The Kings of Israel 

    
    
written by David Ettinger. HTML by
      Irving Risch 

    

    
    
 Title: Introduction to the
      Study 

    

    
    
The Kings of Israel Written by David
      Ettinger 

    
    

    
    
W hether an
      emperor, king, or president, the actions and behavior of leaders are
      placed on pedestals, visible for the entire world to see. And all too
      often, the actions of leaders are reflected in the people they lead. This
      is especially true in the Bible. For there is no other volume of work
      where both the strengths and weaknesses, the accomplishments and failures,
      of history'' most famous people are so vividly and poignantly recorded.
      The Bible has withstood all efforts to destroy it and continues to stand
      before us, as a testament to the best and worst man has to offer. 

    
    
The chronicles of the kings of Israel
      are a provocative example of this. Nowhere else in the Bible have
      individuals been given so much opportunity by God to lead His people, to
      shepherd them in a way that would lead them to greater relationship with
      their Creator. More often than not, however, those kings failed miserably
      in their divine assignments. 

    
    
After the nation was divided into two
      parts - North (Samaria) and South (Judah) - following the death of King
      Solomon, the Northern Kingdom was not blessed with a single righteous
      king. Judah, on the other hand, was gifted with several. However, the
      southern kingdom had its share of sinful kings who sought to do the will
      of nonexistent pagan gods rather than of the Most High (Dan. 4:34), who
      brought Israel into existence. 

    
    
It is these southern kingdom monarchs
      following King Solomon on whom we will focus, as their story stand
      recorded before us. As God's universal Church, it is our responsibility to
      learn all we can from the kings of Judah, to emulate their spiritual
      victories and to eschew their moral failures. 

    
    
This is the list of kings: Rehoboam,
      Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah,
      Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Eliakim,
      Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. 

    
    
Click on the
      King(s) in side bar to start the study.