Chapter 15 Four Kings ... One Good !

When I read this chapter, I am reminded of Jesus' parable in the New Testament about the four soils. Of the four conditions of the heart when hearing the word of God, only one takes root and produces fruit. Here, in chapter 15, we see that there are four different kings talked about covering  about 50 years and only one of them did what was right in the eyes of God ! Another thing I notice is that when any king is introduced to the reader, the name of the mother or grandmother is mentioned. This  is unusual in that women were not equal or highly valued in that society and yet the writer goes out of their way to tell us who the important female in their life was and how this king was seen in God's eyes !

The first two kings mentioned are Abijam and Asa. Both were kings over Judah. Asa is the one king who did right in the eyes of God. Not by coincidence, God allowed him to serve the longest of these 4. He was king for 41 years and Abijam served first and for only 3 years. Its says that Asa  banished the perverted people from the land, he removed all the idols made by his fathers, and removed his grandmother from being queen mother because she had made an obscene idol of Asherah. The high places were not cut down but his heart was with God just as his father David's was.

The second two kings reigned over Israel. Nadab for 2 years and Baasha for 24 years. Both did what was evil in the eyes of God. Nadab was the son of Jeroboam and was killed in his third year of reigning by Baasha.   It says of Baasha " And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeraboam. He did not leave to Jeraboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonits, because of the sins of Jeraboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger." Verse 29-30)

It is important to remember ,when looking at 1 Kings, that the 12 tribes had split and made two countries out of Israel. 10 1/2 tribes started the country of Judah and the remaining 1 1/2 tribes stayed in Israel. So, when we are talking about the different kings, we need to pay attention to which country we are talking about lest we become confused.

Chapter 14 North And South Pay

In the south, Israel, Jeroboam's son became sick.  King Jeroboam sent his wife to the prophet Ahijah is Shiloh to inquire of the Lord what shall happen to their son. When she arrived and inquired, the Lord had indeed given an answer to her inquiry. God told her that He had torn the kingdom apart and given Israel to Jeroboam and he had done more evil in the eyes of the Lord than all kings before him. He had made wood gods and provoked God to anger ! Therefore God said he would bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. The dogs will eat all that is Jeroboam's and lives in the city and the birds shall eat all that is Jeroboam's and lives in the country. Also when your feet enter the city your son shall die !  She returned home and the child died. Then Jeroboam died and was buried with his fathers. Jeroboam reigned 22 years as king.

In the north, Judah, Rehoboam reigned as king. He reigned for 17 years. Judah had provoked God to anger because of all the evil they had done. They had built high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every hill and under every green tree. In the 5th year of his reign a foreign king came in and took all of Solomon's treasures including the gold shields. Rheoboam made silver ones to replace them. Rheoboam died and rested with his fathers. Abijam, his son, reigned in his place.

Chapter 13 The Donkey And The Lion

"And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord..." starts this chapter. Here the man of God, who is never named, makes a prophecy that Josiah would kill all the illegitimate priests of the high places. This was kept 300 years later in 2 Kings 23: 15-20. When king Jeroboam heard this he reached out his hand to have him killed but his hand shriveled up and fell off. When this happened to the king, he asked the man of God to pray for his hand to be put back ... and it was. The king offered a reward to him yet he refused saying that God said he was not to eat, drink or stay there and he was to take a different path back home. And so he did.

An old prophet in Bethel had heard of these things from his sons and told them to saddle his donkey so he could go get this man. When he found him he asked him to come back and eat with him. When the man of God told him God's instructions, the old prophet told him That God had told him it was O.K. and that he should go back to eat and drink with this old prophet !  The man of God did so.  During dinner the word of God came and said that because he had disobeyed the word of God ( The old prophet had lied to him) his body would not be buried with his family. This was seen as a major curse to him.

So it happened as he was headed home that he was killed by a lion as he was riding his donkey. As he lay dead on the ground, the lion and the donkey guarded the body and did not do what was natural for them to do. When the old prophet heard, he went and retrieved the body and buried it. The lion and the donkey bothered the man not. They represent what God expects from us. To obey the word of  God ... even if it seems odd and unnatural !

Chapter 12 God divides Israel

Just as God had promised Solomon, for his sin, God has divided Israel. 10 tribes went north and formed Israel. One tribe, Judah, stayed in the south to form Judah. 1 tribe, Benjamin ,divided between the two. Rehoboam was king over Israel and the people came to him and asked him to lighten the yoke on their backs put there by his father, Solomon. He asked advice from Solomon's elders. They advised him to lighten their yoke and the people would follow him forever. He then asked the advice of his contemporaries. They advised, and he listened, to tell the people that their yoke would be much HEAVIER than anything Solomon had ever done !

