Kings

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All right. This is the lecture for the book of Kings, right? The fourth and final book in the former prophets, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings. Like Samuel before, the book of Kings is considered a single book. And so we're going to treat it as such, as a single book, even though we have First and Second Kings in our English Bible, it's actually going to be one big chunk, Kings.

Speaker 2 (00:33):

So the word comes from the Hebrew title, Melachim, which is just the masculine plural noun for Kings. The reason that this book is called Kings is because it really deals with all of Israel's kings after Saul and David, right? So it's going to be Solomon, then it's going to be Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and then it's going to be all the other Kings of the north and the south until we have the two great exiles in 722 and 586.

Speaker 2 (01:02):

Let me just give you a brief summary of the contents. The book of Kings records the reign of Solomon, which includes the building of the temple and the centralization of worship in Jerusalem. That's the first big thing, Solomon's reign and the building of the temple. It is the high point of Israel's monarchy and the final fulfillment stage of the Abrahamic covenant. The book of Kings also records the division of the kingdom into Northern and Southern kingdoms and the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Those will be two big memorable prophets in there. It then records the fall of the kingdom in 722, of the north and the fall of the south in 586. So we're going to go from the heights of First Kings eight, the dedication of the temple, the big party, Yahweh fills the temple with His glory and His presence, to the lowest part of the lows in First Kings 25, the destruction of that temple and the exile from the south. The exile and destruction of the temple.

Speaker 2 (01:55):

So ends then, at this time, the theocratic kingdom of God in Israel for all time. Because for them to have a theocracy, they have to have God in their presence and God never returns to the temple after He leaves. The next time Yahweh is in the temple is when Jesus walks into it, all right? In the new Testament. So the theocracy never is resurrected in that particular way.

Speaker 2 (02:16):

In terms of history and geography, it runs from the reign of Solomon, which begins in 971 BC to the Babylon exile in 586. This book takes place in Israel, both the Northern and the Southern kingdoms and Jerusalem is the central focus still. What we'll see is once we get past First Kings 11 and into the divided monarchy, there's going to be tales of the Northern king, some of the Southern kings, Northern kings, Southern kings back and forth until the fall of the north, then this will be just the Southern kings and then out.

Speaker 2 (02:48):

Once again, in terms of genre, the book of Kings is classic Hebrew narrative, and this is good. We've had a lot of... This book is once again, classic Hebrew narrative, but next time we get together we're going to be talking about poetry. So the prophets have a lot of poetry in them and in the writings we're going to have a lot of poetry. We're going to have wisdom poetry, praise poetry, wisdom narratives, all kinds of great stuff. So we're really going to get diversified as we get to the second half of the Hebrew Bible.

Speaker 2 (03:16):

The purpose of the book, I have three basic purposes for this book to pass along to you. The first purpose is the typological fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, the typological fulfillment, which is amazing because it happens faster than almost any other promise. If you think about the one to Abraham, it took 700 years. This only takes a few years until the kingdom is typologically fulfilled. The account of Solomon in First Kings two through eight, fulfills the word of the Lord to David in Second Samuel seven, that he'll have a son on his throne who will build a house. And that's Solomon and he builds a house.

Speaker 2 (03:52):

In Second Samuel seven, 12 through 13, it says, "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you." Now that's interesting, raise up, that's resurrection language. "Who shall come from your own body and I'll establish his kingdom. All right? He shall build a house for My name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." So it seems like Solomon is going to be the guy, but when he falls and the kingdom is split and the kingdom is destroyed, we know that this is referring to another person.

Speaker 2 (04:23):

I'm going to read it again, and I want to think of it not in terms of Solomon, but in terms of how it comes to fruition in the life of Jesus. "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you," that is the true son of David, "who shall come from your own body," that is, he will be a legitimate physical descendant, "and I'll establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name," not this physical house, but the one in heaven, "and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." It's great stuff. Great stuff. When you read that, you've got to be thinking of almost two tiers, the immediate one, that's temporary and typological one and the one that's coming, the eschatological permanent one.

