STUDY FROM 1 SAMUEL TO 2 KINGS

Transcription

1 1 STUDY FROM 1 SAMUEL TO 2 KINGS THE MAN AFTER GOD S OWN HEART This study begins in 1 Samuel and ends in 1 Kings. It is based on the Lord s saying to Samuel that He has sought for a man after His own heart and it is he that is to be prince over his people (1 Sam. 13:14). It is clear that the leader of God s People must be one who is sinless and with all power in God s heaven and on earth. Was It Samuel? (1 Sam. 1:1-7:17) As in the case of Naomi and Ruth, the setting was in the time of the judges of Israel, when every man did what was right in his own eyes. But like Boaz, Ruth and her mother-in-law, so with Samuel s parents: They were not like the majority, but an exception, a family that honored God. Elkanah went with his family, annually, to make his sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh, where the ark of the Lord was and where Eli, the priest, served (1 Samuel 1). He had two wives: one had children and the other did not: Hannah. And the wife with children mocked the one without; but her husband loved Hannah. While Hannah was at Shiloh, she prayed to the Lord and vowed that she would give to the Lord, to serve the Lord all of his days, the son that he gave her, never shaving his head, but living as a Nazirite. Eli, the priest at that time, saw her lips move but he heard no words from her. He thought she was drunk and rebuked her; but she denied, saying that she was praying to the Lord. When they returned home she conceived and bore a son whom she named Samuel, which means, His name is God, meaning that God had given to her this son. When he was weaned, keeping her promise, Hannah brought and gave Samuel to Eli, to serve with him in the house of God. Before leaving Samuel at Shiloh, Hannah expressed a song of thanksgiving to the Lord, revealing that she knew the Lord well (1 Sam. 2:1-10). That song was about the Lord and his control of all things. It calls God s saved ones holy ones and the rest the wicked. It closes by saying that the Lord will judge all and give strength to his king, which it calls his anointed. Quite possibly she had in mind the one mentioned in Psalm 2.

2 Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she learned that she was to bear a child, likewise, praised the Lord for that good news (Luke 1:46-55). Her song sounds like an answer to Hannah s song. Samuel, in accord with his mother s promise, remained in Shiloh and served the Lord there. While Eli s sons did much evil, Samuel grew spiritually before the Lord, above Levi and his sinful sons (1 Sam. 2). Likewise, Jesus grew and became wiser than all of the Jewish leaders and astonished them with his knowledge and understanding of God s Word, as early as the age of twelve (Luke 2: 41-48). Samuel, at a young age, heard the call of the Lord, telling him that Eli and his sons would fall and die and that the Lord had chosen Samuel to be a prophet of God. From this time, the people of Israel were taught by Samuel (1 Sam. 3). Likewise, Jesus, at 30, began to teach the people God s Word and his gospel (Luke 4). In war with the Philistines, Israel was beaten and the ark was stolen; and the news of this and of Eli s two sons being killed, killed Eli as well. Far worse to Israel than Eli s death was news that the Ark of the Covenant had been stolen (1 Sam. 4). At the end of Jesus ministry to the Jews, he was crucified and most all of the leaders of that day were glad to see him die on the cross, but for his disciples, it seemed that all was lost. The ark stayed in the hands of the Philistines for some time, but in the end, by God s will and power, it was brought back (1 Sam. 5). And though Jesus was considered by most of the Jewish leaders never to have risen from the dead, to those who believed in him, he appeared after three days, risen from the grave and, after teaching them shortly, ascended into heaven, a triumph for all believers, until this day (Luke 24). Samuel gathered the people together and called them to repent and laid a stone before them which he called Ebenezer, meaning Stone of help. It pointed to the true Stone, who alone could help them. And after this, Samuel spent the rest of his life going about all Israel, teaching and judging them and building an altar where he settled (1 Sam. 7). As we read the Book of Acts, we see that the witnesses for the Lord went into many nations of the world, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and pointing to the cross, 2

3 the place where Jesus died for their salvation. And his apostles wrote of Jesus as the living stone, the chief corner stone of God s people, the stone rejected by many and a stone of stumbling for them but the stone on which all believers are to build a spiritual house for the Lord and a holy priesthood to God forever (1 Pet. 2). Samuel was certainly a godly man, one about whom there was no evil deed recorded. However, the fact that he had sinful sons whom he apparently did not discipline and even appointed as his successors tells us that Samuel was not perfect. Was it Saul? (1 Samuel 8:1-15:35) Samuel was old and appointed his sons judges in Israel, though there is no evidence the Lord approved of this. The people knew his sons to be crooks and asked Samuel to give them a king, like other nations (8:4,5). Samuel brought the problem to the Lord, who replied that it was not Samuel but the Lord that they were rejecting. However, the Lord told Samuel to give them a king other than the Lord, but not before warning them what that would mean to their lives (8:6-9). The key description of such a king in that era, given by Samuel, was, He will take. He will take your sons, your daughters your fields the tenth of your seed your men-servants your flocks and you will cry out in that day and the Lord will not answer you in that day. (1 Sam. 8:10-22). This reminds us of Jesus words to his disciples when two brothers and their mother sought for her sons to be leaders, sitting closest to Jesus in his rule. Their thinking, then, was that Jesus would literally rule on earth as a king and overthrow all of their enemies. That is the view the leaders of Judaism in that day had of their Messiah and they wanted to be on top, over the other disciples and believers (Matt. 20:25-28). But Jesus said that would not be the way of Christ s Kingdom. That was the way of the world, but in Christ s Kingdom, it is the humble that are first in God s sight. Also, it is worthy of note that when Jesus came, his message was not about what he would take but what he would give. Paul describes Jesus living and giving so beautifully in Philippians 2:5-11. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The only thing the Lord takes from us is our sin and that he takes upon himself for us. How different this is from the description of the earthly kings of this world, given by Samuel to the people in his day. 3

