Author
1 and 2 Kings, like 1 and 2 Samuel, was originally one book. It was divided into two books by those who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek and later into Latin, and later still, into our English translations. Taken together, 1 and 2 Samuel along with 1 and 2 Kings relate the whole history of the Israelite and Jewish monarchy.
Ancient Jewish tradition credited Jeremiah as the author of 1 and 2 Kings. Whoever the author was, it is evident that he or she was familiar with the book of Deuteronomy. It is also clear that the author, or final editor(s) of 1 and 2 Kings used many sources to compile this work. Three of these sources are named: “the book of the annals of Solomon” (1 Kings 11:41), “the book of the annals of the kings of Israel” (1 Kings 14:19), and “the book of the annals of the kings of Judah” (1 Kings 14:29).
As I mentioned in previous messages, the consensus of modern scholarship is that 1 Kings is part of the Deuteronomic History that includes what are now seven books of the Old Testament: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. My former professor, Richard Elliott Friedman, believes that the author of the Deuteronomic History was Baruch, the scribe who served the prophet Jeremiah.
Date
If Baruch was indeed the editor of the Deuteronomistic History which includes 1 and 2 Kings, then that puts the date of composition for 1 Kings sometime in the sixth century, just prior to the beginning of the Babylonian Exile in 538 BCE. No doubt some further editing of the Deuteronomistic History was performed by other hands during the exile and the post-exilic period.
Themes
1 Kings contains no explicit statement of purpose or theme. But the author has obviously arranged his material as a sequel to 1 and 2 Samuel. As such, the book provides a history of kingship as regulated by covenant. The author evaluates each of the kings of Israel and Judah according to their fidelity to the Deuteronomic Covenant. According to this author, the welfare of Israel, and later Judah, and her kings depended on their obedience to the obligations of the covenant articulated by Moses. The author does not give us a history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as a modern historian would. In a sense, one might say that we have in this book a spiritual history of God’s people. The kings who get the most attention in 1 Kings and 2 Kings are either those who deviated most severely from the covenant or those who most admirably upheld and affirmed God’s covenant with his people.
This author also stresses the importance of prophets in calling king and people to obedience to the covenant. For the most part, the call of the prophets seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Numerous prophets are mentioned in these pages: Ahijah, Shemaiah, Micaiah, Jonah, Isaiah, and Huldah. But particular attention is given to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha.
It seems that one reason why the author wrote this book, and perhaps the whole Deuteronomic History, was to explain to the Jewish people why they ended up in exile in the first place. The reason for their great “time out” according to this author is their stubborn and persistent breaking of the covenant.
But the author does not leave his readers without hope for the future. The author consistently keeps the promise to King David in view: namely the promise of an eternal kingdom. The future remains open for a new work of the Lord in faithfulness to his promise to the house of David.
Chronology
By integrating biblical data with information derived from Assyrian chronological records, it is possible to come up with dates for the reigns of each king of Israel and Judah. More importantly, by the same means scholars have been able to determine that Israel divided into two kingdoms (Israel and Judah) in 930 BCE, Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722-721 BCE and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE. 1 and 2 Kings describes the history of Israel’s monarchy from the closing days of the reign of David until the time of the Babylonian exile. Kingship in Israel was plagued with instability and violence. Twenty rulers represented nine different dynasties during the approximately 210 years from the division of the northern and southern kingdoms in 930 BCE until the fall of Samaria in 722-721 BCE. In the southern kingdom of Judah there were also 20 rulers, but these were all descendants of David (except for Athaliah, who usurped the throne). The period of the southern kingdom spans 345 years from 930 BCE to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
Structure
1 and 2 Kings can be broadly outlined by relating its contents to the major historical periods described and to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha…
- The Era of Solomon (1:1-12:24)
- The History of Israel and Judah from Kings Jeroboam I and Rehoboam to Kings Ahab and Asa (12:25-16:34)
- The Ministries of Elijah and Elisha and Other Prophets (1 Kings 17:1-2 Kings 8:15)
- The History of Israel and Judah from Kings Joram & Jehoram to the Exile of Israel (2 Kings 8:16-17:41)
- The History of Judah from King Hezekiah to the Babylonian Exile (2 Kings 18-25)
Key Concept—Time to call a H.A.L.T.?
My favorite stories in 1 Kings surround the person and ministry of the prophet Elijah. The story I want to focus on today comes from 1 Kings 19. But first, let me set the stage…
After David’s son, King Solomon, a long series of evil kings ruled Israel.
At the end of the long list, we get King Ahab, described as the worst of the worst. But his wife, Queen Jezebel, was even worse than Ahab.
Remember in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy’s house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East. Then Dorothy meets the Wicked Witch of the West, and she says, “But I thought she was dead?” And Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, tells Dorothy, “That was her sister. This one’s worse than the other one was.”
Well, that could have been a description of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He was bad, but she was worse.
So, God sent the prophet Elijah to call out King Ahab and lead the people toward righteousness. One day Elijah challenges the prophets of the fertility god Baal to a showdown. It’s Elijah against 450 false prophets. He challenges them to call on Baal, while Elijah calls on Yahweh and whichever one answers by fire, he is the real God. You can read the story in 1 Kings 18. But even if you don’t know the story, you can imagine how it ends. Elijah’s God wins and the prophets of Baal are slaughtered. And so, Queen Jezebel has her knickers in a twist and goes after Elijah, because she is on the side of Baal not Yahweh. And of course, she doesn’t like her prophets being killed.
Now, here is the amazing thing. Elijah has just finished displaying tremendous courage, going up against 450 false prophets. But one wicked queen comes after him and he starts running scared.
