1 Kings 14-15; 2 Chronicles 11-14

A pattern is emerging. The kings of the north are almost always bad (corrupt in God's eyes). God replaces them with bloody internal revolts. The kings of the south are sometimes good, sometimes bad, even within the same reign. Their biggest threats do not come from internal revolts because of God's protection of the Davidic Dynasty, but rather external armies.

Kings of the North - Jeroboam, Nadab;

Baasha (new dynasty)

Jeroboam's child became sick. Jeroboam sent his wife to Shiloh to visit with the prophet, Ahijah, who told Jeroboam would be king. Jeroboam's wife is in disguise and the old prophet is blind, but God tells the prophet who it is.

Jeroboam's wife does not say a word in the text, but Ahijah gives her the worst news. Not only is the child going to die, but God is going to wipe out all of Jeroboam's family because of his sins.

She goes back to Jeroboam and the child dies.

Jeroboam is succeeded by Nadab. Nadab does evil and has a short reign. He dies in a violent coup d'etat led by Baasha. Baasha then kills the rest of the family of Jeroboam.

Baasha does evil in God's eyes but has a fairly long reign despite it (24 years). He has lots of wars with the southern kingdom.

King of the South - Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa

Rehoboam had a good reign for a while and fortified many cities. Eventually he abandoned God and allowed the people to have their pagan shrines which angered God. This includes allowing male and female shrine prostitutes. Uh oh.

The king of Egypt invaded the land, sacked the temple, and stole the gold from its treasury. The invasion prompts some repentance on the part of Rehoboam so God prevents his total destruction but still allows the city to be sacked.

During Solomon's reign, word had spread of his wealth and the gold in the temple. I imagine it was an inviting target for any regional army. It is also a sad corollary to the Queen of Sheba paying respect to Solomon while the King of Egypt plunders the riches that Solomon had for the temple during the reign of Solomon's son.

Anyway, Rehoboam replaced the gold shields of Solomon with bronze ones.

Rehoboam dies and is succeeded by Abijam. Abijam follows in his father's footsteps and does not please God. He had wars with Jeroboam had a short reign.

Still though, 2 Chronicles 13 describes a war between Jeroboam and Abijam in which one of men of the south makes an impassioned speech to the northern army about the futility of attacking the Davidic Dynasty and how that the southern people had not rejected God, whereas the northern had. The speech falls on deaf ears and the northern army loses in a big ugly battle.

Abijam is succeeded by Asa.

Asa was a good king and cleaned up the religious practices of the land. He still fought a lot of wars with Baasha of the north.

The Ethiopians invade the land with a huge army during Asa's reign. Asa calls on God to help and God defeats the Ethiopians.

Asa does something peculiar which shows a lack of confidence of God to fight his battles. During an invasion by Baasha, Asa used the gold from the temple and palace treasuries to bribe the king of Aram (Damascus is the capital) to break off his treaty with Baasha and invade the north. This works and Baasha withdraws his army.

Asa dies and is succeeded by Jehosophat.

The northern tribes revolt (1 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 10-11)

[Back to the story...Solomon is dead and his son Rehoboam has succeeded him. Meanwhile, God has offered a dynastic covenant of the northern tribes to another man, Jeroboam. Jeroboam was living in Egypt because Solomon had hunted him.]

The people of Israel come to Rehoboam and ask that he treat them more gently than Solomon did. Rehoboam says he will give an answer in 3 days. Meanwhile, he consults his advisers. The older advisors tell him to lighten their load to gain the loyalty of the people while his friends advise him to make things worse. He chooses the latter option. Now, before we jump on Rehoboam, the text says that this was all God's doing. The only other time I remember where God interfered like this was when God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

The people get angry and openly talk of rebellion. Rehoboam sends Adoniram to restore some order, but he is stoned to death. The people hear that Jeroboam is back from Egypt so they choose him as king. His capital is Shechem in the land of Ephraim.

So, now we have two nations, a southern kingdom with Rehoboam and Jerusalem as capital and a northern kingdom with Jeroboam as king and Shechem as capital.

A civil almost immediately erupts between the two, but God intervenes. Rehoboam is mobilizing the army when God tells a prophetic man to advise Rehoboam and is soldiers not to go to war and this is all God's doing. It does not say what was Rehoboam's reaction was, but I imagine he was probably mad at God.

Meanwhile, Jeroboam wants to consolidate power. He is afraid that the people will return their allegiance to the southern kingdom because that is where the temple is and the people will have go make pilgrimages there. So, instead of relying on God, he an starts alternative religion that competes against the Feast of Tabernacles. He has golden calfs made and directs the people to worship them in the northern kingdom at the same time that they would otherwise be going to Jerusalem.

To make it worse, he tells the people that these golden calfs were the gods that brought them out of Egypt. Jeroboam knows what he's doing. It is a calculated political move that has major religious implications. The people are already have strong proclivity towards idolatry and this would have the intended effect - they would stop going to Jerusalem at Feast time to honor God but rather stay in the northern lands to worship these calfs.

Jeroboam goes as far to prevent the Levites from worshiping God. So, All the Levites in the north move south to Jerusalem even abandoning their lands. Others loyal to God follow as well and leave the northern lands. This makes Jerusalem stronger.

We can guess God's response to Jeroboam's calfs. These things never end well. Jeroboam is not doing his part to establish a covenant with God and to have a dynasty.