KINGS

The books of 1 and 2 Kings are really one continuous work by one author. The division into two books is due simply to the size of the text.
1 and 2 Kings together describe about four hundred years of Israel’s history, from 971 BC (David’s death) to 586 BC (the Babylonian exile).
The book of 1 Kings focuses first on Solomon, David’s son, who reigns over Israel for forty years. This is Israel’s golden age, a time of peace, well-being and preeminence. But already during this high time, many problems start to show, idolatry, uneven taxation, lavish government spending and growing political instability.
When Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, starts to reign in 931 BC he is unwilling to address the just grievances of the people. The kingdom promptly splits in two: The tribe of Judah (including Simeon and a part of Benjamin) in the South remains faithful to Rehoboam and the house of David, but the northern ten tribes secede and become the nation of Israel under Jeroboam, a new leader whom God has indicated. This tragic split is never again reversed, rather Judah and Israel become arch-enemies that fight each other over centuries.
From 931 BC onward 1 and 2 Kings therefore gives the history of two nations: Judah in the South, with the capital Jerusalem, ruled by the David’s family and Israel in the North, with the capital Samaria, ruled by various dynasties.
According to God’s promise to David, Judah is consistently ruled by a son of David. Judah has good kings (like Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah) and bad kings (like Jehoram, Ahaz and Manasseh) but over-all the nation slowly descends into increasingly deliberate idolatry, societal injustice and political weakness. Finally God allows the empire of Babylon to completely conquer, destroy and exile Judah, Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BC.
Israel in the North fares even worse. To its first king, Jeroboam, God gives the promise of a permanent house like David, if only he obeys the law. But Jeroboam instead establishes a syncretistic cult in Bethel and Dan and thus founds the nation of Israel on idolatry. Israel very quickly descends into widespread idolatry, societal injustice, chaos and political weakness. None of Israel’s kings is ever called good, only Jehu gets some credit for acting decisively against the Baal cult. Continual political assassinations, instability and invasions haunt the kingdom. Nineteen kings of nine dynasties reign over the course of Israel’s two hundred year history. As early as 722 BC God allows the empire of Assyria to conquer, destroy and exile Israel. The northern ten tribes are displaced and assimilated into other idolatrous nations. They are lost from history, no return ever occurs.
The book of 1 and 2 Kings is clearly written from a prophetic perspective, most likely Jeremiah is its author. The book mentions many prophets and their powerful words of God to the nation and its rulers. It is significant that every king who is mentioned to turn to God in response to a prophetic word, the law or a crisis, is immediately saved by God, however dire his circumstances. Yet over all the choices of kings and the normal people are increasingly evil. According to the Law (Deu 28) and according to the warning of every prophet, the result of idolatry and disobedience is the loss of blessing, land and life, and so it happens. The covenant with God is broken, the covenant curses have taken effect.

The basic Time line of the Old Testament

For context and overview, the basic time line of the Old Testament is given below, including the important dates pertaining to the super-powers of the day:
2000 BC  Abraham
1850 BC   the family of Jacob moves to to Egypt
1446 BC   Israel’s exodus from Egypt under Moses
1405 BC   Israel conquers Canaan under Joshua
1011 BC    David begins to reign over Judah, and seven years later over Israel
971 BC      Solomon begins to reign
931 BC      Rehoboam begins to reign. The kingdom splits. Syria is the major enemy.
732 BC      Assyria conquers and exiles Syria
722 BC       Assyria conquers and exiles Israel
605 BC Babylon conquers Assyria (Major battle: Charchemish)
586 BC Babylon conquers and exiles Judah
539 BC Medo-Persia conquers Babylon (Major battle: Babylon)
539 BC Jews are allowed to return
333 BC Greece conquers Medo-Persia (Major battle: Issos)
146 BC  Rome conquers Greece (Major battle: Corinth)
70 BC    Rome conquers Palestine

The books of 1 and 2 Kings are really one continuous work by one author. The division into two books is due simply to the mere size of the text. 1 and 2 Kings together describe about four hundred years of Israel’s history, from 971 BC (David’s death) to 586 BC (the Babylonian exile). It describes the reign of both Judah’s kings and Israel’s kings, as well as both exiles: Israel being exiled by Assyria in 722 BC, and Judah being exiled by Babylon in 586 BC.

Authorship and Date of Writing

The author of 1 and 2 Kings doesn’t identify himself, but there is a great focus on prophets, their prophecies and the fulfilling of these prophecies. Eighteen times it says ‘this happened according to the word of God through prophet xxx’. According to Jewish tradition and also in agreement with the overall thrust of the book, the prophet Jeremiah is held to be its author. There are literary similarities of the book of Jeremiah with 1 and 2 Kings. He writes Kings at the very end of his life, around 600 to 580 BC, after prophesying for decades to an unwilling an unrepentant Judah. Only the last paragraph of the book, 2 Kings 25:27-30, is a later addendum, a post-script that sounds a note of hope: King Jehoiachin has been released from prison in Babylon (560 BC).

Jeremiah’s message to the exiled Jews

Jeremiah writes Kings for the exiled Jews. He explains to them exactly why they are in exile, and that though God has judged his nation (as he predicted), there is hope for all who repent and trust in God’s continued faithfulness to his people. Jeremiah wants the exiled Jews to know: The destruction of Judah that they have witnessed with their own eyes did not happen by chance, nor does it mean that God is not in control or that he is not powerful. It happened because of Judah’s consistent sin. It happened in strict accordance with the Law, in accordance with the curses for breaking God’s covenant and it happened exactly as the prophets predicted. Everything happened with a clear reason and not because the Babylonian gods are more powerful than the God of Israel. God is God, even if he let this happen. And therefore there is hope: just as God predicted the exile, he also predicted that he will let the Jews return to their land and make a fresh start with them there. Just as God fulfilled the judgment he had predicted, he will also fulfil the return that he has predicted. So the message to the Jews is: Understand why you are in exile! Repent of your sin! Trust in God and hold on to the hope of a return!

Solomon’s reign

The book of 1 Kings focuses first on Solomon, David’s son, who reigns forty years over Israel. His accession to the throne is challenged by his older brother Adonijah, David’s forth son. David declares Solomon to be the heir to his throne, and Israel supports him (1 Kin 1), Adonijah backs down.
Solomon starts his reign well: He cleans up the open cases for judgment that his father left to him: Joab, Shimei and Adonijah. Solomon is not vindictive and gives all of them a chance to prove themselves worthy. Only upon repeated offense does he execute them (1 Kin 2).
God meets Solomon in a dream, in which he asks Solomon what he wants. Solomon requests wisdom to govern the great nation of Israel. God is pleased that he did not ask for victory, riches or long life and promises Solomon all four: wisdom, victory, riches and long life, depending – as always – on his adherence to the Law (1 Kin 3:14). This story is peculiar, because it doesn’t happen in reality, but in a dream. Is God using a dream to get through to Solomon, who otherwise would not have request his help?
Solomon’s wisdom in judgment becomes proverbial and is illustrated by a child custody case (1 Kin 3:16-28), which Solomon decides for the one with the child’s welfare in mind. Solomon also writes songs, proverbs and promotes science (1 Kin 4:29-34). His reign is a golden time in regards to Israel’s economic situation, trade, preeminence among the nations and influence internationally (1 Kin 4:20-28). The visit of the queen of Sheba epitomizes this (1 Kin 10).
Solomon also prepares for and eventually constructs the temple, as David had charged him with. This probably went hand in hand with significant advances in Israel’s knowledge, science, engineering and skill. The temple was largely provided for by David and is built in seven years with no forced labor mentioned (1 Kin 6). Solomon assembles all Israel for the temple dedication. His prayer of dedication shows his understanding of the Law and of the covenant of God. God confirms his presence by having a cloud filling the temple, in close parallel to Moses’ dedication of the tabernacle (1 Kin 8, Exo 40). This is the climax of Solomon’s reign, he fulfills David’s promise of a house for God and God visibly endorses the temple he built. After this God appears to Solomon again and gives him the old message of the covenant: If you obey me …. In all of these grand successes God seems to warn Solomon that essentially nothing has changed: only obedience can be blessed (1 Kin 9:1-14).

Solomon’s downfall

In the Law the king is commanded not to have too many horses (military equipment), too many wives or too much wealth (Deu 17:14-21). Solomon breaks all three laws spectacularly, accelerating the growth of the seeds of destruction which were already planted by David.
Solomon not only imports horses from Egypt and all lands (2 Chr 9:28), he has fourteen hundred chariots, twelve thousand horses, chariot cities and a tax system to supply for the horses. He effectively controls the horse and chariot trade of the entire area (1 Kin 10:26-29).
God has promised him great wealth, and he gets that. So far so good. But he runs an increasingly lavish and huge court, provided for by taxing Israel. But the taxation system is grossly unjust: Solomon’s own tribe, Judah, by far the most populous tribe, is tax exempt (1 Kin 4:7-19, 22-23).
After building the temple for seven years, which would not have burdened Israel much due to David’s provision, he goes on an unceasing and lavish building rampage: thirteen years to build his own palace (1 Kin 7:1-12), a palace for the daughter of Pharaoh, multiple government building, fortifications for many cities, storage cities, chariot cities and cavalry cities (1 Kin 9:15-19). For this he first exacts forced labor from foreigners (1 Kin 9:15, 20-22), but then also from Israel (1 Kin 5:13-18), which is forbidden in the law. By the time of Solomon’s death, the taxation and forced labor has become such a burden that Israel is economically on the brink economically and that the leaders of Israel beg for relief (1 Kin 12:4).
Solomon marries seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, many of them idolatrous princesses of surrounding nations, which is forbidden in the law (Deu 7:4). He probably fathered hundreds of children (1 Kin 11:1-3), none of which got much discipleship, attention or time, most likely. This insane number of marriages, not to speak of the harem expenses, sets up his ultimate downfall: In his old age Solomon not only starts building shrines for the gods of his many wives, he starts worshiping those gods (1 Kin 11:4-5). Besides that, the next king to be, Rehoboam, will de facto have been brought up and discipled by his mother, an Ammonite princess called Naamah (1 Kin 4:21). Not surprisingly Rehoboam has no wisdom, no understanding of God’s law and within three years of ascending the throne he leads Judah into idolatry (2 Chr 11:17, 1 Kin 14:22-24).
God rebukes Solomon and predicts that he will tear the kingdom from him (1 Kin 11:9-13). Solomon doesn’t repent, as David had done over Bathsheba). When God starts raising up opponents he rather persecutes them, as Saul used to persecute his opponents (1 Kin 11:14-40). It is one thing to start well, it is another to finish well. It is one thing to have understanding and wisdom, it is another to obey from the heart. And: appearances can fool the eye. Things still look very good, but they will implode in no time.

Rehoboam, Solomon’s unwise son

People come to Rehoboam at Shechem, to make him king and to request a ‘lightening of the yoke’, presenting a just grievance. Rehoboam refuses in pride and stupidity and threatens additional pressure. The northern tribes respond: ‘What share do we have in David?’ (1 Kin 12:16) and secede. The year is 931 BC. The kingdom splits in two: The tribe of Judah (including Simeon and a part of Benjamin) in the South remains faithful to Rehoboam and the house of David, but the northern ten tribes secede and become the nation of Israel under Jeroboam, a new leader whom God has indicated. This tragic split is never again reversed, rather Judah and Israel become arch-enemies that fight each other over centuries.
From 931 BC onward 1 and 2 Kings therefore gives the history of two nations: Judah in the South, with the capital Jerusalem, ruled by the David’s family and Israel in the North, with the capital Samaria, ruled by various dynasties.

Jeroboam, Israel’s first king, wastes an amazing chance

Jeroboam is an able, industrious man of Ephraim, whom Solomon puts in charge of forced labor. Rehoboam sees the down side of Solomon’s reign (1 Kin 11:26-28). God sends the prophet Ahijah to him with a downright stunning promise: Jeroboam will be given kingship over ten tribes of Israel and God will build him ‘an enduring house, as for David’. As always there is only one condition to blessing: obeying God’s law and staying away from idolatry (1 Kin 11:28-31).
The promise fulfills, Jeroboam finds himself exalted and accepted as the new king over Israel, the ten Northern tribes. But for all the glorious promises, Jeroboam can’t muster David’s trust in God’s word: He fears that if Israel keeps going to Jerusalem to worship and for the annual feasts, they will revert to King Rehoboam of Judah (1 Kin 12:26). He therefore builds a national shrine of worship in Bethel (and one in Dan), with annual feasts, sacrifices and priests parallel to and in deliberate competition with Jerusalem. He sets up an altar to a golden calf, but declares its worship as glorifying the God of Israel. He therefore sets up an intentionally syncretistic cult (similar to Exo 32).
God’s reaction is not long in coming: a prophet denounces the altar and the shrine (1 Kin 13) and the prophet Ahijah predicts the assassination of Jeroboam’s dynasty (1 Kin 14:1-18), which fulfills after his son Nadab has ruled only two years (1 Kin 15:25-30).

A summary of the kings of Israel 931-722 BC

Israel, comprised of the ten tribes in the North, is thus founded on a form of national idolatry (the calf cult). It’s capital is first Tirzah, then Samaria. Israel quickly descends into all sorts of idolatry, with its necessary corollary of societal injustice, chaos and political weakness.
None of Israel’s kings are ever called ‘good’, and especially King Ahab and his Sidonian wife Jezebel excel at bringing the Baal cult and increasing lawlessness to Israel.
Only King Jehu gets some praise for acting decisively against the Baal cult. God promises him that four generations of his sons will rule Israel (2 Kin 10:28-30), which fulfills to the letter. This makes Jehu’s dynasty the longest lasting in the North and the closest thing to political stability that Israel ever experiences.
Jeroboam II, of the Jehu dynasty, is the last strong leader. Under his reign Israel experiences a last season of strength, though undermined by a wide rich-poor gap and much internal injustice (see prophet Amos).
Israel goes through nine dynasties  and nineteen kings in only two hundred years. The average king lasts less than eleven years, three dynasties end by being totally wiped out and forty-two percent of all kings die by assassination. As early as 722 BC God allows the empire of Assyria to conquer, completely destroy and exile Israel. The northern ten tribes are assimilated into various idolatrous nations and are lost from history. No return ever occurs.

A summary of the kings of Judah 931-586 BC
According to God’s promise to David, Judah is consistently ruled by a son of David, so Judah has only one dynasty.
Judah has some really good kings (like Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah), who bring reforms and strengthen Judah, but they are often followed by very bad kings (like Jehoram, Ahaz and Manasseh), who reverse everything and cause Judah to deteriorate. It is interesting how often a good father king has a bad son, and how often a bad father king has a good son:
Abijam (evil)                      > Son Asa (good)
Jehoshaphat (good)         > Son Jehoram (evil)
Jotham (good)                  > Son Ahaz (evil)
Ahaz (evil)                         > Son Hezekiah (good)
Hezekiah (good)               > Son Manasseh (evil)
Manasseh / Amon (evil) > Son Josiah (good)
Josiah (good) > Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah (evil)

The major reforming kings are Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and most wholeheartedly Josiah. By the time of Josiah things are so far gone that the Law of Moses is no longer known. Only upon cleaning up in the temple around 620 BC, Law scrolls are found. Josiah reads them and is both dismayed and repentant (2 Kin 22:8-13). He manages to throw around the rudder one more time, but with his death all things revert back.
Overall the nation of Judah slowly descends into increasingly deliberate idolatry, societal injustice and political weakness. The average king rules for about twenty years. Seventeen percent of kings die by assassination and two kings confirm their hold on power by assassinating members the kingly family. After about four hundred years of continual up and down and many unheeded prophets God finally allows the empire of Babylon to completely conquer, destroy and exile Judah in 586 BC. Jerusalem, including Solomon’s temple, is looted, burned and completely destroyed.

The tragedy of the monarchy

In summary 1 and 2 Kings presents a tragic case study on where it must lead if God’s system of locally appointed, accountable and representative leadership (Deu 1:9-15) is abandoned in favor of a monarchy (1 Sam 8). The seeds of destruction soon spring up: abuse of power, unaccountable leadership, kingly indulgence, willfulness, widening rich-poor gap and less and less representation. Even David and his family, though surely the best choice of people to start with, quickly descend into lawlessness.

Some repeated Themes in Kings

God’s utter sovereignty over history
Though Israel and Judah are utterly defeated, nothing in Kings communicates anything other than the complete sovereign power of God over history, peoples and super powers. God can and successfully does intervene on any scale and by many means. Even the powerful empires come at his command, and go at his command. Sometimes small armies win battles and huge armies are defeated, sometimes it’s the other way round. God is on the throne. The state of God’s nation never ultimately depends on the super powers around them, it always depends on their obedience and disobedience, on their seeking or rejecting God. This is an important message to the defeated Jews in exile, and to us also: our enemy is not ‘out there’, our real problem is never ‘the others’. We are our own problem.

