Author : Keith Sharp
Bible Survey : Lesson Thirteen (1 Kings 1 – 2 Kings 17; 2 Chronicles 10-32)
ca. 925 B.C. – 722 B.C.
When Rehoboam, the son of Solomon ascended the throne,
Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you (1 Kings 12:3-4).
Rehoboam asked for three days to consider their request. He consulted the older men who had advised his father, and they counseled him to speak good words to the people and to serve them and that, as the result “they will be your servants forever.” He then sought the advice of the younger men his own age, and they urged him to answer roughly and to assert his authority. Rehoboam foolishly followed the counsel of the younger men, and Israel revolted and chose Jeroboam to be their king.
Israel
The Lord promised Jeroboam that, if he would faithfully serve Him, his descendants would rule Israel forever. But Jeroboam lacked faith in the Lord, and fearing that by going to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple his people would turn back to Rehoboam, he corrupted the worship of Israel. He set up calves at Dan and Bethel, in the North and South of Israel, for Israel to worship, just as they had worshiped the calf in the wilderness long before. These calves were to represent the Lord, but by worshiping them Israel was guilty of idolatry. He allowed anyone from any tribe to be a priest. Thus, Jeroboam corrupted Israel by changing the object, place, and time of its worship and by changing the priesthood.
Now Israel was divided. The ten northern tribes are hereafter called Israel. Over a span of approximately 200 years they had 19 kings and 9 dynasties. These dynasty changes were due to murder brought about by the kings’ unfaithfulness to the Lord. None of their kings were good, for all of them followed Jeroboam’s bad example of calf worship.
Ahab, brought Israel to a new low. He married the Phoenician princess Jezebel, who introduced the horrible worship of Baal and the Ashtoreth into Israel. She even tried to kill all the prophets of the Lord.
In Ahab’s day, God tried to turn Israel back to Himself by raising up a great prophet, Elijah. Elijah decreed it would not rain again until he said so, and there was a three and a half year drought. At the end of this time Elijah came to Ahab to challenge the prophets of Baal and the Ashtoreth to a contest. The wicked king greeted the prophet of the Lord with a rebuke, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” Elijah replied, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals” (1 Kings 18:17-18). Those who leave God’s way to follow man’s way cause trouble among the people of the Lord.
Elijah met the four hundred prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel to see if the Lord or Baal would consume the sacrifice by fire. Of course Baal, who was just an idol, did nothing, but the Lord sent down fire which consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the altar, and the water Elijah had poured on and around the altar. The people acclaimed the Lord as God, and Elijah killed the prophets of Baal. Then Elijah prayed to God, and a great rain storm ended the drought.
But Jezebel sought to kill Elijah. Elijah fled to Mt. Sinai. There the Lord appeared to him through “a still small voice.” He told Elijah to anoint Hazael as King of Syria, Jehu as King of Israel, and Elisha as prophet to replace him. Through these three men the Lord would destroy the Baal worshipers from Israel.
Ahab and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, went to fight against Syria at Ramoth Gilead. Ahab was killed, just as Elijah and Micaiah prophesied.
Elijah ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire with horses of fire as Elisha, his servant and successor, looked on. As Elijah departed, Elisha cried, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen” (2 Kings 2:12). The Lord, as made known through His word by His servants the prophets, was Israel’s true strength.
Elisha returned to Israel and worked eleven great miracles to prove his word was from God (2 Kings chapters 2-6). He even foretold the miraculous delivery of Samaria from a terrible Syrian siege, which was fulfilled exactly as Elijah foretold. In this siege Israelite women ate their own children, just as Moses had prophesied (Deuteronomy 28:53-57; 2 Kings 6:26-29).
The wicked lineage of Ahab still worshiped Baal, despite the work of Elijah and Elisha. So the Lord had Jehu anointed king, and he killed all the family of Ahab, including Jezebel, and all the worshipers of Baal. But Jehu kept the calf worship begun by Jeroboam.
Jehoahaz his son became king and was evil. Thus, the Lord began to cut off part of Israel by Hazael of Syria. Jehoahaz did pray to the Lord then, and later the Lord sent a deliverer to Israel.
Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, had three victories over Syria, in fulfillment of the last recorded words of Elisha. As Elisha was dying, Jehoash cried, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen” (2 Kings 13:14).