4 In Samuel s day, the people of Israel demanded a king. And the Lord allowed it, in order to teach them the hard way that the only king in God s Kingdom is God (8:19-22). Saul, God s choice as king, was a virtual unknown, who was not seeking that office; instead, he was seeking his father s lost asses (9:1-14). The Lord told Samuel to anoint him leader over Israel (9:15, 16). Note that the Lord did not use the term king. Saul, on his part, behaved humbly (9:21). When Saul was anointed by Samuel he was instructed to find a group of prophets. Then, the Spirit of the Lord would come on him and he would prophesy with them. Afterwards he was to go to Gilgal and wait on Samuel to come to him and to offer burnt offerings (10:1-8). This was to teach Saul that God, and not he, was in charge. Jesus prayer was always Your will be done, when addressing his Father in heaven (Matt. 6:10; 26:39). When time came to anoint Saul, he was nowhere to be found. He had hidden himself. But when he was brought into the open, his great height impressed most of the people, though not all. Samuel wrote a book of rules for this new kingdom and put it by the altar of the covenant (10:17-27). The worthless fellows mentioned in 10:27, call to mind the Jewish leaders in Jesus days on earth who wanted a king that was kingly, not a humble and quiet man like Jesus. Jesus did not try to lead a rebellion against Rome or take over Jerusalem and set up an earthly kingdom as the Jewish leaders desired but he waited on his Father, in heaven, to establish him as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). Paul explains Jesus way in Philippians 2:5-11. Soon, the Ammonites attacked one of Israel s small cities, Jabesh-gilead, demanding that they surrender or else (chapter 11). Messengers from that city sent to Saul for help. Here, we see Saul at his best. He rallied the troops and scattered the Ammonites and called the Israelites to stop blaming one another and begin working together (a lesson our politicians, today, could learn from). The people gladly made Saul their king. After this, Samuel resigned, getting their assurance that he had done them no wrong in all of his leadership of them. While not approving of what they had done, he assured them of God s blessing if they gave attention to God s Word, warning that if they did not, the Lord s hand would be opposed to them. He called on the Lord for a terrible storm to show His power. The people got the message when the storm hit (12:18). 4

5 The people confessed their evil in asking for a king and Samuel exhorted them to fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all of their heart. Otherwise, they would be consumed by the Lord in his wrath. He ended by promising to pray for them, faithfully. After that, Saul was faced by the Philistines. Evidently Samuel had warned him to do nothing until Samuel came to offer sacrifice. But when Samuel did not come, he decided to offer the sacrifice himself; though he was not a priest. Samuel rebuked him but Saul s excuse was that the people were becoming restless and he thought he had to do something. Jesus is the only great high priest that can rightfully offer the offering that needs to be made by man (Hebrews chapter 8). This is the beginning of a series of sins of Saul, proving that he was not a man after the Lord s own heart (ch. 13). In great contrast, our Lord, Jesus Christ, God s son and our king, always waited on his Father and did not begin his ministry until he was led into the wilderness by the Spirit and meditated on God s Word and was tempted by Satan (Matt. 4:1-11). Nor did he go to the cross until he had first prayed over the matters that faced him in his warfare against Satan (John 17; Luke 22:39-46). Here, we think also of the situation of the disciples of Jesus after Jesus had ascended. Before he left, he told the disciples that he was sending the Holy Spirit to empower them to do the work he gave them to do. But after waiting a few days, they grew restless and decided to go ahead and appoint one from their numbers to take the place of Judas, the betrayer (Acts 1). It turned out that the one they chose was not God s choice and we hear no more of him. God s choice for an apostle to take Judas place, all along, was Saul of Tarsus, another Saul, who did, eventually, come to faith in Jesus, by the Lord s call, and proved to be one moving in the direction of being after God s own heart (Phil. 2:1-18). Because of Saul s sin (not the Apostle) in not waiting for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice, he was told through Samuel that he was no longer God s choice to be prince of God s people. Like Judas, later, Saul had pretended to follow the Lord but in his heart he was in rebellion against God (13:14). The Lord still sought one after His own heart and would take no other. In the rest of Saul s reign, we find him fighting Israel s enemies and his own personal enemies, even trying to punish his own son, Jonathan, who proved to be a better warrior than his father (ch. 14). He also spared the life of one of Israel s enemies when the Lord had told him to kill that enemy (ch. 15). He was told then that because he had rejected the Lord s word, the Lord would reject him from being king. After this, Samuel turned his back on Saul and saw him no more while he lived. Jesus came to defeat Satan, our great enemy, and would not leave this earth until that enemy had been defeated (Luke 10:17-20). 5