God’s respect for human will
Kings is the story of God allowing his grand dream, a nation under God, to utterly fail. Human choice (whether they will obey or not) determines the course of both personal lives and history in general. God does almost anything to get his people to repent: He gives the Law, teachers, prophets, explanations, rewards and threats, partial judgments, anything. But God never ever oversteps human will, or withdraws his humans’ decision making power.
God jumps at repentance
In the book of Kings, whenever any person repents, even if it is halfhearted repentance, or repentance simply because of misery (Abijam 2 Ch 13:14, Ahab 1 Ki 21:29, Manasseh 2 Ch 33:12), God always responds powerfully and finds a way to turn that person’s fortunes, however dire the circumstances.
Only when there in consistently no response from either king or people to any of the prophets, will God judge terminally.

Kings are evaluated by their ‘heart’
The kings’ ‘heart’ is a major repeated theme in the book of Kings, forty-two times it is mentioned. Kings are not measured by their military exploits or economic success, but by their continued heart response to God, to his Law and his prophets, which translates into more lawfulness and justice for the country.

Left-over blessing and left-over curse
According to God’s covenant with Israel, obedience always leads to blessing, welfare, lawfulness, stability and peace – and disobedience always leads to loss, deterioration, instability, injustice, wars and death.
But it takes time for these consequences to fully show. So there can be moments where there is a left-over blessing at a time when Israel is really not doing well, which cheats the eye. And equally there can be moments where there is a left-over curse, at a time Israel is doing better, but the improvements have not yet fully shown. Solomon operates mostly on left-over blessing, but then the implosion of the nation is very sudden and devastating. Equally Jeroboam II experiences such a left-over blessing, a bubble which irreversibly pops afterward. And some good kings inherit major trouble from their predecessors and it takes time for things to stabilize. If we understand God’s covenant and Law, the appearances should not fool us.

The link between idolatry and injustice in a society
King Manasseh of Judah, reigning after the good King Hezekiah, leads Judah into severe idolatry from which they never really recover. It also says about him: ‘Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another’ (2 Kin 21:16), showing the link between idolatry and injustice in a society. There are also positive examples: King Jehoshaphat of Judah, who removes high places and centers of idolatry, also has people being taught the law of Moses. He appoints judges, whom he instructs in righteousness, increasing the lawfulness of his nation (2 Chr 17:7-9, 19:4).
There is a biblical principle: ‘you become like the God you worship’ (2 Kin 17:15, Jer 2:4, Psa 115:8). Those who worship a holy, just and merciful God will build societies that reflect righteousness and justice. But those who worship a blood-thirsty god demanding sexual rituals or child sacrifice, will build societies that reflect that: broken families, abuse of the weak, immorality and injustice will be rampant.

Who influences whom?

It is interesting to ask the following question for both Israel and Judah: Who influences whom either for good or for worse? The ‘players’ mentioned are: the king, the people, the prophets, the priests, the government officials and family members.
In the case of Solomon the family members (idolatrous wives) have a disastrous influence (1 Kin 11:3). Generally the king has great influence, both toward godliness or idolatry. But in the case of Josiah we see a very wholehearted king, but a people that is not deeply repenting (2 Chr 34:33). Prophets influence the nation, but also priests (Jehoiada, 2 Kin 11). Sometimes the situation seems very bad (Ahab’s time), yet God informs a depressed Elijah that there are seven thousand people who have not bowed their knee to Baal, in spite of Ahab’s influence (1 Kin 19:18). Toward the end of Zedekiah’s reign the government officers discourage the king from repenting, pushing him further towards the disaster of the Babylonian conquest (Jer 38:24-28).
The fact that God is judging a nation does not mean that he is not intensely and redemptively working with some people.

The Importance of prophets and prophecy in Kings

The book of 1 and 2 Kings is clearly written from a prophetic perspective and most likely Jeremiah is the author. Kings mentions as many as forty prophets and their powerful words of God to the nation and its rulers. The book is also careful to record the fulfillment of prophetic words: Eighteen times the author will say something like ‘this happened according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by prophet xxx’. Also it is significant that every king who is mentioned to turn to God in response to a prophetic word, the Law or a crisis, is immediately saved by God, however dire his circumstances.
Prophets have words for the nations, its ruler or rulers, but some also have very personal ministries, like Elijah and Elisha, who get major coverage over many chapters (1 Kin 17-22, 2 Kin 1-13). Prophets may speak predictions, but usually their message is not really new in content: They remind people of the Law and the covenant (both the blessing on obedience and the curse on disobedience) and bring God’s perspective to current issues. They bring conviction, shed light on the present problem and challenge people to respond now.
Elijah, whose name stands for the prophets in general (Mrk 9:4), is a leading figure in Kings. He primarily battles King Ahab of Israel and his Sidonian wife Jezebel, who have lead Israel into unprecedented idolatry. Elijah, and later his disciple Elisha, perform or experience many miracles: Interventions into nature (no rain, rain, curing water, parting the Jordan etc.), supernatural provision (food by ravens, oil and flower, stew etc.), healing or even revival of dead people (the widow’s son, the Shunammite woman’s son, a dead man), political interference (fire, judgments, predictions, blindness etc.) and foreknowledge. Elijah performs about fourteen miracles, Elisha about twenty-eight, in line with his request for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (2 Kin 2:9). Elijah and Elisha’s miracles are the closest parallel in the Bible to Jesus’ miracles, and Jesus does many miracles in the same categories. Also Elijah is often alluded to in the New Testament, not least because Jesus explains the reference about Elijah in Malachi (Mal 4:5-6) as referring to John the Baptist.

Kings thus records four hundred years of history. It shows that the choices of God’s people and their kings are increasingly evil. According to the Law (Deu 28) and the warning of every prophet, the result of idolatry and disobedience is the loss of blessing, land and life, and so it happens. The covenant with God is broken, the covenant curses have taken effect. But God has not given up on his people (2 Kin 25:27-30).

Big Picture Introduction to Kings

• Gen 12:1-3    Abraham covenant, promise of a people and a land
• Exo to Deu    Moses nation deliverance, founding, calling, building
• Joshua          Joshua receiving the land
• Judges           Othniel onward > disobedience weakens Israel
• Samuel           Samuel’s transition to Monarchy, first two kings Saul and David golden age, climax
• Kings              Solomon, the division of the kingdom, both kingdoms to the bitter end of Israel being exiled by Assyria and Judah by Babylon.
• Chronicles     runs parallel (with a different focus), the majority of the prophets all fit into this time frame

Basic Timeline of the Old Testament

• Kings covers around 400 years of Israel’s history, monarchy to exile … The most important dates:
  • 2000 BC     Abraham
  • 1850 BC      Israel to Egypt
  • 1446 BC      Exodus from Egypt
  • 1405 BC      Israel conquers Canaan
  • 1011 BC      David begins to reign over Judah, 1004 BC over Israel
  •   971 BC      Solomon begins to reign
  •   931 BC     Kingdom splits … Syria as enemy North
  •   732 BC     Assyria conquers & exiles Syria
  •   722 BC     Assyria conquers & exiles Israel
  •   605 BC    Babylon conquers Assyria (Major battle: Charchemish)
  •   586 BC    Babylon conquers & exiles Judah
  •   539 BC     Medo-Persia conquers Babylon (Major battle: Babylon)
  •   539 BC     Jews allowed to return
  •   333 BC     Greece conquers Medo-Persia (Major battle: Issos)
  •   146 BC     Rome conquers Greece
  •     70 BC     Rome conquers Palestine

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Who wrote?

• anomymous … heavy focus on prophets and prophetic perspective … 18x “according to the word of God through prophet”
• 1 Kin 4:3 … mention of records of history recorder Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud (under Solomon, before under David)
• only 3 prophets are late enough to write / compile a record of all kings: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Daniel’s focus is Babylon and Medo-Persia.
• Jewish tradition credits Jeremiah. Also there are literary similarities of Jeremiah and Kings.
• Since the last comments 2 Kin 25:27-30 (last 4 verses) are past Jeremiah’s time, probably editing / finishing off by Ezekiel (?) around 560 BC or Ezra (?) later around 440 BC

When written?

• Jeremiah would have used earlier sources, quoted them and possibly edited them with “to this day” statements. Examples: 1 Kin 9:21 peoples remaining, 2 Kin 2:22 Elisha’s water wholesome, 2 Kin 16:6 Edomites in Eilath, 2 Kin 17:23 Israel exiled to this day
• Because of the “to this day” statements, it is also thought that Jeremiah wrote most of it shortly before the exile, for after the exile these “to this day” statements are no longer true. So around 600 BC
• The last comments in 2 Kin 25:27-30 are past Jeremiah’s life time, and sound a note of hope. Probably added by Ezekiel or Ezra. Ezekiel more likely for Ezra could have added Cyrus’ permission as the more powerful note of hope. The final comment is added after 37th year of exile of King Jehoiachin (597–37 = 560 BC), so after 560 BC.
• Yet the book was pre-return most likely, concluding from content (stress on God’s sovereignty, universality, repentance)
• So in summary: contemporary records, written up by Jeremiah with a prophet’s perspective around 600 BC, final verses added in later editing around 560 BC.

To whom?

• Quite probably to the exiled Jews in Babylon, enhancing their identity as a people, explaining to them why the sovereign God let the exile happen, giving them reasons to repent, stirring their hope for a return as prophesied

From where?

• if Jeremiah, then mostly probably Jerusalem, maybe Egypt. Ezekiel in in Babylon.

Significance?

• historical record of Israel as monarchy (971-586 BC), clearly implying to show God’s perspective, through the prophets
• teaching the exiles their ethnic identity, their history, their God’s character, why they are in exile, why God still is the God of all the earth, what repentance does, that there is a calling beyond exile, encouraging unity, humility, hope

Spiritual Life?

• starting high (David, early Solomon), but making a rapid downfall through idolatry throughout Kings … it doesn’t take them long to forsake God!
• under good leadership pulling higher again, but generally vanishing knowledge of God, increasingly syncretistic, idolatrous

Main Characters?

• Solomon     the most tragical, scary and ambivalent of the kings, having unparalleled wisdom and yet not godliness to the end. He has all going for him: a godly father, a wise mother, an established throne, prophetic support, God encounters, a great great start … and yet he sets Israel on a course of which they will never recover.
• David          the measure of all kings.
• Jehu            the only pretty good one of Israel
• Hezekiah    godly. Trusts and sees God come through at a great crisis
• Josiah        whole-hearted reformer

Surrounding nations?

• Start: surrounding ones mostly conquered, paying tribute, or in treaty-relations, peace on the borders, far economic reach
• Later: surrounding nations rebel, become enemies, dominating, conquering … become alliance partners for good of worse
• Syria
  • made up of small city-states (“Hadad and 32 kings”)
  • 1200 BC    between Palmyra and Euphrates, then expanding
  • 1040 BC    David puts garrison in Damascus … 2 Sam 8:6
  • 975 BC       independence of Israel … 1 Kin 11:23, 25
  • Syria defeats Baasha of Israel (at the invitation of Asa of Judah) in 1 Kin 15
  • 860 BC      Ben-hadad II against Ahab
  • 853 BC      Israel & Syria & Egypt & Phoenicia against Assyria in Qarqar
  • Syria defeated by Jeroboam II of Israel
  • Syria & Pekah of Israel against Jotham of Judah > Jotham invites Assyria
  • 732 BC     Assyria conquers and swallows Syria (and 10 years later Israel)
  • Syria is the number 1 enemy during much of Kings
• Edom, Moab, Libnah … all successfully revolting against Israel
• Egypt
  • around 931 BC Solomon > marriage-alliance (daughter of Siamun, 21st dynasty), dowry: strategic Gezer
  • 926 BC Pharaoh Shishak raiding Judah (1 Kin 14:25)
  • quite weak by the time Babylon has risen (Rabshake’s threat 2 Kin 18:1)
  • 600s reviving power (Pharaoh Neco defeating Josiah in 609 BC)
  • 605 BC Egypt and Assyria trying to keep Babylon down at Charchemish, unsuccessfully
• generally; the more disobedience, sin, idolatry in Israel, the more powerful the surrounding nations’ influence over Israel

Literary kind

• mostly historical narrative > literal interpretation
• very little poetry in 2 Kin 19:20-28 (word to Hezekiah) and 1 Kin 12:16b (Jeroboam quoting Sheba’s taunt song) > figurative

Structure

• Historical narratice … chronological and biographical

Composition

• Principality         on the godly start (Solomon’s first part) … this is how things should be! learn from this! this is possible!
• Principality         on prophets (God’s view of history) … hear the word of the Lord! Keep the covenant! Obey his law!
• Interchange         of Judah and Israel (Kings) … Chronicles has only Judah!
• Cruciality            first things are good > 1 Sam 11 as hinge > things turn bad
• Repetition … repeated sets of phrases: “In the xxxxx the year of King xxxxx of xxxxx, XXXXX, son of xxxxx began to reign over xxxxx in xxxxx, he reigned xxxxx for xxxxx years. He did what was xxxxx in the sight of the LORD and walked in the ways of xxxxx … His mother’s name was xxxxx … Now the rest of the acts of xxxxx, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of xxxxx? So xxxxx slept with his ancestors, they buried him xxxxx, and his son xxxxx succeeded him.”

Main Ideas?

• exile is not proof of God’s non-existence or inferiority or impotence, but of God’s covenant keeping (here in the negative, the Deuteronomy curses) waiting for his people’s repentance
• God does fulfill his word spoken by the prophets, God’s law and if-then statements stand > good or bad consequences visible in history
• monarchy ‘doesn’t work either!’ … yet God is faithful to the Davidic line
• God’s perspective on history and on the situation of the Jews now

Main Reasons?

• to teach the exiles that God is real and almighty and just and gracious, all mistakes are ours!
• to call the exiles to repent, to see God’s exile his way, to obey now, to trust God for his restoration promises, to have hope
• historical record of Israel as monarchy (971-586 BC), clearly implying to show God’s perspective, through prophets’ words

02 GOVERNMENT IN KINGS – Democracy > Monarchy and first kings

Deuteronomy > Democracy established

Deut 1:9-18              Choosing Leaders

• Deu 1:9, 1:12        quarrels and conflicts are natural, unavoidable > a people always has justice needs, which the government needs to meet
• A government’s No. 1 responsibility is to ensure justice = lawfulness = limiting the bad, let the normal live in peace
• People should get justice within short time. Speed versus Proper Investigation
• Deu 1:10-11         God calls people a blessing. God calls population growth a blessing.
• God’s command to multiply in Genesis is not cancelled, God does not seem to be scared of “overpopulation”
• But: an increase in population demands different structures. Accommodate for the need!
• Deu 1:13             Who appoints government officials? > The people. Not God. Not Moses. God gives the right to govern to the people, the people delegate it to the leaders.
• In government authority is bottom up. Authority versus power: authority is given, power can be seized.
• How do you find out what the people want? > Ask them. Give them a voice, a vote > Election.
• Whether ”modern democratic voting” or “tribal meet-until-consensus” … but ask!
• Another principle hidden in this: one person one vote.
• Deu 1:1            Where do you elect the leaders? > from each tribe. Expanded: from each tribe, people, ethnic group, religious group, area, class, professional group, gender.
• Government must be representative. Why? If representative: people’s problems are being heard and their needs met. If not: people will be unheard, voiceless, neglected.
• They will not consider this government their own > separatist tendencies
• The degree of representation = degree of stability of the country …worldwide true
• Deu 1:13        What type of people? > Wise, able and reputed.
• Able? Skill, ability, intelligence, trained … people who know how to do things
• Wise? Knowledge of what is good and right … people who know what to do
• Reputed? Good reputation, well-known, well-thought-of … people whom others think a good choice
• Deu 1:14       Principle of consensus. God has given authority to humans, He himself respects their authority. They agree.