Jeroboam II, son of Jehoash, became king. He was wicked also, but under his reign the Lord gave Israel the deliverance He had promised Jehoahaz. The kingdom became rich and powerful. Once again, Israel and Judah had all the land God had promised Abraham, just as they had under Joshua, David, and Solomon.
During these days the Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh, capital of Assyria, to command them to repent of their sins. He also sent the prophets Amos and Hosea to Israel. Assyria repented, but Israel did not. Thus, after Jeroboam, Israel quickly declined. The Lord now gave up on the Northern kingdom, Israel.
In the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, Sargon, King of Assyria, captured Samaria and took the Israelites into captivity. Sargon brought peoples from other parts of His empire and settled them in Samaria. These people intermarried with the Israelites who were left and combined their paganism with a corrupted form of the worship of the Lord. The result was the Samaritans we read about in the New Testament.
Judah
Rehoboam was faithful to the Lord for three years, and the priests, Levites, and other faithful worshipers of the Lord from Israel came to Judah. But after three years Rehoboam forsook the Lord. Judah also become idolatrous and immoral. Shishak of Egypt came with a huge army against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the king and the Temple as well as the three hundred gold shields Solomon had hung in the armory. Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields. Rehoboam and Jeroboam had constant war, despite the fact the Lord commanded Rehoboam not to invade Israel.
There were also 19 kings of Judah, but Judah continued another 136 years after the fall of Israel. Also, all the kings of Judah were of the lineage of David. There was one queen, an evil usurper of the house of Ahab, named Athaliah.
Rehoboam’s grandson, King Asa, “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David” (1 Kings 15:11). During his rule “the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days” (1 Kings 15:14). Zera the Ethiopian invaded Judah with a million man army, but because Asa called on the Lord, he defeated the Ethiopians with an army of 300,000. Asa restored the worship of the Lord. But in his later years, Asa used the treasuries of the Lord’s house to make a treaty with Ben-Hadad of Syria against Baasha of Israel. When the seer Hanani rebuked him, Asa persecuted him and some of the people.
In some ways Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, was one of the best kings of Judah.
Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel. Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance. And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah (2 Chronicles 17:3-6).
Jehoshaphat taught the people throughout the land the law of the Lord. Judah became strong, and the surrounding nations feared them. He set up righteous judges in the land.
But Jehoshaphat allied himself to wicked King Ahab of Judah by taking Ahab’s evil daughter Athaliah to be the wife of his son Jehoram. Jehoshaphat even went with Ahab to fight the Syrians in the battle in which Ahab was killed. This unholy alliance almost led to the extinction of the royal house.
Jehoram followed the ways of Ahab, as did Jehoram’s son Ahaziah. When Jehu killed Ahaziah, along with Jehoram of Israel, Athaliah killed Ahaziah’s sons, her own grandsons, so she could usurp the throne. Baal worship, eliminated in Israel by Jehu, prevailed in Judah.
Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram of Judah and wife of the High Priest, Jehoiada, saved the infant Joash, one of the sons of Ahaziah, or all the male heirs would have been killed. When he was seven, Jehoiada brought Joash from hiding and had him proclaimed king and Athaliah killed. Baal worship was destroyed, the worship of the Lord was restored, and the Temple was repaired. But after Jehoiada died, Joash listened to the princes of Judah, who persuaded him to turn to idolatry. Joash even killed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, for protesting against this. Thus a small Syrian army defeated a large army of Joash. When he was sick, his own servants murdered Joash.
Amaziah, son of Joash, followed the Lord but not with his whole heart. He defeated the Edomites. Thus, in his pride he challenged Jehoash of Israel to war, but Jehoash thoroughly defeated him. Finally, his own servants killed him.
Uzziah (Azariah) his son was a good king who obeyed the Lord. Thus, Judah became strong and defeated their enemies. But Uzziah became proud and went into the Temple to offer incense, a work only the priests could perform. The Lord struck him with leprosy, and he was isolated the remainder of his life.
Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah, was terribly wicked. He sacrificed his own son to Baal. He was totally defeated by both the Syrians and Israel. Israel carried 200,000 of their kinsmen from Judah captive but returned them at the rebuke of the prophet Oded. Ahaz sought aid from mighty Assyria against Syria and Israel. This brought about the downfall of first Syria then Israel, but also led Tiglath-pileser of Assyria to invade Judah. Ahaz perverted the Temple into a place to worship the gods of Assyria.
