1 KINGS 11-17 THE KINGDOM IS DIVIDED2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Kings 11-17 The Kingdom Is Divided

As we get started this evening, the book of 1 Kings, we don't know the exact author. It's really a compilation of accounts throughout the years. And so several different authors took part in this.

It covers the time period from about 972 to 863 BC, about 100 years of history here in 1 Kings. And then it's looking at the kings of both Israel and Judah. And we'll see that continue on into 2 Kings as we head into that book this week as well.

Well, what that looks like on the timeline, you can see here, we've gone through the united portion of Israel's kingdom in Saul and then David and then Solomon. They were the king over the whole territory of Israel.

But what we'll see this evening now is the end of Solomon's reign. And now the kingdom is going to be split. And it's going to be the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. And they're going to be continuing on. And we're going to be following the kings of both of those kingdoms. And so 1 Kings is looking at this time frame here. The end of Solomon's reign. And then now into the divided kingdom in the first part.

part of that and we'll finish up the the history of that divided kingdom in second kings the geography looks like this solomon there had quite a big territory the borders were expanded greatly by king david he won many battles uh conquered many of the enemies and so solomon inherited this larger kingdom and he maintained it in peace during his reign and

Immediately after his reign, though, the borders go back to what we've been seeing under King Saul and the land that was given by Joshua and divided up between the tribes. And so on the right-hand side here, you see the divided kingdom and how it's a much smaller territory. You see the Dead Sea there and the Sea of Galilee, and then it's zoomed out much further there under Solomon's kingdom because those other surrounding nations have

maintain their sovereignty now. They took back their sovereignty after Solomon's death. And so we'll see that begin to take place this evening as well.

Well, that brings us now to our first chapter for the week, and that is 1 Kings chapter 11. The key verse is verse 4. It says,

So here's the decline now of Solomon. We got to see last week as we were studying the chapters previous to this, Israel reached its height, its peak in glory, in territory. I mean, they were wealthy, they were blessed. It was the height of the nation of Israel.

Now here in chapter 11, we begin to see the downward spiral. And it begins here in chapter 11, but it goes until the end of 2 Kings where Jesus

The kingdom is completely conquered, demolished. People are taken away. There's basically nobody left in Judah because Babylon comes and conquers them. And it's all due to rebellion against the Lord. And that begins here in chapter 11. In verses 1 through 13, it tells us that Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. He began to turn away and to pursue other gods, false gods.

This began because he loved many foreign women. He had many wives and those wives were from foreign lands. They were worshiping foreign gods. And so they turned his heart. They helped him and encouraged him to turn and begin to worship these other gods. Some of the gods that are specifically mentioned here, there's Ashtoreth.

Ashtoreth was a god from the land of Sidon, which is north of Israel. And she was what they considered the fertility goddess, but also the goddess of war. And the way that you worshipped this goddess was, well, the practices were really based on sexual immorality. And so that was one of the gods that he began to worship and he began to participate in this sexual immorality as a result.

Then he also mentions the god Chemosh, which is from the region of Moab. And this was not a good god to worship because the primary way that this god was worshipped was by sacrificing children in the fire. And so that was something that Solomon began to do and began to practice and promote within the kingdom, setting up regions and areas for people to worship these false gods. And then, of course, the god of Molech is also mentioned specifically.

Molech comes from the region of Ammon to the east of Israel. And the Ammonites considered this god Molech to be their protecting father. And similar to Chemosh, they would worship this god by sacrificing children. They would heat up an idol with its arms extended out and lay the baby there in the idol's arms. And the baby would be sacrificed to the god of Molech.

Now that's a horrendous thing for us to consider, to think about, or even try to picture. But that was what was happening in Canaan before Israel was there. And now Solomon's bringing it back in. This was a God that...

And God had forbidden his people from practicing that. But Solomon here is not just doing it personally, but he's setting it up so that people can begin to engage in this kind of idolatry and worship, which is so hard for us to imagine. But it shows us

The extent of the wickedness in his own heart and the issues that were going on within the nation. And a nation that practices that type of thing is certainly worthy of judgment. Something Americans should take into account. Well then we see in verses 14 through 25.

That there were adversaries that were raised up against Solomon. So Solomon has now begun to turn away from the Lord. His heart has been turned away. And...

God has allowed then, and he's raised up a couple adversaries. Hadad, the Edomite, has been raised up. And so he was attacking and harassing Israel and Solomon. And then Rezan in Damascus. And so Damascus was north, Edom was south. And so from both top and bottom, he was getting this harassment and these adversaries that God had raised up.

