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continued
. . . The
next King was Solomon, another son, but David's
chosen successor. Here was a man who started off
so promisingly, with a one-time offer from God
in a dream of whatever he wanted. He chose wisely,
wisdom was his choice, rather than a long life,
riches or power. God was so pleased with this
unselfish choice that He gave him the lot anyway.
So Solomon had everything he could have needed
and his reign was indeed very fruitful. The nation
prospered like never before, he built a palace
and the magnificent First Temple in Jerusalem
and expanded the empire, with influences as far
as the river Euphrates to the north and Egypt
to the west. He wrote poetry (Song of Songs),
philosophy (Ecclesiastes) and proverbs (Proverbs).
Was there anything he couldn't do? Well there
was one thing - he had difficulty in restraining
himself with the fairer sex. Seven hundred wives
and three hundred concubines seemed to be overdoing
it a bit, but it was in the spiritual, rather
than the physical realm where we see dire consequences
of these dalliances. The clue is in 1 Kings 11:1-2,
when it is noted that Solomon's lovers included
those from nations forbidden by God to intermarry
with. The reason was to do with spiritual pollution
and we see the consequences in verse 4, "as Solomon
grew old, his wives turned his heart after other
gods and his heart was not fully devoted to the
Lord his God, as the heart of David his father
had been". And, as a result of this, God vowed
that the Kingdom would be taken from Solomon's
family, except for one tribe (Judah), which would
remain in the family firm, for the sake of David.
So, after the death of Solomon and because of
his individual sin, the Kingdom split into two.
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What
God had ordained, came about and this is how
it happened. Jeroboam was one of Solomon's
favoured officials who was told by a prophet
that he was going to be God's instrument in
carrying out His judgments on Solomon, who,
by now, was not particularly popular with
his subjects. On Solomon's death, his son
Rehoboam succeeded him and, knowing that rebellion
was in the air, took advice. Unfortunately,
rather than listening to the wise elders,
he took his advice from the young men he'd
grown up with. It was bad advice, resulting
in a rebellion of the northern parts of the
kingdom which, in accordance with God's pronouncement,
broke away from the "commonwealth" and, calling
themselves Israel (although they were, in
fact, only ten of the tribes of Israel), made
Jeroboam their king. |
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All
that was left for King Rehoboam was the
house of Judah (also including the smaller
tribe of Benjamin) in the south, with Jerusalem
as the capital. For all intents and purposes
the "Promised Land" had split into two,
into Israel and Judah, two kingdoms now
with very different destinies. The kingdom
of Israel went from bad to worse. Jeroboam
himself set the trend by making two golden
calves and set them up as gods in Bethel
and Dan saying, in 1 Kings 12:28, "here
are your gods, O Israel, who brought you
out of Egypt". Oh dear, it was not surprising
that the very same prophet who had set him
up as King should prophesy again with these
words, "you have done more evil than all
who lived before you … I am going to bring
disaster on the house of Jeroboam." There
are hints concerning the nature of this
punishment in verse 15, "He will uproot
Israel from this good land that he gave
to their forefathers and scatter them beyond
the River …". This prophecy was put on hold
while subsequent rulers of Israel piled
on sin after sin, digging themselves further
and further into the mire, with sordid tales
of murder, massacre, idolatry and general
mayhem. Ahab was a particular scoundrel,
who "did more evil in the eyes of the Lord
than any of those before him". With his
wife Jezebel, h e dedicated the kingdom
to the pagan god Baal until he received
his come-uppance at the hands of God's prophet,
Elijah on Mount Carmel, in 1 Kings 18. It
is important to note that although it tends
to be the rulers who bring judgement on
the land, it doesn't necessarily mean that
the evil that they represent is totally
extensive. We read in 1 Kings 19:18 that
there was still a remnant of 7,000 in Israel
"whose knees have not bowed down to Baal".
In all of Biblical (and Church) history
there is always a faithful remnant who remain
true to God, despite contrary pressures
that might surround them.
Israel
carried on being cursed by a string of maniacal
monarchs. Finally we get to King Hoshea,
the 20th ruler, who came to the throne in
732 BC. Ironically, although he was evil,
he hadn't sunk to the depths of some of
his predecessors. Yet it was he who had
to bear the full brunt of God's judgement.
One day the Assyrians invaded, imprisoned
Hoshea and laid siege to the land. Eventually
the siege was over and the Israelites deported
en masse to various locations of the Assyrian
Empire, giving rise to a multitude of myths
about the eventual identity of the 'Lost
Tribes of Israel'. So, why the mass deportation?
Was it really through the sin of King Jeroboam
and his successors? The answer is given
in 2 Kings 17. God's anger burned against
both these evil rulers and their subjects,
for following the detestable practices of
the other nations and ignoring the pleadings
of prophets, such as Elijah, Elisha, Amos
and Hosea, sent to warn them. Israel was
no more, vanishing from history and the
land was resettled with foreigners who were
no doubt driven out of their own land by
the all-conquering Assyrians and who were
eventually to become the Samaritans of Jesus'
day.
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