First Kings
Chapter 1
King David is very old, and Adonijah appoints himself king. Nathan, the prophet hears of this and tells Bathsheba.
They go to David and ask why Adonijah is king and not Soloman as was promised. So David makes Soloman kin, and
Adonijah fears for his life. Soloman says as long as Adonijah is worthy and not wicked, no harm will come to him.
Chapter 2
Now Adonijah came to Bathsheba and asked her to ask Soloman if he could have Abishag, David's nurse, for his wife.
When Bathsheba asked Soloman this, he had Adonijah killed. Thus began the slaying. Joab and Shimei were then killed,
and Abiathar, the priest was expelled. His life was spared because he carried the ark for David. So Soloman's kindgom
was established.
Chapter 3
Soloman took a wife from pharaoh in Egypt. He then built houses for himself, the Lord, and a wall around Jerusalem.
There was nowhere to perform sacrifices, except the high places. So Soloman went to Gidean. There the Lord came to
Soloman in a dream. Soloman asked for wisdom to discern good from evil. Because he did not ask for money or long life,
he granted him ultimate wisdom and also gave him wealth, and the ability to have a long life. Then Soloman had to make
a judgment. Two women who had children came to him with a dilema. One of the children died when the mother laid on it.
So she gave it to the other woman and took hers. So Soloman had to decide which woman was telling the truth, for both
were claiming that the live child was theirs. He took a sword and said split the child. One woman gave up the child
and the other said split it. So he gave it to the one who gave it up. This judgement proved that the wisdom of God
was in Soloman.
Chapter 4
This is a description of King Soloman's people. The chapter names his high officials, as well as his twelve officers over
all Israel. Also listed are his provisions. It talked of his wisdom and how it surpassed all those before him. He also
spoke three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs. They were about everything, the birds, the beasts, and
trees, and all came to hear the wisdom of Soloman.
Chapter 5
There is peace between Soloman and Hiram, and work begins on the house of the Lord. Soloman asks for Hiram to chop down the
cedar of Lebanon, which Hiram gladly does. Quite a task was undertaken and much stone was hewn for the foundation of the
house and temple.
Chapter 6
This chapter describes the building of the temple. It was about ninety by thirty feet and forty-five feet tall and
took seven years to build.
Chapter 7
This chapter tells of David's palace and also of the amenities of the temple. It describes the pillars and bowl that
were made of bronze, both of which were quite large. The bowl itself was able to hold twelve thousand gallons of water.
It would be interesting to find out if any of these artifacts are still around today.
Chapter 8
In this chapter Soloman brings forth the ark to its new resting place in the temple. Soloman then states that this is a
fulfillment of God's word and goes on to explain that when things get rough, all you need to do is pray in the temple to make
it right. The end of this long chapter is a seven-day feast. On the eighth day, everyone went home.
Chapter 9
Here God affirms what Soloman had said and also warns of the destruction and isolation that will come if they turn away from
God. The rest of the chapter deals with the labor that was used to build the temple.
Chapter 10
In this chapter the queen of Sheba came to test Soloman's wisdom. After she could find no fault, she blessed him. Then raeports
of all the wealth that poured into Soloman's house made him the wealthiest king in all the earth.
Chapter 11
It is told that Soloman had seven hundred wives and princesses, as well as three hundred concubines. The problem with this was
that a lot of them were foreign and persuaded him to worship their gods. This displeased the Lord, and He said that He would
take away his kingdom, but not while he was alive. He would take it away from his son, Rehoboam. So this chapter wnded with
the death of Soloman, who reigned for forty years and Rehoboam taking over period.
Chapter 12
Here Rehoboam makes an error in that he does not listen to his elders and takes the advise of the young ones instead. This
allows Jeroboam to take over and leaves Rehoboam with only Judah. Rehoboam goes and leads the people astray and has them
worshipping golden idols by the end of the chapter.
Chapter 13
In this chapter a man of God comes to Jeroboam to tell him of his evil doing and tears down the altar at Bethel. Now this man
of God was instructed not to stay, and not to eat or drink anything from this place. But he is tricked by a prophet to come
back. And because he did, a lion kills him. The prophet then buries and mourns for him. Despite all this, Jeroboam returns
full force to his evil ways.
Chapter 14
King Jeroboam's son fell sick. He sends his wife to talk with a prophet about it. The prophet tells her that her son will die
when she returns and that Jeroboam's reign would soon be over. So she returns home and the boy dies. Jeroboam's reign is for
twenty-two years, and Rehoboam's reign is for seventeen years.
Chapter 15
This chapter deals with the sucsession of kings. First is Abijam. He reigned for thee years and then Asa reigned next. Asa
reigned for forty-one years. He did a little better but was still deseased. Jehoshaphat was next. Then came Nadib. He reigned
for two years and was then assassinated by Baasha. Then Baasha reigned twenty-four years. Really a confusing chapter.
Chapter 16
More kings. Baasha died and Elah took over. Then he was killed by Zimri, who destroyed the house of Baasha completely. Omri
went to take over and Zimri died in a fire. Then Israel followed two leaders. Omri and Tibni. Omri's people took over Tibni's
people and Tibni died. Then Omri died and Ahab took over. If you really want the whole history the bible says to check out
"The book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel."
Chapter 17
Here we are introduced to Elijah. Elijah is told of a drought and goes away to have ravens bring him food. After a while he
is instructed to go into town to see a widow for food and water. After being there a while, the widow's son died and Elijah
brings him back to life by praying for him. This proves to the widow that he is truly a man of God.
Chapter 18
In this chapter Elijah proves to Ahab that God is truly the only God through a demonstration. He has those who follow Baal to
make a bull sacrifice and ask him to make the fire. But no fire came. Then Elijah did the same only he poured a lot of water
on it. When he asked for fire, it consumed all of the bull and the water. Then people knew that God was God and rain came to
the land.
Chapter 19
Ahab tells Jezebel of Elijah's deeds and she threatens to kill him. Fearing for his life Elijah flees to the wilderness and
rests by a tree and asks to die. An angel comes to him with food and water and asks him to eat so that he may continue his
journey. He then is in the presence of the Lord. He tells the Lord that Israel has left His ways, and has slain His prophets.
God tells him that he should go to Damascus and annoint Hazael king of Syria, and Jehu to be the king of Israel, and Elisha to
be a prophet. Then He wants Jehu to kill Hazael and Elisha to kill Jehu, but He will spare all those who haven't worshipped
Baal. So Elijah meets Elisha on his way and begins to minister to him.
Chapter 20
Basically a battle between the Israelites and the Syrians. Pretty much everyone is killed.
Chapter 21
Here Ahab wants to take possession of a vineyard that does not belong to him. He offers the guy a better vineyard for monetary
value, but he refuses to sell his father's inheritance. Dejected, Ahab is comforted by his wife who has the man killed so that
Ahab can take possession of the vineyard. Elijah, after being told to do so by God, tells Ahab that he shall die like the man
who owned the vineyard. Worried by this, Ahab humbles himself before the Lord and God spares him, but says that He will not
spare his sons.
Chapter 22
The last chapter of this book to the death of Ahab. Through a series of events he is eventually killed as prophesied in earlier
chapters. The end of the chapter tells of Ahaziah and how he did evil as his forefathers and how he kindled the anger of the
Lord as his fathers had done.
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