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- [00:00]
Paul
Foreign.
- [00:05]
Host
Hey, you are listening to A Year in the Bible With Daily Grace. We are walking through the book of first kings today. We're in chapters 10 through 12. And Solomon, he's been our main guy, but in these chapters today, we're going to see Solomon pass away and his reign end. So Paul, can you walk us through these three chapters?
- [00:25]
Paul
Yeah. So we're getting the end of Solomon's reign and kind of the beginning of the split of the nation that we mentioned earlier a few days ago. And unfortunately, as the text has foreshadowed, Solomon's reign doesn't end in a very good place. It ends with him abandoning God and worshiping the idols of his foreign wives that God actually explicitly told him not to marry. And so while in first and Second Samuel, Saul kind of had no heart for God, David had a whole heart for God, Saul, Solomon kind of has a half heart for God is the best way I think we can describe it. And it would have been kind of odd for Israel to hear that, that Solomon was half hearted because on the outside he was very successful, he was very rich, he had lots of wives, he built this big massive temple complex and his own palace. But remember that first and Second Kings is looking back and saying, how did we get here? How did we end up in exile? And they're not looking at the external success of Solomon, they're looking at his heart and realizing, wait, he was worshiping other gods. And kind of like in Samuel, when David is called as king, it says that man looks at outward stature, but God looks at the heart. Right. And so it shouldn't really be surprising that these are pivotal chapters in the narrative. It's where we see the kingdom divided and from this point onward there are two kingdoms. And so I'll just kind of give a summary just to help us. As we read, we have the northern kingdom, which is called Israel, and it's basically made up of ten tribes of Israel. And then we have the southern kingdom, which is called Judah. The tribe of Judah, which is where David came from, and that's where Jerusalem resides, is in Judah. In the north we have Samaria, which is kind of considered the capital there. There's also Bethel and Dan are two other places of worship. But if you notice, you know, that doesn't add up to 12, which is a little interesting. Scholars have ideas of why it doesn't mention 12, but essentially you can think of it as the 10 tribes of Israel and then the one tribe of Judah in the south. And so from here on out, we kind of go back and forth between kings of these two nations. So notable in chapter 12 is that both Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and the king of the south, and then Jeroboam, the king of the north, they both make foolish decisions right off the bat. Rehoboam increases Solomon's workload on the people. And then Jeroboam goes all the way back to one of the first grave sins that Israel committed. He makes two, not one, but two golden calves again in Dan and in Bethel. And he even quotes Aaron directly saying, israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt. I mean, come on, man, you could have used a history lesson, you know, like, this is like one of the biggest failures in the history of Israel. And he makes it again. But. But this sin of Jeroboam is something that we'll see come up again and again used to assess the various kings that come after him.
- [03:22]
Host
Yeah, super big moment here, as we're now gonna be following both of these kingdoms. And we'll do our best to help you keep them straight as we go through the rest of first and second Kings. But what do we learn from these chapters and from these kings that we talked about today?
- [03:37]
Paul
Yeah, so this is something that throughout the rest of the books, I think will be good to think about, is there's more to say than just don't be like them, you know, don't be foolish or don't worship idols, you know? And I think the question in these chapters is really the question of what constitutes success and failure in the human life. Because we see Solomon end in failure, not unlike David, kind of towards the end of his life, not being fully faithful to God. And Rehoboam and Jeroboam also end up as failures. And, you know, I consider for myself, like, I assess myself a lot. I'm like, am I doing well with God? You know, I think in some episodes in the past, you mentioned you kind of think of it like this dial, like, well, God's really loving me. And then, oh, maybe God doesn't love me as much. But the fact of the matter is the Bible tells us we're all failures. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But that sin and that failure that we see within ourselves is meant to point us to the one who did not fail. Jesus, the king who did not fail. And the Bible shows us ultimately that it's only through God and through his grace that we can be considered successes. And so whenever we feel that urge to assess ourselves and judge ourselves. Remembering the work of Christ and that he is the one who determines whether we are success or failure through his grace can be a great comfort and also a reminder that our pursuit of obedience is out of that grace and our faith in Him.
- [05:17]
Host
Paul, you are speaking, like, right to my heart.
- [05:20]
Paul
I'm speaking to myself, too. Yeah.
- [05:21]
Host
When I'm having a rough day, those are often the words that are replaying in my head is like, oh, I failed at this, or I'm a failure. And so I'm thankful for your encouragement in that, that I'm probably using the wrong tool of measurement when I'm determining that. And that's gonna be my takeaway from today to look to Christ in those moments instead of maybe how I feel like I have done well or not done well according to many other ways I could measure myself. So thank you for that and thank you for walking us through these chapters. You've got a lot more Kings coming up. Yes, many more. Yes, many, many more. And so we will dive into that tomorrow. We'll see you then.