Chapter 1
First verse:
1 Now King David was old and advanced in years. And although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. [1Ki 1:1 ESV]
Just like Dad.  No amount of warm clothes could get him warm.
For David, they got a beautiful young woman to sleep in his "bosom", and so keep him warm.  And he knew her not.  It was just about body heat.

Adonijah, the next oldest son after Absalom and the fourth son born to David in Hebron, decides that he should be king instead of Solomon.  Adonijah's actions had never been questioned by David.  I believe the implication is that he'd always gotten his way, and it never occurred to him to consider his actions.  There is a lesson here in not correcting your children.  Even King's sons need correction.  We have a whole generation of spoiled children, and it is starting to show.

Adonijah recruits Joab - no longer a surprise - and Abiathar the priest.  But Zadok, Benaiah, and Nathan the prophet, along with all David's mighty men refuse to join in.  Also, Shimei refuses to join in.  Perhaps this is why David and Solomon attempt to spare him after David dies.  It is also interesting that the mighty men do not follow Joab this time.  So even up to the hour of his death, David's family is still at war with each other, there is still violence in his family.  This is still part of the curse that resulted from David's sin with Bathsheba.  She is still with him, but the consequences are ongoing.  The sin is forgiven, but its consequences continue.  Oh...Until nearly the day of his death, David's children disappoint him.  They turn on him, they count him as their adversary, they attempt to undermine all his ways.  What a terrible thing.

Adonijah and his rebels offer sacrifices at a place called "The Serpent's Stone".  This had previously been used by the Jebusites for snake worship.  What an ironic location to choose for a rebellion against the King, and against his own father.  Adonijah invites all his brothers except for Solomon, and all the royal officials.  Does not say whether they showed up or not.  Surely they were too smart for this after what Absalom had done when they were all invited to the same place?

Nathan recruits Bathsheba to go and tell David what is going on - that Adonijah has made himself King, and not invited Solomon to the celebration.  This clearly implied that Solomon, and likely his mother, were to be "counted as offenders".  They were to be murdered.
So David assures Bathsheba that Solomon will be King, and sends Solomon and those loyal to David to Gihon, and there they anoint Solomon King and blow a trumpet.  This might be the "second anointing" spoken of elsewhere.  I wondered why David had declared Solomon King in his place, and then later makes him King again.  This explains it.
40 And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise. [1Ki 1:40 ESV]
Never saw this one before.  NKJV inserts "seemed" before to split.  MSB makes nothing of it.
Apparently the anointing of Solomon was done in the same city where Adonijah was celebrating.  Jonathan, Abiathar's son, brings word to Adonijah, Joab, and company.  Abiathar had joined Adonijah, along with Joab, so this son is on the rebel side.
That David has proclaimed Solomon King strikes fear into Adonijah's guests, and they leave.  Adonijah is now afraid that Solomon will have him killed, as he had planned to do to Solomon.  But Solomon lets him live.

Chapter 2
As David nears death, he admonishes Solomon to always follow God's way, and the law of Moses, and so insure the throne of Israel is occupied by a descendant of David.  Always.  Forever.
Then some more instruction:  David tells Solomon of the things Joab did that were against David.  Tells him to do as he likes with Joab, but not to let the old man just die in peace, not after the things he's done.  Also, David tells Solomon about Shimei, who ran along cursing David up and down as he fled from Jerusalem and Absalom.  David promised Shimei that he wouldn't harm him.  But now he asks Solomon to take care of it.  
10 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. [1Ki 2:10 ESV]

After this Adonijah comes to Bathsheba and asks her to get Solomon to give him Abishag, who kept David warm, for his wife.  She agrees to do so.  When she does, Solomon is so angry that he has Adonijah killed that very day.  
Per MSB, possession of the royal harem was a sign of kingship.  So Adonijah had asked this to make it look like he was after all, the proper King to succeed David.  Abishag as wife would give him a claim to the throne, and possibly be enough to organize a revolt against Solomon.  Bathsheba doesn't see the treachery.  But when she talks to Solomon, he sees the plan immediately.  He considers the very asking of it a violation of the oath of loyalty Adonijah had given to save his life earlier, and pronounces a formal sentence of death on Adonijah.  
Then Solomon banishes Abiathar - who had been loyal to Adonijah - fulfilling the curse on the house of Eli (1 Sam 2:30 and following).  
Joab hears of all this, and runs to the tent of meeting and grabs hold of the horns of the altar.  Apparently a version of sanctuary, because Adonijah had done the very same.  So Joab turns out to be a coward, unable to face justice for all his deeds.  
Solomon has Benaiah kill Joab right there while he holds onto the altar.  God does not protect the guilty.  Solomon says Joab must die for killing two men who were better than him - Abner and Amasa.  Now that this is done, the blood of those two will be on the house of Joab, no longer on the house of David.  So the king is responsible for the acts of his officers.
Then Solomon declared Benaiah over the army, and made Zadok high priest instead of Abiathar.
Last...Shimei is summoned before Solomon.  Solomon tells Shimei to build himself a house in Jerusalem, and to never leave for any reason, because if he does, he will die.  Shimei agrees.  Three years later some of Shimei's servants escape, and he goes to Gath and brings them back.  Solomon hears of it, and Shimei is put to death.

Chapter 3
Solomon marries an Egyptian Princess.  He follows God, as David did, except that he is offering sacrifices at the high places.  These should have been only at the Tent of Meeting.  
God asks Solomon what he wants.  This verse:
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" [1Ki 3:9 ESV]
God gives him a wise and discerning mind (ESV's words).  But he further gives him riches and honor above all other earthly kings for as long as he lives, and if he lives right, God will also lengthen his life.
The story of the two women with one child, that Solomon offers to divide.  In ESV, these two women are prostitutes.

Chapter 4
Names of those who, for one month each, provided food and goods to the palace of the King.

This verse:
20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 21  Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. [1Ki 4:20-21 ESV]
Doesn't this say that God's promise to Abraham about his descendants is now fulfilled - that he would be a nation, and have offspring as the sands of the sea?  And the land...From the Euphrates to Egypt.  Isn't this what was promised?  A good study here.  There are maps in many Bibles of the extend of David's kingdom and then Solomon's superimposed.  The map in TCR seems a little bit less than promised...but I didn't go back and look at the promises exactly.

29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. [1Ki 4:29-31 ESV]
This implies to me that there is a knowledge component to wisdom.  If one is wise enough, then the way things work becomes obvious.  I think this ties in with wisdom being with God at creation, so that all things work in an ordered manner.  Understanding this order would therefore require wisdom first.  Knowledge alone would only take one so far.

Chapter 5
Solomon works with, treaties with, and requests help from Hiram of Tyre.  In exchange for the cedar and cypress of Lebanon, Solomon feeds Hiram's household.  Timber starts towards Jerusalem, and there are also many men set to cutting great expensive stones for the foundation of the Temple.  These laborers were "forced labor", and they worked for Solomon one month out of three.  He didn't just conscript them from their homes and families until all the work was done, he worked them in shifts.

Chapter 6
Temple construction begins 480 years after the exit from Egypt.  We know from other sources that the Temple construction began in 966 BC.  This also dates the time of the Exodus precisely, and puts it in 1445 BC.  

This verse:
7 When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. [1Ki 6:7 ESV]
God had always ordered that his altars be built with uncut stone.  Why is the sound of hammer on rock offensive to God?  Why even in the building of the Temple could there be no stone cutting on the actual location?  Also this verse:
18 The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. [1Ki 6:18 ESV]
No stone visible on the inside.  Might make a good study, to see why God doesn't like stone.  MSB has no comment on this verse.