Deu 17:14-20         Foretelling the Monarchy: Limitations to royal power

• God in the Law (1405 BC) foresees and accommodates for their future desire for a king (1050 BC)
• no foreigner, one of your own community … Why? Which principle is this?
• Government must be representative. Modern Example: Sonia Gandhi
• King shouldn’t acquire: “16 … too many horses, 17 … too many wives, too much wealth, 20 … too much honor”
• Horses? > high-tech military equipment. Military is expensive. Military superpowers are resented, held responsible
• Wives? > personal indulgence
• Wealth? > abuse of power, taking bribes > loosing contact with the normal people > less and less representative
• Honor? > fame and ego as temptation, loosing contact with people, not hearing what needs to be heard, not allowing what needs to be said. You will only embarrass yourself! Why not too much honor? > you are one of them, you are chosen for a job, do it > that’s your honor
• King must have own copy of Law … must read the Law every day of his life
  • so that he will learn the fear of God
  • so that he will obey the law
  • so that he may reign long

Judges – don’t misunderstand the message

• Jdg 21:25     In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
• Do not interpret this as: if only there was a king, people would be more righteous … they may be influenced towards good for a time if the king is good, but a good judge could have done the same
• This doesn’t mean: monarchy produces more godliness or theocracy is the solution
• Jdg 8:22      God expresses the heart of God upon being asked to rule over Israel, he and his son and grandson (>monarchy passdown of leadership) … “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.”
• Jdg 9          shows the story of Abimelech his son who does not share his father’s scruple … well, he is one of 70 children, the son of concubine in another town (Shechem) so he doesn’t get much nurture from his father … if you think monarchy is the solution, read Abimelech’s case study … intra-family intrigue & violence, rebellious movements, war
• the problem is that we are so in love with David (and rightfully so), and with the eternal kingdom promised through him, that we forget the clear and down-to earth instructions concerning political leadership:

Samuel – Israel demands Monarchy

• 1 Sam 8:6     “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us. ”Samuel prayed to the LORD, 7 and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; only – you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
• To want a king = to reject God from being king = to reject God’s law and his way of government from Deuteronomy.
• This is just one more way of forsaking God, as they have continually … it is paralleled to serving other gods
• to want to be like the other nations = to reject the calling of being a model nation under God, so different from the others, influencing the others. It’s an abdication of calling
• To want a king = to want a monarchy, which means only the first king may be chosen by the people. From then onwards it’s for good or worse the son of the son, typically a firstborn, without asking the people, without checks and balances, without looking for character or merit. People only have very limited power after that …

General: Where a monarchy must lead

• Monarchy breaks the principle of people deciding
  • people are not asked, not heard, power-base has moved all the way up, legitimacy difficult
  • awareness of needs discouraged, appropriate addressing of needs reduced, discontent, powerlessness, detachment.
• Monarchy breaks the principle of government being elective
  • bloodline decides, maybe influenced by first-birth, father, high officers, intrigue
  • fosters exclusivity, spoiling, hinders healthy competition, introduces intra-family competition, intrigue, power-games, assassination, by family members, by conspirators. If disastrous monarchy, nothing but family assassination will change anything
• Monarchy breaks the principle of government being representative
  • people are not represented, needs less communicated, less heard, awareness of needs discouraged, appropriate addressing of needs reduced
  • fosters detachment, discontent, feeling of powerlessness, abandoning of self-responsibility, losing of hope, openness towards radical solutions, for no other solution seems to grip
  • fosters reduction of needed intervention for normal people, inefficiency, injustice, deterioration of living standard, deterioration of security and outlook, eventually subversion
• Monarchy breaks the principle of looking for skilled, wise and reputed individuals
  • The king is not determined by criteria of skill, wisdom, reputation, but birth. Skill, wisdom and reputation therefore are more accidental, maybe even discouraged, for exclusivity might spoil the upbringing of the king, and: for intrigues seem to be more powerful than doing right
• Monarchy breaks the principle of turnover, of a new start for each generation, a hope for change in reasonable time.
• Monarchy also cuts the power of people’s intervention (and prophetic intervention), if one had to actually please the people, one would have to listen far harder to them and the prophets.
• Monarchy reduces accountability, therefore breeding wrong use of power and position, in that sense conditions towards godlessness, discourages moves towards godliness. Samuel projects the abuses of a king: forced recruitment into military, agricultural service, court service, etc. Higher taxation, taking over of land, workers, animals, redistributing according to favors (> steepening of hierarchies)
• Monarchy all in all is a movement towards slavery of the majority, which is exactly what Samuel tells the people … an ever widening gap between king and people, ending up with increasingly totalitarian kings and increasingly enslaved people (1 Sam 8:17)

Monarchy pushed through 1 Sam 8:19-20

• “But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, 20 so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
• “No, but …” … people’s refusal of God’s if > then, a refusal of acknowledging consequences … otherwise known as stupidity. C.S. Lewis: “You may jump into the water or you may not. But if you jump, you must get wet.”
• God after warning and counseling the opposite accepts Israel’s will. Why? God himself has given power to appoint government to the people in Deu 1:13, so not he respects their right, he obeys his own command, even if they chose stupidly.

Which family?

• To want monarchy is to decide on a family, for good or worse … so then the question ‘which family’ becomes important … in the original Deuteronomy system the question was not that important, polictical leadership jumped between tribes and families, and that is God’s will for government.
• Moses (Levi) > Joshua (Ephraim) > Othniel (Judah) > Ehud (Benjamin) Deborah (Ephraim) & Barak (Naphtali) > Gideon (Manasseh) > Jephtah (Gad) > Samson (Dan) > Samuel (Levi)
• Most important about the Moses > Joshua power transfer is that it is NOT the sons of Moses who become leaders!
• When they first ask, God indicates the Benjaminite family of Kish > Saul. When Saul disobeys continually …
• God indicates the Judah family of Jesse > David. To David then it is said that his family will remain on the throne (2 Sam 7)… which weaves in the topic of an eternal (and eventually spiritual) kingdom that foreshadows Christ.
• But still: monarchy is not a good political system, even David abused power. And if you don’t believe it, well study Kings!

Saul a chance but abortive start

• starts well, popular, then increasingly worried about David as competitor, increasingly jealous, increasingly violent, increasingly lawless, increasingly collects sycophants (Doeg) … Jonathan is the only stabilizing influence at the end

David as good as kings will get seeds of destruction sown

• starts extremely well, anointed by Samuel, serves under Saul, becomes popular, leaves when threatened, will not take revenge on Saul, will not take kingdom by force
• eventually asked to be king by Judah … is fair, non-violent to Ishboseth / Abner
• waits to be asked to be king by Israel
• obedient, victorious, popular

Weaknesses?

• Adultery with Bathsheba, murder of her husband Uriah … erosion of morals, slide towards abuse of power, lawlessness … but repents
• too many wives and concubines … 2 Sam 3:2-5, 2 Sam 5:13-16
  • Michal given to another husband when David flees, later demands her back, her dispising his worship, childless
  • Ahinoam > Amnon, rapes his half-sister Tamar, when not punished by David murdered by his half-brother Absalon
  • Abigail > Chileab, nothing else known, seems to have stayed out of the power games
  • Maacah, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur > Absalon, Tamar
  • Haggith > Adonijah
  • Abital > Shephatiah
  • Eglah > Ithream
  • 2 Sam 5:13-16 more concubines and wives > more sons and daughters, 11 more sons mentioned, also Solomon of Bathsheba
  • while fleeing David leaves 10 concubines behind … Absalon sleeps with them
• Too many wives not only means indulgence, it means little real relationship with any of them, jealousy, power games, intrigue, putting forward of sons, …
• Even more importantly: so many children that he cannot possibly spend much time with each … > competition, little passdown / teaching / bringing up in the ways of God … > out of control, scheming children, power games
• David very much fails to address issues / fails to discipline / fails to punish & bring justice within his family … precipitates Absalon’s murder of Amnon, Absalon’s flight, then an undefined re-entry, no discipline on rebellion of Absalon
  • Absalon’s rebellion
  • Unclear handover > Adonijah’s usurpation attempt … > Nathan has to intervene / Solomon has to consolidate
• David’s uneasy relationship with Joab … reflecting the uneasy relationship of government and military … he doesn’t manage to punish or limit Joab (for killing Abner, Amasa) … partially because he used Joab for the dirty jobs (Uriah).

03 First ten chapters topics not otherwise covered

Chapter 1               Adonijah > Solomon

• Interesting is that David with his 20 something wives he needs another one to warm him and minister to him
• David’s reluctance to pro-actively address things in the family now leaves a power vacuum that will trigger a power struggle that will cost the life of one more son: Adonijah (the forth son of David and Haggisth, the fifth wife)
• Prophet Nathan and Bathsheba speak up at Adonijah’s grab for power … David responds … Solomon confirmed as king

Chapter 2                  Solomon consolidating power

• David leaves Solomon 2 charges of judgment: Shimei and Joab … the grab at power created a third: Adonijah
• Shimei … Solomon gives him ‘Jerusalem arrest’, he accepts it as fair … later breaks it … executed by Solomon
• Adonijah … Solomon forgives him pending his good behavior
• Joab … Solomon doesn’t pro-actively judge them, but waits for a ‘wise moment’
• Adonijah asks Bathsheba (queen mother) to request Solomon for Abishag … Bathsheba doesn’t see a problem with it
• Solomon … considers this an offense, a clear bid for power by Adonijah, a conspiracy (1 Kin 2:23 ‘devise’) including priest Abiathar and commander Joab as well … > Adonijah & Joab executed, Abiathar banished to home town Anathoth
• Was he right in this? … Joab seems to not be surprised that Solomon strikes (1 Kin 2:28, 2:30) … there is restraint in the judgment: Abiathar who didn’t rebel and didn’t kill is only banished … writer seems to approve. Peace results (1 Kin 2:46)
• Again problems that would have arisen less with less polygamy and a more pro-active fathering role of David

Chapter 3             Solomon’s request for wisdom

• 1 Kin 3:3    Solomon loved the Lord, walked in the statutes of David
• 1 Kin 3:5    sacrificing at Gibeon, where the tabernacle use to be (?), though not the ark
• 1 Kin 3:9    Dream: requests of God understanding to discern what is right / wise and discerning mind. This is interesting, he actually doesn’t respond this well, he dreams of himself responding this well.
• 1 Kin 3:10   Dream: God pleased, grants this and long life, riches, victory over enemies on top of wisdom
• 1 Kin 3:16-28  Case study proving Solomon’s wisdom in judgment: Child custody case between two prostitutes. It is interesting that Solomon never denies a prostitute the right to look after her child (which we might!), rather he (by a ruse) finds out which woman has the child’s highest at heart, and gives her the right of custody. He isn’t sure it really is the mother, but it is his way of ensuring the best for the child.

Chapter 4            Solomon’s government & activities

• 1 Kni 4:1-6      administrative officers
• 1 Kin 4:7-19    twelve taxing officers
• 1 Kin 4:20-28  magnificence of Solomon’s rule
• 1 Kin 4:29-34  his wisdom, science mind, art in song, teaching proverbs … everything is important, valuable, worth it
• Careful with our modern church anti-intellectualism! Here: Solomon’s love of learning is celebrated. He is interested in everything, shows enjoyment and importance of creation. William Carey exhibited this also.

Chapter 5-6         Preparations & building of the temple

• David laid up for this … through wars, gifts, free will things by himself (and presumably others) … David puts most of his wealth into this ‘preparation for the temple’ … Solomon will put most of his wealth into other buildings
• temple is magnificent, but did not tax Israel, wasn’t a burden on Israel … it seems all free-will
• probably an honor to work on this, probably an explosion of knowledge, science, engineering, skill around this project

Chapter 7             Non-stop building activities

• temple 7y … own house 13y … house of the Forest … Hall of Pillars … Hall of the Throne … Hall of justice … own house … house for Pharaoh’s daughter … Archeological records of the similarity of fortifications of cities (Gezer excavated). Nothing much else is preserved.

Chapter 8            Dedication of Temple

• Solomon’s prayer … a view into his thinking and understanding
• 1 Kin 8:27 … clear understanding that God is not contained in the temple, not bound to the temple
• 1 Kin 8:28-30 … swearing oath by temple > convict sinner … if Israel sins > defeated … if Israel sins > drought … if famine / siege … if a foreigner comes … if Israel goes to war … if Israel sins > exiled … and repent, and pray towards this temple, then hear
• Clear concept of the “if then” principle, “the covenant” and an understanding of Israel’s calling to the nations (Exo 19:4-6)
• Climax of Solomon’s life, climax of Israel’s history

Chapter 9            God appears again and other acts

• 1 Kin 9:11 … Solomon paying off Hiram of Tyre with 20 cities of Galilee … not happy with them … what’s this nonsense? Selling off land for luxury items? How about the people of these cities? There is enough money to make a money payment, why give ancestral lands of Naphtali??

Chapter 10            Queen of Sheba

• Israel as it was meant to be, attractive, so under God, a testimony to far and wide … The Queen of Sheba probably passed Egypt, the formerly most developed, to go to Israel.

04 Solomon downward slide growth of seeds of destruction

• God asks what he wants: > wisdom. God gives wisdom, and riches, life, victory
• Builds the temple, at its dedication: great prayer … God answers by his presence, like in Moses’ times > great confirmation
• Horses Solomon imports horses from Egypt and all lands (2 Chr 9:28) … 1400 chariots, 12’000 horses, chariot
  cities, tax system of supply for horses … Solomon not only imports but effectively controls horse & chariot trade (1 Kin 10:26-29) … in modern language: controls armament production & trade
• Wealth God promises him great wealth (1 Kin 3:13) … gold, silver, ivory, great wealth (2 Chr 9:13-22) > no sin in itself. But:
  • Requirements of food for court (1 Kin 4:22-23) … and for horses (1 Kin 4:28)
  • Taxing system: 12 areas, must provide for the king’s household for one month (1 Kin 4:7-19) … the injustice of the system is that Judah (the most populous and strongest tribe is not taxed!) … how taxing?
  • After 7 years building temple (David mostly collected the materials for that … Solomon spends 13 years building his own palace (1 Kin 7:1-12), the House of the Forest, Hall of Pillars, Hall of the Throne, Hall of justice, Palace for Pharaoh’s daughter, … (1 Kin 9:15-19) Millo, wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, Lower Beth-Horon, Baalath, Tamar, storage cities, chariot cities, cavalry cities, and whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, in all the land of his dominion …
  • exacts forced labor of foreigners (1 Kin 9:15, 20-22)
  • exacts forced labor of Israelites (1 Kin 5:13-18) … 30’000 for works in Lebanon (10’000 per month, 1 m gone, 2m rest), 70’000 laborers in hill country, 80’000 stone cutters … forced labor becomes a government institution, Adoniram is in charge of it
  • Exo 25:1        Moses: tabernacle giving was a free will offering
  • 1 Chr 28:21   David tells him “and with you in all the work will be every volunteer who has kill for any kind of service; also the officers and all the people will bee wholly at your command” … David has volunteers in mind
  • Israelites say about Solomon to his son (after his death) “your father made our yoke heavy” (2 Chr 10:4)
  • 1 Kin 12:4     to Rehoboam “your father made our yoke heavy … lighten the hard service and his heavy yoke.”
  • Golden time of Israel … yet rich Solomon heavily and unjust ly taxes Israel … what Samuel predicted and warned against in 1 Sam 8 is already happening … and it’s not going to improve!
  • 1 Kin 12:18   Rehoboam answers harshly, presumes to exact labor even after division … > Adoram killed
• Wives Solomon marries 700 princesses, 300 concubines and probably has several hundred children (no number)
  • This also is a factor in the taxing issue: a huge harem to be maintained by the taxes
  • Solomon marries many foreign women … against God’s command in Deu 7:4.
  • Foreign wives > Solomon builds altars for their foreign gods > idolatry … Description in 1 Kin 11:1-8.
  • impossible family situation … the next leaders of Israel are brought up by competing, intriguing, foreign, idolatrous wives … Solomon has no family life, no real household, no time to actually invest in his children
  • 1 Kin 14:21     De facto Rehoboam, the next king of Israel, is raised and discipled primarily by his mother Naamah of Ammon, so why are we so surprised he lapses into idolatry withing 3 years of assuming kingship?
• Idolatry
  • 1 Kin 11:4-5    Solomon not only builds high places to the idols of his wives, he starts worshiping at these shrines
  • How can one start so well, have so much wisdom and so absolutely loose it?
• Solomon has everything: he has a godly father, modelling not perfection but a true relationship with God, repentance, obedience. He has a godly mother, though Bathsheba sins, she is wise, and in Proverbs Solomon attributes to have learned wisdom from his mother. God loves this child from the beginning (2 Sam 12:24). He is prophetically confirmed in his call to kingship (1 Kin 1), fatherly confirmed call to kingship (1 Kin 2) and achieves a successful consolidation (1 Kin 2-3). God speaks to him personally and repeatedly (1 Kin 3, 1 Kin 9). It does say Solomon loved God and walked in his statutes (1 Kin 3:3). He is wise enough to ask for wisdom (at least in his dream, 1 Kin 3:6-9). God promises him wisdom, life, riches, victory (1 Kin 3:11-13). He responds by coming before the ark when back in Jerusalem (1 Kin 2:25) … he has everything anyone could ever want.
• How can you have the world’s greatest wisdom and still miss it??? … Solomon is one of the most tragic figures in the Bible
• He has it all, yet – though Kings and especially Chronicles are gracious – he fails miserably and sets Israel on an irreversible path of destruction, from which it will never recover. The seeds of destruction, partially sown by David already, sown heavily by Solomon, will bring a crop of destruction starting very soon.
  Already towards the end of his reign the symptoms start showing:
• 1 Kin 11:9-13 > God addresses him, rebukes him and gives a negative prophecy: tear kingdom from you … but it doesn’t appear Solomon repents much, unlike his father David.
• 1 Kin 11:14-40 > Hadad the Edomite, Rezon leader of a marauding band, Jeroboam, the future leader of Israel raised up
• Solomon’s response? 1 Kin 11:40 “Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam …” Not like David! So much for faith in God and trusting God to maintain the throne. Actually he is exactly like Saul: no repentance but persecution of the young competitor.
• Monarchy corrupts, power corrupts. God never wanted this system, and though He keeps faithfully intervening in Israel’s history, it is doomed from the start.
• You can see this in current history as well: The first generation might be a good leader, his son may do okay, but the grandchild is a guaranteed disaster … Back then, but also today.

