Kings & Prophets 10 A Kingdom Divided

This episode sets the stage for the rest of the Kings and Prophets Series. 1 Kings 11 describes Solomon’s later life and how he fell into idolatry by worshiping the gods of his foreign wives. By building temples and shrines to these false gods, Solomon led the whole Israelite nation into idolatry. Obviously, this angered God, so God started setting the stage to discipline the Israelites in hopes they would return to him.

As soon as Rehoboam inherited the crown from Solomon, he realized the country was in trouble. He needed to raise taxes to continue the public projects, but his subjects did not want that. When he aggressively pressed the issue, ten of the tribes of Israel rebelled and went off on their own, rallying under the leadership of Solomon’s enemy, Jeroboam. From that point on, there were two nations.

The southern nation was made up of two tribes of Israel: Judah and the tiny tribe of Benjamin. These became known as the Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, or Judah. The first king of this nation was King Rehoboam. One of the most important assets of the Southern Kingdom was Jerusalem, including the Temple located there. The kings of the Southern Kingdom will be descendants of King David. It is the Southern Kingdom that will eventually go into exile in Babylon, and return from there.