Emotions

Some psalms express deep grief. I am especially moved by Psalm 56, which says that God ‘puts our tears into his bottle’. When Jewish people wanted to express their sympathy at the death of someone they loved, they didn’t send flowers or wreaths to the funeral, but instead they had glass bottles, about four inches high, which they would hold under their eyes and weep into. They would then send the bottle of tears to the bereaved relatives as an expression of sympathy. The psalm tells us that God is able to do the same for us, even when our tears are about things not nearly as serious as death.

The Psalms cover the whole gamut of human emotions. They include what we might term the ‘negative’ emotions of anger, frustration, jealousy, despair, fear and envy. The psalmist expresses exactly how he thinks and feels, including cursing men and complaining about God. They also reflect the more ‘positive’ emotions of joy, excitement, hope and peace.

David wrote most of the personal psalms. They cover many of the things that people might want to say to God. Later we shall look at three particular kinds of psalms, which I call ‘please psalms’, ‘thank-you psalms’ and ‘sorry psalms’.

In spite of their strong worship focus, the Psalms were not intended to be used only by priests. There is an almost complete absence of altars, priests, vestments and incense. The Psalms are intended for common people to use in their worship of God.

Biblical themes

The Psalms not only cover every human emotion; they are also comprehensive in their treatment of biblical themes. Luther said the Psalms are ‘the Bible within the Bible’ – the Bible in miniature. They cover the history of Israel, creation, the patriarchs, the Exodus, the monarchy, the Exile and the return to Jerusalem.

The Psalms are the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament. The most quoted verse in the New Testament is Psalm 110:1: ‘The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

Not all the psalms in the Old Testament are in the Book of Psalms. Moses and Miriam wrote one (see Exodus 15). Deborah and Hannah also composed psalms (see Judges 5 and 1 Samuel 2). Since the authors of most of the Bible were male, it is interesting that women too wrote psalms, perhaps reflecting the naturally intuitive side of the feminine nature. Job wrote three psalms, while Isaiah and King Hezekiah each wrote one.

Other Old Testament characters also used psalms. Jonah’s prayer while he was inside the whale is a classic example. He said he was praying from Sheol, the world of departed spirits, and quoted five different psalms in that prayer. Habakkuk quotes from the Psalms three times in his prophecy.

All the Psalms employ poetry as their sole means of expression. So do the Song of Solomon, Proverbs and Lamentations. Other Old Testament books (e.g. Ecclesiastes and the Prophets) are a mixture of poetry and prose. Parts of the historical books are also in poetic form (e.g. Genesis 49; Exodus 15; Judges 5; 2 Samuel 22).

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Introduction

The Book of Psalms is the most loved and the best known part of the Bible. Individual psalms are popular with people who are not regular Bible readers and also with those who wish to praise the god whom they know and love. they have a universal appeal, translating easily into today’s culture, despite being from so long ago. While most of the Old testament needs to be understood in the light of the new testament, most of the Psalms can be used directly. there is a timeless quality to the Psalms, and they can easily be applied to the Christian life. It is no surprise that hymn-writers throughout history have drawn their inspiration from them.

The Psalms have been valued throughout the history of the Church. Martin Luther said, ‘In the Psalms we look into the heart of every saint.’ John Calvin said that in the Psalms ‘We look into a mirror and see our own heart.’ A modern commentator put it this way: ‘every psalm seems to have my name and address on it.’ It is the most human part of the Old testament, which everyone can readily identify with.

The Book of Psalms is the hymn-book and prayer-book of Israel in the Old testament. It is the longest book in the Bible and took nearly 1,000 years to write. Although most of the Psalms were written at the time of david (around 1000 BC), some of them were written at the time of Moses (about 1300 BC) and others at the time of the Exile (500 BC).

