Now that Solomon has removed the threat of Adonijah, he must contend with the treasonous Joab. This is the ninth sermon in the series, The Kingdom Established, an exposition on the first book of the Kings and the reign of King Solomon. Again, reading from chapter 2 of 1 Kings, beginning in verse 12, I'll read through verse 34. By the inspiration of God, the prophet writes, Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was established greatly. And Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, and she said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. He said, Moreover, I have some what to say unto thee. And she said, Say on. And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom is mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me that I should reign, howbeit the kingdom is turned about. and to become my brothers, for it was his from the Lord. And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, say on. And he said, speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, for he will not say thee nay, that he give me Abishag, the Shunammite, to wife. And Bathsheba said, well, I will speak for thee unto the king. Bathsheba therefore went unto King Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother. And she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire once more a petition of thee. I pray thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, ask on my mother, for I will not say thee nay. And she said, let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. And King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag, the Shunammite, for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is mine elder brother, even for him, and for Abathah, the priest of Ajob, the son of Zeruiah. And King Solomon sware by the Lord, saying, God do so to me and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore, As the Lord liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me in house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehudiah, and he fell upon him that day that he died. And unto Abathah the priest said the king, get thee to Athanoth, and unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death. But I will not at this time put thee to death, but thou barest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abathar from being priest unto the Lord, that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. Then Titus came to Joab. For Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Job fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told King Solomon that Job was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay, but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus saith Joab. And thus he answered me, and the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him, that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which thou have shed from me and from the house of my father. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword. My father David, not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the hosts of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his seed forever. But upon David and upon his seed and upon his house and upon his throne shall there be peace forever from the Lord. So Benaiah the son of Jehudiah went up and fell upon him and slew him. And he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Church at Rome, speaking of the magistrate's duty before God, Romans 13, 1-5, by the same spirit, the Apostle writes, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power resists at the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." Thus far is the reading of God's most holy, inerrant, and finally authoritative Word of God, the Grass Withers. The flower thereof fades away, but the Word of God stands forever and by. His holy word is the gospel with all of its lessons, all of its admonitions and encouragements preached to us again this day. Now, after hearing Adonijah's request to have Abishag for his wife, Solomon, as you see here, is incensed since he knows the motive behind his half-brother's request to insert himself into the royal court for, as we have already learned, for the express purpose of an opportunity to take the kingdom away from Solomon. Remember, the kingdom was mine. It should have been mine. How is it that the Lord took it away from me? But I believe there might be another reason, maybe underneath this all, why Solomon was so angry. It seems as if not only would Adonijah, gauge in this marriage to get an opportunity against his brother, but it seems as if Solomon might have even had Abishag in mind for himself. It even seems likely that he might even at this time been in love with her, since she was ministering to his father, whom Solomon loved, and since, moreover, He writes his love songs in the Song of Solomon about the Shulamite, which seems to be a reference to Abishag. And so in light of Adonijah's attempt to perpetuate treason with the added insult, to Solomon's affection for Abishag and the fact that she was the minister to David while Eli died, Solomon orders his execution. And as we have already seen, it was a righteous execution. Knowing that the enemies of the kingdom are often those within one's own household, Solomon then continues. He can't stop with Adonijah. He continues the purge by targeting Abathah, the priest, Joab, and then later, as we'll see, even Shimei. So consider first the king's command in regard to the priest. Verse 26, and unto Abathah the priest said the king, get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death. Notice the sentence, he is worthy of death. This was a capital offense. Now there's a couple of things to consider here. First, Abathah's rebellion was in fact treasonous, which carried a penalty of death. His actions were considered