I Kings 17-18

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we meet Elijah. We know of him from the Gospels. First, an angel was speaking to Zechariah about the future birth of his son, John: …and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah… (Luke 1:17) Later, when John was in prison he sent his disciples to Jesus with a question which Jesus answered invoking Elijah: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them…if you are willing to accept it, he [John] is Elijah who is to come. (Matthew 11:3-4a, 14) Finally, Elijah appeared along with Moses at Jesus’ Transfiguration. (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, and Luke 9:28-36). Did we wonder, who is this Elijah?

Three stories today – fed by ravens, the widow of Zarephath, and the battle of Mt. Carmel. Just a couple of comments on these stories. First, the ravens feeding Elijah and the miraculous provision of food for the widow both stand in contrast to the drought in Ahab’s Israel. The Lord provided where He chose. Second, my Study Bible noted that the raising of the widow’s son is the first account in the Bible of anyone being raised from the dead. I had not thought of that! Finally, Elijah doing battle with the prophets of Baal is a standard Sunday School story – where many of us possibly first met Elijah. I always wondered, where did they get all that water to soak down Elijah’s offering on the altar?

More on Elijah tomorrow and in later chapters…

Blessings.

I Kings 16:8-34

Dear RTB’ers,

Elah, Zimri, Tibni, Omri, Ahab – a succession of kings of Israel, none of whom sought the true God. In fact, they almost seemed to compete with one another to in doing evil: Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him… And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him… Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.. (vv. 25, 30, 33b) Of all the evil that these kings of Israel committed, none seems to offend God more than the worship of other gods: Ahab…went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. (vv. 31b-32) The writer of Kings does not have much good to say about Israel and its kings.

And so we meet Ahab and Jezebel; we’ll be with them for a while.

Blessings.

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See also:

• May 23 (2023) / II Chronicles 12-16 (if only for the comments, which focus on I Kings 16:34)
• May 24 (2023) / I Kings 16:21-19:21 (particularly for the “One more thing…”; we’ll get to the main part of the post in the next couple of days)

I Kings 15:1-16:7

Dear RTB’ers,

It gets confusing, trying to follow the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, both the years in which they reigned and the activities (especially wars, treaties, and building programs) in which they engaged. As I have often said, the “See also” links are quite helpful in adding to our current posts. A few days ago, the “See also” link pointed to May 21 (2023) / I Kings 12-14:20. In that post John clarifies our current readings situation:

The nation is now divided into two kingdoms, never to be reunited (at least, not yet). The tribes of Judah and Benjamin form the southern kingdom, henceforth known as Judah, ruled by the House of David. The other ten tribes form the northern kingdom, henceforth generally known as Israel but sometimes called Ephraim, since that is the strongest tribe of the ten.

The books of I & II Kings present the history of both kingdoms, Judah and Israel, bouncing back and forth between the two in an almost leap-frog fashion, pegging the time frames of the reigns of the kings in one kingdom to those of the other kingdom. II Chronicles, on the other hand, focuses only on Judah and generally ignores the northern kingdom of Israel. As a result, we’ll get the history of Israel once in Kings, but we’ll get a double dose of the history of Judah, with II Chronicles often repeating what we read in Kings.

With this explanation John brings out one very important point, that the book of II Chronicles tells the story of the kings of Judah in much greater detail than we read in I Kings. For example, in our readings today my Study Bible references us further to specific verses in II Chronicles 13-16, four chapters that cover more fully the reigns of Abijah and Asa. It would be helpful for you to read those chapters (but no expectations that you read further!); it’ll be next year before we read them in Search the Scriptures. By then it’ll be a good reminder! For my part, in covering I and II Kings, I will post as if the Chronicles books do not exist.

Blessings.

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See also: May 22 (2023) / I Kings 14:21-16:20; II Chronicles 10-11.