Speaker 2 (05:03):

Secondly, the book of Kings importantly, explains why Israel went to exile and why the Davidic line was temporarily cut off. It was not because the Lord Himself could not keep His promises. In fact, Israel's destruction and exile was promised back in Deuteronomy 29 to 31. It's stated that if Israel did not obey the requirements of the covenant, then they would receive or experience the curses of the covenant, and the Lord is faithful to His word.

Speaker 2 (05:28):

Here is Second King's 17, seven, which is the fall of the north, and here's what it says. "And this," that is Israel's defeat and exile, "occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods." Idolatry. So this is very important because, remember that we're very concerned about God's name and reputation. And if He lets His people fall, does that mean that He was not strong enough or willing enough to save them? Couldn't He have just saved them from these Syrians? Yes. Couldn't He have defeated the Syrians? Yes. And He does eventually.

Speaker 2 (06:13):

But the whole point is, is that he's also being faithful to His covenant word, which says, God is being faithful to Himself, "If you disobey, I will cut you off and crush you." And so He is faithful to that word. So we can always be sure that God is faithful to His word, either to bless or to curse. Which is super important for the assurance of the believer. Because if we've seen the curse come down on Christ, then the promise to bless stands on us, and we know that God will keep His promise. So the book of Kings, it explains that. And in some sense, remember how all these books are covenant documents. And Judges, shows that Israel was unfaithful and Kings shows that the monarchy was also unfaithful. That they couldn't pull it off, even though they had all the resources to do so.

Speaker 2 (06:59):

So one is that the promises to David were immediately fulfilled in a temporary typological way. Two, Yahweh's judgment of Israel is just, and three, they remind us that the Mosaic covenant was also designed to be temporary and typological as a whole, pointing beyond itself to a new covenant with a faithful king and a better covenant mediator. Solomon is a type of that first Adam, he was a human king in the dwelling place of God, the Eden temple, with all the wisdom and the power, even knowing how to judge between good and evil, remember the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? That's the ability to judge and know how to distinguish between good and evil. So the only thing left to do is to obey the word of the Lord, and he failed just like Adam, thus corrupting the kingdom and leading Israel into exile. So Solomon is a second Adam figure as well, and he's a temple builder and he fails in his task to do so. And so it's removed from like... Once again, his seat will be exiled.

Speaker 2 (07:59):

Unlike Joshua or Judges and Samuel before, the author of Kings remains anonymous. So this whole corpus of the former prophets is anonymous. The date of the final composition of Kings is during the Babylonian exile sometimes after 586, but even longer than that, sometimes after 562 or 560, the time given for the release of Jehoiachin from Babylonian exile in the final chapter of Second Kings. So there's the exile, Jehoiachin goes into exile there and he's released in 560. So not released, he just gets out of prison and gets to hang out with the king there until he dies. Second Kings does not mention the fall of Babylon, the rise of the Persian empire or the decree of Cyrus. So it's likely written before that. Does that make sense? So it's an exilic book, but early exilic. Early exilic book.

Speaker 2 (08:53):

One of the things that's important to note in the book of Kings are the frequent citations from court records used as sources for the composition of Kings. So whoever wrote Kings had access to the royal court documents. So for example, there is mention there, the annals of the kings of Judah, the annals of the kings of Israel and the book of the annals of Solomon. All right? So you've got all these sources that the author's writing from. So we know that the facts or recording are true and good. They've got the sources. It's in some sense what the documentary hypothesis critics wanted to know about for the Pentateuch. What sources did Moses get at the Sinai public library to use?

Speaker 2 (09:35):

Basic outline. The basic outline I've got up here on the board for you. There's basically three parts. There's first, the reign of Solomon in First Kings one to 11. And there is a very important form to that I'll show you in a minute. Then from First Kings 12 to Second Kings 17, we have the divided kingdom. That's when you have a Northern Israel in, Samaria and a Southern Judah in Jerusalem. Then you have, in the midst of that account right here, we have the ministries of Elijah and Elisha climaxing in the Syrian exile. And these were two non-writing prophets whose job was to prepare Israel for exile. They were the last prophetic attempt to get Israel to repent and to follow the Lord. After that, we have only the kingdom of Judah left. And so we're going to have some good kings and bad kings, some reforms, some not good reforms. You'll have people like Josiah and Hezekiah that are good, but then you'll have some other bad Kings, which will culminate in Second Kings 25, the loss. All right? It's a dark chapter there.

