I & II Kings were originally one book in the original Hebrew Scriptures beginning with the death of the Great King David
and ending with the children of Yisrael being taken into captivity somm 400 years later. David was a visionary who had seen a grand design for the building of a Temple for YHWH, but because he had the blood of Uriyahu the soldier on his hands, he was not allowed to build it. So he laid out the architecture for it, and commissioned his son Sholmo (Solomon) to build it after becoming King. Thus, the high point of the Old Testament is contained in I Kings 8 where the Ark of the Covenant is brought to the Temple in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).
Power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately. This maxim is certainly true of Shlomo. A king of Yisrael had three laws to abide by: (1) not to have many wives; (2) not to have much gold; and (3) not to have many horses. Shlomo broke all three laws. He married many women for political and trade reasons. Those women led him to worship their gods, and Shlomo led the nation of Yisrael into a downward spiral that ended in the captivity of the Hebrews that made up the Nation of Yisrael. (The Northern Kingdom to Assyria first, and finally the Southern Kingdom to Babylon at the end of II Kings) The Northern Kingdom had been formed by
Jeroboam as a result of a rebellion against Shlomo’s high taxes. The Southern Kingdom, made up of Shlomo’s own tribe Judah (Heb., Yehuda), remained loyal to Shlomo. The two factions warred with violence and reprisals until history took its course. Jeroboam had his own form of idolatry bringing about the ultimate demise of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C. when the Assyrians took the people to sell throught Europe and Africa as slaves.
The sad lesson of I & II Kings is that we are all ultimately ruled by either our Creator or by man. However, it is not the rule of man, but only the rule of man’s Creator that can bring true peace.