a capital offense. And so by actually verbalizing it, Solomon verbalizing it, he's making sure that the priest knows that what he did was a capital crime. Solomon's condemnation upon the priest must have entered the heart of Abathur as a knife, despite Solomon's merciful sentence of exile. He had been the priest. He had been in a notable position. And now he is now defrocked. And yet, the man is not entirely free from worry. Note the king's words. I will not at this time put thee to death." This insinuates that there may be a time when the king changes his mind. There may be a time when he would change his mind, depending, of course, as we'll see, depending on Abathah's conduct. And so by saying this, he is putting the priest on notice. It must have been unnerving for Abathar even to hear these words. But Solomon is keeping all of his options open, just in case the priest perpetuates any betrayal. Any perpetuation of betrayal would signify his death. Secondly, Solomon gives the reason why Abathar would not be immediately put to death. Notice, because thou bearest the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon, to his credit, He does not forget how faithful the priest had been to his father in the past. And this was an honorable reflection on the king's part because of the priest's fidelity. In fact, Solomon is honoring the priest for his past duty in the service of David. And in fact, he mentions it for the hardships that he had to endure with David as a faithful servant of God and a faithful servant of the king. And this is what judges do. And Solomon here is acting as a judge. He is looking at the entire picture. He's not saying you did this, therefore you're going to die. No, I'm going to look at your character in the past. I'm going to take into account everything that you had done, and then I'm going to pass my sentence. So this is what judges do, even in modern times. If you've ever been before a court system, or maybe even yourself was before a judge. They consider the sentence based on your entire character in the past. If you are, of course, a worthy individual, had a good character, they're going to take that into consideration that this might be your first offense or what have you. But if you had a long string of offenses, then they're going to take that into consideration as well. So the judge considers the past life of the accused to see if they were honorable or dishonorable with their track record was. And that's what Solomon is doing here. So up until this point, Abathar was a trustworthy man, and he was loyal to David. There was no doubt about that. Sadly, all that changed at the instigation, and this is what Solomon says, at the instigation of Joab. Paul cautions us about keeping company with vain and wicked persons, and that was I believe, Abathur's fault. He was hanging out with Joab. He was just a man that was being moved around and manipulated by Joab. And it was very easy for the man to be manipulated by Joab, who had a very strong personality. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, be not deceived. In other words, here's the warning. Don't be deceived. You hang out with bad people, you will be manipulated. Evil communications corrupt good manners, he says. And so Abathur is exiled. And think about it this way. One bad decision, one slip up, out. Be not deceived. Evil communications can corrupt you. And so he is exiled from both the priesthood and the kingdom. But Solomon's actions was more than simply passing a sentence against one man. It was the fulfillment of a prophecy leveled against an entire family, according to 1 Samuel 2.13-35. This wasn't just against Abathar. It was a sentence against a group, a whole family. Adam Clarke explains. Notice what he says. God had told Eli that the priesthood should depart from his house. Abathar was the last of the descendants of which family Eli was the priest of. Zadok, who was made priest in the stead of Abathur, was of the family of Eliezer, and by this charge, the priesthood reverted to its ancient channel. Abathur deserved this degradation. He supported Adonijah in his unnatural assumption, Adonijah's natural assumption, of the royal dignity even during the life of his father. So once again, Simply because the wicked continue in their position of power and influence doesn't mean that their day of judgment is forever going to be delayed. Abbathah's degradation, his stripping, his defrocking came late. Perhaps he thought the prophecy would not be fulfilled. But there will always be, to the wicked, there will always be a day of reckoning. And what this tells us is that God remembers his promises when he says he will destroy all the workers of iniquity, all the hypocrites and the blasphemers, he will one day destroy them. And David understood this. And most likely he shared it with his son. Note his decree as if he is speaking even to Solomon in Psalm 37 verse 1 and following. Notice what he says, and he says this to you, and he says it to me, especially in the day in which we live, when the dark clouds are foreboding, he says, fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Now, soon can be a while, of course, in God's eyes, but notice the promise. And then he picks it up in verse seven, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. He says it again. Then he says it again. Notice Fred, not thyself because of him who prosperous in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass, seize from anger and forsake wrath. Fred, not thyself a third time in any wise to do evil for evil doers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. Do you think Solomon was thinking about this? How Joab, and Adonijah, and Abathah were plotting against him? Of course he was. The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation. But