6 The Lord sent Samuel to find and anoint another to be king (ch. 16), one from Jesse s family, Jesse being Ruth s grandson (Ruth 4:21, 22). Certainly, Saul was not a man after God s own heart. Was It David? (1 Samuel 16:1-1 Kings 1:3) Samuel anointed David, upon whose heart the Lord looked and found it pleasing to Him. But Saul, troubled by an evil spirit, sent for David to play the harp and soothe him, when he was stirred up (ch. 16). Meanwhile, the Philistines gathered to fight Saul and his army (ch.17). Goliath, a giant of a man dared any Israelite to fight with him. David overheard Goliath s boast and volunteered to do what no one else was willing even to try: he would fight Goliath, himself. He challenged Goliath saying, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? David showed his boldness; but more, his trust in the Lord. After David met and killed Goliath with his sling, praising God all the way, the Philistines ran, with the army of Saul close behind. This brought David back to stay with Saul and opened the door for him and Jonathan, Saul s son, to become close friends for the rest of Jonathan s life (ch. 18). But it was not a peaceful time for David. As David became more popular, Saul became more jealous of David, attempting to kill David while he sought to serve Saul. He offered David his daughter for a wife, provided he would go out and collect the foreskins of 100 Philistines, thinking David would get killed in the attempt. But David succeeded and married Michal, Saul s daughter, while Saul grew even angrier. Jonathan tried to bring peace between his father and his best friend; but it failed and Saul tried to kill David with his spear while David was playing for him with his harp (ch. 19). So David fled to Samuel, but Saul sent after him to kill him and only Samuel s spiritual intervention saved David from Saul. David then fled to Jonathan (ch. 20), for help; and they made a covenant because Jonathan saw that the Lord would give to David the kingdom. Saul even tried to kill his own son; so Jonathan sorrowfully and lovingly went back to David and told him that David must flee from his father, Saul. 6

7 To this point David seemed hopeful as one who could lead his people to the Lord, but from this point on, we often see another side of David. I have put these sections in red print to call attention to David s frailties. Until now, the David we have seen appears promising. But in chapter 21, we begin to see a different David. On his flight from Saul he came to a priest and lied to him about why he came. He claimed to be on the king s (Saul s) business and asked for food from the holy bread, which the priest gave to him and those with him; but as it turned out, one of Saul s spies saw David and sent word to Saul. Saul ordered the priest to be executed for helping David, although the priest had not realized that Saul was against David (ch. 22). David later admitted wrong in what he had done (22:22). Jesus, in speaking of Satan, said that anyone lying is speaking like Satan, the father of lies and not as His Father (John 8:42-44). The next chapters tell of David s escaping, by the help of God, from Saul s efforts to capture and kill him, and, at the same time, trying to help Israelites who were being attacked by the Philistines. Unlike Saul, David sought the Lord s help and guidance in his military endeavors (ch. 23). Twice, the Lord put Saul in the hands of David (chs. 24 and 26) and in both cases David spared Saul s life. After Samuel s death (25:1), David learned of a rich and powerful man in Carmel, named Nabal, who had a wife, Abigail. David s men had protected Nabal s helpers and family when they were in danger, so David thought it not improper to ask for food for his men. But Nabal, a churlish man, refused any help, so David and his men set out to get revenge on Nabal (ch. 25). David was very angry and used coarse language to express himself. Usually, the words translated into English, in verse 22, are: if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one male. But the word translated male is the Hebrew word for one who urinates against the wall. It was coarse speech, used rarely in Scripture for male. In Ephesians 4:26, we are warned that we are not to sin when we are angry, which means that to be angry, in itself, is not sin, the Lord is said to have been angry many times. But we are to control ourselves, as believers, and not let that anger turn into sin, as David was about to do. That means that to give place to the devil, i.e. let him take over, is sin. Abigail, the wife of Nabal, learning of this, gathered food and met David and his men, begging them not to carry out their threats against her husband. She agreed that he was all that David thought he was: a worthless fellow. But knowing Scripture (Deut. 7

8 32:35), she did not want David taking vengeance against her husband, not so much because of her care for her husband, but her care for David and his men (25:14ff.). David listened and did not carry out his threats, but that day, Nabal got drunk and evidently died of a heart attack. David sent word that he wanted Abigail for his wife. He saw in her evidence of a helpful and wise woman. While Scripture does not forbid more than one wife, we do note that a widow of a man having more than one wife is not to be supported by the church (1 Tim. 5:9) and a man with more than one wife does not qualify to be an elder in the church (1 Tim. 3:2). In the era including Abraham to Solomon, having more than one wife was practiced by God s children as well as by pagans. That does not mean that God approved of it. In Scripture there is not one multiple-wife believing family that did not have much trouble because of the many wives. Finally, David decided to go live with the Philistines, where Saul could not harm him, for David did not wish to do any harm to Saul, whom the Lord had anointed king of Israel (ch. 27). While living with the Philistines, David and his men destroyed one group and another that were enemies of Israel. Though he left Israel for a time, David never stopped caring for his fellow Israelites. When he went out, he told his Philistine host, the king of Gath, that he was going out against Israel; and his host felt assured that he must be hated by his own people. He trusted David so much that he was agreeable to David and his men going to battle with him against Israel (ch. 27:1-28:2). But the other leaders of the Philistines did not trust David; and he was not permitted to go. As Saul considered the Philistine army and his own helplessness, he decided to try going to a fortune-teller to make contact with Samuel, who was no longer alive (ch. 28). He disguised himself and went to a woman fortune-teller and asked her to call up Samuel. The New Testament links witchery (sorcery) as one of the works of the flesh, and warns that those that do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21). She evidently went through her ceremony and when she saw Samuel, she must have been as shocked as Saul, for, of course, she was a phony. It was not she that called up Samuel, but the Lord sent him, rising from the dead, to confront Saul one more time. The message from Samuel was not what Saul hoped for: he was told that on the morrow he and his sons would be killed and Israel would fall into the hands of the Philistines. Saul came to pieces, with no strength left. 8