The word ‘psalm’ literally means ‘twang’ or ‘pluck’, referring to the stringed instruments that were used to accompany the singing of psalms. The Book of Psalms is placed in the Hebrew Bible at the start of the books of Writings – the third section of the Bible, coming after the books of the Law and the Prophets. In Hebrew the book is called Tenillim, which means ‘Songs of Praise’, which is probably a much better name for it (especially as the word ‘Jew’ comes from ‘Judah’, which means ‘praise’). Psalms are most commonly spoken or sung, but they can even be shouted – a form that doesn’t go down well in some cultures!

There are various kinds of psalms, as we will see later. The simplest division is between the personal psalms, using the pronoun ‘I’, and the collective psalms, using ‘we’. Thus some psalms are most suited to private worship and others to public worship. However, the division must not be too strict, as Jesus encouraged his disciples to use the words ‘Our Father’, implying that they should have a corporate responsibility even when they prayed privately.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Poetry in God’s Word

Our study of Hebrew poetry shows us how appropriate it is that it should be included within God’s Word.

Modern chorus writers have found the Psalms rich in inspiration. But when psalms are used verbatim, it is rare that a whole psalm is included. Thus we do not have the words in their original context. This can mean that the balance of the psalm is lost and, in some cases, the meaning is changed.

Hebrew poetry is easy to translate into other languages because its emphasis is on content rather than sound. If I quote English poetry when preaching to a non-English-speaking congregation through a translator, the translation kills the poem dead, because English poetry is often based on sound, and those English sounds will not survive the translation process. But Hebrew poetry can be translated into any language, so it is easy to see why God chose such a medium.

Poetry in worship

Many people argue that we should be spontaneous in our approach to God and that it is artificial for us to plan what we are going to say. There is some truth in that, but there is enormous value in first thinking through what we wish to say. The Psalms give us a model of how to address God so that we are not over-familiar, and they powerfully reveal to us God’s greatness and majesty. On the other hand, they also describe an intimate relationship with God that many people may not yet have enjoyed, and so they can spur us on to seek a greater experience of God’s goodness.

The planned wording that we find in biblical poetry is a necessary part of our corporate worship. If we merely sang what we wanted to sing when we came to worship, it would be chaos – not to mention a dreadful noise! Corporate worship is made possible because choruses and hymns are designed for a congregation to sing them. Those who argue that we should only sing what we ‘feel’ forget that there is value in voicing responses that we may not feel, as an encouragement to respond genuinely and also to remember the truth for the future.

There used to be a family tradition in our house. Our three children used to come and wake me up at an ungodly hour on a certain day in the year, and then stand in a row at the foot of my bed and address me in a most artificial way with poetry. They finished by giving me a bag of their favorite sweets. The poem (or song ) was ‘Happy birthday to you’!

Of course, in a sense this was artificial – three children standing in a row, all saying the same thing. Wouldn’t it have been nicer if each of them had come separately and told me what they really felt? No, because they would then not have been doing it together as my family. The fact that they came to me together and sang to me together – in a relationship with one another – made the little tradition much more special to me.

In a similar way, it pleases the Lord when we say something together, even though we have to use words that someone else has written. God loves to see us together. We may be standing in a row, singing to God in a somewhat artificial
way, but we are corporately expressing our love for God. Poetry enables us to do this.

We noted earlier that psalms lend themselves to antiphonal singing, where choirs sing to each other. It is also possible to shout psalms as well as sing them. Psalm 147 is an example of this.

Psalms can also aid our sense of corporate identity. Psalms using the words ‘I’ and ‘my’ are best for private worship, but those using ‘we’ and ‘our’ remind us that we are praising together as the whole family of God.

Just as poetry touches the heart of man, it also touches the heart of God. We have noted that poetry is used in all the Psalms and also in many of the prophetic books. The Holy Spirit chose this form as a way of communicating the mind of God and as a means for us to respond to him. Those who are skeptical about the idea that poetry touches God’s heart need to remember the bold language that Scripture uses to talk of God’s feelings.

For example, Psalm 2 says that God ‘laughs’ when he views the futile attempts of humanity to defy him. Zephaniah 3 tells us that God ‘rejoices’ over us ‘with singing’. So God is musical! Music is not something that modern people have invented but is part of what it means to be made in the image of God.

