There are many things that we can learn from the Bible. We can learn everything, from how to forgive others to how to live right with God. From grace to faith. From life to death. Each book of the Bible tells us something new and gives us something to learn from.

Most of the Old Testament, however, has gotten overshadowed by the beautiful Psalms, the powerful gospels, and the life-changing New Testament. Many of us don’t study the Old Testament scriptures anymore, and so, have forgotten how powerful the books can be. We’ve disregarded the power of the past and lost the history of God’s people. But the lessons that are taught through those scriptures are still relevant today, and the circumstances that are found within those days, are still happening in a way today as well. We must not make the mistake of forgetting the history of God’s people – our people. Instead, we need to study the scriptures out, and learn everything we can from those that came before us.

One of the stories in the Old Testament that have become the most forgotten is the story of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Today, we will learn about the Kings, and began to see things rightly with a broader view of God and his people.

The Kings of Israel and Judah

The Old Testament is split up into different sections. There is the Law, which includes the first five books of the Bible. Right after that, comes the books of History, which start with Joshua and end at Esther. Every one of those books includes the trials and triumphs of God’s people. But the vast majority of those books include the trials and triumphs of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

We first find the Kings in the book of 1 Samuel, where we find the Israelites asking Samuel for a king. It’s clear that this is not the desire of Samuel, nor the desire of the Lord.

“But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:6-7).

The Israelites wanted a king, but they didn’t want God to be their king. But God gave them one anyways, which is where we find Saul. After Saul, David is appointed, and after David, his ancestors are appointed, starting with Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the Israelite kingdom is split, and we find the southern kingdom, Judah, has their own king, and these are all of David’s line, while the Israelite kingdom included many of different families.

The kings acted as spiritual leaders, as well as political leaders. When idol worship and disgraceful acts were introduced by the king, the rest of Israel followed. This led to countless issues, that we can see throughout the entire story of the kings.

Each King had their own history and their own legacy, but nearly each one disobeyed the Lord, and went their own way. In fact, only around seven out of the forty-two kings did right by God. So, you may be wondering, what then can we learn from the Kings of Israel and Judah?

The Kings’ Mistake

We all make mistakes, that is certain. The kings made many of them, but there is one mistake that I see consist in each king, and it’s something we can learn from.

With each king, we are given a brief overview of their life and what they did, followed by a statement. That statement was either,

“And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord” or “and he did evil in the sight of the Lord”.

Sadly, most of the kings ended their lives and stories with the latter. Many of the kings did idol worship, disgraced God and his house, and disobeyed his commandments. There were some good kings, such as David, who loved God, or Josiah, who brought major religious reforms. But most of them forsook God and did evil in his sight. This was undoubtedly their biggest mistake.

However, I see that there is a bigger reason why this statement is made so often. To see that, we must look at the book of Judges.

No Kings

The story of the judges also shows us the Israelite leaders, and how poorly they led. It shows us leader after leader that fails, and often, we are given the statement, “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord”. This is awfully similar to the statement that we see so often in the books of the Kings. The book ends with one grave statement.

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

This statement not only mimics what we see in the books of the Kings, but it also leads us into that era of God’s people. It shows us what life is like for the Israelites when there is no king, and unfortunately foreshadows what life would be like with a human king, like a Saul or a Solomon.

In those days, everyone did what they thought was right. If the Israelites have their own human king, that is not of God, won’t they be led by someone who does what they see is right? Not what is right in the eyes of God? If the judges followed their own will and led poorly, what’s stopping a king from doing the same?

The New King

The problem and the mistake of the kings was not that they made bad decisions time and time again. That is expected as they are sinners, just as the people were and just as we are. The mistake was in deciding to have a human king in the first place, as was right in their eyes.

The major lesson that we can learn from the story of the Kings is that who we let lead our lives matters tremendously. When we let ourselves lead, we will always be flawed and our lives will always go bad somewhere along the way, just as we see with the Israelites. They let someone lead as they saw fit, not as God saw fit. We see this leading to issue after issue.

As Christians, we have a major luxury. We have a relationship with God in our grasp, and the capability for intimacy at our fingertips. We can come into personal relationship and have a real connection with the living God, every single day. Far too often, we let ourselves lead our lives, when we need to let Jesus lead our lives, and let him be our King.

In this day and age, I’ve seen many Christians place themselves as king of their life. Unknowingly, they pursue their own will, and not the Lord’s. We need to learn from the story of the Kings, and place not our own selves on the throne of our lives, but Jesus, the only true and perfect King.

Final Thoughts

There are many things for us to learn from the Old Testament stories. Some of them, unfortunately, have been forgotten or overshadowed. However, they teach us many important things that we shouldn’t quickly forget.

One of those very important stories is the story of the Kings of Israel and Judah. This story features the many Kings (and one queen) of Israel and Judah that rule over God’s people for hundreds of years. Some were good, but most of them were very bad, and completely forsook the teachings of their forefathers.

The main issue was that they decided to do what was right in their own eyes, rather than pursuing the Lord and his will. They placed themselves at the helm, rather than the Lord of Lords, and the King of Kings. They overlooked the perfect God, in favor of the imperfect human.

Far too often, we do the same thing. We let the world, and ourselves dictate our future and our choices, rather than Jesus. In our minds, we obey the world, and without the direction and guidance of Jesus, we inevitably find ourselves broken, enslaved, and lost, just as the Israelites were. We need Jesus. We need a perfect King and a perfect God. Without him, we can do nothing.

Fortunately, we are not without him, but have the opportunity to walk in relationship with him daily, growing and being led by him. I encourage you all, to pursue a real relationship with him, and watch as Jesus transforms your life, and leads you in the way that you are supposed to go.

Have a great week!