9 9 In the battle that followed, Saul and his sons were killed and Israel lost the battle, but David, with his men, went after the Amalekites who had raided his own camp and taken away their wives and possessions. With God s guidance, David and his men gained back all that had been taken. Other than David, the only people that seemed to care that Saul was dead were those of Jabesh-Gilead, a people that Saul had protected early in his reign (ch. 31:11-13). When David had returned to his dwelling, with his people, a young man reported to him that Saul and his sons were dead. When asked how he knew, he told what was probably a lie (1 Sam. 31:4, 5), thinking that he would get some reward. He explained that he had killed the king because the king had asked him to do it (2 Sam. 1). But David, when he learned of Saul s death, mourned for Saul and Jonathan and had the young man executed for taking the life of one whom David still considered God s anointed. There follows a lament from David for the fallen king and his son, Jonathan, expressing that it was specially Jonathan that he loved. After this, David, seeking God s will for him, was commanded to go to Hebron, in Judah, and there he was anointed king over Judah (2:1-4). As king, one of his first acts was to commend the men of Jabesh-gilead for their kindness to Saul and his son. In the meantime, Abner, captain of Saul s army, brought Saul s son, Ishbosheth, and made him king over Israel (2:8,9). Abner, over Israel s army, and Joab, over Judah s army met in conflict and Abner lost. But in the pursuit of Abner by Joab s brother, Abishai, Abner tried to get him to stop following him; but when Abishai did not listen, Joab killed him. After this, the battling stopped for the time being (ch. 2). But the war, itself, continued, with David getting stronger and stronger and the house of Saul weaker and weaker. wives. While all of this was going on, David, in Hebron, had six sons by six different Scripture makes it clear that having more than one wife makes one unqualified to be an officer in the church (1 Tim. 3:2). David could not have qualified to be an elder in the church.

10 10 Finally, when Ishbosheth, Saul s son, and Abner had a falling out, Abner declared that he would aid David and deliver the rest of the tribes of Israel over to David (ch. 3). David was agreeable to this so Abner became the one who united the tribes of Israel and the tribe of Judah. But Joab, David s captain, was opposed to Abner being received into David s army, probably out of jealousy. So he murdered Abner, which resulted in David mourning over Abner his former foe and condemning Joab for his evil deed. David worked hard to convince all the people that he had nothing to do with Joab s evil deed. But David did not discipline Joab, perhaps out of fear. Jesus taught that not only to kill puts one in danger of judgment, but even to show anger toward another puts one in danger of judgment and ought to bring one before the council (of discipline). Indeed, to speak sharply to another (express contempt for another) can put you in danger of hell (Matt. 5:21-22). Yet, David, who could see it coming between Joab and Abner, did not raise a hand to stop it, before it was too late. Much homicide occurred between the two factions in Israel and Judah, but the worst was the killing of Ishbosheth, son of Saul and ruler of Israel, by foolish men hoping to get rewards from David for their deed. Instead, David had them executed and gave Ishbosheth an honorable burial (ch. 4). It is clear that this is what David ought to have done, after Joab had murdered Abner, but he did nothing but weep (3:33). Finally, seeing David s justice and respect toward Saul s son, the leaders of Israel (Saul s son s kingdom) asked for the uniting of the two sides into one nation, as it had been earlier (ch. 5). David then reigned in Jerusalem over the newly formed kingdom for thirty-three years (ch. 5). The first thing David, as king of the newly united kingdom, did, was to clean out Jerusalem of the Jebusites living there, making Jerusalem his capital. David did what Saul never did; he looked to the Lord to guide him in the business before him of defeating enemies and expanding the kingdom (ch. 5). Whereas Saul had continually not listened to the Lord s commands, David followed the Lord s instructions and succeeded to defeat the Philistines. David s next business was to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem from its more remote resting places. But the priests did not follow God s instructions for moving the ark and God smote Uzzah, not a Levite, for mishandling it, making David angry with the Lord, when it was he that had displeased the Lord for not regarding the Scripture s instructions. He was not walking in the light of God s word, but stumbling in the darkness (John 11:9, 10; see also 1 Pet. 2:8).

