1 Kings begins with David, the man after God's own heart, and ends with Ahab, the worst king ever to rule over Israel. Israel begins as a powerful nation and ends as a divided nation and with many evil kings ruling over both kingdoms - especially over Israel.

The condition of God's people depends greatly on the spirituality or the lack of it in their leaders. Whenever Israel had a godly leader, they moved forward in godly ways. When they had a carnal leader, they moved away from God into carnality.

The great need among God's people has always been for godly leaders. Jesus looked out at the multitudes in His day and saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He told His disciples to pray that God would thrust forth shepherds into the midst of His people(Matt.9:36-38).

When God looks at the churches across the world today, He sees the same need for godly leaders. The challenge that comes to us then is to satisfy the heart of God in our generation by being the type of men and women He is looking for.

In every generation God needs godly leaders. We cannot depend on the wisdom of the leaders of previous generations. David could not rule over Israel forever. He would die, and someone else would have to take over. What would become of Israel depended on the type of person that the next king would be.

God raises up a godly man to start a work in one generation. He becomes old and dies. Will the leaders in the next generation have only the founder's knowledge and his doctrines but not his godliness and his knowledge of God? Then the people will certainly go astray.