his obedience and sufferings (Phil. 2:6-11), and has as its especial object
the upbuilding and the glory of his redeemed Church. It attaches,
moreover, not to his divine nature as such, but to his person as God-man.
Christ’s mediatorial kingdom may be regarded as comprehending, (1) his
kingdom of power, or his providential government of the universe; (2) his
kingdom of grace, which is wholly spiritual in its subjects and
administration; and (3) his kingdom of glory, which is the consummation
of all his providential and gracious administration.
Christ sustained and exercised the function of mediatorial King as well as
of Prophet and Priest, from the time of the fall of man, when he entered on
his mediatorial work; yet it may be said that he was publicly and formally
enthroned when he ascended up on high and sat down at the Father’s right
hand (Psalm 2:6; Jeremiah 23:5; Isaiah 9:6), after his work of humiliation
and suffering on earth was “finished.”
- KING’S DALE mentioned only in Genesis 14:17; 2 Samuel 18:18, the
name given to “the valley of Shaveh,” where the king of Sodom met
Abram. - KINGS, THE BOOKS OF The two books of Kings formed originally
but one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. The present division into two
books was first made by the LXX., which now, with the Vulgate, numbers
them as the third and fourth books of Kings, the two books of Samuel
being the first and second books of Kings.
They contain the annals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession
of Solomon till the subjugation of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar and the
Babylonians (apparently a period of about four hundred and fifty-three
years). The books of Chronicles (q.v.) are more comprehensive in their
contents than those of Kings. The latter synchronize with 1 Chronicles
28-2 Chronicles 36:21. While in the Chronicles greater prominence is given
to the priestly or Levitical office, in the Kings greater prominence is given
to the kingly.
The authorship of these books is uncertain. There are some portions of
them and of Jeremiah that are almost identical, e.g., 2 Kings 24:18-25 and
Jeremiah 52; 39:1-10; 40:7-41:10. There are also many undesigned
coincidences between Jeremiah and Kings (2 Kings 21-23 and Jeremiah
7:15; 15:4; 19:3, etc.), and events recorded in Kings of which Jeremiah had