I Kings 14

Dear RTB’ers,

Today, a couple of short items on Jeroboam and Rehoboam, both fairly straightforward. Jeroboam tries deception – remember how well that worked for Saul and the medium woman? We cannot deceive an all-knowing, all-seeing God! Even before the deception was playing out, God knew Jeroboam’s plans and revealed them to His prophet, Ahijah, along with a message of doom for Jeroboam’s family. With it all I found myself feeling sorry for Jeroboam’s wife: And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. (v. 17b) She did not even get a chance to hold and hug her ill child before he died. Sad.

Now back to Rehoboam… [NOTE: For quite some time we will be going back and forth between accounts of the kings of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.] Another sad tale – that Rehoboam would follow his father, Solomon’s idolatry instead of the faithfulness of his grandfather, David: And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. (v. 22) And Judah paid the price, quickly overthrown by the king of Egypt, with the treasures of the Temple and other buildings plundered. We only recently read of Solomon’s wealth and power, how he built fortifications along his borders and was secure in all his holdings. One generation later and it’s all for naught!

Thankfully, we sit on the other side of the Cross: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25) Thank you, Jesus!

Blessings.

I Kings 12:33-13:34

Dear RTB’ers,

There are times in our readings when the stories or the Psalms or some deep theological truths are more difficult to understand. Today is not one of those. Today’s reading is one long story, about a prophet’s obedience and disobedience and the people with whom he interacts. The fundamental message is straightforward: And the man cried against the altar by the word of the LORD… (v. 13:2a) Jeroboam needs to back off from all this sacrificing on these altars that he has established! Sign after sign followed the prophet’s message. Sadly, the only message that Jeroboam got was that he wanted his hand restored: “OK, my hand is back to normal; let’s have lunch. I’ll probably rebuild the altar later.” More on Jeroboam tomorrow.

So Prophet #1 does what the Lord has commanded him to do, then he sets off to return to Judah. Unfortunately, Prophet #2 shows up, lies to him, encourages his disobedience, then chastises him for it. What a strange turn of events!!

So I’m wondering what events in my life had caused me to turn off that “narrow path”, encouraging me to veer off what I had believed to be the God’s path for me. I’ll end this while I ponder that. You, too?

Blessings.

I Kings 12:1-32

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we meet Rehoboam and get reintroduced to Jeroboam. Almost immediately we have trouble with Rehoboam. He asks for advice from the “old men” and from his friends, then takes his friends’ advice – which from the beginning sounds horrible to us! So Rehoboam sets out on a path which will not end well.

Although we can cast sad eyes toward Rehoboam, what we see from Jeroboam is much worse. He becomes the acknowledged leader of the ten tribes that constitute Israel (with Judah and Simeon the other two tribes, simply referred to as Judah). The tribes of Israel make him their king and he institutes pagan worship, setting up alternative altars in Bethel (about a dozen miles north of Jerusalem) and in Dan (much further north). Later we see the Jewish people building synagogues in regions that are further from Jerusalem, but these were for prayer and gathering, not for sacrificial offerings. Jeroboam, however, built two golden calves (hello, memory…!!) and offered sacrifices to them. So as bad as Rehoboam has begun, Jeroboam is much worse.

Have you ever had a situation where you “didn’t get your way” and then you tried to “fix it” without first seeking the Lord? That seldom ends well. Nor will it end well for Jeroboam, as we follow him for the next few days.

Blessings.

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See also: May 21 (2023) / I Kings 12-14:20.

I Kings 10:14-11:43

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we close the book on Solomon, with good news followed by bad news, worse news, and the worst possible activities and outcomes. First, the good news – more reports on his wealth, wisdom, security, and power (I Kings 10:14-29). This good news is followed immediately (in I Kings 11) by bad news (foreign wives), worse news (his adversaries) and the worst possible news, his falling away from seeking only the One True God: And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, Who … had commanded him … that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. (vv. 11:9-10) While it may seem that Solomon got more and more careless over his 40 years of reign as king, we need to remember that one of the first things that Solomon did (after settling scores for his father) was to take a foreign wife – Pharaoh’s daughter (I Kings 3:1). Yes, for sure it was a political alliance, but it was also that first step down a wrong path.

