Recap

So far in 1-2 Kings we've read through Solomon's reign and the splitting of the kingdom. David was old and dying. His son Adonijah seized on this weakness and set himself up as king. In response, David declared Solomon as king, thwarting Adonijah's attempt at the throne. David encouraged Solomon to be faithful and loyal to God, but then told him to kill all of his enemies.

Solomon then killed his brother Adonijah, as well as Joab and others. He married an Egyptian woman, despite the fact that Deuteronomy 7 warns that intermarrying with other nations would lead them to worshipping, foreign gods. It was looking bad for Solomon's reign. But then Solomon asked God for wisdom to rule well, and God blessed him with wisdom and wealth. We read the first example of Solomon using this wisdom as he judged rightly between two women claiming the same baby as their own.

Solomon established order and structure to his kingdom. He appointed different leaders across Israel. We also read of how he became famous for his wisdom and how Israel began to flourish. Then Solomon started building the temple for God, forming a trade deal with the king of Tyre. The temple was built, along with Solomon's own house. He brought the Ark of the Covenant into the temple and consecrate it to God. God met with Solomon a second time and warned him to remain faithful. We then read through an overview of Solomon's reign, which was marked with wisdom and flourishing, but also saw Solomon begin to hoard for himself and enslave the remaining Canaanites to build his infrastructure.

Then yesterday we read as Solomon gathered for himself many foreign wives who led him to worship foreign gods. God rebuked Solomon and told him that once he died, his kingdom would be split in two. Rehoboam replaced Solomon and told the people he would be harsher than his father, which caused the northern tribes to split and start a new kingdom, with Jeroboam as their leader. Jeroboam led the northern tribes to worship idols in their own places of worship.

1 Kings 14-16

We've now entered the part of the book that lists the king that came after Solomon. For the most case, this is just pure history; facts, names, and dates. Occasionally, we get a specific story. There are a few things to focus on though. The kings of Israel are all bad. All of them cause the people of Israel to turn away from God. However, some of the kings of Judah do end up being good, and those kings tend to reign a little longer. Keep an eye out for those. We also see God guide these kings and his people through prophets.

Jeroboam, the new king of Israel, finds out that his son is deathly sick and sends his wife, in a disguise, to find out what is going to happen from the prophet Ahijah. Ahijah immediately knows who it is and tells her that not only is the son going to die, but all of Jeroboam's family are going to be killed and his kingdom is going to be given to someone else. As Jeroboam's wife returned home, the son dies. After sometime Jeroboam dies and his other son Nadab takes his place.

Meanwhile, in Judah, Solomon's son Rehoboam is doing badly. He's setting up altars and pillars to other gods and getting Judah to worship them. During his reign, the people of Egypt come and sack Jerusalem, taking all the gold out of the temple. Rehoboam replaces the gold things with bronze things.

Eventually, Rehoboam dies, and his son Abijam becomes king. Abijam also did evil and reigned for three years before dying. Then his son Asa became king. Asa did good. He got rid of the altars that his grandfather Rehoboam set up and let his people back to God. He reigned for 40 years.

During his reign, Baasha, king of Israel (we'll get to him) waged war on Asa. Asa made the poor choice of taking the riches out of the temple to pay the Syrians to fight against Baasha. Asa chose to turn to foreign kings rather than seek God's help. Eventually, Asa dies and his son, Jehoshaphat, becomes king.

Back to Israel, Nadab is king but he does evil. He only lasted 2 years. A man named Baasha murders Nadab and takes his place, going on to murder all of Jeroboam's family, just as Ahijah predicted. Baasha was also an evil king, and another prophet called Jehu came to Baasha to tell him what happened to Jeroboam would now also happen to him, because of his disobedience.

Baasha eventually dies, and his son Elah became king. He was king for 2 years before his servant, Zimri, murders him and becomes king, killing all the family of Baasha. Zimri was king for 7 years, but there were plenty unhappy that Zimri had killed Elah, and so there was an uprising. Zimri was overthrown and Omri became king. After Omri comes his son Ahab who continued to do evil.

The northern kingdom is marked by short royal lines, as many of their kings are assassinated and overthrown. Rather than leading the people to follow God, the kings just fight for power and lead the people to worship foreign gods instead.

Psalm 98

This psalm is not attributed to anyone, and falls into the category of praise psalm. Is part of a small collection of psalm (Psalm 93-99) that focus on God as king.

Psalm 98:1-3 - Sing the Lord a new song of his great works

Psalm 98:4-6 - Make music all the earth before the king

Psalm 98:7-9 - Let creation submit before its kings

The psalmist starts with a call to sing of God’s great works. He is a God of salvation and righteousness for all to see. He has been faithful and loving to the people of Israel, but all the people of the earth may experience his salvation.

The psalmist then encourages all the earth to make music and sing before their king. The language suggests a time of festival and celebration with musical instruments and singing.

Finally, the psalmist turns to creation itself. May the seas, rivers, and hill all roar, clap and sing. Why? Because the Lord is coming to lead the world. The psalm uses the term ‘judge’ much like Israel’s judges led them. He will lead with righteousness.

Like many of the psalms in this section, this psalm focus on the praise God deserves as king over all the earth. All peoples and all creation should sing and make joyful sounds because of his power and salvation.