National Protests

I previously wrote a devotion where I casually mentioned I was in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia while the Rodney King protest were happening.  These protests started and were the most intense in Los Angles but like the BLM protests, they spread to many other cities. One of those cities was Atlanta.

The hotel I was staying at was near Georgia State University and, at least for those protests, was a safe area. However, just a short subway ride away was the epicenter of the protests. And unfortunately, this is where violence and property damage occurred. We hunkered down in our hotel until it blew over.

This past Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), there was an article on the front page of our paper titled: “Trump Protest Attracts Over 500 Kansans To Rally.”  Because I am a geek, I started to develop an analysis. There are over 150,000 people in the county where I reside. Assuming no one drove in for the rally from another county (I’d suggest the likelihood of that is low), that means only about 0.333% of the people living in the county attended the rally.  According to the Kansas City Star, the presidential vote was almost evenly split between to the two candidates in Shawnee county which might make the rally attendance closer to 1% of those who voted for candidate Harris.  When you look at the rally results from this perspective, the rally attendance was dismal at best. Fortunately, as far as I know, the protest truly was mostly peaceful (the Rodney King riots and the BLM riots were not). Personally, I support the right to protest as long as it is peaceful and legal. 

We may be tempted to whine about how divided we are as a country.  But what I think we are seeing is better communication (to know what’s going on) and the actions of groups of people (on all sides of the aisle) to want to win with a lesser regard to the morality of the actions than in the past.

Case in point, David’s son Solomon. I’m sure we all know that Solomon succeeded David as the King of Israel. But buried in a relatively small part of 1 Kings is a story of Solomon’s brother who tried to declare himself King while David was near death.

“Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” And he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. He conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest. And they followed Adonijah and helped him. But Zadok the priest and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and Nathan the prophet and Shimei and Rei and David’s mighty men were not with Adonijah. So Bathsheba went to the king in his chamber (now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was attending to the king). Bathsheba bowed and paid homage to the king, and the king said, “What do you desire?” She said to him, “My Lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’ And now, behold, Adonijah is king, although you, my Lord the king, do not know it. Then King David answered, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. And the king swore, saying, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ even so will I do this day.” Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king and said, “May my Lord King David live forever!” King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” So they came before the king. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your Lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place. And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! May the Lord, the God of my Lord the king, say so. As the Lord has been with my Lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my Lord King David.” Jonathan answered Adonijah, “No, for our Lord King David has made Solomon king, and the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And they had him ride on the king’s mule. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon, and they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard. Moreover, the king’s servants came to congratulate our Lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours, and make his throne greater than your throne.’ And the king bowed himself on the bed. And the king also said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it.’” Then all the guests of Adonijah trembled and rose, and each went his own way. And Adonijah feared Solomon. So he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. Then it was told Solomon, “Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for behold, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’” And Solomon said, “If he will show himself a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth, but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.” - 1 Kings 1:5-8, 15-18, 28-37, 43-45, 47-52 ESV

Since Adam and Eve, we have been and continue to be sinful humans. Every time I see what appears to me as a deterioration of society and a sign of the second coming, I must remind myself of stories like Adonijah that show human history is and continues to be ugly.

I tried to pick just a few versus from 1 Kings, now would be a good time to grab your Bible and read the whole story. You will be blessed.