He was the prince of a vast and prosperous kingdom. He had everything going on well for him. He lacked nothing that a prince of that kingdom should have. Almost everyone was at his beck and call.
You would think that this prince should be satisfied with his life and seek the peace and progress of the kingdom. But, no. The prince had a passion burning in his breast. If it were a passion for knowledge and inventions that could bring political and economic transformation to the kingdom, he would have been applauded. If it was a passion to support governance and to advise on ways to stay ahead of other kingdoms, he could have been rewarded in ways that are honouring and exalting.
The prince had an ambition. The prince wanted to be king. Prince Adonijah David wanted to be king of Israel. This was a blatant disregard for the succession plan of the kingdom, which he may have been privy to. This was in contempt of his father who was still king and had the right to determine his successor. This was a treasonous act – trying to wrest power away from a sitting king or his designated successor. But he acted anyway.
The prince was a promising young man but he was misguided by his selfish ambition. Selfish ambitions can blur the reality of circumstances! The prince became a renegade prince. His attempt at the throne failed. When his unyielding appetite for forbidden things pushed him once again to make a clandestine request of the crown (this time around, to sponsor his lust for a young lady in the palace), the king that succeeded his father, his half-brother, got him executed. Tragic. The danger of uncontrolled personal selfish ambition. It can ruin the future.
When we choose to run our lives without God or choose to face our career or business without God, we are selfish. If we seem to seek God but root for customs and traditional beliefs or practices when we have challenges, that is selfish. God is looking for men who can forget themselves into Him so He can manifest Himself through them. Don’t be a renegade personally. Surrender to God’s authority by getting converted and living as He pleases.