their sword shall enter into their own heart and their bows shall be broken. That must have been a great encouragement for Solomon. Now, these are God's encouragements for us, that there will be a day when the wicked will be brought to heel simply because God does not forget their evil deeds. But the opposite is also true. God not only remembers the deeds of the wicked and rewards them accordingly. He remembers the deeds of the righteous. The Hebrew writer assures us of this very fact. Notice what he says in Hebrews 6.10, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do continue to minister. Notice what the Hebrew writer is saying is if God would forget our deeds, our ministry to one another, he would be unrighteous, but he's not unrighteous. He's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. So all of our good works as a result of salvation, as a result of redemption, all of our good works, which are done in faith as an outpouring of the new birth are remembered and subsequently rewarded by our Heavenly Father. So be not weary in well-doing. Now, remembering the evil that Eli had done, God brings his judgment to pass during the days of King Solomon. And as a result, Abathar is defrocked and exiled to his own land. So Solomon thrusts out Abathar from being priest unto the Lord that he might fulfill the word of the Lord, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh, verse 27. Now the acts of Solomon and the judgments, which he rendered were not done in secret or in a vacuum. He didn't just pass a sentence and no one knew about it. This was a public sentence. These were open decrees of judgment, which had real consequences and it was an impact upon the entire nation of Israel. And so it is no wonder that Joab was hearing all that Solomon was doing. And at that time he was probably quaking in his boots. And we see this in verse 28, when the tidings of Solomon's wrath comes to Joab. Then tidings came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom, as if that was to his credit. Now, it's interesting to note how Joab had refused to follow Absalom, but wanted to follow Adonijah. And you have to ask the question, well, why? Why is that important? Well, by stating this fact, which we might have forgotten, makes us wonder why he would follow the one Why would he follow the one and not follow the other? Well, consider these possibilities. In Absalom's situation, if you remember, David was still powerfully influential as a king. And Joab was powerfully influential and secure in his position as David's warchief. Why would he go after Absalom? Absalom, number two, Absalom's situation was clearly going to be a violent takeover. And there was nothing that one could assume otherwise. And in Adonijah's case, the situation was quite different. David was going to die. His power was gone. His throne would be vacated. As the remaining firstborn, Adonijah seemed, at least in Joab's mind, to be next in line for the throne. He would then be next in line for the warchief position. And his position would be secure as long as he could get Adonijah into the place of royalty. There also didn't seem to be the hint of a violent revolutionary takeover From Solomon, as the opportunist that he was, and he was an opportunist, Joab had already placed himself in the position as Adonijah's war chief. And his decisions were all about himself because that's what Joab was. If you know the character of the man, it was all about himself. Not what was good for God, not what the King wanted or what God wanted or what the kingdom deserved. but what was good for Joab. So hearing that, and knowing he was next to feel the weight of the king's wrath, he runs to the only place that he could get sanctuary. He runs to the tabernacle for clemency, and he takes hold of the horns on the sacrificial altar. We see that in verse 28, the second half, and Joab fled into the tabernacle of the Lord and caught hold on the horns of the altar. Now, according to the law of God, Anyone that had shed blood inadvertently, in other words, without premeditation or without intended malice, could plead for clemency if they fled to the tabernacle and took hold on the horns of the sacrificial altar. Note the mandates of the law. Firstly, according to Exodus 21.12, murderers are to be executed. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. However, according to verse 13 of that same chapter of Exodus 21, if a man lie not in wait, in other words, if he's not premeditating, if he's not doing this with malice, but God deliver him into his hand, if the guy kills him by mistake, it was in a fight or what have you, then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. In other words, if there's no premeditation, if a man does not just wait for somebody to kill someone, and as a result, there's a fight, or there is a death by accident, or in the case of manslaughter, God delivers that man, that victim, into the hand of the slayer, then God says, as long as it was not premeditated, there can be a place for you for clemency. He appoints a safe place for the individual, and that was on the horns of the altar in the tabernacle. So it seems as if the horns were especially holy and there was safety to be gained there, and those that were not guilty of premeditation were able to take hold on them, and then there would be granted mercy. Adam Clarke observes. He says, quote, the altars were so sacred among all the people that in general, even the vilest wretch found safety if he once reached the altar. This led to many abuses, however. and the perversion of public justice, and at last it became a maxim that the guilty should be punished, should they even have taken refuge at the altar. God decreed that the presumptuous murderer who had taken refuge at the altar should be dragged thence and put to death. And so according to Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 19, in order not to have this practice abused, if the individual who committed a premeditated act of murder then took hold then took hold on the horns of the altar. He would then be rightfully dragged from that altar, removed from the altar, and be executed. We read this in Exodus 21.14 and Deuteronomy 19.11-13. