• : 1 Kings Chapters
  • 12
  • :25-33,
  • 14
  • : 21-31,
  • 17
  • 18
  • :1-2, 17-46,
  • 19
  • :1-18
  • Kingdom of Israel devolves into filth and chaos

Kingdom of Judah also devolves into filth and chaos

  • Ahab the evil king
  • Elijah the prophet
  • Discussion Questions
  • IN ORTHODOX BIBLES, 1 & 2 Kings = 3 & 4 KINGDOMS
  • Reminder from last week

Israel is split into 2 kingdoms

Kingdom of Judah— Tribes of Judah & Benjamin, ruled by Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. This Kingdom is referred to as the “Southern Kingdom”

Kingdom of Israel— Other 10 tribes, ruled by Jeroboam, Solomon’s son This Kingdom is referred to as the “Northern Kingdom”

  • 1 Kings 12:25-End

What do we learn of Jeroboam and how the Kingdom of Israel is faring?

They are completely turned aside into pagan worship, led by their king Jeroboam, who made 2 golden calves and declared that they are the gods who brought the Israelites out of Egypt. They made their own pagan “high places”, or places of worship, ordained their own priests, and made up their own holy days.

Yes, this disarray and straying from God is the theme of the Kingdom of Israel, which becomes evil in every aspect, led by their evil kings.

  • 1 Kings 14:21-End

Now here, what do we learn of Rehoboam and how the Kingdom of Judah is faring?

Pretty much the same thing as the Kingdom of Israel, and text here even specifically mentioned sodomites in v.24. In fact, the C.F. Isho’Dad says that this was severe prostitution spread by demons occurring at that time, meaning complete abuse of the humanity of individuals. Hence the Egyptian king Shishak is sent by God as punishment for this evil.

Yes, this disarray and straying from God is the theme of the Kingdom of Judah, which becomes evil in every aspect, led by their evil kings as well.

The one saving grace here is that the Kingdom of Judah occasionally has a king who stops some of the paganism and immorality

, although not all, and thus pleases the Lord.

What can we predict, based on V.30, about the relationship between the 2 Kingdoms in the future?

That they will continuously be at war against each other as these 2 kings were. Yes, there will be times where they won’t be, and when they will remember that they are the same people, but that is rare, and when there isn’t war, there is animosity and division across the board.

Based on the condition of the 2 kingdoms, what do we think is going on with the priesthood?

Based on what we have read, we know for certain that in the Kingdom of Israel, they have utterly turned away from the true worship of God, as we saw in the 2 golden calves that Jeroboam made and how they made their own priest class and such. But up until then, there had to have been true priests and Levites in the Northern (Israel) Kingdom, right?

Yes, but they left around the initial split and went to the Southern (Judah) Kingdom, as we read in

2 Chron. 11:13-17

. Since Jeroboam was a rebel to Solomon’s throne, and his son, the rightful heir, and because the situation was getting bad in Northern Israel when they were rebelling against Solomon, they knew they had to sacrifice their homes and comfort to make the right choice and flee to Judah.

So with that in mind, we know the true worship and priesthood was in the Southern Kingdom, where David’s line ruled. But we know that the Southern Kingdom was evil too, so what’s the situation?

Well, remember that regardless of anything, the Temple and its altars, alongside the Aaronic line of priesthood and Davidic kingly line, which was promised a “a lamp in Jerusalem” by God, all remained in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. So they have the elements needed to be valid.

So despite pagan high places and immoral practices, the validity of the priesthood and God’s covenant with David still stood. The people and their practices were corrupt, but our corruption can NEVER corrupt God.

That being said, there was rampant error and corruption in Judah, and like we mentioned earlier, occasionally a new king in Judah would bring reform to worship and clean up the error. This recalls numerous conversations we have had about the fact that individuals in the Church do not equal the Church itself, meaning that, if we look at Mar Shaleta again from a few weeks ago, him living in sin did not make the services he performed invalid for the people who were unaware of it.

  • 1 Kings 17

Who is Ahab?

Ahab was the most wicked king of Israel, (Northern Kingdom) in this period of kings, angering the Lord more than all of his predecessors because of his immorality and pagan worship,

1 Kings 16:30-33

. His wife was equally, if not more, evil than him; and you probably recognize her name, Jezebel. The phrase “don't be such a jezebel” and the term “jezebel spirit” originate with her, because of her idolatry, murder of prophets, and pride.

What did Elijah pronounce to King Ahab?

That there will be no rain or dew (like in the mornings) in Israel for 3 years, unless Elijah himself proclaimed it. This drought was a consequence of the rapid idolatry in Israel during Ahab and Jezebel’s time.

How did Elijah acquire his food?

Ravens (birds) brought it to him.

What 2 miracles did Elijah perform in this chapter?

The first miracle is

that the pot of flour and oil that the widow had, which both had only a little left in them, would not finish no matter how much bread she made for herself, her son, and Elijah. This is quite a large miracle…

but the second miracle is

even greater. The second miracle Elijah performed is that he resurrected the widow’s son. This is the first instance of someone being resurrected in the Bible.

