Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to Join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we're taking a look at the book of First Kings as a whole. And if you've been following along in the Join the Journey journals, you know that the keyword for First Kings is division, or some of you may know it as divide. And the

outline for the book goes as follows. In chapters 1 through 11, we see the United Kingdom,

aka the 12 tribes of Israel. And then in chapters 12 through 22, we see the divided kingdom,

Israel in the north and Judah in the south. So really, this is a book,

a book that tracks the progression of Israel's leadership from David to Solomon and into chaos.

But let's get into the specifics. Who wrote First Kings? We don't know. But many scholars believe

it was written by the Prophet Jeremiah between 560 and 540 BC.

And while we're intentionally looking at first kings today, it's important that we note that

these books, first and second kings, were initially written as one complete book. So in a few weeks,

when you see the book overview on Watermark social media, you'll notice that just as we did First and Second Samuel together, First and Second Kings, are put together as well.

And the Got Questions website summarizes First Kings like this. The book of First Kings starts with Solomon and ends with Elijah. The difference between the two gives you an idea as to what lies between.

Solomon was born after a palace scandal between David and Bathsheba.

Like his father, he had a weakness for women that would bring him down.

Solomon did well at first, praying for wisdom and building a temple to God that took seven years to construct. But then he spent

13 years building a palace for himself. His accumulation of many wives led him to worship their idols

and away from God. After Solomon's death, Israel was ruled by a series of kings, most of whom were

evil and idolatrous. The nation fell further away from God, and even the

preaching of Elijah could not bring them back. Among the most evil kings were Ahab and his queen,

Jezebel, who brought the worship of Bail to new heights in Israel. Elijah tried to turn the Israelites

back to the worship of Yahweh, challenging the idolatrous

priest of bail to a showdown with God on Mount Carmel. Of course, God won. This made Queen

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