The Word of God - A Discussion: 1 and 2 Kings
4/10/22 Sunday Evening Study

We have a ton of ground to cover since our last lesson - ranging in three books, but mostly centered in the books of Kings. There are some things to note as we get into this part of the Bible - this is where chronology goes really haywire. Samuel/Kings and Chronicles tell pretty much the same stories, and these 6 books give us almost all of the rest of the history of Israel until the inter-testamental period. Most do not realize that almost the entirety of the rest of the Old Testament takes place in the time periods described by these 6 books of history. All the prophets, all the poetry, all of that happens during these years where we have a succession of godly and ungodly kings, wars, plagues, and eventually exile and return.

We left off last week with the death of Absalom and David’s return to Jerusalem. To cap off 2 Samuel, we have the story of David’s next big sin, and I did a little study on this. 2 Sam. 24:1 says that God incited David to take the census. In the parallel account that we will read next week in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it tells us that it was actually Satan who incited David to take the census. This discrepancy is often explained by the understanding that, in order to achieve His purposes, sometimes God sovereignly permits Satan to act. Such might have been the case with David. God allowed Satan to tempt him, and David sinned, revealing his pride, and God then dealt with David accordingly.

Yet I always wondered why the act itself is in fact so evil, and the explanation actually makes pretty good sense. In those times, a man only had the right to count or number what belonged to him. Israel did not belong to David; Israel belonged to God. In Exodus 30:12 God told Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.” It was up to God to command a census, and if David counted he should only have done it at God’s command, receiving a ransom to “atone” for the counting. This is why God was angry again with Israel and is also why David was “conscience-stricken” after he counted Israel. David knew it was wrong and begged God to take away the guilt of his sin. Thus the plague, and eventually the end of David’s life and the succession.

The rest of the reading is a lot of kings, a lot of fighting, a lot of evil. But the rest of the reading is really centered around 3 characters who we will look at one at a time. Here we have Solomon, Elijah, and Elisha.

First is Solomon. We know a lot about Solomon - the wise guy. Wisest man ever, greatest king ever, built the temple, wrote the proverbs, had 700 wives and 300 concubines (how wise is that really) and turned away in his wisdom later in life. His reign is difficult in the beginning - 1st Kings 1 shows his brother from another mother Adonijah taking the throne, eventually submitting to Solomon who allows him to live. That is until he asks for David's maidservant Abishag, which causes Solomon to kill him, the priest, and Joab - finally bringing vengeance for all of the times they betrayed the wishes of David.

Solomon goes to the high place and makes 1000 burnt offerings to God, who essentially grants him whatever he desires. And, in a bout of already present wisdom, he asks for the wisdom to rule effectively. Of course that is the right answer, so his wisdom is unparalleled, his riches uncountable, and his success immeasurable. We get that whole “Saw the baby in half” story in 1 Kings 3, and then reports of his wisdom spreading far and wide - there is no one like him before or since. Finally in chapters 5 and 6 he builds the temple - which you will find reads very similarly to the construction of the tabernacle you read 43 times in Leviticus. Then he builds his house of Cedar and brings the ark to the temple with great ceremony in chapter 8.

God appears to Solomon again in chapter 9, and he allows His name to dwell in the temple, accepting what Solomon has done. He renews his promise to David that He will preserve the throne and the line provided they stay true to Him and do not stray. And, despite impressing the Queen of Sheba in chapter 10 and amassing wealth like nobody has ever seen before or since, it is only 2 chapters after God’s appearance to him that Solomon turns away from Him to the gods of his many foreign wives. He worships these gods and even builds places of worship for them.

In light of His sin, God brings adversaries, and the eventual result is the dividing of the Kingdom between Judah in Jerusalem and Israel in Samaria. Solomon dies in a divided kingdom, and what follows is years of battles between Israel, Judah, and all of their normal surrounding enemies. Each king that is raised up seems to set a new standard for evil, with Jeroboam's golden calves leading up to Ahab and Jezebel and that hot mess.

Ahab and jezebel show up after the accounts of several kings on both sides - in 1 Kings 16. In 17, we meet Elijah the Tishbite who prophesies a major drought, and is then led by God to go live next to a brook where ravens bring him bread and meat. Cool.

Elijah then goes to stay with the widow of Zarephath, and performs the miracle with the flour that never runs out, then manages to raise her son from the dead, and she, and likely everyone else around, recognizes that this guy is the real deal.