Speaker 2 (10:43):

Let's first look together at the reign of Solomon. I've got it outlined over here for you, so you can see that there's an A, B, B, A pattern. So the life of Solomon is highly patterned. And so I wanted to point that out to you. You don't have to memorize this or anything. This is what I have my students memorize on this side, just to help them out. But there's this one over here. And so it helps us.

Speaker 2 (11:02):

So notice how there's a patterning that goes on. So it begins with Solomon's kingdom in crisis. There's a rival king, Adonijah, his brother and there are some rival enemies. So some of David's internal enemies from Jerusalem are going to give him some troubles. And it's funny the way David says it, "Hey, when I die, remember this guy, he gave me a little grief. And if he happens to fall on a bar of soap, it's okay." Slipping on a bar of soap, kind of that. And then Solomon makes it happen. So because you've got to establish the kingdom. You've got to establish the kingdom, that usually comes through conquering.

Speaker 2 (11:36):

Then Solomon's reign is divided into 20 year segments. He reigns for 40 years, but there's two 20 year segments. There's the first 20 years and the second 20 years. And they're both marked by where the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream. And the first one is very famous, it's where the Lord says, "Hey," it's like Aladdin, "I'll give you anything you want." And Solomon makes a wise decision. So you have, in the first 20 years, the Lord appears to Solomon and he asks for wisdom. Then Solomon demonstrates his wisdom with women. Remember the two who women come with one baby and they both say, "It's mine." And then he says, "Cut the baby in half." And the woman whose baby, it really is she says, "You can have it." Because she wanted to keep the baby alive and Solomon became very famous by that demonstration. Then Solomon's wise administration of the kingdom, the way in which he appointed builders and tax collectors and stewards and just was an amazing administrator. He uses wisdom, which is a skill, to administer the kingdom of God wisely and skillfully.

Speaker 2 (12:36):

Then he builds two houses. He builds two houses. He builds his own great palace, and then he builds the temple. So remember, when you've got earthly kings, right? When you've got earthly kings you have to have a house for the king and a house for the God. Notice in the new heavens and the new earth there's only one temple, and it says, there really is no temple. Jesus is the temple. So you've got the God and the king are one again, that tabernacle experience. All right? So those pictures and the number of houses are symbolic. These are very positive years. The climax is in First Kings eight, with the dedication of the temple, Solomon's lengthy prayer, blessings and the biggest ancient [inaudible 00:13:18] barbecue, you could ever imagine, thousands and thousands of sheep and oxen, slaughtered gifts given to all the people. From where I were living, it'd be the biggest crawfish boil in the world. But if you were in Texas, it'd be the biggest barbecue of all time. That what it was.

Speaker 2 (13:36):

Then we get into Solomon's second 20 years. And again, it begins with the Lord appearing to Solomon, but this time it's not to ask if he wants anything, but it's to warn him. And it goes something like this, "Now that I have established your kingdom. And now that I've blessed you and prospered you, and now that you have this great house of my presence, you must obey. And if you don't obey, I'll take it all away from you." And that's what happens. And so he's warned. Then Solomon's administration again, with the king of Tyre and all that business, appointing officers and army officials. He is doing, what Adam should have done. He is ruling, subduing, filling. Ruling, subduing and filling. He's doing very endemic stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:22):

Then Solomon's wisdom, which is put on display to women, the queen of Sheba comes and visits him. And Solomon's going to be a wisdom collector. He's going to be a wisdom writer. He's going to write songs and poems. He's going to do all kinds of things like... He's going to analyze animals and plants and birds and fish and write and discuss all about those things. He's going to be the ultimate Renaissance man. The ultimate Renaissance man. But then, Solomon divides two houses at the very end here, we'll see. That is the end of First Kings 10, at the beginning of First Kings 11, it describes Solomon's ministry in very negative terms, which will culminate in the one house of God, the one people of God becoming two.

Speaker 2 (15:07):

And then you have, look at this, David's external enemies come back, not internal, but external and a rival king again, Jeroboam, son of Nebat, which is totally rough because Solomon's son, Rehoboam, becomes the king in the north. And I always get Rehoboam and Jeroboam confused. There's always those things in my mind, and I can never get the difference between them. So I got to think of a mnemonic device, J before R. So Jeroboam, but it's Jeroboam, the son of Nebat who comes.

