Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, was unwise from the beginning of his reign over Israel. He listened to his ‘young’ advisors rather than the ‘elders’ who had advised his father.

Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, ‘Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’ 1 Kings 12:10-11

Rehoboam’s lack of wisdom led to a major revolt within the kingdom that divided the nation of Israel –

Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: ‘What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!’ So Israel departed to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. 1 Kings 12:16-17

The Training of Kings

Rehoboam became King of Judah (Southern Kingdom) and Jeroboam became King of Israel (Northern Kingdom). Both of them set bad precedents within their separate kingdoms. Jeroboam, who was not a descendant of David, was afraid that his kingdom would ‘return to the house of David’ when his people went to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God. So, Jeroboam made two calves of gold and told his people to worship them in Bethel or Dan. Jeroboam made ‘shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not the sons of Levi.’

Jeroboam also ‘ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar.’ He made offerings and sacrifices to the golden calves he had made. Jeroboam led the Israelites back into pagan worship of ‘other gods.’ That led the One True God to send ‘a man of God’ from Judah to Bethel with a message concerning a future king of Judah named Josiah who would ‘sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you’ (1 Kings 13:2). Jeroboam stretched out his hand commanding that the prophet be arrested. However, his hand withered and the altar was split apart with the ashes pouring out from the altar. Jeroboam asked the prophet to ask God to restore the use of his hand. The prophet asked and God restored Jeroboam’s hand. However, that did not keep Jeroboam from continuing his worship of idols and leading Israel away from God. Jeroboam’s life ended badly, as you can read in 1 Kings 14.

Rehoboam was also a bad king for Judah. Though he was King David’s grandson, he followed in the ways of his father Solomon who worshipped idols in his later years because of his many foreign wives. Rehoboam led Judah into apostasy –

Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lordhad cast out before the children of Israel. 1 Kings 14:22-24

A majority of the kings of Judah followed in Rehoboam’s evil ways. All of the kings of Israel followed in Jeroboam’s evil footsteps. God sent prophets to Judah and Israel for centuries to train the kings how to reign for Him, but most wanted nothing to do with the One True God. They preferred the sinful pleasures of worshipping false gods and doing what pleased them.

Some of the ‘training’ God did through His prophets included severe punishments, but also a demonstration of His grace and mercy. God wanted His people to love only Him, obey only Him, and worship only Him. Because Israel and Judah were His people, God was long-suffering with them. He gave the kings of both ‘kingdoms’ ample opportunity to know right from wrong, good from evil. However, most did not heed God’s Word through His prophets.

God’s Wrath Revealed

God is long-suffering, but He will do what He says He will do. God told many of His prophets to let the kings of both kingdoms know that He would use the kings of pagan nations to destroy Israel and Judah. The prophets were often very specific in how the destruction would occur. That way, when it happened, everyone would know that God in the Only True God. God will do what He will do. No one on earth or in the heavens can stop God from being God. No one can deter God from accomplishing His will for His people or for the other nations of the world.

God began warning the children of Israel through His prophet Moses –

Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 31:28-29

After centuries of warnings, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian army of King Shalmaneser in 722 BC. The king carried all of the Israelites into captivity in Assyria and brought non-Israelites from Babylon, Cathay, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, ‘and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; ‘and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities’ (2 Kings 17:24). That was the end of the Northern Kingdom started by Jeroboam.

Judah fell to the Babylonians a little more than a century later when God used King Nebuchadnezzar to take the king and people of Judah captive. Nebuchadnezzar’s final move militarily was to destroy Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. However, Nebuchadnezzar did not move any foreigners into Judah. The land had 70 years of ‘Sabbath rest’ (2 Chronicles 36:21). That period of time became known as the time of ‘exile’ for Jews living in Babylon. God used prophets like Daniel and Ezekiel who had also been taken captive to encourage His people that they would one day return to Judah. God led a different nation (Persia) and king (Cyrus) to conquer Babylon and give the Jews the freedom to return to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up! 2 Chronicles 36:22-23

That command from Cyrus opened the door for several groups of Jews to return to Judah over a period of many years. They were led by people like Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods; and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezra 1:7-11

Our ‘Training’ Lesson

God is the Only True God. Israel’s and Judah’s attempts to worship ‘other gods’ ended in defeat and destruction. God is long-suffering, but He will not ‘suffer’ His wrath to fall on the ungodly forever. God will be obeyed by all flesh one day. If we understand that now, we are well ahead of most people living on this planet. Even people who call themselves ‘Christians’ can be fooled into worshiping the ‘false gods’ of this world through the deception of false preachers and teachers, and through the delusion of pleasing themselves through sin.

Israel and Judah stand as powerful lessons for all people who will read, consider, and learn. There is no way to be successful in this life, or the one that follows, unless we worship and obey the One True God. I highly recommend that all Christians spend time reading 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, to learn these lessons through the lives of real people. Some of them learned; most did not. May we follow the ways of learning and obeying.

Free eBooks

You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

You can download chapters 14 – 24 of this series here.

You can download chapters 25 – 30 of this series here.

Next Time

King Zedekiah was the last king of Judah – the last king from the lineage of David and Solomon. Zedekiah’s reign ended in 586 BC. God had promised David that He would establish his and Solomon’s kingdom ‘forever,’ so what did that mean for the future of Judah and Israel? We will look at that in the next part of our series, Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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