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. Very clear, very clear, no ambiguity here. in Deuteronomy 19.11 and following, But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally, that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities, that was the sanctuary city, then the elders of the city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. Thine eyes shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that he may go well with thee. You see, Joab in this case was not innocent of premeditated murder. He plotted it. He crafted it. He murdered Abner and Amasa with all the evil intention that a man could muster, and yet he never was punished for his crime. And what happened is there was then blood guilt brought upon the entire nation of Israel and upon the entire house of David. There was a polluted nation until Joab was killed Righteously executed there would remain pollution upon the nation of Israel. There was blood guilt upon that nation. And what, what that meant was that the nation could never be blessed unless the blood guilt of the innocent was vindicated by the execution of the guilty. And Solomon was well aware of that. And he was also well aware that it was his duty to cleanse the nation of the blood guilt that Job had placed upon it and which his father David was unwilling to do. Solomon knew that the future of Israel, the future of the kingdom depended upon that decision. And so he asked by sending his royal executioner to fetch Job from off the altar. 1 Kings chapter 2, 29. And it was told King Solomon that Job fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord and behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him. Notice verse 30. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the Lord and said unto Joab, Thou saith the king, Come forth. And he said, No, but I will die here. Very, very bold, very presumptuous. So Benaiah brings the king word again, telling him what Joab said. And thus he answered me in this way. No, I will die here. Now, naturally, Job is not going to come off the horns of the altar. He's not going to get down. Say, OK. Yeah, OK. I know I'm guilty. Kill me. He's not going to let go, because he knows that if he does so, he will be executed. So not willing to take it upon himself to remove the murderer, then Ananiah brings word back to the king for further instructions. I find that very interesting, because the law is very clear. But this tells us something about Benaiah. He was a loyal servant, and he was very meticulous about following the King's instructions. How meticulous are we? He wasn't going to misstep when faced with that difficult situation. Instead of making an executive decision, he sought the counsel of the King. And Ben-Haniyah is an example for us to follow. Whenever we are faced with difficult situations, whenever we face a crossroad, We have to make a decision. We should never make autonomous decisions without seeking the wisdom of God. We need to pour into the scriptures. We need to seek godly counsel. We need to ask, what are the unintended consequences of my decision? Because there are always unintended consequences if we're not careful. One of the ways in which we can safeguard against decisions which are either immature or just off the cuff. is by studying the scriptures, especially the law and the prophets. And when I say study the scripture, I don't mean wait until you have something come up. Study them so that when it comes up, you say, I know exactly where I could find more counsel, more advice, more examples. Solomon, you see, knew the law of God. He had to. He was the king. He had to write it out. And he therefore was able to judge properly so that he could effectively sort out the problem with biblical solutions. And Benaiah wanted to know, am I doing the right thing by dragging that miscreant from the altar and killing him? Since Joab's murders were done with full presumption and hatred and malice, he was not to be privy to the altar's protection. And Joab knew that. But he might have thought that since the altar was so holy, none would dare to desecrate it by executing a man, especially one that had been David's warchief. He was saying, look, I'm David's warchief. I was faithful to David for all these years. You're going to tear me from the altar and kill me because I exacted vengeance on two men? Joab may have thought he could manipulate the king by his effort to seek refuge at the altar. But whatever he was thinking, whatever Joab was thinking, he was wrong. And he would not repent. We don't hear anything that he says, you know, I really shouldn't have killed Abner. I really, I really, I was vengeful. I was, I should have killed Amasa. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I repent. I'm sorry. Have mercy upon me. No, no, they won't see anything like that. Why? Because he's proud. That was his downfall. In fact, instead of humbling himself. His remarks to the King's executioner is quite bold. He said, no, yeah, yeah. I don't know who you think you are, but I'm going to die right here. In other words, you will have to desecrate the Holy altar of God because I'm not coming down from it. And I dare you. And that's basically what he's saying. Basically, that's what he's saying. So what has been denied to do, he says, I'm going to check it with the King first. So hearing this. Solomon simply uses Joab's words. You've got to love the poetic justice here. He uses Joab's words against him, and he tells Benaiah, he wants to die on the altar. Go ahead. Go ahead. Kill him. That's it. That's what he wants. Execute him right where he stands. And the king said unto him, verse 31, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him, that he mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from the house of my father. He is looking not only to execute the man, but he's looking to purge the kingdom. His look, his vision is bigger than just this little incident. It's kingdom minded. It's Christendom that he was concerned about. And notice what he says. