The Journey Brought Forth "1 Kings"

This blog series is focused on God’s word bringing people through their journeys in His intentional way that He has set in front of them thereby bringing them through to His completion.

Exodus chapter twenty through Matthew chapter four is the section of scripture that most Christians find themselves living in its revolving pattern of realization, but once they receive its revelation, the Third Stage of Life is what their lives are built upon instead of attempting to achieve.

The Book of 1 Kings begins with an aging King David and the attempted betrayal of his instruction to make Solomon his predecessor by another son of his named Adonijah. Adonijah was Solomon’s older brother and seemingly the proper heir to the throne, but God had told David Solomon was to be Israel’s next king and that is what David did. God’s word must be respected and obeyed more than tradition.

Adonijah and some of his followers in the attempted overtaking of the throne were executed shortly after; because of various acts accompanying the attempt and other non-associated issues. There is no room for rebellion in the kingdom of man or the kingdom of God once His people have entered and understand His process.

One of the first things Solomon did was to go to the highest place and worship God; which, is contrary to His statutes. While Solomon slept one night, God appeared to him in a dream and asked Solomon what he desired. Solomon replied wisdom and understanding to lead God’s people. This pleased God and God added riches and honor to the wisdom he requested. This being pleasing to God does not mean that it was good for him to make this request. When we look back at God’s warning to His people about them requesting a king and what would happen, we can understand that God adding wealth and honor is actually adding a curse instead of a blessing. Solomon was foolish to request wisdom to lead the people. He should have requested humility and an intimate relationship with God; so, God would have led His people through Solomon instead of Solomon desiring to lead the people himself.

Solomon has an amazing systematic structure that ensured the ability for a variety of people to function in the positions they were gifted to hold, and he amassed more wealth than any king before or after him. God gives people the ability to receive wealth or anything else they need to accomplish His purpose.

Solomon also showed great wisdom and was admired by all the people of his land and the surrounding lands. The issue was he did not display wisdom toward God and was not respected by God in the end because he was distracted by having many wives and much financial gain. It is much better to have a little with God than it is to have an abundance and be opposed to Him.

God had instructed David to have Solomon build the Temple and Solomon did this according to all the plans that were given to him with the help of many Israelites and others that he negotiated with to partner with him on this venture. God knows that His people need and supplies it through the seemingly oddest ways, but His people must be aware who they are dealing with and not get distracted by them even though they may seem to be “good people.”

The Temple was an amazingly beautiful ornate structure with interior finishes and furniture that was beyond anything that had been built previously. The Temple was an expression of what God’s people are and the beauty they possess.

Solomon then builds his own house, and it was even bigger and more magnificent that the house of God. This is another major issue in people’s lives today. God does not want His people to be distracted by worldly wealth and the possessions that it allows. There is nothing wrong with receiving His blessings in their proper way to benefit one’s self and the others they are connected to, but when they are what His people spend twice as much time in developing than the Tabernacle, there is a definite issue.

The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the holiest of holies where only the High Priests were allowed to enter, a cloud descended, and all of the people had to leave for the glory of the Lord was present. There is no way for the majority of God’s people to be in His presence in this state of their lives, but that does not mean it will never happen while they are still in their physical bodies (wait upon the Lord there is more).

Solomon now prays a prayer of dedication and realization the God is greater than any building can hold. The same is true today, and anyone who attempts to hold God in a box is naïve and foolish.

God then appears to Solomon again in a dream. This time He tells Solomon that He is pleased with what he had done and placed in front of him the opportunity to have a perpetual lineage of descendants to sit on the throne over Israel, and it all depended on him following God or not. This same gift of opportunity is given to each of God’s people by Him to know what they will do in response to it. It is individually set to receive the eternal gift collectively.

The next thing the Bible describes is King Solomon’s cities that he built, the vast amount of earthly riches that were accumulated, and the people that he employed to do so. These things seem like great things to do to the worldly people, but it was warned against by God before they entered the “Promised Land.” A clearly defined focus on God by His leaders is of utmost importance and is shown to be impossible for the wisest man who ever lived to live, but leaders continually attempt to do so throughout the ages.

Wi8th this wealth and worldly wisdom came the distractions of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, their false gods and idols entering into his life, and his turning to them with worship and sacrifices. Any distraction that leads God’s people away from Him are gods, and anything that people envision as a representative of God are idols.

God was angry with Solomon because of this and told Solomon that He was going to take all of the kingdom except one tribe away from him and give it to another person. Devastation occurs when God’s people go away from Him, but He is longsuffering and patient toward His chosen people allowing them an opportunity for restitution continually.