11 11 The ark finally arrived in Jerusalem with David dancing before the people, which made David s wife, Michal, daughter of Saul, accuse him of exposing his private parts to the handmaidens of Jerusalem. This angered David who defended himself by saying he was dancing before the Lord, not people, and claiming that the handmaidens appreciated his behavior. He apparently never had sex with Michal, his wife, again, and she had no more children. The Lord made clear that things like this were not pleasing to the Lord, insisting that there be no steps to any altar built to God, lest the private parts be exposed in going up by steps and one s nakedness be uncovered (Ex. 20:26; 28:42, 43). From the time of man s first sin, it has been known that exposure of nakedness in a sinful world is displeasing to the Lord (Gen. 2:25). Jesus clearly identified nakedness as shameful (Rev. 16:15). David s next project was to build a house for the ark, which, for a long time, had no home of its own, since the days of the judges (ch. 7). He asked the advice of Nathan the prophet. But through Nathan, the Lord rejected David s ambition to build a house for the Lord and instead said that it was He who would build from David s offspring one who would build a house for the Lord s name and the Lord would establish his kingdom forever and he was not talking about Solomon, either (Psa. 89:19-37). There follows a prayer by David (7:18-29). It is one of the great prayers recorded in Scripture, exceeded, perhaps only by Jesus prayer before his arrest, trial and crucifixion (John 17). By David s own words, the prayer was made because the Lord had promised to build him a house (7:13, 27). David closed by praying that this house that the Lord would build would be blessed forever. Later events done in David s and his son, Solomon s temple, which Solomon built, was definitely not the house that the Lord was speaking about. Only Jesus could build that house, John 14:1-3. This done, David went about the business of smiting the Philistines until he had subdued them (ch. 8). And he followed that by victory after victory, uniting and enlarging Israel as it had not been before. We are told that he executed justice and righteousness to all his people (see Gen. 18:19). This encourages us about David, for none of God s servants are without sin. But as Paul has said, we are to press on toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, forgetting our failures and pressing on, though in this world we will not attain unto a sinless life (Phil. 3:12-16). His fairness in rule is shown in how he treated Mephibosheth, the crippled son of Jonathan, with love and kindness, by letting him eat at the table of David (ch. 9).

12 12 Another example was his extending kindness to the child of an old enemy of Israel, the king of Ammon, who had done him some kindness before his death (ch. 10). But when that child treated David s servants rudely, David became angry and ready to attack Ammon. A war ensued that brought Syria into the fray as an ally of the Ammonites. But in the end, David and Israel won. In the time when he sent Joab and his army to destroy the children of Ammon, David tarried at Jerusalem, though kings usually went out to such a battle (ch. 11). What happened at this time is one of the worst things that happened to David, something he never got over. One evening, while the army was away fighting the Ammonites, David, walking on the roof of his house saw a woman neighbor bathing, who was beautiful to look on. David, seeing her, wanted her and when he learned she was the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers sent off to war, he sent for her and lay with her; and as a result, she got pregnant. David tried to cover this up by having Uriah come home and make love with his wife and never know that he did not make her pregnant. But Uriah proved to be a better soldier than David and refused to go in to his wife while his fellow soldiers were fighting a war. When this failed, David sent word secretly to Joab through Uriah as he returned to the war, telling Joab to see to it that Uriah was killed in battle. When David got word from Joab that they had lost a battle in Ammon, David was angry, but when Joab went on to say, in his message, that in the battle, Uriah had been killed, then, David was pleased. Plainly, David was a downright deceiver and murderer. David also took Uriah s wife, Bathsheba, to be another of his many wives. As the chapter ends: the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Of course, David as a king, in those days, could have done what he did with no one questioning it. Kings, then, could do whatever they wished and no one could challenge them. The fact that David could pray a prayer like he did in chapter 7 and then do such a deed as he did in chapter 11, pretty well sizes up David, the king. David broke at least seven of the Ten Commandments: adultery, murder, lying, stealing, coveting your neighbor s wife, and bearing false witness against one s neighbor.

13 13 By the time he finished he had also taken the name of God in vain, by dishonoring the God he had claimed to worship and serve. There is not much evidence that David was the one the Lord meant, when he said that he sought one that was after God s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). God sent Nathan the prophet to David to tell him of God s displeasure and that the child his new wife conceived would die: Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do that which is evil in his sight?...therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. (ch. 12). As we shall see, this was just the beginning of shed blood and shame in David s family. David confessed his sin against the Lord and was assured that for this deed, because he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child would die. While the child lived, David continually fasted and prayed, but when he died, David got up and went about his business, saying, Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. After this, Bathsheba bore another son who was named Solomon. After this, David went out to lead the army against Ammon and won a victory over this enemy. It soon became clear that David s deeds were reflected in his children, as well. Another son, Absalom, had a sister named Tamar; and another son of David, Amnon, lusted after his half-sister but was frustrated in how to get her to lie with him. But by a friend s advice, he played sick and asked for her to care for him, and David agreed. He raped his half-sister and then, despising her, drove her out of his sight. Tamar went away crying and Absalom learned of what Amnon had done to his sister. But David was silent in all of this, not dealing with it as a father, as he should have. Again, we see that David, by not chastening his own children, was as even Jacob had done building a house of failures. Absalom was silent but plotted and carried out, later, vengeance against his brother, for Amnon s rape of his sister (ch. 13); then, Absalom fled. But David mourned for Absalom and wanted him to return and Joab worked out a way for Absalom s return to his father. Absalom was a smooth politician and when he got back began to persuade David s people to call for Absalom to take David s place. As more and more followed

