Session
6: Section 1
In
this section we take a look at our second period of
history following on from where we arrived in session
4 section 2. We went as far as the reign of David. We
start this time with his son, Solomon, and go through
to the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This covers
the period in time from about 1000 B.C. to about 700
B.C.
As
in the last overview section, we will review what happened
to the nation of Israel historically and indicate, at
the same time, the books and passages that are relevant.
The time charts (see links below) show the time period
we will be looking at in this session and in the next
"overview" session.
Click here
for detailed Timelines.
We
are dealing with a period of history with which very
few people are familiar.
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1
Samuel 16 v 1 to 13, 19 v 1 to 24 v 22
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David
was chosen to be King long before King Saul died.
As a result Saul regarded David as a threat and
tried to kill him on more than one occasion. |
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2
Samuel 1 v 1 to 20 v 26
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David
was made King after Saul’s death. David conquered
lands and suffered political intrigues during his
reign. |
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1
Kings 1, and 2 Chronicles 1
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David’s
son Solomon was most noted for his wisdom. When
Solomon began to reign, he made an excellent start:
he “loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his
father David”(1 Kings 3 v 3). |
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1
Kings 3
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God
appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked what Solomon
wanted. Solomon requested wisdom to rule the nation
of Israel. So God gave Solomon the wisdom he asked.
In addition to wisdom, Solomon was granted riches
and glory. Israel was at its height. |
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1
Kings 6, and 2 Chronicles 3 to 5
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Solomon built the Temple. When it was built, God's
glory came to fill the temple. Picture of a reconstruction
of Solomon’s temple.
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Model
from the Maritime Museum,
Haifa, Israel of a merchant ship
from King Solomon’s fleet. |
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1
Kings 4, and 2 Chronicles 1 and 9
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Solomon's
weaknesses.
Solomon was a great king for a period of time, but
all his wealth and importance began to have their
effect. A desire for selfish glory was aroused and
he began to look for other avenues to fulfil these
desires. |
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The
Bible tells us that Solomon gathered together chariots,
horsemen and horses from Egypt. He became like the
kings of the nations about him, trusting in himself. |
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Solomon,
in effect, turned his back on God, the real strength
of Israel. |
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1
Kings 11
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In
addition to this, Solomon failed in another way,
and that was with women. He ended up having over
700 wives and 300 mistresses. |
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The
Scriptures teach that when he was old these women
turned his heart from God and he followed after
other gods - those of his wives. It is interesting
to note that they were from all those nations that
Israel was supposed to have driven out of the land. |
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It
is a tragic story and an important example for us.
Despite his wisdom, he was not strong enough to
resist his selfish nature, and slowly drifted away
until his heart was turned from God and he became
an idol-worshipper. |
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The
son of faithful David, instead of showing wisdom,
stability and leadership, became at length an old
and foolish king. |
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Solomon
himself seemed to confess this in the book of Ecclesiastes,
when he wrote: “Better is a poor and a wise youth
than an old and foolish king who will be admonished
no more” (Ecclesiastes 4 v 13) . |
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As
Solomon ignored God’s principles, the kingdom was
divided, and most of it taken from Solomon’s son
Rehoboam. |
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God
raised up political opponents, one of whom was Jeroboam. |
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1
Kings 12, and 2 Chronicles 10
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Jeroboam
represented the people in a plea to Rehoboam, Solomon’s
son, requesting that the burden of taxation be lessened. |
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Rehoboam
made the grave mistake of increasing the taxation,
ignoring the council of the wiser, old men and accepting,
instead, the advice of his young friends to show
himself tougher than his father. |
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So
Jeroboam led ten tribes in a revolt against Rehoboam,
and the nation divided. |
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The
nation then had two kings; Jeroboam ruled over the
northern section, and Rehoboam ruled over the southern
part. |
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The
map shows the land of Israel in Old Testament times.
Click on it to enlarge it. |
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It
is very important to remember that the northern
ten tribes were known as “Israel” and sometimes
“Ephraim”. The southern two tribes, Judah and
Benjamin, were normally referred to as “Judah”.
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1
Kings 12 v 25 to 33
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Jeroboam’s
problems
Early in Jeroboam’s reign he was faced with a
crisis. Jeroboam wanted to maintain the political
split with the southern kingdom of Judah, but
he thought that the worship of God, centred in
Jerusalem, would provide a unifying influence
which would prove stronger than the political
forces driving them apart. So he decided to set
up a religion of his own in the northern kingdom.
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1
Kings 12 v 28 to 30
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He
denied a fundamental doctrine and made two golden
calves which he placed at Dan and Bethel in the
northern kingdom. He argued that it was too far
for the people to go to Jerusalem to worship there.
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v
31
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He
did not deny the need for a priesthood, but he
changed the qualifications of the priests: instead
of being drawn exclusively from the sons of Aaron,
he made priests of those from other families.
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v
32 to 33
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He
did not deny the need for feasts, but he changed
the days; the feast of tabernacles should commence
on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Jeroboam’s
feast began on the fifteenth day of the eighth
month. His religion was man-centred.
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However,
people cannot worship God in any way they want.
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For
his sins Jeroboam became notorious in Israel.
All of the kings of the northern kingdom who came
after him followed in his ways. In the summary
of the lives of most of the following kings, the
words recur: “He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had
made Israel sin...” So the age of gold and glory
under David and Solomon descended to an age of
division and false religion.
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Jeroboam’s bad influence on the northern kingdom
continued through the reigns of all the kings
of the northern kingdom, to king Hoshea, who was
taken captive to Assyria.
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1
Kings 5 to 2 Kings 17 v 23, and 2 Chronicles 13
to 28
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The
kings of the southern kingdom were not much better,
but the southern kingdom lasted longer. All of
the southern kings were descendants of David.
There were some good kings.
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We will look at the southern kings in Session 8.
The
time chart, in two parts, [click here • (part 1)
and here • (part 2)] shows the kings of Judah and
Israel along with the prophets that were sent by God
to Judah and Israel. You will notice that towards the
end of both the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of
Judah there was an increase in the number of the prophets.
This was because the people were evil and God sent the
prophets to turn the people back to Him. And since this
period of time was a steady decline, God kept sending
prophets, to try to get the people to turn back from
their idolatry and to serve Him; but the decline just
would not stop, until God had no option but to destroy
them.
Examples
of prophets
Prophets
which were sent to the northern kingdom, such as Hosea
and Amos.
Prophets
which were sent to the southern kingdom, such as Micah
and Isaiah.
Prophets
which were sent to other nations, such as Jonah and
Nahum.
There
were prophets who do not have a book of the Bible named
after them, the most famous of which were Elijah and
Elisha.
Overview
of the books of the Bible
As
in assignment 6 at the end of Session 4, Section 2,
read the references we have given in the books of Kings
and make your own summary. You can then add it to your
own summary of the Bible story if you have done assignment
6.
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