It took seven years to build the temple.  It was finished in the 11th year of Solomon.

Chapter 7
This chapter starts with Solomon building his house.  The 2 Chr chapter begins with details of the furnishings inside the temple.  So they do start quite differently.  The first 12 verses are about Solomon's house, and the house he built for Pharoah's daughter.  Then it describes the temple furnishings.
Solomon's own house takes 13 years to finish.  
This chapter gives details of the construction.  I don't see how you could "reconstruct" this place without a lot of knowledge of the architecture of the time.
More details on the furnishings of the Temple.  It looks like Hiram himself was skilled in bronze work and came to supervise the casting of the pillars.
Vs 13 talks about Hiram from Tyre, who was skilled in working bronze.  2Ch also mentions him but I don't think we saw him before.  Huram-abi is mentioned along with Hiram in 2Ch, so they were different men, both from Tyre.  Hiram was a bronze specialist, Huram-abi specialized in all sorts of things.

Chapter 8
Solomon prepares to bring the Ark, located in the Tent of Meeting in the Old City of Jerusalem, to Mount Moriah, where Solomon built the Temple according to instructions given to David.  This verse confirms the location:
1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. [2Ch 3:1 ESV]
The Ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the furnishings and utensils were brought to the Temple.
Verse 9 says that the only thing inside the Ark were the two tablets of stone that Moses put there in Horeb.  Once the Ark was placed, a cloud filled the house of the Lord.  This is also what had happened when the Tent of Meeting was consecrated.  I somehow doubt this happened when Herod restored the Temple in his day.  Even so, Jesus was angry at the money sellers there because they were profaning the house of the Lord.  Even the house that Herod built.

This verse:
12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. [1Ki 8:12 ESV]
So this is what this means.  The Ark was inside the Temple, inside the Holy Place, and ultimately inside the Holy of Holies.  It would be dark, very dark indeed, all the time.  The candle light would be the only light.  This is the thick darkness where God dwells.  That's what this means in the other places "thick darkness" shows up.  It is not a mysterious thing.
2021 - A footnote in TCR says the Septuagint is worded "The Lord has set the sun in the heavens, but..." that he would dwell....

Solomon prays that God will hear prayers offered at this place, or when his servants pray "toward" this place, and that He will forgive.  Solomon knows that God is not confined to that Temple and between the wings of the cherubim.  But he asks God to be specially aware and alert to prayers offered in or toward that geographic location.  From this, one can see why Muslims might think it good to pray towards Mecca - since they believe that is where Abraham set up an altar to God, and that altar remains to this day.
2021 -
vs 33, When the nation of Israel is defeated by their enemies because they have sinned...
vs 35, When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned...
vs 37, If there is famine, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, besiegers,  -- or whatever plague or sickness.

This verse:
53 For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD." [1Ki 8:53 ESV]
I emphasize this verse because God's choosing of a nation in microcosm to bless over and above the rest of earth's people, is in my view one of the vehicles God has chosen in history to show His greatness, His glory, and His uniqueness.  I have a long discussion of that in these notes, called "The History of the World".  And this verse explains, reinforces my thinking, on just why God picked out a nation:
60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. [1Ki 8:60 ESV]  He did it to prove Himself.
2021 - There are a number of times in scripture where God gives us the "why" of what He does.  Wouldn't that make an interesting study!?  Wouldn't it be nice to take every explanation of His actions that God ever gave us?  Surely we would get some extra insight into how He operates.  There are also the worlds of various prophets, including David, as to how God operates from their perspective.  I bet there's enough material here for a book, much less a good in-depth study!

As Solomon finishes his prayer, he gets up and blesses his people thus:
57 The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, 58 that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. [1Ki 8:57-58 ESV]
This is a verse to know.

There is a note in the MSB saying that the "heads" of the tribes" or "leaders" were the oldest living males within each extended family unit.  They were the ones responsible for learning the law and leading their families to obey it.  This is what retirement is for.  Once youth and vigor are no more, a man should dedicate himself to study of God's word, to learn God's ways, and advise and direct his family, since the  younger ones are so caught up in working and child rearing that they don't have the time to study in depth.  This made me feel good about the way I'm spending my time these days.  Sadly, my family is not interested in the things of God.  So I must also find a way to steer a right path despite their indifference.

This is a very long chapter in 1 Kings.

Chapter 9
When Solomon has finished building all that he intends to build, God appears to him a second time, presumably in a dream as the first time.
3 And the LORD said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. [1Ki 9:3 ESV]
As it said in Chronicles yesterday.  For all time.  We should still be able to pray toward this Temple, and at the wailing wall.  I believe this says God is especially attentive to prayers offered there.  Jonah 2:4!

But then there is this...
6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 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 all peoples. [1Ki 9:6-7 ESV]
So could have changed.  Given that all Israel ultimately went into captivity, it is a good argument that God cast the Temple from His sight...though Nehemiah rebuilds it.  It is hard to know for sure...
So this first part of the chapter is a conditional promise from God saying what He will do if Solomon and Israel are faithful, and what the other side of that coin will be.  Both sides are promises from God.
2021 - Perhaps this is why Ezekiel's temple is required at the end?  Nehemiah "rebuilt" the Temple, but he didn't start from scratch.  Did Herod start with nothing?  Was the temple is such sad shape that it was basically razed to the ground and restarted, and was therefore no part or parcel of the 1st Temple?  And then Herod's temple was also razed to the ground.  So, as God says in these verses, he cast that house out of his sight.  He won't occupy another house until Ezekiel's Temple?  But who will build that one?  And where will it be?

2022 - As this reads in ESV, the sins of the king also could cause the fall of the whole nation.  See vs 7 above.  There was no requirement that Israel be like the days of Noah.  It didn't have to be that bad.  We have verses that talk about how bad it did get, under wicked kings.

Solomon gives Hiram of Tyre 20 cities in Galilee.  Hiram is not impressed.  This area was called the land of Cabul as a result.  Cabul means "binding", or maybe "sterile".  So it could be that they were extremely difficult for Hiram to defend, or they are poor and must be supported from Hiram's treasury to remain viable.  They are in Galilee, but I don't think we have any more precise information.  The MSB note says that these were probably on the border between Tyre and Israel, just outside the territory of Asher, in exchange for the gold mentioned vs 14.  This was 120 talents.  This may be different from the 450 talents mentioned in 2Ch 8.  Hmm...In NASB, 1Kgs 9 calls it 420 talents here, not just 120.  MSB note says the 420/450 is likely a scribal error, but it does not address the translation in ESV.  What does seem clear is that both speak to the same exchange.  Hiram bought those cities, Solomon didn't donate them to him.  They had arranged payment for the cedars and expertise of Hiram's kingdom earlier.  

And just one last complication...120 talents are mentioned in vs 14, then in vs 28, 420 talents are brought from Ophir.  So I change my mind.  The 120 talents in vs 14 are completely separate from the 420 in vs 28..  The 20 cities were bought for 120 talents.  In teaching his nation to participate in ocean going trade, Solomon's men were taught by Hiram's men to build ships, to sail, and their expedition brought home a LOT of gold from Ophir.  What did they trade for the gold?  How did they get so much gold?

Chapter 10
The Queen of Sheba comes to test Solomon with tough questions.  She may have searched out unknowable questions, methods, and so on.  These seem to have been questions of fact and science more than questions of discernment and wisdom.  But I may be reading it wrong.  
vs 5...There was no more spirit in her.  Means what she saw and heard left her breathless.  She was beyond impressed.  Among other things, she gave him an abundance of spices.  And almug wood from which Solomon made steps and musical instruments.  Possibly sandalwood, black outside, red inside.

