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The Story of the Conflict Between Israel and Judah – Why Did God_s Tribes Fight Each Other · truthunedited

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Speaker 1: What if I told you that God's own chosen people
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Speaker 1: would one day turn their swords against each other, that
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Speaker 1: brothers who once stood together at Mount Sinai would spill
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Speaker 1: each other's blood for centuries. This is the shocking true
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Speaker 1: story of how one moment of pride it tore apart
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Speaker 1: the greatest kingdom on earth, from Solomon's golden throne to
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Speaker 1: the ashes of Jerusalem. Witness how division, rebellion, and broken
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Speaker 1: promises led to the most tragic civil war in Biblical history.
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Speaker 1: The twelve tribes that conquered giants would now face their
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Speaker 1: greatest enemy themselves, prepared to discover the hidden prophecies, political intrigue,
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Speaker 1: and divine judgments that split God's Kingdom in two and
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Speaker 1: change the course of history forever. This is not just
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Speaker 1: ancient history. It's a warning that echoes through the ages.
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Speaker 1: The great kingdom that David built and Solomon expanded was
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Speaker 1: starting to crack. What began as a golden Age was
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Speaker 1: slowly turning into something darker. Solomon needed money, lots of
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Speaker 1: it for his grand building projects. The magnificent Temple, his
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Speaker 1: luxurious palace, and cities across the land all required resources
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Speaker 1: that the kingdom had never spent before. First Kings chapter
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Speaker 1: four tells us about Solomon's system. He divided Israel into
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Speaker 1: twelve districts, each responsible for providing food and supplies for
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Speaker 1: the royal court for one month every year. But this
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Speaker 1: was just the beginning. The king also demanded something that
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Speaker 1: would create deep wounds in his people's hearts. As we
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Speaker 1: read in First Kings chapter five, verse thirteen, King Solomon
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Speaker 1: conscripted laborers from all Israel, thirty thousand men. These weren't volunteers.
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Speaker 1: These were fathers, sons, and brothers, forced to leave their
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Speaker 1: families and work on the king's projects. The text continues.
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Speaker 1: He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten
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Speaker 1: thousand a month, so that they spent one month in
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Speaker 1: Lebanon and two months at home. Imagine being torn away
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Speaker 1: from your farm, your family, your life, to cut down
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Speaker 1: trees in a foreign land. The northern tribes felt this
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Speaker 1: burden more heavily than anyone else, While Judas seemed to
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Speaker 1: receive special treatment. The other tribes watched their men disappear
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Speaker 1: into forced labor gangs month after month. But it didn't
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Speaker 1: stop there. First Kings chapter nine, verse twenty one reveals
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Speaker 1: an even harsher reality, their descendants remaining in the land,
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Speaker 1: whom the Israelites could not exterminate. These Solomon conscripted for
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Speaker 1: his slave labor force. As it is to this day,
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Speaker 1: Solomon had created a system of permanent slavery within God's
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Speaker 1: chosen people. The Bible tells us in First Kings, Chapter five,
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Speaker 1: verse fifteen that Solomon also had seventy thousand carriers and
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Speaker 1: eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills. Think about those numbers.
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Speaker 1: That's one hundred and fifty thousand men working just on
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Speaker 1: construction projects. Add the thirty thousand cutting trees in Lebanon,
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Speaker 1: and you have almost two hundred thousand men taken away
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Speaker 1: from their normal lives. Every family in Israel felt this burden.
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Speaker 1: Mothers watched their sons march away. Wives said goodbye to
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Speaker 1: husbands who might not return for months. Children grew up
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Speaker 1: barely knowing their fathers. The kingdom that was supposed to
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Speaker 1: be blessed by God was becoming a place where families
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Speaker 1: were torn apart for the king's glory. Solomon's troubles didn't
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Speaker 1: begin with money or labor. They started in his heart.
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Speaker 1: The king, who once asked God for wisdom was now
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Speaker 1: making choices that would destroy everything his father David had
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Speaker 1: built spiritually. As First King's Chapter eleven opens, we see
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Speaker 1: the root of the problem. King Solomon, however, loved many
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Speaker 1: foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.
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Speaker 1: These weren't just marriages. They were spiritual disasters waiting to happen.
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Speaker 1: God had been clear about this, as verse two reminds us.
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Speaker 1: They were from nations about which the Lord had told
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Speaker 1: the Israelites, you must not inter marry with them, because
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Speaker 1: they will surely turn your hearts after their gods. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: Solomon held fast to them in love. The Bible tells
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Speaker 1: us in verse three just how far this went. He
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Speaker 1: had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines,
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Speaker 1: and his wives led him astray. Seven hundred wives and
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Speaker 1: three hundred concubines. Each marriage was probably a political alliance,
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Speaker 1: but each one also brought foreign gods to the heart
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Speaker 1: of Israel, and that's exactly what happened. Verse four tells
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Speaker 1: us the tragic truth. As Solomon grew old, his wives
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Speaker 1: turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was
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Speaker 1: not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the
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Speaker 1: heart of David, his father had been. Picture this scene,
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Speaker 1: the man who built God's temple was now building altars
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Speaker 1: to false gods. Verse seven shows us just how far
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Speaker 1: he fell. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built
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Speaker 1: a high place for Kimosh, the detestable god of Moab,
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Speaker 1: and for Molik, the detestable god of the Ammonites. Kiemosh
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Speaker 1: demanded child sacrifice. Molek required babies to be burned alive.
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Speaker 1: These weren't just different religions. These were demons that demanded
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Speaker 1: the blood of innocence, and Solomon, the wisest man on earth,
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Speaker 1: was building places where his wives could worship these evil spirits.
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Speaker 1: The same hands that had dedicated the temple to the
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Speaker 1: Lord were now raising stones to honor demons. The kingdom
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Speaker 1: that was supposed to be a light to the nations
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Speaker 1: was now embracing the very darkness God had commanded them
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Speaker 1: to drive out. Verse eight tells us he didn't stop there.
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Speaker 1: He did the same for all his foreign wives, who
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Speaker 1: burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. The smell
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Speaker 1: of burning sacrifices to false gods was rising from the
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Speaker 1: hills around Jerusalem, mixing with the smoke from God's temple.
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Speaker 1: It was a spiritual abomination that made God's anger burn hot.
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Speaker 1: God's patience has limits, and Solomon had crossed them. The Lord,
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Speaker 1: who had appeared to Solomon twice, who had blessed him
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Speaker 1: beyond measure, now began to act in judgment. First Kings,
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Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, verse fourteen tells us what happened next. Then
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Speaker 1: the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Haddad, the
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Speaker 1: Edomite from the royal line of Edom. This wasn't random
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Speaker 1: political trouble. This was divine judgment in action. Haddad had
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Speaker 1: a personal reason to hate Solomon. Years earlier, when David
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Speaker 1: conquered Edom, his commander Joab had tried to kill every
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Speaker 1: male in the country. But Haddad was just a boy then,
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Speaker 1: and some Edamite officials had rescued him and fled to Egypt.
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Speaker 1: The Bible tells us in verses seventeen to eighteen what happened.
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Speaker 1: But Haddad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with
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Speaker 1: some Edamite officials who had served his father. They set
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Speaker 1: out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people
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Speaker 1: from Paran with them. They went to Egypt to Pharaoh,
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Speaker 1: King of Egypt, who gave Haddad a house and land
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Speaker 1: and provided him with food. Now Hadad was grown married
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Speaker 1: to Pharaoh's sister in law and had a son, but
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Speaker 1: he never forgot what David's army had done to his people.
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Speaker 1: When he heard that both David and Joab were dead,
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Speaker 1: he asked Pharaoh to let him return home. As Verse
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Speaker 1: twenty two records, then Pharaoh said to him, but what
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Speaker 1: have you lacked here with me that you want to
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Speaker 1: go back to your own country nothing. Hadad replied, but
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Speaker 1: do let me go. But God wasn't finished. Verse twenty
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Speaker 1: three introduces us to another enemy, and God raised up
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Speaker 1: against Solomon another adversary, Reison's, son of Eliyada, who had
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Speaker 1: fled from his master, Haddad Dezir, king of Zoba. Raison
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Speaker 1: gathered men around him and became leader of a rebel band.
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Speaker 1: When David defeated Hadad, ezer Rezon escaped and eventually took
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Speaker 1: control of Damascus. The Bible tells us in verse twenty
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Speaker 1: five that Reison was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived,
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Speaker 1: adding to the trouble caused by Hadad, reason ruled in
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Speaker 1: Aram and was hostile toward Israel. These weren't just political problems.
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Speaker 1: They were signs that God's favor was lifting from Solomon's kingdom.
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Speaker 1: The same God who had given Solomon peace on all
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Speaker 1: sides was now allowing enemies to rise up and trouble him.
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Speaker 1: The kingdom that once made other nations tremble was now
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Speaker 1: being attacked from multiple directions. God rarely acts without warning,
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Speaker 1: and he was about to send a message that would
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Speaker 1: change everything. The messenger was a prophet named Ahijah from Shiloh,
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Speaker 1: and his target was a young man named Jeroboam. Jeroboam
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Speaker 1: wasn't just anybody. First Kings, chapter eleven, verse twenty eight
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Speaker 1: tells us now, Jeroboam was a man of standing, and
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Speaker 1: when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work,
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Speaker 1: he put him in charge of the whole labor force
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Speaker 1: of the tribes of Joseph. This was the man Solomon
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Speaker 1: trusted to oversee the forced labor of Ephraim and Manassa,
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Speaker 1: two of the most powerful northern tribes. Jeroboam saw first
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Speaker 1: hand how the people suffered under Solomon's harsh policies. He
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Speaker 1: watched families torn apart, saw men worked to exhaustion, witness
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Speaker 1: the growing anger in the northern tribes. But God had
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Speaker 1: different plans for Jeroboam, as Verses twenty nine to thirty
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Speaker 1: described the scene. About that time, Jeroboam was going out
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Speaker 1: of Jerusalem, and Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, met him
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Speaker 1: on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of
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Speaker 1: them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took
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Speaker 1: hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore
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Speaker 1: it into twelve pieces. Picture this moment, two men alone
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Speaker 1: on a dusty road, and suddenly the prophet grabs his
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Speaker 1: new robe and rips it apart. This wasn't just dramatic,
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Speaker 1: This was prophecy in action. In those days, when a
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Speaker 1: prophet acted out a message, it meant God was about
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Speaker 1: to make it happen. Then Ahijah spoke the words that
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Speaker 1: would reshape history, as recorded in verse thirty one, take
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Speaker 1: ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord,
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Speaker 1: the God of Israel, says. See, I Am going to
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Speaker 1: tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you
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Speaker 1: ten tribes. But God was in being unfair to David's
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Speaker 1: family Verses thirty two to thirty three explained why this
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Speaker 1: was happening. But for the sake of my servant David
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Speaker 1: and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out
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Speaker 1: of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.
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Speaker 1: I will do this because they have forsaken me and
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Speaker 1: worshiped Ashtorreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Kamosh, the God
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Speaker 1: of the Moabites, and Molich, the God of the Ammonites,
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Speaker 1: and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done
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Speaker 1: what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees
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Speaker 1: and laws as David, Solomon's father did. The message was
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Speaker 1: clear and shocking. God himself was going to split his
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Speaker 1: people's kingdom, and he was giving ten tribes to this
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Speaker 1: young labor supervisor. But it wouldn't happen immediately. God still
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Speaker 1: honored his promise to David. When Solomon heard about Ahijah's prophecy,
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Speaker 1: his reaction was swift and deadly. As First King's Chapter eleven,
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Speaker 1: verse forty tells us, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but
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Speaker 1: Jeroboam fled to Egypt to Shoshok the King, and stayed
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Speaker 1: there until Solomon's death. Think about what This meant the
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Speaker 1: man who had been wise enough to settle disputes between mothers,
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Speaker 1: who had impressed the Queen of Sheba with his understanding,
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Speaker 1: was now so threatened by a prophecy that he was
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Speaker 1: willing to murder one of his own officials. But this
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Speaker 1: also revealed something about Solomon's spiritual condition. A king who
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Speaker 1: truly trusted God wouldn't be afraid of prophecy. He would
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Speaker 1: seek to understand God's will and repent if necessary. Instead,
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Speaker 1: Solomon's first instinct was violence. The wise king had become
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Speaker 1: a paranoid tyrant. Jeroboam was smart, though, he knew that
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Speaker 1: if God had chosen him, no human king could stop it.
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Speaker 1: So he ran to the one place Solomon couldn't reach him, Egypt. There,
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Speaker 1: under Pharaoh Schshack's protection, he waited. This wasn't just a
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Speaker 1: political escape, This was faith in action. Jeroboam believed God's
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Speaker 1: word enough to risk everything. He left his position of authority,
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Speaker 1: his comfortable life in Jerusalem, his family and friends. He
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Speaker 1: became an exile in a foreign land, trusting that the
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Speaker 1: Lord who had spoken through Ahijah would make good on
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Speaker 1: his promise. Egypt was an interesting choice of refuge. This
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Speaker 1: was the same country that had enslaved Israel for four
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Speaker 1: hundred years, but now it became a place of safety
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Speaker 1: for a future king of Israel. God works in mysterious ways,
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Speaker 1: sometimes using even former enemies to accomplish his purposes. Years passed.
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Speaker 1: Jeroboam lived as a refugee in Pharaoh's court, watching and waiting.
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Speaker 1: He probably heard news from home, reports of Solomon's continued
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Speaker 1: building projects, stories of the king's many wives, whispers about
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Speaker 1: the growing resentment among the northern tribes. Every day that
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Speaker 1: passed was another day closer to God's promise being fulfilled.
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Speaker 1: Jeroboam had learned to be patient, to trust God's timing
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Speaker 1: rather than trying to force things to happen. This was
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Speaker 1: preparation for kingship, learning to wait on the Lord. After
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Speaker 1: forty long years on the throne, Solomon's time was up.
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Speaker 1: First Kings Chapter eleven, verse forty two records it simply
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Speaker 1: Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Forty years.