So when God addresses us with poetry we know that he is communicating his feelings from his heart to our hearts, and so we can ask what such biblical passages tell us about God’s feelings. Understanding H ebrew poetry can be a key to understanding the very heart of God.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Other features of Hebrew poetry

Simile

Hebrew poetry is full of similes – that is, pictures that show us how one thing resembles another. For example :

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
from Psalm 103

Here a tender father’s care for his children is likened to God’s care for his people.

Chiasm

Here the second part of the first line becomes the first part of the second line. For example:

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
from Psalm 1

The second line reverses the first – ‘the way’ has swapped places.

Omission

In omission (or ellipsis), part of the second line is omitted. For example:

You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
from Psalm 88

We are meant to read this as if the phrase ‘you have put me’ recurs in the second line.

Staircase

Sometimes the lines of a psalm resemble a staircase:

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
from Psalm 29

The second line expands on what the first line has already told us. We already knew that ‘the Lord breaks the cedars’; now we are told that he breaks them ‘in pieces’ and that they are cedars ‘of Lebanon’.

Acrostic

Here the poetry is based on the alphabet. In Psalm 119 – the longest of all the psalms, with 176 verses – each section (and every verse in that section) begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Refrain

Here the second line provides a refrain throughout. For example, in Psalm 136 the words ‘His love endures forever’ form the second line of every verse.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Parallelism

While rhythm is not unknown (especially the 4/3 and the 3/3 rhythms), Hebrew
poetry is mostly based on a form of repetition called parallelism. The word
refers to the correspondence that occurs between the phrases of a poetic line.
Parallelism is the basic ‘building block’ of Hebrew poetry. It is used for:

■ Emphasis. If something is said twice, we know it is important.
■ Response. A couplet enables ‘antiphonal’ singing, in which two choirs
sing to each other. O ne choir sings the first sentence and the other choir
echoes it.
■ Balance. Just as there is balance in a human body – two hands, two eyes,
two ears, two arms, two legs – so the couplet helps us to understand the beauty of a thought.

Usually the repetition is in the form of couplets but the Psalms also contain
some triplets and just a few quadruplets. Here is an example of a couplet, from Psalm 6:

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

To ‘rebuke’ is to tell someone they are in the wrong, while to ‘discipline’ is to
punish, so the second line develops the first line’s thought a little further. Or take
the next verse in this psalm:

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am faint;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.

In the first line the psalmist feels faint, but in the second line he is in agony
and needs healing. So once again the second line has taken the first line a little
further. But note that it is the sense that is repeated, not the sound.

I am conscious of the fact that analyzing poetry is like taking a flower to
pieces and looking at its parts. Analysis destroys the beauty. Nevertheless, I want
to help you to understand what’s going on when you read biblical poetry – why
it was written and how it was written.

There are three different forms of parallelism:

Synonymous

In synonymous parallelism the same thought is expressed twice in different
words. Let’s take Psalm 2 as an example:

Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.
‘Let us break their chains,’ they say,
‘and throw off their fetters.’
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
The Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath.

Note how the words in italic type in each couplet have the same meaning, but
generally the second word is ‘stronger’ or ‘heavier’ than the first.

Antithetic

Antithetic parallelism functions like synonymous parallelism, but the second
line contrasts with the first line. So, in this example from Psalm 126:

Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.

Two pairs are contrasted: ‘sowing’ and ‘reaping’, ‘tears’ and ‘joy’. In the next
verse we have the theme expanded:

He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.

These two lines add more detail to the contrast. We now have going out with
seed and returning with sheaves.

Synthetic

In synthetic parallelism the second phrase complements or supplements the
first. I t doesn’t say the same thing or the opposite thing, but something that follows
from the first phrase. For example:

When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.
from Psalm 126

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
from Psalm 23

In these examples the second phrase is the result of the first. Psalm 23 is built
on the synthetic pattern:

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters.

