Bible In A Year: 1st & 2nd Kings

1 and 2 Kings record the reign of Solomon and the division of Israel into two kingdoms after his death. Solomon was given wisdom and built the temple, but he turned his heart after other gods through many wives, as warned in the Law. After him, Israel split into the northern and southern kingdoms, and many kings did evil in the sight of the Lord. The books also record the ministries of prophets such as Elijah and Elisha and show that Israel and Judah faced judgment because they turned away from God’s commands. These books reveal the consequences of disobedience and God’s faithfulness to His word.

Transcript

Welcome And How To Follow Along

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachme the Bible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.

Enter First And Second Kings

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast, where we're walking through the story of the Bible in a year, book by book. And uh I want to encourage you to uh hop on over uh to teachmethebible.com if you haven't already and continue to get more resources to supplement your learning, to dive deeper into books. Uh if you're interested, there's uh there's studies available that go along with those, there's devotionals and blog posts. Um, but right in this series, like we said, we're going through kind of a big overview of the Bible in a year. Uh, and so uh so those resources will continue to help you uh take a deeper dive if that's what you're looking for. But uh today we find ourselves in first and second Kings, uh coming out of uh the first and second Samuel. We learned uh how David failed, and now this uh sort of fourfold judgment is taking place on the house of David uh and his sons, and we've watched them, uh we've watched three of them die so far. Yes, and that's kind of where we pick up the story in first and second kings.

Dr. David Klingler 1:37

Yeah, we're we're starting to get into unfamiliar territory for most people.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah.

David’s Failure And Prophetic Judgment

Dr. David Klingler 1:42

Uh when you start talking about kings, chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, prophets, um, you're starting to get into some pretty unfamiliar territory. Right. Um uh Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, you know, the wisdom literature. Um you feel like you're pretty lost. So, so you know, maybe you you you've you know Genesis, you you know Exodus, at least you've seen you know Moses' Ten Commandments or something like that. Uh you're tracking along, you've heard some of the stories. You may not know how the stories fit together, sure, but you you know, maybe you've heard of uh Rahab the harlot, or maybe you've you've heard of David and Goliath. You you've heard some of these stories, and so they're not totally unfamiliar. Now we're getting into passages and and sections in the Bible where where they're they're more obscure. You probably haven't heard of many of these stories. Um maybe you've heard of Elijah the prophet, but that that's that's really uh Elijah Elisha, something like that. But that's really about all you're gonna remember from 1 Kings. So we want to fill in, kind of fill in the gaps a little bit, because there's some important things that are happening in this section of the Bible uh that are going to help you make sense of the prophets. The reason why you don't know the prophets is because you don't know what's happening in this this section of the story. And so, so as you were saying, um the the the David and Bathsheba incident that that takes place back in uh in 2 Samuel, Nathan the prophet comes on. Uh and it's important to point out so so we we are walking through the failure of the judges, the failure of the priests, the failure of the kings, and the failure of the prophets.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Yeah.

