FROM GLORY TO RUIN
1 Kings Simply Explained
By Roger Ellsworth . Evangelical Press. 256 pages. £6.95
ISBN 0 85234 451 1
1 Kings traces the history of Old Testament Israel from the godly prosperity at the beginning of Solomon's reign, through the division of the kingdom, onto the depths of idolatry against which the prophet Elijah fought so bravely.
The author of this Welwyn Commentary takes the line that 1 Kings was written (or at least edited) for the Jews in exile in Babylon a few hundred years after the events it records. With this in view, both the ruin brought by idolatry and the certainty of the fulfilment of God's word are dominant themes, and this book loses no time in perceptively and forcefully pointing out the practical applications of these lessons for the church in our own day.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …