Adventist Adventurer Awards and Answers/Bible Royalty

Name 5 Bible kings. Which kings were the best rulers and why?

 * 1) First king – Saul  The account of Saul’s life comes from the Old Testament book of I Samuel. The son of Kish, a well-to-do member of the tribe of Benjamin, he was made king by the league of 12 Israelite tribes in a desperate effort to strengthen Hebrew resistance to the growing Philistine threat. For roughly two centuries, Israel had existed as a loose confederation of tribes, dependent for their unity upon bonds of religious faith and covenant that were renewed periodically in cultic ceremonies at the central shrine at Shiloh. By Saul’s day, however, the tribal rallies were no match for the superior iron weapons and chariots of the Philistines, who were pressing ever deeper into the central highland  Saul’s reign: In many respects, Saul’s reign bears a closer resemblance to the judges who preceded him than to the succession of kings who followed. His chief service to Israel, like that of the judges, lay in the sphere of military defense. Together with his stalwart son Jonathan and an army composed largely of volunteers, he won significant victories over the Philistines and succeeded in driving them out of the central hills. A successful campaign against the Amalekites in the south is also recorded (I Samuel 15). There is no evidence, however, that Saul made any appreciable changes in the nation’s internal structures. The only royal official named in the accounts is the military commander Abner, Saul’s cousin. In effect, Saul’s reign was marked by few of the trappings of the typical Eastern monarchies, with no court bureaucracy, splendid palace, or harem. His capital at Gibeah is revealed by archaeology as a simple, rustic fortress
 * 2) Second king – David The youngest son of Jesse, David began his career as an aide at the court of Saul, Israel’s first king. He so distinguished himself as a warrior against the Philistines that his resultant popularity aroused Saul’s jealousy, and a plot was made to kill him. He fled into southern Judah and Philistia, on the coastal plain of Palestine, where, with great sagacity and foresight, he began to lay the foundations of his career.  As an outlaw with a price on his head, David led the life of a Robin Hood on the desert frontier of his tribal domain in Judah (in the south of the Levant). He became the leader and organizer of a group of other outlaws and refugees, who progressively ingratiated themselves with the local population by protecting them from other bandits or, in case they had been raided, by pursuing the raiders and restoring the possessions that had been taken. Those actions eventually ensured that he would be “invited” to become king as the true successor of Saul after the latter was slain in battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa.  Kingship: According to the biblical account, David was proclaimed king in Hebron. He struggled for a few years against the contending claim and forces of Ishbaal, Saul’s surviving son, who had also been crowned king, but the civil war ended with the murder of Ishbaal by his own courtiers and the anointing of David as king over all of Israel. He conquered the Jebusite-held town of Jerusalem, which he made the capital of the new united kingdom and to which he moved the sacred Ark of the Covenant, the supreme symbol of Israelite religion. He defeated the Philistines so thoroughly that they were never again a serious threat to the Israelites’ security, and he annexed the coastal region. He went on to establish an empire by becoming the overlord of many small kingdoms bordering on Israel, including Edom, Moab, and Ammon.  David’s great success as a warrior and empire builder was marred by interconnected family dissensions and political revolts. To tie together the various groups that constituted his kingdom, David took wives from them and created a harem. The resultant family was an extreme departure from the family in the consanguineal context, the traditional clan structure. David’s wives were mostly completely alien to one another, and his children were without the directing support of established social patterns that provided precedents for the resolution of conflict or for establishing the rights of succession.
 * 3) Third king – Solomon. Nearly all evidence for Solomon’s life and reign comes from the Bible (especially the first 11 chapters of the First Book of Kings and the first nine chapters of the Second Book of Chronicles). According to those sources, his father was David (flourished c. 1000 BCE), the poet and king who, against great odds, founded the Judaean dynasty and united all the tribes of Israel under one monarch. Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba, formerly the wife of David’s Hittite general, Uriah. She proved to be adept at court intrigue, and through her efforts, in concert with the prophet Nathan, Solomon was anointed king while David was still alive, despite the fact that he was younger than his brothers.  Reign: The Bible says that Solomon consolidated his position by liquidating his opponents ruthlessly as soon as he acceded to the throne. Once rid of his foes, he established his friends in the key posts of the military, governmental, and religious institutions. Solomon also reinforced his position through military strength. In addition to infantry, he had at his disposal impressive chariotry and cavalry. The eighth chapter of 2 Chronicles recounts Solomon’s successful military operations in Syria. His aim was the control of a great overland trading route. To consolidate his interests in the province, he planted Israelite colonies to look after military, administrative, and commercial matters. Such colonies, often including cities in which chariots and provisions were kept, were in the long tradition of combining mercantile and military personnel to take care of their sovereign’s trading interests far from home. Megiddo, a town located at the pass through the Carmel range connecting the coastal plain with the Plain of Esdraelon, is the best-preserved example of one of the cities that Solomon is said to have established  Legendary wisdom of Solomon: Solomon was renowned as a sage. When two women each claimed to be the mother of the same baby, he determined the real mother by observing each woman’s reaction to the prospect of dividing the child into two halves; he acknowledged the woman who protested as the mother. Solomon was deemed wiser than all the sages of Egypt and the Middle East—even wiser than some ancient paragons of wisdom. The biblical Book of Proverbs contains collections of aphorisms and other wise teachings attributed to him. Like his father, Solomon was also revered as a poet. The biblical Song of Solomon is attributed to him—albeit spuriously and likely because of his posthumous fame—in the opening verse. His reputation as a great lover, reflected in the size of his harem, is appropriately a major theme in the Song of Solomon. Postbiblical tradition attributed later works to him: the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, on the one hand, and the Odes of Solomon and Psalms of Solomon, on the other, are tributes to him as sage and poet.
 * 4) Joash was seven years old when he started his reign Joash was 7 years old when his reign began, and he reigned for 40 years. (2 Kings 12:1,2 Chronicles 24:1) He was succeeded by his son, Amaziah of Judah. He is said to have been righteous "all the days of Jehoiada the priest" (2 Chronicles 24:2) but to have deviated from fidelity to Yahweh after Jehoiada's death (2 Chronicles 24:17–19).  According to the Hebrew Bible, following the death of his father, Ahaziah, Jehoash was spared from the rampages of Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, by Joash's paternal aunt, Jehosheba, who was married to the high priest, Jehoiada. After hiding him in the Temple for seven years, Jehoiada had Joash crowned and anointed king in a coup d'état against Athaliah, who had usurped the Throne of David. Athaliah was killed during the coup.  After Joash was crowned, the covenant was renewed between God, the king, and the nation. The Tyrian cult of Baal, which was introduced under Jehoram and strengthened under Athaliah, was suppressed. Mattan, the priest of Baal, was killed as altars to Baal were destroyed. For the first time in Judah's history, the Temple in Jerusalem and its priesthood achieved national importance.
 * 5) Josiah was eight when he became king,  Josiah was the grandson of Manasseh, king of Judah, and ascended the throne at age eight after the assassination of his father, Amon, in 641. For a century, ever since Ahaz, Judah had been a vassal of the Assyrian empire. Imperial policy imposed alien cults on Judah that suppressed or obscured the Israelite religious identity. After the death of King Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire fell into chaos; it could no longer assert its authority in Jerusalem. Egypt also was weak, and Judah thus obtained an unusual degree of independence from foreign powers. About 621 Josiah launched a program of national renewal, centred on the Temple in Jerusalem. A book believed to have contained provisions relating to covenantal traditions of premonarchic times deeply impressed him and gave a decisive turn to his reforms. The Temple was purged of all foreign cults and dedicated wholly to the worship of Yahweh, and all local sanctuaries were abolished, sacrifice being concentrated at Jerusalem.  In Assyria, Babylonia, which had long been a restive province, led a coalition that sacked Nineveh. The empire was in desperate straits; the Babylonians seemed about to displace it. Hoping to keep Mesopotamia divided, Necho II, the Egyptian pharaoh, set out to aid the hard-pressed Assyrians. He landed a force on the territory of the northern kingdom of Israel. King Josiah had hopes of a reunification of Judah and Israel, making the latter territory part of his own realm under the aegis of Babylonia. Consequently he challenged the pharaoh to battle; but it is reported that “Necho slew him at Megiddo, when he saw him” (2 Kings 23:29). Soon thereafter Assyria was completely eliminated, the Egyptians retreated, and Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, whom Necho had placed on the throne of Judah as a vassal, had to submit to Babylonia, the new Mesopotamian empire.  6. King Jesus  These are just a few examples, list more if possible. (a). Use costumes, crowns, throne chair, etc. if possible.

