The Divided Kingdom
of Israel
(Part 2)
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. Beginning
in approximately 1050 B.C. Saul, David and Solomon each reigned for
forty years over the united kingdom of
Israel. This period came to an end following
Solomon’s death.
B.
Late
in his life Solomon turned away from God.
1. 1 Kings 11:1-6 explains how this
happened. “Now King Solomon loved many
foreign women along with the daughter of
Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite,
Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2
from the nations concerning which the Lord had said
to the sons of Israel, “You shall not
associate with them, nor shall they associate
with you, for they will surely turn your
heart away after their gods.” Solomon held
fast to these in love. 3 He
had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines, and his wives turned his
heart away. 4 For when Solomon was old, his
wives turned his heart away after other
gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted
to the Lord his God, as the heart of
David his father had been. 5 For Solomon went
after Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of
the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did
what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not
follow the Lord fully, as David his
father had done.”
2. Solomon built places of worship to the
idolatrous gods of his foreign wives
according to 1 Kings 11:7-8.
3. God was angry with Solomon because of
his actions (1 Kings 11:9-10) and told
him, “Because you have done this, and
you have not kept My covenant and My
statutes, which I have commanded you, I
will surely tear the kingdom from you, and
will give it to your servant” (1 Kings
11:11).
a. Because of God’s regard for Solomon’s
father, David, He promised He would not
do this during Solomon’s life (1
Kings 11:12).
b. God also promised that He would not
tear the entire kingdom away for the sake
of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:13).
4. God raised up opposition to Solomon in
his later years.
a. Hadad of Edom (1 Kings 11:14-22).
1.)
When David’s commander Joab conquered Edom and killed all of the men
Hadad and his men fled to Egypt
(1 Kings 11:17).
2.) Hadad formed an alliance with Pharaoh in
Egypt and married Pharaoh’s
sister-in-law. He later returned
to Edom and opposed Solomon.
b. Rezon (1 Kings 11:23-25).
1.) Son of Eliada – vs. 23.
2.) Rezon became the leader of a
marauding band (vs. 24) and ultimately took
up residence in Aram (Assyria)
where he opposed Israel.
c. Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26-40).
1.) “Then Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon’s
servant, whose mother’s name
was Zeruah, a widow, also rebelled against
the king. 27 Now
this was the reason why he rebelled against the king:
Solomon built the Millo, and
closed up the breach of the city of his father
David. 28 Now
the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior, and when Solomon
saw that the young man was
industrious, he appointed him over all the forced
labor of the house of Joseph. 29 It
came about at that time, when Jeroboam
went out of Jerusalem, that the
prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the
road. Now Ahijah had clothed
himself with a new cloak; and both of them
were alone in the field. 30 Then
Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was
on him and tore it into twelve
pieces. 31 He said to Jeroboam, “Take for
yourself ten pieces; for thus
says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will
tear the kingdom out of the
hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes 32 (but he
will have one tribe, for the
sake of My servant David and for the sake of
Jerusalem, the city which I
have chosen from all the tribes of Israel),
33 because they
have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the
goddess of the Sidonians,
Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of
the sons of Ammon; and they
have not walked in My ways, doing what is right
in My sight and observing
My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David
did. 34 Nevertheless
I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will
make him ruler all the days of
his life, for the sake of My servant David whom
I chose, who observed My
commandments and My statutes; 35 but I will take
the kingdom from his son’s hand
and give it to you, even ten tribes. 36 But to
his son I will give one tribe,
that My servant David may have a lamp always
before Me in Jerusalem, the
city where I have chosen for Myself to put My
name. 37 I will
take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you
shall be king over Israel. 38 Then
it will be, that if you listen to all that I
command you and walk in My
ways, and do what is right in My sight by
observing My statutes and My
commandments, as My servant David did, then
I will be with you and build
you an enduring house as I built for David, and I
will give Israel to you. 39 Thus
I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but
not always.’” 40 Solomon
sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death; but
Jeroboam arose and fled to
Egypt to Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in
Egypt until the death of
Solomon.
a.) Appointed commander over all
forced labor (vs.28).
b.) Received ten pieces of the
prophet Ahijah’s torn cloak to represent ten
tribes that would be torn from Israel and
given to him (vss. 29 -39).
c.) Solomon sought to put him to death
(vs. 40) but Jeroboam took exile in
Egypt until the death of
Solomon.
C.
Now, let us turn our attention to the dividing of the kingdom in 1 Kings 12.
I. REHOBOAM’S FOOLISH
DECISION.
A. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam went to Shechem
where all Israel gathered to crown
him as the new king (1 Kings 12:1).