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he. What a statement that is. More righteous and better than he and slew them with the sword. My father, David, not knowing thereof to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host and a master, the son of Jethro, captain of the host. And then he says this, their blood of these men that were more righteous and more better than Joab, their blood therefore shall return upon the head of Joab. But then note this and upon the head of his seed forever. This was a perpetual curse upon his seed forever, but upon David and upon his seed and upon his house and upon his throne shall there be peace forever. from the Lord. So it's placed upon Joab. It's placed upon his people, his generations following, but it's removed from the righteous. Now there's several things here that should be considered and applied to the modern world in which we live. Number one, the wicked do not believe that there will ever be a price to pay for their crimes. And that includes the hypocrites in the churches. People just don't want to believe it. They don't believe that God, especially the God of the modern church, God is all love and not justice and righteousness. They don't want to believe that God is going to extract justice. Like Joab, they hide in their religiosity and in their narcissistic presumption of their natural goodness. Joab was taunting Solomon as if to say, you wouldn't dare kill me. The people today, those in government, those in here and those over there, they're taunting God by saying, God won't kill me because I've done some good things in my life. That's exactly what we're faced with today. And yet Solomon did have Joab executed in the same way that God will execute all those who shed innocent blood. Number two, Solomon's first concern was the vindication of the innocent. In this case, it was Abner and Amasa, but it also included their families. The families had to deal with the emotional, economic, and generational repercussions of the murders. You see, murder and wickedness or whatever form it takes, it doesn't just affect the individual. It affects their family and it affects the generations. It may not be that it only affects the one person. It's affecting all people. And while the wicked continue in their wickedness against the just, God is preparing to vindicate the innocent. And I'll say that again. It will be a glorious day when God vindicates the righteous. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will be in due time. And in due time, their foot will surely slide, and they will be plunged headlong into the abyss of God's eternal damnation fire. And that's where the smoke rises up, tormenting them forever and ever. And that will be a glorious day. For when the wicked are destroyed, the people rejoice. And you say, well, pastor, that's not very loving. It is righteous. And we need to understand what righteousness really means. because we live in a world of unrighteousness, and it has become commonplace. Next, number three, the vindication also extended to Solomon, David, and the house of David. If you remember, Job was very instrumental in the slaughter of Uriah, which directly affected David, Solomon, Bathsheba, and the entire household of the king. And when David was completely culpable, it was Joab that carried out the wicked instructions rather than reproving the king for his wicked plans. Joab should have said, what are you thinking? Fourth, Solomon states that the blood that was shed by Joab upon Abner and Amasa will be placed upon the head of Joab. In other words, justice is now rendered. And instead of the blood of these two men polluting the ground, the blood is now taken from the ground and placed firmly upon Joab's head. And he is now the responsible party. Justice has been rendered. The ground is cleansed and the kingdom is at peace. So there's this transference of guilt from the land to the perpetrators. And that is essential. And then finally, the blood guilt goes beyond Joab, as we have said, it extends to his whole family and the future generations. You know, the Pharisees of Jesus's day should have realized what this historical account really was saying. They should have realized that blood guiltiness extends throughout many generations. Knowing this, and yet being so ignorant of it, they still insisted that they were perfectly willing to bear the guilt upon themselves and their future posterity. In Matthew 27, 24, and 25, Matthew records this, when Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but rather a tumult was made. