Information Related to "From Empire to Exile"
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Chapter 3 : |
God's
desire for Israel to be a model nation carried with it grave responsibilities. God
had no intention of allowing Israel-the nation He created to be the world's model
of righteousness-to escape the consequences of abandoning His ways and sinking to
the level of the surrounding nations.
Before they entered the Promised Land, God had specifically warned the Israelites
to make no alliances with any nations worshiping false gods: "You shall make
no covenant with them, nor with their gods ... lest they make you sin against Me.
For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you" (Exodus 23:32-33).
For the same reasons, He told them not to intermarry with the surrounding nations:
"Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to
their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away
from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused
against you and destroy you suddenly" (Deuteronomy 7:3-4).
Solomon ignored both commands. First he made a treaty with the Pharaoh of Egypt that
he sealed by accepting Pharaoh's daughter in marriage (1Kings 3:1). Also, "there
was peace between Hiram (king of Tyre) and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty
together" (1Kings 5:12).
At the beginning of his reign Solomon loved God and simply followed in the footsteps
of his father David. At that time God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said: "Ask!
What shall I give you?" (1Kings 3:5).
In his dream Solomon made a wise choice. He asked for an understanding heart so he
could properly fulfill his kingly responsibility to render just judgment for his
people. Through his dream Solomon perceived that God was pleased with his humble,
unselfish attitude. God then promised not only to give what he requested, but also
riches, honor and long life, provided that Solomon would continue to live within
the terms of Israel's covenant with God.
Shortly after Solomon completed and dedicated the temple, God appeared in a dream
a second time to him. "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you
have made before Me; I have sanctified this house which you have built to put My
name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually" (1Kings 9:3).
God then conditionally promised to Solomon to establish the throne of his dynasty
over the people of Israel living in their Promised Land forever. In case Solomon
were to fail to follow God with integrity, God explained the consequences.
"... If you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and
decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I
will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I
have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule
among all peoples" (verses 6-7, NIV).
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Solomon's example corrupts
the nation
God not only prohibited a king of Israel from marrying pagans, but He specifically
forbade him to "multiply wives for himself," as was customary among gentile
rulers (Deuteronomy 17:17). Solomon made this deadly mistake.
"But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh:
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites-from the nations
of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not intermarry with
them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.'
Solomon clung to these in love" (1Kings 11:1-2).
"For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after
other gods ... Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after
Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites ... Solomon built a high place for Chemosh
the abomination of Moab ... and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.
And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed
to their gods.
"So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the
LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice ... Therefore the LORD said to
Solomon, 'Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes,
which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give
it to your servant.
"Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David;
but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the
whole kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David,
and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen'" (verses 4-13).
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Israel splits into two
kingdoms
God was true to His word. By the time Solomon died, about 928 B.C., the tribes occupying
the northern part of the nation were discontented with Solomon's heavy taxation and
forced-labor practices (1Kings 4:7,22,26-28; 5:13,15). When his son Rehoboam
came to the throne, the northern tribes petitioned for relief.
Rehoboam asked his counselors for advice. The older men suggested he respond to the
petitioners positively, relieving the tax burden and making life better for the average
citizen. However, the younger counselors argued that Rehoboam should exercise strong
control as an absolute monarch over his kingdom, that he should demand even greater
tax revenues. Rehoboam unwisely decided to follow the advice of the younger generation.
The result was predictable. The northern 10 tribes seceded and installed Jeroboam,
a former high official under Solomon, as their king just as the prophet Ahijah had
foretold years earlier (1Kings 11:28-40; 12:20). Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin
remained loyal to the house of David.
Rehoboam's first reaction was to invade the northern tribes with an army of 180,000
soldiers to attempt to teach the northern tribes a lesson (1Kings 12:21). But God
sent this word to Judah's leadership: "Thus says the LORD: 'You shall not go
up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to
his house, for this thing is from Me.'
Therefore they obeyed the word of the LORD, and turned back, according to the word
of the LORD" (verse 24). They called off the invasion. The era of a divided
kingdom began.