Solomon received 666 talents of gold per year, plus miscellaneous gold from caravans passing through and such.  Hmm...will antichrist receive the same when he is in power?  Is that the number?  Solomon is a very wealthy and wise King, beyond anything on earth at the time.  

Chapter 11
BUT.  King Solomon loved many foreign women.  (I wonder if "foreign" is the same word translated for strange so many times in Proverbs?  Again, I wonder if those proverbs so negative about women in Proverbs were mostly written after God told Solomon he was going to lose everything?  Or maybe he just had a lot of trouble with females because he foolishly kept so stinking many of them around!)  Some of these women were not only foreign, they were from nations that God had forbidden Israel to intermarry with.  For the very reason that Solomon succumbed to!  To be so wise, he must have stubbornly, rebelliously, gone ahead on.  He ignored the consequences.)

They turned his heart from God.  This verse spells it out in so many words:
4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. [1Ki 11:4 ESV]
Even the wisest of all lost his zeal for God because of his desire to please his wives, to keep them happy.
He "went after" Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites, and built a high place for Chemosh of the Moabites, and for Molech of Ammon.  He helped all his foreign wives worship their own gods.  
2021 - That high place for those abominable idols was built "on the mountain east of Jerusalem".  This about has to be the Mount of Olives.  What horror for those things to have been overlooking the city, visible from most of the city.  The sun came up behind them, the sun lit them up as it went down in the west.  They would have drawn all eyes to them, and they were built on a higher hill than the Temple.  No wonder God was so angry.

God is angry and promises to give Solomon's kingdom to  his servant - but not until after Solomon's son is King.  Perhaps this is where some of the things in Ecclesiastes come from - like accumulating wealth only for whomever inherits it.  Nothing you build stays with you.  The punishment from God is a divided kingdom.  Not because the nation has rebelled, but because the King rebelled.  The punishment must have been devastating for someone as wise as Solomon.  The longer he lived, the worse that punishment would have been.
2021 - Solomon is the one who sinned.  Yet it is not Solomon who will suffer for this.  The kingdom is not yanked away from Solomon, it is yanked away from his son.  Solomon's posterity suffers though Solomon himself does not.  And this was for the sake of David his father.  God loved David so much that he did not punish the sin of David's son directly.  The good that David did accrued to his son - to the next generation.  But when that next generation sinned, that King's son - Solomon's son - bore the punishment.  We see this many times in the Bible.  Hezekiah comes to mind.  God tells Hezekiah that bad things are coming - after he is dead.  It is Hezekiah's son that is hit with the direct punishment.  Why is this?  How can this principle be stated?  How is this fair?  It must be, since it is God who repeatedly applies this principle, but how are we to understand it?  Does it only apply to kings?  This principle is repeated by the prophet Ahijah in vs. 34 of this chapter.

God raises up enemies where before even Solomon's enemies were at peace with him.  Hadad, who survived when Joab killed every male in Edom.  Also Rezon, who was a raider.  He "abhorred" Israel.  (2021 - Was this the place where David did the three lines and killed two of the lines and spared the third?  MSB says the story referenced is in 2Sam 8:13, 14, and 1Chr 18:12, 13.  This is not about the three lines.  There is in fact not very much information about these events.)

Last, Solomon's servant Jereboam rebels.  A servant who becomes a King.  The prophet Ahijah foretells it.  And there is that passage in Ecc where Solomon says it is awful when servants become kings and nobles become slaves.  Likely this is what he was talking about - or at least the prophecy of this was on his mind.

Jereboam is promised an enduring kingdom if he will serve God only.  A house like that promised to David.  (2021 - This is pretty amazing.  Why would God make such a promise to a slave out of nowhere, coming to power only because of the rebellion of the true King?)  Solomon tries to kill Jereboam, but he flees to Egypt.  A common place of refuge it seems.

Solomon dies.  His son Rehoboam reigns in his place.

​

2025 - For all his wisdom, Solomon does not appear to have found a way to extend his life.  Perhaps that is always and only in God's hands.  Or perhaps, seeingng Solomon's conclusion in Ecclesiastes that all is vanity, his wisdom told him that longer life just meant more vanity, more sadness, more regret, and so he preferred NOT to live longer.

Chapter 12
At the end of Chapter 11, Solomon had died, and his son Rehoboam ascends to the throne in Jerusalem.  Rehoboam goes to Shechem where the people have gathered to make him king.  Jereboam returns from Egypt, and comes with the northern tribes.  As spokesman, Jereboam tells Rehoboam that Solomon's yoke was heavy - he was talking about service and taxes most likely - and that if Rehoboam will ease that yoke a little, they will all serve Rehoboam as king.  R sends them away for three days while he thinks it over.  

2021 - It is interesting that these people thought the wisest man who ever lived was ruling heavily over them, asking too much of them.  Silver was like stone in the kingdom of Solomon, so everyone was prosperous.  What was it that was such a heavy yoke?  Or was there perhaps some resentment on the part of these people in what they asked?  They most likely were not being 100% sincere.  And when Rehoboam tells them they haven't seen anything yet, perhaps Israel was just turning from a truly unique and special nation into a place like any other.  AND I note that it was Jereboam, who had already been anointed King of the northern tribes, who acts as spokesman for them.  Surely there was some duplicity in his offer also.  I have always seen this exchange a Rehoboam's mistake.  And it was, but at the same time, the outcome would eventually have been the same.  The northern tribes were always going to revolt under Jereboam.  God had already set that up.

R asks the old men, who had also advised Solomon, what he should do.  They tell him to do as J and the tribes have asked, because they will keep their word.  But then R asks the young men, his own friends, who'd grown up with him.  These young men advise R to lay an even greater burden on the people.  To really teach them a lesson - the lesson that there's a new sheriff in town who's not taking any back talk.  This is the advice that R takes.

(I'm thinking there's a good lesson here on whether or not we should elect appallingly young people to congress, or make them VP in business, and so on.  I think there might be a Biblical principal here about taking advice from those who have been around a while.  I would want to find corroboration, and not go strictly by this one verse, but I think the corroboration is in here.  Hmm...maybe best not to portray this as a principle, since it was more fundamentally a fulfillment of God's prophecy to divide Solomon's kingdom after his death, and to fulfill the prophecy of Ahijah.)

So Israel returns to their tents.  This phrase "To your tents, O Israel" was from Sheba's rebellion against David, per MSB.  Then R sends his chief of forced labor and taxation to negotiate with the north.  R is still in Shechem at this time.  The people stone the negotiator.  R takes off to Jerusalem to hide.  The result of all this was vs 19:
19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. [1Ki 12:19 ESV]...just as God had said.
Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to R.  (Not sure where Benjamin comes in, but I thought Benjamin stayed with Judah also.  Hence the 10 tribes of Israel.)(Ahh...should have read the next vs, which says R assembled an army from Judah and Benjamin.)
2021 - MSB says that Judah was the only tribe WHOLLY loyal to Rehoboam.  Benjamin was split, with the northern cities, notably Bethel, siding with the north.  Also, the tribe of Simeon, the territory of whom was originally in the south of Judah, seems to have migrated north, and become part of the northern kingdom also.

R put together an army of 180,000 men to bring the northern 10 tribes back into line.  But God forbade it, through Shemaiah, saying this division was God's doing, and they all went home peaceably.

