Discussion Thread - 1 Kings

[awfulthings9]

I was talking with a friend recently about the book of Joshua, and we began discussing Rahab. Honestly, I had never really thought much about Rahab. Yet, while she is such a minor character, her impact is enough to be mentioned twice in the New Testament. This got me thinking. I have a pretty good overview of the Old Testament. Now, though, I’m trying to develop a greater familiarity with the less-significant characters, events, and themes. I’d like to open this thread to a discussion of the book of 1 Kings, which I just finished. While most of us are probably familiar with the general plot-line of 1 Kings, I’d like commentary on the incidental aspects. What characters are worth noticing? What events? What locations? What thematic elements? Anythings you want to contribute to help us all understand this book better. If this thread is a success, I’ll start another on a different book later.

 

[anawim]

In 1 Kgs. 11, near the end of Solomon’s reign, the prophet Ahijah tells Jeroboam that God will rend ten of the tribes and give them to Jeroboam.

 

[stillsmallvoice]

Hi all!

I Kings 18:1-39 describes Elijah’s showdown with the priests of Baal. Hidden in the account of this dramatic encounter is a marvelous message of hope. 18:30-32 tells us how Elijah took great care and that he, “repaired the altar of the Lord that was in ruins.” The original Hebrew word, that is usually mistranslated as “he repared”, is vayirapeh, which literally means “he healed”. The use of this verb here is very unusual; this verb is usually used in reference to people only (the Hebrew words for “doctor”, “medicine”, “medical” etc. are all cognates of the same r-p/f-h root). Our Sages, who teach that nothing in the text of the scriptures is either incidental or coincidental, offer a wonderful commentary here. Just as an altar that has been been thrown down and is in ruins can be healed and restored to God’s service, so too can a person who is in a state of spiritual ruin be healed and restored to God’s service. Elijah took 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel, even those tribes which were sunk in Baal worship and the gross immorality that went along with it, and used them to heal/rebuild the altar of God, to show that the people in the tribes, just like the stones, could be healed/spiritually rebuilt and restored to the service of God.

What is the medicine for the ailing soul? God!

I got my username from I Kings 18:46-19:21. This reading teaches the limits of zeal. Elijah, by his own repeated admission to God (19:10 & 19:14), had, “been very zealous for the Lord of Hosts.” Yet for all that, there is something very profound that this great prophet does not understand, prompting God to teach him a lesson:

“And He said: ‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.’ And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

When vigilantism, thunder and zeal have done their best and been found wanting, the “still small voice” will, in the end, prove far more effective.

This reminds me of Stephen Crane’s The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds:

The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds;
The leaden thunders crashed.
A worshipper raised his arm.
“Hearken! Hearken! The voice of God!”

“Not so,” said a man.
“The voice of God whispers in the heart
So softly
That the soul pauses,
Making no noise,
And strives for these melodies,
Distant, sighing, like faintest breath,
And all the being is still to hear.”

There is also a very good lesson for us parents in I Kings 1:6 says:

And his father [David] had not grieved him [Adonijah] all his life in saying: 'Why have you done thus?

David never challenged Adonijah, never reproved him or disciplined him. This terribly negligent parenting helped sow the seeds of the discord that was to disrupt David’s family life again & again.

Be well!

ssv Currier And Lazier

 

[awfulthings9]

Hey all,
I’m glad to see this thread is getting some hits, slowly but surely. I will admit that I made a mistake. When I created the thread, I meant to write 1 Samual. I was getting ready to read 1 Kings, so that must have been on my mind (or maybe I was thinking about some of the older Bibles that list first and second Samuel as 1 and 2 Kings).

Anyway, I apologize for not contributing to my own discussion. I’m working through, but reading slowly now that Solomen has died so I can keep the rapid-fire chronology and list of characters straight.

I’d like to encourage anyone who has the time to use these posts and read 1 Kings, adding anything you find. Take care.

 

[stillsmallvoice]

Hi all!

Well, we already mentioned David & Adonijah…

I Kings 1:1-31 is a very detailed account of Adonijah’s attempt to push aside his half-brother Solomon & seize power while their father David is close to death, and the efforts of Bathsheba (Solomon’s mother) and Nathan to foil Adonijah’s designs. Note that the reading relates what Adonijah was up to no less than 4 times: The account of the text itself in 1:5-10; Nathan’s version to Bathsheba in 1:11-13; Bathsheba’s version to David in 1:17-19; and Nathan’s version to David with Bathsheba present in 1:24-26. Note the differences in the 4 accounts. Everything Nathan told Bathsheba to say to David, everything Bathsheba said to David with Nathan not around & everything Nathan said to David in Bathsheba’s presence was calculated for effect. Nathan wanted Bathsheba to be alarmed, he wanted her to alarm David & he wanted to reinforce that alarm in the king. The late Prof. Nehama Leibovitz, in her Studies in Bereshit/Genesis (amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9995376849/qid=1069249373/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2528934-2880800?v=glance&s=books), writes:

What prompted Scripture to elaborate at such length on the details of the story and its recapitulations? Evidently it wished to show how each one strove with all his might to set at nought Adonijah’s designs that the word of the Lord through His prophet should be fulfilled (as recounted in I Chronicles 28:5). [Our 15th century Sage, Don Isaac] Abravanel (see us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Abravanel.html) however still has the following question to ask: “How came Nathan the prophet to doubt his own prophecy that Solomon would be king that he should feel that all this effort was necessary to further it?” It is very likely that the unusual detail into which the chapter enters was meant to answer the above question, to show that neither the prophet not those who received his message, relied on miracles, that the prophecy would be fulfilled by itself. They did not regard prophecy as freeing them from action, absolving them of responsibility for their destiny. On the contrary, they accepted the promise of God as obliging them to work and strive to the best of their ability and understanding towards its fulfillment.

Be well!

ssv http://forum.catholic.com/images/smilies/ani/wave.gif

 

[wisdom_3_5]

Just to add (don’t know if it will contrubute to the discussion, but it is interesting)

Mt 1:5-6 4Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, 6Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.So, Rahab is a distant relative of Jesus.

On a side note. I was in a bible study and we studied the history of Israel. They gave us a list of the kings of the divided kingdom and suggested that we underline the kings of Judah in red and the kings of Israel in blue - so when we were reading the bible it was very obvious to us which kingdom we were talking about. It helped alot once we got into Kings and Chronicles.

 

[anawim]

I didn’t know if you wanted to get into this, but 1 Kings 1:1-53 is paralleled in 1 Chr. 29:10-30. It continues from there.