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Speaker 1: That's how long it took for the wisest man in
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Speaker 1: the world to destroy the spiritual foundation of his kingdom.
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Speaker 1: The man who had started his reign by asking for
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Speaker 1: wisdom to govern God's people was ending it with enemies
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Speaker 1: on every border and division in every heart. When Solomon
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Speaker 1: began his reign, the kingdom was united, wealthy, and blessed
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Speaker 1: by God. Israel was respected and feared by every nation
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Speaker 1: from Egypt to the Euphrates River. The temple was the
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Speaker 1: most magnificent building in the world, and people came from
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Speaker 1: everywhere just to see Solomon's wisdom and wealth. But now
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Speaker 1: at the end, everything was different. The people were angry
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Speaker 1: and divided. Enemies were attacking from multiple directions. The spiritual
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Speaker 1: life of the nation was corrupted by foreign gods and
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Speaker 1: pagan worship. The forced labor system had created resentment that
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Speaker 1: would never heal. Verse forty three tells us what happened next.
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Speaker 1: Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in
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Speaker 1: the city of David. His father, and ri Hoboam, his son,
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Speaker 1: succeeded him as king. Just like that, the Golden Age
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Speaker 1: was over. The kingdom that had reached from Egypt to
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Speaker 1: the Euphrates, that had made Israel the envy of every
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Speaker 1: nation was now in the hands of Solomon's son. But
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Speaker 1: ri Hoboam wasn't inheriting his father's wisdom he was inheriting
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Speaker 1: his father's problems. The forced labor gangs were still there,
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Speaker 1: the heavy taxes were still crushing the people. The resentment
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Speaker 1: that had been building for decades was about to explode.
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Speaker 1: The new king also inherited a kingdom on the edge
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Speaker 1: of civil war. For forty years, the northern tribes had
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Speaker 1: watched Judah receive preferential treatment while they carried the heaviest burdens.
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Speaker 1: They had endured forced labour, excessive taxation, and spiritual corruption.
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Speaker 1: Now they were ready to demand change. And somewhere in Egypt,
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Speaker 1: a man named Jeroboam heard the news and knew his
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Speaker 1: time had come. The prophecy that had driven him into
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Speaker 1: exile was about to be fulfilled. When Solomon died, something
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Speaker 1: interesting happened. Instead of automatically accepting Rijo Boem as king
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, all the tribes of Israel called for a
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Speaker 1: meeting at Sechem. This wasn't the normal way to crown
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Speaker 1: a new king, and the location they chose sent a
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Speaker 1: powerful message. Shechem wasn't just any city. It was loaded
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Speaker 1: with spiritual significance. This was where Abraham first built an
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Speaker 1: altar when God promised him the land. It was where
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Speaker 1: Jacob bought land and dug a well that would still
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Speaker 1: be there when Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman centuries later.
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Speaker 1: Most importantly, it was where Joshua gathered all the tribes
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Speaker 1: to renew their covenant with God before he died. The
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Speaker 1: people were saying something important. By choosing Shechem. They were
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Speaker 1: reminding everyone that Israel belonged to God first and king's second.
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Speaker 1: They were going back to their roots, to the place
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Speaker 1: where their ancestors had promised to serve the Lord first Kings.
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Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, verse one tells us what happened. Rioboam went
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Speaker 1: to Shechem for all Israel had gone there to make
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Speaker 1: him king. Notice something important here. The text doesn't say
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Speaker 1: they went there to crown him. It says they went
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Speaker 1: there to make him king. The difference is huge. They
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Speaker 1: were letting Rihoboam know that becoming king wasn't automatic. He
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Speaker 1: would have to earn their loyalty. This was already a
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Speaker 1: sign that Solomon's kingdom was fracturing in David's time. When
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Speaker 1: he died, Solomon became king without question. The people loved
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Speaker 1: David so much that they gladly accepted his son. But
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Speaker 1: now forty years later, the tribes were demanding to have
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Speaker 1: their say. Think about how this must have felt to Rioboam.
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Speaker 1: He had grown up as a prince in Jerusalem, surrounded
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Speaker 1: by luxury and servants. He probably expected to simply take
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Speaker 1: his father's throne and continue ruling the way Solomon had.
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Speaker 1: But instead he was being summoned to Shechem like a
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Speaker 1: common citizen to justify his right to be king. The
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Speaker 1: journey from Jerusalem to Shechem was only about thirty miles,
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Speaker 1: but it must have felt much longer to the new king.
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Speaker 1: With every step, he was moving away from the comfort
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Speaker 1: and security of his father's palace and into uncertain territory.
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Speaker 1: When rie Hoboam arrived at Shechem, he found representatives from
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Speaker 1: all twelve tribes waiting for him. These weren't just random people.
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Speaker 1: These were the leaders, the elders, the men who spoke
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Speaker 1: for their tribes, and they had serious business to discuss.
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Speaker 1: When rie Hoboam arrived at Schechem, he got a surprise.
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Speaker 1: Jeroboam was there too. The man who had fled to
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Speaker 1: Egypt years earlier had returned, and he was speaking for
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Speaker 1: the northern tribes. First Kings, Chapter twelve, verses three to
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Speaker 1: four record what happened. So they sent for Jeroboam, and
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Speaker 1: he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rihoboam
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Speaker 1: and said to him, your father put a heavy yoke
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Speaker 1: on us, But now lighten the harsh labor and the
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Speaker 1: heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.
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Speaker 1: This was their moment. After decades of forced labor, crushing taxes,
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Speaker 1: and feeling ignored by Solomon's government, the people finally had
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Speaker 1: a chance to speak up. And they weren't asking for much,
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Speaker 1: just relief from the burden that had been breaking their
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Speaker 1: backs for years. Notice how reasonable they were being. They
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Speaker 1: weren't demanding revolution or rebellion. They weren't asking for independence
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Speaker 1: or threatening violence. They were simply saying, make things easier
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Speaker 1: for us, and will gladly serve you as king. It
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Speaker 1: was a fair request from people who had suffered under
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Speaker 1: Solomon's policies. The word yoke that they used was perfect.
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Speaker 1: A yoke was the heavy wooden frame that farmers put
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Speaker 1: on oxen to make them pull plows or carts. It
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Speaker 1: was a symbol of hard work and burden. The people
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Speaker 1: were saying that Solomon had treated them like work animals,
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Speaker 1: and they wanted his son to treat them like human beings.
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Speaker 1: But there was something else in their words, a warning.
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Speaker 1: They were telling ri Hooboam that their loyalty wasn't guaranteed.
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Speaker 1: Unlike previous generations who had followed David and Solomon without question,
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Speaker 1: these people were making their support conditional on how they
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Speaker 1: were treated. Jeroboam's presence made the message even stronger. Here
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Speaker 1: was the man God had chosen to rule ten tribes,
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Speaker 1: standing with the people and speaking their concerns. Even though
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Speaker 1: the people might not have known about the prophecy, they
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Speaker 1: could see that Jeroboam was a natural leader who understood
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Speaker 1: their struggles. Ri Hoboam asked for three days to think
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Speaker 1: about it. As Verse five tells us Rie Hoboam answered,
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Speaker 1: go away for three days and then come back to me.
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Speaker 1: So the people went away three days. That's all the time.
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Speaker 1: The new king had to make the most important decision
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Speaker 1: of his reign. Would he choose wisdom and compassion, following
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Speaker 1: the example of his grandfather David, or would he choose
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Speaker 1: pride and harshness following his father's later example. The future
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Speaker 1: of God's kingdom hung in the balance. Twelve tribes were
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Speaker 1: watching and waiting in Egypt, Pharaoh Shishach was probably hearing
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Speaker 1: reports and planning his next move. Most importantly, God himself
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Speaker 1: was watching to see if his prophecy would be fulfilled
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Speaker 1: through human wisdom or human foolishness. The seeds of division
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Speaker 1: that had been planted during Solomon's reign were about to
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Speaker 1: either sprout into full rebellion or be pulled up by
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Speaker 1: wise leadership. Everything depended on what riho Boem would decide
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Speaker 1: to do. The three days were up, everyone gathered again
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Speaker 1: at Chechem. Rioboam had spent those days asking for advice,
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Speaker 1: and now he had to give his answer. The future
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Speaker 1: of the entire kingdom hung on what he would say next. First,
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Speaker 1: rie Hoboam had talked to the older men who had
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Speaker 1: served his father Solomon. First Kings, Chapter twelve, verse seven
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Speaker 1: tells us what they said. If today you will be
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Speaker 1: a servant to these people and serve them and give
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Speaker 1: them a good answer, they will always be your servants.
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Speaker 1: These wise old men understood something important. Real leadership means
24:36
Speaker 1: serving the people, not just ruling over them. They had
24:40
Speaker 1: watched Solomon's kingdom grow angry and divide it, and they
24:44
Speaker 1: knew the only way to heal it. Was through kindness
24:47
Speaker 1: and understanding. But Rioboam also talked to his young friends,
24:53
Speaker 1: the men who had grown up with him in the palace.
24:57
Speaker 1: These young advisers had never known hardship or struggle. They
25:01
Speaker 1: had lived their whole lives surrounded by luxury and power.
25:06
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter twelve, Verses ten to eleven record their
25:10
Speaker 1: terrible advice. The young men who had grown up with
25:14
Speaker 1: him replied, these people have said to you, your father
25:18
Speaker 1: put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.
25:23
Speaker 1: Now tell them my little finger is thicker than my
25:26
Speaker 1: father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke,
25:30
Speaker 1: I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you
25:34
Speaker 1: with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions. Think about
25:40
Speaker 1: how arrogant this advice was. Instead of showing mercy to
25:44
Speaker 1: suffering people, they wanted Rihoboem to boast about making things worse.
25:51
Speaker 1: Instead of healing the kingdom's wounds, they wanted him to
25:55
Speaker 1: tear them open even wider. When the people returned on
25:59
Speaker 1: the third day, Rihoboem made his choice. Verse thirteen tells
26:05
Speaker 1: us what he did. The king answered the people harshly,
26:09
Speaker 1: rejecting the advice given him by the elders. Instead. Verse
26:14
Speaker 1: fourteen shows us the exact words he spoke. My father
26:19
Speaker 1: made your yoke heavy, I will make it even heavier.
26:23
Speaker 1: My father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you
26:27
Speaker 1: with scorpions. The crowd must have gasped when they heard
26:31
Speaker 1: these words. They had come asking for relief from their suffering,
26:36
Speaker 1: and the new king was promising to make their lives
26:39
Speaker 1: even worse. They had offered loyalty in exchange for kindness,
26:45
Speaker 1: and he had answered with threats and cruelty. But the
26:49
Speaker 1: Bible makes something clear in verse fifteen, so the king
26:53
Speaker 1: did not listen to the people, for this turn of
26:57
Speaker 1: events was from the Lord to fulfill the world. The
27:00
Speaker 1: Lord had spoken to Jeroboam, son of Nabat, through Ahijah,
27:04
Speaker 1: the Shylenite. Riehoboam thought he was showing strength, but he
27:10
Speaker 1: was actually fulfilling God's prophecy. His pride and harshness were
27:15
Speaker 1: the tools God used to split the kingdom exactly as
27:18
Speaker 1: he had promised. Sometimes human foolishness serves divine purposes. The
27:25
Speaker 1: reaction to Rihoboam's harsh words was immediate and explosive. The
27:30
Speaker 1: representatives of the northern tribes had heard enough. After decades
27:35
Speaker 1: of suffering under Solomon's policies, and now facing the promise
27:38
Speaker 1: of even worse treatment, they made a decision that would
27:42
Speaker 1: change history forever. First Kings, Chapter twelve, verse sixteen records
27:47
Speaker 1: their response. When all Israel saw that the king refused
27:50
Speaker 1: to listen to them, they answered the king, what share
27:54
Speaker 1: do we have in David? We have no inheritance in
27:56
Speaker 1: the son of Jesse. To your tense, Israel, look after
28:00
Speaker 1: your own house, David. So the Israelites went home. These
28:05
Speaker 1: weren't just angry words. This was a formal declaration of independence.
28:10
Speaker 1: When they said what share do we have in David,
28:14
Speaker 1: they were cutting all ties with the royal family that
28:17
Speaker 1: had ruled them for decades. When they said to your tents, Israel,
28:23
Speaker 1: they were using an ancient battle cry that meant every
28:26
Speaker 1: man for himself. Think about how this must have felt
28:30
Speaker 1: to the tribal leaders. For three days, they had waited
28:33
Speaker 1: patiently for a reasonable answer. They had offered loyalty and
28:37
Speaker 1: service in exchange for fair treatment, but instead of mercy,
28:42
Speaker 1: they got threats. Instead of a king who would serve them,
28:46
Speaker 1: they got a tyrant who wanted to crush them. The
28:49
Speaker 1: phrase look after your own house David was particularly stinging.
28:55
Speaker 1: They were telling rejo Boem that he could be king
28:57
Speaker 1: of his own family if he wanted. They were done
29:00
Speaker 1: being part of his kingdom. The unity that David had
29:04
Speaker 1: built through love and respect was being destroyed by his
29:09
Speaker 1: grandson's pride and cruelty. As the tribal representatives left Shechem
29:14
Speaker 1: and returned to their territories, they carried news that would
29:19
Speaker 1: spread like wildfire. The northern tribes were free from Rehoboam's rule.
29:25
Speaker 1: After forty years of heavy taxation, enforced labour under Solomon,
29:29
Speaker 1: and now facing even worse treatment under his son, they
29:33
Speaker 1: had chosen independence over oppression. But Verse seventeen shows us
29:38
Speaker 1: that not everyone joined the rebellion. But as for the
29:42
Speaker 1: Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rihoboam
29:46
Speaker 1: still ruled over them. The tribe of Judah, Rehoboam's own people,
29:51
Speaker 1: remained loyal. They had benefited from the favoritism that Solomon
29:56
Speaker 1: had shown them, and they weren't ready to rebel again.
