1 Kings (2 Chronicles)

Amen. If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, turn to 1 Kings. What I’d like to do in our time together is cover 2 Chronicles and 1 Kings.

In 2 Chronicles, I want to give a brief overview. We covered 1 Chronicles weeks ago, and I just want to refresh your memory. If you take 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles and snap them together, what you find is a historical movement of the nation of Israel, primarily focused on the southern tribes of Judah. It begins with Adam and walks all the way through their history to the Babylonian exile and the release from exile. If you read those two books, think of them as an executive summary for your entire Old Testament. Some of you who don’t want to read the whole book wouldn’t mind a little overview about what it’s about, how it moves, and what the themes are. If you read 1 and 2 Chronicles, you have the Hebrew text from beginning to end.

Now, 2 Chronicles focuses on the man Solomon. Solomon’s life is really laid out in 1 Kings, which is why we will move into 1 Kings after seeing the big picture. There are four southern kings we’ll cover in our time: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, and a guy whose name is awful, Jehoshaphat. 1 Chronicles starts with Adam, and 2 Chronicles ends with the release after Babylonian captivity.

A Kingdom Divided

Now, to the fun part: 1 Kings. The theme of 1 Kings is a kingdom divided. Just to catch us up to speed, God brings the nation of Israel out of Egypt through the leadership of Moses. The transition happens from Moses to Joshua. Joshua comes in and conquers the land—sort of, not quite. There were two problems in Joshua: incomplete conquest, and they didn’t teach their kids. So a generation arises in the book of Judges that does not know the Lord, and everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Unfortunately, all the other nations had big, strong, tough-guy kings, so the people of God said, “We want one of those.” God gave them exactly what they asked for: a man whose name means “asked for,” Saul. They got a big, strong, tough-guy king who was built and could bench press a ton, but he had no heart for God. Talent alone only goes so far, and as the corrosion of his character came out, God said, “That’s it. Now I’m going to get a man after my own heart.”

Here comes the emo kid shepherd boy God brings in from the fields. David takes the throne. David is a man after God’s own heart, yet David is also a murderer and an adulterer. Have fun trying to reconcile that! It really pushes on our view of God, because we think God loves us because we’re perfect, and that’s not the case. What made David a man after God’s own heart? He was quick to repent when confronted, and he had a deep heart for the Lord. But like many of us, he made bad decisions, and the sins of the father followed to the children.

David’s Charge to Solomon

David dies in the early portions of 1 Kings and hands over leadership to the young man Solomon. In chapter 1, David is becoming old and advanced in years. One of his sons, Adonijah, tries to make a play for the throne. Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, makes a desperate plea, and Solomon is anointed king.

In chapter 2, you get David’s last words to his son. I don’t know what you would say to your son, but David sits him down with words every father should consider:

1 Kings 2:2-4 (NASB)

’I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. ’Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the LORD may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

What does it mean to be a man? A real man takes the Word of God, applies it to his life, and lives it every single day.

David dies, and Solomon takes over. In chapter 2, Solomon begins a purge. Like something out of The Godfather, he comes in and settles accounts with those who had offended David.

The High Places and the Subtle Slide

In chapter 3, we begin to see the cracks in Solomon’s foundation. It starts with an ominous note:

1 Kings 3:1 (NASB)

Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem.

Solomon is interested in political connections, not just the things of God. Yet look at verse 3:

1 Kings 3:3 (NASB)

Now Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

Solomon is a classic example of “Yay, you’re doing great!” and “Oh gosh, why did you do that?” all in one moment. He serves the Lord, but he offers sacrifices in the high places. Underline “high places.” You’re going to see them all over 1 and 2 Kings. High places were locations outside the city—typically under an oak tree or near a rocky crag—where people mixed pagan worship with the worship of God. Over and over, you’ll read that a king did right in the eyes of the Lord, but the high places were not removed.

Solomon’s major issue was women. Where did he get it? David had an issue with women, and he passed that weakness on to his son, who took what his father did to wild excess.

God appears to Solomon at Gibeon and says, “Ask what I shall give you.” Instead of asking for wealth or power, Solomon asks for wisdom. God gives him wisdom along with fame and riches. Solomon’s wisdom is displayed immediately in the famous ruling between two mothers claiming the same living child.

Building the Temple and Compromising the Heart

In chapters 5 through 8, Solomon prepares and builds the temple, finishing the project his father David dreamed of. In chapter 8, he brings up the Ark of the Covenant.

1 Chronicles 21:29 (NASB)

For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering [were] in the high place at Gibeon at that time.

