Reading 1 and 2 Kings for God’s Mission
The books of 1 and 2 Kings are tragedy of epic, Shakespearean proportions. They are a Fall story. As such, they display human frailty, corruption, out-right rebellion, and unfaithfulness to Yahweh and Yahweh’s covenant.
The books of Kings invite us into the story Israel, and in this way, we see how God responds to our own brokenness and what God plans to do about it. God’s mission is fixing this mess. We very well may see ourselves in the apostate Ahab, the hero-prophet Elijah, the defiant Hezekiah, and the corrupt Manasseh.
It’s crucial to wrestle with the ways in which we see ourselves in these stories. Amidst our own pride and stubborn rebellion, God is on a mission, pursuing us in order to restore God’s good creation once again.
These books are not meant to be an encyclopedic account of what each king accomplished and why. Plenty is left out and left up to the imagination in the telling. Instead, what matters most to the writer is how each ruler adhered to Yahweh’s covenant. Were they faithful to Yahweh? Did they lead the people in the ways of Yahweh? Yahweh’s kingship hovers over the entire narrative just out of frame. Yahweh is always the central character of these stories.
Consider 1 and 2 Kings a series of short stories that chronicle Israel’s tragic descent from the Golden Age under David and Solomon to the kingdom fracturing in two (barely avoiding civil war) to finally the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile.
Spoiler alert: There is no happy ending to the books of 1 and 2 Kings. What happens at the end is the undoing of the Exodus. Instead of moving from slavery to freedom, Israel now moves from freedom to slavery. These stories lead to the exile, the next narrative problem in the Great Big Story.
Here are some important themes to keep in mind as you read 1 and 2 Kings:
What does it mean to be “king”?
This story begins where so many stories begin—at the beginning. At creation, Adam is made to rule justly and righteously God’s world on God’s behalf. But Adam fails. As the story continues to involve the nation of Israel, human kings—broken Image-Bearers, frail and corrupt—are incapable of the just and righteous rule required for God’s world. Broken Image-Bearers are an affront to God’s rule. They are usurpers to God’s kingdom.
So when we come to the story in 1 Samuel 8, when the nation demands the prophet Samuel to anoint a king, we should expect that there is no way this can end well. God chooses David, who becomes the standard by which each succeeding king is measured. David represents the best we can hope for in a broken Image-Bearer. But no one who follows David measures up. This is the tragedy in 1 and 2 Kings.
Until…
In the New Testament, we come to Jesus. Jesus not only measures up to David, he accomplishes what Adam could not—be an human Image-Bearer capable of a just and righteous rule over God’s world. In Acts and the letters of Paul, when we see the title “Christ,” we should understood this as “Good King.” Jesus Christ means Jesus the Good King. The stories in 1 and 2 Kings display the messy middle from David’s sons to the situation that necessitates good King Jesus.
The descending narrative from Joshua to 2 Kings
There’s a continuing story that runs through Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. We might even imagine them like successive seasons of a TV show.
Through the story of the Bible, we see a recurring pattern where God initiates and humans ruin it. We might call it a “Creation/Fall pattern.” God makes the world in Genesis 1 and 2. Humans un-make God’s world in Genesis 3–11.
God brings the people of Israel into the Promised Land in the book of Joshua. This should be a happy ending. In the book of Judges, Israel ruins everything. It’s like the Fall happening all over again. In 1 and 2 Samuel, God again acts and establishes the monarchy and makes a covenant with David. Again, it could have been a happy ending to the whole story. But in 1 and 2 Kings, the people rebel, and it’s like the Fall happening, yet again.
Covenant loyalty
The stories in 1 and 2 Kings cover about 400 years. Throughout these generations, the ultimate question is: Will the nation be loyal to Yahweh? Will it commit to Yahweh’s covenant (basically, the book of Deuteronomy)? Will they be faithful? Or will they worship the gods of the surrounding nations? Will they fall into idolatry? Will they be unfaithful? All of their behavior revolves around this issue of faithfulness versus unfaithfulness.