Tell the stories about 2 of the kings as the children act out the stories.
Use costumes,crowns,throne chairs etc if possible
 * 1) David with goliath
 * 2) Solomon his first judgement

Name at least 4 queens in the Bible. Why are these queens important.

 * 1) Vashti: She was banished for her refusal to appear at the king's banquet to show her beauty as the king wished. In the Book of Esther, Vashti is the first wife of King Ahasuerus. While the king holds a magnificent banquet for his princes, nobles and servants, she holds a separate banquet for the women. On the seventh day of the banquet, when the king's heart was "merry with wine", the king orders his seven chamberlains to summon Vashti to come before him and his guests wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty. Vashti refuses to come, and the king becomes angry. He asks his advisers how Vashti should be punished for her disobedience. His adviser Memucan tells him that Vashti has wronged not only the king, but also all of the husbands of Persia, whose wives may be encouraged by Vashti's actions to disobey. Memucan encourages Ahasuerus to dismiss Vashti and find another queen. Ahasuerus takes Memucan's advice, and sends letters to all of the provinces that men should dominate in their households. Ahasuerus subsequently chooses Esther as his queen to replace Vashti.
 * 2) Esther: In the biblical book named after her, Esther is a young Jewish woman living in the Persian diaspora who finds favor with the king, becomes queen, and risks her life to save the Jewish people from destruction when the court official Haman persuades the king to authorize a pogrom against all the Jews of the empire. Esther first appears in the story as one of the young virgins collected into the king’s harem as possible replacements for Vashti, the banished wife of King Ahasuerus .  She is identified as the daughter of Avihail (Esth 2:15) and the cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin (Esth 2:5–7). Not much is revealed about her character, but she is described as beautiful (2:7) and obedient (2:10), and she appears to be pliant and cooperative. She quickly wins the favor of the chief eunuch, Hegai, and, when her turn comes to spend the night with the king, Ahasuerus falls in love with her and makes her his queen. All this takes place while Esther keeps her Jewish identity secret (Esth 2:10, 20).  After Esther becomes queen, her cousin Mordecai becomes involved in a power struggle with the grand vizier Haman the Agagite, a descendant of an Amalekite king who was an enemy of Israel during the time of King Saul (1 Sam 15:32). Mordecai refuses to bow before Haman, and this so infuriates Haman that he resolves not only to put Mordecai to death, but also to slaughter his entire people. He secures the king’s permission to do this, and a date is set, Adar 13 (this episode determines the date of the festival of Purim, a popular Jewish festival). When Mordecai learns of Haman’s plot, he rushes to the palace to inform Esther, weeping and clothed in sackcloth (Esth 4:1–3).  At this point in the story, Esther’s character comes to the fore. When she first learns of Haman’s plot and the threat to the Jews, her reaction is one of helplessness. On pain of death she cannot approach the king without being summoned, and the king has not summoned her in thirty days, implying that she has fallen out of favor (Esth 4:11). However, following Mordecai’s insistent prodding, she resolves to do what she can to save her people, ending with the ringing declaration “After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esth 4:16). The pliant and obedient Esther has become a woman of action.  Esther appears unsummoned before King Ahasuerus, who not only does not kill her but promises to grant her as-yet unarticulated request. In a superb moment of understatement, Esther asks the king to a dinner party (Esth 5:4). The king, accompanied by Haman, attends Esther’s banquet and again seeks to discover her request, which she once more deflects with an invitation to another dinner party. Only at the second dinner party, when the king is sufficiently beguiled by her charms, does she reveal her true purpose: the unmasking of Haman and his plot. She reveals, for the first time, her identity as a Jew and accuses Haman of the plot to destroy her and her people. The volatile king springs to the defense of the woman to whom he was indifferent three days earlier, Haman is executed, and the Jews receive permission to defend themselves from their enemies, which they do with great success (Esther 7–9). The book ends with Mordecai elevated to the office of grand vizier and power now concentrated in the hands of Esther.
