A series shared by Lance Lambert at Halford House
The books of Samuel and Kings were originally a single volume known as “The Books of the Kingdom.” This second study reviews I and II Kings and what God’s heart was throughout this time of the kings of Israel.
Lance Lambert tackles the question of how the Bible remains as relevant today as when it was first written. In two volumes, he examines Old and New Testament texts, showing how archaeological discoveries confirm Scripture’s accuracy and authenticity.
In this study of the first five books of the Bible, Lance digs into the purpose of each book and does not shy away from the difficulties that are hard to reconcile. He shows how the Word of God unfolds valuable riches.
Lance shows that Joshua is a positive story of overcoming and Judges a story of much defeat, and that both show the Lord’s way for His people. He also shows how Ruth fits into the Lord’s purpose in this area of history.
The books of Samuel and Kings were originally combined into a single volume known as “The Books of the Kingdom.” This first study in a two-part series explores why these texts bear Samuel’s name, even though David is the central figure.
The books of Samuel and Kings were originally a single volume known as “The Books of the Kingdom.” This second study reviews I and II Kings and what God’s heart was throughout this time of the kings of Israel.
Recovery is the key theme from Ezra to Esther, giving a clear vision of the Lord’s goal with His people. This is an in-depth analysis of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, tracing the working of the Lord throughout history.
We come to the books of Samuel for our current study and the first problem we face is that in the Hebrew, the first and the second book of Samuel are one book. They are not looked upon as two books at all. It was only later, I think quite late in this age, that the division was made, and Samuel was divided into two books. In fact, as I think all of you will have noticed, if you look at the last chapter of the first book of Samuel and the first chapter of the second book, you will notice that there is no distinctive break at all in the narrative. These two books are one work.
Moreover, in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, not only are I and II Samuel linked together, but also I and II Kings. They are all looked upon in the Septuagint version as one book in four sections. So, these are called the four books of the kingdom. If any of you have Knox’s Version or if you look in the Septuagint Version, you will know that these are called the four books of the kingdom. It has been left out in the Revised, but in the Authorised Version, you will see a little subtitle to the title which says, “Or the first book of Kings,” “I Samuel, or the first book of Kings.” For example, “II Samuel, or the second book of Kings.” Then similarly, “I Kings, or the third book of Kings.” This straightaway gives us an understanding of these books to which we have now come.
The two books of Samuel and the two books of Kings are, in actual fact, a complete history of the kingdom. We have now come to a great point in Jewish history, and indeed, we have come to a very great point in the history of God’s dealings with His own people, with His own children. For the first time, we are going to see a kingdom introduced. In I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings we have the complete history of that kingdom from its very inception in Samuel’s day, right through to the Exile. The last chapters of II Kings bring us right up to the carrying away into exile. That was the end of the kingdom. After the Exile, there was no kingdom.
The kingdom ended when Judah was finally taken into exile. So, we really have got a complete history. If we look at these four books as a complete history of the kingdom, then I think we shall have a real understanding of what exactly the aim of the Lord is in giving them. There is going to come a point a bit later when we come to I and II Chronicles, when we are going to have to ask ourselves a very sensible question as to why on earth we should find another record going over exactly the same ground, and indeed including much of the same material. But that will wait until we come to it. These four are quite distinct from the first and second books of Chronicles. These four are a complete history, and they are written from a different standpoint than the two books of Chronicles. That is the first thing that we want to notice.
We have here a complete history of the kingdom. We have dealt with the history of the people settling in the land and inheriting it, what they really possessed of the land. We have dealt with Judges and the three appendices, including Ruth, dealing with the period of how what they left unpossessed became the ground for the enemy to bring the people into captivity and to worry the people all the time.
Now, we have come to the introduction of the kingdom. We have come to a completely new phase in God’s dealings with His people. We all know that the Bible is taken up completely with a progressive revelation which involves different phases. We have seen one great phase begin with Adam and end with Noah. We saw another phase which opened with Noah and ended with Abraham. Abraham was perhaps the greatest figure that we have come to study up to this point in Scripture. God’s whole method with Abraham was entirely different from that with the others. He took Abraham in an entirely new way. You remember, He appeared to Abraham. He sovereignly extricated Abraham from a very, very cultured, heathen background and then took him out from it and did in him a very deep work which was to make him the father of a nation. Then we saw a new phase begin with Moses. We see now a new phase begin here.
We are at the beginning of the first book of Samuel. We are at the beginning of an entirely new phase in the history of the people of God, and we find that God has taken a great step forward. When the Lord took hold of Abraham, He took a great step forward, did He not? The history of humanity up to Abraham was general. The history following Abraham has been particular. It is bound up with a people. Before Abraham, it was just humanity. When He took Abraham, He was choosing a people. God took hold of Abraham with a people in view and all God’s dealings with Abraham were of necessity, because from Abraham there was going to be produced a people.
So, we find that Abraham touches off the first great phase of the people of God. Up until then, history was general history. It was just to do with the nations. It was to do with the progress of the nations, the division of the nations, the allotment of the nations and so on. But when God took hold of Abraham, He took hold of one single man out of a certain family, in a certain people, in a certain nation. He took him away from it all into the desert, made him walk up and down in a land which he never owned, except for one little burial plot where he buried his own wife and he himself was later buried. That was all he ever owned in the land that God was to give him.
So that phase from Abraham to Joseph was a very necessary pre-natal history of the people of God. It was a long, drawn out, wearing, laborious history of inwrought principle. In Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was to work out a principle in their lives so that from then on, these three would be the embodiment of all that God desired in a people. That is why God’s dealings with Abraham were different to His dealings with Isaac. His dealings with Jacob were different than with Abraham and Isaac. Each one of those three reveals to us something, some different aspect of what the Lord is after in a people.
That was the phase of pre-natal history, corporately. God was dealing with men, with a people in view. He took hold of one man. Then He took hold of a family that came out of that one man, and He dealt with them with a people in view. The people never came in their lifetime; Abraham never saw the people, and yet God was dealing with him in a long but sure and certain way to, in the end, produce a people. When Joseph goes into Egypt, some of the last developments of that phase are in the making. The Lord takes Joseph into Egypt to prepare the way for his brothers and his father, Jacob, to come into Egypt.
Then that phase ends in silence. A great period of history is passed over almost in silence. We do not know what has happened. The pre-natal history of the people of God is over. The next great phase begins with Moses and with Moses, God has a people. Moses does not have to look around for a people. Moses is already part of a nation, and the nation is in bondage. The nation has got to be redeemed. The nation has got to be delivered. A nation has got to be brought out. So, the next great phase begins in the history of the people of God, and that is the birth of a nation. The birth of a nation begins with the Passover and the Red Sea. That was the birth of a nation.
God in that day sovereignly put a sea between Egypt and His people. He delivered them in a miraculous way and in one single day, a nation was born. When the people landed on the other side of the Red Sea, they were an emancipated nation. In a day or two, they had left the house of bondage behind and they had become a nation. Then there is the great phase that is covered by Moses and Joshua and the book of Judges, and we could include many books when we consider Moses’ books, could we not? Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and so on. All of that phase is a phase in which the nation is being brought into an understanding of its vocation as the dwelling place of God, as God’s habitation and much else. That is a phase, as you know, of much revelation in every way, a tremendous amount of revelation.
Here was a nation. The nation comes out of Egypt in a very dispersed, scattered, and rebellious mood. The nation passes over under Joshua, as one man, into the land. Something has happened. Again, God’s methods are long, they are laborious, but they are certain. A whole generation dies in the wilderness, but God takes up a new generation from out of a dying generation. That new generation was the generation that went over into the land to possess it.