Then in verses 26 through 40, we see Ahijah, who is a prophet, he tells Jeroboam that he will rule over 10 tribes of Israel.

And so here the divided kingdom, the split that is going to happen is prophesied by Ahijah. And it's prophesied to Jeroboam who is overseeing the labor force in the northern area of Israel. And Ahijah says, you're going to lead, you're going to rule, you're going to be king over this area. It's interesting to me in this portion that

It shouldn't be too surprising, and yet it is a little bit surprising that Solomon becomes a Saul at this point.

And he hears about this prophecy. He knows that this has been told to Jeroboam. And so he tries to kill Jeroboam. Remember like Saul knew that David was to be the next king. And so he tries to kill David. Solomon now hears about Jeroboam. Hears what God said and says, all right, I'm going to kill Jeroboam. And so much like Saul, he's trying to fight against God's plan and thwart God's purposes.

Well, then we see in verses 41 through 43, the conclusion of Solomon's life as he dies and he rests with his fathers. Now, it's easy for us and it's common to ask, how could Solomon do this? Here, towards the end of his life, in his later years, he turned away from God. He worshipped these gods that the practices are vile. They're hard for us to picture. But how could he? I mean, he had such great wisdom.

He was, you know, the wisest man ever. How could he practice and engage and turn away from God and fall in this way? Well, what we need to understand is that real wisdom comes from walking with God. Real wisdom comes from a relationship with God because it's God who's teaching us and training us and giving us insight and giving us direction.

When God gave Solomon wisdom, we could maybe equate it a little bit more to saying that Solomon was well educated. God did not give wisdom to Solomon in the sense that he made it an automatic relationship with God for Solomon so that Solomon no longer had to choose to walk with God. That's not what God did.

God gave him wisdom, understanding. He gave him, again, I think maybe it'd be better for us to picture a good education.

He gave him a couple degrees, you know, gave him some real insight in that kind of thing, in education. But he didn't take away Solomon's responsibility to walk with God. And that's where real wisdom comes from. And so although Solomon was well educated, he had lots of information, lots of knowledge, even good judgment for deciding cases.

That doesn't mean that, you know, he didn't have to choose to continue and to draw near to God. That's a choice that he had to make. And so Solomon came to this point by not choosing to walk with God. By not deliberately intending to maintain and develop and grow in his relationship with God.

If you think about the beginning of Solomon's reign, in 1 Kings chapter 3, when the Lord appears to him, he says, I'm overwhelmed by what I have to do. I need understanding. God, give me an understanding heart. Give me wisdom. At the beginning of Solomon's reign, he's relying upon the Lord because, well, he had to. He had no other choice. He was desperate. He was overwhelmed. But then when he got wisdom...

He stopped relying upon the Lord because he felt, well, I know what to do. I know what we need. I've got it figured out. He was well educated. And so he was relying upon his own resources. And what that does is it causes him to wander. And so he's not relying upon the Lord anymore. He's not trusting in God. He's trusting in himself and his own wisdom.

This is an important lesson for all of us. We might look at Solomon and think, man, it must have been so amazing to have all that wisdom. He had such an advantage. But you and I as believers today, under the new covenant, under what Christ has accomplished for us, under the benefit of the filling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have even greater advantage than Solomon did today.

But the same issues apply. That is, yeah, we're under the new covenant. Christ died for us. We have the filling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Great advantages.

But it does not eliminate the need for us to choose to continue to draw near to God. And if we don't choose to continue to draw near to God, we will wander away just like Solomon did. Solomon fell from a great height. We're at a greater height in what we have in Christ. And there's still the danger of us walking away. There's still the danger of us not continuing to pursue that relationship with God.

And so Solomon is a great example for us, a great warning for us. So that we remember it matters how you finish. There's a saying, it's not how high you jump, but how straight you walk when you hit the ground. Talking about, hey, you can have a radical and dramatic conversion experience and that's great, but how straight do you walk when you hit the ground? Do you walk in that new life in Christ? But I would add on to that. It's not...

how high you jump, and it's not just how straight you walk, but it's also how well you finish. We need to keep in mind and to consider that finish line because finishing well is important. And if you don't believe me, consider the things that Jesus wrote to the churches in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and 3. He's writing to churches, not to unbelievers. He's writing to churches who started well.

And many of them even walked straight for a while, but they had wandered off. Like Solomon, they had not continued to choose to draw near to God and to walk with God. And so they'd wandered off and Jesus called them to repent. He gave them promises, but the promises were conditional. They must overcome. They had to get right. They had to come back. They had to overcome. And then they would receive the promises that Jesus gave there in Revelation 2 and 3.

