The past few weeks, I have been taking an Old Testament class. When my advisor set up my schedule, I was pretty stoked. I hoped I would finally get a better grasp on what each prophet was prophesying, where they fit in Israel’s history, and how it all connected to the larger story of redemption as Israel waited for the coming King who would bring salvation and restoration.
To my surprise, however, I found myself pausing over a table of all the kings.
Luke and I follow a plan for reading the Bible in a year, and this year I kept catching myself trying to remember who was who. Was this a good king or a bad king? Was he ruling Israel or Judah? Where did he fall in the timeline? And what exactly was happening around him?
Our class textbook included a table showing the kings of Israel and Judah and the dates of their reigns. To my surprise, I actually remembered quite a few of the names—but it got me wondering…
Do you ever feel overwhelmed trying to understand this part of the Old Testament?
Maybe as you read through king after king, it feels more like trudging through the text just to get to the next part of Scripture. Maybe you get that slight feeling of dread when you see another name you have no idea how to pronounce. Or maybe you hit play on the audio Bible and let someone else tackle the names while you catch up on laundry because, honestly, this part can feel like one really long list that you know you’re supposed to read.
But 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles are so much more than a list of kings and what they did during their reigns.
They give us an important piece of Israel’s history—a framework where so much of the wisdom and prophetic literature begins to fall into place. They help us see what was happening in Israel and Judah as God’s people waited for the promised King who would bring salvation and redemption.
And when we slow down enough to see the bigger picture, a pattern begins to emerge.
King after king. Sin. Rebellion. Covenant failure. Judgment. Restoration.
Human kings repeatedly fail. God does not.
Through it all, God continues to remain faithful to His promises and move His redemptive story forward. The failures of Israel’s kings do not stop the promise God began all the way back in Genesis. Instead, they make something increasingly clear:
God’s people needed a better King.
And that King would be Jesus.
If you’re like me, sometimes a visual helps everything finally click. As I looked at the table in my textbook, I wanted something more complete—something that would help me see Israel and Judah side by side, understand where the kings fit, and grasp this span of more than four hundred years of biblical history.
So, with the help of chat, we made one.
You can download the free PDF below and study this part of Israel’s history along with me. My hope is that the next time you reach Kings or Chronicles—or encounter one of the prophets—you won’t simply see a list of unfamiliar names. You’ll begin to see where they fit in the much bigger story God was telling.
The King was coming.
And He still is King.
Have the best week!
Blessings,
Stacy Ferguson
Warrior 1 Nine Discipleship
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