Today we come to the end of 1 Kings. So much has happened!
At the beginning of the book, King David was at the end of his life. There was a sloppy (or complex) transition of power, but Solomon became king. David gave him some last words: Be mature. Be obedient. Be faithful. Solomon in humility asked God for wisdom so he could be a good king, and God gave it. In fact, Solomon’s wisdom was a spectacle to the world. He built the temple and his palace. The wealth of the kingdom was unrivaled. God’s presence rested on the temple as Solomon commissioned it, telling the people that in all moments of life, they should turn toward the temple and toward God.
They made it! The people had realized the long-held hope of being in the promised land and having the temple of God. It seems like it will be utopia. They made it!
But Solomon turned from God and the spiral started in earnest. From Solomon’s death to the splitting of the kingdom, we saw king after king moving farther and farther from what God called them to. This downward spiral culminated with Ahab who was repeatedly called “the worst.”
The worst? I thought this series’ theme was hope amidst failure. Are we at a point of no hope?
No! The prophet Elijah bursts into the story. He speaks for God and displays God’s power, winning a great victory over the prophets of Baal. We also saw him experience fear and run away, where he was met by God, who reassured him that there was still a remnant of followers faithful to God and who sent him back where he’d come from.
And in spite of the generations of spiral, and in spite of all of the people’s issues, God is still God.
We need to process that a little, at least to acknowledge its complexity. Let me read you a few verses:
• God is forever
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Psalm 102:25-27)
• God’s word is forever
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
• God’s faithfulness is forever
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
• God doesn’t change
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
• Jesus doesn’t change
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
Let’s process this together:
If God is unchanging, why do our experiences with Him feel different over time?
Here’s where we’re going today: In all of 1 Kings chaos and spiral, God is. And in all the chaos of our world, God is.
It can be easy to think that we have to be a certain way or do certain things to get God to respond, or to love us. We might feel like we have to be perfect to serve Him or get His attention. And this can make us feel like we’re in some way controlling God by our successes and failures. Maybe He wanted to do this or that, but I messed up and prevented it somehow.
But the truth is, God is still God. We do not have the power to manipulate or confine or restrict or overpower God! And as we come to the end of 1 Kings, in the midst of the spiral, at the worst point, we will see that God was still God. He didn’t change or disappear in the midst of continual failure. And today in our own local, our own world, our own messes—what if God is still God here too? What if?
Before we go to 1 Kings, let’s look at a moment with Jesus that speaks to these same ideas. In Matthew 9, we are introduced to the tax collector, Matthew. There are several things we can presume about Matthew:
He would have been seen as a traitor to his own people. Tax collectors worked for Rome, so Matthew would have been viewed as betraying Israel.
He was associated with corruption and dishonesty, and was likely wealthy through questionable means. The system encouraged overcharging for personal gain.
He was socially and religiously excluded. He would have been considered “unclean” and unwelcome in many religious spaces.
He was grouped with “sinners” as an identity. Tax collectors weren’t just people who sinned, they were labeled as sinners (v.10–11).
He was actively engaged in his sin when called. Jesus meets him at the tax booth (v.9).
He had no evidence of prior spiritual seeking. Unlike others, Matthew isn’t shown searching before Jesus calls him.
If we think we have to be a certain way for Jesus to interact with us, we might think we have to be good, definitely not a sinner or a traitor. We have to be insiders, people with impeccable character who aren’t actively failing and who seek Him. Is that how Matthew felt? Was that his experience?
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13)
Let’s talk about this.
What are the effects of believing that God only loves or helps “perfect” people and always ignores or punishes “imperfect” people?
As we come to the end of 1 Kings, with all the chaos and failings, God still is. And we have hope amidst failure because God still is.
We’ve already met King Ahab. He had some issues.
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. (1 Kings 16:30)
This wasn’t a one-time declaration. We see something similar again in the middle of the text we are focused on today.
(There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.) (1 Kings 21:25-26)
Our theme has been hope amidst failure. It might look like hope is taking some time off, because it’s so bad. But it was never the kings who were the heroes—not David, not even Solomon. It was always God who was the hero of the story. And here, although Ahab was a complete mess, the character of God shines in these chapters as well.
