The Bible Story - Part Three


The Israelites get a king to rule over them but the nation eventually divides as a result. Israel in the north only lasts 200 years before it is destroyed. Judah in the south eventually becomes part of the Babylonian empire.

God Rejected for a King

The last judge, Samuel, brought peace and security to the nation of Israel.  But the people rejected God as their ruler and began to want a king like the surrounding nations (1 Sam 8:5) to provide military leadership and protect them from their enemy, the Philistines.  God warned the people of the consequences of having such a king (1 Sam 8: 11) but granted the people their request (1 Sam 8: 22).  Saul became Israel’s first king.

King DavidSaul did not follow God's commands and did not trust God (1 Sam 13:13).  Because of this, God rejected his kingship.  One of Saul's amour-bearers, David (1 Sam 16: 21), a man after God’s heart (1 Sam 13:14), was chosen by God to be the next king (2 Sam 5:3).  David was a great spiritual and political leader and wrote many of the Psalms.  David unified Israel and won victories over all of Israel's traditional enemies: the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Syrians.  He ruled over the entire Promised Land from the 'river of Egypt' to the River Euphrates.

The Kingdom Divides

After David, his son Solomon became king of Israel.  Solomon was a wise king (1 Kings 4: 29) who built the temple in Jerusalem and extended the wealth and boundaries of Israel to levels never before attained.  To the Israelites, it looked as though God's promises to Abraham had finally been fulfilled.  But as Solomon grew old, he gave way to pressure from his 1,000 foreign wives and concubines (1 Kings 11:3) to build temples for their gods (1 Kings 11:8).  God grew angry with Solomon (1 Kings 11:9) and the peace and security Israel had experienced collapsed.  When Solomon died, Israel split into two countries: Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south).

Rehoboam (one of Solomon’s sons) was appointed King over the entire nation (1 Kings 12:1), but lost Israel in a civil war.  Israel was then led by Jeroboam.

Israel was by far the larger nation, but was to exist for only 200 years.  During this time, God repeatedly sent prophets such as Hosea, Joel, Amos and Micah to warn the Israelites to turn back to him, away from their unfaithfulness through idol worship and immorality.  But all of Israel’s 20 kings fell short in God’s eyes and the nation was eventually destroyed forever (2 Kings 17:18) by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6) in 722 B.C. 

Judah survived slightly longer than Israel: 350 years.  During the first 50 years, Judah was almost constantly at war with Israel.  Of Judah’s 19 kings and one queen, only 8 did good in God’s eyes.  Many kings led Judah to worship other gods.  God sent prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah to warn them to turn back to God.  But continued unfaithfulness lead to Judah coming under threat from Assyria (2 Kings 18:13).  Unlike Israel, Judah fended off Assyria (2 Kings 19:36) but came under Egyptian control until the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C., thus becoming part of the Babylonian empire.  In 597 B.C., Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule and was subsequently punished when King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem.  Judah’s leading citizens were exiled to Babylon (1 Chronicles 6:15).  After a second rebellion in 586 B.C., the Babylonians burned Jerusalem and took more citizens into exile (2 Chronicles 36:20).

God’s presence remained with the people of Judah who began calling themselves Jews.  Ezekiel was sent by God to tell the Jews that God was still in control, even though Jerusalem was destroyed and they would be under Babylonian rule for a long time.

After Persia defeated Babylon in 539 B.C., King Cyrus of Persia sent the first wave of exiles back to Jerusalem in 538 B.C.  They began rebuilding the temple which was completed (Ezra 6:15), after many interruptions, in 516 B.C.

 

 

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