14 14 Absalom he was able to drive David, his own father, from Jerusalem and take over the kingdom temporarily. During this time, things went hard for David but he had many on his side, who worked behind Absalom s back in Jerusalem while David, away from Jerusalem, had more, and more on his side until finally Absalom s army was defeated and Absalom was killed. The news of Absalom s death overcame David who mourned publicly to the point that the people began to think that David would have been more pleased if they had died and Absalom had lived (chs ). Finally, Joab persuaded David to come back before the people and take his throne again (chs ). Soon famine and then war arose in the land with the Philistines; but his people would not allow David to go to war again, because of his age and his importance to them, whom they called the lamp of Israel. At this time, David composed a Psalm praising the Lord. It is Psalm 18:2-50. It was a recitation of the ways in which the Lord had given him victory and peace from all of his enemies (ch. 22). The final writing of David is found in 23:1-7. It states that his words were not from his own mind but that the Spirit of the Lord spoke by him; and it was Gods word that was on David s tongue. And that is how we must take all of the Book of Psalms, they are the Lord Jesus thoughts and even David understood this; and they describe our Lord Jesus Christ s thoughts while here on earth, rather than those of the psalmists who actually wrote them down. We will have more to say on this subject when we study the Psalms, later. It is followed by a list of David s mighty men who had helped him gain and keep his kingdom (ch. 23:8-39). Chapter 24 of 2 Samuel tells of David s last recorded sin. The Lord was angry with Israel and moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah (v.1). But in Chronicles we are told that it was Satan or some other adversary that moved David to do the counting (1 Chron. 21:1). When he told Joab to do the counting, even Joab tried to persuade him not to do it. The situation seems to be that when God was angry with Israel and wanted to punish them, he allowed Satan or some other person to persuade David to do what was wrong, so

15 15 God could punish the people. In a way it was a testing of David s faith toward the end of his life. But what was wrong with taking a census of the people? Most likely, it was out of pride for his large numbers or else David s need to be assured, by the numbers that he had enough to keep and maintain the people he ruled. This would imply that David was no longer depending on God s help but in his own strength in men. If this is the case, then it was another example of little faith. We are not told exactly why God was displeased with David counting the people. As soon as the census was finished and reported to David by Joab, David s heart was smitten and he felt the guilt of a great sin (24:10). As a result, the Lord sent a great pestilence on the people and seventy thousand men in all Israel died. And David prayed for God s mercy on them because it was his sin. David was told to build an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah, which he did, paying for the place he used because he wanted it to be done at a cost to himself. That place, according to 2 Chronicles 3:1, was at Mt. Moriah, where Solomon later built the temple. After this was done, the Lord stopped the plague that had fallen on Israel. The final days of David on earth are recorded in 1 Kings, chapters one and two. He was quite old now and feeble; and a young virgin was brought in by his wife, named Abishag. She was to keep him warm when he apparently had chills (ch. 1). The Bible says that he had no sexual experience with her. In these days, Adonijah, one of David s sons, seeing David was near death, tried to move in and take over the kingdom. But Nathan the prophet, seeing this, went to Bathsheba, the wife of David and mother of Solomon, warning her that she must take action to prevent the kingdom from going to Adonijah, rather than Solomon, her son, the one David desired to be his successor. The king, alerted, declared Solomon to be his successor and took action to proclaim him king. So those close to David carried out his commands and anointed Solomon to be the true successor to David. At this, all of those backing Adonijah backed off and Adonijah s life was spared. After this, David charged Solomon to keep the charge of the Lord and rule according to the Law of Moses. He also ordered Solomon to execute some of those that David did not have the courage to punish, such as Joab, who had killed Abner. David died after forty years of reigning over Judah and the rest of Israel (ch. 2).

16 16 Was It Solomon? (1 Kings 1-11:43) After this, Solomon finished the unfinished business of David, in punishing some and rewarding others. At this time, Solomon made a pact with Pharaoh of Egypt and married his daughter and brought her and her religion to Jerusalem. From the beginning of the Bible s identifying believers and unbelievers, being side by side in the world (Gen. 6:1-3), the Lord has warned about and condemned the practice of the sons of God (believers in the world) and the daughters of men (unbelievers in the world) intermarrying. In the New Testament, Paul charged Christians not to intermarry with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18). In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon and he humbled himself before the Lord. Apparently, all of this was in the context of a dream. Early on, Solomon began to show the wisdom that the Lord had given him and became famous for his wisdom and knowledge, but not for his understanding (ch. 3). Quickly, his power and wealth grew and his fame as a wise ruler, among the greatest in the world (chs. 4, 5). Solomon s first project was to build the temple that David had wanted him to build in the way that David instructed it to be built ( 1 Kings chs. 6, 7; see 2 Chron. 3-5). It took Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord (1 Kings 6). But he was almost twice as long building his own house (6:38-7:1). And Solomon s house was over four times as large as the Lord s house (6:2 and 7:2). Although this, in and of itself, is not necessarily a sin, it seems to expose his heart as more concerned with his own glory than the Lord s glory. It gives the appearance of his interest in himself above his interest in the Lord and his glory. Jesus, on the other hand, strongly commands us to seek first God s kingdom and God s righteousness, and look to the Lord to provide our needs (Matt. 6: 25-34). When the temple of the Lord was completed, he had a dedication service for it and made a beautiful prayer (ch. 8).