Application?

• Humility … it’s one thing to start well, it’s another to finish well. Many have started well, few finish well.
• wisdom, knowledge, giftings, eminence, honor is all good, but it doesn’t replace simple obedience
• How then can I make sure I’m not drifting / loosing it? … continued study of the law, continued exposing myself to more than just yeah-sayers, be always willing to admin blind spots, invite feedback, consider criticism seriously, remain very open to God’s Spirit’s conviction, keep responding to conviction, never think you’ve outgrown the need for accountability … this is the only safe way
• But also: understand politically: power must always be pushed down … as locally, as accountable as possible … don’t fantasize about the ‘strong leader who will set it all right’, don’t believe in totalitarian solutions: 20th century history
• do not be blinded by apparent current ‘well being’ … things may implode very quickly. This also applies economically, what can’t work can’t work and will shortly crumble. Christians should be the least surprised! Let us really understand God and his principles better, we may find ourselves being prophetic without even wanting to … another major theme of Kings.

05 Rehoboam, Solomon’s unwise son – harvest of destruction

• People come to him, request ‘lightening of the yoke’ … Rehoboam refuses in pride and stupidity and adds pressure
• Israel promptly falls apart
  • South … called Judah hereafter … tribes of Judah & Simeon, possibly a bit of Benjamin
  • North … called Israel hereafter … remaining 10 tribes
  • Levi is spread on both sides, but priestly families would gravitate towards Jerusalem
• They never reunite, Rehoboam is warned by God not to go to war against the northern tribes, which he heeds for now. But we’ll see that before too long they do war against each other … actually they will end up making alliance with outside forces against each other … it didn’t take long!
• 1 Kin 12:16 “What share do we have in David? we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse”. If that’s how you get treated, that’s what you may well conclude … no representation, increasing injustice & unbalance between tribes.
• Application?
  • careful with people telling you what you want to hear.
  • careful with people telling you to indulge things
  • after mistakes, seek redress seriously … David did this, Solomon didn’t do this, Rehoboam doesn’t either
• 1 Kin 12:18        he sends Adoram, taskmaster of forced labor … arrogantly still claiming obedience of people … stoned
• 1 Kin 12:21-24  Rehoboam musters army to fight against Jeroboam & Israel … does he think this easy? Under pressure?
• 1 Kin 12:22        Prophet Shemaiah: division is of God. Rehoboam heeds the word, calls off war fear? Loyalty of people?
• 1 Kin 14:21-24  Rehoboam is idolatrous, no wonder, his mother Naamah is Ammonite
• 1 Kin 14:25-28  Pharaoh Shishak raids and loots temple and palace (including gold shields) … Rehoboam makes bronze shields instead … why? Keeping up the appearance? Who is he fooling? No redress … Archeological records in Egypt. Replacing the real with the fake to keep up appearance is unwise. Who are you fooling? It prevents addressing what needs to be addressed

06 Jeroboam         A true chance wasted, Israel founded on idolatry

• 1 Kin 11:14        towards the end of Solomon’s reign: God raises up adversaries to Solomon …
• 1 Kin 11:26-28  Jeroboam, son of Nebat, of Ephraim, able, industrious, Solomon puts him in charge over forced labor … probably sees injustice, sees the down side of Solomon’s glory, in contact with Israel
• 1 Kin 11:29-31  Prophet Ahijah meets him … garment torn into 12 pieces, 10 pieces given to Jeroboam > king of Israel
• 1 Kin 11:33        reason why torn away from Rehoboam … he forsook God, worshipped idols, did not walk in my ways, did not keep law as David did
• 1 Kin 11:37-38  New beginning with Jeroboam: “I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires; you shall be king over Israel. If you will listen to all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you and enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.” Amazing calling: chance for Jeroboam to become a 2nd David, to be to Israel what David is to Judah … if only he obeys.
• 1 Kin 11:40, 12:1-4 Solomon hears of this, seeks to kill Jeroboam, who flees to Egypt, returns when Solomon dead, goes to Shechem, where all Israel has come to make him king. He talks as representative of Israel to Rehoboam
• 1 Kin 12:16       when Rehoboam answers harshly, Israel falls away with a taunt song that Benjaminite Sheba had sung against David in 2 Sam 20:1 in his abortive rebellion.
  Result Kingdom divided (931 BC) never to come together again, rather fighting each other for centuries, making conspiracies with outsiders against each other > long downhill of Israel & Judah’s monarchy

Repeated Theme if … then

• Over 880 times in the Bible there are “If > then” statement … this is a lot on any scale … and they are important verses, too, not just random ones
• Exo 19:4-6    Israel’s calling / job description … God’s covenant with them spelled out … “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the people, … a priestly kingdom, a holy nation.”
• Law of Moses is in a sense one big if > then statement .. Deuteronomy especially (Lev 26, Deu 28)
• Jos 1:7         “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance will all the law … meditate on it day and night.”
• 1 Kin 3:14     God says about David to Solomon … ‘as your father David walked in my ways’ … David fulfills the if
• 1 Chr 28:7   God to David about Solomon: “If he continues resolute in keeping my commandments … as he is today”
• 1 Ki 3:13-14 God appearing to Solomon the first time, ‘ask what I should give you’ …. “I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”
• 1 Kin 6:12      during the temple building … “Now concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statues, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”
• 1 Kin 9:4, 2 Chr 7:17 after Solomon’s grand temple dedication, in many ways the high point of Israel’s history, God dramatically showing up in the cloud like in Exodus, confirming with his presence … “As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish you royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.”
• 2 Chr 6:16      Extended to future sons of David … There shall never fail you a successor to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children keep to their way to walk in my law as you have walked before me
• 1 Kin 11:37-38 New beginning with Jeroboam / Israel … starting again with an if statement … “I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires; you shall be king over Israel. If you will listen to all that I command you, walk i my ways, and do what is right in my sight by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you and enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.”
• 2 Chr 15:2    to Asa after his victory by God: “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you” … reinforcement after a victory, like Solomon after temple
• After great achievements / great victories, do not let them turn into pride, into a false security, into excuses, into empty shells … there needs to be the continual inner life.
• Obedience is irreplaceable, un-stubstitutable, not by sacrifice, religious action / victory / popularity / achievement
• God is a God of reality … the law is not just a ‘test of obedience’, in it is the blessing itself inherent … the law is who God is, it is what he wants, it is how the world runs, it is what is good … that’s why he commanded it.
• God is not so impressed by great achievements (asking for wisdom, temple dedication) as by daily obedience and God-centeredness
• After great achievements or great victories, do not let them turn into pride, into a false security, into excuses, into empty shells … there needs to be the continual inner life.

Jeroboam flunks his calling

• Jeroboam finds himself the king of the 10 tribes of Israel. Economically speaking he got the better deal: major trade routes go through Israel, but Judah is left out. This is a double sided thing: strength when strong and weakness when weak.
• 1 Kin 12:22     Prophet Shemaiah warns Rehoboam not to fight against Jeroboam … Jeroboam protected here by God
• 1 Kin 12:26     Jeroboam said to himself  “The kingdom may well revert to the house of David. If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to … Rehoboam … So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold.”
• There is logic in the argument … this is a call for faith now, for him to rise up and stand on the promise of God
• Instead: Jeroboam doesn’t put his trust in the word of God, though it came true, catapulting him to kingship, protecting him
• He actively, consciously creates a competition god / worship / place (Bethel) / feats … Why? Fear? Inner weakness? No real relationship with God? Being ‘street smart’? … Fear is not a good counselor
• Jeroboam’s chance to have faith and be obedient and become a David figure is lost, he is more like Saul … and Israel is now founded on idolatry from the very start … and it will never again recover from that.
• Explain the concept of God enthroned on bull / calf … maybe that ‘eased’ the syncretism … like in Exo 32.
• Challenge to us is the same: to not trust own judgment over the word of God, to raise up in faith, to trust God to protect and vindicate us … What a sense of pity, to see Jeroboam go down. What a far-reaching effect > sobering

07 Overview Israel & Judah’s monarchies

Kings charts

Summary on Israel 931-722 BC

• 9 dynasties over only 19 kings and only 200 years. 3 dynasties are terminated by a complete assassination of the family (Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab). Only 5 generation dynasty is Jehu’s, which is by a prophetic promise of God.
• 8 of 19 kings (42%) are being assassinated.
• Average reign per king is 10.5 years.
• 200 years are needed till they are a complete disaster, that God will judge by a wipe out and exile.

Summary on Judah 931-586 BC

• One dynasty only by God’s commitment and grace, and people’s faithfulness to that dynasty as chosen by God. Short interruption by Ataliah and almost wipe out of royal family.
• 4 of 23 kings (17%) are being assassinated (Ataliah, Jehoash, Amaziah, Amon), Ataliah & Jehoash also applied violence to others, Amaziah & Amon were apostates.
• 2 kings confirm their hold on power by assassination of brothers (Jehoram) or others (Ataliah)
• Judah has 23 kings over about 450 years, average reign per king is almost 20 years.
• 450 y are needed till they become a complete disaster, which God will judge by a wipe out & exile, followed by a restart

08 Big Repeated Themes in Kings

Repeated Theme God’s sovereignty over history, land, peoples, super-powers

• Nothing in the entire story is communicating anything other than the complete sovereign power over history, geography, peoples, powers.
• God can and does intervene on any scale by any means. Direct war, victory in impossible circumstances, killing of soldiers overnight, ambush, confusion, mutual killing, false rumors, assassinations, blinding, pestilence, information leaking, whatever.
• Nowhere is there any indication of God getting nervous about any grand human super-power. They come at his command, they go at his command. Sometimes small armies win and huge armies are defeated, sometimes the other way round (2 Chr 28:5-7).
• Some of the stories are fearful (2 Kin 19:35 > 185’000 found dead overnight), others are funny (army blinded and led into the enemy head quarters 2 Kin 6:8-23), others are strikingly simple (hearing a rumor of another war 2 Kin 19:9).
• A powerful, Revelation-like picture emerges, with God on the throne, and all peoples moving like figures on the stage before him. Nations are being birthed by God, given land by God, spoken to by God, used by God, held accountable by God, judged by God. They are all his, he treats them all according to their deeds and responses to him.
• The state of Israel in one sense never depends on the “super powers around them”, it always depends on their obedience and disobedience, their seeking or rejection of God.
• God sets up kings, God deposes kings … the problem is never God’s power … the problem always is our response to him

Application?

• We tend to think “if only” … “if only God would do more miracles, then we would have more faith” … “if only God gave me that, then I would be happy” … really? In Exodus, did the miracles make faith? … much rather people with Manna in their stomach and the cloud hanging over them say: where is God?
• The problem with the “if only” is that all is God’s fault, if he … he is the problem, and my job is trying to coax him into doing what I need him to be doing
• Let me suggest that Kings (as well as every other book of the bible) tells me that God is not the problem, we are.
• God is sovereign over nations. World history might change. Countries that now exist may not exist 50 years from now. Maybe India will have split into 10 nations. Often the world map completely changed. Invincible powers suddenly disappear … it has happened before, it can happen again.
• We do not know what nations will or will not exist 100 years from now. But we will know that the church of God will keep spreading and growing, though its centers may be elsewhere from now. Maybe China will become the new center of Christianity for the next 500 years …
• Even in war, trust God, even when the world seems to fall apart, God is on the throne, even when things look like dying, God will give new starts.
• On a more personal level: Maybe disasters will break over your family. Your brother gets cancer, your aunt is killed in a traffic accident, your parents get a divorce … remember: God is enthroned above the flood.

Repeated Theme God’s respect for human will

• God allows the jeopardizing of his grand dream, the failure of his plan
• Humans’ choices, whether they will obey or not, do determine the course of personal lives … and of history
• God will do almost anything to get people to repent: law, teachers, prophets, explanations, cause and effect, rewards & threats, tastes of misery, eat your own cooking, learn by major misery, partial disaster, partial judgment … other than simply overstepping their will, or withdrawing their power (Matt: God gave you the ability to be defensive to him, to keep him out; that is his humility)
• Interesting: Some have little, bad fathers, difficult setting, die early yet do well (Josiah), some have everything, wisdom, godly examples, riches, power, God’s promise etc. but end up bad (Solomon) … clearly human choice is a factor besides and even greater than situation, inheritance, prophecy, even God’s declared will … again this is so by God’s very choice
• Human will is the second most powerful thing in this universe … God made it so … we don’t like it, but I suggest we start getting used to reality as God gives it to us and draw the consequences.
• If we really, really, really don’t, he won’t either … if we really, really refuse, by the end we won’t be able to any more
• Again the if > then theme, the scary power of me, powerful to refuse God Almighty … for the price of freedom and self-motivation, – and love. Again: you can resent him for it … or worship him for it

Repeated Theme Effect of Repentance or God’s willingness to change

• God clearly has no pleasure neither in withdrawing blessing nor in judging, but will, eventually, to maintain the higher goals of revelation, justice, salvation
• God will do almost anything to get people to repent: law, teachers, prophets, explanations, cause and effect, rewards & threats, tastes of misery, eat your own cooking, learn by major misery, partial disaster, partial judgment
• God seems to “jump at” all repentance, even if half-hearted, or simply misery-inspired (Abijam 2 Chr 13:14, Ahab 1 Kin 21:29, Manasseh 2 Chr 33:12)
• Only when there is a complete dead lock with no response of King or people continually > God judges terminally:
• 2 Chr 36:15 “The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion of his people and on his dwelling place, 16 but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at this prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against his people became so great that there was no remedy.”
• If a certain measure is overstepped, even repentance will not change the judgment, but only delay it. Josiah’s wholehearted repentance does not fully undo breakdown under Manasseh and God’s declaration of terminal judgment (2 Kin 21:13-15 and 2 Kin 23:26-27 … “still the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, …which Manasseh had provokes him … I will remove Judah as I have removed Israel, and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”
• God is willing, forgiving, accepting, ready … but are we repenting? Confessing? Coming to him?
• We so often doubt God’s forgiveness … God’s forgiveness is a powerful, wonderful reality … Forgiveness is only limited by our not asking for it, not humbling ourselves. There is not a single example I know of in the entire Bible where a human humbly asks for forgiveness and is not getting it.