David’s Final Charge To Solomon

Solomon’s Early Warning Signs

Dr. David Klingler 3:29

And when the kings begin to fail, the prophets show up. I think we've mentioned this in past uh sessions, but uh if you're the king and you get a knock on the door and you open the door and there's the prophet, yeah, this is not going to be a good day for you. Your your day just uh your day just turned really bad. So the prophet is, you know, thus saith the Lord, right? So the so in in Deuteronomy chapter 17, the king was to make a copy of the law for himself before the Levitical priests, and he was to read it all the days to ensure that he, you know, enforced the law, that he uh he lived righteously, he he executed justice in the land. When he failed, the prophet showed up. Uh and uh and so Nathan the prophet shows up and he uh proclaims this fourfold judgment. Four sons are going to die. Three of them have died in the book of uh second uh Samuel. Uh David and Bathsheba's son has died, Amnon and Absalom have died, and now in chapter one of 1 Kings, uh David is old, he's advanced in years, uh, and Adonijah, the fourth son, is going to die. And Solomon is going to become king. Uh and so Solomon's going to become uh become become king. And so that's really chapter uh chapter one is the the death of Adonijah. Adonijah is trying to become king and and he gets judged. Solomon becomes the king. And in chapter two, uh there's these places in the Bible where if you if you're reading closely, it's like a a checkpoint, right? Uh the the narrator says, Okay, just want to make sure that you're you got everything straight, right? Make sure that you you know everywhere David failed. Well, David's going to explain to Solomon everywhere he's failed. Wow. He says, uh, and so uh he he summons Solomon. Uh I'm he it was David's time to die. Uh he says, I'm going the way of the earth, be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man and keep charge of the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may have success in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out his promise which he spoke concerning me, if your sons are careful to walk before me in truth, with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack for a man on the throne of Israel. Now you know what Joab, the son of uh Zer Zariah, did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies, Abner and Amassa. And this was back uh in 2 Samuel chapter uh two, second Samuel chapter 20. Uh and this concerns the the city of refuge and and how Joab has not act acted righteously, and how he put the blood of war on his belt of his waist and the sandal of his feet. So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his uh gray hair go down to Sheol in peace. In other words, you need to fix that, because that you know, I failed there, you need to address that. And and so David kind of explains where he has failed, uh, and uh, and then um Solomon goes out and and you see where David fails, Solomon isn't failing, at least at the start, right? And so uh he judges uh Adonijah, he judges Joab, uh he judges Shemai, uh this uh this one who has uh who has uh acted uh unjustly. Um and so that's the first two chapters. You're you're seeing Solomon come on the scene, and he's like a ball of fire. He's doing everything right, right? Yeah. Says uh verse chapter three then begins with Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David. You know, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Is that what you want to see? He's doing what? And he's sacrificing it on the high places.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And uh these kings get a good start. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Deuteronomy 17 And Three Strikes

Dr. David Klingler 7:43

Uh and uh but um uh but um but Solomon's uh he's he's doing okay. Solomon uh remember back in 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Davidic covenant, uh the reason why the Davidic covenant was given was because David wanted to build a house for the Lord, right? Uh and the Lord says, You won't build a house, but your son will. And so uh the the focus turns to uh to Solomon, the son of David, this one who's going to build a house. And so so he's building uh the temple um uh of the Lord, and um there's a the but you're you're kind of noticing along the way there are these verses that kind of catch your attention if you know the law. In Deuteronomy 17, verses 14 through 20, Israel, the king was not to multiply was not to multiply horses, wives, or riches. Remember that we've already seen this wife, this marriage with this Egyptian wife. Uh in uh chapter four, verse twenty six, it said Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and he had twelve thousand horsemen. And you're going, wait, wait, wait, what? Why why are you doing that? You don't multiply horses, you don't multiply wives, you don't multiply riches. So then he begins to gather the uh the the stuff to build the temple chapter five, chapter six, uh he builds the house of the Lord, he uh builds uh the the the temple, and then he furnishes the temple, the ark uh enters in. Solomon prays this prayer. Uh the the Davidic covenant is repeated to Solomon. You know, if you follow me as your father David did and you walk in my ways, then you shall not lack for a man uh uh on the throne of Israel. And so it's all going it's all going great through chapter through chapter nine. Then we get to chapter ten.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Except for those few passages that are kind of like, hey, look out, look out for this.

Dr. David Klingler 9:46

Yeah, there's there's some some um that's interesting. You know, you're walking by whoa, what was that?

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Is that all this good stuff's happening, but yeah, he's over here in Egypt.

Dr. David Klingler 9:55

Yeah, you get this little glimpse along the way. Uh in chapter 10, I I like in my my Bible here. Uh, here's the three categories. Chapter 10, uh introducing verse 1, Solomon's multiplication of wealth, riches.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Wow.

Idolatry And The Kingdom Splits

Dr. David Klingler 10:10

Right. Yeah, that's a good that's a good heading. Chapter uh 10, verse 26, Solomon's multiplication of horses. Oh, wow. Chapter 11, verse 1. Solomon's multiplication of wives. The three prohibitions against uh the king. Don't multiply horses, wives, riches, strike one, strike two, strike three. And by the end of this chapter, he's dead. So it says uh this is how chapter 11 begins. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh. The Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidianite, Hittite women, all of them, from all the nations concerning which the Lord said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them, neither shall you uh uh the uh they associate with you. You shall surely, uh they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. And Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Wow.