The shepherd has to know where there are green pastures and quiet waters.
But those two things together create a picture of a shepherd who really
knows his job and cares for his sheep.

So we have three forms of Hebrew poetry but many varieties within these
forms. Parallelism is not just in thought and word, but also in grammar. For example,
in these lines from Psalm 2 the order of the words in the Hebrew is:

Then he rebukes them in his anger
and in his wrath he terrifies them.

The order of the verb, the object and the prepositional phrase is varied in the
second line.

Tricolon

These three types of parallelism are often interrupted by irregularities. Sometimes
the rhythm and pattern are broken. Sometimes, instead of two lines there
are three lines together. This is called a tricolon or triplet.

Take these three lines from Psalm 29:

Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name.

Here the lines build up a crescendo – ‘Ascribe to the Lord’ is the refrain – and
then different words are added in three lines.

Or consider Psalm 3:

O Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.’

Here we have the repetition of ‘many’, and each line builds on the previous
one: who he is complaining about, what they do, then what they say. Sometimes
there’s an omission and a word is not included or a phrase drops out.

(fromUnlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Wonder

Because poetry is partly about communicating pleasant sounds, the effect
of poetry is often lost or diminished if it is just read silently. Poems are meant
to be read aloud. There is something very satisfying about the sound of poetry.
It brings a sense of wonder that isn’t generally found in prose. It is no surprise,
therefore, that poems are used in the worship of God. The Psalms (the Jews’
hymn-book), are all in poetry. Prose is generally very difficult to sing, while
poems lend themselves more readily to musical accompaniment.

Furthermore, poetry helps us to appreciate and express the sense of wonder
that we feel as we worship. I will show what I mean by using a well-known
poem:

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Jane Taylor

It’s possible to kill the child-like wonder in this poem by reducing it to scientific
terms:

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
I don’t wonder what you are.
You’re the cooling down of gasses,
Forming into solid masses.

Let’s take it a step further:

Scintillate, scintillate, globule prolific,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
Loftily poised in ether capacious,
Closely resembling a gem carbonaceous.

Note the contrast between the language of science and that of poetry. The
former is exact and cold, while the latter is less precise but evokes wonder and
awe. This is what makes poetry such a good medium for worship. Hymns, songs,
psalms and choruses help us to express something of the wonder and glory of
God in a way that scientific forms of expression cannot.

Poetry is visual as well as verbal. It paints pictures in the mind. Imagination
is very necessary to writing poetry. It uses metaphors, similes and images. For
example, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star … like a diamond in the sky’ helps to conjure
a picture of a shining star.

Let’s take Psalm 42 as another example:

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs for God.

We imagine an animal panting, with its tongue hanging out, and that makes
us think of our own thirst for God.

Sound and sense

English poetry is based on Greek and Roman poetry, where the emphasis is
on the sound. Although there are other forms and styles, English poetry generally
rhymes, while in Hebrew poetry, the emphasis is on the sense.

This distinction is especially clear in the English tradition of ‘nonsense verse’,
of which Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll were the masters. Carroll’s ‘The Jabberwocky’
is a prime example of this sort of poetry:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Reading such poetry is a little like enjoying Pavarotti singing Italian opera
without knowing the language, or enjoying pop music when the words are inaudible
or meaningless. We haven’t a clue what it is about but we like it anyway.

Such poems may ‘move’ us but they don’t take us anywhere. Reading them
may help us to relax and to appreciate life, but they don’t affect the way we
live.

Hebrew poetry is very different from the English style. Even in the original
language, the emphasis is upon the sense of the words rather than the sound of
them, which is one reason why there is very little rhyme in Hebrew poetry.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Beauty

Poetry touches the heart, the mind and the will by making words beautiful
as well as meaningful. We are drawn to poems because the words are arranged
in such a way that they appeal to our sense of beauty, balance, symmetry and
proportion.

Just as a beautiful person has well-balanced features, so it is this balance that
appeals to us in poetry.

There are three basic features of poetry that make the words beautiful for us:
rhyme, rhythm and repetition.