Then you know that the book of Judges starts, as always, to prepare us for another new phase. It begins to show us all the weaknesses of the old phase and then begins to point us to the need of something which hitherto has not yet appeared on the scene.
Now, we have come to it. In I and II Samuel we have the beginning of a new phase. This is very, very important for us to understand. Samuel introduces a completely new phase or a new economy. He introduces a new phase of God’s dealing.
What is this new phase? The nation is going to be a kingdom. So, God unfolds to us something more in His thoughts. The people are not just to be so many people. They are to be welded and fused together into a kingdom and I and II Samuel are the beginning of that phase. Two new things come in with Samuel which were never there before. The first is the prophetic order, and the second is the monarchy. Let me put it this way. Many of you will say straightaway, “Oh, but there were prophets before Samuel,” but Samuel is called in Scripture “the first of the prophets.” The others that went before him, whilst they certainly did have a prophetic ministry (some of them), they were not prophets in the sense that those that succeeded Samuel were. Samuel was the first of a line of prophets. He was the last of the judges and the first of the prophets.
You see, up till then, prophecy had been a very spontaneous, and, I would say, a small ministry. It had not taken the place that it was now going to have. If we look at Scripture from the book of Samuel onwards, we shall find that the prophet was all- powerful. The prophet was so powerful, that in many ways in the people’s minds, he ranked above the king. This is an altogether new movement of God. Samuel was the first of that line of prophets who introduced the kings, who anointed the kings, who, as it were, appointed the kings. The prophets were king- makers and king-breakers. They now became, in the hands of God, an instrument for correcting the king and the kingdom. They became an instrument in preserving the kingdom, warning the kingdom, and caring for it. This was something altogether new. We have had prophecy before now, yet we have never had a prophetic ministry of a type and an order which, as it were, is almost superior to the king himself.
Samuel was the beginning of this order, first of all in the way that he introduces Saul into the scene, then the way he instructs Saul, the way he anoints Saul, and the way he introduces Saul to the people. Then later on we see this order in the way that he contacts David, the way he anoints David, and the way he instructs David. Here for the first time, we have a new order altogether that we call the prophetic order. That is why there are two little terms in the book of Acts, one in chapter 13 and one in chapter three. One says, “until Samuel,” and the other says, “from Samuel.” Thus, we learn that Samuel is, as it were, a great turning point in the history of God’s people.
We find two entirely new things come now into being which were never there before. The first is a long line of prophets that began with Samuel and ended with John the Baptist. The second is a long line of kings which began with David and ended with the Messiah. Samuel now was the one to introduce these two tremendous changes into God’s economy: kingship and the prophetic order.
I think also we have to learn from the rather remarkable fact that from the earliest days, these two books were called the Book of Samuel, and now, more recently, the Books of Samuel. I do not know whether any of you have inquiring minds like mine. Have you never asked yourself why they are called the Book of Samuel? I have often asked myself when I was a little younger in the Lord, why on earth they were called the Book of Samuel. I was quite sure it had been a terrible mistake somewhere. I would have called them the Book of David. Why do you call them the Book of Samuel? There are only, at the very most, 15 chapters to do with Samuel—at the very most. Even that is not altogether to do with Samuel. Why then have these, from the earliest days, been called the Book of Samuel or recently the Books of Samuel? That is why it is so instructive. God tells us that He always begins a new phase with a man. Always, we have to understand that in the economy or the economies of God, He always begins with a man. The first started with Adam, of course, and then every new phase has been touched off by a man.
Now, shall we say, among the people of God there are three outstanding men. They are Abraham, Moses, and Samuel. Today, if you go to a modern orthodox Jew, he could tell you that the three greatest men in his history are Abraham, Moses, and Samuel. He will not tell you anything else. He will say that the three greatest men are Abraham, Moses, and Samuel, because these three men are men that introduced new phases in God’s dealings with His people. That is why we do not find David, of all people, mentioned in the title. No, not in any shape or form or suggestion, is David mentioned here. If any name is given, and that from the earliest days, it is the name of Samuel. That is why Samuel is revered amongst the Jews.
Then again, we have to recognise that all these three men are pioneers. They are pioneers in a unique way—a way in which even such a man as Joshua was not. These men are absolutely pioneers. God did with each one a remarkable thing. With each of these three men is a new beginning and each begins in the sovereignty of God. Each of the three men that touch off a new phase in God’s dealings with men begin with God’s sovereignty and grace.
Why did God choose Abraham? Abraham did not do a thing, yet God appeared unto Abraham. It is not recorded that Abraham sought the Lord. It is not recorded that Abraham called upon the Lord. It is not recorded that Abraham followed after the Lord. It does say the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham. He laid hold of Abraham. Moses was exactly the same. God from the very beginning, in a sovereign way, preserved Moses. In the same way from before his birth, Samuel had all the marks of the sovereignty of God. Here we learn once more one of the great principles of God in any new phase, whether it be in our days or whether it be right back in Old Testament days. Whenever God is going to do a new thing, it always begins with His sovereignty. Always. It always begins with the sovereignty of God. This is one of the most remarkable things you will find in Scripture, but it is all the way through. When God touches off a completely new phase in His economy, it always begins with His own initiation, His own sovereignty.
We have already mentioned that Samuel is the last of the judges and the first of the prophets. Samuel combines in himself all the Old Testament offices. He is a priest, he is a prophet, and he is a judge. He combines priesthood, prophecy, and rulership or kingship in himself. These three offices are combined in one person.
Another thing about Samuel is that he is a Levite, and he is a Nazirite. All these different things are woven together in one man. He combines everything and he becomes the great turning point in Jewish history when the nation, as it were, moved from one phase of a more democratic government right over into a monarchy. There Samuel stands at the heart of it all as God’s instrument.
Another interesting thing is that Samuel had influence. I want to underline this fact because I think Samuel is forgotten by Christians today. His is a name that is not mentioned so often. Whereas in actual fact, if you look through Scripture, you will find it gives Samuel a tremendous place. Samuel influenced the nation for generations to come, as I suppose no other man has influenced it, except, of course, Abraham and Moses. His influence outlived his death by generations.
For instance, Samuel was the man who instituted the schools of the prophets. Now let us get this absolutely clear. The schools of the prophets were not Bible colleges as so many people seem to think. They always seem to refer to these schools of the prophets as if they were Bible colleges. These schools of the prophets were more akin to our universities. They were centres where the young men of the land were taught to read and to write, and then they were taught the law of God and, as it were, out from that everything developed. These were the schools of the prophets which Samuel instituted, which were to become one of the greatest institutions of Israel.
This is all an aside, but do you know that, speaking from a human standpoint, we probably would never have had the Scriptures which we have if it had not been for the schools of the prophets? This is where students took these scriptures and carefully scribed them, copied them, made many different manuscripts of the one, and stored them in the different centres of the land. The centres of the prophets became, as it were, centres of education and culture. If you read a Jewish history, you will find that Samuel is looked upon as one of the greatest statesmen of Jewish history, because he paved the way for the kingdom, not only spiritually, but culturally and educationally. He paved the way for the kingdom.
Samuel was the one who was to lay a foundation which still existed in the days of our Lord. He was the one who was to put the Jew on an entirely new footing educationally with the nations roundabout, so that to this day, the Jew is known as a bookworm. We very rarely find that Jews will excel in sport or in other things like that. They excel in the realm of literature and art. Samuel was the one that converted the nation into a nation of bookworms. So we see that in the Lord’s day, to uncover one’s body was considered to be sinful, and still is amongst orthodox Jews. But to study any form of writing is considered to be almost sacred.