God stirred up three adversaries against Solomon, one of them being Jeroboam, who God pronounced king of the ten tribes who split after Solomon’s death. Solomon died a brief time after this and Rehoboam takes his place of being the king. Jeroboam came to Rehoboam and asked him to lighten up on the people, and they would continue to serve them, but Rehoboam chose to listen to the unwise counsel of his young friends instead of the people who had been serving with his father, Solomon; thereby an ensuing rebellion occurred, and the nation of Israel was split in two. The northern ten tribes are now known as Israel, and the lower two of Benjamin and Judah are known as Judah. The two tribes known as the nation of Judah

are the tribes of the two men who came back to Moses with a good report of the Promised Land and God’s ability to give it to Israel. The same things happen in the world today, but most people are living in the dark and cannot understand the foreknowledge of God.

Rehoboam assembled Judah and was ready to go to war against the rest of Israel’s secession, but God had a man tell them that they were not to do so, and they immediately dissembled. This saved a lot of lives potentially being lost and helps people today to understand how their lives can be protected when they listen even after they are going down life’s path in the wrong direction. Rehoboam did evil and built more altars to false gods, and did as the nations that had dwelt in the land before them which God had displaced because of their evil ways. In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, the Egyptians came to Jerusalem and took the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king’s house. The outward treasures are easily removed from being possessed by wicked people who are prideful and turn away from God after they had received worldly gain.

There was a man of the Lord who went to the house of the Lord and prophesied what would happen and King Jeroboam pointed at him to tell his men to lay hold of him, and Jeroboam’s hand withered. Jeroboam immediately asked the man to heal him, and he did. When Jeroboam asked the man to stay and eat with him, the man refused by telling him he was instructed to not eat in the land. On the way out of town another prophet of God met the man and told him God had told him to go and have the man eat with him, but that was a lie to get the man to do what the other prophet wanted. The man wj=ho spoke against the nation of Israel for God clearly disobeyed God because he listened to another man instead of God and the other man at dinner told the man that God had just told him he would not come the grave of his fathers and the man was killed by a lion on his way out of town. God talks to HIs people, and they must hear His voice and not follow anyone else.

Jeroboam’s son became sick, and Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise to Ahijah, a blind prophet of God, to ask what would happen to his son. God told Ahijah she was coming and he knew who she was before she entered his home and addressed her as the wife of Jeroboam. The prophet told her to go and tell her husband, God says He placed you in your position as king over His people, and you have not followed Him, but have turned to your own wicked ways and made other gods and idols; therefore, the child shall die, and Israel shall be scattered into other nations because of his sin. Jeroboam’s son Nadab reigned in his father’s place after his death. It is impossible to hide anything from God or the people who He chooses to tell what is happening in any situation.

Abijam ruled over Judah after his father Jeroboam died, and he did evil for the for three years; then Asa his son reigned in his place. Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord and removed the idols and brought dedicated things into the house of the Lord, but he did not remove the improper places to worship from the high places, but his heart was right in the sight of the Lord. God wants His people to do as He commands, and is patient with them as they sometimes cannot understand every detail of His righteous way of life during certain developmental times of their lives.

Asa and Baasha had continual war, and Asa sent all of the treasures of the king’s house and the house of the Lord to the Syrians to hire their army to stop the building of a siege city by Israel against Judah, they accomplished the mission, and Judah built the city of Ramah for the Benjamites. Baasha was evil, and God told him He would destroy all of his descendants like He did Jeroboam’s. God took what a wicked enemy of one of His righteous people started to build against him and used the materials to build something good for His people.

Elah slew Baasha’s family and friends and ruled in his place. God used this man although he was evil and sinned greatly to accomplish His mission of ridding the land of Baasha and his descendants. God purges the wicked from His land in various ways. Zimri killed Elah and reigned for seven days, then Omri was made king by the Israelites, so he slew Zimri and burned his house over him. There was a civil war between Omri and another man named Tirzah and Omri and his followers prevailed. During Omri’s reign, he bought the hill of Samaria, built the city of Samaria and moved the capital of Israel to it. Omri did evil during his reign and died. This downward spiral of sin brings further sin in people’s lives until they finally get tired of the results, but the Israelites are clearly not finished with their horrible acts against the God who loves His people.

Ahab, his son, reigned in his place and was even eviler than any of the kings before him. He took a Zidonian, one of Israel’s worst enemies, for his wife and worshipped Baal, building a house and raising an altar for him Elijah is told Ahab that it would not rain until he said it would, left and dwelt in the wilderness where ravens brought him bread and meat to eat in the morning and in the evening until the brook dried up from the lack of rain then God told him to go and dwell with a widow in the land of Zidon; which is their enemy. God sustains His people in the strangest ways, and they get to live an adventure unlike any others around them.

Once Elijah arrived in Zidon, he asked the widow woman to get him some water and bake him some bread. She replied she only had enough ingredients to make a small amount of bread and she was planning to use it then die. He replied, “And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.” When we place God and other ahead of ourselves (love them), God meets our every need even if we don’t understand. Later the ladies son died, and she complained to Elijah; then Elijah brought her son back to life.

