1 & 2 Kings

Same thing goes for Kings as Samuel - one book that's too long for one scroll so they cut it. I read both earlier today.

Solomon became king after Adonijah tried to take it. Again, you don't hear much about Adonijah, so we know how it worked out for him - no kingship! Solomon went to work building the temple and grew in wisdom and influence and wealth. Solomon disobeyed by worshiping the god of one of his wives. God's response is to split the nation - David's descendants will rule Judah but the rest of Israel will be ruled by someone else. Enter Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the King of Judah and Jeroboam, the King of Israel.

If up to now the book is about Solomon's installation, building the temple, the realization of God's promise in Egypt and Solomon's succession plans, the remainder of the two books is about destroying the temple, running away from God's promise and ruining any possible plans for future succession.

The people of Israel disobeyed from the time they left Egypt - in the desert, in their new land, and with the judges. Heck, before God chose them as his people and said he'd protect them and made these promises, we met a bunch of others who found new and creative ways to disappoint him. He destroyed the place in Noah's time and vowed not to do it again. Here we are with a divided Israel, reading the stories of the Kings and their antics, and it's the same old same-old.

Each King of Israel and Judah are listed, their time in office and some of the things they did. Some have more stuff written about them than others. Generally, each story ends with "and he ruled these many years and obeyed / disobeyed God more / less / the same as his predecessor." Only one King obeyed as David did - Josiah, King of Judah, but King Manesseh screwed it up so bad that God was finally done with Judah and they would eventually be given over to Babylon. Israel had already been given up to Assyria.

Each King that disobeyed did so in creative and deplorable ways. A common statement is that they sinned like that of those in other lands. For example, King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3 - CEV) "sacrificed his own son, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel."

Now, this hit me. More than once the writer talked about the sacrifice of children, that it was bad. Here, I'm reminded of Jesus. God sacrificed Jesus, his own son - "which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel." What a display. How difficult must it have been for the Jewish people of Jesus day to accept that he was God, or even for modern Jews, given that it is "disgusting?"

And what an act of love. The very thing God told his own people not to be - they were set apart from the lands and people they conquered - well, he did it in order to bridge the gap back to Himself.

That's a lot to process.