The Divided Kingdom

The Divided Kingdom has it’s roots in Solomon’s reign, but didn’t come to realization until Solomon Died and his son took the Throne.

1 Kings 12:1–19 ESV

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away. Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ” So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, he spoke to them according to the counsel 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.” So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

The nation of Israel divided, we have Northern Israel, which consist of 10 tribes and Southern Israel which consists of 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin. While the Northern tribe lasted about 209 years and had 19 kings, who all “did evil before the Lord.” The Southern kingdom lasted about 345 years, with 19 kings and 1 queen, of those 8 were called “good” ( Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah/Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah) because they followed the example of David and obeyed Yahweh. The books of 1 and 2 Kings records from Solomon to the fall of the Southern Kingdom.

The Book can be structured in the following way.

I. King Solomon

A. His Succession (I Kings 1-2)

B. His Wisdom (1 Kings 3)

C. His reign (1 Kings 4-11)

II. King Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:1-22)

III. Kingdoms of Israel and Judah from 931 - 853 BC

A. Jeroboam I (I Kings 12:22 - 14:20)

B. Rehoboam (I Kings 14:21 - 33)

C. Abijah (1 Kings 15:1-8)

D. Asa (1 Kings 15:9-24)

E. Nadab ( 1 Kings 15:25 - 32)

F. Baasha ( 1 Kings 15:33 - 16:7)

G. Elah ( 1 Kings 16:8-14)

H. Zimri ( 1 Kings 16:15 - 20)

I. Omri ( 1 Kings 16:21 - 28)

J. Ahab ( 1 Kings 16:29 - 34)

IV. Prophetic Ministries of Elijah and Elisha

A. Elijah and King Ahab ( 1 Kings 17:1 - 22:40)

B. King Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:41 - 50)

C. King Ahaziah ( 1 Kings 22:51 - 2 Kings 1:18)

D. Elisha and King Jehoram ( 2 Kings 2:19 - 8:15)

V. Kingdoms of Israel and Judah from 852 - 722 BC

A. Jehoram ( 2 kings 8:16-24)

B. Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:25-29)

C. Jehu (2 Kings 9-10)

D. Athaliah (2 Kings and Joash (2 Kings 11-12)

E. Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:1-9)

F. Jehoash (2 Kings 13:10-25)

G. Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1-22)

H. Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-29)

I. Azariah (2 Kings 15:1-7)

J. Zechariah (2 Kings 15:8-12)

K. Shallum (2 Kings 15:13-16)

L. Menahem (2 Kings 15:17-22)

M. Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:23-26)

N. Pekah/Assyrian campaign against Israel (2 Kings 15:27-31)

O. Jotham (2 Kings 15:32-38)

P. Ahaz (2 Kings 16)

Q. Hoshea (2 Kings 17:1-6)

R. Fall of Samaria to Assyria (2 Kings 17:4-41)

VI. Kingdom of Judah from 729 - 587/586 BC

A. Hezekiah/ Assyrian Campaign Against Judah (2 Kings 18-20)

B. Manasseh (2 Kings 21:1-18)

C. Amon (2 Kings 21:19-26)

D. Josiah (2 Kings 22:1-23:30)

E. Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31-35)

F. Jehoiakim/ First Babylonian Invasion ( 2 Kings 23:36 - 24:7)

G. Jehoiachin/Second Babylonian Invasion (2 Kings 24:8-17)

VII. Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-21)

VIII. Historical Appendix A: Governor Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:22-26)

IX. Historical Appendix B: Jehoiachin in Exile (2 Kings 25:27-30)

Key Themes

1. Yahweh is the only true God. There is only one living God, and he is the Lord (1 Kings 18:15; 2 Kings 5:15). This Lord is not to be confused with the various so-called gods worshiped in Israel and other nations, for these are simply human creations (1 Kings 12:25–30; 2 Kings 17:16; 19:14–19). They are part of the created order, like the people who worship them; and they are powerless, futile entities (1 Kings 16:13; 18:22–40; 2 Kings 17:15; 18:33–35). The Lord, by contrast, is the incomparable Creator of heaven and earth (1 Kings 8:23; 2 Kings 19:15). He is utterly distinct from the world that he has created (cf. 1 Kings 8:9, 14–21, 27–30, where he is neither truly “in” the ark nor “in” the temple; and 18:26–38, where the antics of the Baal priests apparently imply belief in an intrinsic connection between their actions and divine action, while Elijah’s behavior implies quite the reverse). At the same time, the Lord is powerfully active within his world. It is he, and no one else, who controls nature (1 Kings 17–19; 2 Kings 1:2–17; 4:8–37; 5:1–18; 6:1–7, 27).