17 17 When all of this was done, the Lord appeared to Solomon and promised: If you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your throne of your kingdom over Israel for ever, according as I promised to David you father, saying, There shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel. But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And though this house is so high, yet shall every one that passes by it be astonished and shall hiss and they shall say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them, and served them, therefore has the Lord brought all this evil on them (1 Kings 9:4-9). This long quotation is the best statement of why Israel s history ended in the first century, in 70 A.D., after Jesus came into the world and finished his work and ascended into heaven. For a time, after this long answer of God to him, Solomon seemed to be doing well. He made a navy of ships which patrolled the Red Sea and found much gold in the area of Ophir. So famous did he become that the queen of Sheba came from her land to test him with hard questions, to see whether he was as great as she had heard (ch. 10). She went away convinced that he was even greater than she had thought. In the meantime, Solomon surrounded himself with gold and splendor in his architecture all around where he lived. Scripture says that king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom and all the earth looked up to him because he had a great army with 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. His merchants went everywhere bringing in treasures from far and near. That was the side of Solomon that the world saw, but there was another side that the Lord looked at (ch. 11). He had a fascination for foreign women among the Egyptians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonians and the Hittites, going against what the Lord had said about Israel intermarrying and associating with them. The Lord warned that such would turn their hearts away from the Lord, but Solomon clung to these women and had seven hundred wives and princesses and three hundred concubines. And as God foretold, they turned his heart from the Lord. He failed completely in the standards that the Lord had set for him (ch. 9) and instead went after the gods of his wives and did evil in the

18 18 sight of the Lord. He built places of worship for all the many pagan wives he had (ch. 11). In Revelation 2:18, as Jesus examines and judges the church in Thyatira (2:18-28). He finds it to be full of false teachers that are unrepentant, most of whom are fascinated with the deep things of Satan. And he looks at the successful church of Laodicea which is proud of itself and what it has accomplished. But Jesus describes it, in truth, to be miserable and blind and naked. It is not our idea of what is glorious but God s judgment of what is good and bad that matters, in the end. Jesus, when addressed as Good Master, rebuked the man that called him good, saying that only God was good (Luke 18:18, 19). He did this not because he was not good, but because the man was using the term good only as a means of greeting, a common greeting of the day and not because he believed Jesus was God. The Lord showed his anger toward Solomon by taking from him and his heirs, most of the tribes of Israel, leaving Rehoboam only Judah, for his father David s sake. After God s warning to Solomon, adversaries arose in his kingdom, raised up by the Lord; but Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, would do him and his son the most harm. The Lord sent a prophet to Jeroboam named Ahijah. He told Jeroboam that the Lord was going to give to him ten of the tribes of Israel and promised Jeroboam a strong kingdom if he obeyed the Lord and walked in His ways (ch. 11). Solomon, therefore, sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt for refuge, for the time being. Not long after, Solomon died and his son Rehoboam ruled in his stead. The book of the acts of Solomon, mentioned in 11:41, may be writings or parts of the Book of First Kings. They are not otherwise known (See 2 Chron. 9:29). In the question of who was the man after God s own heart, we have looked, in succession, to the life of Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon and have not yet found one whose life would fit that description. Then, who was it? Perhaps we will find the answer in the rest of the history of Israel in Old Testament times; or perhaps in the messages of the prophets, or perhaps in the rest of the writings of the Old Testament, including First and Second Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. In just one generation after Solomon, in all of his glory, came Rehoboam, son of Solomon and heir to the kingdom. In his time the kingdom was split and the larger part of it rapidly deteriorated into nothing better than the kingdoms of the world around them.

19 19 This shows how close every kingdom of men is to destruction, when it no longer honors God and his word, even the United States of America. LATER HISTORIES (1 Kings 12-22, 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) Starting with Rehoboam, son of Solomon, we will first look at the rest of the kings in Israel and in Judah, down to Zedekiah, last king of Judah, long after the fall of Israel, and the history of those Jews that were in the return to their homeland in the Persian period of ancient history, after the Babylonian era. Rehoboam became king of the United Kingdom of Israel at the death of his father, Solomon. As soon as Jeroboam, then living in Egypt, heard, he gathered together the people of Israel and they approached Rehoboam, complaining of the hardships they had suffered under his father, Solomon, and asking the son to lighten the king s demands over them (1 Kings (12:1-5). Rehoboam sought counsel both from the elders in the kingdom and the younger ones with whom he had grown up; and following the younger men s advice, he threatened the Israelites with even harder burdens (12:6-11). But it was the Lord that brought about this decision because he wanted to judge the kingdom for its failures under Solomon. Rehoboam, being without mercy (loving-kindness) and having a thirst to be all powerful, himself, brought about disaster for the united nation of Israel (1:12-24). In the New Testament we find that the Lord organized the church for its greatest success. The church was not to be led by the young and inexperienced but by elders who were mature in their faith (Acts 6:1-6; 1 Tim. 3:1-13). The term mercy or loving-kindness is introduced to Lot, by God, through his angels that led Lot out of Sodom before he destroyed the wicked city (Gen. 19:19) and was one of the attributes of the Lord that he revealed to Moses (Ex. 34:6,7). And the Lord, teaching the Pharisees, said, I desire mercy (loving kindness) and not sacrifice (Matt. 9:13). And in Luke 10:37, concerning the Good Samaritan, who was the good neighbor to the man that fell among thieves?, the answer was, He who showed loving-kindness Since there was no loving-kindness from Rehoboam toward those he ruled, the Lord took from him almost all of the Israelites.