It matters how you finish. It's not just, hey, did you start good? Did you walk straight for a while? But are you walking straight today? And will you be walking straight at the finish line? As we head in now to the divided kingdom era of Israel's history, we're going to see a lot of bad kings and only a few good kings. And the few good kings that we find...

you'll see that most of them start out as good kings, but even the good kings at the end of their life do not finish well. And this is an essential reminder for us. This should be flashing in neon lights as we read about them, that we must take heed to finish well. Because there's many who start out well, but there's not very many who finish well.

It reminded me of the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 24, verse 24, when he says, But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Paul says, look, it doesn't matter to me if I get beaten, if I get put to death. The thing that matters to me is that I finish my race with joy.

that I fulfill the ministry that God gave to me. And that's the attitude and the heart that we need to have. And so the question I would ask you to consider this evening is how can you guarantee that you finish well? It's not how straight you walk. I'm sorry, it's not how high you jump. It's not just how straight you walk. But will you finish well? And how do you guarantee that? How do you make sure that you will finish well? Well, I would suggest to you, you live well today.

That you do your utmost to draw near to God today. Tomorrow you don't have control of. There's going to be a lot of things happening tomorrow that you're not even aware of yet. You can't anticipate. You can't speculate. You can't worry about that. Today's the day that you have control of. You need to walk with God today. Tomorrow it'll be today. So then today, tomorrow you can walk with God today.

And then Friday, well that'll be today too when it becomes Friday. And then you can walk with God today. But that's our responsibility is today walk with God. Not tomorrow I'm going to, but today. Live your best to walk with the Lord. Otherwise, you very well could end up like Solomon and not finish well.

Well, that's chapter 11. I won't spend that long on all the chapters, I promise. But it's an important lesson and we'll see that throughout our time in the book of Kings.

Here we have the adversaries of Solomon. So you can kind of get a picture here. They're in Edom. That's where Hadad was. And so he was oppressing Israel from the south and harassing Solomon. And then you have Damascus there in the north. And so he was oppressing Israel from that direction. And so Solomon was being afflicted. And those afflictions were intended by God to be a warning sign, to be an eye-opener,

hey Solomon, pay attention. Your heart's turned away from me. And it was an opportunity for Solomon to realize his mistake and turn and get right with God. But he did not take advantage of that. Well, that brings us to chapter 12, verse 19 is the key verse. It says, so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. So here we're going to see this divided kingdom.

In verses 1 through 5, Jeroboam comes to Rehoboam and asks for a lighter yoke. Solomon dies. His son Rehoboam now takes the throne. And so Jeroboam, the one who received the prophecy in the previous chapter, he comes on behalf of the northern portion of Israel and he says, give us a lighter yoke.

Remember back in chapter 4, Solomon's daily provisions, this, you know, insane amount of food that was required daily, and he required the different regions to provide one month at a time, you know, and so it was your responsibility this month. You had to provide all these daily provisions, and then the next month, it was the next groups, the next regions, and

So there was all of this provision that was being required, this taxation that was going on, as well as the labor in fulfilling and building all of the projects that Solomon was working on. And so now that's been a heavy load. And now Jeroboam says, okay, Rehoboam, your father laid it on heavy and

We want you to lighten the load. Lessen the tax. Lessen the requirements. Give us a break. We can't continue under these kinds of conditions. So verses 6-11, Rehoboam goes and gets counsel. First he seeks out the older guys. The guys who counseled his father. He heard what they had to say.

He didn't like what they had to say, so he rejected it. And he went to the younger guys and listened to what those guys had to say. And he liked their advice better. And so verse 12 through 15 records for us that Rehoboam heeds their advice. He goes back and he answers roughly. So Jeroboam comes back and says, okay, what's your decision? And Rehoboam says, hey, you thought it was hard under my dad. I'm going to make it much harder.

My pinky will be thicker than my father's waist. So, you know, magnitudes of 10 or more that, you know, it's going to be 10 times harder under my rule, under my reign than it was under Solomon's reign is what Rehoboam says. And so verse 16 through 24, that leads Israel then to rebel against Judah. And here the kingdom is split just as God said that it would be.

And so from here on out in the book of Kings, we're going to be dealing with two separate nations, two separate kingdoms. The northern part is going to keep the name Israel. So up to this point, as we've talked about Israel, we've talked about the whole territory, the land that they inherited as Joshua led them into the promised land.

But now Israel is specifically going to be referring to the northern kingdom, the northern part of the land that God had given to them. The southern part is going to be called Judah. And so you'll have Israel and Judah from here on out in the history of Israel. Well, Jeroboam is a little bit nervous about this split because...