For years, the tabernacle had been at the high place in Gibeon, while the Ark had been placed by David in a tent in Jerusalem. Solomon finally brings the Ark and the holy vessels together into the newly constructed temple.

In chapter 9, God appears to Solomon a second time at Gibeon, warning him to remain faithful to the covenant. But by chapter 10 and 11, Solomon’s heart begins to drift rapidly. The Queen of Sheba visits, marveling at his wisdom and wealth. Solomon was winsome and polished, but beneath the surface, compromise was consuming him.

1 Kings 11:1-4 (NASB)

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, [for] they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father [had been].

Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. When he was young, he probably thought, I can handle this. I can serve God and marry these foreign princesses; they won’t affect me, I’ll affect them. But the gravitational pull is always toward compromise. When he grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods. He built high places for Chemosh and Molech on the hill east of Jerusalem—the Mount of Olives, right near the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would later pray and redeem what had been defiled.

A Divided Nation

Because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness, God announces that the kingdom will be torn apart. In chapter 12, Solomon’s son Rehoboam takes the throne. The elders tell him, “Lighten the load your father put on the people, and they will serve you forever.” Instead, Rehoboam listens to his young peers who tell him to be harsher than his father.

The kingdom fractures: ten northern tribes follow Jeroboam (Israel), while the southern tribes remain with Rehoboam (Judah). Jeroboam immediately institutes state-sponsored idolatry, setting up golden calves in Bethel and Dan so the people won’t travel down to Jerusalem to worship. Jeroboam sets a pattern of wickedness that every northern king follows.

In the south, Judah also slips into idolatry, building high places of their own. Sin spreads like weeds jumping a fence.

Elijah and the Clash on Carmel

Generations pass until we meet King Ahab in the north, who married Jezebel and promoted Baal worship more aggressively than any king before him.

1 Kings 16:30-33 (NASB)

Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

God raises up the prophet Elijah to confront Ahab. In chapter 18, Elijah challenges the 450 prophets of Baal to a showdown on Mount Carmel. Two altars, two bulls, and no fire—the God who answers by fire, He is God.

The prophets of Baal dance, scream, and slash themselves from morning until afternoon. At noon, Elijah mocks them: “Shout louder! Maybe your god is meditating, or busy relieving himself, or traveling, or asleep!”

1 Kings 18:27 (NASB)

It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, ‘Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.’

Nothing happens. Then Elijah rebuilds the altar of the Lord, digs a trench, and douses the sacrifice with twelve large jars of water. He prays a simple prayer asking God to reveal Himself. Fire falls from heaven, consuming the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and licking up the water in the trench. The prophets of Baal are executed, and God sends rain on the land.

Yet in chapter 19, when Jezebel threatens his life, Elijah panics and flees to Mount Horeb. God gently ministers to his exhausted prophet, restores him with a still, small voice, and gives him a mission to anoint Elisha as his successor.

The Call to Character Over Success

When you look at the 22 chapters of 1 Kings, what is the ultimate takeaway? Look back at Solomon. He was the wisest man who ever lived. He built the temple. He built a magnificent palace. He expanded the borders. Was his life a success or a failure?

What really counts is not success on the outside, but character on the inside. Who cares if you build a massive home? Who cares what kind of car you drive or how successful you are in the eyes of the world if your character is corroded?

You might live your entire life completely insignificant to the world. Nobody may know your name, but if you die faithful, God will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Don’t buy into the lie that you must chase worldly success, because you will end up succeeding at all the wrong things. What matters is that you walk with God, love your spouse, remain faithful to your children, and walk with integrity at your job. When the day comes that you go the way of all the earth, let people say, “That man, that woman loved Jesus. They had character.”

Solomon had everything—wisdom, favor, authority, and resources—but he couldn’t control his flesh, and it destroyed his legacy. Saul had talent with no heart. David had a heart for God but compromised. Solomon had it all and threw it away.

I would rather be insignificant and faithful than successful and compromised. Let us be men and women of character.

Closing Prayer

Father in heaven, we pray that we would lay aside the temptation and allure of the world. Do not let us be sucked into chasing flash without substance, or things that draw a crowd but offer no true nourishment. Protect us from anything that seduces us away from simple, pure devotion to Christ.

Make us men and women of character who pursue You faithfully. We thank You for these examples in Scripture, painful as they are, so that we might learn from them without paying the heavy tax of compromise. Weed out the small compromises in our hearts before they grow into destructive strongholds. Uproot them now, Lord. We commit ourselves to walk faithfully before You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.