1 Kings 1:41-53
41 Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “What does this uproar in the city mean?” 42 While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. And Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a worthy man and bring good news.” 43 Jonathan answered Adonijah, “No, for our lord King David has made Solomon king, 44 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. 45 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. 46 Solomon sits on the royal throne. 47 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. 48 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.’”
49 Then all the guests of Adonijah trembled and rose, and each went his own way. 50 And Adonijah feared Solomon. So he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. 51 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.’” 52 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.” 53 So King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and paid homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.”
Laughter in heaven (Psalm 2) often promotes laughter on earth: There is something almost comical in the debacle which followed Solomon's proclamation as king. One moment Adonijah and his henchmen were feasting and making merry in the supposition that their intrigue had proved successful, the next they had disbanded in disorder and fear, and the hapless Adonijah fled for refuge to the horns of the altar, his erstwhile arrogance and ambition pricked like a bubble. It is not what a man is in prosperity but how he reacts to adversity, that shows his calibre, and his pathetic, cowardly flight recorded here is in marked contrast to the wisdom and kingly dignity of the young Solomon in his attitude to his brother's treachery (52). We may already see in this the mark and effect of the Lord's anointing upon him. The unction grace from on high that comes upon those whom God chooses is unmistakeable in the quiet authority that it imparts, and this is nowhere seen more clearly than in the lives of those truly called to minister His Word and speak in His Name. Nor is this a merely natural impressiveness, although every natural endowment is enhanced and brought to fruition by the Spirit's power; it is that men partake of and reflect the authority of the Word they are commissioned to proclaim. Nothing makes a man so manly or godlike as the divine enduement for service.