The southern part, the nation of Judah now, is where Jerusalem was. So, of course, that's where the temple was. Jeroboam's in the northern part and he thinks, you know,

We're going to have some trouble later on down the road because people are still going to want to worship God. And in order to do that, they're going to have to go to the southern kingdom. They're going to have to go to the temple. And well, that might mean that they desire to reunite again one day. And I don't want them to reunite. So here's my plan. And he comes up with a plan. He makes two idols, one in the southern part of the kingdom and one in the northern part of the kingdom. And he tells them, here's your God.

Worship your God here. It's too much trouble to go all the way back to Jerusalem. So worship these gods. These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt. And so he causes Israel to participate and practice idolatry as he sets up these two idols. What I found really interesting about chapter 12 is the bad counsel that we find here. We have two examples of it. We have Rehoboam going and he gets counseled.

He gets good counsel, first of all, from the wise guys, the old guys, but he rejects that, and so then he gets counsel from the younger guys. And it's a good example for us, something that we need to learn, because we do this a lot, where we ask somebody, well, what do you think about this situation and this decision I have to make? And

Maybe we don't like what they have to say. So then we keep on asking people until we find someone who says what we want to say. You know, oh, finally, someone agrees with the decision I already wanted to do anyways. So we keep asking people till we find someone that tells us what we want to hear.

And that's what we see Rehoboam doing here. He rejected the counsel of the older men even before he'd heard the younger men. So it wasn't like he evaluated, okay, well, which one is, you know, is best for this situation? He heard the old guys and said, ah, no, that can't be right. I don't want to do that. Let me ask the guys who I grew up with. It's interesting. It talks about that. It's the guys that he grew up with.

And so, of course, they're going to think a lot more like he does because they were, you know, raised in the same circumstances. They were a lot like him. And so he seeks their counsel. And it's not surprising that they advise the thing that he already wanted to do. The important thing to look at here is that Rehoboam did not inquire of the Lord.

So he sought the older guys, he sought the younger guys counsel, but he never asked the Lord. He never sought God and said, God, what do you want to do in this situation? What is your counsel? It's an important lesson for us because we need to seek counsel, but we also need to verify with God whether or not it's good counsel. I think it's interesting to consider too, this idea is he sought the counsel from his friends, from the young guys that he grew up with.

It should cause us a little bit of pause when our only counselors are those that we grew up with. And I mean that either in a physical sense or a spiritual sense. You know, when it's, you're only going to the people that are your friends that, you know, you kind of grew up in the Lord together and they're your counselors. Well, that's good and you need to hear from the Lord to confirm. But

But maybe you should think a little bit outside of that because of course the people that you grew up with, the people that you kind of have grown in the Lord with, they're going to have a very similar perspective as you and it might be skewed. It might be wrong. And so reaching outside of that to other believers who will be faithful to the Word of God, who will be faithful to the truth and

who will tell you the truth, even if it's something that you don't want to hear, is a good idea. And so that's something to consider as you look at the bad counsel that Rehoboam receives. But then also Jeroboam receives bad counsel here in verse 28. It says that the king asked advice and he made two calves of gold.

So he got bad counsel too. He's worried about the, you know, people wanting to reunite with Judah. And so he gets counsel and they say, well, here's what we should do. Set up two altars, set up two idols.

Advice to disobey God is never good advice. You could write that down if you need to, okay? Advice to disobey God is never good advice. And I would add on to that, advice that keeps others away from God is never good advice. That's not of God, but it is the advice that Jeroboam received and he took heed to it.

Well, here you have the map of the divided kingdom. And so you can see here the northern part that retains the name Israel. That's under Jeroboam now. And then the southern part that's under the name of Judah. And so that's going to be under Rehoboam and continue on with the line of David as the kings of Judah.

The idols that Jeroboam set up were at Dan and Bethel. These are the northern most parts and the southern most parts of the kingdom. So he's making it very convenient for the people to go and worship. They can pick whichever one they're closest to and head there to worship these idols in those areas.

And then we also see that Jeroboam sets up his capital at Shechem. In his hometown there, he builds up Shechem and he begins to rule all of Israel from Shechem. And that's going to change throughout the Kings and we'll see that in the next couple chapters. Well, that brings us to chapter 13. Verse 2 is the key verse. It says, Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, "'O altar, altar!' Thus says the Lord."

In verses 1 through 10, we are introduced to an anonymous man of God who prophesies against Jeroboam.