Rhyme

Rhyme is a common feature of English poetry, but it is not generally found in
Hebrew poetry. This classic nursery rhyme demonstrates a balance of rhyming
words well:

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

It has a simple rhyme structure that is common to most nursery rhymes, and
children have no trouble learning them.

Rhythm

The second feature of poetry that makes words beautiful is rhythm or metre,
where the beat based on the syllables must fall on the correct words. For example:

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled.
Mrs. Hemans

The poem has a 4/3 rhythm, a favorite for both Hebrew and English poetry,
and often used in the metrical Psalms in Scotland. Take another example:

The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want – (4)
He makes me down to lie (3)
in pastures green he leadeth me – (4)
the quiet waters by – (3).
Francis Rous

Good rhythm is dependent on the emphasis falling on the right syllable. When
a hymn or chorus fails in this regard the effect is unpleasant. Take, for example,
these two lines from a hymn:

For all the good our Father does,
God and king of us all.

The beat is placed on the wrong syllables and so emphasizes the wrong words.
The hymn’s beauty is lost.

Rhythm can also be used to shock the reader:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Is that fair?!

The last line is startling because it breaks the rhythm and brings you up with
a jolt.

Repetition

The third aspect of poetry that makes words beautiful is repetition. The repetition
of a word or a line makes it poetic. There is a famous speech in Shakespeare’s
play Julius Caesar that repeats the line, ‘And Brutus is an honourable
man.’ Or take this famous nursery rhyme that uses repetition:

‘Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?’
‘Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.’

The repetition may be of lines, phrases or even letters. Maybe you noticed
how Studdert Kennedy uses words beginning with ‘c’ in his poem ‘Indifference’:
‘crude’, ‘cruel’, ‘crouched’ and ‘cried’. They serve to emphasize the two ‘c’s that
are the key to its theme: cross and crucify.

In other cases a refrain is used to emphasize a point. For example, Psalm 136
repeats the phrase, ‘His love endures for ever.’

Other poems employ alliteration. I n ‘The Siege of Belgrade,’ the first line of
each verse is a consecutive letter of the alphabet, but this same letter is used for
the main words in each verse. Psalm 119 is similar.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Introduction to Hebrew Poetry

Poetry is one of a number of forms of literature that are used in the Old Testament. It is found in the prophets and in the ‘writings’ or ‘wisdom literature’, notably in the Psalms, the Book of Job and the Song of Songs. But since Hebrew poetry is so different from English poetry, we need to consider it in some detail if we are to receive the full benefit from these parts of God’s Word.

It is relatively easy to spot poetry in modern Bibles, since the print is arranged differently from prose sections. Prose has long sentences and full columns, poetry short sentences with larger spaces to set it apart. A cursory glance at a Bible shows that there is substantially more poetry in the Old Testament than in the New.

Prose is the more natural and spontaneous way to communicate. People speak and write in prose using a variety of sentence lengths to communicate their point. Poetry is an abnormal and artificial way of writing. It needs to be prepared beforehand, it requires considerable thought and the words used need to obey the rules of poetic style. We might ask why it is that poetry is used when prose is so much easier.

For example, imagine me coming home and saying to Enid, my wife,

I’m ready for my supper, wife.
Oh good, it’s pies and peas.
You’ve given me a dirty knife –
I’d like a clean one, please!
And since there is no second course,
I’ll have some more tomato sauce!

If I talked like that it would mean that I had thought about my words beforehand. But the artificiality of talking in poetry in such a setting would hamper clear communication!

A deeper effect

Why bother to compose poetry?

Poetry has a much deeper effect on people than prose. Poetry can penetrate parts of the personality that prose would leave untouched.

Deeper into the mind

Poetry is more easily remembered than prose, especially when set to music. It touches the intuitive and artistic part of the brain, that can be left unmoved by the ordered arguments of prose.

So poems from our school days may be remembered decades later, while lectures are forgotten by the next week. For this reason we generally learn our theology from hymns and choruses, which is why it’s important to make sure that the songs used in worship have Bible-based content.

