When A Good Person Makes A Bad Request

1 Kings 2:19
When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down at his right hand.

1 Kings 2:22-23
(22) King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him—after all, he is my older brother —yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!”
(23) Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request!

Adonijah was the oldest son of David. He would have been the natural heir of the kingship after David died. Unfortunately for him, David had chosen Solomon to be king. Adonijah tried forcing a coronation and military coupe but he failed.

Adonijah decides to undermine the new king who is his younger brother, Solomon. He uses a trick to establish contempt of the kingdom. He asks Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother to request Solomon to give him Abishag for marriage.

Abishag was a beautiful lady who nursed King David in his last days of leadership, 1 kings 1:1-4. To take inherit a woman that belonged to the king is to symbolically inherit the kingdom. Therefore, whoever married Abishag became the right heir of the kingdom.

When Adonijah asked for permission from Solomon so that he can marry Abishag, he was challenging the legitimacy of Solomon’s leadership. Yet the one who delivered the request was his mother. Solomon respected his mother, but the request the mother brought was bad. What do you do when a good person makes a bad request?

1 Kings 2:23
Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request!

When a good person makes a bad request, you decline the request. When a person you respect makes a bad request, you decline the request. When a holy person makes a bad request, you decline the request. Solomon respected the mother, but he declined the request and consequently killed Adonijah for that request. When a good person makes a bad request, you do not oblige!

Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Obedience to parents is in the LORD. If a parent makes a request that contradicts faith, don’t obey that parent. Don’t obey parents by joining them in false worship or following lies, or sinning, or whatever else. Parents deserve respect and obedience on the condition that they are consistent with God’s will. No curse will come upon you for turning down a parent’s request that contradicts God’s will. When a parent asks you to do something wrong and evil, don’t obey. Solomon did not obey!

Colossians 3:18
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Wives only submit to their husbands if the submission does not contradict the LORD’s will. Husbands are good but if they make a bad request, no wife should obey or submit. When a good person makes a bad request, we do not oblige!

What do you do when the boss you respect makes a bad request? What do you do when the government you respect makes a bad request? When a good person makes a bad request, you are under no obligation to grant it.

May God bless us with wisdom to sense bad requests particularly when it comes from good people that we respect, May God grant us the power to decline bad requests, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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