1 Kings 15:1-34
Q.1. Why were the succeeding generations of kings compared with King David? What did God love about David? – (1 Kgs.15:1-5)
David’s faith in God, as demonstrated in his defeat of Goliath, and also his love for God, as displayed in his Psalms, made him a benchmark for what it means to be a child of God. God was so touched by the heart of David, that – for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son (literally descendant) after him and to establish Jerusalem (1Kgs.15:4 c.f. 1 Kgs.11:12-13, 32, 34-36). We should all seek to cultivate a heart of faith. and a love for God, like that of David’s. Long after David had died, God wrote this epitaph about this godly king – David did what was right in the sight of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything He commanded him all the days of his life except in the case of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kgs.15:5). Abijam did not have a heart like his (fore)father David, whereas – Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his (fore)father (1 Kgs.15:3 & 11).
Q.2. What was good about King Asa’s reign? What was disappointing about his reign? – (1 Kgs.15:9-24)
This record of Asa’s forty-one-year reign reveals him to be an outstanding king (1 Kgs.15:8-11). He removed the evil influence of his mother Maacah. That took great conviction and courage (1 Kgs.15:12-13). He left the high places and used his own treasuries and those of the house of the Lord, to make a treaty with Benhadad, King of Aram to buy peace (1 Kgs.15:14, 16-20). The writer of Chronicles was more critical of Asa and recorded his early battle against overwhelming odds earlier in his reign (2 Chron. 14:9-12). This chapter does report that – in his old age he was diseased in his feet (1Kgs.15:23). Chronicles is less flattering and explains the circumstances: Hanani the seer expressed God’s displeasure at his treaty with Benhadad. In anger King Asa imprisoned Hanani and oppressed some of his other critics. He finished his reign disappointingly – His disease was severe, yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians (2 Chron.16:12). David repented when he sinned … Asa, an otherwise good king, refused to repent (c.f. 2 Chronicles 16:7-13). His son Jehoshaphat would also be a godly king.
Q.3. How do we see God’s judgment on Jeroboam play out in the reign of King Baasha? – (1 Kgs.15:25-31)
Jeroboam’s first son, Nadab was evil like his father, and was cut down after a brief two-year reign (1 Kgs.15:25-27). He was succeeded by the murderous Baasha from the tribe of Issachar, who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel for twenty-four years (1 Kgs.15:27-33). Baasha exterminated all his rivals from Jeroboam’s line – He did not leave to Jeroboam any person alive, until he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, and because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel to sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger … Baasha did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel sin (1 Kgs.15:29-30, 34). God is a promise keeping God – for good and for ill.