This all began in a simple way with Samuel and his institution of the school of the prophets. So let us forget the business about Bible colleges and so on for a while, and remember that they were more centres of learning, where the young of the nation were brought in and were taught to read and taught to write, and then taught to understand something of the history and the heritage of their people. We have to confess that the schools of the prophets did not do much else. Educationally and culturally, they did a lot, but whenever God wanted someone to do something, He never looked for them in the schools of the prophets. He always took them, as it were, from ‘nowhere.’ Think of a man like Elijah. He never gave them schools of the prophets, although much of his life later on was spent in helping the prophets and so on. Yet he himself was a very rough, shepherd-like character that was brought from out of Gilead. So, we could go on mentioning other characters, but the Lord bypassed the school for the prophets in that way, as I am afraid often He does today. He still always maintains His sovereignty in the way in which He raises up men and women to be those that are instruments in His hand. So, we want to at least recognise together that Samuel was a most remarkable man.
We have seen already in our previous study on Ruth, the Lord working sovereignly to provide a king. Right in the midst of all that darkness and carnage and evil, in the days of the book of Judges, the Lord is working to provide a king. He does not work apart from it; He works with it. Is this not always like the Lord? He always takes failure. Where we fail, that is the point in which He starts to recover. He takes the Moabitess. He takes people who failed because they have moved off God’s ground and gone into backsliding and gone into a foreign country. All those things which were just evidence of failure and compromise and breakdown, God takes that, and from that point He provides a king. So, the book of Ruth ends with a king.
Now, we must go back a little. We have already had the veil drawn aside and we have seen that a king has been provided. Here then we find the instrument which God is raising up to introduce this kingship and we begin with the books of Samuel. Now, because the different sections of these books overlap, we shall look at the first 16 chapters and then next we shall go back again over the last chapters from about chapter 8.
Now, a word on the authorship and the date of this book of Samuel. The author is not clearly indicated at all. It is obviously a compilation. It has been compiled from various documents, and that is quite clear if we look together at the book. Turn with me to I Samuel 10:25:
Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before Jehovah. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.
Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the history of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the history of Gad the seer ...
(and he bade them teach the children of Judah the song of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jashar):
I think you will probably all know that Nathan and Gad were intimately associated with David. You remember it was Nathan the prophet who went in and rebuked David for his sin over Uriah the Hittite. Also, you will remember that it was Gad the prophet, who interpreted to David the plague because he numbered the people. These prophets were intimately associated with David in the kingdom. So, it would seem that this would explain how the book of Samuel could be written, obviously from an eyewitness account, and yet at the same time have the marks of being written a good deal later than the events recorded. That is why these books particularly have become the centre of so much controversy in this question on liberalism in the word of God. It is simply that it is probable that the three or more documents used were written by eyewitnesses of the events and have been compiled together by a scribe at a later date.
Another thing that we might say is that this book of Samuel covers a period of approximately one hundred years. It covers from the death of Samson, the beginning of Eli, more or less, right over to the accession of Solomon to the throne. That is quite a big period of a hundred years, approximately a century. It was probably written in its present form, or compiled in the form in which we now have it, during the reign of Rehoboam, the first king of Judah. You remember that at Solomon’s death, Israel was split into two, into Israel and Judah. It was probably compiled in the form in which we have it now in that reign. The reason being (if you want to have any evidence for it) is that first of all it speaks of David’s death. Secondly, in at least one place, it speaks of the kings of Judah, which would be unheard of before the division of Israel into Israel and Judah. So, we would say that it was written not before the death of David and not before the division of Israel into two. That means it would probably have been written then in the reign of Rehoboam. It is also possible that Nathan and Gad, who certainly outlived David, may well have lived on into the reign of Rehoboam. There is a possibility of that if you look into the history itself.
What is the key to the book of Samuel? Well, I do not think we need to spend very long on what is the key. I expect most of you already know it. The key is quite obvious, much more obvious than in some of the books—it is kingship—twofold. It is the king (kingship) and the kingdom. That is the key to this book.
We find everything is explained by kingship in the book of Samuel. It is revealed negatively in Saul and then positively in David. That is why you will find that Saul is included in the account, although he was not really God’s king at all. He is included in the account because it reveals to us what is not kingship according to God and what can never attain to real kingship under the hand of God, whereas David is the exact opposite. It reveals to us, in spite of the obvious, quite obvious failings and waywardness of the man, it reveals to us what can be brought under the hand of God to the throne.
It is interesting to note that in these four books (I and II Samuel and I and II Kings), we are not given a strictly chronological order of events. This again is a thing that puzzles many people. But as always in the Bible, the aim governs the scope. We have said that so many times in our Bible study series, and yet it is so important to an understanding of the word of God. The aim governs the scope. It is not a strictly chronological order of events. That is why you will find, first of all, we deal with Samuel when he is a boy, a little boy, and then suddenly his whole life is almost passed over until we find him an old, grey-haired man at the end of his life. Then we dwell for some time upon his end. In the same way, Saul is introduced as a young man, an unmarried young man, in his father’s house. Then suddenly, there is a whole portion of his life left out, and we suddenly find that he is forty or thereabouts when next we find him.
Then again, you cannot even say that the book of Samuel is pure biography. It is not pure biography. There is much that we would include in a biography that is not included here. That is why people who have written biographies of Samuel and David and so on have found themselves hard put to fill quite a few large gaps in their lives. This is not pure biography in the same way that it is not pure chronological history.
The aim of these books is to introduce the kingdom of God under the guidance of the word of God. That is why the last four chapters of the second book of Samuel are not history at all, like the last few chapters of Judges and Ruth. They go back over what has been narrated and insert one or two incidents as a kind of appendix which reveals two or three things. The idea of the last four chapters of the second book of Samuel is to show to us finally that the kingdom has been truly established. It tells us the mighty men that have come who took part in its establishment. Then it shows to us how the kingdom of God for the first time was absolutely under the guidance of the word of God through the prophet. The word of God did not come through the king. The word of God came through the prophet. This was a new thought altogether that there should be leadership on one side, wedded with prophecy, the word of God, on the other.
That, I say, is the aim of these four books that comprise this history of the kingdom, to show to us the kingdom of God under the word of God, in the same way that we today have exactly the same position. We are in the kingdom of God and we are under the guidance of the word of God. So, we can learn a tremendous amount from these chapters. We have got to hear the word of God as something that can correct us and must correct us, rebuke us because we must be rebuked, encourage us because we must be encouraged, comfort us because we must be comforted. That is the whole function of the word of God, to build us up and to keep us in the way, and by God’s grace, to bring us to full attainment of all that God has given to us in Christ.
We can see, therefore, that if the key to this book is kingship and the kingdom, we can look at the book of Samuel in one or two ways. First of all, we can look upon it as David’s prefiguring [foreshadowing] of God’s king. I think you all know just the remarkable way in which David does foreshadow the coming of the Lord. He himself, as it were, did not know it fully and yet, you see it from his Psalms. In Psalm 22 and other Psalms like that, we find that words are put into his mouth, wrung out of bitter, agonising experience, which were later to be taken up by the Lord Himself in the most sombre and solemn part of His death. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Yet you see, here the Lord took hold of a man a thousand years before the Lord Jesus should appear, and put him into such a way, led him into such circumstances, brought him into such situations that He was able to wring out of him, as it were, that which absolutely prefigured the Lord in His deepest and most terrible agony.
We can look at many of David’s psalms, and when you think of David’s word, “My own familiar friend has lifted up his heel against me,” and many other psalms like that, we see they were not written cheaply. They were not written superficially. They did not just come out of a kind of poetic, artistic type of mind or attitude. They were wrung out of his heart experience of life and of humanity and of God. Because of that, you find that without hardly knowing it, David prefigures and foreshadows the Lord Himself in his own way and life. So, we can take the key to this book, which is kingship, and we can look at David as a type of the Lord Jesus, and a very, very wonderful type indeed, and learn from that.