He goes to Bethel. We just saw that, the southern part of Israel. And there's the golden calf there and he prophesies against it and prophesies against Jeroboam. Now the prophecy declares that Josiah will sacrifice priests and burn bones on that altar. And this prophecy is fulfilled about 300 years later and we'll see that when we get to 2 Kings chapter 23.

Well, then he goes on his way. And then in verse 11 through 19, it says that an old prophet brings the man home. So Jeroboam tries to get the guy, hey, let me reward you. Come have dinner with me. And the man of God says, nope, God told me not to have dinner with anybody.

And so he goes on his way. But the old prophet hears and so he sends for him and he says, Hey, come home with me. Have dinner with me. I want to hang out with you, spend some time with you. And this old prophet convinces the man of God to come to his home. He says, Oh yeah, God showed me. God spoke to me. I had an amazing experience. An angel appeared to me and the Lord said, Yeah, bring him home and have dinner with him. And so he convinces the man of God to come back and have dinner with him.

And during dinner, the old prophet now receives a real word from the Lord and he announces the man of God's death because of his disobedience to God. And so we have that recorded in verse 20 through 34 where it's fulfilled, the man of God dies. Again, great lessons to learn here from these examples. We learn here, don't listen to other people who tell you to do what God has told you not to do.

Just because someone comes to you and says, the Lord told me to tell you, or the Lord told me this is what you're supposed to do, you cannot let that override what you yourself have heard from God. This is what the man of God did. He heard from God. God said, don't eat with anybody. And because the guy said, the Lord told me, well, he responded. He went with the guy and had dinner with him. Now,

Jeroboam had tried reward. So, I mean, he gets a little bit of, you know, not reward, but, you know, he did good there. He didn't say, oh, you're going to give me some money? Okay, well, I'll go have dinner with you then. So he didn't compromise for some money, but he did compromise when someone else said, the Lord told me. And we need to be careful when somebody else is saying, well, God told me this is what you are supposed to do.

And it should never contradict or be contrary to what God has already spoken to us. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, unless they can back it up from the word, beware when others know God's will for your life. So someone walks up to you and says, God told me you're supposed to marry me. Where's Tania? Are you paying attention here? Okay. Make sure you yourself hear. You need to know. You need to hear from God.

Again, we see the important lesson that it matters how you finish. The prophet started well. He delivered the message. He denied the reward. He went on his way. But he didn't finish well. Because then he compromised when someone said, Hey, the Lord told me. And he disobeyed what God had instructed him. Well, that brings us to chapter 14, verse 20 is the key verse. Verse 20.

The period that Jeroboam reigned was 22 years, so he rested with his fathers. Then Nadab, his son, reigned in his place. Now as we go forward in the next few chapters, we're going to see a rapid succession of different kings, both from Israel and from Judah.

So in verses 1 through 18, we have the disaster that's announced on the house of Jeroboam. His son becomes sick. And so he sends his wife to Ahijah the prophet that's in Shiloh and says, you know, hey, is the son going to get better? Is he going to survive? And Ahijah says, no, not only that, but your whole house is going to be killed. And the prophecy that Ahijah gives is fulfilled in the next chapter, chapter 15 by Baasha, the king that's to come.

And so then we have in 19 and 20, Jeroboam's death. He reigned for a total of 22 years in Israel. And then looking at Judah, we see Rehoboam's reign and death in verses 21 through 31. So Rehoboam, he didn't do very good. In verse 22 of chapter 14, it says, "...Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed more than all that their fathers had done."

And so again we're seeing the spiral down now. The nation of Judah. The nation of Israel. They're already involved in idolatry. They've completely turned their back on God. The nation of Judah. They're also doing evil on the side of the Lord. They're also turning away from God. Although they had the temple. They had David's line on the throne.

But they weren't drawing near to God. They were continuing to turn away from God. And so they're engaging in idolatry and provoking God to jealousy. It's an interesting thing to consider. They're provoking God to jealousy. He's a jealous God. Which means he's jealous when other things get the devotion, the passion, the attention that belongs to him.

We are God's creatures. He created us. He deserves our full attention, our full devotion, 100% commitment to Him. That's what He deserves and He becomes jealous when we do not give that to Him. So when we're not fully sold out to God, when we're not fully committed to Him, we begin to divide our interests and our passions and our devotion between other things. Those are idols. Those are false gods.

And it makes God jealous because he deserves and we owe him all of ourselves. And so Israel or Judah rather is provoking God to jealousy by putting their attention, their passion, their devotion to these other things. We also see here in this portion that Egypt comes and takes treasure from the house of the Lord. And so you begin to see the decline. Under Solomon's reign, remember silver was as common as rocks.

