This week we begin reading the history of the divided kingdom of Judah (South) and Israel (North). This is the part that I could never keep straight in college. Hopefully reading this in chronological order, along with reading the prophets who were speaking at the appropriate times, will help make the story more clear to us.
Question before we begin: Do you remember the most important commandment? The one God repeats over and over and OVER again throughout all the history of Israel? “Love the Lord your God, worship Him only, and keep His commands.” Remember all those promises about keeping the kingdom and losing it to invaders? Well, now we begin to see the fulfillment of both sides of that promise.
We begin with Solomon, the last king of the United Kingdom of Israel. He has 700 wives and 300 concubines, which is a really bad idea in the first place, but these women all worship foreign gods and turn Solomon’s heart away from the Lord. God tells him: “Your son will lose almost the whole kingdom.”
The prophet Ahijah promises 10 tribes to Jeroboam, 1 tribe to Solomon. The math gets confusing for a little bit here while the tribes get settled. The biblical reading also gets confusing. Not only are we bouncing between the books of Kings and Chronicles, we are bouncing between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. It will be okay--we will get through it.
Solomon’s son Rehoboam becomes king. He is foolish and does not listen to his elders, but listens to his friends who say he needs to be strict and harsh with the people. However, these measures only lead to rebellion. Eventually, only the tribe of Judah follows him.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, king Jeroboam makes 2 golden calves. (Seriously? He missed how badly this turned out the first time?) He then has false priests offer false incense to a false god in the city of Bethel. The One True God will never bless the kingdom of Israel as long as they continue to follow these false gods--I’ve been reading ahead and so far they aren’t doing too well.
The three tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and the Levites (who really didn’t count as a tribe because they didn’t have land, remember?) form the Southern kingdom of Judah. Rehoboam follows the Lord and has proper sacrifices made by Levites to the one true God.
Not long after the two kingdoms are formed, there is the incident of the good priest, the bad priest, and the lion, an odd story about a priest who does what God tells him not to do (on accident, but still...) and he is killed by a lion. What is the point? The priest’s death is a sign that the punishment God has ordained for the Northern Kingdom is coming. Yet Jeroboam does not repent--no surprise there--so his house and his line will be destroyed. Idolatry will lead to the downfall of what could have been a great nation.
Rehoboam isn’t much better. He also makes Asherah poles and altars to false gods. So there is an invasion, as is the pattern when God’s chosen people won’t listen, then repentance, and then forgiveness. Rehoboam’s son Abijah/Abijam becomes king in his place (different spellings in Kings and Chronicles). There is war between Abijam and Jeroboam. Then Abijam’s son Asa became king. God remembers the covenant he had made many years before, that a son of David would be on the throne forever. Asa cuts down the Asherah poles, removs pagan idols, and builds new cities. Now Judah is back on the right track, and will stay that way--at least through most of next week’s reading.
Nadab son of Jeroboam becomes king of Israel. Then Baasha takes over. More sin and following idols and building Asherah poles and high places. Sheesh.
Judah’s king Asa conquers and capturs the tribe of Ephraim. Now we see the 2 1/2 tribes that make up the nation of Judah. Asa makes a covenant to seek God and the Lord gives them rest. Good king Asa! Once, though, he slips and makes a treaty with another king instead of trusting God.
The Northern kingdom is continually politically unstable. Baasha does not follow God, but chases after false idols. So a usurper named Zimri destroys the house of Baasha. But Zimri is only king for a week. He ends his rebellion by burning down the palace on top of himself. King Omri takes over and builds the city of Samaria. According to the Bible, Omri is the most evil of all the kings so far. Then his son Ahab becomes king, and he is even worse than the others! Then, as if it isn’t bad enough to serve idols and lead the country astray, he goes and marries Jezebel. Have you heard of her? Next week’s reading is gonna be ugly. In other news, Jericho is rebuilt at this time.
Asa’s son Jehoshaphat becomes king of Judah. He cuts down more Asherah poles. Jehoshaphat also sends around priests and teachers to instruct the nation in the law of the Lord. This is an idyllic time for the nation of Judah.
Not so for Israel, with Ahab and Jezebel in charge. But we also, very briefly, meet Elijah. There is a famine in the land, but God provides for his prophet.
Coming next week: The showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. I LOVE this story!
No comments:
Post a Comment