Perhaps the most serious of all handicaps is to have a personality defect.  We’ve all known people with various physical handicaps, but many, or most, of them have beautiful personalities—perhaps because of those physical handicaps.  Physical or mental handicaps might be considered a great blessing when looked at in that light.

A personality defect is a terrible thing to have.  People with personality defects are people we try to avoid.  David seemed to have been surrounded by such people.

There was Saul whose mood swings took him from humility and repentance, to fits of anger, the inability to reason, and to murderous acts.

There was Nabal who was married to Abigail, “a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance.”  (1 Sam. 25:3).  But Nabal “was churlish and evil in his doings.”  (Ibid).  He “railed on” (1 Sam. 25:14) David’s men even after they had protected Nabal’s men, sheep, and possessions.  He requited David evil for good (v. 21), was a drunkard (v. 36), and was referred to by his own wife as a “man of Belial (meaning worthless or wicked)…for…folly is with him.”  (v. 25).  What a difficult situation it must have been for this good woman to have been married to a “churlish” man.

There was Shimei who came out cursing as David passed by as he fled from his son Absalom.  “Shimei went along on the hill’s side over against (David), and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.”  (2 Sam. 16:13).

Perhaps the worst personality defect of all is pride.  Absalom, David’s third son, had it abundantly.  He “prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him,” (2 Sam. 15:1), and declared himself king.

Adonijah, David’s fourth son, had it, too.  Adonijah said, “I will be king:  and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.”  (1 Kings 1:5).

The personality defects of Nabal, Shimei, Absalom, and Adonijah all led to their early, violent deaths.

Some personality defects, like physical handicaps, are not a person’s fault.  The personality defects possessed by Nabal, Shimei, Absalom, and Adonijah were controllable, and didn’t have to exist.  They each allowed the great deceiver to lead their thoughts and actions.  Pride was the evil that activated each.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf points out that the adversary appeals to (people’s) prideful tendencies, puffing them up and encouraging them to believe in the fantasy of their own self-importance and invincibility.  He tells them they have transcended the ordinary and that because of ability, birthright, or social status, they are set apart from the common measure of all that surrounds them.  He leads them to conclude that they are therefore not subject to anyone else’s rules and not to be bothered by anyone else’s problems.”  (The Ensign, Nov. 2011, pg. 20).

Pride is the strangest of all diseases.  It makes everyone else sick except the one who has it.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18 says.

Adonijah was a classic case.  He was the next in line by birth order to become king.  Never mind that his father and the Lord had decreed that Solomon was to succeed David on the throne.  Adonijah felt that he deserved to be king, was qualified to be king, and nothing was going to stop him from being king.  He prepared chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him, exalted himself, and called for a great feast to which he invited “all his brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah the king’s servants.”  (1 Kings 1:9).  He pointedly did not invite his aged father, nor Nathan the prophet, nor Solomon.

When David was told that Adonijah was in the process of being crowned king he put Solomon upon his own mule, assembled his mighty men under the leadership of Benaiah, and sent them to Gihon, in Jerusalem, where Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king over Israel.  The company then blew on trumpets.

The people assembled at Adonijah’s feast had just finished eating when they heard the “noise of the city being in an uproar.”  (1 Kings 1:41).  A young man ran in bearing the news that “Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed (Solomon) king…and they are come up…rejoicing, so that the city rang again.  This is the noise that ye have heard.  And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom.”  (1 Kings 1:45, 46).

“And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.”  (1 King 1:49).

Just like that Adonijah’s support melted away leaving him all alone.  That’s the adversary’s way after building a person up with flattery and fair promises.  He gets them puffed up with pride, and then suddenly lets all the air out by releasing the balloon.

Solomon was willing to forgive Adonijah.  He said, “If he will shew himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth; but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die.”  (1 Kings 1:52).

Adonijah could have repented, but clung to his pride, devised a plan whereby he might still become king, and was caught in his subtlety by Solomon.  (1 Kings 2:12-25).

A personality defect is a terrible thing to have.  The personality defect which says that your person is better than all others is the worst personality defect of all.

People with personality defects always eventually find themselves alone.