Deeper into the heart

Poetry is used in greeting cards because it is a more effective way of moving the heart of the recipient. It can evoke warm emotions, while the same sentiments expressed in prose would leave the reader unmoved.

Consider the following poem:

They walked down the lane together,
The sky was full of stars.
Together they reached the farmyard gate,
He lifted for her the bars.
She neither smiled nor thanked him,
Indeed, she knew not how,
For he was just a farmer’s boy,
And she was a Jersey cow!

Whenever I have quoted this in a talk, the congregation has laughed. They expect romance but receive something ridiculous, which touches their sense of humour. If the same content were to be expressed in prose, I doubt if it would even raise a smile.

Deeper into the will

Poetry also affects our volitional powers. It moves us to the point where we are determined to act in a certain way. In schools poems have been used to instill values into pupils. War songs have been used throughout history to galvanize soldiers for action.

Consider this poem, entitled ‘Indifference’, by Studdert Kennedy, an army chaplain in World War I:

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet
and made a Calvary;
They crowned him with a crown of thorns,
red were his wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days,
and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham,
they simply passed him by,
They never hurt a hair of him, they only let him die.
For men had grown more tender
and they would not give him pain,
They only passed him down the street
and left him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried ‘Forgive them,
for they know not what they do’
And still it rained the wintry rain
that drenched him through and through.
The crowds went home and left the streets
without a soul to see,
That Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

There is something about the rhythm and the careful choice of words in that poem which compels us to examine our lives.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Why read Kings?

Christians can be sure that all parts of the Old Testament are also intended for them. We are told in 1 Corinthians that the events in the Old Testament ‘occurred as examples to us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did’. In 2 Timothy we read that ‘all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’.

Individual application

THE PRESENT

We may not be kings, but we too are examples to others, at work, in the family, in the community. Like kings, we need to set the spiritual tone for the groups we are involved with, especially if we have a leadership role.

We can be tempted to have liaisons with people who have ‘foreign’ gods. We must beware of the dangers of marrying outside God’s family.

Kings gives us the negative example of Queen Athalia, who sought to take up leadership against the will of God. All Christians can be tempted to seek leadership for the wrong reasons, or which is inappropriate for them personally.

Josiah’s reign reminds us that we must be regular readers of the Bible. We can be negligent or ignorant of its truth and face similar consequences.

The book also provides key lessons for Christian leaders, for the king had a pastoral role to exercise for his people, a role he often abused.

THE FUTURE

We will become kings: we too are part of the royal family, preparing to reign with Christ. We can look forward to a bright future. Even if our lives have little opportunity for leadership now, there will come a day when it will be different.

Corporate application

THE CHURCH

Just as Israel put idols on the high places in the land, Britain has a tradition of pagan shrines being situated on the hills. Christian churches now stand on many of these sites, but the danger of compromise with paganism remains. Syncretism, the uniting of one religion with another, is still around and still popular.

When Elijah challenged the people of Israel, he asked them how long they would waver between two opinions. The same question could be asked of the Church today, for in Britain and elsewhere there are professing Christians who see nothing wrong in mixing their faith with pagan religion and contemporary materialistic and new age philosophies. Prince Charles says he prefers to be called Defender of Faith, not Defender of the Faith. We are into an era when it has become fashionable to say that all religions lead to God.

Furthermore, the Church has blessed pagan festivals, often unknowingly. Christmas is the most obvious example: it was originally a totally pagan midwinter festival celebrating the ‘rebirth’ of the sun. The people burned yew logs, sang carols, and ate and drank too much. When the first missionary, Augustine, came to England he sent word back to Rome saying that he was unable to get the people away from this pagan festival. Pope Gregory said that the best policy would be to turn it into a Christian festival, and that is what has happened, with questionable results. Today the Church universally celebrates this pagan festival, despite the fact that it is nowhere commanded or even encouraged in the Bible.