Repeated Theme “Heart” – what kings are measured by

• Faith and obedience to God, to his law, to the prophetic word … obedience and disobedience is shown in deeds more than words … doing right or evil? Following the law? Following which example? Removing the high places? … many are syncretisticly worshiping & sacrificing to God, that will not do
• Kings are not measured by military & commercial & development successes (victories, riches, power, scheming) … Solomon being a bit a counter-point
• Chronicles especially: heart attitude, repentance, seeking God … set himself to seek God, obeyed with his whole heart
• Kings especially: heeding the prophets, repentance to God

heart 42x in Kings, 49x in Chronicles

• 1 Kin 2:4     David instructs Solomon that if David’s children will walk before God with all their heart and soul > not fail one on the throne
• 1 Kin 3:6     Solomon about David while praying for wisdom: You showed great mercy as he walked … in uprightness of heart
• 1 Kin 3:9     Solomon requesting of God wisdom and an understanding heart
• 1 Kin 3:12   God says he granted Solomon a wise and understanding heart
• 1 Kin 4:29  God gave Solomon wisdom, great understanding and largeness of heart
• 1 Kin 8:17-18 Solomon at temple dedication: it was in the heart of David to build the temple … God says it was good
• 1 Kin 8:23   God keeps mercy with his servant who walk before him with all their heart
• 1 Kin 8:38   Israel, knowing the afflictions of their own hearts, if the pray > hear!
• 1 Kin 8:39   hear, God, give to every man whose heart you know
• 1 Kin 8:48   if Israel returns to you with all their hear > hear!
• 1 Kin 8:61   Solomon challenges Israel to let their hearts be perfect with God, to walk in his statutes
• 1 Kin 8:66   Israel went away joyful and glad in heart
• 1 Kin 9:3-4 God: my eyes and my heart will be on the temple for all time … if you walk like David, with integrity of heart > establish your throne
• 1 Kin 10:2   Queen of Sheba told Solomon all that was in her mind / all that was in her heart
• 1 Kin 10:24 all earth sought wisdom of Solomon, which God had put in his heart
• 1 Kin 11:2-3 Do not marry into those nations, for they will turn away your heart after their gods … Solomon’s wives turned away his heart (2x)
• 1 Kin 11:9     God angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from him
• 1 Kin 12:26-27 Jeroboam said in his heart: Israel might revert to the house of David … their heart shall turn unto Rehoboam
• 1 Kin 12:33  Jeroboam sets up festival which he devised in his own heart
• 1 Kin 14:8    God to Jeroboam: you have not followed me like David with all your heart
• 1 Kin 15:3    Abijam’s heart was not perfect with God, as David’s heart
• 1 Kin 15:14  In Asa’s time high places not removed yet Asa’s heart was true / perfect with the Lord all his days
• 1 Kin 18:37  Elijah on Carmel prays that Israel may know that God is Lord and that he has turned their hearts back to again
• 1 Kin 21:7    Jezebel to Ahab: let your heart be merry, I will give you Naboth’s vineyard
• 2 Kin 5:26   Elisha’s heart went with Gehazi when he asks Naaman for stuff
• 2 Kin 6:11    The heart of king of Syria sore troubled because his secret information is known in Israel (through Elisha)
• 2 Kin 10:15  Jehu to Jehonadab: is your heart as true to mine and mine is to yours?
• 2 Kin 10:30  God to Jehu that because he did on the house of Ahab all that was in God’s heart > children till 4th generation will sit on throne
• 2 Kin 10:31 But Jehu didn’t take heed to walk in the law of God with all his heart > calves
• 2 Kin 12:4   Jehoash collecting money for the temple: all the money that comes into any man’s heart to give
• 2 Kin 14:10 Jehoash of Israel to Amaziah of Judah: you smote Edom, now your heart has lifted you up
• 2 Kin 20:3  Hezekiah crying … remember how I walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart
• 2 Kin 22:19 God to Josiah, that because his heart was tender > delayed judgment
• 2 Kin 23:3   Josiah made covenant to keep the law with all his / their hearts
• 2 Kin 23:25 No king before or after Josiah, who turned to God with all his heart

Both Kings and Chronicles very strongly focus on the heart attitude of everyone involved, by necessity especially the kings, for the heart is decisive. It’s the attitude of heart which decides between blessing and judgment, God has delegated it to us. The one thing God wants is the one thing that is not his in this universe, the one thing we doesn’t control: your heart.

Special Topic in Chronicles                     Ethnic Israel & Judah’s remnant of the willing

Those of Israel who seek and obey God, joined Judah:

• 2 Chr 11:13 during Rehoboam’s good 3 years … “The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all their territories. 14 The Levites had left their common lands and their holding and had come to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving as priests of the LORD, 15 and had appointed his own priests for the high places, and for the goat-demons, and for the calves that he had made. 16 Those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their ancestors. 17 The strengthened the kingdom of Judah …”  931-928 BC
• 2 Chr 15:8 “Asa repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. 9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing as aliens with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD was with him.” … 911-870 BC
• 2 Chr 30:11 Hezekiah sends letters: “come to Passover in Jerusalem … 10 So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. 11 Only a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12 The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the officials commanded by the word of the LORD.” 715-701 BC
• But: Most of the 10 tribes (minus Judah, partly (?) Benjamin 1 Kin 12:21, Simeon?, some seekers) are exiled, mixed with Assyrian peoples etc. and never return.
• Most of the remaining ‘Jews’ (mixture as mentioned) are exiled, mixed with Babylon etc. and never return.
• Judah, after deportation, who seek and obey God, return with Zerubabbel, Ezrah, Nehemiah, though only some 42’000
• Only a remnant, a remaining group of seekers, returns. They would be mostly Judah, some Benjamin, Simeon and smatterings of other tribes mixed in.
• By New Testament time most of the original Jews are dissolved into other nations, only a new small concentration in Galilee and Judeah
• The willing always end up with God. God knows and saves his own … whatever the circumstance

Repeated Theme left-over blessing left-over curse

• Clearly overall obedience leads to blessing, security, steady society, protected borders, perseverance in duress, stability, God’s intervention in case of threat
• Clearly overall disobedience leads to continual deterioration, instability within, injustice within, conflicts without, unstable government, assassinations, unstable frontiers, loss of land, loss of population
• Current situation may have left-over blessing / left-over grace that can cheat the eye to the real situation: Solomon’s time, Jeroboam II’s time (Jehu’s 4 generation promise 2 Kin 10:30, Jehoahaz’s entreaty for a savior 2 Kin 13:4-5), Omri being more evil than all before, sees 3 generations after him on his throne.
• Current situation may also have left-over curse / left-over judgment that can cheat the eye: Josiah’s early death, Jehu losing land (2 Kin 10:32), Jotham being attacked (2 Kin 15:37), Josiah’s early death / his repentance not changing the main judgment anymore (2 Kin 24:4).
• A well-doing king may also be tested by a non-provoked greater challenge, though at the time seeming a contradiction, it reveals God’s greatness and enhances the witness of Israel. Example: Hezekiah in 2 Chr 32:1 … 32:22-23 “After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah … So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of King Sennacherib … he gave them rest on every side 23 Many brought gifts to the LORD in Jerusalem and precious things to King Hezekiah of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.”
• Do not be fooled by left over blessing > Post-christian West in general
• Do not be discouraged by left-over curse. Stay faithful. Beat it. See it change slowly.

09 Relationship between nation’s Idolatry <=> lawfulness <=> societal justice

• Negative Example: Manasseh, severe idolatry & shedding of innocent blood. 2 Kin 21:16 “Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he caused Judah to sin.”
• Positive Example: Jehoshaphat, removed high places and sacred poles, but also sends his official to teach the law of Moses to people of Judah (2 Chr 17:7-9), goes to teach himself (?) (2 Chr 19:4), appoints judges, instructs them in righteousness (against partiality & bribe), puts system of appeals in place.
• But stronger than that: throughout Kings and Chronicles “to obey the law” = “to worship God” = “to walk in his ways”, the terms are interchangeably used, and merely reinforce one another, like in Hebrew parallelism. The opposite also: “to break the law” = “to worship idols” = “to walk in evil ways”. Idolatry is broken law which is unrighteousness / injustice / abuse of the weak.
• In my thinking: why does God only worry about his honor, but not about injustice or violence against normal people? Why does he only condemn / judge idolatry, but not social injustice? It seems selfish. He seems to worry more about his honor, than about abused people!
• But really: the law is precisely what will ensure societal justice, a protection of the weak against the strong. The law is not only: worship me! It is that and all that means for society, for worshiping a just God means to ensure justice for all.
• If God’s worship and the keeping of the law were not connected, then the question would deal with something real, but as it is, the question doesn’t deal with anything, for God’s worship = the keeping of his law. If God would indeed say: “as long as you just worship ME, sacrifice to ME, pray to ME, I don’t care what you do with yourself, others and the world” … then the question could arise. But it is not so, God be-labors this point from the moment he gives the law through Moses (Deu 30:15-16 … “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God … by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways and observing his commandments … you shall live”) till the last letters of the New Testament (1 John: if you love me you know me you obey me).
• The very fact that I even think these two things separate (the being of God and the law of God) shows that I am steeped in dualism, which God is never. So: it is not that God wouldn’t say: “as long as you just worship ME, sacrifice to ME, pray to ME, I don’t care what you do with yourself, others and the world”, it is that he couldn’t say that. He is not dualistic, he is one.
• In summary: to worship God = to obey the law = to maintain justice for all
• Or more elaborate: to worship God = to become & act like God = to do his will = to obey his law = protect the weak
• The relationship with God always should be followed by God-likeness. In New Testament terms: Righteousness = rightness, to be justified = to be just, being forgiven = to be forgiving, to have been released = to be releasing, to have been healed = to be healing, to have been comforted = to be comforting
• God is the ultimate consistency, the ultimate unity … no dualism, no double standard, no separate realities
• If we do not worship God, we cannot long hold the ideals of justice, equality, care, human rights etc.
• If we worship God, we cannot forget the ideals of justice, equality, care, human rights etc.
• God is the frame, the guarantee, the standard, the immovable foundation, the one just being, the true character, the basis
• You become like the God you worship … Psa 115:8, Jer 2:5, … You build your nation’s institutions in the image of the God you worship
• Application? … our modern Christian (as far as it goes) nations.
• Gospel is social gospel
• We have not become like Jesus, maybe because we haven’t actually worshiped him, but ‘the good life’ or ‘prosperity’?

10 Prophets – A big theme in Kings

Importance of Prophets & Prophecy in Kings

• Kings & Chronicles both mention continually and crucially the intervention of the prophets.
• Kings even brings prophecy even not pertaining to the topic mentioned (Jericho fulfillment)
• Kings is very elaborate about prophecy, especially about the prophets Elijah and Elisha, with detailed, lively stories filling entire chapters. Elijah and Elisha are also miracle workers.
• Kings’ chorus of “according to the word of the LORD which he spoke …”
  • 1 Kin 8:56 God gave rest according to his promise
  • 1 Kin 12:24 Rehoboam doesn’t attack Israel, according to the word of God
  • 1 Kin 13:5 Jeroboam’s altar poured out on the altar, according to the word of God
  • 1 Kin 13:26 man of God of Judah killed by lion, according to the word of God
  • 1 Kin 14:18 pleasing son of Jeroboam died and buried, as prophet Ahijah predicted
  • 1 Kin 16:12 Zimri destroys the house of Baasha, as prophet Jehu predicted
  • 1 Kin 16:34 2 sons of Hiel die upon building Jericho, as Joshua predicted / cursed
  • 1 Kin 17:1 Elijah: no rain except by my word
  • 1 Kin 17:16 widow of Zarephath’s provisions don’t run out, as Elijah predicted
  • 1 Kin 18:31 Elijah builds altar of 12 stones according to sons of Jacob, as God said to Jacob
  • 2 Kin 1:17 Ahaziah, son of Ahab, as Elijah predicted
  • 2 Kin 4:44 Elisha feeds 100 men with little food, as he predicted
  • 2 Kin 6:18 Elisha prays for blindness of Aramean army, happens according to the word of Elisha
  • 2 Kin 7:16 Inflation stopped in 24 hours as predicted by Elisha
  • 2 Kin 9:26 Jehu casts dead Jehoram on plot of Naboth, as predicted about every male of house of Ahab
  • 2 Kin 14:25 Jeroboam II restores border of Israel, as predicted by Jonah
  • 2 Kin 23:16 Josiah destroys altar of Bethel as predicted by man of God of Judah some 300 years earlier
  • 2 Kin 24:2 Nations conquer Judah, as God predicted by prophets

The nature of the prophecy > God’s perspective on current events

• Prophets seem to have national (words to the king, others, …), even international (envoys, going to surrounding nation’s kings, dealing with armies, …), but also very personal ministries (widow of Zarephat, Naaman of Syria, Hazael of Syria, lots in Elisha
• Prophets interpret the current events, remind of past history, revelation of the law, foretell future events, here mostly quite immediate in fulfillment. Sometimes a sign is granted
• Prophecy is God’s perspective on a current issue; on past, temporary and future
• Prophets and leaders: prophecy guides kings, assures kings, challenges kings, calls to accountability, calls to repentance, revealing God’s pleasure / displeasure, affirming, reminding, warning, judging
• Prophecy is the clear, cutting beam of light in pressured situations; exposing, bringing God’s perspective, showing the next step, and showing consequences of current decisions
• Prophecy is not principally new in its content, it is simply a reminding of what God already said, a reminder of the law / the covenant, it is the original command applied to the current situation, it that sense there is nothing mystical or surprising about it at all. Prophecy is an application of the Law / Deuteronomy covenant on the current situation.
• Kings and Chronicles itself is “Deuteronomy fulfilled”, prophecy is a reminder of what Deuteronomy said, and what therefore is now happening.

Comparison miracles of Elijah and Elisha

Elijah … around 14 miracles

• 1 Kin 17:1    no rain
• 1 Kin 17:6    fed by ravens
• 1 Kin 17:14  widow of Zarephath’s oil and meal
• 1 Kin 17:22  widow’s son revived
• 1 Kin 18:38  fire on Carmel
• 1 Kin 18:44  little cloud > rain predicted
• 1 Kin 18:46  run from Carmel to Jezreel
• 1 Kin 19:8     walk to Horeb
• 1 Kin 19:11-13 wind, earthquake, fire, sheer silence
• 1 Kin 21:19    meets Ahab at Naboth’s > judgment
• 1 Kin 21:29  Ahab’s judgment delayed
• 2 Kin 1:3-4, 16 predicts Ahaziah’s death twice
• 2 Kin 1:10     fire on 50 sent by Ahaziah
• 2 Kin 1:12     fire on second 50 sent by Ahaziah
• 2 Kin 2:8      parted Jordan with mantle

Elisha … around 28 miracles (double portion)

• 2 Kin 2:3     knows of Elijah’s departure
• 2 Kin 2:12   sees chariot
• 2 Kin 2:14   parted Jordan with mantle
• 2 Kin 2:21   cures Jericho’s water
• 2 Kin 2:24   she-bear killing 42 mocking children
• 2 Kin 3:16   requires musician > pools, victory
• 2 Kin 4:4    oil for widow
• 2 Kin 4:16   Shunammite woman will have son
• 2 Kin 4:35   Shunammite woman’s son revived
• 2 Kin 4:41  stew purified
• 2 Kin 4:42  Elijah feeds a hundred from little
• 2 Kin 5:14   Naaman healed of leprosy
• 2 Kin 5:26   knows of Gehazi’s behavior
• 2 Kin 5:27   Naaman’s leprosy on Gehazi
• 2 Kin 6:17    prays for open eyes of servant > chariots
• 2 Kin 6:18   strikes Arameans blind in Dothan
• 2 Kin 6:20   opens Aramean’s eyes in Samaria
• 2 Kin 6:32   knows execution plan of king Jehoram
• 2 Kin 7:1     predicts end of siege / inflation by 24 h
• 2 Kin 7:2    predicts doubting captain dead by 24 h
• 2 Kin 8:1    predicts famine to Shunammite woman
• 2 Kin 8:4-5  Gehazi with king when she returns
• 2 Kin 8:10   predicts recovery of Ben-Hadad of Aram
• 2 Kin 8:12   predicts conspiracy and future of Hazael
• 2 Kin 9:1      sends someone to anoint Jehu
• 2 Kin 13:19  predicts 3 victory over Aram to Jehoahaz
• 2 Kin 13:21  his corpse revives other dead body

There is great parallelity in miracles, especially the two reviving of sons, the parting of the Jordan, feeding people, water/famine stuff, political predictions.

Elijah and Elisha’s miracles compared to Jesus

Political miracles? Jesus did none.
Reviving miracles? Jesus revived the young man of Nain, the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus
Power over nature miracles? Jesus did walking on water, stilling storm
Provision miracles? Jesus was feeding 5000, 4000, water to wine
Healing miracles? Jesus did many healings, leprosy, blindness, bent back, lame, dumb, …
Knowledge miracles? Jesus Jesus knows the thought of men

• Prophets: not personal affirmers but challengers to the status quo and spirit of the age. But today’s church is swimming slightly late but fully in the spirit of the age … we now reached existentialism!!
• How to have a different and godly perspective? to so understand God’s principles that you actually can foretell the future to a degree, not by mystic so much (though it can’t be done without direct revelation)
• How can we be more prophetic?

Significance of Elijah
92x in Bible, 60x in Kings / Chronicles, 1x in Mal, 9x in Matth, 9x in Mark, 8x in Luke, 2x in Jhn, 1x in Rom, 1x in Jam.

Scriptures on Elijah in NT (many repeated in various gospels)

• Jhn 1:21    those sent from Jerusalem asking John the Baptist whether he is Elijah
• Luk 4:5     many widows in Elijah’s time, but Elijah was only sent to Zarephath one
• Mrk 6:15  Herod and those around him discussing whether Jesus is Elijah, or John risen from dead, or a prohet
• Luk 9:54  Should we ask fire to fall on them like Elijah did?
• Mth 11:13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is
• Elijah who is to come.
• Mth 16:14  question who Jesus is, some say John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets?
• Mth 17:3    transfiguration … Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him … Peter: dwellings
• Mth 17:10  disciples: “why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? 11 He replied, “Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things, 12 but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased … he was speaking about John the Baptist.”
• Mth 27:47  At cross: “This man is calling for Elijah” … 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
• Rom 11:2-4   “God has not rejected his people … Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? … divine reply: I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
• Jam 5:17       prayer illustration: “Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain … then he prayed again.”