Jereboam sets up as king of the north.  He decides that if all of his people still go down to Jerusalem to the Temple of Solomon to worship, that they will eventually turn against him.  So he decides they need a place to worship in the north.  He makes two golden calves and tells his people to worship these, instead of going to the Temple, because these calves brought them out of Egypt.  Did they not know their own history at all!!!  (Oh my...I wrote the italicized last year.  This year it is far more meaningful, with all the statues being pulled down, the race riots and so on.  If you pull those statues down, then you will not know your history at all.  No historical perspective at all.  And you could end up making an appallingly stupid and inexcusable error because of it.  A destructive error.)  The calves were in Bethel and Dan, both very near the border of Israel and Judah.  He also appointed priests of these idols who were not Levites.  He builds high places.  He sets up a feast in the 8th month that did not correspond to any feast day God had instituted.  It was his own doing, and he sacrificed in Bethel to the golden calf that was there during this self-declared feast.  This certainly was all designed to steer the 10 tribes away from God.
2021 - Again, such a stupid thing.  When Ahijah had anointed Jereboam, he was promised a kingdom and lineage comparable to David's, but ONLY IF he would worship God alone.  And almost the first thing he does is make these two calves.  The people could not have paid any attention to their history or they would have known what happened after the first calf that Aaron made.  And to worship something that the king commissioned?  This is what happens when we forget our history.  This happens when we don't teach our children how we got here and why, and instead try to just turn everything upside down.  I want to read about China's cultural revolution.  I think we may be going down that same road in this country.  

Chapter 13
A man of God, unnamed, goes to Bethel and prophesies that by God's own hand that this altar will be torn down, and these false priests will be sacrificed there - human bones will be on the altar.  He says that a son of David named Josiah will one day burn the false priests on this altar.  As a sign that what he says is true, the man of God says this very altar will be overturned and the ashes will spill out on the ground.  J points at the man with his hand/finger, and orders the man seized.  But God "dries up" the hand doing the pointing, so that J cannot pull it back in.  Then God tears down the altar, just as the man of God said.

2021 - We will see later, during Josiah's reign, that these false prophets are indeed sacrificed on this altar...which they apparently rebuild after the incident.  It seems certain that this verse, vs 2 which names Josiah, is used to "prove" this wasn't written until after Josiah's reign, and that this prophecy was inserted after the fact.  Not sure when the Book Notes in MSB say it was written, but it would have been well before Josiah's reign.  Hundreds of years before in fact.

J asks the man of God to pray, and ask that his hand be restored.  The man of God does so, and the hand is restored.  Because of this restoration, J asks this man of God to come home with him, but the man refuses, because God has told him not to eat or drink in that place.  He leaves.  Then an "old prophet" in Bethel (presumably this is the Bethel in Benjamin that sided with the northern kingdom.  It would be wise to be skeptical of such a prophet) hears of it, catches up with him, and tells the man of God that an angel told him to get the man of God to come home with him to Bethel and eat with him.  But this old prophet is lying.  Still, the man of God goes with him.  What is the principle here?  How would the man of God have known?  Maybe because God's instructions covered the whole time period - including the injunction to go home a different way than he had come up - from door to door.  God's instructions did not stop at the point where the ashes were spilled.  God's instructions should have been followed all the way to the end, but the man of God was persuaded to turn aside before he had completed God's commands.  Maybe.  Seems like this could be it.  Additional factors from MSB:  God had told the man of God to go home a different way so that he would not be recognized.  The whole reason for the man not receiving hospitality - from ANYONE - on this trip was so that God's complete rejection of the northern tribes would be made clear.  As the man of God had nothing to do with Israel, God would have nothing further to do with Israel.  God was declaring the 10 tribes apostate in their entirety.  At this point, it was over for Israel.  It will be many years before the Assyrians put the last nail in the coffin, but they are already in the coffin.  MSB says the man of God, upon hearing about an angelic change of orders, should himself have sought divine guidance in the matter, should have confirmed first hand that God's command had changed.  Instead, he took the "old prophet" at his word.  

God tells the man of God that because he's been taken in, and not done what God himself told him to do, he will not get home to be buried in the tomb of his fathers.  On his way home a lion kills him.  The old prophet goes and gets the body and buries it in his own grave, and orders his sons to bury him with the man of God when he dies.  
So Jereboam is unphased by all this, and appoints more priests and builds more high places.  We find the result here:
34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. [1Ki 13:34 ESV]
So this early in Israel's history as a separate nation from Judah, Jeroboam's sin has sealed it's fate.  It will be gone, and never be seen again.  It is several hundred years before this happens, but it does come about.

Chapter 14
Abijah, apparently Jeroboam's first and only son at this time, gets sick, and J sends his wife, in disguise, to see Ahijah, the prophet of God, and to take him food, and ask what will happen to the child.  MSB says that J wanted to "be on God's side" with regard to his son Abijah (R also had a son with this name...) so that his son would be blessed.  But he sends his wife in disguise so that his subjects won't know that he is consulting with a prophet of the living God, instead of with the priests of the Golden Calf.  She does this.  From vs 5b through 16 we have the prophecy of Abijah on the house of Jereboam.  It is nothing good.  Only one child - the current one - will be buried in a grave.  All the others will be eaten by either dogs or birds when they die.  The current son will die as his mother steps into the city upon her return from Ahijah.  This son will be buried in a grave because God sees something good in this son.  Yet the "good" son dies on that very same day.  And the northern kingdom will be cursed and scattered, and all because of J's sin with the golden calves, the high places, and the priests.
2021 - Jereboam knew that the golden calves he'd had made were fakes.  He knew they were not gods at all.  He had put these fake gods in place to deceive and manipulate his people so they would not return to Jerusalem, and worship there, and ultimately discount the authority of Jereboam in favor of the authority of God.  My goodness, does this sound familiar at all?  Those in power foisting obvious lies on us to keep themselves in power?  Lie after lie, so that surely everyone will believe at least one of them?  In Jereboam's case, when he had a personal crisis, he knew enough to seek the help of a prophet of the true God.  But rather than reveal this truth  of his own convictions to his people, he left them to flounder around praying to false gods for help.  If they had been grounded in the Mosaic Law, and faithful to God's commands as recorded there, they would never ever have fallen for the fakes.  It is the same with us today.  We must keep to the Word, as recorded in the Bible, and judge all the endorsements of those in power by that standard.  Then and only then will we recognize deceit.  God was not fooled by Jereboam's disguised wife.  He is not fooled by those in power today.  
Good FB post.

2021 - God's answer to Jereboam was a curse on all his descendants, on every male in his household.  Only the currently ill son would be buried.  All the rest would be eaten by dogs, if they died in the city, and by buzzards if they died out in the country.  All Jereboam's descendants were going to die and be left to rot.  This was the curse on he and his house.  But there is more.  Because of his poor leadership - and I think also because the people followed him, the whole country of Israel, the 10 tribes, are given up right here.

2025 - This verse needs to be included:
15 the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. [1Ki 14:15 ESV].  Not only does God condemn the 10 tribes during the reign of their first King, but he tells them where they will go when they fall.  East, beyond the Euphrates.

Here is a key verse:
16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin." [1Ki 14:16 ESV]
This is a very horrible curse on those ten tribes.  This must be not only because of their king, but because they worship and follow false gods at the command of their king.  They are all apostate, they all knew better, yet all chose the golden calves.  You don't do what the king says if it is against what God says.  This principal holds throughout the Bible.
I find it interesting that the northern kingdom is doomed to destruction so early in the reign of its very first king.  They continue to sin, eventually becoming so awful that it is obvious to anyone why God would wipe them out, but they are already done under Jeroboam.  Though God has judged them, the execution of their destruction will not come for many more years.  This is how God operates.  This is Romans 1 before Paul was ever born.  Paul succinctly states what history shows to be God's method of bringing down nations.
One or two FB posts after the one above, continuing the story.