Although one has to be awfully careful about this sometimes, I think in the way that some saints foreshadowed the Lord, we, in this age, can express the Lord. We have to be very careful about saying that. But I have often thought of it, and it has often comforted me, to think that as saints hundreds of years before the Lord were put into circumstances in which they prefigured their Lord, so we are put into circumstances and situations. In the same way, we are writing history. Well, of course, that is not very easy for you or me to think of in our insignificant surroundings and so on, but nevertheless, it is true that we are writing history. I have no doubt about it that the book of Acts will be a continued story. When we get to glory, we shall probably find that the whole thing has been written so there will be a counterpart of this New Testament age to all that we have in the word of God. For after all, the word of the Lord abideth forever. I do not believe that the New Testament age is going to be passed over in silence at all. I am quite sure that we are going to find that the “through faith” chapter is going to be expanded to include quite a few other events and incidents. In the same way we shall find in the glory one day that many of us, in the simplest, most humble surroundings, like Hannah, like Ruth, like Mary, and like Elizabeth by God’s grace and in His sovereignty became the ground for instruction for principalities and powers, for those things that watch, those things that look on. Without our hardly knowing it, only dimly seeing it, we have become, as it were, a veritable instruction to those principalities and powers.
Well, there is something very, very wonderful about looking at it from that point of view. I think we can also look at it from another point of view as well. We can look upon it as the kingdom of God. We mean by that, not just simply God’s king, but God’s kingdom with its government, its administration, its centre, its home, its life, its everything. You know, God’s kingdom is just like that. It all is involved in the person, God’s king. But out from God’s king there is a government, there is a cabinet, there is an administration, then there is a life. It is all there in God’s kingdom. We can view these chapters in the same way. God’s king is not just a detached, ethereal, sentimental figurehead. You do not believe that the Lord Jesus is going to be very much like royalty today, do you? Will He be a sentimental figurehead, a heart which sentimentally draws people together? Do you believe that? No, I believe that the Lord Jesus is not just a figurehead, that sentimentally draws His people together. He is Himself head over all things. He has a government and an administration. He has a kingdom in which His word is absolutely all-powerful and authoritative. That is the kingdom.
When you and I are brought into relationship with the Lord Jesus, we enter the kingdom of God by birth. That is something which is very, very wonderful. In the days to come, of course, when God has got His government, His administration perfected, then we are going to see its outworking in the universe. Then there will be territories to be governed, and there will be vast domains and realms brought under the government of a people who have been perfected into the likeness of their king.
So, we can look at this book of Samuel in that light. We can look upon it as the light of the establishment of a kingdom. Then we can look upon it, and this is very important, as revealing to us principles of kingship. For God has made us all royal sons and daughters. The whole point of His house and of His schooling is to train us in the principle of kingship. Adam was told to have dominion. And all down through the different ages, God has been seeking to instruct us in the principles of dominion.
In the same way, we make a big mistake if we think that this life is everything. This life is like the cave of Adullam. One day we are coming out to take the kingdom. There is coming a day when we are going to come out as a people wedded together, built together, fused together into a solid home, one solid unit, a head and a body. In that day, the kingdom will be taken and the King of kings will be crowned. That is what this life is. That is why sometimes it is so very dark and so very gloomy. That is why it is so very shut in. That is why it is so very restricted. That is why we are put with people, some of whom we cannot get on with, but we have to get on with them, and we have got to be built in with them. That is the whole history of the kingdom of God. What is it? It is kingship being learned. It is the principles of kingship being, as it were, inwrought.
That is how we can look upon this book. We have been made kings and priests unto God. It is not enough for us to be ruled over. God, by developing a Christ-like moral stature and character, will make us kings. He is not content to have, as it were, just slaves that bow to Him. He would so develop us, so train us that we become kings because of something inside. It is not, as so many people think, that one day we are all going to have golden crowns placed upon our heads and that then there is going to be a cry, “Long live the king!” or something like that. It is not that everyone is going to say, “Now, look, here is King Lance and here is king somebody else and here is king somebody else.” That is not the thought of Scripture, although many of our hymns suggest it, that we are going to be crowned like that. Well, no doubt there is coming something along that line of a public recognition. But how will it come?
No man and no woman in the kingdom of God will ever be given kingship who has not got kingship inside. The old word in the book of Proverbs we often quote, “a man’s gift makes room for him,” is as true in heaven as it is down here. Let me put it this way: if in heaven there is something of moral stature, of moral character, of Christ Himself reproduced in character and moral quality and backbone, that man, that woman, of necessity, will be in God’s administration. That is how it works out and that is how we can look at the book of Samuel. We can look upon it as a book of the principles of kingship—kingship principles.
How did David come to the throne? Why did Saul fall from the throne? Why was Saul cut off from the throne and why was David kept on the throne? Can you tell me anywhere where Saul murdered a man and took his wife? You will not find this anywhere. You cannot find it. Now tell me, can you find anywhere in the book of Samuel where Saul numbered the people in disobedience to God? Then, for that reason, the terrible plague hit the people of God? Can you find it?
Can you find anywhere in the Scripture other things like qualities of humility in Saul? Now, you may say to me, “No, I cannot find any humility about Saul.” But I can. I can prove to you from Scripture that, naturally speaking, Saul was quite humble when they tried to crown him. He hid in the baggage and he had to be dragged out. He would not be crowned. When first he was told that he was to be king, he said that he was the least, and his father’s house was the least, and his tribe was the least. Why choose him?
You know, another time, there were some other nasty people who did not like Saul’s being king and refused to give a gift and refused to acknowledge it. When Saul led the people into victory against the Philistines, the people came and said, “Now, please, we want to put to death the people that would not recognise you.” But Saul said, “No, this is the day of victory. No man shall die.” He saved the lives. He seemed to be a very generous man. I could tell you all kinds of things about Saul which were exceedingly generous. Now tell me, why did Saul not come to the throne of God and why is it that David did?
In the answer to those questions, you will find the principles of kingship. Why it is that so many good, natural qualities do not qualify us, and why it is that a man with so many very real sins could be qualified? In that, you find the principles of kingship. In Saul, it is negative. All that is good about him and all that is bad, and yet, a divine veto. But in David, we find all that is good about him and all that is bad about him, but divine acceptance. Now, why? You see, we can look at this book and the key to it is the kingdom or kingship. We can look at this book as revealing to us principles of kingship: the way we come to serve. In so doing, we shall find the answer to much else.
I just want you also to note that the house of God is hidden in the first chapters. Mind you, a tremendous amount happens around the house of God. The very opening chapters of Samuel are found within the tabernacle—at Shiloh. From then on, we find everything has been brought back to the tabernacle. However, the thing I want you to notice is that although kingship and the kingdom are the key to the book of Samuel, you will find at the very end that it has all got a greater purpose than even that. You find the last chapter of the second book of Samuel ends with the purchase, very insignificant, the purchase of a threshing floor and the raising of an altar. Why mention that? Because that threshing floor is to become the site of the house of God. I never find anywhere any concern or yearning whatsoever in Saul for the house of God, but I find in David, from his earliest days, before ever kingship entered his mind, a passionate love for the house of God—passionate.
If, as we believe, Psalm 23 was written in the very earliest days of David’s life when he was still a shepherd lad, it may well be that from those earliest days, the passion of his heart and life was the house of God. We can certainly know it was later by his Psalms and by the record of this book. We are shown, as time goes on, something hidden at the beginning begins to be unfolded at the end. We suddenly discover that this man’s heart is not on the throne at all. It is upon God’s habitation. That is why the closing years of his life were spent in gathering together material for the building and the construction of the house of God. That is why David’s whole concern at the end was to instruct Solomon, his son, in how to build the house. It was his concern. It was his passion. It was the one object of his heart. I think that what perhaps broke his heart was the fact that he was not able to build it himself. He was rejected from doing that by the Lord in God’s sovereignty. But nevertheless, that was his passion. We do not find this passion in Saul. We do find it in David. Saul is different. There is something there which is a key, I think, to much more. David, from the beginning, had his heart set on the house of God.
