PROPHETS GO ROUND

the story of the Divided Kingdom (ca. 931 BC)

Found in: 1 & 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles 1-9, Proverbs and Isaiah 1-39

When David's son Solomon became king, instead of asking God for wealth or power, he asked God for the wisdom to rule his people. Pleased with this request, God granted him not only wisdom but power and fame as well. Solomon built a temple in the capitol, finally giving the ark of the covenant a proper resting place, centralizing worship for all of Israel. God reminded him, however, that it was obedience to the covenant, not the temple, that would win his favor. 

Unfortunately, Solomon became so preoccupied with the temple that he began taxing the people too heavily for it. To make matters worse, in his older years he took on 700 foreign wives and built temples for their gods. God informed him through the next prophet, Ahijah, that the kingdom of Israel would consequently be split in two. 

Sure enough, the 10 northern tribes broke away from the 2 southern tribes. The 10 kept the name Israel and made Samaria their new capitol. The 2 to the south (Judah and Benjamin) were just called Judah and still had Jerusalem as their capital with the temple. North and South now had separate kings and prophets. Kingly behavior got bad when Jeroboam in the north, and Rehoboam in the south, started mixing the worship of God with the worship of the other gods. God's prophets (north and south) continually warned that this behavior would spell certain doom.

There followed a succession of kings in both kingdoms, good and bad. King Ahab and his infamous foreign wife Jezebel killed many of God’s true prophets, having their own false “brotherhood” of prophets. During Ahab’s reign, God’s true prophet Elijah performed miracles like multiplying food, and resuscitating the son of a poor widow. One day in a showdown at Mount Carmel, Elijah demonstrated the power of God to all the people when he called down the name of God to ignite a sacrificial bull in front of everyone. When the false prophets of Ahab and Jezebel tried to do the same, their gods were silent. Elijah had the false prophets seized and killed.

Later one day Elijah would feel the presence of God, not in a great storm or fire or earthquake, but in a quiet breeze. He later appointed the prophet Elisha to succeed him. 

Any time the kings of Israel or Judah would displease Yahweh, the books of Kings and Chronicles would remind us that they just weren’t  like the king that ruled when Israel was one - the greatest of kings, King David!


 

 

Notes:

In one famous case brought to Solomon, two women claim to be the mother of the same baby. Solomon orders the baby to be cut in two, with one half going to each woman. The first spiteful woman agrees to the demand while the second pleads to just let the first woman keep the baby. Solomon knows that the second woman is the true mother and gives the child to her.

The building of the temple of Solomon is significant in that the ark of the covenant no longer has to be moved around in a tent as in the days of the desert or when they were fighting to take Canaan.

But with the division of the kingdoms, worship becomes decentralized and the mixing of false gods alongside the worship of Yahweh continues.
 

Review questions:

What was so important about the temple?

On the other hand, how important was the temple regarding God's favor, according to God?

Solomon, I love that your only wish 
was wisdom to rule. 
But when you got older 
you built the temples to other fools.
Thank you for the house where my golden ark c
ould finally reside. 
But seven hundred wives, 
and that wisdom turned to lust and to pride!
Golden calves and sacred poles and Baal prostitutes?

The kings are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round.
People are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round,
Round and round.

Now the house is split in half - 
ten up north and two to the south.
Kings and prophets, good and bad, 
in following the words from my mouth.
The ten in the north took Samaria 
to house a new throne,
Kept the name of Israel, 
while Judah kept Jerusalem home. 
Golden calves and sacred poles and Baal prostitutes?

The kings are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round.
People are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round,
Round and round.

Jezebel you worship Baal, 
so take your so called prophets to see.
Elijah, go to Mount Carmel 
and bring that “brotherhood” to its knees,
Then find me in the whispering breeze…

All the kings were chronicled as 
good or bad compared to the one -
The shepherd boy who became a king, 
the one I loved like a son. 
But golden calves and sacred poles 
and Baal prostitutes?

The kings are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round.
People are lost and think they’re found!
My prophets go round and round and round.

People are lost and think they’re found!
Prophets go round and round and round.
Kings are lost and think they’re found!
Prophets go round and round and round,
People lost and think they're found,
Prophets go round and round, 
round and round and round.

Round and around.
Round and round and round and round and 
round and round and round and around.