30:00
Speaker 1: Saint David's family, Benjamin, the small tribe that bordered Judah,
30:06
Speaker 1: also stayed loyal. These two tribes would form the Southern Kingdom,
30:11
Speaker 1: still ruled by David's descendants from Jerusalem, but the other
30:16
Speaker 1: ten tribes, the vast majority of Israel's people and territory,
30:21
Speaker 1: were now free to choose their own king. The kingdom
30:25
Speaker 1: that God had given to David, that Solomon had expanded
30:28
Speaker 1: to its greatest glory, was now split in two. Brothers
30:33
Speaker 1: who had fought together against the Philistines and other enemies,
30:37
Speaker 1: would now see each other as separate nations. With the
30:41
Speaker 1: northern tribes in rebellion, they needed a new king. They
30:45
Speaker 1: didn't have to look far. Jeroboam was right there among them,
30:50
Speaker 1: the man who had spoken for them at Shechem. More importantly,
30:55
Speaker 1: he was the man God had chosen through the prophet
30:57
Speaker 1: Ahijah's dramatic prophecy earlier First Kings, Chapter twelve, verse twenty
31:04
Speaker 1: tells us what happened when all the Israelites heard that
31:08
Speaker 1: Jeroboam had returned. They sent and called him to the
31:11
Speaker 1: assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the
31:16
Speaker 1: tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David.
31:20
Speaker 1: This wasn't a violent overthrow or a military coup. This
31:24
Speaker 1: was the people choosing their leader freely. And openly. The
31:28
Speaker 1: Northern tribes gathered in assembly, probably at Shechem, where everything
31:33
Speaker 1: had started, and formally crowned Jeroboam as their king. Think
31:39
Speaker 1: about how amazing this moment must have been for Jeroboam.
31:44
Speaker 1: Years earlier, he had been forced to flee to Egypt
31:47
Speaker 1: when Solomon tried to kill him. He had lived as
31:51
Speaker 1: an exile, trusting in God's promise that someday he would
31:55
Speaker 1: rule over ten tribes. Now that promise was being fulfilled,
32:00
Speaker 1: killed exactly as the prophet had said. But becoming king
32:04
Speaker 1: wasn't easy. Jeroboam inherited a kingdom that was angry, divided,
32:10
Speaker 1: and economically struggling. The Northern tribes had just broken away
32:14
Speaker 1: from the wealthiest and most established part of Israel. They
32:18
Speaker 1: had no capital city, no established government, no treasury, and
32:23
Speaker 1: no army ready for war. The first thing Jeroboam did
32:27
Speaker 1: was established his capital at Shechem. This made perfect sense.
32:32
Speaker 1: It was where the rebellion had started, where the tribes
32:35
Speaker 1: had gathered to make him king, and where their ancestors
32:38
Speaker 1: had renewed their covenant with God. Shechem was also centrally
32:42
Speaker 1: located in the territory of Ephraim, one of the most
32:46
Speaker 1: powerful northern tribes. The Bible tells us in verse twenty
32:49
Speaker 1: five that Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of
32:54
Speaker 1: Ephraim and lived there. A king needed a secure base
32:58
Speaker 1: of operations, and Shesham provided that. But Jeroboam also did
33:04
Speaker 1: something else that showed his strategic thinking. From there, he
33:08
Speaker 1: went out and built up Penuel. Penuel was located east
33:12
Speaker 1: of the Jordan River, in the territory that the tribes
33:15
Speaker 1: of gad Reuben and half of Manassa had settled. By
33:20
Speaker 1: fortifying Penuel, Jeroboam was showing that his kingdom included not
33:25
Speaker 1: just the tribes west of the Jordan, but also those
33:28
Speaker 1: on the eastern side. He was making sure all ten
33:32
Speaker 1: tribes knew they were part of his new kingdom. But
33:35
Speaker 1: even as Jeroboam celebrated his rise to power, he faced
33:40
Speaker 1: a serious problem. The Temple was still in Jerusalem in
33:44
Speaker 1: Rijoboam's territory. Every faithful Israelite was supposed to go there
33:49
Speaker 1: for the major festivals. How could he keep his people
33:53
Speaker 1: loyal when their religion required them to visit his enemy's
33:56
Speaker 1: capital three times a year. Back in Jerususalem, Rie Hoboam
34:02
Speaker 1: was dealing with the shock of losing most of his kingdom.
34:06
Speaker 1: The young king, who had expected to rule over all
34:09
Speaker 1: twelve tribes, now controlled only two. His harsh words at
34:14
Speaker 1: Shechem had cost him eighty percent of his territory and people.
34:19
Speaker 1: His first instinct was to solve the problem with force.
34:23
Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, chapter eleven, verse one tells us what he did.
34:29
Speaker 1: When ri Hoboam arrived in Jerusalem. He mustered Judah and
34:33
Speaker 1: Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand able young men to
34:37
Speaker 1: go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom.
34:41
Speaker 1: For ri Hooboam one hundred and eighty thousand soldiers. That
34:46
Speaker 1: was an enormous army for those days. Rihoboam was planning
34:51
Speaker 1: a full scale invasion to force the northern tribes back
34:54
Speaker 1: under his rule. He probably thought that if he could
34:57
Speaker 1: win a few quick battles, the rebels would submit and
35:00
Speaker 1: the kingdom would be reunited. But Rihoboam had forgotten something important.
35:07
Speaker 1: This division wasn't just about politics or economics. God himself
35:12
Speaker 1: had torn the kingdom apart through the prophecy given to Jeroboam,
35:17
Speaker 1: and God wasn't going to let human armies stop his plan.
35:21
Speaker 1: Just as Rihoboam was preparing for war. God sent a
35:24
Speaker 1: prophet named Shemaiah with a message. Verse two tells us
35:29
Speaker 1: what happened. But this word of God came to Shemaiah,
35:33
Speaker 1: the man of God. The message was clear and direct,
35:37
Speaker 1: as recorded in verse four, this is what the Lord says,
35:42
Speaker 1: Do not go up to fight against your fellow Israelites.
35:45
Speaker 1: Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.
35:50
Speaker 1: Think about how hard this message must have been for
35:52
Speaker 1: Rihoboam to hear. He had just lost most of his kingdom,
35:57
Speaker 1: and now God was telling him he couldn't and try
36:00
Speaker 1: to get it back. The prophet was saying that the
36:04
Speaker 1: division was God's will, not just a political rebellion that
36:08
Speaker 1: could be fixed with military force. But the message wasn't
36:11
Speaker 1: just for re Hoboem, it was for all the soldiers too.
36:16
Speaker 1: Shemaiah called the northern tribes your fellow Israelites, reminding everyone
36:21
Speaker 1: that this wasn't a war against foreign enemies. These were
36:25
Speaker 1: brothers who would be fighting, brothers children of Abraham killing
36:29
Speaker 1: children of Abraham. The Bible tells us in verse four
36:33
Speaker 1: what happened next. So they obeyed the word of the
36:37
Speaker 1: Lord and went home again as the Lord had ordered.
36:41
Speaker 1: This was remarkable a king ready for war with a
36:46
Speaker 1: huge army assembled, simply sent everyone home because a prophet
36:50
Speaker 1: said so. This showed that even though the kingdom was
36:53
Speaker 1: divided politically, many people still recognized God's authority. They understand
37:00
Speaker 1: good that no human king, not even David's grandson, had
37:04
Speaker 1: the right to fight against what God had clearly decreed.
37:08
Speaker 1: Rihoboam's army went home, and the northern tribes remained independent.
37:14
Speaker 1: The division that had started with harsh words at Shesham
37:18
Speaker 1: was now confirmed by divine command. There would be no
37:22
Speaker 1: quick military solution to reunite the kingdom. Even though Rihoboam's
37:27
Speaker 1: army had gone home, Jeroboam still faced a serious problem.
37:32
Speaker 1: The temple was in Jerusalem, in enemy territory, but God's
37:36
Speaker 1: law required all Israelite men to come there for three
37:40
Speaker 1: major festivals every year, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
37:47
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter twelve, verse twenty six shows us Jeroboam's worry.
37:53
Speaker 1: Jeroboam thought to himself, the kingdom will now likely revert
37:57
Speaker 1: to the House of David could see the danger clearly.
38:02
Speaker 1: If his people kept going to Jerusalem to worship, they
38:05
Speaker 1: would be reminded of their old loyalty to David's family,
38:09
Speaker 1: they might decide to rejoin Rihoboam's kingdom. Verse twenty seven
38:14
Speaker 1: reveals his fear. If these people go up to offer
38:18
Speaker 1: sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they
38:21
Speaker 1: will again give their allegiance to their lord Ri Hooboam,
38:26
Speaker 1: King of Judah. They will kill me and return to
38:29
Speaker 1: King Rihoboam. So Jeroboam made a decision that would have
38:34
Speaker 1: terrible consequences for generations. Instead of trusting God to keep
38:39
Speaker 1: his promise, instead of finding a way to remain faithful
38:43
Speaker 1: while being politically independent, he chose to create his own religion.
38:48
Speaker 1: Verse twenty eight tells us what he did. After seeking advice,
38:53
Speaker 1: the king made two golden calves. He said to the people,
38:59
Speaker 1: it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
39:02
Speaker 1: Here are your gods Israel, who brought you up out
39:05
Speaker 1: of Egypt, golden calves, the same type of idol that
39:11
Speaker 1: had gotten Israel in trouble at Mount Sinai when Moses
39:14
Speaker 1: was receiving the Ten Commandments. Jeroboam was repeating one of
39:19
Speaker 1: the worst mistakes in his people's history, but he tried
39:23
Speaker 1: to make it sound reasonable. He told the people it
39:26
Speaker 1: was too much for them to travel to Jerusalem. He
39:31
Speaker 1: was offering them convenience instead of faithfulness. He even claimed
39:36
Speaker 1: these golden calves were the gods who had rescued them
39:39
Speaker 1: from Egypt, trying to connect his idols to Israel's real history.
39:44
Speaker 1: Verse twenty nine shows us where he put these false gods.
39:48
Speaker 1: One he set up in Bethel and the other in Dan.
39:52
Speaker 1: This was clever politically. Bethel was in the south of
39:56
Speaker 1: his kingdom, close to the border with Judah, while Dan
40:00
Speaker 1: was far in the north. People from all over the
40:03
Speaker 1: northern kingdom could worship at one of these sites without
40:06
Speaker 1: having to travel as far as Jerusalem. But it wasn't
40:10
Speaker 1: just about location, it was about control. Verse thirty one
40:16
Speaker 1: tells us he went even further. Jeroboam built shrines on
40:20
Speaker 1: high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people,
40:25
Speaker 1: even though they were not Levites. God had commanded that
40:29
Speaker 1: only men from the tribe of Levi could serve as priests,
40:33
Speaker 1: but Jeroboam ignored this rule and appointed anyone he wanted.
40:38
Speaker 1: This meant he could control the religious system completely, making
40:42
Speaker 1: sure the priests would support his political goals instead of
40:45
Speaker 1: following God's laws. The kingdom that was supposed to worship
40:49
Speaker 1: the one true God now had two false gods, illegal priests,
40:55
Speaker 1: and worship sinners that violated everything Moses had taught them.
41:00
Speaker 1: With both kingdoms now established, each needed a proper capital city.
41:05
Speaker 1: Jerusalem remained the seat of power for Rijoboam and the
41:09
Speaker 1: southern Kingdom of Judah. This made sense, it was David's city,
41:15
Speaker 1: where the temple stood and where Solomon had built his
41:18
Speaker 1: magnificent palace. But Jeroboam faced a different situation. He had
41:24
Speaker 1: started his reign in Shechem, which was historically important, but
41:28
Speaker 1: not really built to be a major capital. He needed
41:32
Speaker 1: something more impressive, more defensible, and more strategically located. First Kings,
41:38
Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, verse twenty four tells us about the solution
41:42
Speaker 1: that would eventually emerge. He bought the Hill of Samaria
41:46
Speaker 1: from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a
41:50
Speaker 1: city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Seamer, the
41:54
Speaker 1: name of the former owner of the hill. Actually this
41:59
Speaker 1: happened during the of Omri, one of Jeroboam's successors, but
42:04
Speaker 1: it shows how the Northern kingdom eventually solved their capital problem.
42:09
Speaker 1: Samaria would become the permanent seat of power for the
42:12
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Israel, just as Jerusalem was for Judah. The
42:17
Speaker 1: choice of Samaria was brilliant Militarily. It was built on
42:21
Speaker 1: a hill that was almost impossible to attack. The city
42:24
Speaker 1: commanded the main road through central Israel, allowing the Kings
42:28
Speaker 1: of Israel to control trade and movement through their territory.
42:32
Speaker 1: From Samaria, the northern kings could watch both their own
42:36
Speaker 1: people and keep an eye on their enemies. But the
42:40
Speaker 1: establishment of two capitals meant something deeper than just politics.
42:45
Speaker 1: Now there were two centers of power where once there
42:47
Speaker 1: had been one, Two royal courts where once there had
42:51
Speaker 1: been one. Two governments making laws and collecting taxes from
42:55
Speaker 1: what used to be a single people. Jerusalem represented them
43:00
Speaker 1: the old order, David's dynasty, Solomon's temple, the traditional way
43:05
Speaker 1: of doing things. The city was built on Mount Zion,
43:09
Speaker 1: which God had chosen as his dwelling place. It had
43:13
Speaker 1: the ark of the Covenant, The priests descended from Arin,
43:17
Speaker 1: and all the ceremonies that Moses had established. Samaria represented
43:22
Speaker 1: something new and different. It was a kingdom born out
43:27
Speaker 1: of rebellion, led by a man chosen by God, but
43:31
Speaker 1: not from David's family. It was a place where the
43:35
Speaker 1: old rules didn't necessarily apply, where new traditions could be started.
43:41
Speaker 1: The two capitals became symbols of the deeper division in Israel.