Some of us wonder from whom David first learned about the house of God. Tradition tells us, the rabbis tell us, that David’s father, Jesse, was by profession the veil-weaver of the temple. It may have been from Jesse or his mother that David learnt his first lessons in the house of God. But others of us think that it might have been Samuel who first taught David the great need of God’s habitation. I am sure that somehow or another, David owed much to Samuel.
So, we find here through this book of Samuel, whilst the key to it is kingship and the kingdom, we are going to find that it leads to God’s habitation. We are going to find that the climax of it all is found in Solomon. The house of God is finally built and dedicated, and the glory of God fills it.
Let us turn to the two books of Kings. We really are going to trust the Lord, as we have for the other books, but particularly so in these cases; they present very complex problems in a variety of ways.
Any of you who know anything about the Bible will know how very difficult biblical chronology is, that is the dates of the Bible, but particularly the book of Kings. There is no book that is more difficult than the book of Kings, as far as chronology goes. As you probably have already found out when you come to the division of Israel into Israel and Judah, it is no easy matter to sort out the two and to really find the continuous line on either side. However, we shall really trust the Lord and seek to find out what the Lord really means by these two particular books.
We have already said that I or II Samuel and I or II Kings are all part of one work. They are four sections of a history; a complete history from beginning to end of the kingdom: its inception, its establishment, its disintegration, and its end.
From beginning to end, it is recorded in these four books. The oldest version, the oldest translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, the old Greek version, translated these four books as one work, calling them the four Books of the Kingdom.
We have to remember this as we come to I and II Kings: it is the continuation of what we have already studied in I and II Samuel. This will make it at least a little easier. We have explained quite a few times that these studies are not so much devotional as informative. So in this study we come to rather a lot of technical data. We have already understood that I and II Samuel and I and II Kings focus everything upon kingship.
At the beginning of the first book of Samuel, we find the man who is going to bring in the kingdom. At the end of the second book of Samuel, we find the kingdom established.
At the beginning of the first book of Kings, we have reached the zenith of Israel’s glory and prosperity. The high-water mark, the greatest point of Israel’s glory and wealth and honour, has been reached at the beginning of the first book of Kings. Then, in the end of the second book of Kings, we have nothing but decline and disintegration and desolation. The whole nation had been carried into captivity.
When we view this history, we find that I and II Samuel are a long-contested climb upwards. We find that this steady climb is thrown away step-by-step in the following two books. First, we find God is taking hold of a man like Samuel and a man like David and bringing in a new era. Then we find, in Kings, the whole thing is thrown away.
Slowly but surely, everything starts to decline. Which, although they were in what we call a revival, although they received revival in two or three ways, they never kept in check the downward decline. So that, in the end, the Northern Kingdom of Israel went into captivity in Assyria. It vanished completely off the record of history. Then, 135 years later, Judah also goes into captivity. Jerusalem and the house of God and the promised land are razed to the ground and everything has come to a close.
Such is the history of these four books: it is a bird’s-eye view of a very large number of years. It is also a bird’s-eye view of a whole era in God’s economy, what we call the kingdom of God and everything to do with it, both in its inception and in its establishment and then in its decline and disintegration. Every part has something to teach us and something to reveal to us about this whole question of kingship and the kingdom of God.
These books show us the kind of man that God makes a king. They show us the kind of man who God qualifies and constitutes, not only to come to the throne, but to stay on the throne. They show us the kind of kingdom which God must have: the moral character of His kingdom, and the essential moral character of His people. This really is all that we find in these four books.
I think you will agree with me that we, slowly but surely, see this through history. This history gives us a background. We see how, slowly but surely, each movement of God is a move forward to a certain point. Often, you find this point attained is to be succeeded by an end, only to be succeeded by an even greater forward movement. Then something else is achieved in God’s purpose, again, only to be succeeded by an end and then an even greater move forward to a higher peak. Then something else is gained.
This is the unfolding revelation of God. First you have a man like Noah. A certain point is reached, a rather general point, in some ways a rather impersonal point. Nevertheless, it is a very definite point which is reached in God’s revelation. Then you have a man like Abraham, and something very much more definite and particular comes into view. Then you have a man like Moses and a people at the Passover, and something even more particular comes into view.
Later on, you have the revelation of God’s dwelling place and something else comes into view. All these are succeeded, as you know, by faith; by an end; by a decline; only to be, by the Spirit of God, suddenly carried forward again to an even greater point. For instance, after that, we find the people go right over into the land and possess the land, only to be followed by a period of decline. Then again, we suddenly find God unfolds a whole purpose concerning the kingdom and David. Finally, David is followed by Solomon and the very best, or climax, of biblical revelation in the Old Testament has been reached.
Solomon is the full-day splendour of the sun. Everything has reached its fullest point: the most glorious, most wealthy, most prosperous point in biblical history. There was never a day like the day of Solomon. It was always referred to as “Solomon in all his glory;” even the Lord spoke of him as being the very zenith and height of all we call glory and wealth. As you know, after Solomon is the story of decline.
But when we come to the two books of Chronicles, we shall find that, suddenly, history ends with the last book of Kings. Now, why should it end there? Because, after all, scriptural biblical history goes right the way on from there to Nehemiah, to Malachi and on to John the Baptist.
Why does the writer of this history, tracing it all through, stop with the captivity as if that is the end? Why does the writer of the two books of Chronicles go right back to Adam and then trace the whole history parallel with this history again? It is because when we come to Solomon, we have reached the very heart of biblical revelation: you have absolutely reached the very heart of the matter, the root of the matter. There is nothing more to be revealed, as far as the Old Testament is concerned. It is only then a question of restoring and holding to what has been revealed. Now, what is it that Solomon really symbolises? You know as well as I do that the whole meaning of Solomon’s life is the temple of God. When you have got to that point, all the redemption of God; all the covenant of God; all the law of God; everything to do with God’s design and so on is all summed up in an eternal habitation.
Now, this is what the temple is, as compared to the tabernacle. The tabernacle in some ways represents the Church here on earth. The temple represents the Church forever in glory. That is why David speaks of Christ here on earth, ascending to the throne of God, there forever to sit. Solomon speaks of Christ as seated at the right hand of God, building the house of God. Bringing these things together you come to the very heart of the revelation in the Old Testament. That is why, as far as the writer of the two books of Kings goes, it is the end. He doesn’t bother to go any further. That is the end, he says. But Chronicles is an altogether different book. It certainly tells the same history, but he goes right back to trace from the beginning, right the way through; not just to the point where the writer of the two books of Kings finishes, but right on to Malachi, he traces one thing. You know what the one thing is: it is the house of God. His main object is the house of God and how everything is literally bound up with the house of God. He goes right back to Adam just to say to us and emphasise to us that, from the very beginning, this is the purpose. This is the purpose.
The point is that here we have two histories that, as it were, overlap. We have got these four books here, and then we have the Chronicles, which run parallel to them and on beyond. On either side, they run beyond.
This is very, very instructive to us to understand. We are living in an era which, we shall find out in further studies ahead of us, is very truly illustrated in the Old Testament. In the same way that God is seeking now to build the house of God in an eternal way, so we find here all that is set forth for us in Solomon and the house of God and, later on, in all that happened. The viewpoint of these four books is different from the viewpoint or standpoint of Chronicles. The standpoint of these four books is the kingdom and kingship. It is the throne, the kingdom, and God’s promises concerning the throne and the kingdom. The books of Chronicles are to do with an altogether different matter: they are to do with the worship of God and the house of God. Now, this is very instructive if we can read these books in the light of that simple statement.