With that my mind wanders to my favorite poem, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood…
:
:
:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”

Solomon was certainly on a road not taken – never taken by anyone in all of history! But somehow, he got on that road more traveled, one that we all have taken for a time, having only Jesus’ redemption to bring us back to that perfect road, that road where we travel with Him as our all-knowing guide and glorious companion.

Blessings.

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See also: May 20 (2023) / I Kings 11; II Chronicles 9:29-31.

I Kings 9:1-10:13

Dear RTB’ers,

An early sentence in today’s reading caught my eye: And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before Me…” (v. 9:3a) The Lord heard Solomon’s prayer (from yesterday’s reading). Solomon was no more human and no more loved by God than any one of us. The Lord acknowledged Solomon’s prayer (in person), and I have no doubt but that God hears every prayer from every one of us, and that He acts on our prayers according to His will. If His answer to any of our prayers is “no” or “not yet”, He has His reasons – and He is God and we are not. I suspect that His answer to many of our prayers is actually “Yes, but…”. And that’s good by me!

Sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, more and more of Solomon’s wealth and power! I chuckled that Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in Galilee, but that Hiram was displeased with those cities (I Kings 9:11-13). But Galilee is the region where Jesus grew up and where (presumably) He spent most of His ministry time. So He clearly redeemed Galilee from Hiram’s disfavor!! 

Blessings.

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See also:

• May 14 (2023) / II Chronicles 6-7; I Kings 9:1-9
• May 15 (2023) / I Kings 9:10-10:29; II Chronicles 8-9:28

I Kings 8:12-66

Dear RTB’ers,

With the temple and its furnishings complete, Solomon now leads the people with an introductory speech (I Kings 8:12-21), his prayer to the Lord (I Kings 8:13-53), a blessing upon the assembly (I Kings 8:54-61), and offerings and sacrifices for the next two weeks (I Kings 8:62-66).

There were a couple of sections of Solomon’s prayer that were particularly touching to me. First, his prayer was very personal for each of the assembled people (and to us today): …whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man, … each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart You know, according to all his ways (for You, You only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear You all the days that they live… (vv. 38-40) Yes, God knows our hearts, He knows our needs, and He has His desires for us – whatever we do according to His will.

Second, Solomon remembered the foreigner: Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, comes from a far country for Your name’s sake… (vv. 41, ff.) From the text it’s clear that Solomon is praying for foreign “pilgrims” who travel to Jerusalem, to the temple to pray to the God of Israel. But my heart went out to people in our own United States who have come to our country, both legally and illegally, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. I particularly have in mind our Avanza kids and their families, but there are also thousands of refugees who have come here to escape misery back home. Lord, I pray that You watch over all of these foreigners in our land.

Blessings.

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See also: May 13 (2023) / I Kings 8; II Chronicles 5.

I Kings 7:13-8:11

Dear RTB’ers,

Yesterday, the Temple structure; today, the Temple furnishings. Here’s an artist’s rendering of the Temple and its furnishings, courtesy of ESV, to which John pointed us yesterday:

So now we have the Temple and its furnishings and finally, the Ark of the Covenant brought into the Temple. You probably remember the story of David bringing the ark from the house of Abinadab to the house of Obed-edom and from there on to Jerusalem, with Uzzah dying because he touched the Ark and Michal scorning David’s dancing before the Lord. (II Samuel 6) We have none of that drama today: And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the LORD the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. (vv. 7:3-5) Today we close with the Lord’s affirmation of all the work done to His glory: And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD … for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. (vv. 7:10b, 11b) AMEN!

Blessings.

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See also: May 12 (2023) / I Kings 7; II Chronicles 4.