Speaker 2 (15:35):

And what's interesting here, and I won't have time to do it later, so I'll tell you now, is the way in which Jeroboam becomes king of the north is the exact same way in which David usurped Saul in his ministry. Here you have Rehoboam is the king at the time, but he sends Jeroboam to be the rival king. Rehoboam, the true king, persecutes Jeroboam, the rival king, who has to flee for a while. And then he comes back and he rules. The way in which Solomon's kingdom is undone is the same way in which Saul's kingdom was undone. So it's going back. It's showing you, the correspondence between the two, in the way in which it's done, there's parallelism there.

Speaker 2 (16:22):

So let's look a little bit at the life of Solomon. Solomon is the promised offspring of David who had build Yahweh's house, the temple. This is the greatest achievement and the climax of the second section of the narrative. It is interesting to note that David's two major sins recorded in the book of Samuel, adultery with Bathsheba and the taking of the census shaped this account underneath the current of the storm. Solomon is the child of that union. And the location of the temple was purchased after the plague of the census that ceased at the place to offer sacrifice. This either shows the underlying corruption of the whole system or that God is pleased to work for our good, even in the midst of our sin and folly or perhaps both. So scholars want to know, does this symbolize the underlying corruption of the system that's going to break from the very beginning, which it does, or is this God really using, what I said, catastrophe and changing it into eucatastrophe, but maybe both are somewhat true. We know that the Lord appears twice to Solomon, once for wisdom, once for judgment.

Speaker 2 (17:21):

I'm going to read to you, and we're going to talk about Solomon's career. And I'm going to read to you the second appearance of the Lord to Solomon, because the first one is very well-known, but the second one is not. And so it appears in First Kings, nine verses four to nine. Where it says, "And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and rules, then I will establish your throne over Israel forever as I promised David your father, saying, "You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.""

Speaker 2 (18:01):

Turning point, verse six, "But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I've set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among the peoples. And this house," the temple, "will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss. And they will say, "Why has the Lord done this to the land and to this house?" Then they will say, "Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid ahold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, the Lord has brought all this disaster on us.""

Speaker 2 (18:46):

Now that last part right there is what I read to you earlier from Second Kings 17. They're quoting that back here, this is the use of the Old Testament in the Old Testament. They're saying that, why is this all happened? Because it was Israel that disobeyed not because the Lord was unable to save, a major theme in the book of Kings. In the end, Solomon did not obey and most of the kingdom was torn away from him after he died. So we have to remember how this happened from the laws of kingship. Now we outlined those laws in the last time, they had qualifications, restrictions and then requirements. Qualifications, restrictions and requirements.

Speaker 2 (19:25):

And what we see is that he was qualified, but he violated the restrictions. He was qualified, but he violated the restrictions. And it appears that he kept the requirements at the end like he did with a major tour study guy, he was a good academic, but even that couldn't save him. It's almost like the Pharisees, you diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you have eternal life, but these scriptures testify to me, and you refuse to come to me. So you can be a master of the content without being changed by the message. So just because someone's a master of the content doesn't mean they've grasped the message.

Speaker 2 (20:00):

So I want to read you a couple of texts here, very quickly. And you can write these down because these are the quick way to assess Solomon's ministry. You remember that the Lord prohibited the king from having many horses, especially from Egypt, many wives because they'll lead his heart astray, and then much wealth. And I'll put it this way, let's see, in First Kings 10, 26, it says, "And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king of Jerusalem. And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king's traders received them from Kue at a price." So he's a weapons dealer. You can think of it that way. So not only does it say he had a lot of chariots and horses, but he got them from Egypt. The specific mention of that back in Deuteronomy 17.

Speaker 2 (20:55):

Next, First Kings 10, 23, "Solomon excelled all of the other kings in the earth in riches and wealth. Or in riches and wisdom." Which means he just didn't have a lot of money, he was the richest guy in town. Wives, we already mentioned this. He had 700 wives who were princesses. That means those royal wives and 300 concubines, that means the hot ones he liked. And his wives turned away his heart. That's exactly how it would have worked. We'll talk about that, because you had a harem, and the harem complex had two different parts. There was the house of the virgins and they were the women in training, and then there was the house of the queens and concubines. So if you made it from this house to that house, you had to go through Solomon's bedroom. And once you got into this house, you never got out, you could never leave, even if you were just with the king one time. Think of Esther, for example, and how that was.

