Summary of 1 Kings

In Summary

Key text — 1 Kings 11:35-36 “But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and will give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name.”

Key term — “Division”

In the book of 1 Kings, Israel is divided into two competing kingdoms. Without fail, the kings of the north (Israel) were idolatrous and led the people into idolatry. The kings of the south (Judah) were negligibly better, producing a handful of good kings. However, overwhelmingly the southern kings typically failed to please God and walk in His ways.

Single-sentence summary

The kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon’s reign, a reign that culminated in the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. God raised up prophets to confront the idolatry, and this is personified in Elijah and his confrontation with wicked Ahab.

The Message

PURPOSE

Remember that 1 Kings was originally the first half of a larger corpus simply called Kings. As with Samuel, scroll length forced the division of the single book. The message of 1 Kings must be taken with its accompanying 2 Kings counterpart. Many believe Kings was written during the time of the exile, possibly to give God’s perspective on what went wrong during the time when Israel was ruled by kings. After a rather successful time under Solomon’s rule, the kingdom divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, both with their own kings. Was it military failure? Economic? Political? Honestly, Israel’s failure could be summed up in one word: idolatry. Stated simply, the people turned their back on the Lord, their One true King. As a result, God sent three painful lessons as a reminder that they were called to stay faithful to Him:

Israel was split into two kingdoms (1 Kgs.12, approximately 931 BC).

The idolatrous norther kingdom found itself in permanent captivity, captured by the Assyrians (2Kgs.17, approximately 722 BC).

The southern kingdom is sent into a 70 year exile at the hands of the Babylonians (2 Kgs.25, approximately 586 BC).

Kings as a whole is not meant to be an exhaustive history, only taking selective accounts and evaluating them in light of right and wrong according to God’s standards. To underscore God’s perspective, about a third of the text is dedicated to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. As you study and read through Kings as a whole, do it with to discern right and wrong from God’s perspective.

WORLDVIEW

First Kings covers about 120 years of Israel’s history. It’s important to remember that while Israel rebels and finds itself disciplined because of her idolatry, God is still the Sovereign One behind their history. What happens unfolds because God sovereignly allows it or orchestrates it.

God’s covenant faithfulness comes into view through Solomon’s successful reign (undoubtedly because of God’s favor, not Solomon’s outstanding faithfulness) and the completion of the temple.

The true nature of sin and God’s opposition to sin may be most highlighted by the story of Elijah and Ahab’s conflict.

TEACHINGS ABOUT GOD

“One God, One Temple.” Israel’s God is the One true God who has determined how His people will worship Him. And, the One God has designated a specific place where His people should worship: the Temple in Jerusalem. Worshiping rival deities (like Baal) will not be tolerated, and He will not suffer worship in false places of worship (neither the golden calf shrines in Dan and Bethel nor the “high places” where altars were built). Lastly, God’s prophets operate under the blessing of God’s Spirit.

TEACHINGS ABOUT HUMANITY

Humanity can be viewed through the lens of the kings. What truly matter is whether or not a king did what was right in the LORD’s sight (1Kgs.15:5 “because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”) or whether he did “evil in the LORD’s sight (1Kgs.11:6 “So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done,” etc.)

TEACHINGS ABOUT SALVATION

Salvation by grace as a gift from the Sovereign God (1Kgs.8:53 “For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”) is underscored. However, the Scripture seems clear that God’s people were to live faithfully before God, keeping covenant obedience, and both kings and people are evaluated according to the Sinai covenant.

Christ in 1 Kings

Solomon figures prominently in the book. He is David’s son (and we should read Solomon’s life in terms of God’s Messianic promises to David) and the third king of Israel. His wisdom was surpassed by no one, and even the Queen of Sheba came seeking his wisdom. However, the fact that Solomon was NOT the Messiah is underscored by Jesus’ own words (Luke 11:31 “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”)