The divided kingdom
One crucial detail to understanding 1 and 2 Kings is the catastrophic break that happens in 1 Kings 12. Here, the nation of Israel fractures in two separate kingdoms, a northern kingdom, which will be called Israel (or sometimes Ephraim, the most influential of its tribes), and a southern kingdom, which will be called Judah.
It may be helpful to imagine Israel’s situation in the books of Judges and 1 Samuel as comparable to the early days of the United States when there were 13 colonies and no central government. Early on, Israel is a loosely held-together federation of 12 tribes with no central leadership, until the Philistines require them to get their act together.
It’s a testament to David’s leadership that he brings them together. Solomon’s leadership is controversial enough that his son, Rehoboam, inherits problems he can’t handle and ten of the tribes revolt. Thus, a new Israel is formed with a capital established in Samaria and new alternate religious shrines set up in Dan and Bethel. Echoing Aaron and his golden calf in Exodus, Jeroboam announces that these gods at Dan and Bethel are really Yahweh. (They’re not.) And so Jeroboam represents the anti-David, and succeeding wicked kings are compared to Jeroboam instead of the righteous David. The northern kingdom will be marked by a series of violent coups, idolatry, and unfaithfulness to Yahweh. In the south, worship continues in the temple in Jerusalem, and the family of David retains the throne.
After chapter 12, 1 and 2 Kings chronicles two overlapping timelines, that of Israel and the rebel kings and that of Judah’s kings from David’s family. The northern kingdom of Israel abandons the covenant of Yahweh and is wiped out by the nation of Assyria in 2 Kings 17. Judah will exist for another 150 years until the nation of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem and takes the survivors into exile.
The role of the prophets
The books of 1 and 2 Samuel introduce the office of prophet through characters like Samuel and Nathan. In 1 and 2 Kings, prophets come to play a much larger role. Elijah and Elisha are major figures, as they represent the voice of Yahweh to unfaithful kings in the north. And while they don’t appear in the narrative, prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Joel, Jonah, Obadiah, Micah, and Nahum overlap the history in 1 and 2 Kings. One way of thinking about the prophets is as “the Deuteronomy police.” Any time the nation begins to stray from the covenant, the prophets sound the alarm. They’re like referees blowing the whistle when things start going out of bounds.
Exile
The exile is one of the most important plot points in the story of Israel. It was a tragic undoing of the Exodus. It echoes the Fall. At the conclusion of Deuteronomy, which contains Yahweh’s convenant, consequences for breaking the covenant are outlined in horrifying detail. This is precisely what happens at the conclusion of 2 Kings. This is what happens when broken Image-Bearers aspire to ruling God’s kingdom.
The geo-political landscape
From an objective, historical standpoint, Israel and Judah were insignificant players among the political powers of the ancient world. To the north and east, there was Assyria, and to the south and west, there was Egypt. And Israel and Judah were stuck in the middle between these superpowers who were locked in constant struggle. And so depending on what was most advantageous for survival, Yahweh’s people would make a treaty with Assyria or Egypt in order to protect them from the other. And Yahweh, through the prophets, demanded they stop that. Yahweh’s protection was sufficient. Later Babylon overtook Assyria as the threat from the east. God’s story happens within the stories of competing political struggles.
These ancient stories still speak powerfully to us today. If we want to speak to the timely issues of faith and political power in our own day, we would do well to pay close attention to 1 and 2 Kings. If we want to speak the issues of idolatry and unfaithfulness that are lodged inside our own hearts, we would do well to pay close attention to 1 and 2 Kings.
These books show a God on mission in the world.
If you want to go deeper, be sure to check these out:
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone by John Goldingay
1 & 2 Kings by Walter Brueggemann
If you want to know more about the idea of “kingship” as it relates to Jesus and the Great Big Story, be sure to read Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel.