If you needed reminding, I was inspired by a young person at our church to read the Bible in order. So here we are at book number 11, the first book of Kings.

We start off with David as a very old man, firstly needing to be warmed in bed by a young woman (we aren’t told what she makes of this arrangement). David then announced that he wanted Solomon to be King after him and he gave Solomon some advice which sounds a bit like this (Poppy  paraphrase): ‘keep close God, pray and follow in his ways, and don’t forget to cause that fella Joab no end of trouble because he was such a swine to me!’

The narrative then follows the story of wise King Solomon and then lots of other kings, most of whom fail big time, but there are a few good eggs in there as well. Along the way, we meet prophet Elijah, who had a tough time of it, but with encouragement from God, managed to speak truth to power his whole life. The book ends with the death of sulky and spoilt King Ahab, the very worst of all the kings discussed so far.

Further into the book, I found another voiceless and nameless woman. Again, I found myself asking some questions. In chapter 14, we come across the very sad story of Jeroboam’s wife. Her son was poorly, so she went to ask a prophet what would happen to him. The prophet said that because her husband the King was a bad king, her son would die. As soon as she, the mother, set foot in her city, her child would die. How did she feel? Why did she go back if she knew he would die? She seems like such a pawn in this, yet she must have been heartbroken. It seems harsh to me, especially on this woman, who is, as we have seen before, nameless and voiceless.

One woman who is not nameless or voiceless, however, is Jezabel. She was married to Ahab, the worst king. Even today, her name is well known, and not for good! Jezabel was ruthless, manipulative, and bloodthirsty, calling on prophets to be slaughtered and making sure that another innocent man was stoned to death. It’s gorey, some of this Old Testament stuff, not to mention weird, with a lion and a donkey keeping guard over a dead body in chapter 13!

But it’s not all bad. Prophet Elijah had an encounter with a widow and her son. She was good enough to share her little food with a hungry Elijah, and then, miraculously, her oil snd flour supplies didn’t run dry for days, which reminded me of all the left over food after the feeding of the five thousand. Similarly, later on, the widow’s son was so sick that he nearly died. After laying on hands and praying, the boy was well again. It reminded me of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.

My favourite verses were: 1 Kings 19.11-12: “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

Sophia fell asleep listening to me read this twice.

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