2. Yahweh controls history. The Lord, and neither an idol god, nor king, nor prophet, controls history (1 Kings 11:14, 23; 14:1–18; 22:1–38; 2 Kings 5:1–18; 10:32–33; 18:17–19:37). This is perhaps illustrated most clearly in the way in which prophets function within 1–2 Kings, describing the future before God brings it about (1 Kings 11:29–39; 13:1–32; 16:1–4; 20:13–34; 2 Kings 19:6–7, 20–34). Nothing can hinder the fulfillment of this prophetic word, although God himself, in his freedom, can override its fulfillment for his own purposes (cf. 1 Kings 21:17–29; 2 Kings 3:15–27, where the ending to the story is somewhat unexpected).

3. Yahweh demands exclusive worship. As the only God there is, the Lord demands exclusive worship. He will not take his place alongside the gods, nor is he willing to be displaced by them. He refuses to be confused with any part of the created order. He alone will be worshiped, by Israelite and foreigner alike (1 Kings 8:41–43, 60; 2 Kings 5:15–18; 17:24–41).

4. The content and place of true worship. Much of 1–2 Kings is therefore concerned to describe what is illegitimate in terms of worship. The main interest is in the content of this worship, which must neither involve idols or images nor reflect any aspect of the fertility and other cults of “the nations” (1 Kings 11:1–40; 12:25–13:34; 14:22–24; 16:29–33; 2 Kings 16:1–4; 17:7–23; 21:1–9). There is a subsidiary concern about the place of worship, which is ideally the Jerusalem temple, and not the local “high places” (1 Kings 3:2; 5:1–9:9; 15:14; 22:43; 2 Kings 18:4; 23:1–20).

5. The consequences of false worship. The books of 1–2 Kings also describe the moral wrongs that inevitably accompany false worship. They claim that true worship of God is always bound up with obedience to the law of God, and that the worship of something other than Godinevitably leads to some kind of mistreatment of fellow mortals in the eyes of God; see 1 Kings 21, where the kind of abandonment of God envisaged in Exodus 20 leads to wholesale breach of the other commandments described there (2 Kings 16:1–4, esp. v. 3; 2 Kings 21:1–16, esp. vv. 6, 16). By the same token, true wisdom is defined in 1–2 Kings in terms of true worship and wholehearted obedience. It cannot be divorced from either (see 1 Kings 1–11, where much can be learned about the nature of true wisdom).

6. Yahweh as just and gracious Lawgiver. As the Giver of the law, which defines true worship and right thinking and behavior generally, the Lord is also the one who executes justice on wrongdoers. The world of 1–2 Kings is a moral world in which wrongdoing is punished, whether the sinner be king (Solomon in 1 Kings 11:9–13; Jeroboam in 1 Kings 14:1–18), or prophet (the unnamed Judean in 1 Kings 13:7–25; the disobedient man in 1 Kings 20:35–43), or ordinary Israelite (Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:19–27; the Israelite officer in 2 Kings 7:17–20). It is not a vending-machine world, however, in which every coin of sin that is inserted results in individually packaged retribution. There is no neat correlation between sin and judgment in Kings, even though people are told that they must obey God if they are to be blessed by him (e.g., Solomon in 1 Kings 2:1–4; Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:38). This is largely because of the compassionate character of the Judge, who does not desire final judgment to fall on his creatures (2 Kings 13:23; 14:27) and who often delays or mitigates such judgment (1 Kings 21:25–29; 2 Kings 22:15–20). God’s grace is to be found everywhere in 1–2 Kings (1 Kings 11:9–13; 15:1–5; 2 Kings 8:19), confounding expectations that the reader might have formed on the basis of an oversimplified understanding of law. Sin can, nevertheless, accumulate to such an extent that judgment falls, not only on individuals but on whole cultures, sweeping the relatively innocent away with the guilty (2 Kings 17:1–23; 23:29–25:26).

7. Yahweh as promise-giver. Israel’s God is not only a lawgiver, however, but also a promise-giver. In 1–2 Kings it is a promise usually to be found at the heart of the Lord’s gracious behavior toward his people. The two most important divine promises referred to are those given to the patriarchs on the one hand, and to David on the other.

