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VI. Two Nations Under God

A. North-South Divide

The Kingdom disintegrated after Solomon. Actually, the wise king himself had sowed the seeds of its destruction.

There was always a dark underside to Solomon’s wisdom - his insatiable appetites for wealth, power, and women.

He overtaxed the Israelite tribes to finance great building projects and to build up a huge army (see 1 Kings 9; 12:3-4). He took in an extraordinary 666 gold talents every year (see 1 Kings 10:14). It’s interesting to note that 666 is the number of the evil beast in the Bible’s final book, which adds that "wisdom is needed" to understand what that means (see Revelation 13:17-18).

Like his father David, Solomon also had a weakness for women. Remember, that Solomon was born to Bathsheba, the wife David took after adultering with her and then having her husband killed to cover up his sin (see 2 Samuel 11-12:25).

Solomon’s lusts far eclipsed his father’s. Although God’s law forbade intermarriage with non-Israelites, "King Solomon loved many foreign women" - he had 700 wives and 300 concumbines. "And," the Scripture adds, "his wives turned his heart…to strange gods" (see1 Kings 11:1-3).

When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam refused the pleas of the tribes to lessen their tax burden. They rebelled. Ten of the twelve tribes, led by Jeroboam, split-off and established a Northern Kingdom, leaving Rehoboam to reign over two tiny tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the South.

The fracturing of the Davidic Kingdom is a crucial fact that you have to keep in mind as you read the remainder of the Bible, especially the prophets.

From this point out, when you read about "Israel," think: "Northern Kingdom" - the ten tribes who seceded under Jeroboam. Sometimes Israel or the Northern Kingdom will be referred to as "Ephraim" or "Samaria" or "Joseph."

And when you read about "Judah" or "Benjamin," or the "House of David," think: "Southern Kingdom" - the two tribes that continued to worship in Jerusalem.

You will also read the phrase "all Israel," especially in Chronicles (see 1 Kings 12:1; 1 Chronicles 13:6,8; 15:3; 2 Chronicles 12:1; 18:16). This refers to the Kingdom as God established and intended it - before the division under Rehoboam - the kingdom of David that God promises He will one day restore.

"Thus," the Scripture tells us, "Israel has been in rebellion against David’s house to this day" (see 2 Chronicles 10:19; 1 Kings 12:19).

That means that by Jeroboam’s schism the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) had severed themselves from God’s covenant with David - the covenant under which for all time David’s son was to be King of all Israel, and all Israel was to worship at the central sanctuary in Jerusalem.

The covenant with David didn’t justify Solomon’s outrageous and cruel behavior. God’s covenant was never meant to put the Davidic king above the Law of Moses.

David explained this to Solomon himself (see 1 Kings 2:2-4: 8:25; 9:4-5; Psalm 132:12). God’s promise was not a blank check. If Solomon or any Davidic king violated God’s Law he would be punished - although his kingdom would not be wiped out (see 2 Samuel 7:15-16).

Always true to His word, God punished Solomon’s sin by permitting Jeroboam’s rebellion (see 1 Kings 11:31-39).

The Northern tribes almost immediately went into apostasy. Jeroboam built altars to false pagan gods at Bethel and Dan. He even reenacted the great sin of the golden calf incident (see 1 Kings 12:28-29; Exodus 32:4).

B. Raising Prophets

Jeroboam’s idolatry, unfortunately, sets the pattern for the remainder of Kings and Chronicles. Don’t worry if you can’t follow the succession of kings and reformers in the remaining books of the Bible. Try to focus on the patterns of sin, punishment, and reform.

Notice that David is the measure for every king (see 2 Kings 16:2; 22:2).

And pay attention, especially, to how God still tries to "father" His family despite their weakness, their faithlessness and their disarray.

The period of the divided monarchy is when God begins to raise up prophets to speak His word to His people, to decry their violations of the covenant, to call them to repentance, to turn back to God. They also play a vital role in helping strengthen the hope of the tiny remnant that remains faithful.

So we see Elijah prophesying in the Northern Kingdom, speaking against the wicked King Ahab and his idolatrous wife Jezebel, engaging in a dramatic showdown with the false prophets of Baal (see 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 1:16). His work is continued by Elisha (see 2 Kings 2-13).

Also in the middle of the eighth-century, around the time of the reign of Jeroboam II (see 2 Kings 14:23-29), Hosea decries "the calf of Samaria," and scorns temple prostitution and other outrages of the Baal cult (see Hosea 4:14; 8:4-6; 10:5-6; 13:1-2).

Amos, too, during this period decries the infidelities and economic injustices in the northern Kingdom as well as the sins of the nations (see Amos 1:3-2:3).

Amos reminds us that even though Israel and Judah seem far away from Him now, God still desires to fulfill his Fatherly plan for "the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt" (see Amos 3:1).

The Northern Kingdom was destroyed in 722 B.C., overrun by the vicious Assyrians. An Assyrian document from the period describes the deportation of nearly 30,000 Israelites.