Elijah is a very known figure, illustration for various points: zeal, fervent prayer, his desperation, his living outside of Israel
Elijah is a mysterious figure, for he is predicted to reappear in Malachi.
Elijah actually appears at Jesus’ transfiguration
Jesus says about Elijah: Elijah is indeed coming (comes first) and will restore (restores) all things. Elijah has already come, they didn’t recognize him and persecuted him: John the Baptist. John is the Elijah to come.

What then is the link between Elijah and John the Baptist?

• Mal 4:5-6 “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will return the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.”
• Elijah’s “second appearance” = John the Baptist = return hearts of parents and children to each other = curse prevention = restoring all things = John baptizing, calling for repentance, teaching, recognizing Jesus, preparing the way of Jesus

What in this corresponds to Elijah’s first appearance?

• One man fighter in a very hostile and dangerous situation (Elijah / John)
• Bad spiritual state (self-righteous NT Jews / idolatrous OT Israel) > impending judgment
• dramatically calling a nation on the brink of judgment back to God (Carmel / Jordan)
• Addressing a nation and its political leaders (Ahab / Herod)
• Addressing a nation and its spiritual leaders (Jezebel / Pharisees)
• A generation recognizing its true God (Carmel: the LORD, he is God! / Jordan: Jesus is the Messiah / lamb of God)
• Fighter gets attacked (Jezebel threatening / Herodias’ beheading)
• Work sacrificially for a remnant in the face of a hostile majority
• Discipling, teaching, passing on to Elisha all Elijah is, concrete jobs left undone and double portion of God’s spirit

In what is Elijah’s restoration of all things? Generational Transfer

• He prepares the way for Jesus, who restores all things. Jesus will die to make possible again true father-son relationship of man with God. Jesus will die to make possible again forgiveness and communion among humans. Elijah-Elisha was a father-son relationship, a passing on of life / anointing / understanding / things to do to the next generation … and God puts a double portion on the second generation.
• If the universe / all reality is fundamentally relational, then restoring of all relationships by Jesus through cross IS the restoring of all things.
  Jesus restores (and will fully restore one day) …
• right relationship of God and man (cross, forgiveness, carmel, anti-idolatry, Horeb, remnant, ascension)
• right relationship of man to himself (Elijah’s depression)
• right relationship between humans (remnant, Elisha, Naboth intervention, political interventions)
• right relationship of humans with creation (reviving, healing, water, feeding, parting Jordan)
• Concept of generational transfer, that Elijah passing on all he is / knows / does / can to his son and disciple Elisha receives God’s approval with the granting of a double portion of his / elijah’s spirit … multiplication / strengthening / deepening from generation to generation if successfully passed on. Elisha does double the miracles, has numerous political high level interventions, lots of personal interventions, too and fulfills two commands not done by Elijah: the anointing of Hazael, king of Syria (done by Elisha) and of Jehu, king of Israel (by a person Elisha sent) 1 Kin 19:15-16.

11 Who influences whom? – King? People? Prophets? Priests? Family?

Judah

• 1 Kin 11:1-10    Solomon’s apostasy … “4 his wives turned away his heart after other gods … 6 Solomon did what was evil … did not completely follow the LORD … 7 Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, Molech … 8 same for all his foreign wives … 10 he did not observe”. People’s actions not mentioned.
• 2 Chr 11:13-17  Rehoboam’s godly 3 years > seekers of God from all tribes join, live in and strengthen Judah
• 1 Kin 12:21-24  Rehoboam did evil, he and troops of Judah & Benjamin obey ‘no re-conquering!’ by prophet Shemaiah
• 1 Kin 14:22-24  Judah did evil, more than ancestors, built high places, pillars, sacred poles, male temple prostitutes, committed all abominations of the nations
• 1 Kin 15:3         Abijam did evil like Rehoboam
• 1 Kin 15:11       Asa did right, put away male temple prostitutes, removed idols, his mother Maacah from being queen mother for Asherah image, cut down image
• 2 Chr 15:9         Asa does well > great numbers from Israel joined Judah. Asa gathers Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon residing with him as aliens > sacrifices, > covenant / oath to seek God, killing all idolators
• 2 Chr 20:33     Jehoshaphat did right, teaching law, appoits judges, system of appeals, removes sacred poles, but people had not yet set their hearts on God
• 1 Kin 22:29     Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, allies himself repeatedly with Israel, has his son marry Ahab’s daughter, ignores the lying-spirit prophecy of Micaiah
• 2 Kin 8:16-19  Jehoram did evil, for Ataliah is his wife
• 2 Ch 21:11       Jehoram leads Judah & inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness
• 2 Kin 8:25-27  Ahaziah did evil, his mother is Ataliah, his wife is also of Ahab’s family
• 2 Kin 11:1-3    Ataliah did evil, attempts to kill of entire royal family
• 2 Kin 11:4-19  Priest Jehoiada initiates, Carites, guards, Levites, priests, people of the land join crowning & enthroning of Jeoash, rejoicing, covenant between God, king and people that they should be the Lord’s people, people kill Mattan, Baal priest, destroy Baal statues / temple
• 2 Kin 12:1-3    Jehoash did right, instructed by Priest Jehoiada, high places remain, repairs temple
• 2 Kin 12:17-18 Jehoash, threatened by Hazael of Aram, gives votive gifts, temple & palace treasures as payment
• 2 Ch 24:15-27  Jehoash listens to officials of Judah > fall away. Kills Zechariah, son of Jehoiada upon prophecy
• 2 Kin 14:1-6     Amaziah did right, high places remain. Kills killers of father, not their families as per law. Defeats Edom
• 2 Chr 25:14-24 Amaziah falls away, worships gods of Edom, tries to ally himself with Israel, unsuccessfully
• 2 Kin 5:3-4,2C26:5 Azaria /Uzziah did right, seeks God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him, high places remain
• 2 Chr 26:16-23  Azariah / Uzziah becomes proud, offers incense, judged by God > leprosy
• 2 Ki 15:32-38    Jotham did right, but high places remain. Builds upper gate of temple.
• 2 Chr 27:2         Jotham did what was right … But the people still followed corrupt practices.
• 2 Kin 16:1-4      Ahaz did evil, son through fire, abominable practices of prior nations, calls on Assyria > Syria wiped out
• 2 Kin 16:10-20  Ahaz, sees altar in Damascus, has it rebuilt, replaces burnt offering altar with it, removes more temple furniture. No priestly opposition
• 2 Kin 18:1-8       Hezekiah did right, removed high places, destroyed pillars, poles, bronze serpent. Trusts in God. Obeys the law. Rebelled against Assyria.
• 2 Chr 30:10-11 Hezekiah sends invitation to Passover to Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun … most just mock. Only few from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came. Hand of God on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and officials commanded by God.
• 2 Kin 18:13-19:37 Sennacherib of Assyria conquers Judah, threatens to besiege Jerusalem. Hezekiah withstands, 185’000 killed by angel, Assyria withdraws.
• 2 Kin 20          Hezekiah’s illness, weeping, recovery. Receives Babylonian envoys. No repentance at disaster prophecy.
• 2 Kin 21:1-18  Manasseh, did evil, followed abominable practices of nations, Baal / Ashtarte / host of heaven cult, witchcraft, son through fire, idolatrous altars in the temple, filled Jerusalem with innocent blood
• 2 Chr 33:9        Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, more evil than the prior nations
• 2 Chr 33:10      The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed
• 2 Chr 33:16-17 Manasseh repents and commands Judah to serve God, people still sacrificed at the high places, to God
• 2 Kin 21:12-15 God decides on Judah’s wipe out and exile, irreversibly
• 2 Kin 21:19-22 Amon did evil as his father
• 2 Kin 22:1-2     Josiah did right, like David. Repairs temple. Finding of the law of God. Josiah repents, inquires of God > judgment on, but not in his days. Makes covenant to follow God, people joining. Destroys high places, cults, altar, … as far as Bethel. Passover
• 2 Chr 34:32-33 Josiah makes all present in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to covenant. “And the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to it. Josiah made all who were in Israel worship the LORD… all his days they did not turn away.”
• 2 Kin 23:26-27  God does not change plan of Judah’s wipe out and exile after the repentance.
• 2 Kin 23:31-32  Jehoahaz did evil. Neco imprisons him, brings him to Egypt.
• 2 Kin 23:36-37  Jehoiakim did evil. Rebelled, died.
• 2 Kin 24:8-9      Jehoiachin did evil, gives himself up to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
• 2 Kin 24:18-20  Zedekiah did evil, rebels against Babylon, killed.
• 2 Kin 25:22       Gedaliah, Babylon appointed governor, tells Ishmael to serve Babylon

Israel

• 1 Kin 12:28, 15:30  Jeroboam does evil makes two calves, commits apostasy himself
• 1 Kin 12:30              Israel go to new high places
• 1 Kin 12:31-33        Jeroboam sets up temple, priests and festivals, keeps them publicly causes Israel to sin
• 2 Chr 11:13-17        seekers from all tribes move to Judah
• 1 Kin 15:26             Nadab, son of Jeroboam, does evil walks in Jeroboam’s ways
• 1 Kin 15:34, 16:2   Baasha does evil walks in Jeroboam’s ways causes Israel to sin yet kills Jeroboam
• 2 Chr 15:9              during Asa great numbers from Israel move to Judah
• 1 Kin 16:13            Elah, son of Baasha does evil walks in Jeroboam’s ways causes Israel to sin
• 1 Kin 16:19            Zimri does evil walks in Jeroboam’s ways causes Israel to sin > killed
• 1 Kin 16:25            Omri does evil, more > all bf walks in Jeroboam’s ways causes Israel to sin
• 1 Kin 16:30           Ahab does evil, more > all before he marries Jezebel. Baal cult. Naboth.
• 1 Kin 19:18           Elijah > God will leave 7000 faithful who have not bowed their knee to Baal
• 1 Kin 22:51, 2 Ki 1:2  Ahaziah, son of Ahab, does evil in Ahab & Jeroboam’s ways causes Israel to sin, asks Baal
• 2 Kin 3:1-2           Jehoram, son of Ahab, does evil, not like parents but clings to calves removes pillar of Baal
• 2 Kin 9, 10           Jehu does good partially doesn’t end calves kills house of Ahab and the  Baal cult
• 2 Kin 13:1-4         Jehoahaz does evil doesn’t end calves entreats, savior promised
• 2 Kin 13:10-25    Jehoash does evil doesn’t end calves weeps > Elisha: 3 victories
• 2 Kin till 13:21   Elisha > different prophetic intervention, godly people
• 2 Kin 14:23-27  Jeroboam II does evil doesn’t end calves “savior”, restores borders
• 2 Kin 15:8-12     Zechariah does evil doesn’t end calves 4th generation after Jehu
• 2 Kin 15:10-13   Shallum, — — reigns only one month
• 2 Kin 15:14-22   Menahem does evil doesn’t end calves violence on Tiphsah, pregnant
• 2 Kin 15:23-26  Pekaiah does evil doesn’t end calves
• 2 Kin 15:25-31  Pekah does evil doesn’t end calves
• 2 Chr 28:8-15   Intervention of Oded and Ephraim chieftains understanding of law, his wrath to come > doing good
• 2 Kin 17:1-4       Hoshea does evil, not like I. kings
• 2 Chr 30:10-12 Israelites mock Hezekiah’s intervention only some humble themselves

Relationship of king, people, prophets, priests, officials, family in moving towards or away from godliness?

• It seems that Israel’s leadership is set on evil from the beginning, and remains on a steady downward path, with only short repentances (Ahab, Jehu, Jehoash). Prophets occasionally intervene successfully, but overall direction is not lastingly changed.
• It seems that the people (Israel & Judah) cooperate in the apostasy quite immediately and willingly, at least a majority.
• Among those faithful in Israel, some have moved to Judah during Asa or Jehoshaphat’s time, others have maintained their integrity in an increasingly idolatrous and hostile setting.
• Though the country as a whole and the political system seems committed to an ungodly track, God keeps intervening by prophets and corresponding events. He is also very aware of the faithful among the bigger idolatrous nation. As with Elijah: there always seem to be more faithful people left than what one thinks.
• This situation is not unlike many (if not most) western nations.
• God judging a nation does not mean that he is not intensely and redemptively working with some people. Maybe the nation is judged, conquered, exiled, but God remains faithful to watch over his people in the midst of political turmoil, national disintegration and spiritual falling apart. For example: contrast 2 Chr 36:14-16 … all the leading priests and people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following the abominations … mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets … with Daniel, having been exiled right around this time. Or Jer 45, God assuring Baruch his survival in the midst of the complete destruction of Judah as a nation, Jerusalem and the temple.
• My nation may be doomed, but I am not.

Is King > people deterministic? Positive: in the case of reforms? Negative: in case of apostasy?
Kings do influence a nation, by the nature of their position and power (and again: God did not want the king to be this influential, he wanted no king at all!). And it seems that in average the people followed suit after the king, in both directions. Prophets, priests, other individuals may influence also to quite a degree. Yet all that does not seem to determine fully (though influence) the direction a people will go.

• In turning towards idolatry, there are many examples where king > people seems deterministic:
• For Israel its first 7 kings (Jeroboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab) are mentioned to ‘cause Israel to sin’, the remaining kings (Jehu to Hoshea) are mentioned to not depart from existing calf-idolatry, though Jehu is turning from Baal cult and Hoshea is called not as evil as those before him.
• For Judah several kings are said to follow themselves and institute idolatry (Rehoboam, Abijam, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Ataliah, Jehoash, Amaziah, and especially Ahaz, Manasseh, followed by Amon, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah.
• In turning towards God, there are few examples:
• Good kings are Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash half, Amaziah half, Azariah / Uzziah half, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah. The reforming kings are Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah.
• Asa’s reforms attracts priests, Levites and normal people of Israel to move. Jehoshaphat’s reforms attracts great numbers of normal people of Israel to move. Hezekiah invites but reaches only a few of the left-over Israelites.
• Manasseh and Josiah’s repentance and call to good do have an influence, but cannot fully bring the people around … the people followed God some during Manasseh, revert during Amon, the people follow God all the days of Josiah, but revert during Jehoahaz.
  • Asa’s reform is followed by Jehoshaphat only reformer to have a godly son to follow him
  • Jehoshaphat’s reform is followed by Jehoram terrible reversal, esp. politically, also spiritually
  • Hezekiah’s reform is followed by Manasseh terrible complete reversal
  • Josiah’s reform is followed by Jehoahaz and the exile terrible complete reversal
• No reform survives much longer than one generation in the history of Israel. It seems that king > people is a strong influence for a short time, or while the king is present, but not beyond that, especially not in the godly direction. So outside pressure / political intervention may seem quick to achieve results, but the results don’t seem to last very long, at least on the positive side.
• But in contrast to that Jeroboam’s calves are never again removed. Baal cult is only limited by a strong prophetic intervention and the obedience of Jehu. Apostasy tends to inherit itself over generations of kings. But that might have to do more with the nature of sinful man than with king > people.

Why does there seem to be a natural bias towards falling away?

• It is the default of fallen man. “Der liebe Gott muss immer ziehen, dem Teufel faellt’s von selber zu” (Wilhelm Busch).
• Apostasy corresponds to the lower level passions of humans, it seems to promise more freedom, more action, more sex, more power, more control. None of this comes true, though, especially not if seen long-term. A reduction in law seems attractive and effective, especially to the strong, so kings may also for that reason fall for it easily (but also little people will use it because they think it’s an advantage to their case at hand). The voice of conscience is never welcome. The conviction of God, calling man to justice and righteous living is uncomfortable. Humility, repentance, godliness is impossible (without God) to fallen man. Only by grace can we even desire it. Left-over blessings might cheat the eye as to the consequences of apostasy.
• So maybe it’s not so much that the behavior of a king decides the behavior of a people, as that apostasy is the human default and man will take any excuse / help / hint / influence to go there.
• Also there is a steady stream of influencing individuals.
• Foremost definitely prophets, with extended ministries (Elijah, Elisha) or with short ministries as far as we know (Ahijah to Jeroboam, Shemaiah to Rehoboam, Azariah to Asa, Jehu to Baasha, Micaiah to Ahaz & Jehoshaphat, Hanani to Jehoshaphat, Jahaziel to Jehoshaphat, Elijah’s messenger to Jehu, Jonah to Jeroboam … and many many more).
• But there are also Hiram the bronzeworker, the officials Jehoshaphat sends out to teach, Jehoiada, the priest, his wife Jehosheba, Zechariah who is instructing Uzziah, Oded, who prevents a huge slavery action, conspirators, …
• Again and again from very different quarters. Power of the individual human’s choice is emphasized throughout Kings & Chronicles, most often focusing on the choices of the kings, but really everybody’s choices.