2025 - I assume that the child that dies belonged to Jereboam and this wife of his.  The prophet had told her that she was never going to see that child alive again.  He would die as she entered.  Imagine her hope as she got all the way to the front door of the house where the child was, longing to see that child just one more time, one more second.  And yet...
17 Then Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. [1Ki 14:17 ESV].  
And this child was the only "good" thing in the Northern Kingdom at the time.

Jereboam reigns 22 years, and dies.  His son Nadab reigns in his place.  (????)

In Judah, things were not much better.  It says here that Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, the Ammonite.  So she had come from Ammon, where they worshiped a pretty horrible god, and it is likely that Solomon had allowed her to carry on her worship of and sacrifices to, this god.  Rehoboam would have been taught to worship this god also.  Is it any wonder that he goes so wrong.  R allowed idols and high places and Asherim.  These people did worse things than their fathers before them had ever done.  They were as bad as the nations that God had driven out before them were doing.  There were even male cult prostitutes.  (I do not know of the specific words translated here are about homosexual prostitutes, or if this means that women as well as men were using prostitutes, or both.)  In any case, this is apparently a sign of degradation over and above "normal".  

In just the 5th year of R's reign, the next generation after Solomon, Shishak, King of Egypt, came and took away much treasure - even from the Temple.  Vs 26 says he took away everything, including those golden shields Solomon had made.  Wonder if they took that unique ivory throne, covered in gold, with lions on every step?
R dies, is buried with his fathers, and his son Abijam reigns in his place.

The eulogies of both Jereboam and Rehoboam state that the acts and deeds of Jereboam are recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and those of Rehoboam in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.  Almost implies that there are two different Chronicles, and only one survives.

Chapter 15
Abijam becomes King in Judah.  Abijam was earlier called Abijah (per MSB note referencing 2Chr 13:1,2).  Abijah means "my father is the Lord", Abijam means "father of  the sea".  Maybe God changed his name because of his sin.  Though he does the wrong things, as his father Solomon did, still God tolerates him because of David and the promise to him.  He is only King for three years.  1 Kings does not tell us how he died.  All we know is that he warred with Jeroboam, and his acts are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.  So perhaps more there.

2024 - Note the comparison between Abijam, great-grandson of the David, who had been first in his line, and Jeroboam, who was first in his line, in these verses:
4 Nevertheless, for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. [1Ki 15:4-5 ESV]; and then
10 therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. [1Ki 14:10 ESV].
Just wow!  Both these kings were failures in the eyes of God.  One was severely punished, including the horrible deaths of all his male children and male servants, who would lie dead and unburied stinking up the countryside, to preempt the continuation of that royal line.  The other, arguably just as bad as the first, has his son follow him on the throne, because of the faithfulness of an ancestor.  God probably sent both these men to hell for their sins, but not for their father's sins.  Their punishment or reward in this world though, was highly influenced by the behavior of their fathers.
These two things are often confused - worldly consequences can be the opposite of what we might see as just, but reflect God's longer term, wiser, and more knowledgeable plans.  But eternal consequences are always based on one thing - faith in Jesus Christ.
Long FB post, but possible.

There is this interesting verse:
5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. [1Ki 15:5 ESV]
A good one to know should anyone claim that God blessed David and gave him a blank check to sin if he wanted to do so.  Not the case at all.  God remembers David's sin very well, and there are all those Psalms where David pleads with God to let his punishment for that sin come to an end.  2021 - And I also note that Uriah the Hittite is called the exception.  The only exception in David's life.  So those other things David did that we might question today were not considered unrighteous by God.

Asa becomes King when Abijam dies.  Asa had the same mother and father as Abijam.  This makes sense as Abijam would not really have had an heir after only three years.  Could also be that there was some palace intrigue that resulted in Abijam's brother ruling in his place.  MSB notes that in some translations Maacah, mother of Abijam, is called the Grandmother of Asa.  So hard to tell so far.

Asa is a good King, doing as David did with respect to the Lord.  He removed the "male cult prostitutes" and the idols that his fathers had made.  Further, he removed Maacah as Queen Mother because of a detestable idol she had made to Asherah.  (This is the verse that sometimes calls Maacah Asa's Grandmother.)  This would have been difficult, and an example to all Judah.  Asa burns the idol that she made.  Still, Asa did not take away the high places.  They are allowed to stay.  Asa rules from 911-870 BC per MSB.  

Asa is at war with Baasha King of Israel for the whole 41 years.  Baasha builds Ramah, about 5 miles north of Jerusalem on the main N/S highway.  This effectively blockades Jerusalem, especially from the north.  Asa makes a treaty with Ben-hadad of Syria, and sends him gold and silver, and asks Ben-hadad to break his treaty with Baasha.  Ben-hadad does so, and invades Israel, forcing Baasha to stop work on Ramah and abandon it, and see to his own lands.  Then Asa gathered up all the building materials used in Ramah and built other cities with them. 

Asa rules 41 years.  In his old age, he is diseased in his feet.  He dies and his son Jehoshaphat becomes King.

Nadab takes over for Jeroboam in Israel the second year of Asa.  Nadab only rules for two years.  Nadab is basically assassinated.  Nadab and the army of Israel are at war against the Philistine town of Gebbethon, and Baasha kills Nadab. 

2025 - Baasha kills Nadab in wartime, on the field, as Israel is besieging Gibbethon.  He killed the leader of the country in the middle of a battle.  What circumstances could have led to such a thing?   And why did Nadab's bodyguards not protect him, and not immediately avenge him?  Unless...God brought it all about so that the prophecy against the house of Jereboam could be fulfilled.  One might imagine that pretty much all of Jereboam's descendants, slaves, and friends would have been present at such a siege.  A high percentage of the MEN who had been cursed may well have been there.  Dispatching them would have been much easier under these circumstances.  Easier than tracking them all down if they were scattered throughout the country!

​

Baasha then declares himself the new king.  Note that this breaks the line of Kings from Jeroboam.  First thing Baasha does is kill every single descendant of the house of Jeroboam.  Every single one, just as God had told Jeroboam when Jeroboam built the golden calves in Israel.  Here is the verse:
29 And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. [1Ki 15:29 ESV]

Baasha reigns 24 years, and does evil for the entire time.

All this in just one chapter...

Chapter 16
God is angry at Baasha, and pronounces the same curse on Baasha's house as the one that was on Jereboam's house.  It is interesting here that it was Baasha, who was not of Jereboam's lineage at all, that carried out God's curse on Jereboam's house.  Now he will reap what he sowed, even though what he did was at God's command.  One other thing.  In verse 2, God says he lifted Baasha out of the dust and made him leader over Israel.  So even though Baasha's coup was against God's appointed, it was also God who appointed Baasha, and ordained the events that followed.  As it says in Ecclesiastes and in several Proverbs, who can know what will happen in a man's life, and indeed, very often I fear we can't even recognize that  all things work to make God's plans come to fruition.  Whether we have a single clue or insight in any of what goes on.  Eat, drink, and be merry takes on a new dimension.

Baasha dies and is buried with his fathers.  The dogs do not eat him.  His son Elah reigns in his place.  
2021 - This curse was the same as Jereboam's.  The Kings died and were buried, but all their descendants and friends - the males - were murdered by their successor and left to rot in the streets and roads.  This seems so misplaced to me.  Why didn't the kings who were causing all this receive the ignominious end, and their followers the lesser punishment?  Maybe it goes back to David refusing to kill the Lord's anointed even when he could?  Jereboam was chosen to rule the north, and anointed by a prophet.  Baasha was also raised up.  In some respects, both these men started according to God's command, but neither continued in God's service.  Both came to depend only on themselves, and to worship false gods, and to turn the people further and further away from God. But they died king's deaths and received king's burials.  And then their names - their complete progeny - were wiped off the earth.  In that day, it was more ignoble to leave no heirs than to suffer yourself.  Today, we don't really see it that way.  We worry about ourselves, not the future that we're leaving the world.