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, his blood be upon us and our children. How crazy is that? How presumptuous is that? As if God would not exact justice. And then as a result of these executions, which effectively removed the blood guilt from the land, the house of David, his family, his rule, and the entire nation was purged, cleansed and at peace. Notice, but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne shall there be peace forever from the Lord. And the lesson here is this. Without a full cleansing of blood guilt, a nation can never be at peace. America stands with these nations that have blood guilt upon them. So I ask the question, what does that look like in the modern world? And how do we remedy it? Because that's the rub. Most governments have been guilty of blood guilt throughout human history. Whether it was by way of human sacrifice, assassinations, bloody coups, genocide, as in Nazi Germany or in the ethnic cleansing during the slaughter of a certain tribe of the Rwandans, blood guilt seems to be the norm for the nations of history in one way or another. the entire global construct. If we want to be perfectly biblical, as we look at the world that we live in, that mankind has made because of the fall, we live in a world of blood guilt. Author R.J. Rummel details the horror attached to some of the most brutal governments in his book, Death by Government. Notice, death by government. He begins his work by stating this, Quote, power kills. Absolute power kills absolutely. The more power a government has, the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. End quote. In 1931, and mind you, this is what the schools do not want to teach the children because they're government schools. In 1931, a Russian woman asked Stalin, how long will you keep killing people? And Stalin answered, the process will continue as long as it's necessary to establish a communist society. During the 20th century, more than 62 million people were murdered by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Rommel observes this, quote, old and young, healthy and sick, men and women, even infants and the infirm were killed in cold blood. They were not combatants in civil war or rebellions. They were not criminals. Indeed, nearly all were guilty of nothing. But these atrocities were not only contained within the Soviet gulag state or in Nazi Germany under Hitler. The Communist Chinese government is also guilty of more than 35 million slain, along with Japan's savagery of the extermination of 6 million souls during and after World War II. Cambodia under Pol Pot and the Kumar Rouge regime. Turkey with its 2 million genocidal purges in addition to Mexico, Poland, and Vietnam's blood guilt. You think about the world in which we live without Christ. And we parade into church, and we sing, and we dance. No. This is where we are taught of the realities of life so that we know what to do about it, starting with our children. So you add to these nations the thousands of ancient empires, that littered history with their barbarism, killing both friend and foe, alien and citizen alike, all for one thing, power. And America stands with these nations in its blood guilt, if not for its international war guilt and political assassinations, in addition to its slavish tyranny, but for its continued compromise on the killing of millions and millions of innocent preborn babies. And yet what we still find, even among the so-called Christian churches is the support of the progressive socialist party of the Democrats who have eviscerated God from their platforms and policies. Because they have no knowledge of their own history. and how many Christian families are sending their children over to the education camps of the communists and the murderers. Rommel adds this, genocide is horrible, an abomination of our species, and totally unacceptable. It is an obscenity, the evil of our time, that all good people must work to eradicate. Notice the last line, all good people must work to eradicate. And you've got churches splitting over the color of a carpet because there's no stained glass on the windows. And I'm just giving you real examples of what I've heard in the past. However, Rommel, according to his writings, he believes that the definition of genocide must be expanded. And so he says this, new conceptions require new terms. By genocide, we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, tribe, religious, or ethnic group, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation, tribe, religion, or ethnic group. It is intended, rather, to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national, tribal, religious, or ethnic groups with the aim of annihilating the group themselves. That's where we are. That's where we are. And this is not a recent book. This was written years and years ago. The objectives of such a plan. would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions of cultural language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups, such as the Christian culture. Seeking God-like power and influence, once this objective is realized, the elites then can have free reign to restructure the society by molding the ignorant, those useful idiots, and unsuspecting people within their clutches, according to their ideology, law, and image. The general result is always slavery, misery, sadness, and sorrow. And it ends always in extermination of those that refuse to heal to the sovereign God-like state. Now, during the time of the colonists, if you would read any of their sermons from the pulpit, they were warning the people. It was the place, the pulpit was the place where you can get the hard, cold fact. Not the media that we have today, not the talking points of a blog or a podcast, but from the pulpit is where we are to get truth. From the pulpit is where we should be warned and from the pulpit is where we should then have our marching orders to be sure that we understand what truth is and then bring that truth to the masses. Solomon sought for a nation free from blood guilt because he knew that a nation cleansed of its murderers is a nation blessed of God. We will continue to examine Solomon's wise governance when we continue in our exposition of First Kings in the reign of King Solomon. And this we shall do, God helping us, unto the praise of the glory of His grace. Amen.