43:44
Speaker 1: Jerusalem looked to the past, to the promises God had
43:47
Speaker 1: made to David. Samaria looked to the future to the
43:51
Speaker 1: possibility of doing things differently. Both claimed to be the
43:55
Speaker 1: true Israel, the real inheritors of God's promises to Abraham,
44:00
Speaker 1: Isaac and Jacob. Travelers moving between the two kingdoms would
44:05
Speaker 1: notice the differences immediately. The same people who had once
44:09
Speaker 1: been united under David and Solomon now had different kings,
44:13
Speaker 1: different laws, different customs, and unfortunately, different gods. The split
44:19
Speaker 1: between the kingdoms created a crisis that went far deeper
44:23
Speaker 1: than politics. It tore apart the religious life of God's people.
44:28
Speaker 1: This became especially clear when it came to the priests
44:31
Speaker 1: and Levites who served in the temple and taught God's
44:34
Speaker 1: law to the people. Second Chronicles, Chapter eleven, verses thirteen
44:39
Speaker 1: to fourteen tell us what happened. The priests and Levites
44:44
Speaker 1: from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him. The
44:48
Speaker 1: Levites even abandoned their pasture, lands and property, and came
44:52
Speaker 1: to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had
44:56
Speaker 1: rejected them as priests of the Lord. Think about what
45:01
Speaker 1: this meant. These weren't just job changes. These were men
45:06
Speaker 1: giving up everything they owned to stay faithful to God.
45:10
Speaker 1: The Levites had been given specific cities and pasture lands
45:14
Speaker 1: throughout all the tribes of Israel, but when Jeroboam set
45:18
Speaker 1: up his Golden calves and appointed non levitical priests, the
45:23
Speaker 1: real priests faced an impossible choice. They could stay in
45:27
Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom and participate in false worship, or they
45:31
Speaker 1: could abandon their homes and move to Judah, where they
45:34
Speaker 1: could still serve God properly. For faithful men, there was
45:39
Speaker 1: really no choice at all. Verse fourteen shows us the
45:43
Speaker 1: reason for their decision, because Jeroboam and his sons had
45:47
Speaker 1: rejected them as priests of the Lord. Jeroboam didn't want
45:52
Speaker 1: priests who would put God's law above his political needs.
45:56
Speaker 1: He wanted religious leaders who would support his policies, even
46:00
Speaker 1: when those policies violated God's commands. But the priests and
46:05
Speaker 1: Levites weren't the only ones who moved south. Verse sixteen
46:10
Speaker 1: tells us about others who made the same difficult choice.
46:15
Speaker 1: Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts
46:18
Speaker 1: on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the
46:22
Speaker 1: Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the
46:26
Speaker 1: God of their fathers. These were ordinary people from all
46:31
Speaker 1: ten northern tribes who refused to worship Jeroboam's golden calves.
46:36
Speaker 1: They left their homes, their farms, their businesses, and moved
46:40
Speaker 1: to Judah so they could continue worshiping God the right way.
46:45
Speaker 1: This created a massive brain drain in the Northern kingdom.
46:49
Speaker 1: The most educated, most spiritually minded, most faithful people were leaving.
46:55
Speaker 1: The priests who could teach God's law, the Levites who
46:59
Speaker 1: led worship, and the ordinary citizens who took their faith
47:02
Speaker 1: seriously were all moving south for the Southern Kingdom. This
47:07
Speaker 1: was a huge blessing. Verse seventeen shows the result. They
47:13
Speaker 1: strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rihoboam, son of
47:17
Speaker 1: Solomon three years walking in the ways of David and Solomon.
47:21
Speaker 1: During this time, all these faithful refugees made Judas stronger spiritually, economically,
47:29
Speaker 1: and militarily. They brought their skills, their wealth, their knowledge,
47:35
Speaker 1: and most importantly, their commitment to God's truth. But for
47:41
Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom, this migration was a disaster. The people
47:46
Speaker 1: most likely to provide wise counsel, moral leadership, and spiritual
47:51
Speaker 1: guidance were gone. What remained was a kingdom increasingly cut
47:56
Speaker 1: off from its spiritual roots. As the dust settled on
48:00
Speaker 1: the divided kingdom, one thing became crystal clear. This wasn't
48:05
Speaker 1: just a political accident or a result of human failure.
48:10
Speaker 1: This division was part of God's plan, even though it
48:13
Speaker 1: was painful and seemed to contradict his promises. The prophet
48:17
Speaker 1: Ahijah had made this clear when he first spoke to
48:20
Speaker 1: Jeroboam years earlier. In First Kings, chapter eleven, verses thirty
48:25
Speaker 1: one to thirty two. God had said, through the prophet See,
48:31
Speaker 1: I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's
48:33
Speaker 1: hand and give you ten tribes. But for the sake
48:38
Speaker 1: of my servant David in the city of Jerusalem, which
48:42
Speaker 1: I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
48:45
Speaker 1: he will have one tribe. God wasn't acting randomly or
48:50
Speaker 1: in anger. He was fulfilling justice while still keeping his promises.
48:56
Speaker 1: Solomon had turned away from God embraced false relief, pigeons
49:00
Speaker 1: and oppressed his people. The kingdom needed to be judged
49:05
Speaker 1: for these sins, but God had also made an eternal
49:08
Speaker 1: promise to David that his family would always have a kingdom.
49:14
Speaker 1: So even in judgment, God preserved Judah and Benjamin for
49:18
Speaker 1: David's sake. The promise wasn't broken. He was being worked
49:23
Speaker 1: out in a way that served both justice and mercy.
49:27
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen makes this divine purpose
49:32
Speaker 1: absolutely clear. So the king did not listen to the people,
49:37
Speaker 1: for this turn of events was from the Lord to
49:42
Speaker 1: fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam, son
49:45
Speaker 1: of Nebat through Ahijah the Shylannite. Even Rehoboam's foolish decision
49:51
Speaker 1: to be harsh with the people was part of God's plan.
49:54
Speaker 1: The young king thought he was showing strength, but he
49:58
Speaker 1: was actually being used by God to fulfill prophecy. Human pride,
50:03
Speaker 1: and divine purpose came together to split the kingdom exactly
50:07
Speaker 1: as God had foretold. This didn't excuse rio Boem's cruelty
50:12
Speaker 1: or Jeroboam's idolatry. Both men were responsible for their choices
50:17
Speaker 1: and would face consequences for their sins, but it did
50:21
Speaker 1: show that God can work even through human failure to
50:24
Speaker 1: accomplish his purposes. The division also served another purpose. It
50:30
Speaker 1: preserved a faithful remnant. When the Northern Kingdom fell into idolatry,
50:35
Speaker 1: the Southern Kingdom maintained the true worship of God, the
50:39
Speaker 1: proper priesthood, and the correct sacrificial system. The temple in
50:44
Speaker 1: Jerusalem continued to function as God had commanded, even though
50:49
Speaker 1: fewer people could come to worship there. Through all the
50:52
Speaker 1: political chaos, military threats, and religious confusion, God remained in control.
51:00
Speaker 1: The kingdom that looked like it was falling apart was
51:02
Speaker 1: actually being reshaped. According to divine wisdom. The unity that
51:07
Speaker 1: seemed lost was being preserved in a different form, not
51:11
Speaker 1: as one political entity, but as two kingdoms that would
51:15
Speaker 1: each play their part in God's larger plan for his people.
51:20
Speaker 1: The promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob weren't canceled. They
51:25
Speaker 1: were being fulfilled in a new and unexpected way. The
51:29
Speaker 1: kingdom was divided, but God's purposes would continue to unfold
51:33
Speaker 1: through both Israel and Judah until the day when a
51:36
Speaker 1: greater king from David's line would reunite not just the tribes,
51:41
Speaker 1: but all the nations of the Earth. Once the kingdom split,
51:45
Speaker 1: peace became a distant memory. The two new nations that
51:50
Speaker 1: had once been united under David and Solomon now faced
51:53
Speaker 1: each other as enemies. Brothers who had fought side by
51:57
Speaker 1: side against the Philistines were now preparing to fight each other.
52:02
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter fourteen, verse thirty tells us the sad reality.
52:07
Speaker 1: There was continual warfare between Rijoboam and Jeroboam. This wasn't
52:13
Speaker 1: just political tension or occasional disputes. This was constant, ongoing
52:18
Speaker 1: conflict that lasted throughout both their reigns. Think about what
52:23
Speaker 1: this meant for ordinary people. Farmers near the border never
52:27
Speaker 1: knew when soldiers might come through their fields. Merchants traveling
52:32
Speaker 1: between the kingdoms faced checkpoints, taxes, and the constant threat
52:36
Speaker 1: of being treated as enemy spies. Families that had relatives
52:40
Speaker 1: on both sides of the border found themselves torn apart
52:43
Speaker 1: by politics. The warfare wasn't just about major battles. It
52:49
Speaker 1: was about a thousand smaller conflicts. Border towns changed hands repeatedly,
52:55
Speaker 1: Raiding parties from both sides would cross into enemy territory
52:58
Speaker 1: to steel cattle, burn crops, and capture prisoners. Each kingdom
53:03
Speaker 1: claimed territories that the other kingdom said belonged to them.
53:08
Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen confirms this state of
53:12
Speaker 1: constant conflict. There was war between Rihoboam and Jeroboam throughout
53:18
Speaker 1: their reigns. Neither king could establish secure control over disputed
53:23
Speaker 1: areas because the other was always ready to challenge any expansion.
53:28
Speaker 1: The saddest part was that both sides knew they were
53:30
Speaker 1: fighting their own brothers. These weren't foreign enemies with different
53:35
Speaker 1: languages and religions. These were the same people who had
53:39
Speaker 1: once celebrated the same festivals, worshiped at the same temple,
53:44
Speaker 1: and served under the same kings. But pride and political
53:48
Speaker 1: necessity kept the fighting going. Rihoboam couldn't accept that he
53:53
Speaker 1: had lost most of his father's kingdom. Jeroboam couldn't allow
53:58
Speaker 1: Rihoboam to reclaim any territory, knowing that success might encourage
54:02
Speaker 1: other tribes to return to David's family. Every small victory
54:06
Speaker 1: by one side was seen as a threat by the other.
54:10
Speaker 1: Every raid demanded revenge, Every captured town required a counter attack.
54:15
Speaker 1: The cycle of violence that started with harsh words at
54:18
Speaker 1: Shechem had become a way of life for both kingdoms.
54:22
Speaker 1: The constant warfare also prevented both kingdoms from reaching their
54:26
Speaker 1: full potential. Instead of building trade relationships with other nations,
54:31
Speaker 1: developing their agriculture, or strengthening their cities, both kings had
54:36
Speaker 1: to spend their resources on armies and fortifications. While Rehoboam
54:41
Speaker 1: and Jeroboam were busy fighting each other, a much bigger
54:44
Speaker 1: threat was watching from the south. Pharaoh Sheeshach of Egypt
54:49
Speaker 1: had been following the division of Israel with great interest.
54:53
Speaker 1: He remembered when Jeroboam had lived in his court as
54:56
Speaker 1: a refugee, and he saw an opportunity to expand Egyptians power.
55:02
Speaker 1: In Rioboam's fifth year as king, Shei Shack decided to act.
55:07
Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, Chapter twelve, Verse two tells us what happened.
55:12
Speaker 1: Because they had been unfaithful to the lord. She Shak,
55:15
Speaker 1: king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of
55:19
Speaker 1: King Rihoboam. This wasn't a small raid, this was a
55:24
Speaker 1: massive invasion. Verse three describes the size of she Shak's army,
55:31
Speaker 1: with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and the
55:34
Speaker 1: innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukites and Kushites that came with
55:38
Speaker 1: him from Egypt twelve hundred chariots. In those days, chariots
55:45
Speaker 1: were like tanks, the most advanced military technology available. Egypt
55:51
Speaker 1: had always been famous for its chariots, and now they
55:54
Speaker 1: were rolling toward Jerusalem with the largest chariot force anyone
55:58
Speaker 1: in Israel had ever seen. But the invasion wasn't just
56:02
Speaker 1: about military power. It was divine judgment. The people of
56:08
Speaker 1: Judah had started following the same path as the Northern Kingdom,
56:12
Speaker 1: turning away from God and embracing foreign religions. Sheshak's invasion
56:18
Speaker 1: was God's way of getting their attention. A prophet named
56:23
Speaker 1: Shemaiah came to Rihoboam and the leaders of Judah with
56:26
Speaker 1: a clear message, as recorded in verse five. Then the
56:32
Speaker 1: prophet Shemiah came to Rihoboam and to the leaders of Judah,
56:36
Speaker 1: who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Sheshac, and
56:40
Speaker 1: he said to them, this is what the Lord says.
56:43
Speaker 1: You have abandoned me. Therefore I now abandon you to Shishak.
56:49
Speaker 1: The message hit home. Verse six tells us their response.
56:54
Speaker 1: The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said,
56:57
Speaker 1: the Lord is just. They recognized that this invasion wasn't
57:02
Speaker 1: just bad luck. It was the consequence of their unfaithfulness
57:06
Speaker 1: to God. Because of their repentance, God showed mercy, but
57:12
Speaker 1: the damage was already done. Verse nine describes what she
57:17
Speaker 1: Shock took from Jerusalem. When she Shock, king of Egypt,
57:21
Speaker 1: attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the Temple
57:25
Speaker 1: of the Lord and the treasures of the royal Palace.
57:29
Speaker 1: He took everything, including the gold shield Solomon had made.
57:34
Speaker 1: All the wealth that Solomon had accumulated, the gold, the
57:37
Speaker 1: precious objects, the magnificent shields was now in Egyptian hands.
57:44
Speaker 1: The temple, that had been the most beautiful building in
57:46
Speaker 1: the world was stripped of its treasures. The kingdom that
57:50
Speaker 1: had once been the envy of all nations was now
57:53
Speaker 1: impoverished and humiliated. When Ray Hoboam died, his son a
57:59
Speaker 1: Bija became king of Judah. Unlike his father, who had
58:03
Speaker 1: eventually accepted the division of the kingdom, Abija believed he
58:08
Speaker 1: had the right to rule over all twelve tribes. This
58:12
Speaker 1: led to the largest battle yet between the brother kingdoms.
