Day 27 ~ Divided Kingdom

We cover alot of years and kings in the divided kingdoms in today's passage from 1 Kings 12 - 22. I thought I'd come back and recap the kings, and looked for an online chart to reference. Of course, I see fault with the nice chart I found (based on a chronology of John Bright).

The Bible lists our last king of Israel in our passage today as "Ahaziah the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel (22:51). Back a few verses (22:42) "Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem." This chart listed Ahaziah from 850 to 849BC (we count backwards before AD), and Jehoshaphat from 879-843BC. 850BC could not have been the 17th year of Jehoshaphat's reign by this chart. Maybe the books of I & II Chronicles, which are referenced continually in the text, provides a different timeline. It contradicts the text, so I'm going to move on, but if you want to see what I'm talking about: http://www.cresourcei.org/israelitekings.html. It lists the split of the kingdoms at 922BC.

Things the charts I referenced online did agree to: the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians (northern kingdom capital) in 721/722BC and the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonians (southern capital) in 586/587BC. To further confuse me, there are two kings named Ahaziah, one in each kingdom, but we haven't been introduced to the second one yet. So, why can't they do the math? Apparently we don't get the start/end/length data we need.

I'll reference my handy CD from the Chronology of the Old Testament book...right on target...Ahaziah is right where he should be in reference to Jehoshaphat. At least there is no contradiction of the math given in chapter 22. It lists the split of the kingdoms at 975BC. I've seen about a 50 year difference in the different timelines for the start dates, this being the earliest date.

9 kings (all of them bad) in these 10 chapters in Israel (including the short-lived split within Israel); 4 kings (2 of them bad) in Judah.

• Rehoboam leaves Jerusalem to go to Shechem to be inaugurated - why? Why wouldn't they do that in Israel where the temple and palace were?
• 12:4 - apparently Solomon had high taxes to pay for all the opulence
• Rehoboam shows he's an idiot from the beginning - let's rule with fear!
• The split occurs - Judah & Benjamin (called Judah) vs. the other ten tribes (called Israel)
• To keep the religious people of Israel (northern kingdom) from going to Jerusalem to sacrifice (in Judah, southern kingdom), Jeroboam created two new sights within the northern kingdom, extended the ability to be a priest outside the tribe of Levi, and instituted a rival system of feasts.
• Chapter 13 - the Lord shows his displeasure with the idolatrous altars built by Jeroboam.
• Chapter 14 - when his son becomes sick, Jeroboam sends his wife in disguise to Shiloh - wouldn't this be in Judah? Does this mean that he goes to the true religion when he knows he needs help? God foreshadows the captivity of the northern kingdom (by Nebuchadnezzar I think).
• For more details on Jeroboam's and Rehoboam's reign, see Chronicles (14:19; 29)
• King Rehoboam of the southern kingdom was no better. He also had idol altars, and within 5 years of his reign, all the wealth of he palace had been taken off by the Egyptians.
• Why was the name of Rehoboam's mother given two times? (14:21, 31)
• Chapter 15 - hey, one of the kings of Judah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord! Asa. But when at war with Israel, he sent the riches out of Judah into Damascus under a treaty with the Syrians. It doesn't seem likely that the riches will be coming back.
• We get a back and forth between the history of Israel and Judah. On the northern side, Jeroboam's entire family is wiped when Baasha murdered the son of Jeroboam, Nadab, and ascends the throne.
• Chapter 16. Baasha's family line is also wiped out when his son Elah, who inherited the throne from his father, is murdered while drunk by his servant Zimri, who takes over the northern throne, sort of. He lasted 7 days - the people chose a different king, Omri, and Zimri kills himself. But there was division in Omri's reign and the northern kingdom split temporarily, but Ormi defeated the rival. The kingdom headquarters moves to a new city called Samaria.
• As predicted in Joshua 6:6, Jericho was rebuilt, and the man who built it was cursed
• Each king is worse than the next, especially in Israel.
• Chapter 17 - the Lord sends sends a drought up0n the land and protects a new prophet, Elijah. But in this chapter, he is only making a difference in the lives of a woman and her son, whom God revives after death.
• Chapter 18 - how did Obadiah know Elijah (he recognized him as a man of God, like himself).
• Jezebel must be the wife of evil king Ahab (16:31), and an idol worshipper. Will we learn more about her in Chronicles? Apparently she has killed other prophets (18:13) and Obadiah hid more than 150 prophets from her.
• One man of God, Elijah, shows up the 450 prophets of Baal, who could not get their false god to respond to their acts of worship. (The story of the altar and the wet sacrifice which God lites afire.)
• Chapter 19 - Jezebel is not happy with Elijah because he killed the prophets of her false religion - baal, and promises to kill Elijah, who runs for the hills.
• 19:4 - a new type of tree: broom tree. I am resisting the urge to see what this is.
• Elijah rests for several days, and the Lord passes by him and tells Elijah to go and anoint some new kings in Syria (has Israel taken over Syria?) and Israel, as well as his own successor as prophet, Elisha.
• 19:18 - 7,000 (0nly 7,000?) remain in Israel who have not turned to foreign gods.
• Chapter 20 - I'm confused by this threat by the king of Syria. Why does Ahab decide he's going to to what God wants now? And why would he enter into a treaty with someone so close to being wiped out. Because he will only follow the power that he thinks will give him what he wants. The wall at Aphek must have been huge - it fell and killed 27,000 soldiers (20:30)
• Chapter 21 - big pouty baby king Ahab (vs. 4) tells his wife with the go-get 'em attitude he wants the neighbors land, and she arranges to have the man killed on false charges.
• I don't really buy that Ahab was really being humble - it seems like he was just placating to save his neck. But God would know his intent. So, God will hold off the cutting off of Ahab's name until his Ahab is done and the punishment will be on his sons.
• Chapter 20 - why does it say that the king of Judah went "down" to visit the king of Israel, when Israel is to the north. Judah must be a higher elevation. When Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, the two split kingdoms worked together to take a site in Syria. Didn't the north have a treaty with Syria?
• Jehoshaphat was the son of Asa, who was a good king in Judah. Apparently he didn't see a godly man in the prophets that the king of Israel asked to inquire of the Lord concerning going against the Syrians. They must have all been a bunch of "yes" men. Except for one, who always prophesied against Ahab. When this prophet agrees with the "yes" men, Ahab knew he had to be lying because he never agreed with them.
• So, after all this, which showed that the one godly prophet told them not to fight, why did they fight? Anyhoo, Ahab is killed in battle as the prophet said he would be, and dogs like his blood as God said they would (21:19) When will Jezebel get eaten by dogs (21:23)? Probably in one of the Chronicles.
• Jehoshaphat did not strike a deal with Ahab's evil son (22:49).
• They've been waring against each other and against the Syrians. What has kept the Philistines, the Edomites and the Egyptians busy all this time that they have not struck against the divided kingdom?

I just realized we finished 1 Kings...11 books completed, 55 to go.