Utumishi Blog

Part 1

Part 2

A few more important themes running all through the book of Kings – all brought out by Sammy in his exposition of 1 Kings 18 and all speaking very clearly into our church context:

• Who is the true God?  “If Yahweh is God follow him; but if Baal then follow him” (18:21). The question is not “Do you believe in God?” Everyone’s religious. Everyone believes in God (certainly here in Africa). The question is “Who is this ‘God’ you believe in? What is he like? Tell me about him.” Is he a deity who needs you to march round an altar shouting and cutting yourself for him to listen or is he the God of top-down grace and revelation and power?
• The Word of God.  “…there shall be no dew or rain these years, except by my Word” (17:1). The word is life. Again and again things happen “…according to the word of the Lord”. Prophets keep popping up all over the place. The book becomes a complex web of overlapping prophecies and fulfilments. In some ways the whole narrative is a fulfilment of Deuteronomy 28. The key questions are: (a) What is the true word of the Lord (1 Kings 22)? (Answer: 2 Kings 17:13 – the one that brings you back to the covenant); and (b) Are you going to listen and live?
• The patience of God.  The obvious lesson from Kings is that idolatry leads to destruction but the less obvious lesson is that God (the true God) is very very slow to anger.  One of the big surprises is that there are 47 chapters of Kings rather than 12. Why does it take hundreds of years to get to the Exile? Why does Yahweh send prophet after prophet and give second and third and umpteenth chances? Why does he break the drought after three years when he knows the king and the people won’t repent? Why is he faithful to unfaithful people?
• The faithful remnant. “…seven thousand who have not bowed to Baal” (19:18) There’s faithful Obadiah and his hidden prophets, lonely Elijah, the Shunammite woman, the sons of the prophets suffering in the famine and looking for a lost axe head…  As the apostle Paul noticed – this is a really important moment in the history of Israel (Rom. 10:1-6). We’re finding that not all Israel are true Israel (Rom. 9:6, 27). Sure, there had always been a pattern of election and rejection (Rom. 9:7-13) but in the time of Elijah and Elisha it becomes clear that within Israel itself there are many unbelievers and that the great promises given to the nation of Israel only apply to the faithful remnant, by grace through faith (Rom. 11:6, 20). The church might look a mile wide but likely there is a faithful remnant bowing to the Christ-like God and many worshipping a Baal-like version of God.