verses: 2:22-25
Thought
Solomon's justice was swift. And in Adonijah's case, he didn't judge merely based on outward actions and words, but on the intent of those words and actions. Adonijah simply asked for the young woman who served David in his old age, but Solomon understood that to be a ploy to regain the throne, along with Abiathar the priest and Joab. With that request, Adonijah sealed the fate of all three of them. If it didn't all happen in one day, it happened in very quick succession. And Solomon was permanently relieved of that threat. These men were being judged for things they had not officially been judged for, under the reign of his father. So it's not like these things came out of the blue. They had enjoyed grace under David, but hadn't learned from it. They thought David was weak and they could scheme behind his back. If David was weak, he charged Solomon to bring them to justice, and because they didn't go their way with the grace they enjoyed, they brought judgment down upon themselves. It wasn't really sudden justice, but delayed justice that finally caught up with them.
Application
There are times where I am judged, and there are times where I must make judgments based on more than what is immediately at hand. The consequence may be bigger than what seems warranted for the offense at hand, but that's because it takes into account things that were not officially judged, more than that, things that were not previously repented of and changed. The offense at hand follows in the likeness of wrongs committed before and left unpunished. So that latter or final judgment is worse than judgments that could have come before. I shouldn't be surprised if I suffer worse for a lesser sin, if it's really just the culmination of many unrepented sins. And there may be times when grace has been exhausted and I must bring a heavier consequence into the life of another because of the same thing.