 * 3) Bathsheba: in the Hebrew Bible (2 Samuel 11, 12; 1 Kings 1, 2), wife of Uriah the Hittite; she later became one of the wives of King David and the mother of King Solomon. Bathsheba was a daughter of Eliam and was probably of noble birth. A beautiful woman, she became pregnant after David saw her bathing on a rooftop and had her brought to him. David then ordered that Uriah be moved to the front-line of a battle, where he was killed. David married the widowed Bathsheba, but their first child died as punishment from God Queen of Sheba
 * 4) Jezebel: At the beginning of the 9th century, a Phoenician princess named Jezebel was born, the daughter of King Ethball. The Bible does not describe her childhood, but from deductive reasoning, it is assumed that she lived in a fine home and was educated by the best tutors. Her family worshipped many gods, the most important being Baal, a nature god. While Jezebel was growing into a woman, Israel crowned a new king. To create an alliance with Israel, the king arranged for his son Ahab to wed Jezebel. Their marriage cemented a political alliance, but it was a dramatic event for the young woman. After enjoying a life of luxury, she was suddenly taken into a conservative society and made to oversee it. Jezebel eventually became Israel's Queen. She continued to worship the god Baal, and in doing so, earned many enemies. Her citizens'     displeasure came to a critical point when, at their expense, she brought 800 Baal prophets to Israel and ordered the murder of several Yahweh prophets. At this major moment, Elijah, a Jewish prophet, appeared. According to the biblical book of Kings, Elijah gave a prophecy: That terrible drought would come upon Israel. Amazingly, famine and drought spread across Jezebel's land, according to the story. Final Years: The story of Naboth is perhaps the best-known story of Jezebel's life. Naboth, a common landowner who lived close to the King's residence, was asked to give his land to King Ahab in exchange for some compensation. Because of Jewish law, Naboth refused to give up his family's ancestral land. Incited by Naboth's refusal to King Ahab, Jezebel falsely charged him with treason and blaspheming "God and the king," and had him condemned to death by stoning. She then took his plot of land for the king. At this point, Elijah arrived and confronted King Ahab about this brutal transgression, and then predicted that Ahab and all of his heirs would be killed and that dogs will eat Jezebel, according to the famous story. Several years later, Ahab died in a battle against the Syrians, and a man named Jehu was promised the crown if he killed Jezebel's son, thus taking Jezebel's power. As the story goes, Jehu made his way Jezebel's palace to murder her, and she, expecting him, applied make-up and dressed herself in finery. Her actions have been interpreted in a variety of ways—some people believe she was simply dressing for a dignified death. Others believe she was "painting" herself in hopes of seducing Jehu and becoming his mistress. In the end, she was thrown out of her bedroom window, trampled by horses and eaten by dogs. Jezebel's name has been used for thousands of years to describe cunning, ruthless and reprehensible women. Some believe she typifies evil and her name has also become synonymous with idolaters, prostitutes and sorcerers. In the centuries since Jezebel’s death, she’s become legendary. There are numerous references to her in popular culture, none of them flattering, while there are others who believe that Jezebel was one of the first suffragists and that it’s time to change that definition to “a strong, courageous, loyal woman who stands up for what she believes in… no matter what the cost.”



Dress-up is possible, even on a campout. Tent flies, table clothes, newspapers, and more create great capes or other accessories. Shiny stones, short branches and more make the palace memorable!

Make two of the following

 * A throne room using a shoe box - cardboard-tube-castle
 * Make crowns and explain what decorations mean to the king - Metallic crown
 * Decorate a chair for a king
 * Make a mural of a throne room
 * Other

Games
1-2-3-Queen (Red Light / Green Light)

One is chosen as the Queen/King/ This child stands with his back against the wall/end of camp. The other children are lined up against the opposite wall/side of camp. The king/queen turns to face the wall and shouts "David." The other players move quickly towards the King/Queen but beware, as soon as the he/she turns around and shouts "Saul", they must stop and remain still. If they are not completely still, the queen/king sends them back to the starting point. The first child to reach the queen/king becomes the next royalty.

Statue

Designate one child to be "it" and have him try to "tag" the others. When he does, children become statues. Other players may rescue the players standing as statues by passing under their arms.

External Resources
Child of the King Crafts Pinterest