Dr. David Klingler 11:10

And guess what? His wives turned his heart away from following the Lord. And it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, uh, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, uh, as was uh the heart of his father David. And Solomon went after the ashrod, he went after the goddess of the Sidianites, he went after the uh Milcom, the detestable idols of the Ammonites, and he did what's evil in the eyes of the Lord and didn't follow the Lord fully as David did. And he keeps going back to as David did, as David did. And that's uh going to be important because you're gonna find that none of these kings are going to follow the Lord as their father David did. And uh, and so each of them is going to fail.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Right now he's building high places, yeah. And he built the temple, now he's building high places for other gods.

Bad Kings And The Rise Of Prophets

Dr. David Klingler 12:01

Oh, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, thus he did for all of the foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away. Wow, uh, who he had appeared to twice. You know, the the Lord had appeared to Solomon twice. He said, What are you doing, right? Uh and so uh the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tail uh tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it uh for the uh in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hands of your son. However, I will not tear away all of the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to you for the sake of my servant David, for the sake of my servant David, for the sake why for the sake why and why the one tribe? Well, David made a covenant with Jonathan. Remember David, tribe of Judah, uh Jonathan, son of Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin. And we've seen this Judah-Benjamin connection all the way back to Genesis, all the way through uh David and Jonathan story. Uh and so the Lord, because of uh because of David, the Lord is going to leave one tribe with Judah, and it's the tribe of Benjamin. The rest of the tribes are going to be torn away, uh, and the kingdom is going to be divided. And so this is a prophecy that the kingdom is going to be divided uh into two kingdoms. So Israel is going to be now divided into Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Ten tribes in the north, two tribes in the south. And so that's exactly what comes to pass. Uh by the end of this chapter, uh Solomon is dead. Rehoboam, uh Solomon's son, comes becomes king. Uh he's acts foolishly and just as was foretold uh to Solomon by the Lord, the kingdom will be split, and so it is split, and uh and so Rehoboam the k is the king of the south, and Jeroboam is a king in the north, and and we won't uh you know bog you down with all of the the names, but but it's important to to understand that that that the the kingdom is split. Um Jerusalem is to is in the south. The northern kingdom, the ten tribes are in the north. And uh and so now uh the story is going to start to pick up and it's going to be introduced. Remember, we're in the king section. So the the judges have failed, the priests have failed, and now we're looking at the kings, and it's not looking good. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

The kings of the north, you know, a lot of a lot of them it says they do not depart from the sins of the world. You know, he's kind of that.

Three Waves Of Biblical Prophets

Dr. David Klingler 14:58

Yeah, King Phil in the blank did evil in the eyes of the Lord and caused Israel to sin. That's every king in the north, right? In the south, King Phil in the blank did evil in the eyes of the Lord and caused Judah to sin. Right. Yeah. Um with almost no exceptions, right? You you get Hezekiah, uh, you get Josiah. That's really uh that's really it. Um but other than that, uh, there's really nothing good going on uh in the South or the North. Uh and so as these kings begin to fail, uh, do evil in the eyes of the Lord, the knock on the door comes, and the prophets start to show up. They start to show up in increasing uh volume. Uh Elijah uh is uh is going to show up. Uh Elisha, these prophets are going to show up, and and uh they're uh they're going to uh uh to to talk to uh the the the kings uh and they're gonna um confront the kings uh and the the kings are are are failing one after another. And so so um as was foretold by Moses, if if Israel rejects the Lord, they will be kicked out of the land. And and uh they're going to be exiled, they're going to be exiled from the land, kicked out of the land. And so uh next week we're gonna begin to talk about the prophets. Uh and the prophets are going to come really in three waves. Uh the first wave is what we call the pre-exilic prophets, um, prophets that are before the exile occurs. Isaiah is a pre-exilic prophet, probably the biggest one that everyone uh would know. Um, Jeremiah is right before the exile happens. Then the second wave of prophets is going to be the exilic prophets. These are uh Daniel and Ezekiel. These are the two prophets that are prophesying during the time of the exile, when Israel was kicked out of the land uh for 70 years. And then Israel is partially restored to the land, uh, and you'll have uh what we call the post-exilic prophets.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 17:12