The book of Kings also demonstrates the principle that division leads to decline. Many church fellowships can testify to this sad truth. The nation reached its height in the unity it enjoyed under David and Solomon, and then lost everything in half the time it had taken to achieve it, once that unity had been destroyed. We must be vigilant if the same thing is not to happen to us in the Church.

THE WORLD

The book has a powerful message to offer about God’s sovereignty in human history. Israel is the specific focus of his dealings as he intervenes in the lives of the kings, dispensing blessing and punishment, open to their cries for help. We see how, on the whole, good kings last longer than bad ones. In the same way, God rules over all nations. He chooses leaders and rulers and decides how much time and space each has. He can act in justice, giving the people the ruler they deserve, or in mercy, giving them the ruler they need. He still has the casting vote even in democratic elections.

His ability to overrule in no way reduces human responsibility. He can use even those who have no knowledge of him – a bad ruler like Nebuchadnezzar to take his people into Babylonian exile and a good ruler like the Persian Cyrus to restore them to their own land again.

News agencies only see the human side of history. Prophets discern the divine activity over and above this. That is why the Bible in general and the books of 1 and 2 Kings in particular are so different from other historical records. They give us the whole story, telling the whole truth about what happened in the events of Israel’s saga.

CHRIST

Above all, we need to read Kings because of what it tells us about Jesus. A number of individuals who feature in Kings remind us of Jesus.

• Solomon: Matthew tells us in his Gospel that Jesus is greater than Solomon. Paul writes that Christ is our wisdom. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus likened his body to the temple. When Jesus died the temple curtain was split from top to bottom.
• Jonah: The prophet is mentioned in Kings. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so Jesus would be raised after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth – in both cases a resurrection from the dead.
• Elijah: Jesus met and talked with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah was likened to Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist, who had the same food and dress.
• Elisha: Jesus indirectly linked himself to Elisha through the nature of the miracles he performed. Jesus raised a boy from the dead in the village of Nain, next to Shumen where Elisha had performed a similar miracle. He fed 5,000 people with bread and fish, mirroring Elisha’s miracle in feeding the 4,000 with bread. When Jesus died, people came out of their graves, just as a dead man was revived after contact with Elisha’s dead body.

There are also ways in which the life and ministry of Jesus fulfil the expectations of kingship. He is the king the Old Testament people longed for. He is in the royal line of David, and will one day restore the kingdom to Israel. He is the one who fulfils all the promises made about the descendants of David. Here is one king who will not disappoint, one even greater than David.

Conclusion

The book of Kings has a vital message for the world. God is Lord over all, and his people must learn the message of this book if they are not to mirror the decline recorded there, the disintegration of the people of Israel who ceased to listen to God and follow his laws. We can, however, be encouraged by God’s power and ability to deal with his people in ways that are both just and merciful. No one can thwart his plans. His kingdom will outlast the years, and the book of Kings (or Kingdoms) gives Christians a longing for the day when Jesus will be seen by all as the final king.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)

Elijah

It was this event which marked the start of the prophet Elijah’s ministry. He was a Tishbite from Gilead, in the Trans-Jordan region, and was regarded as one of the finest of Israel’s prophets. Although there is no book written in his name, Kings covers more of his life than most of the kings themselves.

He is best known for his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is 12 miles long and juts out into the ocean in the north of Israel. At the eastern (inland) end there is a large depression just below the summit where 30,000 people could gather. This must be the place where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal, whom Jezebel had introduced to the palace. There is a spring there that never runs dry, even in a drought. The text tells us that Elijah doused the sacrifice with water, even though there had been no rain for three and a half years.

The story is well known. Elijah built an altar and challenged the prophets of Baal to build their own altar alongside his and call on their gods for fire to burn up the sacrifice.

It was a very clever challenge. We now know that the altars of Baal had a tunnel underneath where a priest would be concealed to set fire to the wood when the people cried out to the god. Elijah cunningly asked them to build their altar in the open and promised to build his altar in exactly the same way, only he would also add water to make the challenge greater. His boldness led him to mock the priests in such a way that if his experiment had failed he would surely have been killed. He encouraged them to shout louder, suggested that their god was on holiday or relieving himself. It was a key moment in the history of the northern tribes. God sent the fire, Elijah’s sacrifice was burned up and Israel knew who was truly powerful. The prophets of Baal were routed.

