Summer sermon series – return to Old Testament
Spoiler and asking “Why?”
Kings is one book in the Hebrew Bible

Kings as More Than History
Inclination to read this as history – but it’s more than that
Category in the Hebrew Bible:
Nevi’im Rishonim - “Former Prophets”
One unified theological narrative:

Joshua through Kings as a Covenant story

Deuteronomistic History

The autopsy analogy (display image)
Autopsies ask the question “Why?”
Autopsies are for the sake of the living
Written for exiles and for us
Kings is a prophetic book – not predictive, but interpretive
The narrator wants you to see what he sees
Interpret Israel’s history through a Covenant lens

Opening Chapters – 1 Kings 1-2
Adonijah
Natural successor
Adonijah’s miscalculated fait accompli
Ends in his execution
Solomon
Son of Bathsheba
Chosen by David and the Prophet Nathan to be King

The Standard of the Kings & 1 Kings 3:3
“Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father”
The metric for every king that follows
Why David?
Deeply flawed but repented when he sinned
Singular devotion to the LORD, an undivided heart
“...only he sacrificed and made offerings at high places.”
Check-engine light
What sacrificing at high places means
High places will come up over and over again in Kings
One small compromise, tolerated early, warns us of the trajectory

Solomon’s Dream at Gibeon – 1 Kings 3:4-15
Worship/Sacrifice at Gibeon where Tabernacle resides
God appears to Solomon in a dream, “Ask what I shall give you”
Lev Shomea – Listening heart
Listening heart as a posture, receptivity, and orientation toward service
God grants Solomon’s request and gives riches and honor as well
Conditions: “If you walk in my ways”
Seemingly perfect king for God’s people
Kingdom flourishes – peace, prosperity, Temple, etc.

The Drift – 1 Kings 10-11
Despite all he’s received, Solomon’s heart drifts
Narrator’s specific details:
Golden cups, ivory throne, monkeys, greater wealth than all the kings of the earth
1400 chariots, 12,000 horsemen (some from Egypt)
Why give these details?

Deuteronomy 17 – The Law Concerning Israel’s Kings
Spoken by Moses
Nearly 500 years before Solomon
Before any king, any kingdom, before they were even in the land
First stipulation: Chosen by God, Must be an Israelite
Second: No multiplying horses (weird and specific)
No getting them from Egypt
Solomon explicitly breaks this law
Third: No excessive wives; No excessive gold
1 Kings 11:
Solomon had 700 wives, 300 concubines
They turned his heart
The narrator is making a clear connection between 1 Kings 10-11 and Deuteronomy 17

Deuteronomy 17:18-20 – The Prescription for Israel’s Kings
Not just prohibitions
Copy the Law by hand
Read it every day
All the details the narrator records about Solomon
Not once does it say he copied the Law, not once is he recorded reading it
The silence is deafening
A listening heart is a gift
The gift needs daily nourishment
Solomon never fed his heart

Application – The Arithmetic of Drift
Story becomes practical
Daily orientation in God’s Word gives everything proper perspective
The Arithmetic:
You don’t get 1400 chariots overnight
Each decision probably felt sensible in the moment
Drift looks similar for us:
Busyness, distraction, calendar filling up
Saturday nights, travel, kid’s sports
Drift doesn’t announce itself
It accumulates
The things that fill our time become the things that own our hearts
Not just busyness or distraction – One small compromise at a time
A habit, relationship, way of thinking
Either way, the result is the same
Our hearts are just as susceptible as Solomon’s
If the wisest man couldn’t keep his heart from drifting, where does that leave us?
What hope do we have?

Return to Autopsy Analogy
We need stories like this
Written for exiles who lost everything – land, home, king, kingdom
Solomon is the first step in that story of a long slow drift
Kingdom on coroner’s table: Divided heart as cause of death
Kings strips all false notions of hope and faith
The Kings fail, the institutions fail, the Temple will be reduced to rubble

The Gospel Turn
The corner can give you the cause of death, sign the certificate, close the file
But he can’t tell a dead body to get up and come home
That’s what Jesus has come to do
The question behind Kings is just as personal as it is theological: Does God still want me?

Jesus is everything Solomon was supposed to be and everything he wasn’t
Heart is not divided, not compromised
Obedient even unto death
When we drift, He remains true
He doesn’t call from a distance – He picks us up and carries us home
He is the way home for every wandering heart
He is faithful
He has not drifted from you, no matter how far you feel