Referencing back to the first paragraph, there is this long verse:
7 Moreover, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it. [1Ki 16:7 ESV]
Though Baasha's destruction of the house of Jereboam was a fulfillment of God's curse on Jereboam, Baasha did not do it for God.  Baasha did it for himself, and this was a sin.  His arrogance in destroying God's anointed was sin enough, but he also led Israel astray in the very same way that Jereboam had.  He knew the fate of Jereboam and his family because he had caused it himself...then repeated the error that destroyed Jereboam and his whole house.
2021 - Here's something I hadn't thought about...Zimri only reigned 7 days, and in that short time, wiped out all of Baasha's descendants and his male friends.  A very bloody, cruel, and harsh 7 days indeed.  Zimri's red week.

So Elah reigns for only two years.  As Elah is getting drunk one night, Zimri, who is commander of half the chariots of Elah - so he is military - comes in and kills Elah, and then rules in his place.  This is two coups in a row in Israel, ascension is not from father to son, or even within a reigning family.  The office of King is going to whomever is big enough to take it.  A very chaotic and upsetting way to run a country.  Lawlessness likely abounded throughout, since the kings were busy preserving their positions and not looking after their subjects.  There is no traditional succession going on in the north at all.  Once Zimri is King, he kills every male of the house of Baasha, fulfilling this curse once again.  And Zimri is no more innocent in it than Baasha was.  Zimri not only kills all Baasha's male descendants, he kills all of his male friends.  What a terrible place Israel must have been when the men they looked to for justice were doing things like this.

Zimri only reigns for seven days.  In the army, which was again attacking Gibbethon, they declare the commander of the army, Omri, to be King over Israel.  Omri marches on Tirzah, where Zimri is, and when Zimri sees that the city has fallen, he goes into the Kings house and burns it down around him, dying in the fire.  So a third coup, and now Israel is in military hands for the second time.  There is still controversy, and half of Israel wants Tibni to be king, not Omri.  Omri's fans win out.  Omri reigns twelve years.  Six in Tirzah, the rest in a city he builds and names Samaria, after the man he bought the land from.
Omri was an evil king, more evil than any who had come before him.  So Israel is getting worse and worse.  Omri dies, and Ahab reigns in his place.  This time, it is the King's own son who succeeds him.  Ahab reigns 22 years.  Further, as if the idol worship and such is not enough, Ahab marries Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians.  She worshiped Baal, so Ahab does the same.  Ahab sets the new record for most evil King of Israel.  These verses:
32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. [1Ki 16:32-33 ESV]

This next verse is pretty interesting also:
34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. [1Ki 16:34 ESV]
God had forbidden the reconstruction of Jericho, since God himself had destroyed it.  But Joshua predicted it would be rebuilt by a man and his sons.  The wording above indicates that the two sons - Hiel's heirs - died in the reconstruction.  In context, I would have thought it meant that Hiel sacrificed them to his god to bless the reconstruction.  But MSB does not indicate that this was the case.   Here is the curse Joshua pronounced:
26 Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. "At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates." [Jos 6:26 ESV]

​

2024 - So at this point, Israel, the Northern Kingdom, has had exactly zero God-fearing, God-following Kings.  It was wrenched away from Rehoboam at Solomon's death and sank immediately and progressively into sin, evil, and idol worship.  As Ahab becomes King, things go to the worst situation yet, as Ahab excels all his predecessors in evil.  

Chapter 17
First mention, to my knowledge, of Elijah the Tishbite.  He tells Ahab that it is not going to rain nor dew until he - Elisha - says so.  This must have really gotten him off on the right foot with such a King.  This is evidenced by the fact that the next thing Elisha did was go hide by the brook Cherith, where the ravens fed him twice a day.  He was there until the brook dried up from the drought.
2021 - From chapter 16, we know that Ahab married Jezebel, of the Sidonians, that he built a temple to Baal in Samaria - that is, on land promised to God's people - and then built an altar inside that temple.  So beyond the golden calves that Jereboam made and required and diverted the people into worshiping, now Ahab brings in a false god, an idol worshiped by foreigners, and he sets his people to worshiping it.  Most like on pain of death with a king like this.  We too may see such a thing.  We already are to some extent.  Try saying homosexuality is a sin, or that there are only two sexes.  Or try saying you won't make cakes for homosexual weddings.  The whole wrath of government will come down on you.  What we are not really seeing here is what was happening in the countryside in Israel.  With this sharp turning away, I would expect droughts and famines and diseases and barren wombs, and stillborn livestock.  I would expect poor harvest, and lousy wine.  This would all presumably go with it.  God had said the north is doomed.  He's let them go.  So maybe, since they are past that point, these other things - designed to turn nations back to God, don't really happen.  Except as we are about to see.)

Then God sends him to Zaraphath, where a widow will feed him.  (2021 - Zaraphath belonged to Sidon, where Jezebel was from, and where her father was a king.  So Elisha is hiding right under her nose.)  Elijah asks a widow at the gate for water, then he asks her for bread.  She says she was just going to make bread with the last of her flour and oil, and then, with nothing else to eat, she expects she and her son to die.  Elijah says "Do not fear", and tells her to make for him first, and then for her and her son.  She does as he asks, and the flour and the oil are always there, for many days, enough to feed her, Elijah, and her household.

The widow's son dies of disease while Elijah is there.  Elijah doesn't understand why this should be so.  Neither do I.  He prays the prayer below:
20 And he cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" [1Ki 17:20 ESV]
He blames God for "killing her son".  This is very direct.  Why do I so often avoid this aspect.  God uses even the evil to bring about his purposes, there's a verse for that.  It stands to reason that he uses disease to do so, and that he sometimes kills the good to bring them about.  If good people die, they go to a better place.  So to die is  gain.  This is how we have to look at it, though it is not an easy thing.  To die is gain for the righteous, to die is justice for the wicked.  They too go to the place God has set for them.

2022 - Elijah's first miracle that he performs is to keep the flour and oil replenished for the widow, her son, and himself.  His second miracle is to bring the widow's son back to life.  If John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, why did John perform no miracles?  We have no indication at all that John ever did anything that was considered a miracle.  Perhaps this is to show that while John was in the Spirit of Elijah, he was not the prophet who will come as the forerunner of the Kingdom of God.  John was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, and in a way, of the spiritual kingdom of God.  But there will be another, the forerunner of the physical Kingdom of the Millennial.

Chapter 18
God tells Elijah to go see Ahab, and rain will return to the earth. (2021 - At Elijah's word, there has been a three year drought in the land, and it has caused widespread severe famine.  Three years of no crops is a long way to go.)

Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household.  There's an aside that says Obadiah was over the household, and that he feared the Lord greatly.  Is this Obadiah the prophet?  MSB does not indicate that he was.  Obadiah has saved 100 prophets by hiding them in caves and feeding them bread and water when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord.

Ahab and Obadiah go in opposite directions trying to find springs that are still active so they can save some of the livestock.  Elijah meets Obadiah as he's going, and tells Obadiah to go tell Ahab that Elijah is there.  Obadiah is convinced this news will result in a fruitless search for Elijah and that he (Obadiah) will be killed.  Elijah says not so, and Obadiah does as he's been asked to do.  Ahab comes to meet Elijah.