The patriarchal promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—descendants and everlasting possession of the land of Canaan—clearly influences God’s treatment of his people at various points in the story (2 Kings 13:23, and implicitly in 1 Kings 4:20–21, 24; 18:36). That promise also lies in the background of Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8:22–53, as Solomon looks forward to the possibility of forgiveness after judgment. The future-oriented aspect of the promise in this passage is interesting because it is a promise in clear tension with the story’s ending in 2 Kings 25, where disobedience has led to expulsion from the land and exile in a foreign empire. It seems that the true fulfillment of the promise is thought still to be in the future, even though it has also played its part in the past.

The promise given to David, that he should have an eternal dynasty, shares in the same kind of tension, and indeed appears in 1–2 Kings in a curiously paradoxical form. In much of the narrative it provides an explanation for why the Davidic dynasty survives when other dynasties do not, in spite of the disobedience of David’s successors (1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19). It is viewed, in other words, as unconditional in one aspect. Judah’s fate is not to be the same as Israel’s and Jerusalem’s fate is to be different from Samaria’s, because God has promised David a “lamp,” a descendant who will always sit on his throne. So when Solomon sins, the Davidic line does not lose the throne entirely, but retains “one tribe” (1 Kings 11:36) in the meantime, with the prospect of restoring its dominion at some time in the future (1 Kings 11:39). When Abijam sins, likewise, his son still retains the Judean throne (1 Kings 15:4).

The background here is the promise to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7, where the sins of David’s descendants are to be punished by the “rod of men” rather than by the kind of divine rejection Saul experienced (2 Sam. 7:14–16). This promise makes the ultimate difference between Davidic kings and those of other royal houses throughout much of the books of Kings, and makes the Judean dynasty unshakable even while the dynasties of the northern kingdom are like reeds “shaken in the water” (1 Kings 14:15). This dynasty survives in spite of the disobedience of David’s successors. At other times, however, the continuance of the dynasty is made dependent on the obedience of David’s successors (1 Kings 2:4; 8:25; 9:4–5). The promise is treated as conditional. As the books progress, it seems that this latter view prevails, as accumulating sin puts the promise in its unconditional aspect under great stress and in the end brings down God’s judgment on Judah just as severely as on Israel (2 Kings 16:1–4; 21:1–15; 23:31–25:26).

Yet Jehoiachin lives (2 Kings 25:27–30). The authors of Kings did not need to record this fact. They could have allowed Jehoiachin to dwell in obscurity with Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:18–25:7), who effectively ends up as the eunuch in Babylon that the prophet Isaiah had foreseen (2 Kings 20:18)—a mutilated man deprived of the heirs who might later claim the throne. The significance of this postscript on Jehoiachin appears clearer in an earlier section of 2 Kings. After the reign of two relatively righteous kings (Asa and Jehoshaphat), Judah found herself with two kings who share with King Ahab’s children both their names (Jehoram, Ahaziah) and their attraction to idolatry (2 Kings 8:16–29). Yet God had promised David an ever-burning “lamp” in Jerusalem (2 Kings 8:19; cf. 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4), an everlasting dynasty. Therefore, although Ahab’s dynasty comes to an end in 2 Kings 9–10, David’s dynasty does not. Although Ahaziah dies and his mother Athaliah tries to wipe out the entire royal family (2 Kings 11:1), one royal prince remains to carry on the family line (2 Kings 11:2). Against all the odds, Joash survives six years of his grandmother’s rule to emerge once again as king in a land purified of the worship of foreign gods (2 Kings 11:3–20).

Later, Jehoiachin reappears in the narrative of 1–2 Kings in a manner strikingly reminiscent of this reappearance of Joash after that earlier destruction of “all the royal family” (2 Kings 11:1). Like Joash, he unexpectedly survives in the midst of carnage; and like Joash during Athaliah’s reign, he represents the potential for the continuation of the Davidic line at a later time. All is not yet necessarily lost. The destruction of the family of the last king of Judah (Zedekiah) does not mean that no Davidic descendant is left. Second Kings 25:27–30 hints that the unconditional aspects of the Davidic promise may still, even after awful judgment has fallen, remain in force. Similarly, the prayer of Solomon in 1 Kings 8:22–53 looks beyond the disaster of exile, grounding its hope for the restoration of Israel to its land in God’s gracious and unconditional election of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see also 1 Kings 18:36–37; 2 Kings 13:23; 14:27). Solomon’s prayer had also refused to accept that God’s words about the rejection of people, city, and temple (e.g., 2 Kings 21:14; 23:27) were his final words. The words in 2 Kings 25:27–30 express the hope that God may indeed be found to be, in the end as in the beginning, a God of grace and not only of commandment, and that a Son of David will one day appear to introduce his righteous rule on the earth.