Elijah does not hide. He gets right up in Ahab’s face multiple times, and Ahab sort of hate-fears him. We get the most famous Elijah story on Mt. Carmel with the altars and the calling of fire from God and Baal, with Elijah throwing some choice taunting at the prophets and their so-called gods, and after God humiliates them all, Elijah takes them down to the brook and slaughters all of them, which ends the drought.

Jezebel threatens Elijah, and he runs away into the wilderness in chapter 19, collapsing in depression as he has watched everyone turn away from God. He feels like he has done nothing in service to the Kingdom, and he wants to die. An angel gives him food - twice, and God himself appears to him and shows him the remnant of the faithful, and charges him to anoint the new king and to find Elisha to take his own place.

In the meantime, Ahab wins some battles, establishes peace with Syria, and all is good for a few chapters. Then in Chapter 22, he hooks up with Jehosephat from judah and they decide to go to Syria and take back some land that belongs to them.They listen to false prophets who agree with their plan, all except one guy, Micaiah, who tells him that all of his prophets are lying to him, but that it was God’s will that he be enticed into this terrible idea. Michaia is thrown in jail until Ahab returns in peace, to which Micaiah retorts, “if you return at all.” Guess what - he doesn’t and dies in that very battle.

The next King of Israel Ahaziah falls through the floor of his palace, and is messed up so bad he sends people to pray to Baal-zebub for him. Elijah and Elisha intercept the men and are upset that the king would send to Baal-zebub and not God, so Elijah prophesied his death and goes and sits on a hill. 3 times the king sends fifty men after him, and the first two groups are burned up with fire from heaven. So the king dies just as Elijah says.

In 2 Kings 2 the time comes for Elijah to go. Elisha follows him to Jericho, then to the Jordan which Elijah parts so they can cross. Finally Elijah offers a final blessing on Elisha, who asks him for a double portion of his own spirit, and Elijah is taken away in chariots of fire. He takes Elijah’s cloak, and in the same way, parts the Jordan again so he can cross back.

He goes to Jericho and learns that the water is bad to drink or grow crops, and he heals the water. Then, on approaching Bethel, a bunch of little kids come out and make fun of him and his baldness, so he curses them and 42 of them are mauled by a couple bears. There is probably a lesson in there - I just don’t know what.

In chapter 3, the Moabites rebel against Israel, so they (Jehoram is king now) team up with Judah and Edom, but they are trapped and dying of thirst. So they reluctantly go to Elisha, who prophecies that they will have pools of water to drink in the valley and that they will conquer Moab. He is only willing to pray on their behalf because of Jehosaphat from Judah whom he esteems as not entirely evil.

Chapter 4 shows some miracles of Elisha - the widows oil multiplied and sold to support the family, promising the Shunammite woman a child after they build him a room, and then raising said child from the dead later on. Notice how these miracles follow the same pattern as with Elijah - the flour, the raising of the son, etc. Then Elisha heals a poisoned stew and multiplies bread and grain to feed the prophets at Gilgal.

Chapter 5 is the story of Namaan the commander of the Syrian army, who Elisha heals from leprosy by having him wash in the Jordan 7 times. Namaan is angry and does not obey until his servants urge him, and when he does it he is clean. He tries to pay Elisha who will not take it, but Elisha’s servant Gehazi is happy to take the man’s money, so Elisha also gives him the man’s leprosy because of his greed.

Chapter 6 has the recovered axe head from the Jordan, and the show of force with Horses and chariots of fire around where Elisha is staying so that his enemies avoid him. This is during a famine in Samaria, which Elisha promises will have relief soon. The Syrians besieging Samaria had heard chariots and horses from God - and they fled in terror, leaving all of their supplies outside of the city for the taking, which the people went out and took, according to Elisha’s prophecy.

Skipping ahead to chapter 9, Elisha annoints Jehu king of Israel for the purpose of eliminating all traces of Ahab’s house because of the evil. He kills Ahabs 70 sons, then murders Jezebel - all done according to prophecies. She is thrown out a window, trampled, and eaten by dogs.

Then Jehu strikes down all the prophets of Baal - who are somehow built up after Elijah killed them all, but he left the golden calves and did not keep from sin as he reigned in Israel. As a result Israel began to lose land - parts being taken over one by one.

In chapter 12 we get Jehoash as king of Judah who follows God but allows the high places. He repairs the temple to restore it to glory after all the years of neglect and abuse. In chapter 13, finally we get to the death of Elisha during which he prophesies about Israel’s upcoming victories over Syria. Elisha is buried. Some time later, a marauding band was seen while another man was being buried, and they throw the body in a tomb which happens to have Elisha’s bones, and the man comes back to life and walks out of the tomb.

Then, a succession of kings until Israel is exiled due to idolatry.