Elijah then went to follow God’s orders and confront King Ahab. On the way, he met Obadiah and told Obadiah to tell Ahab that he was here. Obadiah replied that he feared that Elijah would leave and then Ahab would kill him because Elijah was not where he said he was, and how Obadiah was worthy of more than this fate because of how he had hidden one hundred prophets from King Ahab when they were killing all of God’s prophets. Elijah assured Obadiah that would not happen. Obadiah went and got King Ahab and when Ahab and Elijah saw each other King Ahab accused Elijah of being a troubler of the nation and Elijah told him he was mistaken, that it was himself, King Ahab that was actually the troubler of Israel. People get things backward when they project their internal states of being on others and may not even realize what the truth is.

Elijah challenges four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the groves to prove whose god was the true God. Elijah set the rules for a burnt offering with God supplying the fire. He allowed the false prophets to go first and take all day; because he knew when the fire would come from heaven. The false prophets made a real spectacle of themselves jumping and shouting and cutting themselves. Elijah kept composed and mocked them causing them to act even more ridiculous. Elijah finally stepped up and instructed people to pour water on his sacrifice, the wood, and the trench surrounding the altar, Elijah prayed for God to show Himself and fire came down and consumed the sacrifice, the altar and the wood under it, and dried up all the water in the trench surrounding it. God shows who He is to, in, and through His people in amazing ways, and that evening God sent an incredible amount of rain after it had not rained for three and a half years. God’s timing once again shows itself to be flawless. This fire from heaven very possibly could have been lightening ahead of the rain and had been attracted to the sacrifice by the water Elijah had the people pour on it. This explanation in no way diminishes the miracle that God did nor does it diminish the miracles God does on a daily basis in each of His people’s lives; it only gives the ones who cannot understand the miracles for what they are a way to negate them in their own minds; thereby continuing to be blind to the truth that surrounds every one.

After all the power God showed to Elijah, Elijah flees from Ahab’s wife’s

threats to kill him. This is not uncommon to God’s people today. The amazing things that God does are soon forgotten by His people who are relying on human strength to get them through trying times even after God’s power has been shown to them; because of their lapse in intimacy with Him.

Once Elijah settled his fear in a cave, God came to Him in a quiet voice and told him who to anoint as the king of Syria, a country that was not even of “God’s chosen people”, who to anoint king of Israel, and who he was to anoint the prophet after him, and that He had left Himself seven thousand that had not “bowed the knee” to Baal. God does not only dictate who is king over “His people,” He appoints every king around the world as it pleases Him and has His people set in specific places at specific times.

Elijah found Elisha plowing with twenty-three ox and Elisha was partnered with the twenty-third one to complete the twelfth set. This is an incredible feat of strength and demonstrates how hard-working men of the field are chosen to be prophets instead of men who are of the “educated” class.

God won a battle against Israel’s enemy the Syrians on a mountain and in a valley to prove He is the God of both areas, but Ahab let the king of Syria get away, and God sent a prophet to tell Ahab he and the Israelites were going to be slain in their place. It does not matter if God’s people are geographically, physically, or emotionally on hills or in valleys He is still God and He can and will save them from any enemy, and God’s people must completely rid their lives of all evil things in their lives.

King Ahab had a neighbor who he coveted his land because he thought it was better than the land he had but the man was not willing to sell it to Ahab. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, had the man killed and gave the land to Ahab. Elijah told Ahab that he would die and the dogs shall lick up his blood, and the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel when she died; showing God’s foreknowledge and vengeance against His enemies, but Ahab repented, and God told Elijah the evil would be postponed until Ahab’s children’s days.

The king of Judah and the king of Israel came together and planned to go to battle the Syrians and checked with the prophets of the land, they all told them to go and be victorious; then they asked Micaiah. Micaiah told him that he saw the people scattered as sheep that have no shepherd and they were instructed to go to their own house in peace. Ahab told Jehoshaphat he knew he would speak evil, and Micaiah replied he saw a spirit go to God and suggest to God he would go and be a lying spirit in all of the prophets, and God agreed to this suggestion. Ahab sent Micaiah to prison and went to battle where he was killed, and the dogs licked up his blood as God had told them would happen. God again is in control of the situation that occurs including lying spirits that the false prophets will believe are true until they are proven wrong, and they may still not understand what the truth is or that they lied.

The book of 1 Kings is the book which the nation of Israel was split in two, it had multiple kings of Israel and Judah, and many battles and wars; which most of them can be traced back to King Solomon amassing great financial wealth, having many wives, and turning to worship the false gods of the lands that God had Israel dispossess from their lands. The focus of the overall teachings of this book is God demands a total and unwavering commitment to Him, He knows what will occur, and He tells His people what will happen through His prophets.