THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL

Solomon in his latter years turned away from God. He had married pagan women, participated in their faith of the practices of paganism in conjunction with his own faith. (1^st Kings 11 v 7) God’s anger was furious against Solomon (1^st Kings 11 v 11).

After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king. Because of the people’s disobedience, (following false gods,) God allowed the country to be divided.  Due to King Rehoboam’s harsh treatment of the people, there was a revolt and Jeroboam (the son of Solomon’s official, Nabat) successfully cause the kingdom to get divided. (Jeremiah the prophet of God lived in the southern kingdom in a town called Anathoth, four miles north of Jerusalem. He lived and prophesied during the reign of the last five kings of Judah)

The northern kingdom was called Israel ruled by Jeroboam and the southern kingdom ruled by Rehoboam was Judah and Jerusalem. Jeroboam retained 10 tribes and 2 tribes remained with Rehoboam, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They called their region Judah or southern kingdom. The capital of which was Jerusalem.

There was continual warfare between Rehoboam, and Jeroboam. Jeroboam depended so much on his own ideas that he refused to allow his people to worship in Jerusalem ( see 1^st King 12 v 26) and erected his own idols, first two golden calf which the people began to worship. Jeroboam built shrines and high places (temples) and appointed priest from all sorts of people even though they were not Levites.

He chose to do whatever he could to secure his own position and power. Leading the people away from God. He removed all of God’s priests. Jeroboam’s priests were of his own choosing. His priest were to influence the people, the people soon turned into paganism, offering  sacrifices to the idols they had made, indulging into pagan rituals, idol worship etc. Jeroboam ruled the northern kingdom (Israel) for 21 years. His son NADAB succeeded him. He reigned two years and followed in his father’s footsteps doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.

BAASHA plotted against NADAB  and killed JEROBOAM’S entire family. BAASHA took over the rule of the north. BAASHA ruled 24 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord in addition to all the 20  kings that followed him. The fifth king after BAASHA was king AHAB, his wife Jezebel brought the worship of BAAL to the region. Baal was the Canaanites most popular god. Baal idols were often made in the shape of a bull, representing strength and fertility and reflecting lust for power and sexual pleasure.

The prophet Elijah’s ministry started during the time of king AHAB’S rule Elijah challenged the people to take a stand, to follow the true God. Many however knew that the Lord was God, but they enjoyed the sinful pleasures and other benefits that came with following Ahab and his idolatrous worship.

Wickedness and paganism plagued the land throughout the reigns of all the kings of the north. However there were periods of economic prosperity, military peace, famines, wars idolatry and oppression of the people.

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