1 Kings Devotionals
One for each chapter. Want to test what you read? Take the 1 Kings quizzes.
- 1 Kings 1: The Throne Is God's to Give
First Kings opens with an old king who cannot keep warm and a son who decides to take the throne for himself. Adonijah promotes himself, gathers chariots and runners, and throws a…
- 1 Kings 2: Old Accounts and a Lasting Promise
David's last words to Solomon begin with God's law and God's promise. Walk in the LORD's ways, he says, so that the LORD will keep his word that David's descendants will hold the…
- 1 Kings 3: Wisdom Asked and Given
At Gibeon the LORD appears to Solomon in a dream with an astonishing offer: ask for whatever you want (3:5). Solomon's answer admits what kings rarely admit. He feels like a small…
- 1 Kings 4: A Glimpse of Promised Peace
This chapter of officials and provisions is painting a picture. Under Solomon, the people of Judah and Israel are as numerous as the sand by the sea, and they are eating, drinking…
- 1 Kings 5: Rest That Makes Room to Build
Solomon tells Hiram why the temple can be built now. David had longed to build a house for the LORD's name, but his years were filled with wars on every side (5:3). Now the LORD…
- 1 Kings 6: The Word Amid the Work
Most of this chapter is measurements: cubits of length and height, cedar paneling, olive-wood cherubim, and gold laid over every surface (6:2-35). The stones are finished at the…
- 1 Kings 7: Skill Offered Back to God
Chapter 7 begins with Solomon's own palace, thirteen years in the building, including a hall where he would sit to judge (7:1-7). Then it turns to Huram, a highly skilled bronze…
- 1 Kings 8: Too Great for Any House
The ark is carried into the Most Holy Place, and the cloud fills the house of the LORD so completely that the priests cannot stay to do their work (8:10-11). Solomon blesses the…
- 1 Kings 9: Honest Words After Answered Prayer
The temple and palace are finished, and the LORD appears to Solomon a second time (9:1-2). He begins with good news. He has heard Solomon's prayer, he has set the temple apart by…
- 1 Kings 10: Wisdom Worth the Journey
The queen of Sheba hears of Solomon's fame, tied to the name of the LORD, and comes to test him with hard questions (10:1). When she sees his wisdom, his house and his worship, it…
- 1 Kings 11: A Lamp Left in Jerusalem
This chapter turns on the heart. Solomon loves many foreign women, against God's clear command, and as he grows old they turn his heart after other gods (11:1-4). The king who…
- 1 Kings 12: When Fear Rewrites Worship
The northern tribes come to Rehoboam asking for relief from the heavy labor Solomon had laid on them (12:4). He rejects the elders' advice to serve them, chooses threats instead,…
- 1 Kings 13: A Word Not to Be Revised
A man of God from Judah cries out against Jeroboam's new altar at Bethel. He foretells that Josiah, a king from David's line, will one day burn human bones on it (13:2). The altar…
- 1 Kings 14: No Disguise Before God
Jeroboam's son falls ill, and the king sends his wife in disguise to the prophet Ahijah (14:1-2). The disguise is useless twice over. Ahijah is blind with age, and the LORD has…
- 1 Kings 15: For the Sake of Another
Abijam's verdict is short: he walks in his father's sins, and his heart is not fully devoted to the LORD (15:3). Yet the very next verse says the LORD gives him a lamp in…
- 1 Kings 16: Thrones That Do Not Last
Chapter 16 moves quickly, and nearly all of it is grim. The LORD sends the prophet Jehu to Baasha. God had lifted him from the dust and made him ruler, but he walked in Jeroboam's…
- 1 Kings 17: Provision from Unlikely Hands
Elijah steps into the story announcing a drought in the LORD's name (17:1). Then God hides him. By the brook Cherith, ravens bring him bread and meat morning and evening (17:6).…
- 1 Kings 18: Fire on a Soaked Altar
On Mount Carmel Elijah asks the people how long they will keep going back and forth between the LORD and Baal (18:21). So he proposes a test, two altars and no fire (18:23-24).…
- 1 Kings 19: Bread for a Weary Prophet
Right after the fire on Carmel, one threat from Jezebel sends Elijah running for his life (19:2-3). Under a broom tree he asks God to take his life (19:4). The LORD's answer is…
- 1 Kings 20: Lord of Hills and Valleys
Ben-hadad of Aram surrounds Samaria with thirty-two allied kings and demands everything Ahab has (20:1-6). Ahab is not a faithful king, yet the LORD promises to hand this vast…
- 1 Kings 21: Justice for a Vineyard
Naboth's vineyard is his family's inheritance, and he will not sell it to the king (21:3). Ahab sulks on his bed and refuses to eat (21:4). So Jezebel writes letters in Ahab's…
- 1 Kings 22: One True Voice Among Many
Four hundred prophets tell Ahab exactly what he wants to hear: go up to Ramoth-gilead and win (22:6). Ahab admits there is one more, Micaiah, whom he hates because his messages…