In 1 Kings 20, the king of Aram, Ben-Hadad, came to attract Samaria, the capital city of Ahab’s kingdom. Ben-Hadad sent his demands:
“Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.” (1 Kings 20:3)
At first Ahab agreed, but then another messenger came and said that actually, Ben-Hadad wanted everything of value in all Samaria. And with this demand, Ahab and the people decided to stand up to him. The fight was on.
Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.” (1 Kings 20:10)
And Ahab responded with fighting words of his own:
The king of Israel answered, “Tell him: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.’” (1 Kings 20:11)
Then a prophet shows up. Keep in mind that this is Ahab, the worst king. What will the prophet say?
Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the Lord.’” (1 Kings 20:13)
Wait, what? This is Ahab, the worst. And yet God will give him victory so that he will know that God is God?
Ahab’s army did win miraculously, but the prophet warned that the fighting with Ben-Hadad was not over and they should stay ready.
Meanwhile, the officials of the king of Aram advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they.” (1 Kings 20:23)
They beat us in the hills because their God is the God of the hills. It’ll be different on the plains. So the armies gathered on the plains. It was quite a sight, and Ahab’s armies seemed insignificant.
The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside. (1 Kings 20:27b)
The prophet returned.
The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’” (1 Kings 20:28)
And they won!
Wait, what? This is Ahab, the worst of the worst—and God helped?
Of course there’s more to the story, and I encourage you to read it for yourself. But for now, let’s turn the page to chapter 21. Ahab wants a vineyard because it is close to his palace, but the person who owns it refuses to sell it. Ahab pouts. His wife Jezebel comes into the story.
His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?” He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” (1 Kings 21:5-6)
Jezebel tells Ahab to cheer up. He is, after all, the king, and she promises to get the vineyard for him. She writes a letter in Ahab’s name that results in the owner of the vineyard being put to death. And Ahab just takes the vineyard.
Then guess who just appears again in the story? Elijah!
Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. He says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. (1 Kings 21:20-21)
Yeah! It’s time for judgment for this awful king. He’s going to get what he deserves! But then…
When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. (1 Kings 21:27)
Too bad, Ahab! It’s too late for you!
But…
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” (1 Kings 21:28-29)
What?? Grace? Doesn’t God remember that Ahab is the worst? Why grace for him?
We will get to Ahab’s descendants next week as we walk into 2 Kings. But yes, Ahab was the worst. And God was God. He provided victory and protection against insurmountable odds so that Ahab would know that He is God, and He had grace for Ahab when he, the worst of the worst, repented being a part of something so terrible. Even while the spiral was so far from being godly, God was still God. And even to Ahab, the worst, God was merciful.
I think of Paul’s words in Titus:
he (God) saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:5a)
Mercy is compassion, leniency, or forgiveness shown to someone over whom one has power, particularly in withholding punishment. It often entails kindness in excess of what is expected, such as sparing an offender or offering help in distress.
What if in our own personal and communal spirals, God was not merciful?
What if in our own personal and communal spirals, God is merciful?
Earlier we talked about how it can be easy to think that we have to be a certain way or do certain things to get God to respond, or to love us. But what I see as 1 Kings ends in the failures of Ahab is that even in spite of Ahab’s mess, God still is who He is. And I don’t have to be perfect for God to do something. I don’t have to be without issues for God to love me.
Here’s where we’ve been today. We talked about the unchanging God and our interactions with Him. We talked about the impact of thinking that God helps only the perfect and ignores the rest. And we looked at the story of Ahab, the worst, and yet God’s character of grace and mercy persisted. So let’s end with one final conversation.
How can there be hope amidst failure? Because even in the midst of failure, God is still Himself.
How does the unchanging character of God interact with you? Where is the hope in that?
Take It Deeper Questions
Read Matthew 9:9-13.
How do you feel when someone points out your “issues”?
How do you feel when someone obviously is extending grace to you in spite of your “issues”?
What would cause someone to be gracious to another person’s “issues”?
Why do you think Jesus called Matthew, a tax collector, to be one of His disciples?
Why do you think Jesus would call you to be one of His disciples?
How are you challenged, focused, encouraged and/or confused by this text?
Bible Reading Plan
Luke 5 • Calling Sinners
Mark 2 • Jesus and Tax Collectors
Hosea 6 • Mercy Not Sacrifice
Isaiah 1 • True Worship
Psalm 51 • A Broken Heart
Luke 18 • Humility vs Pride
Ephesians 2 • Saved by Grace