SOLOMON’S REIGN
- Solomon succeeds David
- He starts marrying the daughters of
other kings for political alliances
- He adapts their gods and introduces the
worship of those gods into Israel
ISRAEL SPLITS INTO TWO
- Rehoboam, Solomon's son tries to
increase taxes for slave labor
- Under the leadership of Jeroboam, the
northern tribes reject this and form their
own rival kingdom
a. Southern Kingdom
- Judah
- Centered in Jerusalem with
kings from the line of David
b. Northern kingdom
- Israel
- Capital is Samaria
- Jeroboam goes on to build two
new temples, Dan and Bethel,
he put the golden calf in each
one to represent the God of
Israel
ISRAEL’S KINGS VS. THE PROPHETS
a. Northern prophets
ELIJAH
- Elijah was a wild man of a prophet living
out in the desert
- His arch nemesis was the northern king
Ahab and Canaanite wife Jezebel
- They worship Canaanite god Baal
- Challenge 450 prophets to a contest in
which god was a real
- They both build altars and pray with
their gods but only the god of Israel
answers with fire
- Ahab uses his royal power to murder an
Israelite farmer and then steal his
family’s vineyard
- Elijah confronts Ahab’s injustice and he
announces the downfall of his house
ELISHA
- Asks for two times the authority of Elijah
- 7 miraculous feats for Elijah
- 14 acts of power from Elisha
- The healing of Naaman
- Solomon asks for wisdom and builds the
temple
- Purifying the stew
- Raising a dead boy
- The floating axe
THE ROAD TO EXILE
- The northern kingdom has been rocked
by a bloody revolution started by a king
named Jehu
- Jehu destroys Ahab's family
- His violence gets out of control, and it
creates a spiral of political
assassinations and rebellions from
which Israel never recovered.
- The raid of Assyria was the downfall of
the northern kingdom
- Because of idolatry, injustice, covenant
unfaithfulness
JERUSALEM’S DEMISE AND BABYLONIAN
EXILE
a. Southern Kingdom
Good kings:
1. Hezekiah, is a heroic king who
trusts god when the armies of
Assyria come knocking on
Jerusalem’s door.
2. Josiah discovers this last scroll
of the Torah in the temple and
institutes religious reforms to
remove idolatry in Canaanites.
Bad kings:
1. Manasseh- introduced many
idols into the temple and
instituted child sacrifice
- God sent prophets to tell Judah that
their time was up
- Babylonians invaded Judah and carried
the people along with the royal line of
David into exile.