58:16
Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, Chapter thirteen, Verse three describes the massive armies
58:20
Speaker 1: that faced each other. Abijah went into battle with an
58:24
Speaker 1: army of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam
58:29
Speaker 1: drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred
58:32
Speaker 1: thousand able troops eight hundred thousand soldiers from Israel against
58:37
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand from Judah. This wasn't a border skirmish,
58:42
Speaker 1: this was total war. Nearly every able bodied man in
58:46
Speaker 1: both kingdoms must have been involved in this conflict. The
58:50
Speaker 1: battle took place at Mount Zemaraim, which was in the
58:54
Speaker 1: hill country of Ephraim. Before the fighting started, Abija climbed
58:59
Speaker 1: up on the mountain and gave a speech that every
59:01
Speaker 1: soldier could hear. As recorded in verses four to five,
59:07
Speaker 1: Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim,
59:11
Speaker 1: and said, Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me. Don't
59:17
Speaker 1: you know that the Lord, the God of Israel has
59:21
Speaker 1: given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants
59:24
Speaker 1: forever by a covenant of salt. Abijah was claiming divine
59:29
Speaker 1: authority over the northern kingdom. He reminded them that God
59:33
Speaker 1: had made an eternal promise to David's family and that
59:37
Speaker 1: Jeroboam was just a rebel who had no right to
59:40
Speaker 1: rule over God's people, but he didn't stop there. Verses
59:45
Speaker 1: eight to nine record his challenge. And now you plan
59:49
Speaker 1: to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in
59:51
Speaker 1: the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast
59:56
Speaker 1: army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam
59:59
Speaker 1: Ma maid to be your gods. But didn't you drive
1:00:03
Speaker 1: out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Erin,
1:00:06
Speaker 1: and the Levites, and make priests of your own, as
1:00:09
Speaker 1: the peoples of other lands do. This was spiritual warfare
1:00:14
Speaker 1: as much as physical warfare. Abija was saying that Israel
1:00:18
Speaker 1: wasn't just fighting against Judah, they were fighting against God himself.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: He pointed out their false gods and their illegal priests
1:00:27
Speaker 1: as proof that they had abandoned the true faith. The
1:00:30
Speaker 1: battle itself was a disaster for Israel. Despite their numerical advantage.
1:00:36
Speaker 1: Verse seventeen tells us the outcome Abajah and his army
1:00:40
Speaker 1: inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five
1:00:44
Speaker 1: hundred thousand casualties among Israel's able men, five hundred thousand dead.
1:00:51
Speaker 1: This was one of the bloodiest battles in the entire Bible.
1:00:55
Speaker 1: The Northern Kingdom lost more than half its army in
1:00:58
Speaker 1: a single day. Families throughout Israel received news that their fathers, sons,
1:01:03
Speaker 1: and brothers would never come home. Verse eighteen explains why
1:01:08
Speaker 1: Judah won. The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and
1:01:13
Speaker 1: the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on
1:01:16
Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of their ancestors. After Abijah's great victory,
1:01:23
Speaker 1: his son Asa became king of Judah. But Asa learned
1:01:27
Speaker 1: an important lesson from his father's war with Israel. Military
1:01:31
Speaker 1: strength was essential for survival. The Northern Kingdom was still there,
1:01:36
Speaker 1: still angry and still dangerous. Second Chronicles, Chapter fourteen, verse
1:01:41
Speaker 1: eight tells us about ASA's army. Asa had an army
1:01:45
Speaker 1: of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large
1:01:49
Speaker 1: shields and with spears, and two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin,
1:01:54
Speaker 1: armed with small shields and with bows. All these were
1:01:58
Speaker 1: brave fighting men, five hundred and eighty thousand soldiers. Esa
1:02:04
Speaker 1: had built one of the largest armies in Judah's history.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: He understood that the days when the twelve tribes could
1:02:10
Speaker 1: live together in peace were over. Now, each kingdom needed
1:02:15
Speaker 1: to be ready for war at any moment. But Asa
1:02:19
Speaker 1: didn't just build an army. He also fortified his cities.
1:02:24
Speaker 1: Verses six to seven describe his building projects. He built
1:02:28
Speaker 1: up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was
1:02:32
Speaker 1: at peace and no one was at war with him
1:02:35
Speaker 1: during those years. For the Lord gave him rest. Let
1:02:39
Speaker 1: us build up these towns, he said to Judah, and
1:02:43
Speaker 1: put walls around them with towers, gates and bars. The
1:02:48
Speaker 1: land is still ours because we have sought the Lord,
1:02:51
Speaker 1: our God. We sought him, and he has given us
1:02:54
Speaker 1: rest on every side. So they built and prospered. Think
1:03:00
Speaker 1: about what this meant. A king of God's people was
1:03:03
Speaker 1: spending huge amounts of money in labor, building walls and
1:03:07
Speaker 1: fortifications to protect his cities from his own brothers. The
1:03:12
Speaker 1: unity that David had created was now completely gone, replaced
1:03:17
Speaker 1: by the constant threat of war. Esa also recognized that
1:03:22
Speaker 1: military strength alone wasn't enough. Verse four tells us about
1:03:26
Speaker 1: his spiritual reforms. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord,
1:03:32
Speaker 1: the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws
1:03:35
Speaker 1: and commands. The king understood that God's blessing was more
1:03:40
Speaker 1: important than military power, but he also understood that God
1:03:44
Speaker 1: expected his people to be prepared and not just rely
1:03:47
Speaker 1: on miracles. When the massive Ethiopian army of Zirah invaded
1:03:53
Speaker 1: Judah with a million soldiers and three hundred chariots, ASA's
1:03:57
Speaker 1: preparations paid off. Second Chronicles, Chapter fourteen, verse eleven records
1:04:03
Speaker 1: his prayer before the battle. Then Asah called to the
1:04:07
Speaker 1: Lord his God, and said, Lord, there is no one
1:04:13
Speaker 1: like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord,
1:04:17
Speaker 1: our God, for we rely on you, and in your
1:04:20
Speaker 1: name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you
1:04:25
Speaker 1: are our God. Do not let mere mortals prevail against you.
1:04:31
Speaker 1: God gave as a victory over the Ethiopians, but the
1:04:35
Speaker 1: lesson was clear. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah now
1:04:38
Speaker 1: lived in a world where military strength was essential for survival.
1:04:43
Speaker 1: After Jeroboam died, his son Nadob became king of Israel,
1:04:48
Speaker 1: but Nadob's reign was short. He was assassinated by one
1:04:52
Speaker 1: of his commanders named Basha, who then took the throne.
1:04:57
Speaker 1: Baisha proved to be even more aggressive toward Judah than
1:05:00
Speaker 1: Jeroboam had been. First Kings Chapter fifteen verse seventeen tells
1:05:05
Speaker 1: us about Basha's strategy. Basha, King of Israel, went up
1:05:10
Speaker 1: against Judah and fortified Rama to prevent anyone from leaving
1:05:15
Speaker 1: or entering the territory of Asa, King of Judah. This
1:05:19
Speaker 1: was economic warfare. Ramah was only about five miles north
1:05:24
Speaker 1: of Jerusalem, right on the main road between the two kingdoms.
1:05:29
Speaker 1: By fortifying Rama, Basha was essentially putting Jerusalem under siege
1:05:34
Speaker 1: without actually attacking the city. Think about how dangerous this
1:05:39
Speaker 1: was for Judah. Merchants couldn't travel north to trade, people
1:05:43
Speaker 1: couldn't visit relatives in the northern kingdom. Most importantly, the
1:05:48
Speaker 1: faithful Israelites who wanted to come to Jerusalem for the
1:05:51
Speaker 1: festivals were being blocked by Basha's fortress. Io realized he
1:05:55
Speaker 1: was in serious trouble. He couldn't attack Rama directly because
1:06:00
Speaker 1: it was too well fortified, and he couldn't ignore it
1:06:03
Speaker 1: because it was slowly strangling his kingdom. So he made
1:06:07
Speaker 1: a decision that would have far reaching consequences. First Kings,
1:06:12
Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, Verses eighteen to nineteen tell us what Asa did.
1:06:19
Speaker 1: Asa then took all the silver and gold that was
1:06:21
Speaker 1: left in the treasures of the lord's temple and of
1:06:24
Speaker 1: his own palace. He entrusted it to his officials and
1:06:28
Speaker 1: sent them to ben Hadad, son of Tabrimon, the son
1:06:31
Speaker 1: of Hetzion, the King of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus.
1:06:37
Speaker 1: Let there be a treaty between me and you, he said,
1:06:41
Speaker 1: as there was between my father and your father. See,
1:06:46
Speaker 1: I am sending you a gift of silver and gold.
1:06:49
Speaker 1: Now break your treaty with Basha, King of Israel, so
1:06:52
Speaker 1: he will withdraw from me. This was a brilliant but
1:06:56
Speaker 1: dangerous strategy. Ben Hadad of Syria was already Basha's ally,
1:07:02
Speaker 1: but Asa was offering him a better deal. If Syria
1:07:05
Speaker 1: attacked Israel from the north, Basha would have to withdraw
1:07:09
Speaker 1: from Rama to defend his own territory. The plan worked perfectly.
1:07:16
Speaker 1: Verse twenty describes what happened. Ben Hadad agreed with King
1:07:20
Speaker 1: Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the
1:07:24
Speaker 1: towns of Israel. He conquered Iijon, dan Abu, Bethmaka, and
1:07:30
Speaker 1: all Kinnaith, in addition to Naftali. When Basha heard that
1:07:35
Speaker 1: his northern cities were being attacked, he had no choice.
1:07:39
Speaker 1: Verse twenty one tells us when Basha heard this, he
1:07:43
Speaker 1: stopped building Rama and withdrew to Tirzah. The siege was
1:07:48
Speaker 1: broken and Judah was safe, but the victory came at
1:07:53
Speaker 1: a terrible cost. Usa had emptied both the Temple treasury
1:07:57
Speaker 1: and the Royal treasury to pay for Syrian help. Even worse,
1:08:02
Speaker 1: he had established a precedent that would haunt both kingdoms
1:08:05
Speaker 1: for generations. After Basha died, the Northern Kingdom went through
1:08:11
Speaker 1: a period of chaos and civil war, but eventually a
1:08:16
Speaker 1: military commander named Omri seized power and established the most
1:08:20
Speaker 1: powerful dynasty Israel had ever known. First Kings, Chapter sixteen,
1:08:27
Speaker 1: verse twenty four tells us about Amri's most important achievement.
1:08:31
Speaker 1: He bought the Hill of Samaria from Shemer for two
1:08:34
Speaker 1: talents of silver and built a city on the hill,
1:08:37
Speaker 1: calling it Samaria after Shemer, the name of the former
1:08:41
Speaker 1: owner of the hill. Samaria wasn't just another city. It
1:08:46
Speaker 1: was a masterpiece of military engineering. Built on a hill
1:08:50
Speaker 1: that rose three hundred feet above the surrounding valley, it
1:08:53
Speaker 1: was almost impossible to capture. The city had strong walls,
1:08:58
Speaker 1: plenty of water, and commanded all the major roads through
1:09:02
Speaker 1: central Israel. But Amri's most significant achievement was his son Ahab,
1:09:09
Speaker 1: who became one of the most powerful kings Israel ever had.
1:09:14
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter sixteen, verse thirty tells us about Ahab's character.
1:09:19
Speaker 1: Ahab's son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes
1:09:22
Speaker 1: of the Lord than any of those before him. Ahab
1:09:26
Speaker 1: married Jezebel, a princess from Sa'idon, and she brought her
1:09:30
Speaker 1: bail worship into Israel. This wasn't just about adding another
1:09:35
Speaker 1: false god to Jeroboam's golden calves. This was about replacing
1:09:40
Speaker 1: God entirely with a foreign religion. Under Ahab, the Northern
1:09:45
Speaker 1: Kingdom became stronger militarily and economically than it had ever
1:09:49
Speaker 1: been before. The magnificent capital of Samaria rivaled Jerusalem in
1:09:55
Speaker 1: beauty and exceeded it in defensive strength. Israel had allies
1:10:00
Speaker 1: with powerful nations like Saidon and was becoming a major
1:10:04
Speaker 1: regional power. This created a new dynamic between the kingdoms.
1:10:10
Speaker 1: For the first time since the split, Israel was clearly
1:10:13
Speaker 1: stronger than Judah. The Northern Kingdom no longer looked like
1:10:17
Speaker 1: a collection of rebellious tribes. It looked like a legitimate
1:10:21
Speaker 1: nation that could stand on its own. But the religious
1:10:25
Speaker 1: situation was getting worse, not better. While Judah maintained the
1:10:30
Speaker 1: temple worship and the legitimate priesthood, Israel was embracing paganism
1:10:36
Speaker 1: more completely than ever before. The division wasn't just political anymore.
1:10:41
Speaker 1: It was becoming a conflict between true religion and false religion.
1:10:46
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter sixteen, verse thirty three summarizes Ahab's spiritual impact.
1:10:52
Speaker 1: Ahab also made an ashera poll and did more to
1:10:55
Speaker 1: arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel,
1:10:59
Speaker 1: then did all all the kings of Israel before him.
1:11:03
Speaker 1: The Northern kingdom was becoming stronger in every way except
1:11:06
Speaker 1: the most important one. Its relationship with God was deteriorating rapidly.
1:11:14
Speaker 1: When Asa died, his son Jehoshaphat became king of Judah.
1:11:19
Speaker 1: Unlike his father, who had viewed Israel as an enemy,
1:11:23
Speaker 1: Jehoshaphat believed that the two kingdoms should work together against
1:11:27
Speaker 1: their common enemies. This seemed like wisdom, but it led
1:11:32
Speaker 1: to serious problems. Second Chronicles, chapter eighteen, verse one tells
1:11:37
Speaker 1: us about Jehoshaphat's strategy. Now, Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage a marriage alliance.