When they meet, there is an exchange of words.  Elijah asks that all the prophets of Baal and Asherah come to meet him at Mt. Carmel.  There are 850 of them who eat at Jezebel's table.
(2021 - So the whole calling down fire, and the mocking of Elijah that Baal must be in the toilet happen at the end of this three year drought.)
2021 - Look at the sermon Elijah preaches to the assembled in Israel:
21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word. [1Ki 18:21 ESV]  Oh my...just look at this.  Tolerance is running amok in Israel.  They have decided that if some want to worship Baal, that's ok.  They've decided that if some want to worship God AND Baal, well sure, why not cover all the bases.  Baal worshipers practice rampant immorality?    Well, if it's part of their religion who are we to say they shouldn't?  This is what tolerance does.  This is what silence does.  This is what being ashamed to stand up and call sin what it is leads to.  Elijah says they need to make up their minds, and follow one or the other.  He takes away the middle ground of tolerance.  That's what we need to do today in this country.  We need to choose whom we will follow, and we need to say so.
Possible FB post.

2021 - Elijah's challenge:  You pray to your god and I will pray to my God, and we will see who is really God.  This is our strategy also.  Pray for the idols of the enemy to be shown up as fakes, imposters, man made oppression for fleecing people while making them feel good about being duped.  Pray for eyes to be opened as to ungodly philosophies and theories and explanations.
Follow up FB post.

Elijah proposes that these men and he cut up a bull and put it on an altar, but not light the fire.  Whichever group's deity lights the fire is the true God.  The people assembled all agree.  The bad guys "limp around" all day, cut themselves, shout, and so on, but no fire comes.  God chooses, and Elijah prevails, and they kill all 850 of the other prophets.
2021- The prophets of Baal cut themselves, shout, dervish and so on, trying to get the attention of their god, but what does Elijah do?
36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. [1Ki 18:36 ESV]  Elijah came near and "said".  He didn't shout, he made no music, there were no drums to get God's attention.  You don't have to shout at an omnipotent all-knowing God.  You just talk.  We need to remember that, too.  We need only ask of our God, quietly, in a secret place, and he will hear every word, he will not misunderstand.  We need to pray.
Third possible FB post in a series.

2022 - Elijah's third miracle - the fire from heaven that consumes the bull and the water.  Is it only three that he does?

2021 - If we do all these things, what will happen:
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God." [1Ki 18:39 ESV]
Four.

Elijah prays, and the rain comes.  Ahab is headed to Jezreel in his chariot, lest it be too muddy to get there.  But God's hand is on Elijah, and he runs, and gets to the entrance of Jezreel before Ahab.  This is some pretty fast running.

Chapter 19
Jezebel sends Elijah a message swearing to kill him inside of 24 hrs.  Elijah runs for his life.  Elijah goes into the wilderness a day's journey and asks to die.  Then he goes to sleep under a broom tree.  An angel brings him food, twice, and that sustains him 40 days as he travels to Mt. Horeb.  He goes into a cave.  Likely he thought the fire from heaven and the rain would bring revival, not death threats, and so he was feeling pretty rotten.  He tells God that he is the only prophet left because the rest have been killed.  God says to walk outside...
Then, these verses:
And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord ." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord , but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.  1 Kings 19:11‭-‬12 ESV
God shows Elijah His power, then repeats the question and Elijah gives the same answer.

God tells Elijah to go to Syria and anoint Hazael king there, and then to anoint Jehu king of Israel. God says He will protect the 7000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
He is also to anoint Elisha as prophet in his place.  So Elijah is only in a few chapters here!
2022 - Note that these 7,000 are in Israel, and despite the horrible kings and the pressure to worship the calves, this many have refused to do so.  There would surely have been more in Judah.  

2021 - Elijah had asked to die.  Instead, God sends him to Horeb and shows him that He is still God, and he makes it clear to Elijah that he is not alone, though he thinks he is.  Once this is established, God tells Elijah to do some final tasks.  I think it is obvious at this point that Elijah's prayer to die is being answered, but he has a few things yet to do.  Elijah would have realized the end was near, that his prayer was answered, and that he had based it on some pretty bad assumptions.

Elijah passes the cloak very unceremoniously.  Elisha sacrifices his oxen, feeds people, then follows Elijah.

(8/23/20 - Come back to this.  Find that verse where Elijah says he is the only one left, where 5 minutes after triumph he is running for his life.  We go through such times also.  Yet all these things are within God's will.  This needs to be a FB post.)

Chapter 20
Ben-Hadad of Syria, with 32 other Kings, makes war on Samaria.  I believe this refers to the city where Ahab lived, rather than the whole country in general.  Ben-Hadad sends messengers to Ahab telling him he wants all the gold and silver, the best wives, and the best children.  Ahab agrees, and they take what they want.  Ben-Hadad sends his servants a second time and wants anything and everything else that Ahab likes.  Ahab meets with his advisors, and they tell him not to comply with this second demand.  There is a third exchange where Ben-Hadad says he will level the city to dust then.  Ahab says don't count your chickens...With that, Ben-Hadad positions his men.

A prophet comes to Ahab and tells him that God will deliver Ben-Hadad.  Ahab is incredulous and asks how?  He is told that some servants of the governors will do it, and that he (Ahab) is to attack.  Ahab musters 232 of these servants and about 7,000 men.  Ahab sends out the servants.  Ben-Hadad and his 32 kings are all drunk, and B-H says to capture the 232 alive.  Somehow, this tactic works, and Ben-Hadad flees.  Then the prophet tells Ahab to get ready, because B-H will be back in the spring.

B-H is advised that he lost because the gods of Ahab are gods of the hills.  They will attack them next time in the plain, so that Ahab's gods can't help.  B-H embraces this plan, and will rebuild his army to its former size, and replace the 32 Kings with military commanders.

In the spring the two armies face each other at Aphek.  Ahab's army is like two flocks of goats, while B-H's army fills the valley.  The prophet shows up again.  After 7 days of camping, the battle is joined, and Ahab wins.  100,000 men of Syria are killed, and the rest flee to Aphek.  The wall in Aphek falls on them, killing another 27,000 men.  There is a verse, spoken by the man of God who predicts Ahab's victory:
28 And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because the Syrians have said, "The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys," therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" [1Ki 20:28 ESV]
This surely leaves Ahab without excuse, and without reason for pride.
2021 - And leaves me wondering why God would help such a man.  Perhaps it was not yet time for Israel to fall.  More had to come to pass before they truly proved there were none worthy to save.  We know from the last chapter that there were still 7000 at this time loyal to God and not to Baal.  Perhaps that is way too many for God to destroy in order to destroy the evil.  

Ben-Hadad and Ahab get along well, and Ahab spares Ben-Hadad's life.  Cities are restored that B-H's father took from Ahab, and B-H allows Samaria to trade openly and freely with Damascus.

Yet a third man of the sons of the prophets comes, and with much symbolism, pronounces that because Ahab let B-H go after God had appointed him for destruction, Ahab's life will now be forfeit.  Ahab goes home, "vexed and sullen".