But that's quickly going away. Now Egypt has taken away. They've already invaded Israel. They've already invaded Jerusalem. And they've taken away the treasures from the house of God. And so Rehoboam reigned for 17 years and then he died.

uh here you have where shiloh is this is where a hija the prophet was and so uh they they went there that's where jeroboam sent his wife to find out if the son would live and then uh here you also find that jeroboam has been ruling from tirzah so at first it was in shechem and he's moved the capital now to tirzah the capital is going to stay there for a couple of kings and then it'll move to samaria

Well, that brings us to chapter 15. Verse 14 is the key verse. It says,

Here in verses 1 through 8, we have a guy named Abijam, and he reigns in Judah. He reigned for a total of three years in Judah, not a very long reign. And then after him was Asa. Now these are continuing on in the line of David. So in the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom, David's line continued, and so it was always a person from David's line that was on the throne.

And so Asa is a descendant of David as well as Tom and Joanna. Just kidding. So Asa reigns in Judah and he reigned for a total of 41 years. He was considered a good king. Verse 11 says that Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as did his father David. And so he was loyal to the Lord. He walked with the Lord.

There was battles between Israel and Judah during this time. And we see that Asa sent money to Syria and hired them. And so Asa was loyal to the Lord. But we'll see as we get into Chronicles that the Lord was not pleased with this move where Asa hires Syria to deal with Israel instead of trusting God.

And so here's a good king, but again, kind of falling back on the point that we started with Solomon, he didn't necessarily finish that well. He started out good, but he was loyal to the Lord, but he wasn't fully trusting in the Lord as demonstrated by hiring Syria to deal with Israel.

Well then verse 25 through 32 we have a man named Nadab reigning in Israel. So notice the first two kings are Judah. Then the next two kings are Israel. We're going to be bouncing back and forth between Judah and Israel all throughout the book of 1st and 2nd Kings.

This is because it's trying to keep kind of the chronology, and so you have to go back and forth between them to follow the succession of kings. Nadab reigned for a total of two years, and he was killed by Baasha, who's the next king. And here the kingdom is switching. So under Jeroboam, it was his son who reigned. And so now Nadab, a descendant of Jeroboam, is on the throne. But Baasha kills Nadab.

And so now he takes the throne in verses 33 through 34.

And he reigns for 24 years, but he's not a descendant of Jeroboam. So now, you know, he's trying to switch dynasties, really. He's trying to switch the family. And so his family is going to reign, except for that's not going to happen because it doesn't last long. You'll see that here in chapter 16, verse 12. It says, "...thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet."

So here we have the continuation of Baasha's reign in Israel, verses 1 through 7. He reigned for 24 years total. And there was a prophet by the name of Jehu who came to him and announced the judgment for his sin. And that's fulfilled in verse 12 here. And we see that in verses 8 through 14. Eli reigns in Israel.

And Eli reigns for a total of two years. Again, not very long reign. He's killed by Zimri, who's the next guy now, changing lines again, not a descendant of Jeroboam. And so Zimri reigns in Israel in verses 15 through 20.

He had a really long reign. It lasted all of seven days. When he was going to be defeated by Omri, who is kind of the competing guy for the throne. So, you know, it's picture like, you know, the Democrats and Republicans, right, in our nation. And so Zimri was of one, Omri was of the other. And Zimri is like, hey, I'm the king. And Omri says, no, I'm the king. And now they're fighting against each other. Well, when

Zimri sees that he's going to lose. He burns down the house upon himself. He basically commits suicide and kills himself because he lost the election. And so he's not the king anymore. And so Omri reigns now in Israel, verses 21 through 28. He was the commander of the army at that time and he's made the king. And so again, the kingdom has switched now. And so now for a while, we're going to follow the line of Omri as the kings of Israel. He reigns for 12 years.

And then Ahab, his son, reigns in Israel in verses 29 through 34.

Ahab reigns for a total of 22 years. He's pretty famous. You've heard probably of Ahab quite a bit. He was considered the worst king of Israel, definitely up to that point. Then he also married Jezebel and brought Baal worship into Israel along with the golden calf worship that was continuing to go on. And Baal was considered the farm god or the storm god for the Canaanites.

And so they worshiped this God in order to have good crops and good weather and prosperity as a result. And they would worship Baal with animal sacrifice, with ritual type of meals, but as well as sexual immorality and prostitution were included in the worship of Baal as well.

And so Ahab, it says in verse 33, Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. And so again, we're seeing this great spiral, this great decline of God's people, both in the nation of Israel as well as Judah.

The capital is moved to Samaria. In verse 23 and 24, Omri moves the capital from Tirzah to Samaria. And so Samaria is going to be the capital for the remainder of Israel's history until Assyria comes and conquers them in a couple hundred years.

