Just as God made a covenant with Abraham, and then with the whole nation of Israel, now the focus of God’s redemptive plan is on the house of David. Israel have ceased to be wanderers in tents, and are now a nation with land and cities.

The writer of 1 Kings describes God’s blessing of Solomon using language drawn from the covenant with Abraham. Judah and Israel are like sand by the sea. They are blessed, and the nations of the world are blessed through them.

The dedication of the Temple is the climax of the entire story of Israel. It is a coming home, and an apparent fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. Even more, God now has a permanent home among his people in the city of Jerusalem.

Israel’s request for a King is treated by the authors of Scripture as deeply suspect. They were called to be a nation of kings and priests, but have placed their hope on a single ruler. Saul is initially very impressive and defeats the enemies of the Israelites. However, his heart does not reflect God’s, and so his house is rejected as the ongoing dynasty of Israel.

David on the other hand is the opposite of Saul. He is young, unimpressive, and apparently disregarded even by his own family. Yet, God looks favourably on his heart, God’s Spirit comes upon him, and, paradoxically, he is sent to serve Saul.

Saul’s jealousy of David festers and eventually erupts into murderous rage, and David is forced to flee to the desert, where he spends years avoiding Saul’s armies. The links back to Israel’s time in the desert is clear, and this is also a time of great questioning, during which David writes many of his great searching Psalms. Ultimately, David proves faithful to God’s promise, but not seeking to bring it about prematurely.

Finally, Saul and his son Jonathan, David’s best friend, die, and David mourns for the King.

Finally, years after he was anointed King, David secures his kingdom by taking Jerusalem as his capital, and bringing the Ark of the Covenant (the presence of God) into the city.

Just as God made a covenant with Abraham, and then with the whole nation of Israel, now the focus of God’s redemptive plan is on the house of David. Israel have ceased to be wanderers in tents, and are now a nation with land and cities.

Yet, something is rotten even in the life of the King. In a hideous echo of Adam and Cain, David takes something he must not have, and kills his brother. It is a betrayal on multiple levels: of his kingly duty to model the redeemed life to his people, of life, of marriage, and also because Uriah is a Hittite, of Israel’s calling to bless the other nations by living well.

The betrayal ripples out into David’s family. We are told that the first son born to David and Bathsheba dies, and Solomon, the second, lives (this is a curiously recurring image throughout the Bible). Then, one of David’s sons rapes his sister, and triggers a civil war between David and his son Absalom. Not unlike the family feuds of Abraham’s family, but extrapolated out to a war within Israel, we are meant to see that even within David’s house, sin and death are still the core problem.

The writer of 1 Kings describes God’s blessing of Solomon using language drawn from the covenant with Abraham. Judah and Israel are like sand by the sea. They are blessed, and the nations of the world are blessed through them.

The dedication of the Temple is the climax of the entire story of Israel. It is a coming home, and an apparent fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. Even more, God now has a permanent home among his people in the city of Jerusalem.

In the stories of the nations surrounding Israel, the gods built temples, and placed in them images (idols) to represent each god. In Genesis, God creates the world, and places human beings, made in his image. Re-read the first part of Genesis as God’s creation of the world as his Temple.

Israel’s calling at Sinai was to be an entire nation of Kings and Priests, with everyone ruling and worshipping as God had intended. This is partly why their demand for a King to rule over them was so offensive – it was a rejection of their high calling.

Throughout their wandering the desert, God lived among Israel in a tent (called the tabernacle), with the Ark of the Covenant at its heart. The tabernacle was a temporary house, and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem symbolized that God now dwelt permanently with his people on Earth.

Israel longed for the coming of the Lord’s anointed one, the true King who would rule them with righteousness.

The Psalms are full of praises intended to be sung as part of worship in the Temple.

As the Kingdoms of the people of God spiraled further into sin, the various Kings were judged by whether they encouraged the people to live according to the Law, and worship God in the Temple, or whether they encouraged idolatry. Manasseh and Josiah are two examples of very different Kings.

God continued to send prophets to the Kings and the people, to call them back to faithfulness, although they did not listen.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem mirrored David’s entry. He cursed the fig tree, a symbol of Israel, then cleansed the Temple, and afterwards, the fig tree had withered. The long-awaited anointed King of Israel had come, but no-one recognized him.