12 Automatic Pass-down?

There is a pass-down theme, every king is measured by his ancestor David

• “He did … like his father, like his mother” … generational pass-down
• BUT also: incredible flips from father to son in both directions, negative and positive
  • David > Solomon > Rehoboam                         pos > neg
  • Abijam > Asa                                                         neg > pos
  • Jehosphaphat > Jehoram                                   pos > neg
  • Jotham > Ahaz                                                     pos > neg          last kings of Judah > every time complete flips !!
  • Ahaz > Hezekiah                                                  neg > pos
  • Hezekiah > Manasseh                                         pos > neg
  • Manasseh / Amon > Josiah                                neg > pos
  • Josiah > Jehoahaz / Jehoiakim / Zedekiah    pos > neg
• Clearly, family pass-down is not deterministic. Personal choice / conviction > complete opposite of a father.
• Again: power of human choice
• Again: we need to make pass-down a concern of absolute priority
• Sometimes you will find extreme theologies of automatic pass-down … but you can be the change-bringer in your family! … and: a child’s choice may be not your fault

13 How can a nation be reformed?

The reforming kings are:

Asa                            1 Kin 15:9-24 2 Chr 14-15

• 1 Kin 15:12       Removes male temple prostitutes, idols, but not high places, removes mother Maacah as queen mother for making an Asherah. He is true all of his days. votive gifts of him and his father into the house
• 1 Kin 15:16-24 alliance with Aram against Israel … Aram then conquers Israel cities … diseased in feet.
• 2 Chr 14:4        commanded Judah to seek the Lord, to keep law
• 2 Chr 14:6-8    fortifies & equips cities in reliance on God
• 2 Chr 14:9-15  Ethiopia attacks with 1 mio men … cries to God “No difference for you between helping the mighty and the weak. Help us for we rely on you. You are our God” … > great victory, much loot
• 2 Chr 15:1-7    Prophet Azariah affirms him: “The Lord is with you … if you obey … take courage! your work rewarded.”
• 2 Ch 15:8        Took courage, removed idols in all the land of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim (as far as he conquered)
• 2 Ch 15:8        He repaired altar …
• 2 Ch 15:9-15   He gathered all Judah, Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon who were with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord was with him. Makes covenant to seek the Lord with people with shouting … joy for they had sworn with all their heart … death penalty on not seeking the Lord.

Jehoshaphat             2 Kin 22:1-50 2 Chr 17-19

• 1 Kin 22:43-46   doing right, yet high places remained, exterminated male temple prostitutes that his father had not caught
• 2 Chr 17:3-6       doing right, sought God, obeys law, people’s tribute > riches & honor, removed high places, sacred poles.
• 2 Chr 17:6-9       in 3rd year sent officials and Levites to teach the book of the law in the cities to the peoples.
• 2 Chr 17:10-19   fear of the Lord fell on kingdoms around Judah > no attacks, builds fortresses, storage cities, works, army
• 2 Chr 18             foolish war with Ahab agains Aram, against the warning of the prophet Micaiah, survives, but defeat
• 2 Chr 19:1-3      Seer Hanani: “Do not help the wicked, do not love those who hate the Lord > wrath, some good is found in you: destroyed poles, set your heart to seek God”
• 2 Chr 19:4-7     Jehoshaphat went out again among the people, brings them back to the Lord
• 2 Chr 19:5-11    instructs judges, appoints Levites & priests & heads of families for diputed cases, commands fear of God, to instuct people in law, encouragement to be courageous
• 2 Chr 20:1-34   Moab, Ammon & Meunites attack, Levite Jahaziel prophesies: no fear, see victory, enemies defeat each other > loot, worship, > fear of God on surrounding nations
• 2 Chr 20:35-37 joins with Ahaziah of Israel to build ships in Ezion-geber > wrecked, as prophet Eliezer predicted

Hezekiah                      2 Kin 18-20 2 Chr 29-32

• 2 Kin 18:5-6        He did what is right, removed high places & pillar, trusted God, kept the law
• 2 Chr 29:3           1m of 1y opens the doors of the house and repairs them … (declares his priorities, foundations, dependence)
• 2 Chr 29:5-19      encourages / challenges spiritual leadership (priests and Levites) to cleanse temple, they report back
• 2 Chr 29:20-36  Hezekiah immediately & personally leads out in sin offerings, burnt offerings …repenting, committing oneself, worship
• 2 Chr 29:31-36   the assembly follows with their sacrifices
• 2 Chr 29:36         joy because of what God has done for the people, came about suddenly
• 2 Chr 30:1-12     invitation to the nation (Judah & Israel) to return to the Lord, come to Jerusalem, celebrate passover
• 2 Chr 30:13-14   though scorn, a very large assembly comes together, remove altars in Jerusalem, celebrate passover
• 2 Chr 30:15-22  priests & Levites ashamed by how many come, sanctify themselves …
• 2 Chr 30:22        Hezekiah encourages Levites who show good skill in the service of the Lord
• 2 Chr 30:23-27  celebrate the passover a second time
• 2 Chr 31:1            assembly go to the cities of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh > destroy pillars / poles / high places
• 2 Chr 31:2-10     Hezekiah appoints regular service, gives tithe / tax himself, commands Judah to give it > people give > abundance
• 2 Chr 31:11-21    Hezekiah reorganizes the Levites / priests
• 2 Chr 32              test for Hezekiah’s promise in 30:12 to the nation …Assyria invades, conquers cities, threatens Jerusalem
• 2 Chr 32:1-6       military preparations, stopping of springs, arming, fortifying, appointing combat commanders
• 2 Chr 32:6-8      mental preparations, encourages / inspires people to trust God
• 2 Chr 32:20 / 2 Ki 18-19 Hezekiah & Isaiah, king & prophet together pray and cry out to God > God intervenes
• 2 Chr 32:27-29  prospers, great possessions
• 2 Chr 32:30       waterworks, brings Gihon spring into Jerusalem
• 2 Chr 20:1-11    Hezekiah’s sickness, crying bitterly, promise of healing and of sign
• 2 Chr 32:31 / 2 Kin 10:19 God tests him (Babylonian envoys) to know all that is in his heart, accepts, rather than repenting

Josiah                          2 Kin 22-23 2 Chr 34-35

• 2 Kin 22:1-2, 2 Ch 34:1-2 did right, walked int he way of David, did not turn aside
• 2 Chr 34:3-4      in 8th year (age 16), he began to seek the God of his ancestor David
• 2 Chr 34:4-7      in 12th year (age 20), he began to purge Judah & Jerusalem (> Naphtali) of images, poles, shrines
• 2 Kin 22:3-10, 2 Chr 34:8-21 in 18th y (age 24), collected money given for temple repairs > book of the law found > Josiah repents / cries
• 2 Kin 22:11-20, 2 Chr 34:22-28 Prophetess Huldah consulted > exile will come, but not in Josiah’s time
• 2 Kin 23:1-3, 2 Chr 34:29-33 Josiah gathers elders, goes with everybody to temple, reads book of the law, makes covenant with God to follow him, obey commands, all the people join
• 2 Kin 23:4-20   cleanses temple of Baal vessels, Ashera, deposes idolatrous priests (Baal, sun, moon, host of heaven), breaks downhouses of male temple prostitutes in the temple, women weaving for Asherah, defiles & breaks down high places, Topheth (children through fire for Molech), removes horses dedicated to sun, burns chariots (entrance of temple), altars, on the roof, altars of Ahaz, Manasseh, Solomon for Astarte, Chemosh, Milcom, breaks pillars, cut down sacred poles, covered with human bones, pulls down altar of Jeroboam at Bethel, removed Shrines in towns of Samaria, slaughters priests on the altars
• 2 Kin 23:21-23, 2 Chr 351-19 great passover celebrated in Jerusalem
• 2 Kin 23:24-25   removes mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, abominations, established book of law
• 2 Kin 23:26-27   still God does not change his long-term prediction of destruction
• 2 Kin 23:28-31, 2 Chr 35:20-27 Dies in his 31st year (age 39y), at Megiddo, Pharaoh Neco warning him, killing him.

14 WHO WANTS WHAT – POLITICALLY – Who do the people want for king?

United Kingdom

• 1 Sam 16, 2 Sam 7   David by God prophecy
• 1 Kin 1:34, 39-40    Solomon by sonship Xth challenged by Adonijah indicated by God, by David, people rejoice
• 1 Kin 11:43, 12:1, 12:16 Rehoboam, son of Solomon by sonship no conflict mentioned 10 tribes revolt at Rehoboam’s harshness

Judah

• 1 Kin 12:21, 2 Chr 11:12 Rehoboam son of Solomon by sonship no conflict mentioned Judah & part Benjamin stick with him
• 1 Kin 15:1, 2 Chr 11:21-23 Abijam son of Rehoboam by sonship X no conflict mentioned made king by father, not 1 born, s/o favorite wife Maacah, d/o Absalon
• 1 Kin 15:8                 Asa son of Abijam by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 1 Kin 15:24, 22:41  Jehoshaphat son of Asa by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 8:16, 2Ch 21:3-4 Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat by sonship 1st appointed by father, gifts to brothers assassinates brothers
• 2 Kin 8:25-27         Ahaziah son of Jehoram by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 11:1-3            Ataliah, d/o Ahab, w/o Jehoram, m/o Ahaziah, grandma/o Jehoash why does she kill own grandchildren? usurps throne assassinates royal family assassinated
• 2 Kin 11:4-20, 2 Kin 12:1 Jehoash son of Ahaziah by sonship made king by Priest Jehoiada, Levites, people, kill Athalia assassinated
• 2 Kin 14:1-2           Amaziah, son of Jehoash by sonship no conflict mentioned comes to throne after father’s death assassinated
• 2 Kin 14:20-22     Azariah/Uzziah son of Amaziah by sonship made king by people after father is killed in a conspiracy
• 2 Kin 15:5-7          Jotham son of Azariah/Uzziah by sonship no conflict mentioned co-reigns with leprous father
• 2 Kin 16:1             Ahaz son of Jotham by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 18:1             Hezekiah son of Ahaz by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 21:1             Manasseh son of Hezekiah by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 21:19          Amon son of Manasseh by sonship no conflict mentioned assassinated
• 2 Kin 21:24, 2Ch 33:25 Josiah son of Amon by sonship made king by people people kill murderers
• 2 Kin 23:30, 2 Chr 36:1 Jehoahaz son of Josiah by sonship made king by people
• 2 Kin 23:34         Jehoiakim son of Josiah by brothership made king by Pharaoh Neco
• 2 Kin 24:6           Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 24:17         Zedekiah son of Josiah by uncleship made king by Nebuchadnezzar Babylon

Israel

• 1 Kin 12:20   Jeroboam made king by 10 tribes of Israel prophecy
• 1 Kin 15:25    Nadab son of Jeroboam by sonship no conflict mentioned assassinated
• 1 Kin 15:27    Baasha usurps throne assassinates Nadab, Jeroboam dynasty
• 1 Kin 16:6      Elah son of Baasha by sonship no conflict mentioned assassinated
• 1 Kin 16:9-10 Zimri commander of Elah usurps throne assassinates Elah, Baasha dynasty attack>suicide
• 1 Kin 16:21     Tibni made king by half of troops killed in battle by Omri & troops
• 1 Kin 16:16     Omri made king by half of troops conquers Samaria, attacks Zimri, overcomes Tibni
• 1 Kin 16:29    Ahab son of Omri by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 1 Kin 22:51     Ahaziah, son of Ahab by sonship no conflict mentioned
• 2 Kin 1:17, 3:1 Jehoram son of Ahab by brothership for Ahaziah had no son, no conflict mentioned assassinated
• 2 Kin 9:12-13, 10:6 Jehu usurps throne, troops, elders assassinates Jehoram, Omri dynasty prophecy
• 2 Kin 13:1       Jehoahaz son of Jehu by sonship no conflict mentioned 1st generation from Jehu
• 2 Kin 13:10     Jehoash son of Jehoahaz by sonship no conflict mentioned 2nd generation from Jehu
• 2 Kin 14:23    Jeroboam son of Jehoash by sonship no conflict mentioned 3rd generation from Jehu, Savior
• 2 Kin 15:8       Zechariah son of Jeroboam by sonship no conflict mentioned 4th generation from Jehu assassinated
• 2 Kin 15:10     Shallum usurps throne assassinates Zechariah assassinated
• 2 Kin 15:14     Menahem usurps throne Tiphsah refuses assassinates Shallum
• 2 Kin 15:23     Pekaiah son of Menahem by sonship no conflict mentioned assassinated
• 2 Kin 15:25      Pekah Pekaiah’s captain usurps throne assassinates Pekaiah assassinated
• 2 Kin 15:30     Hoshea usurps throne assassinates Pekah conquered, exiled

14 KINGS – CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

Chapter 15                 Asa’s successful alliance

• 1 Kin 15:16-22 Asa’s “successful” alliance with Ben-Hadad of Syria … sends gold from palace & temple as payment … effective in the sense that Syria attacks & conquers cities of Israel and Israel’s Ramah strategy is broken.
• Alliances like that will be condemned by the prophets all throughout the centuries … dependency not on God, not repenting (which really would bring the change), smartness that backfires. Example: Isa 30:1-7.

Chapter 18                 Elijah’s power encounter on Carmel

• 1 Kin 18:20-40   Elijah pops up again > show down on Carmel > brings about a revelation to Israel & set back to Baal cult
• 1 Kin 18:21          Counter syncretism that plagues Israel … if God is God, then follow him. If Baal is God than follow him.
• 1 Kin 18:41-46    after the power-encounter > needs to be rain, otherwise people will interpret things differently unwise choice of friends / co-workers / allies can jeopardize your ministry, even if not your personal integrity pursuit of unity can have its pitfalls, stay principled

Chapter 19                Jezebel’s threat > Elijah flees

• 1 Kin 19:1           Jezebel is not threatened by 450 dead Baal priests and an Israel with a revelation > threatens
• 1 Kin 19:2           Elijah, who just so courageously challenged the nation and was vindicated … is afraid and runs. Depression / special vulnerability / Satan’s special attack after great victories & achievements
• 1 Kin 19:4          “It is enough, now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” … self-pity, death wish, inferiority, complaining, thinking it all too much … Sleep, Food, crashing … not bad if you are depressed: make sure you eat right, sleep more
• 1 Kin 19:9, 13     God’s double question “What are you doing here?” … seems to imply that he didn’t need to flee, be here, there is an ironic component … since when does God ask people who come to seek him “why are you here?”
• 1 Kin 19:9, 14    His answer twice the same: “I have been very zealous for the LORD, for the Israelites have forsaken you covenant, thrown down you altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
• He just caused a degree of a revival, he is not alone, there are 7000 faithful, who are the prophets of God that were killed? (actually he killed the Baal prophets) and why would you flee for your life to commit suicide or ask for death? In depression, self-pity, these moments we are actually nowhere near logic, often very one-sided
• 1 Kin 19:15-18   God doesn’t really answer his complaint or demand nor seems to comfort, rather he sends him back ‘by the same way / return on your way’ … and puts him right into work / calling / the thick of it again with 2 or 3 difficult jobs: anointing Hazael & Jehu.
• In another sense God gives him exactly what he needs; an encounter with God, time out, a re-assurance of his calling and God’s “yes” to him though he feels like a failure, comfort in the fact that he is crucial to the 7000 at least …
• The very calling I might currently resent is God’s grace … and his healing.
  And: he’ll get a co-worker! … that is in a sense the most sweet about any of this.
  By the way: he will only fulfill one > Elisha, and delegate to Elisha > Hazael (2 Ki 8:13), and Elisha delegates > Jehu to a young prophet (2 Ki 9:1).
• He returns to Israel (not even Judah) to Abel-meholah (where?) to cast his mantle on Elisha … whatever Jezebel threatened, it’s not happening … in the meantime Ahab gets spoken to and rebuked by other nameless prophets, and Elijah will challenge Ahab in person again about Naboth’s vineyard … but it’s Micaiah he and Jehoshaphat consult concerning the war against Aram at Jabesh-Gilead.

Chapter 20            Ahab defeats Syria twice

• 1 Kin 20:1-12    Ben-Hadad besieges Samaria, demands everything … prophet: Israel be victorious, attack by young district-governors … it comes true.
• 1 Kin 20:22       prophet: they will be back in spring
• 1 Kin 20:23-25 Syrian explanation: Israel’s God is a god of hills … if war on plain > defeat …
• 1 Kin 20:28      prophet: to prove this explanation a lie, Ahab will be victorious
• 1 Kin 20:32      Ahab lets Ben-Hadad live …
• 1 Kin 20:39      prophet condemns that > Ahab will die

Chapter 21             Naboth’s vineyard

• 1 Kin 21:1-7    Naboth refuses to give the King his ancestral land upon request. Ahab sulks because he sees no (legal) way. He still has a concept of a king accountable to the law.
• 1 Kin 21:7       Jezebel: “Do you now govern Israel?” … Jezebel has no such pangs of conscience, her concept is clearly that power is above the law … disicpled by Baal & Sidon: a field is worth a cold-blooded, public murder.