Jericho is rebuilt during this time as well and the prophecy is fulfilled. It was a prophecy that Joshua gave in Joshua 6.26 that whoever builds up this city, he's going to do it at the cost of his firstborn and his youngest child.

And so verse 34 here in chapter 16 tells us that that indeed took place. There's some uncertainty. So we don't know if he is attempting to do this and, you know, both his kids died as a result or, you know, in the process of building it. But also there's evidence that there were certain ways that people would worship God

in that they would put their kids in the foundation of things that they were building in worship of these gods to ask God to protect their city or protect their home and bless their home. And so they would put their kids in the foundation sometimes even while they were still alive. And so that also could be the way that this was fulfilled if he was worshipping a god in that manner.

Either way, his firstborn and his youngest died exactly the way that Joshua had declared back in the book of Joshua.

Well, that brings us to chapter 17, our final chapter for the evening. And here we're introduced to a man named Elijah. Verse 1 is the key verse. It says, And so verses 1 through 7 here, Elijah announces a drought.

Now, from here on out, we're going to see lots of different prophets within the picture and within the record. And then even if you consider the prophetic books that we have, like Jeremiah and Isaiah and these guys, these prophetic ministries, it was the purpose of the prophets where God was using them to call his people to repentance.

And so Elijah coming on the scene here, it's not a coincidence that it happens during Ahab's reign. Remember what it says, that Abraham, not Abraham, Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings before him. And so now the worst king in their history comes on the scene. At the same time, God sends Elijah.

Well, one of the greatest prophets, the prophet Elijah, on the scene at the same time. Why? Because God is using Elijah to call the people of God back to him, to call them to repentance. And so to begin this process, Elijah proclaims a drought. This drought is, well, it's

ordained by the Lord, where God is giving the people an opportunity to call out to Him and to turn back to Him. He's creating this need so that the people cry out to Him. But in addition to that, this drought is a direct confrontation with Baal.

who was believed to be, they worshipped him as the storm god. He was the god of the weather. And so if they didn't get the rains, they would worship Baal more. They would cry out to Baal more. And so this drought was proving Baal is not God at all. Because as much as the people would worship and cry out and cut themselves and do all the things that they would do to try to worship this god, there was no rain. And so Elijah declares this.

It's amazing here in this portion we also get to see that God provides for Elijah in the midst of the drought. He says, here, go to this brook. I'm going to provide for you. I've commanded the ravens, God says. This should be encouraging for us. God can provide for us any way he chooses. He says,

I've commanded the ravens. And God specifically says that to Elijah. I think that's so interesting. I've commanded the ravens. God can command the birds to bring us food and drink if he desires. He says, go here. I've commanded the ravens. I've got a fleet of ravens to come and to bring you food every day. Just like God provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness, he's providing for Elijah here by the ravens.

Well then verses 8 through 16, we have the account of the widow with her oil and flour. And so at this point, God moves Elijah to Zarephath, another city in the northern part of Israel. And so in doing so, God is now providing not just for Elijah, but also for this widow and for her son. And so...

He's providing for all three of them now through this flour and this oil, which doesn't run out. And so God is miraculously providing for them. I like what Weersbe has to say about this. He says, be sure to trust the provider and not the provision. Brooks dry up, but God never fails. Because he said, go to the brook Cherith, and there I've commanded the ravines, they're going to provide for you, but then the brook dried up. And so if Elijah was trusting in the brook,

And the provision, he would have been done. There was no more provision there. But if he was trusting in the God who provided, well then, God says, okay, time here is done. Now move up to this area and I'm going to provide for you in a different way. And so make sure that you trust the provider and not the provision. It's a good point.

Verse 17 through 24, we see the account of the widow's son who dies. And here Elijah does a great miracle in bringing him back to life. And so the widow's son is revived there at the end of chapter 17. Here's the areas where Elijah was provided for. On the right-hand side there, towards the bottom, you see the brook Cherith. It was a little brook that fed into the Jordan River. And it was very near, just basically right around the corner from where Elijah grew up.

uh as he was elijah the tishbite from gilead which is the region that uh that's in and so it was kind of in his hometown he's right there and god's providing for him but then the brook dries up and god says go to zarephath and that was far north actually outside of the territory of israel uh in the land of sidon and so uh it was up there that he went and there god provided for him the widow and her son all at the same time with the oil and flour that did not run out

Well, here's a quick timeline to give you a picture because the kings bounce back and forth and sometimes it's hard to follow. So here you have the top bar is the line of Israel, the kings of Israel. So it started with Jeroboam, then it went to Nadab, then Baasha, then Elah, and Zimri, then Timni, then Omri, and then Ahab. And so that kind of gives you the idea, the understanding of the succession of kings in Israel.

