Dear listeners, welcome to today's talk – talk six. We shall continue with our coverage of the Old Testament history books from Joshua to 2 Samuel in the previous talk. Now we will complete the category of history going from 1 Kings to Esther. 

The book of 1 Kings begins where 2 Samuel ends with David restored as king over the whole Israel. It also charts the rise and fall of Solomon, David’s son who inherited the throne after David. Solomon marked both the best and the worst of Israel. On the one hand, he raised the kingdom to its peak of political, military, economic and cultural development; his crowning achievement was the completion and dedication of the temple for the worship of God. On the other hand, he allowed idolatry into Jerusalem because of his many foreign wives. And like Saul, he became preoccupied with his own glory and sought to kill the one God appointed to split the kingdom after him for his own sins. After Solomon, the kingdom divided into the northern kingdom, also called Israel or Samaria, and the southern kingdom called Judah. 1 Kings records the reign of the northern kings from Jeroboam the 1st to Ahaziah, and that of the southern kings from Rehobaum to Jehoshaphat.

During this time, God raised Elijah as a mighty prophet for the north to stand against the northern kings who turned away from God instead of obeying Him. 2 Kings begins where 1 Kings ends. It covers the northern kings from a Ahaziah to Hoshea. After which the northern kingdom came to an end through God's judgment, by Assyrian conquest and the people were exiled. While it still stood, Elisha succeeded Elijah as God's prophet to turn them back to God, but they did not listen. Also recorded in 2 Kings were the southern kings from Jehoshaphat to Zedekiah; whom fared slightly better in that there were some Godly kings among them.

While the southern kings were of the divined line the northern kings were not. The southern kingdom later also fell into judgment for idolatry. About a hundred years later, they fell into exile after two Babylonian conquests. So 2 Kings closes with the fall of Jerusalem, the capital city, which also marks the end of the southern kingdom. So after the fall of the southern kingdom, Israel no longer lived in its own land. Nor did it have its own kingdom. Then we come to 1 and 2 Chronicles which cover the same period of history as 1 and 2 Kings.

But the focus of 1 and 2 Chronicles is on the divined line of the southern kingdom. So in other words, 1 and 2 Kings covered both northern and southern kingdoms, but 1 and 2 Chronicles focus only on the southern kingdom, because it is looking at the divined line of kings. And so 1 and 2 Chronicles, because of its focus on the southern kingdom, add more details to each event. Further detail is added to these events that were covered in 1 and 2 Kings with respect to the southern kingdom, and so increase our understanding of God's dealing with His people. In particular, the two books give a full account of how David prepared for the temple to be built and how Solomon completed it.

1 Chronicles gives a genealogy from Adam to Jacob, from Jacob to Saul, and David. And a genealogy of those who return from the Babylonian exile. It then covers the rise and reign of David until his death when Solomon succeeded him. That's 1 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles covers the reign of Solomon until the split into the northern and southern kingdoms. It then focuses only on the southern kings continuing the line of David. It ends with the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon. But the final note in 2 Chronicles is the decree of Cyrus, the first Persian king in the period of the exile. Because under this decree, the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And that's why, these books also contain a the genealogy of those who return after the Babylonian exile. So that's the coverage of 1 and 2 Chronicles.

The final three history books in the Old Testament are sequentially Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. These three books covered the period when Israel was in exile, after the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the southern kingdom. Ezra  follows after 2 Chronicles to mark the return of the Jews, to settle again in Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple permitted by the decree of Cyrus, the first Persian king who defeated Babylon. God used Ezra, who was himself a priest to re-establish the law of Moses for his people. This is among those who returned to rebuild the temple and resettled in Jerusalem and its surroundings. Now Nehemiah follows on the events of Ezra and tracks the return of Nehemiah to Jerusalem to be the governor, during which the the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt against much opposition. But with God’s favour and enabling, Nehemiah himself led in many reforms that upheld God's way over sin.

The final book in Old Testament history is Esther. Esther tracks how the Jews fought in the time of the exile, when they were living away from the promise land.

It records how God saved them from annihilation by the enemy during Persian rule. Esther was queen at that time, and God saved them through her intervention. The celebration of God's salvation, became the festival of Purim. And that festival has then been celebrated by the Jews from that time until today. So Esther gave us the history of this festival. But more importantly, it is a mark that even in the time of exile, God was able to save His people from their enemies. So that closes the category of the Old Testament history books.

In the next talk, talk number seven, we will be turning to the category of the books of wisdom in the Old Testament.

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