Speaker 2 (21:48):

In Esther we'll see, it was a one year training program, six years of perfumes and ointments, and, sorry. Six months of perfumes and ointments, and then six months of spices. And then they trained you how to please the king. So that you might be able to go to the king once, and then even maybe more than once and go into that. All right? And Esther really pleased him. We'll talk about that later as well.

Speaker 2 (22:07):

Now, that was the plan of Xerxes in Persian, and he was not quite the king that Solomon was. So you can imagine whatever Xerxes had, Solomon had it much bigger. Much bigger. And that's actually Solomon's harem, is the background for the Song of Songs later. So keep that in mind. The woman in the song has been caught up into Solomon's harem.

Speaker 2 (22:30):

What's the result of Solomon's horses and wealth and especially wives? Well, think of this, when he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and it says, and his wives turned his heart away. Because for all of his wives he built cultic sites and offered sacrifices and he'd go with them and worship with them, and stuff like that. So what is the Lord's assessment?

Speaker 2 (22:50):

"Therefore," in First Kings 11, 11, the Lord said to Solomon, "since this has been your practice and you have not kept my commandments and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you. And will give it to your servant." And you have to remember, right here, Jeroboam worked for Solomon. He was like David working for Saul. Does that make sense? And he excelled in the kingdom, and Solomon promoted the heck out of him because he was such a fine administrator. And the Lord said, "I'm going to make this guy your boss." For the next, reverse it. Well, after the death of Solomon, the 10 northern tribes break away from Judah and Jeroboam, son of Nebat, N-E-B-A-T, Jeroboam, son Nebat is made king.

Speaker 2 (23:31):

Now what did Jeroboam do to celebrate his kingship? First, the Lord appeared to him, let me just put this part here, if I don't have it. First Kings 11, 28, "The man Jeroboam was very able. When Solomon saw the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph," that would have been Ephraim and Manasseh. "And at that time, when Jeroboam went out to Jerusalem, the Prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, found him on the road," just like they found Saul on the road.

Speaker 2 (23:59):

"Now, Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country, then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into 12 pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself 10 pieces, for thus says, the Lord, the God of Israel, "Behold, I'm about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you 10 tribes.

Speaker 2 (24:17):

But he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant, David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen out of all the tribes because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of Sidonians, Chemosh, god of the Moab, Milcom, god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what's right in my sight and keeping my statues and my rules, as David his father did. Nevertheless, I will not tear the whole kingdom from his hand, but I'll make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David, my servant, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes, but I will take," it's repetitive, I know, "the kingdom out of his hand, and will give it to the 10 tribes. Yet to his son, I will give one tribe that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen to put my name.

Speaker 2 (25:02):

I will take you, and you shall reign over all your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statues and my commandments as David, my servant did," listen to this, "I will be with you and I will build you as a sure house as I built for David. And I'll give Israel to you, and I'll flick the offspring of David, because of this, but not forever." Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. So just like David fled to the Philistines.

Speaker 2 (25:37):

Notice the great big promise that He makes to Jeroboam, that He will establish him and his house, just like He did for David. He's offering him a David like covenant as an amazing promise, and his response is, what we're going to do gang, is we're going to make two golden calves. Not again, and we're going to put one in the south and one in the north. That way, no one has to go to Jerusalem and worship anymore. Because they don't want people to go to Jerusalem, and think, "Oh, Judah is the right place to worship, Jerusalem is the right place." And so they build their own places of worship, and this really enrages the Lord. And then that's the beginning of the end. He becomes a super idolator.

Speaker 2 (26:19):

And one of the things we'll see then is that all of the kings, from this time on are going to be evaluated in one way or another like this, they walked in the ways of David, my servant or they walked in the ways of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. That's how we're going to measure all the kings from here on out. So you can just think of that in your mind, is this king walking in the ways of David, my servant or Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? And Jeroboam is the one who established idolatry, the golden calf shrines in the north. And they were there till the very end. They were there till the very end.