Chapter 21
The story of Naboth's fine vineyard in Jezreel, Ahab's desire for it, and Jezebel's acquisition of it.  Jezebel has two liars accuse Naboth of cursing God and the King.  So they stone him.  His vineyard is now up for grabs, and who will deny it to such a king?  Once Jezebel has done the dirty work, Ahab is only too glad to go and take possession of the vineyard.
2021 - 10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, 'You have cursed God and the king.' Then take him out and stone him to death." [1Ki 21:10 ESV]Jezebel launches a conspiracy to murder for money.  She recruits people in high places who are just as corrupt as she is to help her.   Her helpers recruit two low-lifes - "worthless men" - to tell the same lie.  This made the accusations legal, even though they were lies.  The world sometimes works this way.  Naboth ends up stoned like a common criminal though none of the accusations was true.  The charges came from well-known liars, who were supported by corrupt leading citizens at the behest of the government itself...though Jezebel usurped the authority of the king to bring it all about.  And when it was done, the authority usurped did not "lay down the law", but accepted the spoils of murder.
Possible FB post, about the consequences of corruption in high places.

Now God sends Elijah to pronounce the end of Ahab.  Where the dogs licked up Naboth's blood, they will also lick up the blood of Ahab.  Further, every male, bond or free, will be cut off from Ahab, like the curses on Jereboam and Baasha.  Jezebel's body is also to be eaten by dogs within the city itself.

(Verses 25 and 26 are in parentheses.  This sometimes indicates that they were not in the original, or that there is some doubt about whether they were.  Could be inserted.  In any case, they do nothing to change the story.)

Ahab repents of his sins, so God tells Elijah that the curse on Ahab's house will be delayed until the days of his son.  Then disaster will strike.  This is a hard thing to understand for me.  God did this same thing with Solomon, who's kingdom wasn't split until after his death.  And it was done with Jereboam, who died at a ripe old age, and only then were all his children killed.  Can't remember for sure about Baasha.  But how is it that those who do the wrong live out their lives, and then those who were no part of it receive the punishment?  If the repentance is genuine, the perpetrators may even wind up in heaven, never having paid for their sins?  The only explanation is that Jesus' blood covered even sins like this, and that God's grace is available to all who repent, no matter their crimes.  But in the Bible, payment is made, through the perfect sacrifice.  Atonement is made.  Not so in the Qur'an.  And it is also true that each man's sin (including the sons of Ahab) are enough to condemn him.
2022 - The explanation above doesn't fly.  If Ahab is in heaven because the blood of Jesus covered his sins and he repented, and if the son shall not suffer for the sins of the father, then why do the children of Ahab all die?  Perhaps a better explanation is that sin can be forgiven, but the consequences still exist.  The consequences of such intense and, for a very long time, unrepented sin, must build up a sort of momentum that cannot be turned back.  God's line of forbearance was crossed, consequences were pronounced.  These cannot be turned back.  But God's offer of salvation to individuals is available until their deaths.  Only then is salvation - and forgiveness by the blood of Jesus - off the table.  This is a better way to look at it...and it is highly unlikely that Ahab's sons were a lot better men than he was...yet if they were, each one individually could be saved.  They would have known that God had pronounced this curse, which would have allowed them a chance to repent and fall down before God prior to their fate.  Their premature deaths were certain.  Their location in eternity was not.  That was still up to them.

This is still so difficult to embrace.  Perhaps here too we see the result of original sin in removing the link between cause and effect.  Some things just become inexplicable, because that link has been removed.  The world is just not the perfect causal place that it was created to be.

2023 - In 1Kngs 22:51-53 we get a description of the kind of man the son of Ahab turned out to be.  He was just like his father.  He worshiped Baal.  He provoked God to anger.  It is quite likely that all the sons of Ahab would behave so.  Why wouldn't they?  Because the sins of the father's, as we know, continue to the third or fourth generation.  Ahab's example to his sons was always one of defying God and worshiping false gods.  When God pronounced this curse on the house of Ahab in the first place, He already knew what kind of men Ahab's sons would be...and that if they survived, the generation after them would continue provoking God by pushing their own evil to the limits.  So Ahab repented...and his sons earned the punishment that they received.  Just like that case earlier, where the one son, whom God liked, died young as his mother got back to town, and was buried properly, but all the rest, whom God knew would be just like their father in worshiping other gods, grew up - a little or a lot - and died violently and were eaten either by birds or dogs.  They died without honors, they died as the lowest of the low, with no one even to bury them, not because of their father, but because they were just like their father.  When God decides these things, he knows already what kind of men these would have been.

​

2024 - The 2023 note is a comfort...but I am not sure it is 100% right.  It is also true that sometimes, good people fall with the bad, because the bad just had to go - either as fulfillment of prophecy or because their sins earned it.  Consequences happen, and sometimes we are just standing too close to escape them, even though we ourselves are perhaps no part of them.  This was true when Israel fell  - we know there were still 7000, we know that many of them went into captivity - just because they were thee.  Same with Neb later.  He took them captive, the good and the bad.  All lost their homes and their freedom because of the accumulated sin of the people.

Chapter 22
This is the last chapter of 1Kgs.
There is peace between Israel and Syria three years.  Then Ahab and Jehoshaphat team up to retake Ramoth-Gilead from Ben-Hadad.  Jehoshaphat insists that Ahab first inquire of God as to whether they should do this.  400 Northern prophets say yes, go. J asks if there isn't just one more prophet.  Ahab knows of a prophet named Micaiah, but he hates the man.  Micaiah is summoned.  While they wait the 400 carry on and prophesy and show off.  

Micaiah is warned by the officer who comes to get him that all the other prophets have predicted victory.  So Micaiah first says the same.  But Ahab, knowing that Micaiah never prophesies good for him, and according to MSB perhaps picking up on the sarcasm in Micaiah's prophecy, doubts his word and challenges him.   Then Micaiah tells the truth and says that Israel will be scattered like sheep on the mountains by Syria.  He further says that a spirit in heaven comes before the Lord with a plan to deceive Ahab and make him go to battle.  God wants him to do so in order to destroy Ahab.  So the spirit says he will be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets, so they will predict victory when in fact disaster awaits.  This is a very odd story.  MSB says the spirit that stepped forward offering to make the 400 prophets lie was Satan himself.  Why though, would Satan work to destroy Ahab, who was clearly and solidly in Satan's camp?  Except...remember that once Ahab was told he and all his descendants would be wiped out like Jereboam's and Baasha's were, he repented, sincerely.  But that can't be right, because the story here has it that it was God looking for a way to destroy Ahab.  Why would Satan do God's work???

One of the false prophets strikes Micaiah.  Ahab has Micaiah sent home, and thrown in prison and fed nothing but bread and water.  He is to stay there until Ahab comes in peace.  Micaiah says that will never happen.

Despite all this, Ahab and Jehoshaphat go to battle in Ramoth-Gilead.  There is some deception on Ahab's part, that seems cowardly to me.  But Jehoshaphat escapes, and Ahab is wounded by an archer who doesn't even realize that he has shot the King of Israel.  Ahab manages to stay alive until the evening, but then dies.  The army hears of it, and runs home.  An interesting note in MSB.  Ben-Hadad, who is King of the Syrian army defending R-G, was spared from death by Ahab many years earlier.  In return, Ben-Hadad at this battle, tells his soldiers to specifically seek out the King of Israel and kill him.  Not a very nice man, this Ben-Hadad.

Ahab is returned to Samaria and buried.  His chariot is washed out and the blood gets in the pool of Samaria.  Dogs drink it, prostitutes wash in it, as prophesied earlier.  Ahab is dead, and his son Ahaziah now reigns in his place.  

Jehoshaphat reigns 25 years in Judah.  He does right, as Asa his father had done, yet even J does not pull down the high places, and some in Judah continue to sacrifice there.  J also makes peace with Israel.  It says again that he "exterminated" the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa.  Jehoshaphat dies, and his son Jehoram reigns in his place.

Ahaziah reigns in Israel as Ahab and Jereboam had done.  He is a bad king.