In addition to this stand, He was worried that Israel would return to Judah to worship God. So he made two wood calves overlaid with gold and presented them to the people as the way to worship God. He also built mini temples throughout the land, in high places, for people to make sacrifices to God. This was breaking God's law because the law said only was the tribe of Levi,  sons of Aaron, to make sacrifice to God.He did many other evil things in the eyes of God and led his people into sin !

A Sad Ending !

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a famous saying that proves to be true in the life of Solomon. God had said not to inter marry with women of other countries. However Solomon wanted to have more wives than anyone. In those days it was seen as a sign of wealth and power. The more wives you had the more power and wealth you had. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines ! The reason God had given for not marrying foreigners was that the women would lead him to worship other gods. This proved to be true as Solomon built temples on hills to several different gods. One was Ashtoreth  who was the goddess of love and fertility. Another was the Ammonite god called Milcom. The way to worship this god was the sacrifice of children on the fire. Another was Chemosh who was the god of the Moabites. The sacrifice of children in the fire was also customary.

It was in the middle of all of the disobedience by Solomon that the prophet came to Solomon's servant Jeroboam and said that God was going to take 10 tribes of Israel away from Solomon's son and give them to him. He also made Jeroboam the same promise He had made to David. If he walked in His ways and kept His commandments, as his servant David had, He would make his kingdom last a long time ... but not forever. This tells us that even though Solomon had done evil in the eyes of God, He was still going to reunite all of Israel at some time and keep His promise to David.

This was a really sad chapter to read. Solomon had everything a man could ever want and at the end of his life he was far away from God and had lost all that God gave. This is truly a lesson for all of us to learn ! No matter what you have, you have because of the grace of God and He can take at any time .... including your life !

Chapter 10 The Queen Visits !

This is one of the most interesting chapters in the bible !! Through out this chapter it seems like Solomon is basking in the glow of all the blessings that God promised and is using it all for good and being very generous. This all true ... however God saw this as Solomon showing off and disobeying His commands !

When the Queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon she brings a huge amount of tribute. Her goal was to see and test the fame and wisdom that God had given to Solomon.She gave many tons of gold, rare spices and animals. In exchange Solomon had answered all her questions. Solomon had built up many cities and stocked many with thousands of horses, stables, and riders. He had given many gifts to the Queen and had hid nothing from her !  For this last one the kingdom will pay when her armies return and plunder Israel. In the book of Deut. God tells  His people not to keep horses, stables or riders because these were implements of war. The Jews were to rely on God for their defense not on their own power.

The spiritual lessons here are many but we can see that although Solomon is glowing from all the blessings, God is now arranging for these wrongs to be corrected. The same goes for us today. Even though it may look like you are being blessed ... be careful ! Make sure to stay in prayer and try to look at things from God's perspective and not from yours. Also, even though God sees it differently, he does not stop the blessing quickly. Many people are deceived when they sin by thinking if they are not punished at that moment, that God must be O.K. with the sin you have just  done. As Paul would later say in the New Testament, " God forbid !! "

Chapter 8 The Ark, The Dedication, And The Benediction

Eleven months after the completion of the Temple the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the Holy of Holy's. It was done at this time to coincide with the Feast of the Tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought it up and put it in it's spot. The handles that God had commanded be used to carry the Ark were left on. They were very long, but would be needed by the priest who went in once a year into this very dark room, and would be used to find his way around.

Solomon went to the altar of burnt offering and made his very long prayer of consecration to the Lord of the Temple and bringing in the Ark. This prayer of consecration covered three areas : 1)  He confirmed that there was no god that could compare the God of Israel. 2) He asked the Lord for His continued presence no matter how far the Jews would wonder. 3) Lastly he recalled 7 Israel prayers that recalled the detailed list of curses that Deut. 28 : 15-68 listed for the breaking the Law. These were some of them ... Forgive sins that had caused defeat in battle,sins brought on by drought, sins resulted in national calamity, to show mercy to foreigners, give victory in battle, and bring restoration after calamity. Solomon probably had no idea but the Jews would need every one of these blessings and then some !

Solomon then turned to dedicate the Temple. When doing this he went to sacrifice on the altar all the animals. There was no room. It is believed that he had built many altars for use ONLY for the dedication in addition to the main one. The amount of animals sacrificed was amazing.  22,000 bulls, 120,000 sheep, in addition to the peace offering and the grain offering.  WOW !!!