THE TWO KINGDOMS.
I Kings i-xii; II Chronicles i-xii.
From the division of the kingdom till the
downfall of that of the ten tribes, called the kingdom of Israel, or the
northern kingdom, while the other was the kingdom of Judah, or the southern
kingdom, the author of the book of Kings treats their history alternately,
while the Chronicler confines himself to the latter, except when the two
come in contact.
We should study this part of the history
under the subdivisions into which it is naturally divided, and we must take
into view the writings of the prophets as they come into contact with the
history; for the latter constitute a very important part of the history of
the times, and without them the narrative in [46]
Kings and Chronicles could be but imperfectly understood.
This portion of the history divides itself
into three distinct parts which we shall consider separately. They are
first, a period of hostility between the two kingdoms; second, a period of
friendly alliance; and third, a second period of hostility.
1. The First Period of Hostility.
This period began with the division of the kingdom, and closed with an
alliance between kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat, and it lasted about 78 years.
At the beginning of this period Jeroboam established the worship of Jehovah
under the image of golden calves at Bethel and Dan; ordained an annual
festival at the former place, and made it unlawful for his subjects to go to
Jerusalem to worship as the law of Moses required. The author of the book of
Kings is careful to trace the continuance of this unlawful worship in the
reigns of subsequent kings of Israel, and the evil consequences of it are
plainly seen in the course of events. Within about fifty years four
different dynasties came to the throne, each exterminating the male
offspring of the predecessor, and each being pronounced more wicked than
those that had gone before. Finally the religious degradation [47]
reached such a point that to the calf-worship inaugurated by Jeroboam was added
the almost universal worship of Baal. In this crisis the greatest of all the
prophets who have left no writings behind them, Elijah the Tishbite,
appeared like a sudden thunderstorm on the scene, and gave a staggering
blows to this pernicious system.
In the meantime, the kingdom of Judah had
progressed more satisfactorily. Adhering to the true God, and maintaining
his worship according to the law, only four kings had come to the throne
when the seventh began to reign in Israel. During a temporary apostasy of
the people under Rehoboam, the country was overrun by an Egyptian army, and
a heavy tribute was paid to get rid of it; but a return to the Lord brought
a return to prosperity, and Jehoshaphat was reigning righteously over Judah
while Ahab was in the midst of the wickedest reign that had been known in
Israel.
2. The Period of Reconciliation. The
two kingdoms so long hostile now became reconciled by the marriage of Ahab's
daughter Athaliah to Jehoram the son and heir of Jehoshaphat. The alliance
emboldened Ahab to a military enterprise which he had not dared to undertake
alone, and which resulted in the [48]
defeat of his army and the loss of his life. The whole story of his reign is
full of instruction and warning. Jehoshaphat was rebuked by a messenger from
God for helping those who were the enemies of God; but the friendly
relations between his kingdom and that of Israel continued until the former
reaped much bitter fruit therefrom. Athaliah proved a scourge to Judah, and
in the third generation of Jehoshaphat's descendants she attempted the
extermination of the royal family. She came so near succeeding that only one
infant was left to perpetuate the family of David, and to make possible the
divine promise that he should never lack a son to sit upon his throne. This
infant was saved at the sacrifice of Athaliah's own execrable life, and then
came to an end the alliance between Israel and Judah which had proved a
continuous disaster to the latter.
While such was the course of history in
Judah, Israel had fared no better. Ahab's son and successor, Ahaziah,
reigned only two years. He made a feeble effort to revive Baal worship, and
he also committed the fatal sin of his life by sending messengers to
Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to inquire of him the result of an injury
which he had received from a fall. Dying without a son, he was succeeded by
his [49]
brother Jehoram, in whose reign the career of Elijah came to a glorious end,
and the brilliant career of Elisha kept alive to some extent the fear of God
among the people. More than once he saved the kingdom from subjugation by
Benhadad the powerful king of Syria. Jehoram's career ended in the
extermination of the whole offspring of Ahab by the hand of Jehu.
That the two great prophets, Elijah and
Elisha, were sent to the more wicked of the two kingdoms, though a matter of
surprise at first thought, was the very thing to be expected; for their
mission was to rebuke sin, and where sin most abounded was their proper
field of activity. By checking Baal-worship in the larger kingdom, where it
originated, they brought it to a speedier end in the smaller kingdom to
which it had spread.
3. The Second Period of Hostility.
After the extermination of the house of Ahab in Israel, and the death of
Athaliah in Judah, there was no more co-operation between the two kingdoms;
but instead there were frequent wars as of old. The house of Jehu held the
throne in the north longer than any other, and under Jeroboam II the kingdom
reached its greatest power and prosperity since the days of Solomon. This
king, by the prophetic [50]
guidance of the prophet Jonah, subdued the kingdom of Syria which had long
oppressed his nation, and extended his dominions to the Euphrates, which was
the northern boundary of the kingdom of David. The incidents recorded in the
book of Jonah belong to this reign.
It was in this reign, which was a long one,
that the prophets Hosea and Amos uttered the prophecies which we find in
their books. It is necessary to study these, in order to fully understand
the condition of the people at the time; for while the account in the
historical book of Kings touches upon political and military affairs, and
this very slightly, the two prophets speak to the people of their sins; and
in doing so they bring to light a state of irreligion and immorality in the
midst of secular prosperity, which fills the reader with horror, and which
is yet but the legitimate result of the experiences through which the ten
tribes had passed since the division of the kingdom. It is also worthy of
special notice that they predicted the downfall and ruin of the kingdom at
the very time when, according to all human foresight, there was less
prospect of such a disaster than at any previous period in its history.
After the fall of the house of Jehu, which
occurred in six months after the death of [51]
Jeroboam II, the kingdom hastened rapidly to the doom predicted for it by Hosea
and Amos. A succession of five kings came to the throne in thirty-two years,
all of whom but one were assassinated by their successors. In their
rivalries they hired three successive kings of Assyria to interfere in their
affairs, thus fairly inviting the rulers of that great Empire to come at
last, as they did, and take the whole kingdom into captivity. Finally in the
ninth year of the last of these assassins, Hoshea, the end came as described
in the seventeenth chapter of II Kings.
While Israel was thus going the downward
road to destruction, Judah, having recovered somewhat from the damaging
effects of the alliance with the house of Ahab, passed through a happier
career, though not without some severe rebukes from the two prophets who
were specially sent to Israel. Of the six kings who reigned during the time
of the ten in Israel, two were faithful to God and his law, while three were
unfaithful in many things, but far less so than the kings of Israel.
The last of these good kings, Hezekiah, was
in the sixth year of his reign when Israel was carried captive.
The whole period of the separate existence
of the two kingdoms, counted by adding [52]
together the reigns of the kings and making a proper reduction for the peculiar
Hebrew method of counting, in 354 years, and the modern date of captivity of
Israel is B. C. 721.
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