1:11:48
Speaker 1: Jehoshaphat arranged for his son Jehoram to marry Athalia, who
1:11:52
Speaker 1: was either Ahab's daughter or sister. This was supposed to
1:11:56
Speaker 1: create peace between the kingdoms and unite them against external
1:11:59
Speaker 1: threat threats. The alliance led to a joint military campaign
1:12:03
Speaker 1: against Syria. Verses twenty eight to twenty nine describe how
1:12:08
Speaker 1: the two kings went into battle together. So the King
1:12:12
Speaker 1: of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to
1:12:15
Speaker 1: Ramath Gilead. The King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I
1:12:20
Speaker 1: will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your
1:12:23
Speaker 1: royal robes. So the King of Israel disguised himself and
1:12:28
Speaker 1: went into battle. This battle was a disaster. Ahab was
1:12:33
Speaker 1: killed and the alliance fell apart, but the marriage connection remained,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: and it would bring terrible consequences to Judah in the
1:12:42
Speaker 1: next generation. Later, Jehoshaphat tried another alliance with Ahab's son,
1:12:48
Speaker 1: a Haziah. Second Chronicles, Chapter twenty, verse thirty five tells
1:12:53
Speaker 1: us later Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, made an alliance with
1:12:58
Speaker 1: a Haziah, king of Israel, whose ways were wicked. This time,
1:13:03
Speaker 1: they planned to build ships together and trade with distant lands.
1:13:08
Speaker 1: But Verse thirty seven shows us what happened. Then Eliezer,
1:13:13
Speaker 1: son of Dodavahu of Mauritia, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, because
1:13:19
Speaker 1: you have made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will
1:13:22
Speaker 1: destroy what you have made. The ships were wrecked and
1:13:27
Speaker 1: were not able to set sail for trading. God clearly
1:13:31
Speaker 1: disapproved of these alliances. Even though Jehoshaphat was a righteous
1:13:36
Speaker 1: king who genuinely wanted to serve God, his attempts to
1:13:40
Speaker 1: cooperate with the wicked kings of Israel brought divine judgment.
1:13:44
Speaker 1: The problem wasn't political, it was spiritual. The Northern kingdom
1:13:50
Speaker 1: had completely abandoned true worship of God, and any alliance
1:13:54
Speaker 1: with them meant compromising with false religion. God wanted the
1:13:59
Speaker 1: two kingdoms to he remained separate until they could be
1:14:02
Speaker 1: reunited under a righteous king. The Omri dynasty came to
1:14:07
Speaker 1: a violent end when God sent a prophet to anoint
1:14:10
Speaker 1: a military commander named Jihu as the new king of Israel.
1:14:15
Speaker 1: Jihu's revolution was swift, brutal, and complete. Second Kings Chapter nine,
1:14:22
Speaker 1: verse twenty four describes how Jihu killed King Joram of Israel.
1:14:28
Speaker 1: Then Jihu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders.
1:14:33
Speaker 1: The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in
1:14:35
Speaker 1: his chariot. But Jihu didn't stop there. He also killed
1:14:41
Speaker 1: a Hasiah, the King of Judah, who happened to be
1:14:44
Speaker 1: visiting Israel at the time. Then he killed Jezebel, throwing
1:14:49
Speaker 1: her from a window. After that, he murdered all seventy
1:14:54
Speaker 1: sons of Ahab's family, eliminating any possible rivals to his throne.
1:15:00
Speaker 1: Second Kings, Chapter ten, verse eleven tells us about the
1:15:04
Speaker 1: scope of Jihu's purge. So Jihu killed every one in
1:15:08
Speaker 1: Jezreel who remained of the House of Ahab, as well
1:15:11
Speaker 1: as all his chief men, his close friends, and his priests,
1:15:16
Speaker 1: leaving him no survivor. This wasn't just a change of government.
1:15:21
Speaker 1: This was the complete destruction of everything connected to the
1:15:25
Speaker 1: previous dynasty. Any One who had served Ahab, supported him,
1:15:30
Speaker 1: or was related to him was killed. Jihu also targeted
1:15:35
Speaker 1: the religious system that Ahab and Jezebel had established. Second Kings,
1:15:40
Speaker 1: Chapter ten, verse twenty eight records his actions against Bal worship.
1:15:47
Speaker 1: So Jihu destroyed Bal worship in Israel. He gathered all
1:15:51
Speaker 1: the prophets and priests of Bal into their temple, pretending
1:15:54
Speaker 1: to worship with them, then had them all killed and
1:15:58
Speaker 1: destroyed the temple completely. This revolution sent shockwaves through both kingdoms.
1:16:05
Speaker 1: In Judah, Athalia, who was Ahab's daughter and had married
1:16:09
Speaker 1: into the royal family, seized power. When her son Ahaziah
1:16:13
Speaker 1: was killed, she tried to murder all the royal family
1:16:16
Speaker 1: and rule as queen. The violence that had started with
1:16:20
Speaker 1: Jehu's revolution in Israel had now spread to Judah. For
1:16:25
Speaker 1: six years, David's dynasty was almost extinct, saved only by
1:16:30
Speaker 1: a baby prince named Joash, who was hidden in the temple.
1:16:35
Speaker 1: The revolution showed how completely the two kingdoms had become enemies.
1:16:40
Speaker 1: Political changes in one kingdom immediately affected the other, usually
1:16:45
Speaker 1: through violence and bloodshed. The unity that had once existed
1:16:49
Speaker 1: under David and Solomon was now just a memory. Both
1:16:54
Speaker 1: kingdoms were learning that division brought not just political problems,
1:16:58
Speaker 1: but also instability, violence, and the constant threat of civil war.
1:17:04
Speaker 1: The brother nations that should have been supporting each other
1:17:07
Speaker 1: were instead destroying each other. One generation at a time.
1:17:11
Speaker 1: Far to the northeast, in the land between the Tigris
1:17:14
Speaker 1: and Euphrates rivers, a new empire was rising that would
1:17:19
Speaker 1: change everything. The Assyrians had been a regional power for centuries,
1:17:25
Speaker 1: but now they were becoming the most feared military force
1:17:28
Speaker 1: the world had ever seen. Second Kings, Chapter fifteen, Verse
1:17:33
Speaker 1: nineteen gives us our first glimpse of this threat. Then Pul,
1:17:38
Speaker 1: king of Assyria, invaded the land, and Menehem gave him
1:17:42
Speaker 1: a thousand talents of silver to gain his support strengthen
1:17:46
Speaker 1: his own hold on the kingdom. Pul was also known
1:17:50
Speaker 1: as Tiglath Pilezer the Third, and he was the king
1:17:54
Speaker 1: who turned Assyria into a world conquering empire. When he
1:17:58
Speaker 1: invaded Israel, King Menahem didn't even try to fight. He
1:18:02
Speaker 1: immediately paid tribute. A thousand talents of silver was an
1:18:07
Speaker 1: enormous amount of money, enough to bankrupt most kingdoms, but
1:18:12
Speaker 1: paying tribute didn't buy safety. It just made a Syria
1:18:15
Speaker 1: stronger and marked Israel as a weak nation that could
1:18:19
Speaker 1: be easily conquered. Verse twenty tells us how Menahem raised
1:18:24
Speaker 1: this massive payment. Menahem exacted this money from Israel every
1:18:30
Speaker 1: wealthy person had to contribute fifty shekels of silver to
1:18:33
Speaker 1: be given to the King of Assyria. So the King
1:18:37
Speaker 1: of Assyria withdrew and stayed in the land. No longer
1:18:42
Speaker 1: think about what this meant. The wealthy people of Israel
1:18:46
Speaker 1: were being forced to pay protection money to a foreign empire.
1:18:50
Speaker 1: The Northern Kingdom that had once been proud and independent
1:18:54
Speaker 1: was now a puppet state, surviving only because it could
1:18:58
Speaker 1: buy its way out of trouble. The Assyrian threat created
1:19:02
Speaker 1: a strange situation for both Israel and Judah. For the
1:19:07
Speaker 1: first time since the kingdom divided, they faced an enemy
1:19:10
Speaker 1: that was bigger and more dangerous than either of them alone.
1:19:14
Speaker 1: This should have brought them together, but decades of hatred
1:19:18
Speaker 1: and mistrust made cooperation almost impossible. Second Kings, Chapter sixteen,
1:19:24
Speaker 1: verse seven shows us how this played out. Ahaz sent
1:19:29
Speaker 1: messengers to say to Tiglathpeleeser, King of Assyria, I am
1:19:33
Speaker 1: your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out
1:19:36
Speaker 1: of the hand of the King of Aram and of
1:19:38
Speaker 1: the King of Israel, who are attacking me. This was
1:19:43
Speaker 1: King Ahaz of Judah begging the Assyrians to protect him
1:19:47
Speaker 1: from his own brothers In Israel. Instead of the two
1:19:51
Speaker 1: kingdoms uniting against their common enemy, they were asking that
1:19:55
Speaker 1: enemy to help them fight each other. The Assyrians were
1:19:59
Speaker 1: clever enough enough to use this division to their advantage.
1:20:03
Speaker 1: They would make alliances with one kingdom against the other,
1:20:06
Speaker 1: then betray both when it suited their purposes. What should
1:20:11
Speaker 1: have been Israel and Judah's greatest strength, their shared heritage
1:20:15
Speaker 1: and faith, had become their greatest weakness. The prophet Isaiah
1:20:20
Speaker 1: watched these events and understood what was really happening. In
1:20:25
Speaker 1: Isaiah Chapter seven, verse nine, he warned, if you do
1:20:30
Speaker 1: not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand
1:20:32
Speaker 1: at all. The divided kingdoms were learning that political maneuvering
1:20:37
Speaker 1: couldn't replace trust in God. While the Assyrian threat was
1:20:41
Speaker 1: growing stronger, the Northern kingdom was growing weaker spiritually. The
1:20:47
Speaker 1: golden calves that Jeroboam had set up at Dan and
1:20:50
Speaker 1: Bethel were just the beginning. Now Israel was embracing every
1:20:55
Speaker 1: false religion they could find. Second Kings seven, verses nine
1:21:01
Speaker 1: to ten describe how bad things had become. The Israelites
1:21:07
Speaker 1: secretly did things against the Lord their God that were
1:21:09
Speaker 1: not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built themselves
1:21:14
Speaker 1: high places in all their towns. They set up sacred
1:21:18
Speaker 1: stones and a sher of poles on every high hill
1:21:21
Speaker 1: and under every spreading tree. Every hill had become a
1:21:26
Speaker 1: place of idol worship. Every town had its own collection
1:21:30
Speaker 1: of false gods. The people who were supposed to worship
1:21:33
Speaker 1: only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were now
1:21:37
Speaker 1: bowing down to pieces of wood and stone. But it
1:21:41
Speaker 1: wasn't just about wrong worship. It was about wrong living.
1:21:46
Speaker 1: Verse seventeen tells us about even more terrible practices. They
1:21:51
Speaker 1: sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced
1:21:56
Speaker 1: divination and sought omens, and sold themselves to do evil.
1:21:59
Speaker 1: In the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger child sacrifice,
1:22:06
Speaker 1: the Israelites were burning their own children alive to please
1:22:10
Speaker 1: false gods like Moloch. Parents who should have been protecting
1:22:14
Speaker 1: their sons and daughters were instead offering them as human sacrifices.
1:22:20
Speaker 1: This was the ultimate rejection of everything God had taught them.
1:22:25
Speaker 1: The prophets kept warning them to stop, but nobody listened.
1:22:31
Speaker 1: Verse thirteen shows us how patient God had been. The
1:22:35
Speaker 1: Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers,
1:22:39
Speaker 1: turn from your evil ways, observe my commands and decrees
1:22:44
Speaker 1: in accordance with the entire law that I commanded your
1:22:47
Speaker 1: ancestors to obey, and that I delivered to you through
1:22:51
Speaker 1: my servants the prophets. God had sent prophet after prophet
1:22:55
Speaker 1: to call his people back to the right path. Men
1:22:58
Speaker 1: like Elijah and Elisha had performed amazing miracles to prove
1:23:02
Speaker 1: that the Lord was the true God, but the kings
1:23:05
Speaker 1: and people of Israel refused to listen. Verse fourteen explains
1:23:10
Speaker 1: their stubborn response. But they would not listen and were
1:23:14
Speaker 1: as stiff necked as their ancestors, who did not trust
1:23:18
Speaker 1: in the Lord their god. The Northern Kingdom had reached
1:23:22
Speaker 1: the point where they didn't want to hear from God
1:23:24
Speaker 1: any more. They preferred their false gods because those gods
1:23:29
Speaker 1: didn't demand righteousness or justice. They could worship bal and
1:23:34
Speaker 1: keep living however they wanted, But the God of Israel
1:23:37
Speaker 1: demanded that they changed their ways. King after king led
1:23:42
Speaker 1: the people deeper into spiritual darkness. They made alliances with
1:23:47
Speaker 1: pagan nations and adopted their religions. They oppressed the poor
1:23:52
Speaker 1: and ignored God's laws about justice and mercy. They turned
1:23:57
Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom into everything God had warned them not
1:24:01
Speaker 1: to become. Even as Israel spiraled toward destruction, God didn't
1:24:06
Speaker 1: give up on his people. He sent some of the
1:24:09
Speaker 1: greatest prophets in history to warn both kingdoms about what
1:24:12
Speaker 1: was coming if they didn't repent. Joseiah was one of
1:24:16
Speaker 1: these prophets, and God gave him a very personal way
1:24:20
Speaker 1: to understand Israel's unfaithfulness. Hoseiah chapter one, verse two records
1:24:26
Speaker 1: God's strange command. When the Lord began to speak through Joseiah.
