We've spent a lot of time in the past few terms talking about 3 kings in depth - Saul, David, and Solomon. But now we're heading into the crazy period of time where Israel had 39 kings in the space of about 380 years. That's a lot of kings considering that a nation only got a new king once the old king was dead. So why so many kings? For that we need to check out the second part of Solomon's life.
We all know Solomon as the guy who was really wise, and most of us know that despite this wisdom he decided to marry a few extra wives from other nations - about 700 of them in fact. God wasn't too happy about this, He had said from the beginning of Israel, in the law He gave at Mount Sinai, that His people shouldn't mix with the other nations in marriage (Deut 7:3). Not only that, He also said that kings shouldn't take more than their share of stuff - including wives (Deut 17:17). |
And what was Solomon doing? Gathering up horses, and gold, and women...lots and lots of women. Women who turned his heart away from God. Naturally there was a consequence for this sin. God took the kingdom away from Solomon. Yet He remained faithful to his promise to David. He did not take the whole kingdom away, for he had promised David that his descendants would always rule God's people. So Solomon's son Rehoboam was given Judah (and Benjamin which had pretty much been absorbed into Judah by that stage), and the rest of the kingdom went to one of Solomon's workers - Jeroboam.
God promised Jeroboam that if he followed God and did not do as Solomon had, then God would remain faithful to him and make him like David was. But Jeroboam was so afraid that people would return to Rehoboam - because the temple where they worshiped God was in Judah - so he built two golden calves for Israel to worship instead. And so began the rule of the 39 kings of Israel and Judah. Instead of godly king following godly king, having long and peaceful reigns; evil men killed, stole, and fought over the crowns - not concerned about the people they were meant to be taking care of; only caring about getting and keeping power. |
During this time God sent many prophets to turn the people's hearts back to him. In the next two terms we are going to cover a lot of Biblical ground - weaving the books of the prophets in with the stories of the kings; covering the history of Israel and Judah to the point of exile...oh yeah, we're also going to be learning this song...should be fun...