2 Samuel 22:51 “Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”
2nd Samuel (continued)
-After King Saul’s death, there was a disagreement among the Israelites over who should be King. The tribe of Judah wanted David. All of the other tribes wanted Ishbosheth (Saul’s oldest son). So, Israel became a divided nation.
-Eventually, all of Israel did unite under King David. The Lord established the Davidic Covenant- one of David’s descendants would rule over God’s people forever (Jesus).
-King David had many victories; defeating the Philistines, establishing Jerusalem as the capital, moving the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.
-Unfortunately, David also failed the Lord. When remaining home during a time of war, he took another man’s wife (Bathsheba) for himself, and then had him (Uriah, a faithful soldier) killed in battle.
-David repented and the Lord forgave him. There are always consequences for sin, though. Some of them were: King David and Bathsheba’s first baby died soon after being born, there arose much strife and violence among his children, and his son Absalom turned on him resulting in King David having to flee for his life!
-Eventually, Absalom was murdered and King David returned to rule in Jerusalem.
1st & 2nd Kings (All about the Kings of Israel)
-After King David’s death, his son, Solomon, was next to rule over Israel.
-The Lord offered to give him whatever he asked for, Solomon asked for wisdom to rightly rule God’s people. The Lord was so pleased with his request that He gave him this wisdom, plus riches and peace in the land.
-Unfortunately, Solomon too failed the Lord, including marrying 700 women. Many of them worshipped false gods and he joined them in their idolatry.
-The consequence of Solomon’s sin was that Israel was again divided into 2 kingdoms; The Northern Kingdom (Judah and Benjamin), ruled by the descendants of David, and the Southern Kingdom, initially ruled by Jeroboam (one of Solomon’s advisors).
-King Jeroboam began his rule with idolatry. He built idols of golden calves so people would worship there instead of going to Jerusalem. He was afraid they would stay there after going to worship God.
-38 Kings and Queens ruled over Israel and the majority of them were evil, committing acts of murder and idolatry.
-One especially wicked King was Ahab, who married Jezebel, an evil woman who worshipped Baal and had all the Israelite priests murdered. (Whaaaat??)
-Elijah was a prophet during the reign of King Ahab. He challenged Jezebel and the prophets of Baal.
-One day God motivated him to have all of those prophets (450 of them) gather to prove whose god was real. 2 altars were built with a sacrifice laid on top of them. Elijah told the prophets to call on Baal to light the fire. Of course, nothing happened, though they tried for hours and hours.
-To prove his point, Elijah poured water all over his altar. When he prayed to God, fire came from Heaven and burned up the sacrifice, water, and even the stones!
The theme is obvious, right? God is faithful to His people, even though we are unfaithful. This should motivate us to read our Bibles, pray, and obey God’s commands because of our love for Him and gratitude for His grace and mercy!