This amazing story has an unlikely sequel. When Jezebel heard about Elijah’s victory and the death of her prophets, she threatened Elijah. Despite his victory over the 400 prophets of Baal, Elijah ran for his life to Horeb. The prophet was emotionally and spiritually exhausted, so God graciously sent an angel to cook him a meal, and later assured him of his presence and provision for the future of Israel. God had already set aside a colleague for Elijah to continue the work.

Elisha

Elisha, the plowman, succeeded Elijah in the prophetic role. He asked Elijah for a ‘double portion’ of his spirit – a phrase that is frequently misunderstood. It does not mean that he wanted to be twice the prophet Elijah had been. It was actually a phrase taken from the inheritance customs. If a man had four sons, his estate was divided into five when he died and the double portion went to the eldest son, who became the heir of the family business, with the extra money to help with the responsibility. In asking for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, Elisha was asking to be his heir and successor to be allowed to ‘take over the business’.

Elijah told Elisha that if he saw him leave the earth, he could be his heir. Elijah was one of the few people in the Bible who never died (Enoch was another). The text tells us that he rode in a whirlwind into heaven, and Elisha saw him depart. Elijah’s robe fell on the ground, Elisha picked it up and walked to the River Jordan. Elisha’s ministry was given an excellent start, with God parting the river for him, assuring Elisha that he was with him just as he had been with Elijah.

The work of Elijah and Elisha

The two prophets were very different. Elijah was the fighter, the preacher, the man who challenged the people. Elisha’s ministry was more pastoral in nature. On one occasion he raised to life a widow’s son, in the village of Shunem, just half a mile from the village of Nain where Jesus would do the same thing. Elisha also fed 4,000 people with a few barley loaves. Elijah’s ministry seems similar to that of John the Baptist and Elisha’s to the ministry of Jesus.

Elijah and Elisha were two of a number of prophets whom God sent to the northern tribes: Jonah was a prophet to Israel before he went to Nineveh, and he appears in the book of Kings. Amos and finally Hosea were also sent. The prophecy of Hosea contains some of the deepest emotion of all the prophets, as he enacts within his own life the heart of love God has for his people.

The amount of space given to Elijah and Elisha in Kings reminds us that God gave the people frequent warnings about what would happen if they did not behave according to his law.

God’s warnings

WORDS

Throughout the spiritual demise of the nation, the priests should have been reminding the people of their responsibilities. But they were too close to the establishment to provide an objective voice, so God sent prophets instead.

There were six prophets sent to the north: Ahijah, Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea. There were also a number who ministered to the south, before and during the exile: Shemaiah, Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel and Ezekiel.

It is important to note that God always gave his people a warning of his punishment if they continued in sin. The whole principle of the Bible is that God judges people for doing what they know is wrong. People who have not heard about Jesus will not be sent to hell because they have not heard about Jesus, but because they have done wrong against their own conscience.

Israel and Judah ignored the messages they received, preferring the false prophets who told them that all was well and gave them false reasons for the disasters that had befallen them. The true prophets were nonetheless prepared to tell the truth and pay the price of ridicule, beatings, punishment and sometimes death.

DEEDS

The warnings God sent were not just verbal, they were also visual. The people should have seen that God’s blessings were being taken away from them. Note how the warnings increased in their severity:

1. They lost territory when Hadad led Edom out of the ‘commonwealth’.
2. They lost independence when the Trans-Jordan tribes came under the control of Syria and one tribe, Naphtali, was lost totally to Assyria.
3. Judah saw the other nine tribes deported to Assyria.
4. Eventually they too faced deportation to Babylon, in three stages.

Apart from the spoken prophetic messages, therefore, there were a number of warning signs from events which were clearly heading for disaster, but the people ignored these too and did not change their ways.

(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)