Chapter 22           Ahab & Jehoshaphat’s joing campaign against Syria

• 1 Kin 22:5       Jehoshaphat wants to inquire of prophet
• 1 Kin 22:7       Jehoshaphat is not convinced by the four hundred of prophets & Zedekiah
• 1 Kin 22:15      when Micaiah called & threatened, he ironically gives the same word: go up and conquer
• 1 Kin 22:16      the king still doubts: how many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth?
• 1 Kin 22:17      Micaiah straight: “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep that have no shepherd …”
• 1 Kin 22:19-23 Micaiah gives an explanation: God asks host of heaven > lying spirit in his prophets’ mouth
• 1 Kin 22:29      Both Ahab and Jehoshaphat ignore the warning
• 1 Kin 22:30     Ahab takes it important in one point: Israel without a shepherd means that he will die > disguise
• Confusing story? How should one know? … I think it is clear that Jehoshaphat’s conscience is speaking all along … and Ahab has rejected Micaiah long ago. If you want to take a warning here, you can take it.

2 Samuel Chapter 1       Ahaziah’s accident & death

• 2 Kin 1:1-10     Ahab’s son King Ahaziah has a accident and send to inquire of Baal-zebub, the God of Ekron whether he will recover. Elijah intercepts the envoy and answers the question: God will have Amaziah die of the accident.
• 2 Kin 1:11-18    Ahaziah twice sends a captain of fifty and his men to have Elijah come to him. Elijah has them consumed by fire of God. Ahaziah sends a third captain of fifty (clearly not worried about the fall-out), who approaches Elijah on his knees. He saves his life and that of his fifty men but has to bring the same message: Ahaziah will die, which he does. He is succeeded by his son? or brother? Jehoram.

Chapter 2                 Elijah’s ascension

• 2 Kin 2:1-12       Elijah is taken up by God is a chariot of fire, after a double prediction of the companies of prophets in Bethel and Jericho. Elisha also is fully aware. Elisha asks for a couble share of ‘your spirit’, which Elijah says will be granted is he can see the ascension with his own eyes.
• 2 Kin 2:13-18    Elisha sees the ascension, is thus assured of the ‘double portion’, picks up Elijah’s mantle and immediately challenges God to for him the same he did for Elijah: God responds positively and the Jordan is parted.
• 2 Kin 2:19-25    Elisha’s miracles of water turned well and upon cursing 42 boy who made fun of his baldness, which are being mauled by as who she-bears.
• What’s the point of this stories? Showing the power and presence of God with these prophets. This is the only time in the Bible prophets do so many ‘personal miracles’, miracles is not necessarily a function of a prophet. It is against the back-drop of a deteriorating Israel.

Chapter 3                Mesha of Moab rebels against Jehoram > Israel & Judah & Edom

• 2 Kin 3:5          Mesha rebels against Israel > archeological records: Mesha stele
• 2 Kin 3:7-8      Jehoshaphat has learned nothing: again a blanco cheque for Israel’s … disastrous marriage alliance also!
• 2 Kin 3:14        want in inquire of Elisha … “were it not that I have regard for King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I would give you neither a look nor a glance”

Chapter 4-8           Miracle stories around Elisha

Chapter 5                Healing of Naaman the Syrian commander of the army

• 2 Kin 5:2          Israelite slave girl talks about Elisha to her mistress, Naaman’s wife … forgiveness, seeking good, courage … Example of christian Mid-european girls abducted by Vikings > discipled the next generation
• 2 Kin 5:13         Servants speak up to him when he rejects Elisha’s instructions … he listens
• 2 Kin 5:17-18   “Mule loads of earth … no longer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any God but LORD” … one exception. Elishah sees no problem with that. Interesting for contexutalization question!

Chapter 6-7            Blinded Arameans & Siege of Samaria broken

• 2 Kin 6:8-23      Very funny story of Elisha blinding the Arameans and leading them right into enemy headquarters
• 2 Kin 6:24-7:2  Famine due to siege in Samaria. Elisha predicts normal prices in 24 hours. The military leaders calls it impossible. Elisha answers: “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it.” It is possible to see it, but have missed my part in it due to unbelief. Don’t!
• 2 Kin 7:3-20    Very funny story of 4 lepers discovering the abandoned Aramean army camp

Chapter 8                Edom rebels against Jehoram

• 2 Kin 8:16-24   Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, reigns over Judah, in a terrible reversal. 2 Kin 8:18 gives the reason ‘for Athaliah is his wife’. Jehoshaphat’s unwise buddy-buddy with Israel included a disastrous marriage alliance for his son, which will result in a near-wipe out of David’s family and Athaliah on the throne.
• We should be people ready to co-work with any denomination / person / oragnization … ready for reconciliation, unity, inclusiveness … but not blindly either. Difficult balance. It is possible to ruin a good ministry by being overly friendly and inclusive of bad people.

Chapter 9-10          Jehu’s wipe out of Ahab, Jezebel, Baal

• 2 Kin 9-10        Jehu is whole-hearted in routing out the house of Ahab and the Baal cult.
• 2 Kin 10:30-31 God honors that by giving him the promise of 4 generations of sons on the throne, which fulfills to the letter: Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zechariah. With 5 generations on the throne Jehu’s dynasty is by far the most long-lasting of Israel.
• Archeology:     Shalmanezer’s pillar: Jehu of Israel bowing before Shalmanezer.

Chapter 11               Athaliah’s bid for power, Joash of Judah saved by aunt Jehosheba, priest’s Jehoiada’s wife

• 2 Kin 11:1-3        Athaliah grabs power. She is the only ‘non-Davidic’ ruler of Judah. When her son Ahaziah of Judah is killed by Jehu over in Israel, she sets about to destroy all the royal family.
• 2 Kin 11:4-12     Josheba, sister of Ahaziah (half sister most likely, otherwise Athaliah is her mother), the wife of priest Jehoiada, saves the child Joash, a son of Ahaziah, by another woman (must be, otherwise Athaliah plans to kill her own son) and hides him. After 7 years of Athaliah’s rule Jehoiada conspires and has Joash crowned as a seven year old.
• 2 Kin 11:13-16   Athaliah is killed
• 2 Kin 11:17-21   Jehoiada leads a covenant renewal under the new king.

Chapter 12               Joash repairs the temple, pays off Aram, later falls away

• 2 Kin 12:1-16       Joash is taught and guided by Priest Jehoiada and repairs the temple.
• 2 Kin 12:17-18    King Hazael of Aram conquers Gath and threatens Jerusalem. King Joash pays him off with wealth from the temple treasury.
• 2 Kin 12:19-21    King Joash is killed in a conspiracy. Chronicles adds that Joash commits apostasy at the instigation of the officials of Judah after the death of priest Jehoiada. Jehoiada’s son Zechariah challenges him as a prophe, but Joash has him killed. This is given as the reason for the conspiracy against Joash (who is already wounded in a battle against Aram). The officials of Judah are also mentioned to be killed in this same battle (2 Chr 24:15-27).

Chapter 13                Jehu’s son Jehoahaz entreats God > God grants a Savior

• 2 Kin 13:1-9        Syria oppresses Israel. Jehu’s son Jehoahaz entrats God and he answers: He gives a ‘savior’: Assyrian Adad-Nirari (II?) who attacks Syria and draws them off Israel.
• 2 Kin 13:10-13    Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu reigns (2nd generation after Jehu). He is evil. He fights with Amaziah of Judah.
• 2 Kin 13:14-19    King Jehoash cries before Elisha, who promises him a victory over Aram. He tells him to strike the ground with his arrows, but he only does it three times > Elisha promises him only three victories over Aram.
• 2 Kin 13:20-21   Elisha dies, and is buried. A dead man is thrown into his grave due to a maraouding band approaching, the mand comes back to life. This is an outrageous miracle, performed by a dead man on a dead man (!), which shows that it definitely doesn’t depend on human’s faith, neithe the performer nor the one on whom the miracle is performed.
• 2 Kin 13:22-25   King Jehoash defeats Aram and takes back some towns of Israel, as Elisha predicted.

Chapter 14 Amaziah over Judah, Jeroboam II over Israel

• 2 Kin 14:1-22      King Amaziah, son of Joash of Judah reigns. He does what is right. Avenges his father’s murder. He has a successful campaign against Edom. But He tries to make peace with Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz of Israel. Jehoash refuses, warning him. It comes to a battle, which Israel wins, capturing King Amaziah, breaking down part of Jerusalem’s wall and looting the temple treasury. He continues to reign and must therefore have been released.
• 2 Kin 14:23-29    God is gracious and sees Israel’s suffering. He gives them a ‘savior’, Jeroboam II, who is third generation from Jehu. It is a golden time for Israel, expanding borders, booming trade, relative peace. It is deceptive though, because though the country does better, the poor don’t (see Amos). It is the last good time for Israel, after this everything will fall apart, and quickly so.
• Chapter 15          Azariah=Uzziah over Judah / Last few kings over Israel / Jotham over Judah
• 2 Kin 15:1-7        Azariah=Uzziah reigns over Judah, does what is right. Chronicles 26 adds that he grew strong by obedience, and wise ruling, but then became proud. He is judged for his presumption in usurping priestly role (offering incense in the taberncle) with leprosy.
• 2 Kin 15:8-12     Reign of Zecharaiah, son of Jeroboam of only six months. He is evil. He is the fourth generation from Jehu and the last of his house to reign. He is assasinated by Shallum.
• 2 Kin 15:13-16   King Shallum. Evil. Reigns one month. Violence against pregnant women in Tiphsah. Conspired against.
• 2 Kin 15:17-22   King Menahem. Evil. Reigns two years. Pays off King Pul of Assyria with taxes levied.
• 2 Kin 15:23-26  King Pekahiah, son of Menahem. Evil. Reigns two years. Conspired against by his captian and 50 Gileadites.
• 2 Kin 15:27-31   King Pekah, son of Remaliah. Evil. Reigns 20 years. Tiglath-pileser of Assyria decimates Israel’s land. Conspired against by Hoshea
• 2 Kin 15:32-38  King Jotham, son of Uzziah of Judah. Did what is right. Co-reigned with his leprous father. Reigns 16 years. Fights an alliance of King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel.

Chapter 16             Ahaz over Judah > apostasy, copies idolatrous altar

• 2 Kin 16:1-4       King Ahaz, son of Jotham reigns over Judah. He is evil, made his son pass through fire. Is attacked by King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel. Edom recovers Eilath and drives our the Jews.
• 2 Kin 16:5-9       King Ahaz makes an alliance with King Tiglath-pileser or Assyria, which first works: Assyria conquers Aram and then Israel, effectively wiping out Judah’s enemies.
• 2 Kin 16:10-20  He sees the altar in Damascus, makes a copy and replaces the altar of burt offering with it. Who disciples whom?

Chapter 17              Hoshea, Exile by Assyria, Summary & Samaritans

• 2 Kin 17:1-6      Hoshea reigns over Israel. He becomes a vassal of King Shalmanezer of Assyria, but then sends envoys to Pharaoh So of Egypt. Shalmanezer retaliates by conquering Israel, Samaria, totally destroying everything and exiling Israel to various lands.
• 2 Kin 17:7-23   Prophetic recap of why the exile happened: idolatry, disobedience, alliances, no repentance at prophets’ call.
• 2 Kin 17:24-41 Assyria re-settles Israel with people from Babyloon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sephrvaim, all idolatrous. They intermarry with remaining poor Israelites > ‘Samaritans’. They also mix their idolatry with Jahweh-worship, which is brought back in when lions create havock. Israel has successfully mis-represented God as a small, tribal, territorial God! This is where the NT ‘Samaritans’ come from. They still exist in the 21st century.

Chapter 18-19         Hezekiah survives the Assyrian challenge

• 2 Kin 18-19       Beautiful example of a godly King and a prophet co-operating > this is how things should have been spiritual and political leadership. Hezekiah manages to wind through to a trust in God, which then is rewarded by a massive intervention by God.

Chapter 20              Hezekiah’s illness, recovery & folly

• 2 Kin 20:1-11    Hezekiah asks for life extension > 15y added. But: he doesn’t really do that well in these years. First the false alliance and blunder with the Babylonians. Then no real repentance but rather carelessness. When his son Manasseh (Judah’s worst king ever) comes on the throne he is 12 years old. So Manasseh was born in this 15 year extension. Did Hezekiah have no children before and this extension is vital to have the Davidic line contine? Or is Manasseh a favored son (of old age), but really a bad choice among his brothers?

Chapter 21                   Manasseh > terrible reversal, irreparable idolatry, exile decided

• 2 Chr 33:10-13 Chronicles shows that at the end of his long and disastrous reign he repented. God hears and restores him. In Medival times, when there was great focus on Christ as judge and purgatory scares, the story of Manasseh was a sign of hope and often quoted.

Chapter 22               Josiah > finding the Law > Repentance

• How long was the book of the law of Moses not read or even known any more?
  • 2 Kin 22:8, 2 Chr 34:14 In Josiah’s time they find the book of the law, like a surprise bonus of cleaning the temple. By implication the law book has not been known, read, taught for a long time, maybe it was even forgotten completely, by the kings and even by the priest. The priest recognizes it as what it is upon seeing it, maybe it simply had a title, but he also must have not known about it since what seems like a long time.
• When last mentioned?
  • 2 Chr 17:9    Jehoshaphat’s officials teaching the book of the law appr. 860 BC
  • 2 Chr 25:4   Amaziah, not putting family of murderers to death because of law book appr. 780 BC
  • 2 Chr 29:25 Hezekiah stationing the Levites according the commandment of David appr. 710 BC
  • 2 Chr 34:14 Josiah, finding the book of the law appr. 620 BC
  • Also 2 Chr 15:3 prophet Azariah says to Asa: “For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without the law …”, Asa is appr. 910-875 BC, and Solomon died in 930 BC … so maybe just 20, 30 years ago.
• 2 Kin 22:20         Prophetess Huldah: God accepts repentance, so it will not happen in your life-time, but it is irreversible. Unlike Hezekiah and Ahab, Josiah takes that as a signal not for less but for even more repentance & whole-hearted reformation

Chapter 23               Josiah’s reformation

• 2 Kin 23              He is totally whole-hearted. Is he a bit forceful? People let themselves be pulled the right direction but after his death > quick and terminal reversal. Does God let him die early so he can get on with the exile? It almost sounds like it.

Chapter 24                Babylon conquers Jerusalem 3 times

• 2 Kin 24              Conquest of Jerusalem in 605 BC: King Josiah just killed by Pharaoh Necho. Jehoahaz removed by Egypt after only 3 months of reign. King Jehoiakim rebells against Bablylon, causing a further invasion in 597 BC. He dies during the siege, an his son King Jehoiachin is exiled after only 3 months of reign. Zedekiah is put on the throne by Babylon. He rebells and brings about the final conquest and destruction in 586 BC.

Chapter 25                Temple & Jerusalem destroyed, people exiled > Note of hope

• 2 Kin 25             King Jehoiachin is freed and honored in Babylon, ending on a note of hope hat something will go on.

15 Other Points – Random collection

Did God ever command the temple to be built?

• 1 Kin 8              Solomon’s temple dedication … God localized at Jerusalem temple vs heart’s obedience anywhere
• 2 Sam 7:10       Did God ever actually command for a temple to be built? Yes, but suprisingly marginally!

Repeated Theme in Kings – Spirit of God / spirit

• 1 Kin 18:12         Obadiah to Elijah: the Spirit might carry you away who knows were
• 1 Kin  22:21-24  lying spirit deceiving Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah, as Micaiah describes
• 2 Kin  2:9           Elisha asking for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit
• 2 Kin  2:15         group of prophets recognize that the spirit of Elijah now rests on Elisha
• 2 Kin  2:16         group of prophets urge search for Elijah, as the Spirit may have cast him somewhere
• 1 Chr 5:26       God stirred up the spirit of Pul of Assyria, Tiglath-pileser of Assyria > Reuben, Gad, E Manasseh exiled
• 1 Chr 12:18      The spirit comes upon Amasai, chief of military captains joining David: peace be to you
• 1 Chr 28:12     David instructing Solomon about temple: all that he had in mind / all that he had by the spirit
• 2 Chr 15:1        The Spirit of God came on Azariah, son of Oded, addressing Asa of Judah
• 2 Chr 18:20-23 lying spirit deceiving Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah, as Micaiah describes
• 2 Chr 20:14     upon Jahaziel came the Spirit of the Lord, addressing Jehophaphat
• 2 Chr 21:16     God stirred up the spirit of the Philistines and Arabians against Jehoram
• 2 Chr 24:20    The Spirit of God came on Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest, addressing Jehoash of Judah
• 2 Chr 36:22    God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia

God rules / influences / raises up as he pleases the hearts of men, those who follow him or those who don’t . A description of the sovereignty of God over all human history. The hearts of kings are like water in the hands of God.