We all have a “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. Some of us can handle a lot of stress. But every person has something, potentially something very small, that can push us over the edge.
Well, Elijah ends up over the edge and so he heads out into the wilderness where he lays down and basically gives up. But he is still talking to God. That’s a good thing. Elijah says, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I don’t know about you, but I’ve come close to that.
After praying that prayer, Elijah fell asleep. He was just plum tuckered out. So, I think it was a very good thing that he fell asleep. He needed a rest, after all.
Now, notice what happens next. An angel touches Elijah, wakes him up and says, “Get up and eat.” So, Elijah looks around, and there by his head is some bread baking over hot coals, and a jar of water. So, he eats and drinks and lays down again.
How would you like it when you’re in a funk, and all tired out, to have an angel come and bake some bread for you? Is there anything that smells better than freshly baked bread?
I don’t know about you, but I have had some pretty special angels take care of me when I could no longer take care of myself. It’s like the story of the four friends who bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus on a mat and Jesus heals the guy and forgives him of his sin. Sometimes we can be like the four friends, carrying our friend to Jesus, and sometimes we are like the guy on the mat, and we need others to carry us to Jesus.
In Elijah’s case, the angel came to him a second time and told him to eat and drink. Elijah obeyed orders, then he continued his journey all the way to Mount Horeb. According to the book of Deuteronomy, that’s the place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. So, it was a very special place, a holy place.
Do you have a holy place, a place of comfort that you run to when you are tired and worn out and ready to give up?
When Elijah gets to Mount Horeb, he goes into a cave and spends the night. Then the Lord speaks to him, “What are you doing here Elijah?”
The Lord is such a good counselor. He asks the most basic, but perfect questions. “What are you doing here?” That might be a good question to ask yourself from time to time. “What am I doing here? What is my purpose?” Whenever we lose a sense of purpose, we may be close to giving up.
Well, Elijah replies with his sad tale of woe… “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
When we get down in the dumps it is so easy to feel like we are all alone. That’s how Elijah felt.
So, how does the divine counselor deal with Elijah’s depression? The Lord says, “Go out and stand on the mountain because I am about to pass by.”
What happens next is perhaps my favorite part of the story. We read that…
… a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Haven’t we all said something like, “I wish God would give me a sign. I wish he would write his direction for me in big, block letters in the sky.”?
But this story about Elijah on Mount Horeb reveals that God is not so much in the big and spectacular. God is not so much in wind, earthquake, and fire. (Even though Earth, Wind & Fire was a great band!) No, when God speaks to us, it is usually, as the King James Version puts it, in a “still small voice”. And we have to get quiet to hear that voice.
Henri Nouwen writes the following about this story…
I am not saying there is an easy solution to our ambivalent relationship with God. Solitude is not a solution. It is a direction. The direction is pointed to by the prophet Elijah, who did not find Yahweh in the mighty wind, the earthquake, the fire, but in the still, small voice; this direction, too, is indicated by Jesus, who chose solitude as the place to be with his Father. Every time we enter into solitude we withdraw from our windy, earthquaking, fiery lives and open ourselves to the great encounter. The first thing we often discover in solitude is our own restlessness, our drivenness, and compulsiveness, our urge to act quickly, to make an impact, and to have influence; and often we find it very hard to withstand the temptation to return as quickly as possible to the world of “relevance.” But when we persevere with the help of a gentle discipline, we slowly come to hear the still, small voice and to feel the gentle breeze, and so come to know the Lord of our heart, soul, and mind, the Lord who makes us see who we really are.[1]
So, what does the voice say to Elijah? The Lord repeats his question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
And Elijah, probably with a note of even greater exasperation, repeats his answer to the Lord, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
Finally, the Lord says to Elijah…
Go back the way you came and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah, to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet [and here’s the really important part] I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.
In other words, the Lord says, “Hey Elijah, I know you feel like you are all alone. But in fact, you are not alone. I have seven thousand loyal followers in Israel just like you, all who have not bowed down to Baal.”
When you and I feel all alone, it is so important to remember that we are really not alone. The Lord is with us, and the Lord has many others just like us. We are part of a family, the family of God.
I entitled this message, Time to Call a H.A.L.T., based upon a message I heard once from Charles Stanley in which he used H.A.L.T. as an acronym. In that message, Stanley said, “Whenever you get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired, then it is time to call a H.A.L.T.”
Well, I think that Elijah got too hungry, angry, lonely, and tired all at once. Have you ever had that happen to you?
Notice how the Lord addressed each of Elijah’s needs….
- Elijah was hungry. The Lord sent an angel to feed him.
- Elijah was angry. The Lord invited Elijah to talk about his feelings.
- Elijah was lonely. The Lord met Elijah in a personal way and reminded him that he was not alone.
- Elijah was tired. The Lord gave Elijah time to rest.
The Lord understands our needs and he can meet each one of our needs if we let him…
- Are you hungry? Take time to eat. Make sure you have a balanced diet.
- Are you angry? Find a way to talk out your feelings with someone who can listen well and help.
- Are you lonely? Remember you are not alone. The Body of Christ, the Church, is here for you. Don’t cut yourself off from the Church. When we are feeling down, that is when we need the Church the most. But it is also the time when many people cut themselves off from others. Don’t give into that temptation. Keep coming to worship. Take advantage of opportunities for fellowship.
- Are you tired? Make sure you get the rest you need every day.
Whenever we get too hungry, too angry, too lonely, or too tired, we need to call a halt. We need to take time to reevaluate our lives. And let the Lord and his people minister to our needs…
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