1 & 2 Kings: Covenant Keeper
"Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever."(2Ki 8:19)
First and Second Kings tell the story of Israel’s decline. While the books of Samuel document the establishment of a kingdom under one leadership, Kings show how Israel divides and falls into the hands of their enemies because of the kings’ sins. The books, probably written in the exilic period, tell the captive Hebrews about the reason for their exile and show the full spectrum of God’s dealings with His people, from extreme blessing to utter desolation.
Solomon, who succeeded the godly king David, was blessed with wisdom and was able to build a grand temple to the Lord in Jerusalem. However, because of Solomon's unfaithfulness to God in his later years, the kingdom was divided into two after his death. The book records how these kings of two kingdoms lead God's people to worship. Each king is remembered according to whether he did what was right or evil in the eyes of the Lord. In short, both kingdoms did not keep the Law of Moses but departed from the Lord. Israel in the north, where all kings walked in the way of Jeroboam, was taken by Assyria, and Judah in the south, where there were some good kings according to what David had done, also fell to Babylon in the end. Any mere human king, even though he was of the Davidic dynasty, could not secure their throne until the end.
The books of First and Second Kings are prophetic because they point to and anticipate the gospel of Jesus Christ. First, they reveal that God is long-suffering with His people and always giving more than people ask or deserve. He is the God of infinite patience who gave the most wicked king Ahab a reprieve when the king wore sackcloth and acted despondent. The divine patience is especially evident in God's treatment of the Davidic dynasty. It was not the sons of David but the God of Israel who kept the covenant faithfully. At the destruction of house of Baal in the northern kingdom, Joash, a son of David, was preserved and came back to throne. At the fall of Israel, the righteous king Hezekiah was set on the throne, through whose prayers Jerusalem was delivered. Babylon took Judah into exile, but Jehoiachin of Judah elevated from prison to the table of the king of Babylon. Even when the Davidic kingdom is punished, the promise given to David remains, and a lamp for David is preserved. The books of Kings are the story of the fall and rise of David's dynasty, and ultimately point to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.
While the kings failed again and again throughout the books, another group anointed by God stood out and played an significant role as covenant watchers. They are called prophets. These men of God not only warned kings and people of God's judgment as they broke the covenant with God, but they also protected the nation from enemies with divine power. The structural arrangement of 1 and 2 Kings reinforces this prophetic emphasis by having Elijah and Elisha take center stage and having kings recede into the background in the middle of the books. The people of Israel had to rely on the true prophets rather than on the fallen kings for their security and prosperity, remembering God's promise that a prophet like Moses would come.
Just as Elijah a servant of the Lord stood alone against a myriad of idolaters, Jesus the suffering servant of the Lord was rejected by all and faced the wrath of God by himself. Many of the miracles by Elisha foreshadow those of Jesus Himself when Elisha raised the Shunammite woman's son, healed Naaman's leprosy, and multiplied loaves of bread to feed a hundred people with some left over. In addition, the miraculous works of both prophets illustrate the great mercy of the Lord to those who are unworthy to receive God's favor. Likewise, Jesus Christ the True Prophet came not only to deliver God's message to His people, but also to deliver such unworthy ones as the poor, the weak, the despised, and even Gentiles from their great needs, showing Himself to be the Great Physician who is willing and able to heal needy sinners wholly.
