Divided Kingdom

God Tears the Kingdom in Two

• God punished Solomon by stripping most of the
kingdom from his son but God would not totally
take away the kingdom for the sake of David
– The only tribes that Solomon’s dynasty would keep is
Judah and Benjamin
• The prophet Ahijah took his new garment and
tore it into 12 pieces before Jeroboam who
was one of Solomon’s labor overseers
(1 Kgs 11:29-39)
– He gave 10 pieces to Jeroboam showing that
God would tear 10 tribes from Solomon
– Solomon wanted to kill Jeroboam who
flees to Egypt until the king dies and his son Rehoboam
takes his place
 Rehoboam and Jeroboam
• Rehoboam is made king
– Jeroboam and the people ask if he would lighten the
burden of his father
– Rehoboam spoke to the elders of Israel who hold
them that if he did the people would serve him for
ever
– Ignoring their council he went to the friends he grew up
with and they told him to increase the burden and say “my father
chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scorpions” (1
Kgs 12:11)
• The Kingdom divides in 922 BC
– Jeroboam led the Northern tribes of Israel to split from
Judah saying have not portion in David
– Jeroboam becomes king of the Northern Tribes
– Rehoboam gathers an army to try and bring back Israel
but the prophet Shemaiah prevents him showing that the
division is of God
– Israel – North (10)Tribes
– Judah – South (2) Tribes (Judah and Benjamin)
 The Sin of Jeroboam
• Jeroboam, who is ½ Egyptian leads the people of Israel into
the sin of idolatry by worshiping the golden calf
– He feared that if the people offer sacrifice in Jerusalem their hearts
would return to King Rehoboam
– High Places – geographically high locations of pagan worship
– He erects 2 golden calves in the Bethel and Dan where they offered
incense and sacrifice
– Appointed pagan priests from among the people so long
as they were not Levites
– Instituted new pagan feasts but on the same days as
the people were used to in Judah
• God sent a prophet from Judah to warn Jeroboam
but he did not listen
– So he tells him that God will take away the house of
Jeroboam as a man takes away dung (1 Kgs 14:10)
 Judah and Israel
• Judah and especially Israel had many bad kings
– The bad kings led the people into sin especially Idolatry
– Good kings led the people back to the true God
– The North and South are often in civil war and rarely at peace
• Judah (South) – capital is Jerusalem
– During the reign of Rehoboam Judah also built high places
and some practiced Sodomy
– High places were not removed until the Exile
• Israel (North) – capital is Samaria
– They mainly rejected God’s law and continued to do
worse evils until they were conquered
– Their many bad kings come from different families lines
who warred with each other
– They would never overcome the sin of Idolatry
• The divided kingdom of Judah and Israel will never be
reunited
 King Ahab and Elijah
• Ahab was the worst king in Israel
– Jezebel - a foreigner who worshiped Baal, married Ahab
– She led him and Israel to the worship of Baal which
included temple prostitution
– Ahab killed the faithful prophets of Israel
• God sent the prophet Elijah who told Ahab
that there would be no rain for 3 yrs except
at his word (1 Kgs 17)
– Elijah - means “The Lord is my God”
– Israel endures a bad drought though Baal was
responsible for water
– Elijah went to Zarephath where there was a widow and
her son whom he asked for bread
– They only have a little meal and oil but it miraculously
does not run out
 Cave of Elijah
• In the crypt of the Stella Maris monastery there
is a cave where tradition says the prophet Elijah
lived
Mt. Carmel and the Prophets of Baal
• Elijah commands Ahab to bring all the people Israel together
– He asks, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If
the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”
– Elijah offers a contest between God and Baal (1 Kgs 18)
• Contest: Each will offer a sacrifice and the god who accepts
it with fire is the true God
– The prophets of Baal called upon their god and cut
themselves but noting happened
– Elijah poured water on his sacrifice three times and
prayed and a fire consumed all that was there and the
people proclaimed “The Lord is God”
– Elijah and the people slit the throats of the 450 prophets
of Baal then he made it rain
• Ahab told Jezebel what happened and she perused and
tired to kill Elijah
– Elijah fled and experienced guilt for fleeing but the Lord revealed
himself to him in a small quiet wind
 Mt. Carmel
• Carmel means vineyard
of God
• Mt. Carmel is in the
ancient city of Joppa
which is now the city of
Haifa
• The prophet Elijah
• This is the mount where
Elijah confronted and
killed the 450 prophets of
Baal
– 1 Kgs 18-21
• The Carmelites trace
there spirituality to Elijah
on Mt. Carmel
 Elijah and Elisha
• God told Elijah to anoint Elisha as a new prophet to
take his place
– After calling Elisha the two work together for several yrs
• Elisha knew that Elijah would soon be taken up
– Though Elisha has a chance to leave he says, “As the
Lord lives and as you yourself live I will not leave you”
– Prophetic Succession: Elisha asked for a double
portion of Elijah’s spirit and received it when Elijah went
up by a whirlwind to heaven
– Elisha took Elijah’s mantle and all who saw
him said, “the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha”
• Elisha performed similar works
– He cured Naaman the Syrian of leprosy by
washing in the Jordan
 Amos
• God sent the prophet, Amos, to the Northern tribes
– He was not a court prophet but a herdsman and a dresser of
sycamores called by God 750-725 BC
• Amos prophesied Divine Judgment against Israel
– Powerfully gets people’s attention and denounced them for Idolatry,
excessive luxury, and injustice to the poor
– Prophesied the death of the king, the fall of the Northern
Kingdom and the exile and captivity of the people
• Day of the Lord – God’s special intervention into
history which marked the triumph of justice (Am
5:18-20)
– Amos proclaimed it as a day of punishment for sinners
especially in Israel
– Eventually would mean a day of liberation for Israel and
then the final judgment on the world
• The king expels Amos from Israel
 Hosea
• Hosea was a prophet in the North who calls
faithless Israel back to covenant fidelity
– The north is practicing oppression of the poor, some
worship of the Lord, and much idolatry
• Hosea marries the harlot Gomer who
symbolizes faithless Israel who goes after
other gods (Hos 1:1-2)
– God is like a husband to Israel who is his
adulterous wife (Hos 2:18-22)
– Idolatry is like adultery (Hos 3:1-5)
– God is like a loving but jealous husband
• Hosea reveals God’s tender love for his
people who though must be severely punished will
one day return to the Lord (Ch 11:1-11)
– He foretells the Assyrian captivity and the Messiah
 Assyrian Empire
• There is a shift in world power from Egypt
to Assyria
– Their capital was Nineveh
– They were fierce and brutal conquers
• Evil Assyrian practices of conquest
– They would remove whole populations of a
conquered land and relocate other pagans in
their place so that the traditions of a people
would be broken and they could not start an
uprising
– Forced their captives to grind up the bones of
their ancestors
– Blinded and skinned their enemies and covered
the walls of defeated cities with the skins
 The Destruction of Israel (722 BC)
• God allows the Assyrians to destroy Israel to carry
out his punishment
– The Northern tribes were tortured and conquered
– More than 27,000 of them were resettled
in foreign lands and 5 other pagan
tribes were brought into Israel
– This marks the end of the Northern tribes
of Israel
• The story of Jonah who is sent to Nineveh shows
that even the extremely wicked can receive God’s
mercy