  • 1 Kings 18:1-2, 17-46

What was Elijah’s proposal to the prophets of Baal?

For both parties to sacrifice a bull but not light a fire beneath it, and that whichever God is real would light the fire underneath the sacrifice.

After God consumes Elijah’s sacrifice, what does Elijah do to the prophets of Baal?

He executes them.

How does the drought in Israel end?

As Elijah said originally, no water or dew would come unless by his word, and so Elijah says there is rain in

  • V.41

, and then prays to God.

To remind the Israelites that he, Elijah, and God, were responsible for the drought, he prays atop the mountain for all of Israel to see. To teach the Israelites to be persistent in prayer, he repeats the process 7 times until the rain returns.

Based on what we learn about Elijah from just these 2 chapters, what do you think the prophets were like in the time period of the kings? What are some of their characteristics?

  • +++ Open Discussion +++
  • Holy & virtuous
  • Able to perform mighty miracles
  • Bold proclaimers of God’s message

Close to God

All the above apply to the prophets, and they each had their own sort of “style” that was appropriate for their situation. Elijah was incredibly bold and confrontational towards evil, sometimes even mocking or trash-talking those opposed to God as we saw in this chapter.

The prophets were sort of like outcasts during this time period because their message, which was from God, was often rejected, leading to people hating, persecuting, and/or even killing them. However, they were well known in Israel, and sometimes even among the Gentile nations.

The prophets were often the only “voice of God” during their lifetimes, and would constantly be warning of God’s disapproval with how Israel was, prophesying of what was to come if Israel did not turn back, or repent from their ways.

Notice that Elijah’s personality is very similar to that of John the Baptist.

1 Kings 19:1-18 (read all verses first before questions)

After hearing that Jezebel wanted to kill him, what does Elijah do, and what does he say to God?

Elijah flees into the wilderness after hearing that Jezebel wants to kill him, and then he prays to God that he dies! Yes, the trash-talking prophet, who stopped rain in Israel and resurrected the dead, is asking God to die! Now…

Why do we think Elijah asked to die?

It may appear like he feared for his life, but it’s not exactly the case. Elijah was exhausted in both body and spirit from dealing with the idolatrous and blood-thirsty Israelites, particularly the wicked king and queen, and so also very discouraged. With this in mind, Elijah asked God to take away his soul so that he could flee worldly enticement and the contagion of filthy conduct and the impious acts of an unholy and sinful generation.

But was Elijah justified in asking to die based on that reasoning?

Well, what can we remember about the commandment “Thou shall not kill”? That by not including “your neighbor” in this commandment, we learn that suicide also breaks this commandment, because you are killing (yourself). In either case, God is telling us that we are not the masters of our own life. So Elijah isn’t committing suicide here, but he’s sort of asking for an assisted suicide, if you will.

We said Elijah asked to die because of his exhaustion in body and spirit and how discouraged he was, but asking for death based on that reflects impatience with God’s timing. Should Elijah, as a prophet, not have trusted God to address everything?

  • But what about what Elijah claimed? He claims in

V. 10

“And I, even I only, am left…” as a true worshipper of God in Israel, but that was him being over-zealous and lacking humility, because in

V. 18

“Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” So Elijah was factually wrong.

So Elijah wanted to just escape, he wanted to give up, and he thought that dying was the way to go, but that was wrong!

  • Can we take any encouragement from this (

i.e Elijah asking to die etc.

)?

Well, we just confirmed that Elijah was wrong to ask to die, but God does not punish him for his mistake. Instead, he corrects him gently, and gives him rest and food to eat, meaning He doesn’t ignore Elijah’s human needs.

We now have seen 3 saints in our Bible studies ask to die: Moses, Jonah, and now Elijah. Mar Ephrem explains that even the holy saints become weak, grow weary, and struggle inwardly, which clearly shows us that holiness does not remove human frailty—But God sustains the saints in their weakness, just like we saw Him condescend to the human frailty and weakness of the Israelites during the Exodus.

And so if the saints end up in these tough spots, then we will too! But if God sustains them, then He will sustain us too. Our job is to persevere as long as we can bear; if we cannot hold up any longer, God will step in and hold us. That’s our encouragement.

We are reminded of God knowing our needs and our limits explicitly in

  • Matthew 6:8
  • and

1 Corinthians 10:13.

What else from this chapter can encourage us to persevere in our faith?

God is almighty and powerful, but He did not reveal Himself to Elijah in the Great Wind, the Earthquake, nor the Fire. God addressed Elijah in a small voice, and in our lives, that small voice is often the Gospel we have read in the past, the preaching we recalled in our memory, or the Holy Spirit warning us in our conscience. We probably all too often expect God to give us clarity or encouragement by a dream or sign, but we cannot expect that from Him when He re-assured Elijah by a small voice.

  • This Week's Study

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