These four books deal with our need: what we really can be brought to by the grace of God, the increase that we can be brought into, the reward that can be given, the position that can be ours, our inheritance. Whereas Chronicles deals with the Lord’s side, His habitation, His desire, what He wants, His inheritance in us. So, if we want to take New Testament phrases, we could write over these four books, “Our inheritance in Christ,” and we could write over Chronicles, “His inheritance in the saints.” That is the key to these different histories written of the same event.
So, let’s get that clear. These four books do not deal so much with the worship of God or the service of God as such, or the house of God as such. They deal with the throne of God and the kingdom of God, and all God’s promise and purpose through circumstance.
Now, what do we know about the authorship of these two books? We know as little about the authorship of these two books as we know about the two books of Samuel. It is obviously a compilation of many quite ancient documents. Let’s look at the facts for that.
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
I Kings 11:41
Now this book of the Acts of Solomon is lost. We are not in possession of it.
And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
I Kings 14:19
“The book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel” is not the book of Chronicles we have.
Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
I Kings 14:29
That is something else we are not in possession of; those are royal annals.
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
II Chronicles 9:29
Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, after the manner of genealogies?
II Chronicles 12:15
And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.
II Chronicles 13:22
So we could go on. It is quite clear that these histories are a compilation from very ancient authorities. The fact that I and II Samuel and I and II Kings—not Chronicles, but I and II Samuel and I and II Kings—are included in the Hebrew canon, in what is called the former prophets, points to the fact that prophets wrote them. That is, they are, legally, prophetic writings in the sense that these were probably records kept by prophets at different times, contemporary with the events they described, and were then, at a later date, compiled by other prophets into one book. This would be the explanation for slightly varying styles and so on in these books. Yet at the same time, there is the very real evidence of one author. There is such a unity of treatment from beginning to end of these books, this first and second book of Kings, that it is obvious that one man has come to compile it or edit it.
We have, in some ways, no outward clue as to who wrote it. There are some very interesting theories. One of the modern theories is that Isaiah edited quite a part of it. This we have no authority for, except that Isaiah was the prophet in the reign of Hezekiah when so much in the way of literature was done. The reign of Hezekiah saw tremendous revival and renaissance in Hebrew literature. All kinds of psalms were collected together (we must wait until we come to the book of Psalms to find Hezekiah’s bearing on the book of Psalms). In his reign, all kinds of things were collected together, compiled, or taken out of dusty pigeonholes and as it were, put into use. In the same way, in the period of King Josiah, there was another great period of reform and renaissance. The prophet in the period of Josiah was Jeremiah. Now, Jewish tradition tells us (yet we must not always respect Jewish tradition) that Jeremiah was the editor and compiler of the two books of Kings.
Have we any evidence that Jeremiah may indeed be the editor of these two books? There are three very interesting things, which I am going to leave with you. The first is this: there are certain words that occur in the two books of Kings that occur nowhere else in the Bible except in the prophecies of Jeremiah.
Secondly: why is Jeremiah never mentioned in the two books of Kings when he played a vital part in the reign of the last four kings recorded? Now, there are some men so constituted by God who can speak of themselves as Paul did, and it not be the least bit distasteful. There are other men of God so constituted of God that they cannot mention themselves. If you know anything about Jeremiah from his prophecies or his Lamentations it is utterly and wholly in keeping with his character and personality to be a man who would not dream of bringing himself into view in that way. It is interesting that, though he played such a big role in the reign of the last four Kings, he is not even mentioned. It seems so tremendously noteworthy that critical scholars of the word have suggested that Jeremiah is a forgery altogether. Jeremiah never existed (so they said a hundred years ago) because if he did, why is he not mentioned in the books of Kings? But it may well be that Jeremiah edited the books of Kings and wrote his own contribution, which would have been the last four reigns in which he lived and was the prophet, and kept himself right out of view in those reigns. That is a very interesting thing.
The third thing is this: these two books could not have been compiled in their present form before the year 586 BC, because they actually record the deportation into captivity in Babylon, which happened in the year 586. Secondly, they must have been written before the return, because there is not so much as a suggestion that there was any thought of ever returning to the land. The first part of the return took place in 536.
So again, we know from Jeremiah’s own prophecies that he was carried into captivity with those that were deported. It may well have been that Jeremiah wrote this, or compiled it together, with his faithful scribe Baruch. He got him, under his direction, to scribe the whole thing; bring it together and scribe it. So, we have got the two books of Kings written or compiled during the captivity in Babylon. I think that gives us at least some idea of the difficulties of authorship: there is no clear indication as to who is an author, except that it is edited; it is a compilation. There may be quite a lot of interesting speculation concerning Jeremiah.
It covers a period of 425 years. 40 years of the united kingdom, and then something like 300 years of the divided kingdom, and then about 130 years for the kingdom of Judah. That is, this book, first of all, speaks to us of Israel’s reaching its great high water mark in the reign of Solomon, where its frontiers were never again so great and so extended, its empire so firm and secure. Then it carries us right through the terrible division into two nations, utterly antagonistic and at war with each other. Then, in 721 BC, approximately when Israel ended forever, carried into captivity, and 135 years later to be followed by Judah into Babylon.
What is the key to these books? The key is, as we have already said, the same as to the two books of Samuel: that is kingship. That is simply the key to these books. It is one work and therefore the key is the same. But we want to investigate this just a little more deeply.
The books of Kings are to the books of Samuel what Judges is to Joshua. Now, can you remember what Judges was to Joshua? We have discussed these things already in the studies on Joshua and Judges. If you have read these, can you remember what the book of Judges is to Joshua? Simply, we said this: in Joshua was the going over of the people of God into the land. In spite of weakness, in spite of failure, in spite of breakdown, they cleaved to the Lord. As they cleaved to the Lord, do you remember what happened? The land was possessed and inherited. The book of Joshua is not only a book of conflict and warfare, but of establishment, of inheritance, and of overcoming. But what is Judges?
There are two or three significant little phrases, you remember, which we picked out in the book of Joshua, which just simply said that they left such-and-such in the land. They were not able to drive out so-and-so.
These inhabitants had chariots of iron and were too strong to be dealt with so they left them. That city was left in its entirety. The Gibeonites, by deceitfulness, made an alliance with them, and so they left them. Do you remember those things? Now, what was Judges?
Judges began on that very note. Of all those particular tribes and peoples that were left alive they became the source of Israel’s misery. So, those that were left small in number grew until they actually overcame the children of God and once again defeated them on their own ground.
Now, what Judges is to Joshua, I and II Kings is to I and II Samuel. I and II Samuel speak to us of the possession of the kingdom. It speaks to us of the bitter odds that were against God’s man ever coming to God’s throne. But it speaks to us that, in spite of his failure, his breakdown, and his weakness, because he cleaved to the Lord he came to the throne of God and the kingdom was established. I and II Kings takes every point of weakness and failure only touched upon in I or II Samuel and shows how centuries later they developed and grew into the very ways that smashed the people of God.
Let us learn a lesson or two from this: any small thing that we leave unconquered, undealt with, unsettled, whatever it is in our lives will be the thing that, if left, will silently, hiddenly grow and grow and grow until, before we know where we are, it will be our undoing.
This can happen in our relationships in every way. It can be a small sin, a besetting sin which is not brought to the cross, but that sin can just quietly and silently provide ground for the devil and can become stronger and greater and greater until it is the complete undoing of that child of God.
