The History of Kingship in Israel

Part 23 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series

David Pawson observes that the book of Kings begins with King Solomon who began well by asking for wisdom, so God gave him everything he didn’t ask for as well: wealth, fame and power. Solomon wanted to share his wisdom. Unfortunately, he only had wisdom for everybody else, none for himself though he wrote three books and did many good things. He built a temple for the Lord with the materials and the plans from his father, David. All the northern kings were evil. In the south, some were good. The south survived a hundred and forty years longer than the north because good kings reigned longer. They had two very good kings called Hezekiah and Josiah, but another, Manasseh, even got into Satan worship. He ordered the death of Isaiah the prophet. We see in the book of Kings the dangers of becoming mixed up in other religions, other ways of life and other moralities. And it’s happening. But the God who is the king of the universe is also our judge and sooner or later we will lose what He’s given to us unless we wake up. That’s the lesson from the book of Kings. The Bible is able to make us ‘wise unto salvation’ and avoid the terrible mistakes that God’s people of old made.