1 Kings 2:26-27
"26 And to Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your estate, for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because you shared in all my father's affliction.” 27 So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh."
And now Abiather, the priest, comes up for judgment. His long history goes back to 1 Samuel where we find him associated with David in the early days of his adventurous career (1 Samuel 22:20). And yet, having survived the hazards of those turbulent days, we find him at the last choosing wrongly in following Adonijah (1:7). One cannot but wonder at this fateful decision. Why should Abiather have made such a blunder? Can it be that his heart had gradually become estranged from the divine purposes being worked out in the royal line of David in such a way that he could not discern where the God-appointed succession lay? If this be so, there is a clear lesson for us to learn: it is possible to be associated with the work of God, to be deeply involved in it and committed to its outworking, to be participating in His service, with hearts that through carelessness and neglect of the things of the Spirit have become all unwittingly insensitive to His real purposes, and to be at cross-purposes with His will without being aware of it. The truly frightening thing is that this can, cancer-wise, remain undetected for a long period, until suddenly circumstances force a crisis upon us which obliges us to declare ourselves, and shows us in our true colours. Thus it was with Abiather. The affair of Adonijah drew out into the open the hidden spiritual declension that had passed unnoticed over the years. Lord, give us truth in the inward parts, for Thy great Name's sake.