The kings of Judah are down at the bottom. So that's Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, and then Jehoshaphat. And so you can kind of see the proportion of the times that they reigned. We haven't talked about Jehoshaphat yet. We'll get into that as we continue on in Kings.

And then the middle bar is the prophet Elijah. So he ministered during the time of Ahab. He's going to pass it on to Elisha and we'll get to see that as we go forward. So that just kind of gives you a little bit of perspective on the different kings and when they reigned. To finish up this evening, I want to just come back to the first point with Solomon and remind you, encourage you, it matters how you finish.

As you consider what we studied this week, as you consider the Kings, as we continue to read this coming week, remember that it matters how you finish. The Lord spoke to the churches in the book of Revelation and He said, here's the promise to those who overcome. They're churches who started out great. They walked straight for a while, but they had wandered. They were churches. They were believers, but they had wandered. They needed correction. They needed repentance.

They'd left their first love. They'd involved themselves in idolatry. All kinds of things were going on in these churches. And Jesus is calling them back. He says, look, you guys got to finish well. You have to overcome. There's a need for us to overcome, to finish well. So how can you guarantee that?

that you will finish well. How can you guarantee that 10 years from now, you will be on fire, radical for Jesus, walking with God, seeking Him, pursuing Him with all of your heart? How can you guarantee that? When you see people like Solomon who fell, when you see churches like the churches in Revelation who've wandered, when you see believers that you and I have known and they've walked away from the Lord, how can you guarantee? How do you know for sure whether or not

or next week or next month or five years from now or ten years from now that you will be right with God. How can you know? How can you know? The only way to guarantee, guys, is to live well today. Think about it like a race. The author of Hebrews says, run with endurance the race that is set before you. When you're running a race, the objective is not to just run the last lap well.

You can't just say, you know, well, one day when I know it's towards the end, then I'm going to run well. That last lap, I'm really going to push hard. You can't do that. That's not the way to win the race. You know the way to win the race? Is to run each lap well. Run each lap well. You have to run each day for the Lord. And if you're living in compromise...

You're not running well. If you're living in sin, you're not running well. And there's a great danger that tomorrow or next week or next month, you're going to wander farther and farther. You're going to trip. You're going to stumble. You're going to take yourself out of the race. That's very likely if you continue on in sin. It's very likely if you're not choosing purposefully, intentionally to draw near to God.

To run or to win the race, you have to run each lap well. And if you stumble, then you need to get up and run well. Get up and get back in the race. The idea is not that you have to be perfect, but you got to keep on running well. You got to keep on leaning towards the finish. Keep on pushing.

drawing near to God. Keep on being faithful and diligent in your walk with God, in your time in the Word, in your time in prayer, in reaching out to others, in sharing the gospel, in your gathering together of the saints. And so much the more as you see the day approaching, the author of Hebrews says. And so I want to call out to you and just say, hey, let these be red flags and warnings for you. These are signs

Well, like Solomon, great man, great advantage. The wisdom that God gave him is overwhelming. But that's not a guarantee that he would walk with the Lord all the days of his life. That guarantee only comes by walking each day with the Lord. Not some days on, some days off. Walk each day. Each day committed to the Lord. Determined to walk with Him. Invite Him. Communicate with Him. Be about His business.

That's the way to know that you'll last the distance, that you'll finish well. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us to take heed as we see these examples. Many of these men started out well, but they stumbled, they fell aside, they walked away. I pray, God, that you would help us to finish well. And Lord, I pray for those who stumbled. Maybe even they just kind of barely made it here tonight, just stumbling in tonight.

Lord, I pray that You would strengthen them and encourage them. Lord, You're gracious and You're merciful. You're not calling us to quit and to give up, but You're calling us to get back in the race, to get back up, to draw near to You, to pursue that relationship with You. Lord, some of us have become too casual or lazy in our relationship and we're not as faithful as You've called us to be. I pray, Lord, that You would renew that fervency, that fire in those people

Lord, that they would draw near to you. That they would be passionate for you. That you would be first and foremost. That each day as they begin their day, that you would be the first on their mind. Lord, that they would make decisions. That they would choose based upon what you are speaking to their hearts and the counsel that you provide. Lord, that they would seek to honor you each day. Help us, God, to do that. To put you first. To live for you the best that we can. To run this lap, this day well.

that we might finish well. To stand before you and you declare, well done, good and faithful servant. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.