![]() ![]() But of course there is more than a body to each man. Unfortunately most of life seems to be spent in taking care of the body. We spend our time taking care of it, primping it, dressing it up, painting it, unpainting it, and doing all the things necessary to keep it looking good. First of all, there is the body of which we are so aware. Everyone knows that there are two evident divisions of human life. They represent the divisions in the human life. Now it was intended to be this way, but they were all to be under one king. This division between the ten tribes in the north and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south where Jerusalem was located, existed right from the very start. ![]() It was not until after that seven-year reign that he became king over both divisions of the nation. When David first came to the throne, he was king only of Judah for seven years. As we read these books, we will find ourselves right in the midst of the problems and blessings and possibilities that are reflected in these books of the kings.įrom the beginning there were always two divisions in the monarchy. He formed them and molded them and produced a nation that would be a sample to all the world of what God is willing to do in any individual's life. Israel did not come into the position of prominence and favor in God's sight by their own efforts. The nation of Israel was picked out particularly from the nations to be a representative of the individual human life. The thing that makes these books perennially fascinating to us is that this kingdom in Israel is a picture to each of us of the kingdom in our own lives. This was the antichrist of whom Jesus himself said to Israel, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me if another comes in his own name, him you will receive." (John 5:43) It is this man of sin, the quintessence of human evil, that is pictured by the kings of Israel and Judah when they walk in disobedience. But when they were in disobedience, they were types, or pictures of the antichrist, the man of sin who is yet to appear upon the earth. They pictured something of the sovereign, kingly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the kings were in obedience, they were always types of Christ - such as David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Joash, and Jehoshaphat. The land fell into difficult and extremely serious conditions. There was always victory when the king walked with God.īut when the king disobeyed and worshipped other gods, immediately famines broke out, droughts came, and invasions occurred. There was victory over their enemies, even when the enemies came against them in allied forces. The rains came at the right times and the crops grew. But in the southern kingdom, in the house of David, there was victory and prosperity when godly kings appeared from time to time. There was no such blessing for the northern kingdom because they had no godly kings. When the king walked with God in obedience and humility, and worshipped and obeyed God in the temple in Jerusalem (or later in Samaria in the northern kingdom), God's blessing in prosperity and victory rested upon the kingdom. The character of the kingdom is largely determined by the character of the king. In each case, the spotlight is always on the king it is what the king does in relationship to God that determines how the nation goes. ![]() Then these two books trace out for us the various dynasties in Israel, the northern kingdom, and the single dynasty of the house of David in the southern kingdom of Judah. They are quite aptly named Kings, as they trace the lives of various rulers of God's kingdom, beginning with Saul and David, down through the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. In the Hebrew Bible the books of l and 2 Kings are combined into one book of Kings. ![]()
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