It can be just simply that you are not going the whole way with the Lord. We do not call that sin. We just simply say that we are not going to go the whole way with the Lord. We don’t even put it like that. We don’t admit that kind of thing, but inwardly, we know we are not going to go the whole way with the Lord. Others can go quite a way, but we are not going to go the whole way. We are not going to have all our money to be the Lord’s. We are not going to acknowledge that our body is the Lord’s. We are not going to acknowledge that our time is the Lord’s. We are going to be Christians, be children of God, go on (we think) with the Lord, but we are not going to go so far. Where we stop, the point at which we stop will be the point of failure.
It might be something we have not seen. We have not seen it because we do not want to see it. I heard a very interesting little illustration the other day, which is a true one, of a Chinese brother who came to this country quite some years ago and was given a microscope. He was thrilled! I am told it is a true story; I just give it as I read it. He was thrilled with the microscope and took it back to China.
Everything he could, he put under the microscope. He was so thrilled and, to him, it was one of the greatest gifts that you could ever give him. Until, one day, he put a grain of rice under and, to his heart’s dismay, he saw all these living creatures inside and he smashed the microscope there and then.
This is like many Christians. They do not see because they do not want to see. They have the word of God. But they would prefer not to see rather than to let it see right through them. These Scriptures show to us how small things, left unattended, can very well be our undoing.
Solomon did everything the Lord ever required of him. That is why he is in the word. He did everything the Lord ever required of him. But it was what Solomon did extra that was his undoing. He never left one thing undone. That is why he could say that he walked in the ways of the Lord. He did everything, but it was what he did extra that was his undoing. All the extra things that he had done, all the other things that he brought in with the worship of the Lord in his later life, that was his undoing. We have to learn these simple things.
Principles which are only touched upon in I or II Samuel are vividly illustrated in Kings. One of the things we have to learn is this: it was idolatry that brought the judgment of God three times in these two books.
First of all, it rent the kingdom in two. Because of Solomon’s idolatry, and because he led the people in idolatry, the Lord said the kingdom was rent from him into two. The key to the division, the disintegration of the unity of the children of God, was idolatry.
Secondly, Israel’s Northern Kingdom going into captivity to Assyria was due to the terrible idolatry of the Northern Kingdom. The prophets Elijah, Elisha, and Hosea, and many others laboured to point out to the people that their idolatry was going to end in the most terrible judgment. But they would not listen. Although once or twice it looked as though things were going to be restored and checked—no, it just slowly went down until, at last, the terrible judgment of God fell upon them, and then ... no more history. No more.
Then, let us consider Judah. Whilst there were two or three big revivals in Judah, and whilst there were never any revivals in the Northern Kingdom, in Judah there were revivals. Yet in spite of that, still they compromised and had a mixed religion. In the end, that ended in their being carried away into Babylon.
There are three judgments on idolatry in these two books. Idolatry is not as old-fashioned a sin as sometimes we think. Idolatry, we can find in our own heart. Idolatry is simply sharing the Lord with other interests. That is all. Just sharing the Lord with other interests—that is idolatry.
“Covetousness,” says the New Testament, “which is idolatry.”1 What is covetousness? It is so longing for something, so wanting something, so wishing to possess it, that it is obvious there are divided interests in your heart.
Instead of being so bound up with the Lord, there are other things you would like with the Lord. That is idolatry and idolatry is the one thing that the Lord will not abide. We were not built for idolatry. We were built, in God’s constitution of us, to be people of a single eye. We can only be happy when we are single-eyed. When we are one person, we can be happy. People who have these different conflicting loyalties are always torn, restless, and unhappy people.
We also have to learn that from this book. There is so much that we learn. I want you also to notice something in Deuteronomy 17. Now, this book of Deuteronomy, of course, is mentioned a lot in Kings. Not by name, but it is referred to as the Book of the Law and, in chapter 17, we have the best commentary anywhere on the two books of Kings.
When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me; thou shalt surely set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Deuteronomy 17:14–20
And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute mine ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
I Kings 6:11–13
And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and mine ordinances; then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom over Israel for ever, according as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall turn away from following me, ye or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And though this house is so high, yet shall every one that passeth by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house? and they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought all this evil upon them.
I Kings 9:4–9
Those three passages are themselves the key and commentary on the two books of Kings. It is, on the one side, the Lord preserving the line of the Messiah. He is carefully preserving David’s line in faithfulness to His own word and promise. On the other side is the story of decline and departure as all kinds of evil force their way into the life of God’s people; they make terrible inroads into the life of God’s people.
There is a distasteful thing that we are going to have to talk about in a moment, but which I am afraid we have got to face. Since these studies have to be informative and technical, we cannot bypass it. It is not a very pleasant subject to talk about, but it is one that underlies the two books of Kings. It is the little word high places.
Unless we understand what that little word signifies and means, we cannot understand these two books, neither can we understand the ministry of the prophets. Forty times the phrase high places is mentioned in these two books.
The kings are judged by their attitude to the high places. After the reign of each king, a little phrase occurs. “And he did not deal with the high places,” or “he set the high places up.” It is always the high places. At the end of Solomon’s reign, we find these little words about what he did in the high places.
At the end of each king’s reign, the Holy Spirit puts His finger upon this seemingly little matter of the high places. What are the high places? We have got to understand that. Because if we understand that, we shall understand what the real message of these two books are. It is kingship that is true. It is the kingdom that is true. But it is in the light of these high places that kingship and the kingdom is here set forth. In the two books of Samuel, this word is hardly mentioned. Perhaps once or twice, but hardly mentioned. But in these two books it is mentioned again and again.
Everything is traced to the breakdown at the beginning, some simple breakdown. Each king with his breakdown, his failure, and his character is traced back to this question of the high places.
Another thing I just want you to notice in these two books is the vital function of the word of God in correcting, counteracting, and strengthening in this whole conflict over kingship. You know, as children of God, we are all being brought to the throne. That is God’s purpose—and the word of God is the greatest thing in correcting and counteracting and strengthening us in this conflict over the question of the throne of God.
How often we would give up, but for the word of the Lord being found. The word of the Lord just comes to us and either corrects us, brings us back into line, or counteracts some sudden move of the devil, or strengthens us inwardly for some big fight or onslaught. It is the word of the Lord. That is why, through these chapters you will find the ministry of such men as Elijah and Elisha and others like that brought into view and underlined.
These men, these great men, one man, seemingly alone, with a whole nation arrayed against him–and yet that one man, in the grace of God, can turn the tide, at least for a few years. Just standing there, absolutely erect and absolutely alone; yet he can turn the tide. That is the power of the word of God in days of departure and decline. That is why we should always be careful of the word of the Lord, however it comes. In particular, the written word of God: how we should guard it, how we should be careful of despising it, how we should be careful of neglecting it! It is the word of the Lord, and the word of the Lord can come to us if we will only search the word of the Lord. If we search for the word of the Lord, we shall find it and it will correct us, and it will counteract other influences, and it will strengthen us. In the same way, the ministry of the word, prophetic ministry, can be the same to us. If we have the right attitude, it can correct us, it can counteract things, it can strengthen, if we are able to discern what is of man and what is the word of the Lord. We need, again, to learn that.
Another thing we have to learn about these books is simply that they are not usual history. They are not usual history. This is where many critical scholars of the Bible have gone wrong. They take it that these books are sort of analytical, chronological history. It is not so at all. As we have said again and again, this is history written as it is related to God’s purpose. That is, all that is part of the unfolding revelation of God is included.
Now, that is the reason why some of you who have read The Bible as History2 and other books like that; modern books, will be surprised to hear that some kings who are just dismissed with a few verses were in actual fact the greatest. Kings like Omri and kings like Uzziah and kings like Jeroboam II were, by human standards, the greatest kings. They were the kings that did the most, and they were the kings that we find more, as it were, in evidence archaeologically.
