1 Kings Overview part 1
Tonight we are going to get back to OT study as we will begin looking at 1 Kings. First thing I want to point out is that 1 and 2 Kings were originally one book. Both of these combined covers a time period of about 400 years somewhere around 1000 – 6000 B.C. 1 Kings starts with the glory and strength of the Jewish kingdom and 2 Kings ends with the ruin of that kingdom.
The key words to this book are glory and division.
There are several key verses worthy to note:
Note
David’s wise advice to his son in 1 Kings 2:2"I go the way of all the earth;
be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.
3 "And keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in
His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His
testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all
that you do and wherever you turn; 4
"that the LORD may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying,
'If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their
heart and with all their soul,' He said, 'you shall not lack a man on the
throne of Israel.'
Another key verse is when
Solomon asked God for wisdom instead of anything else.
1 Kings 3:9
"Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your
people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this
great people of Yours?" 10
The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.
Another key verse shows
God’s promise to Solomon
1 Kings 9:4 "Now
if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in
uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if
you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5
"then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as
I promised David your father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man on the
throne of Israel.' 6 "But
if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My
commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and
serve other gods and worship them, 7
"then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and
this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight.
One last key verse is of
God’s reproof of Solomon’s apostasy:
1 Kings 11:11
Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have
not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely
tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 "Nevertheless I will not
do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of
the hand of your son.
Author: is unknown but the Jewish history claims it to be Jeremiah while some scholars even point to Ezra as a possibility. There are some books in the Bible where the author is not named but we can know that the true author of them all is God. 1 Kings is quoted or referred to in several NT passages which show that it was considered to be part of God’s Word. Lets look a few of them.
Matthew 12:42 "The queen of the South will rise up in
the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is
here.
Here Jesus makes a reference to the queen of
Luke 4:25
"But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah,
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great
famine throughout all the land; 26
"but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, (zar-eh-fath)
in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 "And many lepers were in
This confirms several things,
1. Elijah was a prophet just a 1 Kings says he was
2. That he caused a drought for 3 ½ years by the power of God
3. It collaborates the story of the widow found 1 Kings 17
4. It collaborates the story of Naaman and his cleansing of leprosy in 2 Kings 5
Finally Paul quotes from 1 Kings 19
Romans 11:2 God has
not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the
Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against
The key chapter is chapter 12 because this marks critical turning point in Jewish history when the kingdom become divided. From the time of Saul to the end of the reign of Solomon the Kingdom had been united for 120 years. 40 years under Saul, 40 years under David and 40 years under Solomon. Now when Rehoboam took over as king he refused to listen to the advice of the older men of lifting the burden of his father off the people instead his message was this,
1 Kings 12:14 and he
spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "My father
made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with
whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!" 15 So the king
did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the LORD,
that He might fulfill His word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the
Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
As you can see this was
in accordance with God’s plan and
through his providence His promise would come to pass that Solomon’s kingdom
would be stripped and that exactly what happened. Because of Rehoboam’s actions
10 of the tribes of
We learn from 1 and 2
Kings that there were 20 kings that serve in the
We also learn that the
Southern Kingdom also had 20 Kings and some of them were really good while some
were bad. Their kingdom lasted for about 300 years before the Babylonians
defeated them around 600 B.C.
1 Kings can be divided up
into 2 main sections. 1. The reign or Solomon 1 – 11 2. The history the divided
kingdom 12 – 22. The purpose of this book is two fold. 1. It shows how God
tried to move the Jews to repentance by reminding them of his promise that he
would restore them if they would truly repent. 2. The book shows God providence
in preserving his promise to Abraham in Gen. 22:18 through the seed of David.
Even when Solomon failed to keep God’s commandments He did not completely allow
the kingdom to be destroyed as stated in,
1 Kings 11:13 "However
I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for
the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of
And also notice verse,
1 Kings 11:39 'And I will afflict the descendants
of David because of this, but not forever.' "
Overall God protected the blood line of Christ and the spiritual significance of this promised seed is confirmed for us in,
Galatians 3:16 Now to
Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to
seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is
Christ.
Now lets do a quick overview of the book itself
1-2. We learn about Solomon becoming king by the choice of David on his death bed. Not Solomon was the son of Bathsheba who by all rights David had no right to. Now Adonijah David 4th son apparently would have been the next in line to be king and he tried to make it happen but he fails.
3. This is where Solomon prays for wisdom and because he prayed so wisely God blesses him with every thing else.
4. Dwells on Solomon’s prosperity, wealth and wisdom. Solomon was living in what many golden era of the Jews because everything was going very well and everything was peaceful. Solomon was famous for his business practice in trade and he was famous for his writings. He wrote the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and song of Solomon. He also wrote Psalm 72 and possibly Psalm 127.
1 Kings 4:32 He
spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. 33 Also he spoke of trees, from
the cedar tree of
5-8 Deal with Solomon’s Construction. He built structures such as the House of the forest of Lebanon, the hall of Pillars, a hall for his thrown, a house for the daughters of Pharaoh just to name a few. We learn that he it took him 13 years to build his own house. But, his greatest accomplishment was building the temple for God. It took him 7 years, 185,000 workers and millions of dollars worth of Gold, ivory and other materials to complete it. Even though this was a grand structure Solomon himself understood that God could not be housed in such a place.
1 Kings 8:26
"And now I pray, O God of
9-10 are expansion of chapter 4. Solomon devoted himself to commerce and public
works. He made a deal with the king of
11. We learn about the downfall of Solomon glorious reign and that was the 700
wives and the 300 concubines that he had. Now he married these women to expand
his kingdom but many of these women were idolaters and this began to influence
this once wise man of God and he fell away from God in the end which led to
division of the kingdom.
12 – 22 deal with the
divided kingdom and their various kings. Also 17 – 2 Kings 2 talk about Elijah
the prophet. This is basic overview of the book of 1 Kings.
Now I want to show you on
the map how the kingdom expanded from Saul to Solomon. Show map and show the
differences.
Also I want you to notice
this map of the divided kingdom.
There are several lessons
that we can learn from this book that applies to us today.
1. We can see that God is
pleased when we choose to ask for wisdom and to use His word as our guide.
2. It shows us the
importance of prayer and servitude toward God.
3. It shows us that God
is always watching and nothing escapes him as David says in,
Psalm 139:1 O LORD, You have searched
me and known me. 2 You
know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my
lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word
on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. 5 You have hedged me behind and
before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain
it.
4. We learn that even the
wisest of men can allow power and wealth to corrupt them.
These are just a few of
the lessons that we can take to heart and we will learn even more as we take a
more detailed look at this book in the coming weeks.