Speaker 2 (26:52):

Now, what this means and I want you to focus on this a little bit, is I want you to notice that in this economy of the Mosaic administration, perfect obedience is not required by anyone at all times, even though it's a theocratic economy. There's a sacrificial system built in there to atone for sins, and to cover over things until the right time should come for them to be finally done. But the one thing that makes the Lord mad, and the one thing that provokes Him to anger and judgment is idolatry. That is when you worship anything else besides Him. So we never have David worshiping any other god in the accounts. So even though David sins greatly in his life, his kingdom is not torn from him, one, because Yahweh sovereignly appointed it to him. But it says David was faithful in my house, Moses was faithful in my house. Moses made mistakes he got kicked out of the physical kingdom, he couldn't go into the land. Just like that generation. But he wasn't an idolator. So that's the thing. And what that means is, they weren't fully consecrated to the Lord.

Speaker 2 (27:57):

So in terms of the marriage covenant that we see, I'm going to make a lot of mistakes in marriage, but that doesn't mean I'm not fully devoted to my wife. I'm devoted as a mistake maker, but I'm going to keep running in the same direction. Solomon's activities, and all of these bad kings' activities is to be a mistake maker, but instead of mistake making in the right direction, you stumble and get up and keep running, they stumble and they run a different way. Because they think, "Oh, it's easier to run down that hill." Or, "It's easier on the street." Or maybe I'll get in this kind of vehicle or in that kind of vehicle, and they do the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (28:29):

So it's not that they're requiring perfection, it's that they're requiring fidelity to the marriage covenant. Which is fidelity to the covenant in a way that is appropriate for that context. So I don't want you to think that... I want you to have that appropriate balance when it comes to who is sinning and who's doing what and why they're saying it. Idolatry is the thing, every time in the book of Judges, when the Lord's provoked anger, it's not because someone fails to keep a Sabbath or doesn't celebrate the Passover, it's because they're worshiping other gods. And entering into those practices. 100% of the time, there's not one exception.

Speaker 2 (29:04):

Once we get to the divided kingdom, in First Kings 12, there are 19 kings in the north, until the end. From the divided kingdom, 722, 19 kings, and not one of them is good. They all walk in the path of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. In the south, there are 20 kings. Some are good, some are bad and good and some are bad. And it's very much like the book of Revelation, the churches. Some seem to be pretty good, some seem to be mixed, some seem to be way off their rockers. Does that make sense? And so it's like that mixed remnant community. They are weighed against the faithfulness of David or the unfaithfulness Jeroboam, son of Nebat every time. So that's the mantra you're going to get. It's like having a scale, when they get on the scale that says David like or Jeroboam like or Eglon like.

Speaker 2 (29:54):

In the midst of this time, these two prophets show up, in the divided kingdom and they work in the north, but they have interactions with both the northern and southern kings. They work in the north, but they have interactions, both with northern and southern kings. The ministry of Elijah and his miracles pointing back to Moses and he serves as a picture of the coming exile. In the first narrative episode in First Kings 17, he moves to Phoenicia, north of Israel, in the Mediterranean coast, and he lives with a widow and her son, so non-Israelites. And in the midst of Israel's three year drought that he is supposed to prophesy, until this happening, he miraculously provides food and water for the widow and her household, and he raises her son from the death and then returns to Israel, to exterminate the prophets of Baal. Then in his last narrative episode, he parts the Jordan River, exits the promised land in the same way Israel entered the land with Joshua and is taken up to heaven in a fiery furnace... In fiery furnace, that's Daniel. In a fiery chariot of God, gone from the land.

Speaker 2 (30:58):

By way of summary, he's preparing Israel for exile and his ministry is condemning the worship of Baal and Asherah, these are the big ones. So he predicts this three year famine, which is judgment on the land, according to Deuteronomy. He flees out of the land, and he takes care of foreigners. Providing for the widow and the orphan. So it's miraculous provision, and even resurrection. Notice how resurrection is one of the first things that we're going to see as a key symbol for this period of time, for return from the exile.