20 20 All of the tribes but Judah abandoned Rehoboam and became the Kingdom of Israel, to the north of Judah. But Rehoboam did take over the tribe of Benjamin. And the word of God came to Judah not to fight against Israel, so a war did not occur in those days, just a splitting of the kingdom into two kingdoms (1 Kings 12:1-24). Our purpose in this study is to note, in particular, the more or less faithful kings and prophets over the next few centuries. The two kingdoms began as separate kingdoms in approximately 931 B.C. and the Kingdom of Israel (the northern kingdom) ended in 722, a period of 209 years. The Kingdom of Judah began in 931 B.C. and ended in 586 B.C., a period of 345 years. We will follow the order of the kings of Judah, as our outline, bringing in notable events in the northern kingdom of Israel, in the background of Judah s kings and history and also focus on the prophets, as they appear. 1. REHOBOAM, KING OF JUDAH (from 931 BC to 915 BC) 1 Kings 12:1-14:31. We have already looked at the events prior to the split into two countries, Israel and Judah. There was no tribe that followed Rehoboam except Judah, which had already swallowed up Simeon. When the rebellion of Jeroboam and his followers occurred, Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem, planning to go after Israel and reclaim them, but the Lord would not permit that to happen (1 Kings 12). For the first time in history, the church of the Lord is divided into two parts, two very different churches. That is because it is better to have separate churches (denominations) than to have all joined in one great union. Unions of men are always unions against God and His Word (Psa. 2). We see this in the messages to the seven churches of Asia, given in Revelation 2, 3. Here we find seven different churches with totally different people and activities. Some pleased the Lord and others displeased him; and the message was different to these seven churches. Those that pleased the Lord most were those that were faithful to the Lord s will and those that displeased him had members and leaders that led the people contrary to God s Word. As you read these seven messages, you see a pattern not different from churches today: some guided by God s Word and others by evil leaders contrary to God s Word. In those days, Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, building pagan worship sights in the land, following the sins of the nations that the Lord had driven out before. The king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and carried away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king s house; moreover, there was war with Israel all of his reign. When he died, he was succeeded by his son, Abijam (915 BC).

21 21 During that time, Jeroboam was afraid that if his followers continued worshiping in Jerusalem, they might gradually return to Judah and, therefore he established his own worship centers: two calves of gold, calling to mind the golden calf that Aaron had made when Moses was away and the people were in rebellion, all while the Lord was giving to Moses the Law of God (Ex. 32). Jeroboam now declared his golden calves, calling them the gods that brought Israel out of Egypt. He placed one in Bethel, in southern Israel, and the other in Dan, in the far north (1 K. 12:25-33). It was Paul, in the New Testament, that made it clear what these gods of Jeroboam were: they are no gods that are made with hands (Acts 19:26). God sent an unidentified prophet to warn Jeroboam of his sin and when Jeroboam sought to kill the prophet, his hand withered. So he sought to make peace with the prophet but the prophet refused his hospitality and headed back home, in obedience to the Lord. But later, he did disobey the Lord and was killed by a lion (13:1-34). The prophet that was killed by a lion reminds us that when we do not obey God s Word as he has given it, then we are threatened by a roaring lion, Satan, who will see us as fodder and seek to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8). All of this did not change Jeroboam s mind and the new religion that he had established in Israel would, in the end, destroy the whole of Israel. The message to the seventh church, in Revelation 3, shows that such churches, trying to please its members rather than to please the Lord, thinking that they do well, are, in reality, naked and blind. God will spew out of his mouth such churches. 2. ABIJAM, KING OF JUDAH (915 BC-912 BC) 1 Kings 15:1-8. Abijam reigned for three years in Jerusalem, but he walked in the sins of his fathers (Rehoboam and Solomon). The fact that his heart was not perfect indicates that he did not have faith in the Lord in his heart. The lamp referred to the line of Christ, the savior to come (see Matt. 1:7; here Abijah is the same as Abijam). Being in the line of Christ did not save Abijam any more than being descended from strong Christians does not save us. Abijam was at war with Jeroboam (Israel) all his short reign and after him followed Asa, his son. 3. ASA, KING OF JUDAH (912 BC-875 BC) 1 Kings 15:9-22:41 Asa was the first good king of Judah after David. He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. He got rid of the homosexuals (the sodomites) and even removed his own mother from being queen because of her evil