At this point, more than 200 years before the Assyrians conquered the northern 10
tribes, they became separate as the kingdom, or house, of Israel. The southern tribes
of Judah, Benjamin and a part of Levi would then be known as the kingdom, or house,
of Judah. The scepter promise of a divine king remained with the tribe of Judah.
The northern tribes kept the name of Jacob, or Israel. With them went the birthright
promise of national greatness, prosperity and wealth. To them went, by right of birth,
the physical blessings and national standing God had promised to Joseph.
From that momentous separation of Israel and Judah, the Bible records a 200-year
progression of 10 dynasties, presided over by no fewer than 19 monarchs reigning
over the northern kingdom.
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God's offer to Jeroboam
When God first sent the prophet Ahijah to inform Jeroboam that he would become the
king of the northern tribes, He offered Jeroboam His blessings and the promise of
an enduring dynasty.
"... You shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over
Israel. Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and
do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant
David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built
for David, and will give Israel to you" (1Kings 11:37-38).
With God's help Jeroboam could have maintained the part of the empire God gave him.
But his faith was in what he could see, not in God.
To secure his hold over the whole of his new kingdom, Jeroboam immediately built
two capitals for his government at traditionally significant tribal rendezvous points.
One was at Shechem, near Nablus in what is today called the West Bank region. The
other was at Penuel, east of the Jordan River in modern-day Jordan.
Jeroboam then addressed what he considered a major problem, one that might wrest
his kingdom from him. "Then Jeroboam said to himself, 'Now the kingdom may well
revert to the house of David. If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices
in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to
their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam
of Judah'" (1Kings 12:26-27, NRSV).
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Jeroboam changes Israel's
religion
To prevent such a development Jeroboam established a competing religious system.
For political reasons-to maintain his hold on the northern tribes-he changed Israel's
forms of worshiping God.
Idolatry had already become popular during the last days of Solomon, so Jeroboam
erected his own idols. "Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of
gold, and said to the people, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here
are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!' And he set
up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan" (1Kings 12:28-29).
Dan was in the far north of his kingdom. Bethel was in the south, just above the
border with Judah and right on the major route people would travel while journeying
to Jerusalem to worship.
Believing that observance of the same annual festivals as the Jews-the Holy Days
of God (Leviticus 23)-would rekindle a desire for national unification, Jeroboam
also changed the timing of the great fall festival (Leviticus 23:23-44) from the
seventh to the eighth month (1Kings 12:32-33).
He dismissed the Aaronic and Levitical priests (verse 31; 1Kings 13:33), men set
apart by God's own decree (Exodus 40:15) to maintain the integrity of the nation's
religious life. To Jeroboam the Levitical priesthood was a threatening independent
power base. The Levites inherited their office, owed the king nothing and were largely
outside his control.
By dismissing the Levitical priests, Jeroboam established monarchical control of
the nation's religious life. As a result, many of the Levites moved to Judah, where
they could continue to perform their divinely appointed functions (2Chronicles 11:13-15).
In place of the Levites Jeroboam created a new priesthood of "the lowest"
and least-experienced people (1Kings 12:31; 13:33, KJV), men who owed the king all
that they had and were. These appointees would have to cater to royal preferences
to retain their positions.
Jeroboam introduced syncretism, a fusion of differing systems of belief. He combined
aspects of God's true religion with pagan beliefs and human rationalization. He may
well have patterned many aspects of his religious practices after the customs of
Egypt and Tyre-Israel's allies by treaty-to strengthen his relationship with these
two major commercial and military supporters.
From that time forward the northern kingdom appeared to the outside world as merely
an extension of the powerful coastal cities of the Phoenician Empire. They were commercial
partners, shared a language and likely held similar religious views.
The distinction that God had originally intended between Israel and the surrounding
nations was soon obliterated. So it is no wonder that historians have difficulty
detecting Israel's role in the region as anything other than traders with the coastal
Phoenician cities. Israel was reduced to approximately equal status with the other
kingdoms. Regrettably, it had forsaken its role as a spiritual light and example
to the nations.
