Elijah: A Man Surrendered to Godنموونە

A Needed Man

The story of 1 and 2 Kings is a sad one. It shouldn’t have been, but it was. These two books follow the story of the kings who led God’s people after the death of King David.

When David died, the kingdom was filled with great hope and expectations. David’s son Solomon became king. He famously asked the Lord for wisdom, and the Lord gave it to him. With that wisdom, he built the temple that his father, David, longed to see built—and it was magnificent. When the temple was dedicated, God showed up. The people worshiped, God was glorified, and it appeared as if this was the beginning of something wonderful.

But Solomon’s heart turned away from God. He was ruled by his own passions, not God’s. He married foreign women, built unholy alliances, and allowed the worship of pagan gods. And as is always the case, his sin was not just his problem. His sin led the nation into a devastating spiral of idolatry, rebellion, and immorality.

After Solomon’s death, his son, Rehoboam ignored wise counsel. This ultimately led to the division of the kingdom into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. These two books are titled “Kings” because they follow the story—the mostly sad story—of the thirty-nine kings of these two kingdoms.

Out of those thirty-nine kings, there were four who did right in the eyes of the Lord. Four. The other thirty-five were evil. And all four good kings were from the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom did not have one—not one—good king. Out of eighteen kings, they did not have one good one.

Jeroboam, the first king in the north, became the prototype of evil kings. The worst kings are known as kings “like Jeroboam.” Ultimately, the Lord took him out and another king took the throne. From there, the story just keeps getting worse. Try to follow this:

• Jeroboam was followed by Nadab. Nadab reigned two years, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and was assassinated by a man named Baasha.
• Baasha’s first act as king was to murder everyone from the house of his predecessor. He reigned for twenty-four years, did what was evil, and died.
• Baasha’s son Elah became king. After reigning for two years, while in a drunken stupor, he was murdered by his servant Zimri.
• Zimri became king and immediately killed everyone in Elah’s family. He did not leave one of Elah’s male relatives or friends alive. Zimri’s rule, although busy, did not last long. He was king for seven days before committing suicide by burning down the house he was inside.
• After a brief civil war, Zimri was followed by Omri. He reigned for twelve years, and in those twelve years, managed to do “more evil than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:25).
• After Omri’s death, his son Ahab became king. Ahab, we are told, did more evil and more to provoke the Lord to anger than any other king before him (1 Kings 16:29–34). That is saying a lot. But much like Solomon, his worst decision was marrying a pagan wife. He married Jezebel, the daughter of a pagan king, who not only led the nation into the worship of her god, Baal, but worked to rid the land of every prophet of the Lord.

Just one hundred years after King David’s death, the nation of Israel was in a state of absolute moral chaos. Under the rule of King Ahab, new temples to false gods were constructed on every hillside, while the Lord’s prophets were being gathered and killed. It’s a sad story. It’s also a good reminder: Nothing causes more damage to a family, a church, or a nation than ungodly men.

If there was ever a “day for the man,” this was it. In the presence of these ungodly men, God was about to raise up a man. This is what God does. When there needs to be a man for the day, God raises him up and calls him out. As the story continues, we get an even more important reminder: Nothing causes more good to a family, a church, or a nation than godly men.

Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 34 (Pilgrim Publications, 1974), 73–84.