1 and 2 Kings, Part 1—A King’s Sin, a Kingdom’s Downfall

Themes to track: Character of God, leaders and their actions

When I was a sophomore in high school, I had to take an American History class. History has never been one of my favorite subjects, but my teacher Mrs. Smith taught in a way that suddenly made studying the past fun and relevant. I was blessed to have such a good teacher that year, but as far as I can remember, other history classes were pretty much a bore. On the surface, studying what people did hundreds of years ago almost seems like a waste of time. After all, why does it matter how people did things in a world that was completely different to the world we live in now?

The answer is simple: history repeats itself. The past is able to prepare us for the future.

When the past is not taken into account, analyzed, observed, and recorded there is little hope that the next time a similar event comes around it will be handled with greater care, wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Take the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings for example. The campus regretfully observed that it did not have an ideal system for quickly and efficiently getting the word out to students of what was happening. They learned the hard way how important campus security is and because of that they created a text message system to alert students of any danger on campus. In this case, we’re all hoping that this specific incident doesn’t repeat itself—but in this day and age, danger is sure to arise at some point. No response and change at all would have been downright foolish ignorance!

The books of 1st and 2nd Kings were written as a very important history lesson to the Israelites. In a nutshell, the author is saying, “Hey, look what happened and why it happened. Learn from this and make some changes so that it doesn’t happen that way again!”

At the time of the writing, the Israelites were living as exiles in Babylon. Some had been born there, and exile was the only life they knew. Others were old enough to have witnessed the last events of Israel’s history that led to its downfall and destruction. The Israelites are a hurt and broken people. Under the rule of Babylon, their identity and culture has been wiped away with their geographical home. The question is—how did they get to this point? How did they go from being a mighty and prosperous nation to little exile weaklings? Why had God allowed their downfall? What did they do wrong? Can they make things right? It is clear that the author’s intention is to answer these questions with candid honesty—no sugarcoating!

In the first eleven chapters of 1 Kings, the author takes the Israelites through the history of the reign of David’s son Solomon, a reign that would set the stage for the unfortunate fate of Israel’s future.

Before David had died and passed his throne on to Solomon, he gave him the best advice he had:

Be strong, be courageous, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. —1 Kings 2:2,3 (NRSV)

When Solomon begins to reign, God tells him to ask for anything he wants and it will be granted to him. Solomon asks for wisdom. God grants Solomon’s request and gives him an abundance of wisdom, even further blessing him with riches and honor. As a result, the kingdom of Israel as a whole becomes very prosperous and powerful. And just as God had foretold David in 2 Samuel 7, Solomon builds a magnificently beautiful temple where God’s presence could dwell and the people could go to worship Him.

There is peace. There is rest. There is wealth. There is power.

In summary, Israel is in its Glory Days.

But those Glory Days won’t last forever.

When Solomon’s reign had started out, “he loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David” (1 Kings 3:3). However, Solomon was not careful to stay on a straight path. One compromise led to another and soon Solomon was living a lifestyle of outright disobedience to the commands of God. Some of his choices as a king may have looked wise in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God they were choices that one by one chipped away at his character and faithfulness to God.

In Deuteronomy 17, Moses had given the Israelites specific requirements for a king they would eventually have in the Promised Land. Look at what these commands in Deuteronomy 17:16-20 say and compare them with Solomon’s life (see references in parentheses):

According to Deuteronomy 17:16-20, the king...

must not acquire many horses (1 Ki. 10:26)
must not acquire many wives (1 Ki. 11:1-3)
must not acquire great quantities of gold and silver (1 Ki. 10:14- 21,27)
must read the law diligently and follow all its commandments (1 Ki. 11:11)

In addition, look at some specific compromises that lead Solomon to his downfall:

1 Ki. 3:1 — Solomon forms a marriage alliance with Egypt (see Ex. 34:16;
Deut. 7:1-6)
1 Ki. 5:13-18; 9:15-22 — Rather than destroying the peoples of other nations, Solomon uses them for slave labor (see Deut. 7:1,2)
1 Ki. 9:10-14 — Solomon rips off King Hiram by giving him crummy cities in return for all of Hiram’s help in building the temple (this simply goes against God’s command in Leviticus 19:18 to “love your neighbor as yourself”)
1 Ki. 11:5-8 — Solomon followed other gods and even built altars where his wives could sacrifice to those gods (see Ex. 20:3; Deut. 8:19)

Solomon does not take his father David’s advice to keep the commandments of the Lord—and it’s going to cost him. Because of his compromise and sin, God tells Solomon that in the future He is going to tear the kingdom from the hand of his son. Little does Solomon know that this is going to lead to a devastating split in the kingdom of Israel (see Part 2 next month!).

Why did Solomon begin to make the choices that he did? God had abundantly blessed him with everything he could possibly want as a king—riches, honor, power, wisdom, and national security. What made Solomon turn his back on such a gracious God? How did he go from obeying the commandments of God in the beginning all the way to building altars to foreign gods for his wives?

It seems that somewhere in the middle of his success and glory, Solomon turned his eyes from God to himself. At some point he decided that he would put self on the throne rather than keep God on the throne of his life.

It ruined him and failed to satisfy him, and when self is on the throne of our lives, it will do the same to us. Our daily choices will reflect whom we have chosen to take the throne—self or God. When God is on the throne of my life, He is glorified, honored, and praised. I will yield to the direction of His Holy Spirit. I will obey Him no matter what the cost. I will find my rest and joy in Him. I will be willing to let go of every trifle and comfort of the world in order to know Him more. I will wake up in the morning with the confidence that putting God on the throne of my life every moment of the day will result in the most fulfilling, love-filled, and joyful life possible.

When self is on the throne (and I’m sure we all know what that looks like!), we are most concerned with our own comforts, our own needs. Self has barely any freedom to love and serve others around it because it is constantly thinking about its own needs and wants. It refuses to believe that God can and will fill the hole in its heart with a thrilling and satisfying love and contentment, and that is why it must seek after “other lovers” to fill it up. Self presumes to know better than God. Self acts on a whim, giving in to whatever it wants at any given moment.

But ultimately, self is empty and lifeless.

Take a look at your daily choices, thoughts, concerns, attitudes, and words—do any of those areas reflect the downward fall of King Solomon? Ask God to show you how to put Him back on the throne in every area of your life, obey (there’s no use in asking if we’re not going to obey and make the changes), and then expect to be filled and satisfied by the King of all Kings—He who is faithful will do it!

Read 1 and 2 Kings, 2—The Road to Exile