1 Kings Overview 1 and 2 Kings were

1 Kings Overview

1 and 2 Kings were originally one book. Time covered: 400 years – approximately 1000 – 600 B. C. Key words: “glory” and “division”.

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. '

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.

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. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

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: Possibly Jeremiah or Ezra

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. (See 1 Kings 10)

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, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 "And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. "

1. Elijah was a prophet 2. Elijah caused a drought for 3 ½ years 3. It collaborates the story of the widow found in 1 Kings 17 4. It collaborates the story of Naaman and his cleansing of leprosy in 2 Kings 5

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 Israel, saying, 3 "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. " (See 1 Kings 19)

Key chapter: 12

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.

Northern Kingdom: • 20 kings - all were bad • Lasted around 200 years • Destroyed by Assyria around 721 B. C. • Never became a kingdom again.

Southern Kingdom: • 20 Kings - some good some bad • Lasted around 300 years • Defeated by the Babylonians around 600 B. C.

Two main sections of 1 Kings 1. The reign of Solomon 1 – 11 2. The history of the divided kingdom 12 – 22.

Twofold purpose of th`is book: 1. It shows how God tried to move the Jews to repentance. 2. The book shows God providence in preserving His promise to Abraham in Gen. 22: 18 through the seed of David.

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 Jerusalem which I have chosen. “ 1 Kings 11: 39 'And I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever. ' “ 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.

1 -2. Solomon becomes king 3. Solomon prays for wisdom 4. Solomon’s prosperity, wealth and wisdom. 1 Kings 4: 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand five. 33 Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. 34 And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

5 -8 Solomon’s Construction. 1 Kings 8: 26 "And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father. 27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! 28 "Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: 29 "that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, 'My name shall be there, ' that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place.

9 -10. an expansion of chapter 4 11. Solomon’s downfall 12 – 22. The divided kingdom and their various kings 17 – 2 Kings 2 Elijah the prophet.

Northern Southern

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.