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God's response to Israel
and Judah's sins
Shortly after the inauguration of the new religious rituals and practices at Bethel
and Dan, Ahijah the prophet, who had originally informed Jeroboam that he would become
king, received another message from God:
"Go tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because I exalted
you from among the people, made you leader over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom
away from the house of David to give it to you; yet you have not been like my servant
David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that
which was right in my sight, but you have done evil above all those who were before
you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and cast images, provoking me
to anger, and have thrust me behind your back; therefore, I will bring evil upon
the house of Jeroboam.
"'I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and
will consume the house of Jeroboam, just as one burns up dung until it is all gone
...'" (1Kings 14:7-10, NRSV).
Jeroboam's reign had quickly gone terribly wrong. Sadly, his actions were merely
in tune with the times. In the southern kingdom of Judah, King Rehoboam, whose mother
was an Ammonite, did nothing to correct the idolatrous example Solomon had set in
his old age. Many people in Judah likewise became ensnared in apostasy, turning from
worshiping God (1Kings 14:22-24).
It wasn't long before the sins of Judah and Israel began to catch up with them.
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Pharaoh Shishak invaded Judah with 1,200 chariots,
60,000 horsemen and large numbers of infantry. Unprepared after so many years of
relying on Egypt as an ally, Rehoboam panicked. The prophet Shemaiah brought this
message from God to Rehoboam's court in Jerusalem: "You abandoned me, so I have
abandoned you to the hand of Shishak" (2Chronicles 12:5, NRSV). The Bible records
that the Egyptians demanded as tribute most of the golden treasures Solomon had made
for the temple and his palace.
Shishak's own account of this invasion is preserved on the walls of the temple he
built with his plunder to honor his god Amun-Re in Karnak. He boasts of taking 150
towns, mostly in Judah's Negev region and Israel's north. Israel's golden age under
one monarch, and most of the golden treasures of the temple and king's palace created
during it, had disappeared.
However, the Scriptures note that Judah's leaders admitted their guilt and humbled
themselves before God. Such repentance wasn't seen with the rulers of the northern
10 tribes. Therefore the northern kingdom was the first to go into captivity.
Because of Rehoboam's change of heart God reduced the impact of Judah's disaster.
"They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will grant them
some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of
Shishak.
Nevertheless they shall be his servants, so that they may know the difference between
serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands" (2Chronicles 12:7-8, NRSV).
Here is another important lesson about how God deals with His people. Even though
they may repent, He does not necessarily take away all the consequences of their
mistakes or rebellion against Him. But, if people sincerely humble themselves, He
is often merciful, balancing out punishment and relief.
God does not throw temper tantrums; He does not impulsively blot out the objects
of His wrath. His actions have purpose. First He attempts to deal with people in
ways that will teach them lessons (Ezekiel 33:11). As we can see in many examples
from the history of Israel and Judah, punishment is often His means of trying to
change people's attitudes and outlook.
God looks out for the long-term good of those with whom He is working (Hebrews 12:5-12).
His ultimate goal, of course, is to bring everyone to repentance (2Timothy 2:24-26;
2Peter 3:9), to acknowledge Him and willingly choose to live according to His laws.
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The approaching catastrophe
Because the northern kingdom followed Jeroboam's leadership into idolatry, God warned
the Israelites of the consequences of their rebellion: "The LORD will strike
Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; he will root up Israel out of this good
land that he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because
they have made their sacred poles (idolatrous symbols associated with false worship),
provoking the LORD to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam,
which he sinned and which he caused Israel to commit" (1Kings 14:15-16, NRSV).
God dealt patiently with Israel, giving the people plenty of opportunities to repent.
But over the course of the next two centuries the sins of the house of Israel and
its kings increased. The Israelites drifted farther and farther from the covenant
with their Creator that they had bound themselves toin the days of Moses.
God withdrew, in stages, His blessing and protection. "In those days the LORD
began to trim off parts of Israel. Hazael (the Syrian king) defeated them throughout
the territory of Israel: from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites,
the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the Wadi Arnon, that
is, Gilead and Bashan" (2Kings 10:32-33, NRSV).
During the eighth century B.C. God's prophets continued warning the Israelites that
they, like the other kingdoms in the region, would fall victim to a new and powerful
military presence. The westward expansion of Assyria soon began to seriously threaten
the existence of the kingdom of Israel.