Uh and so just like the first generation, the second generation back in the book of Deuteronomy, uh, you find out the second generation is no different than the first generation in the exile. The people who leave uh are evil, the people who come back, they're they're not they're no different, right? It's the same, it's the same people. Nothing has really changed. And so, uh, and so um in the in the first and second kings, you're watching uh the failure of the kings, and and the the stories of the kings become shorter and shorter, right? Where it becomes, you know, four verses, five verses for each king, sometimes less than that, you know. King so and so did evil, caused Israel to sin. Yeah, next and he died. Next one up. And he did evil and caused Israel to sin. Next one up. And so so the pace is picking up, the prophets are, and the only time the story is going to slow down is because uh of a male uh major failure with the king, and the prophet shows up to confront the king. And so the prophets are beginning to show up into the story, and this is the spot, this is the time where the writing prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Naam, all the prophets uh begin to show up at this time. Yeah. Uh, and so that's where you kind of insert their ministry into the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when when Isaiah shows up, uh you know, you you know what when he's when he's showing up and you know where to how to understand.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

You know, and oh right here, yeah. And I was just thinking about that too. You know, that because uh first, second kings is probably somewhat unfamiliar to so many people, I'd encourage you to continue to get in here and to to pay attention to who these kings are and where they are, because like you said, these prophets is exactly where they enter in. And a lot of this information you're gonna need to know to interpret the prophets. Yeah, I was thinking about Hosea, for example, where a lot of this prophecy is against uh Jehu, right, who who you don't know what he did until you go back to Second Kings, and he he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Right.

Why Chronicles Retells The Story

Dr. David Klingler 19:29

And so to to know the book of Deuteronomy, to know you know the prophets are you know kind of the last line of defense, the covenant enforcers, you know, the judges have failed, the priests have failed, the kings are failing, the prophet comes in and says, All right, now listen, right? This is your last chance. If you don't repent, if you don't turn from your wicked ways, if you don't return uh to the Lord, uh if you don't follow the Lord as your father David did or whatever, uh then the Lord will do what he said he would do. He will kick you out of the land. Yeah, and he will bring the enemies against you, right? So uh, you know, it's like when you you know when I was a kid, you know, you're about to get a whipping. You're about to get it, right? I will turn this car around. Don't make me stop this car. That's right. That's good. And and that's what the prophets are doing. They're yeah, they're they're showing up. And um, you know, I remember when we were kids, you know, I'd tell my brother, if you don't watch it, you're gonna get it. Uh you know, and and sure enough, he he keep at it, and you know, or we keep doing whatever we're doing. Told you, you know, told you that's what's gonna happen. Well, that you know, the pre-exilic prophet, you're gonna get it. You know, the exilic prophet told you. Yeah, you know, the post-exilic prophet, okay, so are we gonna do it again? And of course, our answer always was, yep, we're gonna do it again. And so and so uh your first and second uh uh chronicle, uh Samuel, first and second Kings, that's telling the same kind of section of the story as first and second chronicles is right, yeah. And so in first and second chronicles, uh the emphasis is uh the story is the same. There's the same uh stories are being told, sometimes word for word. Yeah, uh, but uh but for a different emphasis. And so um, so um the emphasis in Chronicles isn't uh on the failure in the north. In fact, it hardly mentions the north at all. Right. Uh it is the failure in the south, and the focus is on the king and the priests, uh the the temple and the temple, yeah, yeah. Uh and the and the the the the the king uh for the messianic hope. So so this is the section of the story uh where uh we're watching the kings fail and the prophets come in. And if you just get that, yeah, uh then then you're you you're really getting that you're in you're in good shape and understanding the Bible. Next week uh we're gonna turn our focus to the prophets, the covenant. Enforcers and they're gonna come in and they're gonna just repeat the uh uh the the repeat the law and they're going to say, Okay, okay, this is what you're gonna get. The Lord said, if you did this, this is what he would do. You did it, this is what's coming. Yeah, and so that's the prophets.

Final Encouragement And Resources

SPEAKER_01 22:19

That's good. Okay, so coming out of Deuteronomy, the judges fail, the priests fail, we just seen the kings or train wreck, they fail. And so we pick up in the prophets next time. So uh thank you for joining in with us. Encourage you to just keep pressing along, keep uh following along with us as we go through the Bible, and and our hope is that it comes alive to you that that you really truly begin to understand the story and therefore understand the God of the story. So I'm sorry. Yeah, thanks for joining.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

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