Kings

The first and second parts of the books of Kings describe a very long series of events in which the kingdom of Israel loses its faith to God and falls apart. It begins with David passes on his kingship to his son Solomon who begins ruling with an impressive loyalty to God. Soon however he is convinced by his many foreign wives to start worshiping other gods and this is where the trouble begins. His sons also worship other idols and eventually the kingdom of Israel splits into Northern and Southern Israelite kingdoms. Both kingdoms however disobey God and worship other deities, and eventually the Assyrians conquer the north and the Babylonians conquer the south. After centuries of this disloyalty to God, the kingdom of Israel falls.

These two books highlight the people's decisions and their consequences. The unfaithful behavior of the kings starts with the end of Solomon's rein and continues on for many generations. Avery small minority of these kings try to restore faith in God but are unsuccessful. The main difference between this story, as compared to the other books in the bible, is that God does not take such an active role in disciplining his people. When they break the ten commandments by worshiping other gods, bad things happen to them indeed. These punishments are however, not direct acts of God such as the flood or the ten plagues in Eqypt. God consults the people through weak prophets such as Elijah who is wise, but unable to sway the people to change. It seems as though God does not have the power to change the "wickedness" of the people in these books, and only after centuries their kingdom falls apart.