Speaker 2 (31:31):

And what he does is he goes there, he provides for them, then he does the resurrection thing, and the woman says, at the end of that chapter, it's first Kings 17, "Now I know that you are a man of God and the word in your mouth is true." That's the narrative conclusion. How do we know Elijah is the true prophet of God? He can do miraculous things like Moses did, he can raise from the dead. And now she knows the word is true, which is good, because that's what validates his prophetic ministry when he begins to work with the prophets of Baal, the next chapter. So that's what he does.

Speaker 2 (32:03):

Now the way in which he does a lot of great things, and he does a lot of amazing things. But his last thing is important, because as a prophet who's preparing God's people for exile, his route down is intricately described. And it's the route backwards from Joshua's occupation. So they come in at the south and go up to the north. Well, he's coming down from the north and going out at the same place at the Jordan River, Jericho. This is symbolic of, we're going to undo what Joshua did for you and you're going to go into exile. And he takes him up into heaven. So which is a little bit of like, Enoch walked with God and was no more. These are the two guys that got taken up. So they didn't experience death. He didn't experience the exile, he experienced the real return.

Speaker 2 (32:45):

Now, Elisha, so it's tough, Elijah with a J is the first one, Elisha, is his successor, the one who has a double portion of Elijah's ministry. What it means by double portion is this, let's say you're the patriarch, Jacob and you have 12 sons. Then when you divide your belongings, when you divide your inheritance, you make it into 13 shares. And the firstborn gets two shares, and you roll out the rest. It's not that Elisha has double Elijah, but the double share is part of it, but it shows that he's the true heir of Elijah, does that make sense? Elijah.

Speaker 2 (33:28):

So he is the successor, and his job is directionally different than Elijah's job. He's going to get us ready to experience a return from exile. A return from exile. So he takes Elijah's cloak, rolls it up, smacks the Jordan River, crosses over, the miraculous thing again. So there's all these crossing things. And then he goes back up, after he curses the boys with the bear, because they called him baldy, and he goes back up symbolizing that once again, there will be a return from exile. So do you see how their ministries are prophetic, not in their words, but in their acts?

Speaker 2 (34:04):

When we get into the prophets, the latter prophets or the writings next, we'll talk about sign acts or [inaudible 00:34:09] prophecies. So for example, Isaiah has to walk around naked or Jeremiah has to dig a hole wall and go in and out. And those are symbolic of things. So what they're doing is symbolic. Exile, return from exile. Do you see how that works? Those are the pictures there.

Speaker 2 (34:23):

So the ministry of Elisha, and his miracles point forward more to Jesus. More of what Elijah does looks Mosaic and more of what Elisha does looks like Jesus a little bit. There's some mixing, but in general, that's what's going on when you read it. The ministry of Elisha and his miracles point forward to Jesus and he serves as a picture of hope for return from exile. He begins his ministry by parting the Jordan River and crossing back into the promised land.

Speaker 2 (34:46):

And there's a last narrative episode, he's actually dead and buried. So this is a very funny thing. I don't know if you know this. I mean, Elisha does a lot of funny things, calls down a bear to maul some kids, heals leprosy, raises from the dead, all kinds of things. But one of his best miracles he does is once he's dead. It says when he dies, he dies in Second Kings 13, and I'll just read it. "So Elisha died and they buried him. Now the Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year." It's like spring break for them, "Let's go invade Israel." And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen. And the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha." So they were out burying this guy, the marauding Moabites come, they panic and they just toss him into Elisha's grave. That's what happened. And it says, "As soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha," which means Elisha has been dead for a while. It says, "He revived and stood on his feet." His greatest miracle was done when he was dead, even his bones.

Speaker 2 (35:47):

Now, what does that mean then? So he experienced resurrection. Does that make sense? Resurrection. Now notice that one of the first miracles of Elijah was resurrection. And one of the last miracles of Elisha was resurrection, pointing to the fact that ultimately, the true return from exile that we're ever going to be able to experience is in the resurrection. And that's what it says in the book of Hebrews, "So that they might be raised with us to receive something better." That's resurrection language.