1:24:31
Speaker 1: The Lord said to him, go marry a promiscuous woman
1:24:36
Speaker 1: and have children with her, For like an adulterous wife,
1:24:40
Speaker 1: this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord. God
1:24:45
Speaker 1: told Hoseiah to marry a woman who would be unfaithful
1:24:48
Speaker 1: to him so he could understand how God felt when
1:24:52
Speaker 1: Israel worshiped other gods. Through his own heartbreak, Joseiah learned
1:24:56
Speaker 1: to speak with the voice of a betrayed husband, calling
1:24:59
Speaker 1: his w life to come home. In Hoseiah chapter eleven,
1:25:03
Speaker 1: verses one through two, God spoke through the prophet with
1:25:08
Speaker 1: deep emotion. When Israel was a child, I loved him
1:25:13
Speaker 1: and out of Egypt, I called my son, But the
1:25:17
Speaker 1: more they were called, the more they went away from me.
1:25:22
Speaker 1: They sacrificed to the balls, and they burned incense to images.
1:25:27
Speaker 1: This wasn't the voice of an angry judge. This was
1:25:30
Speaker 1: the voice of a heartbroken father watching his children destroy themselves.
1:25:36
Speaker 1: God remembered how he had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt,
1:25:41
Speaker 1: how he had cared for them in the wilderness, how
1:25:43
Speaker 1: he had given them the promised land, and now they
1:25:47
Speaker 1: were throwing it all away for false gods. Another prophet, Amos,
1:25:53
Speaker 1: focused on the social injustice that was destroying Israel from within.
1:25:58
Speaker 1: Amos chapter five, verse twelve lists their crimes, for I
1:26:04
Speaker 1: know how many are your offenses, and how great your sins.
1:26:09
Speaker 1: There are those who oppress the innocent, and take bribes
1:26:12
Speaker 1: and deprive the poor of justice. In the courts, the
1:26:16
Speaker 1: rich were getting richer by cheating the poor. Judges were
1:26:20
Speaker 1: taking bribes to rule against honest people. The powerful were
1:26:24
Speaker 1: using their positions to steal from those who couldn't defend themselves.
1:26:28
Speaker 1: This wasn't just economic inequality. This was systematic oppression of
1:26:33
Speaker 1: the weak by the strong. Amos warned them about the
1:26:37
Speaker 1: consequences in chapter five, verse twenty seven. Therefore, I will
1:26:42
Speaker 1: send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose
1:26:47
Speaker 1: name is God Almighty. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdom, prophets
1:26:53
Speaker 1: like Isaiah and Micah were giving similar warnings to Judah.
1:26:57
Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter one, verse four described their spiritual condition, woe
1:27:03
Speaker 1: to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great,
1:27:07
Speaker 1: a brood of evil doers, children given to corruption. They
1:27:12
Speaker 1: have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the Holy One
1:27:15
Speaker 1: of Israel and turned their backs on him. Isaiah saw
1:27:19
Speaker 1: that Judah was following the same path as Israel. They
1:27:23
Speaker 1: might still have the temple and the proper priests, but
1:27:26
Speaker 1: their hearts were far from God. They were going through
1:27:30
Speaker 1: the motions of religion while living like pagans. Micah gave
1:27:34
Speaker 1: one of the clearest warnings about what God really wanted
1:27:37
Speaker 1: from his people. Micah Chapter six, verse eight cuts through
1:27:42
Speaker 1: all the religious confusion. He has shown you, o mortal,
1:27:47
Speaker 1: what is good and what does the Lord require of you?
1:27:51
Speaker 1: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
1:27:54
Speaker 1: humbly with your God. Justice, mercy, and humility, These were
1:28:00
Speaker 1: the things God cared about most, but Both kingdoms were
1:28:04
Speaker 1: practicing injustice, cruelty, and pride. They had temples and sacrifices
1:28:10
Speaker 1: and religious festivals, but they had forgotten the heart of
1:28:14
Speaker 1: what it meant to serve God. The warnings had been
1:28:16
Speaker 1: ignored for too long. In seven hundred twenty two b C.
1:28:21
Speaker 1: The Assyrian army under King Shalmaniser the fifth surrounded Samaria,
1:28:26
Speaker 1: the magnificent capital that Omri had built on its seemingly
1:28:30
Speaker 1: impregnable hill. Second Kings, Chapter seventeen, verse five tells us
1:28:35
Speaker 1: about the siege. The king of Assyria invaded the entire land,
1:28:41
Speaker 1: marched against Samaria, and laid siege to it for three
1:28:44
Speaker 1: years three years. For three long years, the people of
1:28:50
Speaker 1: Samaria held out behind their strong walls. They probably thought
1:28:54
Speaker 1: their city was too well fortified to fall. The hill
1:28:58
Speaker 1: was steep, the walls were thick, and they had plenty
1:29:01
Speaker 1: of water from wells inside the city. But the Assyrians
1:29:04
Speaker 1: were patient and determined. They built siege works around the
1:29:09
Speaker 1: entire city, cutting off all supplies. Slowly, the people inside
1:29:15
Speaker 1: began to starve. Food became scarce, then precious, then almost
1:29:21
Speaker 1: impossible to find. During those three terrible years, people must
1:29:27
Speaker 1: have remembered the prophet's warnings. Maybe they thought about Elijah
1:29:31
Speaker 1: and Elisha, who had performed miracles in this very kingdom.
1:29:37
Speaker 1: Maybe they wondered if it was too late to call
1:29:39
Speaker 1: out to the god their ancestors had abandoned. But the
1:29:43
Speaker 1: siege continued, and in the third year the walls were
1:29:47
Speaker 1: finally breached. Verse six records the end of the Northern Kingdom.
1:29:54
Speaker 1: In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria
1:29:57
Speaker 1: captured Samaria and deported the Israeli to Assyria. He settled
1:30:02
Speaker 1: them in Halla and Gozon, on the Haber River, and
1:30:05
Speaker 1: in the towns of the Meads. The fall of Samaria
1:30:09
Speaker 1: wasn't just a military defeat, It was the end of
1:30:12
Speaker 1: a nation. The Assyrians didn't just conquer Israel, they destroyed
1:30:17
Speaker 1: it completely. They took the surviving population and scattered them
1:30:22
Speaker 1: across their vast empire, from the mountains of Media to
1:30:27
Speaker 1: the banks of the Euphrates River. This was the Assyrian
1:30:31
Speaker 1: way of preventing rebellions. Instead of leaving conquered peoples in
1:30:36
Speaker 1: their homeland, where they might organize and fight back, they
1:30:40
Speaker 1: moved everyone to distant provinces, where they would be surrounded
1:30:43
Speaker 1: by strangers and forced to start new lives. The Bible
1:30:48
Speaker 1: tells us exactly why this happened in verses seven through eight.
1:30:53
Speaker 1: All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against
1:30:56
Speaker 1: the Lord, their God, who had brought them up out
1:30:58
Speaker 1: of Egypt from under the power or of Pharaoh, king
1:31:00
Speaker 1: of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices
1:31:05
Speaker 1: of the nations the Lord had driven out before them,
1:31:08
Speaker 1: as well as the practices that the kings of Israel
1:31:11
Speaker 1: had introduced. This wasn't a random disaster or political accident.
1:31:17
Speaker 1: This was divine judgment on two centuries of rebellion against God.
1:31:22
Speaker 1: The Northern Kingdom had been given every opportunity to repent,
1:31:26
Speaker 1: but they had chosen idolatry and injustice instead. The ten
1:31:31
Speaker 1: tribes that had followed Jeroboam when the kingdom's split were
1:31:34
Speaker 1: now scattered across the Assyrian Empire. Most of them would
1:31:38
Speaker 1: never return to the promised land. They would marry into
1:31:41
Speaker 1: the populations where they were settled and gradually lose their
1:31:44
Speaker 1: identity as Israelites. The Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had
1:31:49
Speaker 1: lasted for about two hundred years since the split under
1:31:52
Speaker 1: rejo Boam, was gone forever. Only Judah remained as a
1:31:57
Speaker 1: remnant of the great kingdom that David and Solomon had built.
1:32:02
Speaker 1: When news reached Jerusalem that Samaria had fallen and the
1:32:05
Speaker 1: Northern Kingdom was destroyed, the people of Judah must have
1:32:09
Speaker 1: been terrified. If the mighty Assyrian army could conquer Israel,
1:32:14
Speaker 1: what chance did the smaller southern kingdom have. But Judah
1:32:19
Speaker 1: had something Israel had lost. They still worshiped the True
1:32:23
Speaker 1: God at the Temple in Jerusalem. They still had the
1:32:27
Speaker 1: priesthood that God had established through Erin. They still followed
1:32:31
Speaker 1: most of the laws that Moses had given them. And
1:32:34
Speaker 1: God was not ready to destroy the city. He had
1:32:37
Speaker 1: chosen or abandoned the promises he had made to David.
1:32:41
Speaker 1: King Hezikiah was ruling Judah when Israel fell, and he
1:32:45
Speaker 1: was one of the most righteous kings in the entire Bible.
1:32:49
Speaker 1: Second Kings, Chapter eighteen, verse five tells us about his faith.
1:32:54
Speaker 1: Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There
1:32:59
Speaker 1: was no one like him him among all the kings
1:33:01
Speaker 1: of Judah, either before him or after him. When the
1:33:05
Speaker 1: Assyrian army came south to attack Jerusalem, Hezekiah didn't panic
1:33:10
Speaker 1: or try to make political alliances. Instead, he went to
1:33:14
Speaker 1: the temple and prayed. Second Kings Chapter nineteen, verse fifteen
1:33:19
Speaker 1: records his prayer, and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, Lord,
1:33:24
Speaker 1: the God of Israel, enthroned between the Cherubim. You alone
1:33:28
Speaker 1: are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You
1:33:31
Speaker 1: have made heaven and earth. God answered Hezekiah's prayer in
1:33:36
Speaker 1: a miraculous way. In one night, an angel of the
1:33:41
Speaker 1: Lord killed one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers,
1:33:45
Speaker 1: and the surviving army retreated without capturing Jerusalem. The Southern
1:33:50
Speaker 1: kingdom was saved because their king trusted in God instead
1:33:54
Speaker 1: of human schemes. But Judah's survival was only temporary. After
1:34:00
Speaker 1: Hezekiah died, his son Manassa became king and led the
1:34:04
Speaker 1: people back into idolatry. Second King's Chapter twenty one, verse
1:34:09
Speaker 1: six describes how evil Manassa became. He sacrificed his own
1:34:15
Speaker 1: son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted
1:34:20
Speaker 1: mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes
1:34:24
Speaker 1: of the Lord, arousing his anger. For fifty five years,
1:34:29
Speaker 1: Manassa ruled Judah and undid all the good that his
1:34:32
Speaker 1: father Hezekiah had done. He filled Jerusalem with idols, murdered
1:34:37
Speaker 1: innocent people, and even put pagan altars inside God's temple. Later,
1:34:43
Speaker 1: King Josiah tried to reform the kingdom and bring the
1:34:45
Speaker 1: people back to God. Second Kings, chapter twenty three, verse
1:34:50
Speaker 1: twenty five tells us about his efforts. Neither before nor
1:34:54
Speaker 1: after Josiah was there a king like him who turned
1:34:57
Speaker 1: to the Lord, as he did with a all his heart,
1:35:00
Speaker 1: and with all his soul, and with all his strength,
1:35:03
Speaker 1: in accordance with all the law of Moses. Josiah tore
1:35:07
Speaker 1: down the idols, destroyed the pagan altars, and even found
1:35:11
Speaker 1: a copy of God's Law that had been lost in
1:35:13
Speaker 1: the temple. For a while, it looked like Judah might
1:35:16
Speaker 1: be saved from the same fate that had destroyed Israel,
1:35:20
Speaker 1: but it was too late. The people went through the
1:35:23
Speaker 1: motions of reform, but their hearts hadn't really changed. As
1:35:29
Speaker 1: soon as Josiah died, they went back to their old
1:35:32
Speaker 1: ways of idolatry and injustice. God spoke through the prophet
1:35:38
Speaker 1: Jeremiah to explain why judgment was still coming. Jeremiah chapter fifteen,
1:35:44
Speaker 1: verse four records God's decision, I will make them abhorrent
1:35:49
Speaker 1: to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manassa,
1:35:52
Speaker 1: son of Hezekiah, King of Judah, did in Jerusalem. The
1:35:56
Speaker 1: sins of Manassa's long reign had poisoned the Southern kingdom
1:36:00
Speaker 1: so deeply that even Josiah's reforms couldn't heal the damage.
1:36:04
Speaker 1: Judah had survived Israel's fall by one hundred thirty five years,
1:36:09
Speaker 1: but their time was running out. The new empire was
1:36:13
Speaker 1: rising in the East. Babylon had overthrown the Assyrians and
1:36:17
Speaker 1: was now the dominant power in the world. King Nebucud
1:36:22
Speaker 1: Nezar of Babylon was even more ambitious than the Assyrian
1:36:25
Speaker 1: kings had been. He wanted to control everything from India
1:36:30
Speaker 1: to Egypt. Second Kings, Chapter twenty four, Verse one tells
1:36:36
Speaker 1: us how Judah first encountered this threat during Jehoiakim's reign.
1:36:42
Speaker 1: Nebucad Nezar, King of Babylon, invaded the land, and Jehoiakim
1:36:46
Speaker 1: became his vassal for three years, but then he rebelled
1:36:51
Speaker 1: against nebukud Nezar. At first, King Jehoiakim of Judah tried
1:36:57
Speaker 1: the same strategy that had worked with Assyria. He paid
1:37:00
Speaker 1: tribute and hoped to be left alone. But unlike his
1:37:04
Speaker 1: ancestor Hezekiah, Jehoiakim didn't trust in God. He trusted in
1:37:10
Speaker 1: political alliances with Egypt and other nations. When Jehoiakim rebelled
1:37:15
Speaker 1: against Babylon, nebucad Nezar responded swiftly. Verse ten describes what
1:37:21
Speaker 1: happened at that time. The officers of nebukud Nezer, king
1:37:26
Speaker 1: of Babylon, advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it.
1:37:32
Speaker 1: The first Siege of Jerusalem lasted only a few months.