During this time of approaching disaster the writers of many of the books that would
become the prophetic books of the Old Testament were at work. God sent prophet after
prophet to warn the house of Israel and the house of Judah to repent. On a few occasions
the leaders of Judah listened and instituted reforms that lasted for a while. But
the northern kingdom never repented of the idolatrous practices Jeroboam had introduced.
Its people refused to heed the warnings of the prophets.
The prophets of God repeated the same basic themes. They called for immediate repentance.
They proclaimed the certainty of a coming captivity if the people refused to repent.
They also consistently spoke of the future of the people of Israel, especially about
the redemption and restoration of their descendants by the prophesied Messiah. (To understand the foundational concepts of biblical
prophecy, be sure to request the booklet You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.
A free copy is available from the office nearest you or through
the literature library of our Web site at www.ucgstp.org.)
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The end of the northern
kingdom
Shortly after the death of King Jeroboam II (ca. 751 B.C.), the northern kingdom
plunged into political chaos. "Civil war, assassinations and internal fighting
between groups which supported Assyrian policies or opposed any capitulation to them
racked the northern state ... The deaths of Jeroboam and Uzziah ... came at the very
moment when Assyria regained her power and renewed her push to the west" (Lawrence
Boadt, Reading the Old Testament, 1984, p. 312).
In the midst of their own domestic and internal difficulties, Israelite leaders had
to consider the intrusions of Assyria into their affairs. By the time of Assyria's
Tiglath-pileser III, Israel's King Menahem (ca. 748-738 B.C.) had to pay enormous
sums of tribute-protection money on a national scale-to induce the Assyrian monarch
to leave him and his people in peace (2Kings 15:19-20).
A few years later King Pekah (ca. 736-730 B.C.) rebelled against Assyria, only to
be forced to surrender and pay a huge ransom to retain his throne (2Kings 15:19-20).
Pekah's disloyalty set in motion the first step in the Assyrians' policy of dealing
with unruly peoples-turning the offending kingdom into a vassal state.
According to Assyria's foreign policy, those who would rebel a second time would
forfeit their political control and be replaced by a vassal king whose loyalty the
Assyrian government could count on. The Assyrians would also reduce the amount of
territory the vassal would control, with the Assyrian monarch instituting his direct
rule over at least some of the original kingdom.
A second rebellion would also trigger the deportation of significant numbers of the
offending population. Finding themselves among strangers whose language they did
not understand (Jeremiah 5:15) and whose land and culture were unfamiliar to them,
the deportees would have little hope of successfully revolting against their Assyrian
masters.
Tiglath-pileser initiated these steps against the northern kingdom in response to
King Pekah's alliance with Damascus, his second attempt to revolt (ca. 734 B.C).
The first deportation of Israelites (ca. 734-732 B.C.), sometimes referred to as
the Galilean captivity, took part of the population-principally drawn from the tribes
of Naphtali, Reuben, Gad and the portion of Manasseh living east of the Jordan River-to
northern Syria and northern and northwestern Mesopotamia (2Kings 15:27-29; 1Chronicles 5:26).
Tiglath-pileser III also occupied the greater part of Galilee and Gilead and divided
Israelite territory itself into four new provinces: Magidu, Duru, Gilead and Samaria.
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The last straw
Should a people rebel a third time, the official Assyrian response was firm and final:
The nation would cease to exist. The Assyrian army would forcibly remove virtually
the entire population into exile. The Assyrians would scatter the deportees throughout
their empire and repopulate the vacated territories with people from distant and
far-flung regions. Once removed from their homeland, and with their lands now settled
by others, the scattered exiles would have less means or motivation to rebel against
Assyrian control.
|
Click here to see full view of map Deported in aseries of invasions
at the hands of the Assyrians, the habitants of the kingdom of Israel would lose
their identity in faraway lands. more than acentury later the kingdom of Judua was
likewise defeated and exiled by the Babylonians. |
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United Church of God, an International Association
Related Information on Our Site:
Sidebar: Are All Israelites Jews?
Sidebar: Were All the People of the Northern Kingdom Deported?
Table of Contents that includes "From Empire to Exile"
Idolatry:
