18" x 24" On Sketch Paper
Book 11 Poster 11
One Nation Becomes Two
The King with a Divided Heart
The Divided Kingdom he Left Behind
There are lots of divisions that I see in this book.
1st Kings begins with the aged David and the attempt of Adonijah to exalt himself to the position of king instead of Solomon. Family divisions and divisions of power. Adonijah's grasp for the throne is thwarted and Solomon is placed as the King by David just prior to David's passing.
In this picture you see Solomon seated on the throne wearing both blue and red. You see in the top left corner David's funeral bier. In the top right corner you see Adonijah executed by Solomon's henchman Benaiah. He later also struck down Joab for earlier deaths he caused during David's reign and also Shimei for disobeying an order to save his life by not leaving his house.
After Solomon's Rule is firmly established he marries a daughter of the Pharaoh. Ah divisions. The Pharaoh and daughter are depicted standing at the center left. She is bowing her head.
Solomon prayed that he would have wisdom from God and God granted not only wisdom but riches and honor as well. He made many wise judgments from his throne. One of which was the two women fighting over who's child lived and who's child died and to which mother the living child belonged. The two women and the child in a bassinet are seated on the steps below Solomon. The servant below them is bringing the sword to "divide" the child with, but the one stops it by saying give the child to the other women. Solomon then knows which mother the child belongs to and everyone that hears knows that Solomon has the wisdom of God and the ability to discern or divide between right and wrong being administered through him.
Solomon's wealth, wisdom and power increase and he makes an agreement with King Hiram for timber like none other to build the house for God that his father David wanted to build. To the sides in this picture you can see the gold covered walls, the winding stairs to the middle story, the inner holy place with the cherubs over the ark where it was placed when the construction was finished, and carvings and palm trees engraved, and all the glory of the house of the Lord. You can see the pillars and the great bath, the candle sticks, the gifts of apes and peacocks, the untold riches that his father collected were lavished into the temple. Solomon also built a palace for the Pharaoh's daughter that he married using the same workmanship and costly materials.
The house of the Lord was dedicated with a huge sacrifice and seven days of celebration and God told him as long as he walked according to God's word everything would be great and God would abide with the people in the house that Solomon built with all the things he and David had acquired. Even Queen of Sheba came to see the greatness of Solomon's wisdom and prosperity and the splendor of the house of God.
However, Solomon loved too many women and those women worshiped other gods. If you look at the women milling around in the picture you will see many are carrying idols. God is upset and brings war against Solomon and tears the kingdom apart. When Solomon died he was looking at a divided kingdom shown by the blue kings on one side and red kings on the other towards the bottom of the picture. I also used them to show the many changes of succeeding kings.
Then along comes Elijah the prophet, he says there will be no rain until he says so and God tells him to hide. He is fed by ravens and gets water from a stream (provisions from God) until that dries up and then he lives with a widow woman and her son in a foreign city. The son becomes ill to the point of death and Elijah brings him back through prayer and laying himself on the boy. This foreign woman believes Elijah is a man of God.
Elijah also proves to the people God is the Lord and not Baal by a test of fire at an offering so he showed God to the Israelites and to the outsider or foreign woman. After God took up the offering in fire Elijah prayed seven times and the rains came. You can see the big drops of rain with one falling into one of his hands. I have decided to show Elijah with his hand on the child seen at the bottom of picture. Somehow that event seemed more important to me than the rain or the fire. Possibly because it was set apart and I didn't fully understand it. Why was the prophet to save one foreign child while Israel suffered drought and starvation. What did it have to do with all the upheavals and divisions of lands, and Gods, and idols, and all the different kings and wars that followed even after the fire consumed the offering and the rain returned.
2 comments:
These are wonderful. You have put so much into each painting to tell the story ... its amazing. Great job.
It has been fun for me to see them hung at our church one at a time as pastor does a book of the Bible review each week. I haven't seen them up before.
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