The Bible tells us why it had to happen: "This came about because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God…because they venerated other gods….[and] they rejected the covenant which He made with their fathers" (see 2 Kings 17:7-18).

C. Good Kings, Bad Kings

While Israel fell, the Southern Kingdom of Judah enjoyed a brief period of relative peace and religious fidelity under good King Hezekiah, guided by the prophet Isaiah and the fiery preaching of the prophet Micah (see Jeremiah 26:17-19).

But both saw the moral and religious corruption of the North spreading in the Southern kingdom. When the Assyrians invaded Judah in 701 B.C., Isaiah saw them as God’s instrument - "My rod in anger against an impious nation" (see Isaiah 10:5-6).

Things actually did get as bad in Judah as in Israel. Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, built altars to false gods in the temple, "immolated his son by fire," and shed "so much innocent blood as to fill the length and breadth of Israel" (see 2 Kings 21:1-9,16; see also 2 Kings 16:3;17:17).

Because of Manasseh’s sins, God vowed to "bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that, whenever anyone hears of it, his ears shall ring" (see 2 Kings 21:12).

Around this time, the prophet Zephaniah warned of "the day of the Lord," a punishment for the wickedness and the pagan practices that defiled Judah (see Zephaniah 1:4-6, 14).

But it would take a generation before that would happen.

Under the reign of the good king Josiah, "the book of the covenant" was found in the Temple (see 2 Kings 22:8). Read the story - so far have the people fallen, it’s as if they had forgotten that the Law was ever given to their forefathers.

Josiah is zealous for reform and the people swear to live by the "terms of the covenant." He sets about cleansing the temple of cult prostitutes and other abominations. Finally, he orders the celebration of the Passover. Incredibly, it’s the first time the feast had been celebrated since the time of the judges (see 2 Kings 23).

In all this, Josiah had the vocal support of one of God’s great prophets, Jeremiah (seeJeremiah 1:1-6:30).

Things were looking up in Judah. So much so, that Nahum could prophesy the destruction of Judah’s dreaded enemy, the savage Assyria, and issue this oracle: "Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows! For nevermore shall you be invaded…" (see Nahum 2:1).

But as Jeremiah recorded in vivid detail, the reforms of Josiah were short-lived. Josiah’s son Jehoiakim "did evil in the sight of the Lord - just as his forebears had done" (see 2 Kings 23:37). The spiritual state of Judah under Jehoiakim is well documented by the prophet (see Jeremiah 7-20).

D. Punished by Babylon

In 597, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon overran Jerusalem, executing God’s judgment on Judah for the sins of Manasseh (see 2 Kings 24:3-4).

Before the invasion, the prophet Habakkuk had predicted that Babylon would be raised up by God to punish Jerusalem - "the city, rebellious and polluted….Her priests profane what is holy and do violence to the Law" (see Habakkuk 1:6; 3:1,4).

After ten years of Babylonian occupation, Judah’s King Zedekiah tried to mount a rebellion. Babylon responded with overwhelming brutality - crushing the city, destroying the Temple, and sending thousands off into exile (see 2 Kings 24-25; Jeremiah 52).

All of this too, Jeremiah records (see Jeremiah 34). A legend preserved in Scripture has it that Jeremiah hid the Ark of the Covenant so that it wouldn’t be defiled by the Babylonians, prophesying that it would not be found again "until God gathers His people together again and shows them mercy" (see 2 Maccabees 2:4-8).

In its pathos and despair, the destruction of Jerusalem is also rendered poignantly by an eyewitness in Lamentations, a book traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah.

Among those carted off from Jerusalem were the prophets Ezekiel and Baruch, the latter being Jeremiah’s secretary. Baruch sought to strengthen the exiles, promising an end to the exile and the restoration of Jerusalem (see Baruch 4:30-5:9).

Ezekiel, too, sought to comfort the afflicted, promising a future salvation for all Israel - prophetic promises we’ll look at in greater detail below.

E. Writing in Exile

Although the prophecy of Daniel was written nearly 350 years later, the story it tells is set during the Babylonian captivity.

Daniel lives in Babylon and is a seer for Nebuchadnezzer and succeeding kings in Babylon. These parts of Daniel (see Daniel 1-6) are similar to three curious books included among the Bible’s historical books - Tobit, Judith, and Esther.

In their place in the canon, these books become meditations on how Israel’s faith and religious identity are to be preserved outside the Promised Land - in the exile, in the face of undeserved suffering, in the face of persecution. In each of these books, notice how it is ordinary Israelites - a widow, a blind man and his son and young bride, a young virgin - who are the heroes, keeping the faith alive and saving the people.

For instance, Tobit is set among exiles from the North living in Ninevah circa 721. It shows how an Israelite family protects and nurtures the faith.

Tobit’s long concluding hymn of praise, promises that God is a "Father and God forever" and that, though He has scourged the exiles for their iniquities, in His mercy He will restore them from among the nations where they’ve been scattered (see Tobit 13:4-5).

Continue to Section 7