B. Jeroboam, in Egypt, heard of Solomon’s
death and along with the assembly of
Israel came to Rehoboam with a request
(1 Kings 12:2-4).
1. “Your father made our yoke hard; now
therefore lighten the hard service of your
father and his heavy yoke which he
put on us, and we will serve you” (vs. 4).
2. Compare this to 1 Samuel 8:11-18
where God warned the people of the heavy
burdens and consequences that would
be theirs if they had a king. Also see
1 Kings 4:7 – 5:13.
C. Rehoboam instructed them to return in
three days for an answer (vs. 5). During
this three day period Rehoboam consulted
two groups of people.
1. The elders who had served Solomon
replied, “If you will be a servant to this
people today, and will serve them
and grant them their petition, and speak good
words to them, then they will be
your servants forever” (1 Kings 12:7).
2. The young men who had grown up with
Rehoboam counseled him to say, “My
little finger is thicker than my
father’s loins! 11 Whereas my father loaded you
with a heavy yoke, I will add to
your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips,
but I will discipline you with
scorpions” (1 Kings 12:10-11).
D. Rehoboam took the counsel of his
contemporaries. “The king answered the people
harshly, for he forsook the advice of
the elders which they had given him, 14 and he
spoke to them according to the advice of
the young men, saying, “My father made
your yoke heavy, but I will add to your
yoke; my father disciplined you with whips,
but I will discipline you with scorpions
(vss. 13-14).
1. Vs. 15 states that this was a “turn
of events” from the Lord.
2. God was bringing about the
fulfillment of the prophecy made by Ahijah to
Jeroboam.
II. JEROBOAM’S
SIN.
A. In 1 Kings 12:16-19, the house of Israel
rebelled against Rehoboam and the house
of Judah.
1. When Rehoboam sent his servant
Adoram, who was in charge of forced labor, to
them he was stoned to death (vs.
18).
2. Rehoboam was forced to flee to
Jerusalem (vs.19).
B. 1 Kings 12:20 is a pivotal passage. “It
came about when all Israel heard that
Jeroboam had returned, that they sent
and called him to the assembly and made
him king over all Israel. None but the
tribe of Judah followed the house of David.”
1. Rehoboam assembled 180,000 choice
fighting men to bring the Israelites back
into his kingdom (vs. 21).
2. The word of the Lord through the
prophet, Shemiah, came to them, “‘Thus
says the Lord, “You must not go up
and fight against your relatives the sons of
Israel; return every man to his
house, for this thing has come from Me.”’” So they
listened to the word of the Lord,
and returned and went their way according to
the word of the Lord.”
C. Jeroboam built the towns of Shechem and
Penuel (1 Kings 12:25). He became
concerned about people returning to
Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the temple of
God.
1. “If this people go up to offer
sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then
the heart of this people will return
to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah;
and they will kill me and return to
Rehoboam king of Judah (vs. 27).
2. To keep this from happening Jeroboam
built two places of idolatrous worship. In
each place he put a golden calf.
a. The northern site was at Dan.
b. The southern site was at Bethel.
3. Jeroboam’s instructions to Israel
were, “It
is too much for you to go up to
Jerusalem; behold your gods, O
Israel, that brought you up from the land of
Egypt” (vs. 28).
a. Compare Jeroboam’s actions to
those of Aaron in Exodus 32:1-6.
b. The repetitive nature of sin is
astonishing.
III. THE DIVIDED
KINGDOM.
A. From 930 until 722 B.C. (approximately
208 years) the norther kingdom existed
until it was conquered by the Assyrians
led by Sargon II..
1. There were nineteen kings in Israel.
None of them were righteous.
2. Prophets of the northern kingdom
were: Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Jonah and
Nahum.
B. The southern kingdom (Judah) lasted
approximately 344 years until it was
conquered by the Babylonians led by
Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.
1. There were nineteen kings and one
queen in Judah. A few of them were
righteous (Hezekiah and Josiah are
two of the most notable ones).
2. Prophets in the southern kingdom
were, Obadiah, Joel*, Zephaniah, Habakkuk,
Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel.”
(*Some scholars place Joel as a “post exilc
prophet. **Daniel was born in Judah
and taken into captivity where he
prophesied during the Babylonian and
Persian empires).
CONCLUSION:
A.
Sinful behavior is always divisive. Is it any wonder that Jesus prayed for the
unity of
believers (John 17) and that the apostles
admonished early Christians to remain
united (1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:1-4, Eph.
4:1-6)?
B. May
we keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and avoid the pitfalls and
heartaches caused by division.