But we find, on the other hand, that kings who evidently were rather insignificant from the human standpoint are given quite a large portion of the space. A man like Ahab is given something like six to seven chapters, and a man like Hezekiah is given four or five chapters. Because these two men were men at points of spiritual crisis: one in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, one in the Northern Kingdom; men at points of spiritual crisis. Because of that, they, and the ministries of the prophet Elijah in the case of one, and Isaiah in the case of the other, are given more prominence, more place.
Do you see? That just simply means that these books are not just usual history, otherwise it would all be inverted very largely. It is written from God’s standpoint and everything which is in any way related to His purpose being realised and secured is given to them. So that is the thing that we have to understand. It is a question of kingship, and God’s kingship, and God’s dwelling, and God’s kingdom.
I feel in this study we must also take up a not very pleasant matter, but a matter which I think we ought to address in all faithfulness if we are going to understand these two books. That is this question: what are the high places?
What really are the high places? Now, I am not going to say all that could be said on this matter, so do not feel that you are going to be embarrassed.
We have got to understand this since the Holy Spirit unerringly puts His finger upon this question in every case. In nearly all the reigns recorded, He puts His finger unerringly upon this question of the high place. Even in so great a man and so great a reign as Solomon, at the end and at the beginning, He puts his finger on high places.
Now, these high places would seem to us to be quite insignificant. Do they just mean high places? Why all the fuss about high places? Why does the Holy Spirit put His finger and actually judge a man’s reign? All he might have done, socially and culturally and educationally and even politically and religiously, the whole thing is judged by his attitude to hills. What his attitude was to those high places. It is not as insignificant as we think. We have got to understand the significance of those high places because the Holy Spirit tells us that those high places are the focal point of disintegration, disobedience, and division. In every case, it is the high places that in the end bring about the decline.
Now, what are those high places? In the Old Testament, the prophets were very fond of bringing all the Canaanite deities, male deities, together under one name, and they called them Baal. In very few cases have they bothered to give us the actual name of the deity, such as in the case of Dagon and once or twice in other cases. But generally, we are just told the name Baal. Baal was a term that covered all the male nature deities of Kings.
There were a vast number of these nature gods, as we can call them, a vast number, but they were all lumped together, as far as the prophets of God were concerned, under the one term baal.
At one point, it got so bad in the history of Israel that the Lord’s people began to call their children a combination with the name Baal, so that Gideon was called Jerubaal, and Ishbosheth really Ish-baal and Mephibosheth was Merib-baal.
But the prophets very sarcastically and cleverly just blotted out Baal and put the Hebrew word for shame in its place so that we called them Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth instead. That just shows you something of how this whole question of Baal, Baal worship and everything else had an influence upon the people of God.
Baal was the term for all the male deities of Canaan. Ashtoreth was the name for all the female deities of Canaan.
Asherah, which you will often hear mentioned or read in your Authorized Version, is very incorrectly sometimes translated as “groves.” That, which in Hebrew is Asherah, is the symbol of Ashtoreth.
The symbol of Baal was a stone pillar. Always stone pillars, sometimes carved into shapes. Always. We may not here describe what shapes. But they are always described as shaped in certain ways, certain symbols, certain figures. That was the symbol of Baal or the balaam.
Ashtoreth was always symbolised by wooden pillars, sometimes carved, sometimes just trees. That is why the Authorized Version says “grove,” because there, under those trees, Ashtoreth was worshipped.
Now, what exactly is the real basis of this religion? It was one of the more gross cults of the Middle East. It was built very simply, on a very simple principle: the mystery of fertility. The mystery of fertility in man, in beast, and in soil.
They saw that there was a cycle: birth, marriage, death. They saw that this was so in man, it was so in animals, and it was so in the earth. A certain idea became very prevalent, very common in the whole of the Middle east: they thought that by acting out this marriage, you could keep the cycle of life working and going. So consequently, they believed in what they called “the divine marriage of Baal and Ashtoreth”, or the marriage of El, the chief of the deities of Baal, and of Ashtoreth.
The way that they celebrated it was simply by acting out the marriage. That necessitated companies of men and women dedicated to Baal or to Ashteroth, priests, and priestesses. In many temples, they were not of the age of 12. In many, many cases in Phoenicia, particularly, all the priests and all the priestesses were under the age of 12. This is one of the practices, if you read Things as They Are, by Amy Carmichael3, that has been carried on to this day in Hinduism, although it is now supposed to be suppressed.
They believed, then, that by having these priests and priestesses wholly dedicated to these deities, you could actually help the cycle of life and keep it going by paying a visit to the shrine, or the groves, or the high places, as they are called, and engaging in religious prostitution with both male and female religious prostitutes.
It went far, far further than just that. In many cases, it necessitated human sacrifice, and particularly child sacrifice, so that parents would take their little newborn babes and actually offer them up to be burnt alive. It was the most terrible, terrible religion; a cult of sensuality. The high places were scenes of terrible depravity.
Now, it was that which the prophet spoke so vehemently against. That is why they called it the abomination of Chemosh and the abomination of Moloch, the abomination of these heathens. It was the most terrible practice.
On top of that, by far the worst, was when there became a combination of Jehovah and Baal.
This is what happened again and again. Solomon was the man who initiated it. He did not mean to. All he wanted to do was to provide places for his foreign wives so they could carry on their religious devotion. Payments, by the way, that you paid to the priest or the priestess when you visited the temple were looked upon as offerings to God, the same way that you could offer people or your child to God. Solomon began it, not in the thought of compromising the life of the people of God, but of just providing for his foreign wives.
But in the popular mind, this very quickly became compromised with the worship of Jehovah. The result was that, particularly in Israel, in the Northern Kingdom, Hosea had to speak again and again against this terrible religion, this awful mixture of Jehovah and Baal. Modern archaeology has discovered that many of the high places were dedicated to Jehovah! Many of the high places were dedicated to Jehovah, and the priests and the priestesses there were sacred to Jehovah, and even children had been offered in the north, particularly in the name of Jehovah. This is what the prophets were against.
This was why in the revival under Hezekiah, and in the revival under Josiah, Isaiah and Jeremiah both stood aside. They said the revival did not go deep enough. It only cleared away the outside. It did not get down to the root of the matter.
That is where we have got to understand what these high places really are. In this particular instance, they are not so much the ones that belong purely and wholly to Baal. They are the ones dedicated to Jehovah.
Everything enacted in them, everything done there, was in the name of Jehovah. Consequently, I think you can begin to see how this is the thing the Holy Spirit puts His finger on all the way through.
Archaeologists have discovered in excavations of some of these high places that Jehovah was never given an idol. They never made him an idol. Although Baal, El and the others had idols and so on, they never did create an idol of Jehovah. But this will show you how far it got: they gave Jehovah a wife, and they have discovered many little ‘mother goddesses’ in those places dedicated to Jehovah. So that in the popular mind, Jehovah was just one of the many other nature gods in the nations roundabout. Only, they looked upon Jehovah as their own particular god. You remember, Ahab married Jezebel, who was a great devotee of Baal. He just looked upon Jehovah as a god, but inferior to the gods roundabout.
Whenever an alliance was made between two nations, between Assyria and the people of God, or between Babylon and the people of God, it all had to be done in the name of their god. It was looked upon as the god of the people of Israel and the god of the Assyrians making an alliance. That is why the prophets spoke continually against alliances—because they were not just political. They meant that the Lord Jehovah was entering into an alliance with so-called gods and He was being put on the same level and footing as the other gods in the nations around.
This is the significance of the high places and this was the moral cancer in both Israel and Judah. It was the cancer which was never removed until God operated when He took them into captivity. When they returned from captivity, there was never again a high place in the land. That was the only way God could do it.
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