Speaker 2 (36:15):

And this is the same thing the Lord tells Daniel. Daniel's been in Babylon for 70 years, he's tired of this place, he wants to go home. And think about it, he's been living in the king's palace and serving. And so it's not like he's been out working in the fields all his life for manual labor and he's getting older, and he can't it do anymore. He's got a very comfortable life, but he longs to be in the place of God's presence. That place. And to return from exile because he was reading, of course, Jeremiah 25 and it said, "You're only going to be in exile for 70 years," but that was a symbolic number. And then it says, "Oh, it's going to be seven 70s weeks of yours." And he's like, "Uh, bummer for that."

Speaker 2 (36:51):

And Daniel says, "How long Lord, until we can go home?" And He says, "But as for you, Daniel, go your way to the end," and he has to seal up the book and not tell anybody about it." He says, "And as for you, Daniel, go your way until the end, and you shall rest. And then you shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days." So even Daniel's hope, like the Lord says, "Yeah, I told you seventy years, but that's a symbolic number at this point, and really, you're going to receive your inheritance after you rest, and then you stand." So resurrection, even one of Job's hopes is that he knows that the Lord can resurrect a man. And so he's got hope, even after the grave. And so that's his hope.

Speaker 2 (37:31):

So that's great that the Lord is telling us through Elijah and Elisha and Daniel and people like Job, and even the psalter, that the ticket home, for return from exile is the resurrection. If we need a new Exodus, to get to the new land, like that's what Jesus did, and then how did he get home? Resurrection. Because then he ascended home. Does that make sense? And so that's how we're going to do it as well.

Speaker 2 (37:56):

So it says here in Hebrews 11, 35B and 39, "Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. And all these, though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised. And God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect." We've read that before. But it applies over and over again. You can see how programmatic some of these texts are. The life of exile in this world is a life of waiting and hoping. Waiting and hoping. And not only that, but waiting and hoping and trusting in the promises of God.

Speaker 2 (38:32):

And you can be guaranteed that you will receive your inheritance, think about Abraham. He was promised this so long ago, and it took over 700 years just to get to the land. Well, he knew the land was not the land. Does that make sense? He knew the offspring was not the offspring. He knew it was something better and greater. And that's what caused him to hope and have endurance. That's why these things are written for our instruction, that we might endure and persevere, according to Paul.

Speaker 2 (38:58):

So the book of Kings and the gospel promised beforehand, Solomon was the first offspring of David to build God's house and to secure the rest of the land, a type of someone greater to come. Jesus is the ultimate seed of David who came to build God's house and secure the rest of his people's inheritance. Luke 11, 31 says, "The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, behold, someone greater than Solomon is here."

Speaker 2 (39:27):

John two, 18 to 21, "So the Jews said to him, "What sign will you show us for doing these things?" Ans Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in a day?"" but he was speaking about the temple of his body, Jesus is the true and better than Solomon, Jesus is the true and better temple. Revelation 21, 22, "And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb."

Speaker 2 (39:58):

Jesus is the true and better Solomon, the true and better temple, he is the true and better faithful king who obeyed his father perfectly. He was exiled in death so that we can return home in resurrection. That is the gospel prophesied beforehand in the book of Kings.

Speaker 2 (40:11):

All right. That's the end of that lecture. So much more we could do in the life of Elijah and Elisha. But that gives you I think, a pattern and a construct to go back and to read those narratives fruitfully and faithfully and to make good use of them. Questions.

Speaker 3 (40:29):

So Yahweh's presence wasn't in the temple again, after Solomon's temple was destroyed, is that-

Speaker 2 (40:35):

Correct.

Speaker 3 (40:36):

Even when they came back from exile and Herod's temple and-

Speaker 2 (40:39):

Yeah. We have no accounts of the Lord's presence filling that temple. And remember, that was the big deal in Exodus 40, with the tabernacle. And in First Kings eight, at the temple. The only thing that made it the Lord's palace is that the Lord actually physically dwelt there. And so if you have a rebuilt temple with rebuilt walls and a rebuilt foundation, and there's no smoke inside of it, you know what I mean? It's not the right one. It's not the right one. It's not a theocracy.

Speaker 5 (41:08):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:08):

It's just an expensive building project.

Speaker 4 (41:12):

Thank you for listening to this lecture, brought to you by biblicaltraining.org. Your prayers and financial support enable us to provide a biblical and theological education that all people around the world can access. Blessings, as you continue to study and live out your faith and as you grow in your relationship with the Lord.