|
45. Division of the
Kingdom. Kings in Israel.
After the death of
Solomon, when his son Rehoboam came to rule, ten tribes in Israel
suddenly fell away from him. Only the tribe of Judah and the small tribe
of Benjamin remained loyal to the descendants of David. From this time
onwards, there was little salvation in Israel. Where a nation is divided,
there is no more salvation. The ten tribes elected their own king,
Jeroboam, and never again became friends with their fellow countrymen,
the Jews and the Benjamites. They went to the altars and the groves of
idols. But to Jerusalem, to the temple of the God of their fathers, they
came no more. Those who remained faithful to the God of their fathers
did not have good days, although those who forsook him did not either.
Initially, the kings of the ten tribes lived in Tirzah. But as soon as
one sat on the throne, another threw him down and killed him and his
whole family, so that a worse one would follow. Simri, a commander of
King Ella's war chariots, sat in the reeve's house at Thirza and drank.
When he was drunk, he went into the palace, struck the king dead and sat
down on his throne. For when the evil spirit, which is not from God,
wants to prepare a man for some evil deed, he first makes him proud or
stingy or jealous or something like that, or he gives him a drink.
At that time the people of Gibethon were in the camp. When word came to
the camp that the charioteer was sitting on the throne, they chose Amri
as king and went with him to besiege him in Tirzah with an army. When he
saw that he would not be able to hold the city, he went into the palace,
set fire to it and burned himself and the palace together. Bad beginning,
bad end! Amri built the city of Samaria, where the kings of the ten
tribes had their seat after him, and was worse than all the kings who
had preceded him. But he was not yet the worst. His son Ahab surpassed
him in idolatry and had a pagan woman named Jezebel as his wife, and
what the pagan woman did was right for the weak king.
|