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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.”
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
personal knowledge. These facts countenance in some degree the tradition that Jeremiah was the author of the books of Kings. But the more probable supposition is that Ezra, after the Captivity, compiled them from documents written perhaps by David, Solomon, Nathan, Gad, and Iddo, and that he arranged them in the order in which they now exist.
In the threefold division of the Scriptures by the Jews, these books are ranked among the “Prophets.” They are frequently quoted or alluded to by our Lord and his apostles (Matthew 6:29; 12:42; Luke 4:25, 26; 10:4;
comp. 2 Kings 4:29; Mark 1:6; comp. 2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4, etc.).