1kings

First Kings
by Paul D. Fisher--Apr 22,2001 First Kings continues with an outline history of the kingdom of Israel, from
the last days of David right into the divided kingdom of Israel, the northern ten tribes and Judah, the southern two tribes. This book covers the glory days of
Israel during the reign of David's son Solomon who built the temple unto God. During the early part of Solomon's reign Israel reached a height that it would never come close to again. Like many nations in the world it achieved great
things for a short amount of time. Sotomon's wisdom was known and sought
after by many people of the world. For all his wisdom Solomon failed to obey God's command not to marry foreign women. It was this failure that led him
off into worshipping false gods. Because of this sin, God informed Solomon
that the kingdom would be divided after his death.
The rest of the book contains the sad history of the division of Israel into the
two kingdoms and the decline of both kingdoms into apostasy. With the
exception of only a few kings, most are spoken of as walking in the sins of their
fathers and leading Israel or Judah into sin. We are introduced to two of the greatest prophets of God in this book, Elijah and Elisha. Elijah proved that God was truly the only living and true God in the contest with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, when fire came down from God and consumed the sacrifice that Elijah had prepared.

What Are You Doing Here Elijah?

In First Kings 19, we find Elijah running away from the wicked queen, Jezebel,
and hiding in the wilderness around Horeb. Jezebel had sent word to Elijah that he was to end up like one of the prophets of Baal whom Elijah had killed. Elijah just did not go a little ways and hide but he went many miles south of the boundary of Judah much less Israel to hide, finally ending up in a cave. While in the cave God talked to him and asked him the question, "What are you doing here Elijah?" Elijah then in a very human way justified his being there in the wilderness. God instructed Elijah to return and finish the work that God had for him to do and reminded him that he was not alone.

Many times we feel like Elijah, like we need to mn off and hide. We justify feelings like Elijah, thinking that we are the only one that is trying to do God's will
and everyone else is out to get us. Elijah stands as a reminder that we are not
alone and we need to be doing the work that God has set out for us to do. This work cannot be done while we are hiding and feeling sorry for our selves. We must ,like Elijah, return and do the work to be pleasing to God.

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