His father had never rebuked him

“And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bore him after Absalom.” - 1 Kings 1v6

As David approached death the question of his successor came to the fore. Adonijah, who was probably the eldest son alive, assumed that he would be the next king. The Bible says that he “exalted himself” when he claimed the kingship for himself. Adonijah drew Joab and Abiathar to himself and raised any army to back up his claim.

There is a key problem here in that he exalted himself instead of being exalted by God. We see a hint of the root problem here in verse 6. “His father never displeased him at any time.” The New King James translates it this way; “His father had never rebuked him at any time.”

One area where David lacked was in fathering his sons. Here is part of the reason and a lesson for us all. David never did anything to displease his son Adonijah. As parents we often are afraid of rebuking or displeasing our children. We may be afraid that we are going to drive them away. Or, we may say that we love them too much to rebuke them. Or we use excuses like, “They’re only kids.”
David suffered the result of never displeasing his son. Adonijah was proud and haughty and he exalted himself to a place where God did not put him. As hard as it, we have an important role to play, and part of that is to cause of children displeasure at times. May we be sure that we do not neglect that task.