1:37:36
Speaker 1: Jehoiakim died during the siege, and his young son Jehoyashin
1:37:40
Speaker 1: surrendered the city to avoid total destruction. Verse fourteen tells
1:37:45
Speaker 1: us what nebukud Nezar took from Jerusalem. He carried all
1:37:50
Speaker 1: Jerusalem into exile, all the officers and fighting men, and
1:37:54
Speaker 1: all the skilled workers and artisans, a total of ten thousand.
1:37:59
Speaker 1: Only the poorest people of the land were left. Ten
1:38:03
Speaker 1: thousand people the entire leadership class of Judah were marched
1:38:07
Speaker 1: off to Babylon as prisoners. This included the young king Jehoiakin,
1:38:13
Speaker 1: the royal family, the army officers, the craftsmen, who knew
1:38:17
Speaker 1: how to make weapons and tools, and anyone else who
1:38:20
Speaker 1: might be able to organize a rebellion. Nebukad Nezer put
1:38:24
Speaker 1: Jehoyakin's uncle Zedekiah on the throne as a puppet king,
1:38:29
Speaker 1: but Zedekiah was weak and foolish. Despite seeing what had
1:38:33
Speaker 1: happened to his nephew, he also tried to rebel against Babylon.
1:38:39
Speaker 1: The final siege of Jerusalem began in five hundred and
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Speaker 1: eighty eight BC and lasted two and a half years.
1:38:46
Speaker 1: Second Kings, Chapter twenty five, Verse three describes the terrible
1:38:51
Speaker 1: conditions inside the city. By the ninth day of the
1:38:55
Speaker 1: fourth month, the famine in the city had become so
1:38:58
Speaker 1: severe that there was no food for the people to eat.
1:39:03
Speaker 1: People were starving to death. Inside the walls of Jerusalem,
1:39:08
Speaker 1: mothers watched their children waste away from hunger. The city
1:39:12
Speaker 1: that had once been the pride of the world was
1:39:15
Speaker 1: now filled with death and despair. When the walls were
1:39:18
Speaker 1: finally breached in five hundred and eighty six b C,
1:39:22
Speaker 1: the Babylonians showed no mercy. Verse nine tells us what
1:39:27
Speaker 1: they did. He set fire to the Temple of the Lord,
1:39:31
Speaker 1: the Royal Palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every
1:39:35
Speaker 1: important building he burned down. The temple that Solomon had built,
1:39:41
Speaker 1: where God's presence had dwelt for over four hundred years,
1:39:45
Speaker 1: was destroyed. The beautiful cedar beams that had come from
1:39:50
Speaker 1: Lebanon went up in flames. The golden bronze furnishings were
1:39:54
Speaker 1: stripped away and carried off to Babylon. Verse twenty one
1:39:58
Speaker 1: records the final end of them the Kingdom of Judah.
1:40:02
Speaker 1: So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. The
1:40:06
Speaker 1: division that had started with Rioboam's harsh words at Shechem
1:40:10
Speaker 1: was now complete. Both kingdoms were gone, their people scattered
1:40:14
Speaker 1: among foreign nations, their land empty and desolate. The Babylonian
1:40:20
Speaker 1: exile wasn't just a political disaster. It was God's final
1:40:24
Speaker 1: judgment on both kingdoms for their centuries of unfaithfulness. The
1:40:29
Speaker 1: division that had begun with pride and rebellion had led
1:40:32
Speaker 1: to exactly what the prophets had warned would happen. Jeremiah
1:40:36
Speaker 1: chapter twenty five, verse eleven had predicted exactly how long
1:40:40
Speaker 1: the exile would last. This whole country will become a
1:40:45
Speaker 1: desolate waste land, and these nations will serve the King
1:40:48
Speaker 1: of Babylon, seventy years. Seventy years. That was long enough
1:40:55
Speaker 1: for an entire generation to be born and grow up
1:40:58
Speaker 1: in a foreign land. It was long enough for the
1:41:01
Speaker 1: survivors to forget what life in the Promised Land had
1:41:04
Speaker 1: been like. It was long enough for God's people to
1:41:08
Speaker 1: truly understand what they had lost through their rebellion. The
1:41:13
Speaker 1: prophet Ezekiel, who was among the exiles in Babylon, explained
1:41:18
Speaker 1: why this judgment was necessary. Ezekiel Chapter thirty six, verses
1:41:24
Speaker 1: seventeen to nineteen, record God's explanation, Son of Man, when
1:41:29
Speaker 1: the people of Israel were living in their own land,
1:41:32
Speaker 1: they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their
1:41:37
Speaker 1: conduct was like a woman's monthly uncleanness in my sight.
1:41:41
Speaker 1: So I poured out my wrath on them. Because they
1:41:43
Speaker 1: had shed blood in the land, and because they had
1:41:46
Speaker 1: defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations,
1:41:52
Speaker 1: and they were scattered through the countries. I judged them
1:41:56
Speaker 1: according to their conduct and their actions. This was strong language,
1:42:02
Speaker 1: but it showed how serious israel sins had become. They
1:42:06
Speaker 1: had polluted the land that God had given them. They
1:42:09
Speaker 1: had murdered innocent people. They had filled the promised land
1:42:13
Speaker 1: with idols and false worship. The exile also showed the
1:42:17
Speaker 1: consequences of the original division. If the twelve tribes had
1:42:22
Speaker 1: stayed united under David's dynasty, they would have been strong
1:42:27
Speaker 1: enough to resist foreign empires. If they had remained faithful
1:42:31
Speaker 1: to God's laws, he would have protected them from their enemies.
1:42:37
Speaker 1: But instead they had spent two centuries fighting each other,
1:42:42
Speaker 1: weakening themselves and turning away from God. The Assyrians and
1:42:48
Speaker 1: Babylonians had been able to conquer them precisely because they
1:42:51
Speaker 1: were divided and spiritually corrupted. Second Chronicles, chapter thirty six,
1:42:56
Speaker 1: verse sixteen summarizes the tragic process that led to exile.
1:43:02
Speaker 1: But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and scoffed
1:43:06
Speaker 1: at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was
1:43:09
Speaker 1: aroused against his people and there was no remedy. God
1:43:14
Speaker 1: had sent prophet after prophet to warn them. He had
1:43:18
Speaker 1: performed miracles to get their attention. He had allowed their
1:43:22
Speaker 1: enemies to pressure them so they would turn back to him,
1:43:26
Speaker 1: But instead of repenting, they had mocked the prophets and
1:43:30
Speaker 1: ignored the warnings. Now they were learning the hard way
1:43:34
Speaker 1: that God's words always come true. The blessings he promised
1:43:38
Speaker 1: for obedience had been replaced by the curses he warned
1:43:42
Speaker 1: would come from rebellion. But even in exile, God's people
1:43:48
Speaker 1: were still his people. The covenant he had made with Abraham,
1:43:52
Speaker 1: Isaac and Jacob couldn't be broken by human unfaithfulness. The
1:43:57
Speaker 1: promises he had made to David about an eternal kingdom
1:44:00
Speaker 1: were still in effect, even though David's kingdom seemed to
1:44:04
Speaker 1: have ended forever. Even in the darkest moments of judgment
1:44:08
Speaker 1: and exile, God didn't abandon his people completely. Through the
1:44:14
Speaker 1: same prophets who had warned of coming destruction, he also
1:44:18
Speaker 1: promised future restoration and healing. Jeremiah, who had watched Jerusalem
1:44:25
Speaker 1: burn and seen his people marched off to Babylon, received
1:44:29
Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful promises of hope in the
1:44:31
Speaker 1: entire Bible. Jeremiah, Chapter thirty one, Verse thirty one records
1:44:38
Speaker 1: God's words. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when
1:44:44
Speaker 1: I will make a new covenant with the people of
1:44:45
Speaker 1: Israel and with the people of Judah, a new covenant.
1:44:50
Speaker 1: This wasn't just a promise to bring the exiles back
1:44:53
Speaker 1: to their land, This was a promise to heal the
1:44:56
Speaker 1: spiritual problems that had caused the division in in the
1:45:00
Speaker 1: first place. Verses thirty three to thirty four explain what
1:45:05
Speaker 1: this new covenant would be like. This is the covenant
1:45:09
Speaker 1: I will make with the people of Israel. After that time,
1:45:13
Speaker 1: declares the Lord. I will put my law in their
1:45:16
Speaker 1: minds and write it on their hearts. I will be
1:45:20
Speaker 1: their God, and they will be my people. No longer
1:45:24
Speaker 1: will they teach their neighbor or say to one another,
1:45:27
Speaker 1: know the Lord, because they will all know me, from
1:45:32
Speaker 1: the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.
1:45:36
Speaker 1: For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins.
1:45:40
Speaker 1: No more think about what this meant. Instead of having
1:45:45
Speaker 1: God's law written on stone tablets that could be ignored
1:45:49
Speaker 1: or forgotten, it would be written on their hearts. Instead
1:45:54
Speaker 1: of having to learn about God from priests and prophets,
1:45:58
Speaker 1: everyone would know him personally. Instead of carrying the guilt
1:46:02
Speaker 1: of their rebellion forever, they would be completely forgiven. The
1:46:08
Speaker 1: prophet Ezekiel received an even more specific promise about the
1:46:11
Speaker 1: reunion of the divided kingdoms Ezekiel Chapter thirty seven, Verses
1:46:17
Speaker 1: twenty one to twenty two record God's plan. This is
1:46:22
Speaker 1: what the Sovereign Lord says. I will take the Israelites
1:46:26
Speaker 1: out of the nations where they have gone. I will
1:46:29
Speaker 1: gather them from all around and bring them back into
1:46:32
Speaker 1: their own land. I will make them one nation in
1:46:35
Speaker 1: the land on the mountains of Israel. There will be
1:46:39
Speaker 1: one king over all of them, and they will never
1:46:41
Speaker 1: again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms,
1:46:46
Speaker 1: one nation, one king. The division that had torn God's
1:46:51
Speaker 1: people apart for centuries would finally be healed. The northern
1:46:56
Speaker 1: tribes that had been scattered by the Assyrians and the
1:46:59
Speaker 1: southern tribes that had been exiled by the Babylonians would
1:47:03
Speaker 1: be brought back together. But this reunited kingdom wouldn't be
1:47:08
Speaker 1: ruled by just any king. Verse twenty four identifies who
1:47:13
Speaker 1: this king would be. My servant David will be king
1:47:16
Speaker 1: over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They
1:47:21
Speaker 1: will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.
1:47:26
Speaker 1: This couldn't mean the literal David, who had been dead
1:47:29
Speaker 1: for centuries. This was a promise about someone from David's
1:47:34
Speaker 1: family line who would be like David, a king who
1:47:38
Speaker 1: loved God, and ruled with justice and righteousness. Isaiah had
1:47:44
Speaker 1: given an even more detailed prophecy about this future king.
1:47:48
Speaker 1: Isaiah Chapter nine, verse six describes him, for to us
1:47:53
Speaker 1: a child is born, to us a son is given,
1:47:56
Speaker 1: and the government will be on his shoulders, and he
1:47:59
Speaker 1: will be called wonderful counselor Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince
1:48:05
Speaker 1: of Peace. This king wouldn't just reunite the political kingdoms.
1:48:11
Speaker 1: He would bring peace between God and humanity. He would
1:48:15
Speaker 1: have divine power but also human understanding. He would establish
1:48:20
Speaker 1: a kingdom that would never end. Verse seven promises the
1:48:24
Speaker 1: extent of his reign, of the greatness of his government
1:48:28
Speaker 1: and peace, There will be no end. He will reign
1:48:32
Speaker 1: on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding
1:48:36
Speaker 1: it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
1:48:41
Speaker 1: The story that had begun with such promise under David
1:48:44
Speaker 1: and Solomon, that had been broken by division and rebellion,
1:48:49
Speaker 1: would find its ultimate fulfillment in this greater king. The
1:48:53
Speaker 1: kingdoms of Israel and Judah would not only be reunited,
1:48:58
Speaker 1: they would become part of an eternal kingdom that would
1:49:01
Speaker 1: include all nations. The exile that seemed like the end
1:49:06
Speaker 1: of God's promises was actually preparing the way for their
1:49:10
Speaker 1: ultimate fulfillment. The division that had caused so much pain
1:49:14
Speaker 1: and destruction would be completely healed by the one who
1:49:18
Speaker 1: would bring all God's people together under his perfect rule.
1:49:22
Speaker 1: If this story of division and restoration has touched your heart,
1:49:27
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to be part of our growing
1:49:29
Speaker 1: community here on the channel. Hit that subscribe button and
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Speaker 1: stories that bring ancient truths to life. Your subscription helps
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Speaker 1: us continue creating content that explores God's amazing plan throughout history.
1:49:50
Speaker 1: And please don't keep this story to yourself. Share this
1:49:55
Speaker 1: video with your family, friends, and church community. These timeless
1:50:01
Speaker 1: lessons about the consequences of pride and the hope of
1:50:04
Speaker 1: restoration are messages every one needs to hear, whether someone
1:50:09
Speaker 1: is going through their own season of division or seeking
1:50:12
Speaker 1: hope for restoration. This story speaks directly to the human heart.
1:50:17
Speaker 1: Drop a comment below and let me know what part
1:50:21
Speaker 1: of this story impacted you the most. Was it Rioboem's
1:50:25
Speaker 1: fateful decision, the tragic fall of both kingdoms, or perhaps
1:50:30
Speaker 1: the beautiful promises of future restoration. I read every comment
1:50:35
Speaker 1: and love hearing how these biblical stories speak to your life. Remember,
1:50:40
Speaker 1: God's story of redemption is still being written to day,
1:50:44
Speaker 1: and you're part of it. Thanks for joining me on
1:50:47
Speaker 1: this incredible journey through scripture. I'll see you in the
1:50:51
Speaker 1: next video, where we'll explore another amazing chapter in God's
1:50:56
Speaker 1: unfolding plan for humanity. Until then, may you find hope
1:51:03
Speaker 1: in knowing that the God who promised to restore his
1:51:05
Speaker 1: divided people is the same God who offers restoration to
1:51:11
Speaker 1: each of us to day.