The Old Testament records the history of the Kingdom of Israel in detail. The history of the Kingdom of Israel begins when Saul becomes the first king in the 11th century BC. The kingdom lasts for about 500 years until the 6th century BC. This time period occupies a large portion of the history of God’s redemption work that as many as 24 books1 of the 39 books of the Old Testament were written in this period.
- Books of History (1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles), Poetic Books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs), Books of Prophecy (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah)
The Beginning of the Era of the Kingdom of Israel
In the last days of Samuel, the last judge, the Israelites, who had settled and were living in Canaan, asked for a king to take the lead against the repeated invasions of the Gentiles. It was God who brought Israel out of Egypt and ruled over it, but the people did not realize this fact and wanted a man to be king over them just like other countries. Samuel was displeased with their request, and God gave them a stern warning about how the king would rule over them. Despite this warning, the Israelites persistently asked God for a king, which God finally granted them. In this way, the first king was appointed; he was Saul.
In the Law [Pentateuch], which God gave through Moses, it was written about how kings, who would appear in the future, should rule over the people, and what God wanted them to do (Dt 17:14–20). Whoever became king was to keep a copy of the law with him, learn to revere God, and follow carefully all the decrees of God (Dt 17:18–19). God said that the rise and fall of the kingdom would be determined, depending on whether or not they obeyed His commandments (Dt 28:1–68). This warning was fulfilled throughout the history of the Kingdom of Israel.
David and Solomon
David, the second king of Israel, led the heyday of the kingdom. He was nearly the ideal king who pleased God. God acknowledged him, calling him the “one after My own heart.” David regarded God’s commands as more precious than pure gold throughout his life (Ac 13:22; Ps 19:7–10; 119:127). As the Bible says that obedience to God brings all blessings, it was a great success for him to keep God’s commands with all his heart.
David, who knew this better than anyone else, left his will to his successor Solomon to keep God’s commandments to become a great leader (1 Ki 2:1–3; 1 Ch 22:12–13).
Just like the will that David left, the kings of Israel who appeared after him were blessed when they kept God’s commandments, and they suffered aggression by foreign powers when they violated God’s commands and obeyed the decrees of foreign gods.
Succeeding David as the third king of Israel, Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings and asked for God’s blessing. God appeared to him in a dream and gave him wisdom, riches, and honor, saying, “If you obey My statutes and commands as David did, I will give you a long life” (1 Ki 3:14).
Solomon built the temple of Jerusalem, and on the day of the dedication of the temple, he declared as a representative of the people that all Israel would keep God’s commands, decrees, and regulations (1 Ki 8:58, 61). Since then, they kept God’s Feasts and regulations holy in the temple (2 Ch 8:12–13), and as a result, they enjoyed great wealth and honor as God had said they would (1 Ki 10:21–23).
Solomon’s Idolatry Causes the Kingdom to Be Divided
Towards the end of his reign, Solomon lost his love for God and gradually became corrupt. He had one thousand wives and concubines in an effort to strategically maintain a stable relationship with the neighboring countries. When Solomon grew old, these women turned his heart to long for other gods. Solomon betrayed God by building a number of high places to worship idols, including Chemosh, Molech, and Ashtoreth (1 Ki 11:1–8). This was a rebellion against God’s command not to worship other gods or make idols. God appeared to Solomon twice and warned him not to follow other gods, but Solomon did refuse to listen to God. As the king turned away from God, surrounding nations began to hate and stand against Israel.
God was furious with Solomon’s disobedience, but He promised that for the sake of David, He would not take the Kingdom of Israel from Solomon’s hand during his lifetime (1 Ki 11:9–13). In fulfillment of what God had said, the Kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, following Solomon’s death—Israel in the north and Judah in the south, and became powerless. It could never again be restored to a powerful country as it was in the era of David or Solomon.
History of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
A Country Full of Idolatry and Sin
Northern Kingdom of Israel (975 BC–721 BC) lasted for about 250 years from the first king Jeroboam to the last king Hosea until it was destroyed by Assyria. There were a total of 19 kings during this period. All the kings of Northern Israel committed sins, forsaking God’s commandments and worshiping idols. None of the kings were praised for keeping God’s commandments like David was. The Bible records that Jehu, the tenth king, had done well in accomplishing what is right. However, this was only because he obeyed God’s command to annihilate the house of Ahab. Jehu, just like all the other kings of Northern Israel, failed to keep other commandments of God and worshiped idols.
Idolatry in the northern Kingdom of Israel began in the time of Jeroboam. He felt anxious about the people traveling to Jerusalem in Judah and offering sacrifices on the Feasts according to the law. He worried that the people would give their allegiance to the king of Southern Judah. Jeroboam reasoned to set up altars in places God had not chosen. He also appointed ordinary people who were not approved by God to be priests. He also instituted a feast on a date of his own choosing, and worshiped the golden calves that he set up (1 Ki 12:25–33). All the kings who appeared after Jeroboam followed him in his steps of idolatry, which the Bible calls the “ways of Jeroboam” and the “sins of Jeroboam” (1 Ki 16:19; 2 Ki 10:29).
There was constant suffering in Northern Israel as a result of rejecting God’s commandments from the beginning. There were many rebellions, in which a rebel murdered a king and became king himself. Some kings were cursed and fell ill, and the country was invaded by foreign powers. Nevertheless, the kings of Northern Israel were only interested in consolidating and maintaining as much power as possible. They had no interest in worshiping God and keeping His commandments. They even used idolatry as a means of strengthening their power.
All of the kings of Northern Israel committed evil, yet Ahab, the seventh king among them, was even more evil than any of those before him. Ahab angered God by marrying Jezebel, the princess of the Sidonians, and setting up an altar to worship idols (1 Ki 16:30–32). Jezebel, who was a worshiper of Baal and Asherah, became queen of Israel in the north and urged Ahab and the Israelites as well to worship idols. Ahab and Jezebel led the people to add their sin by worshiping idols of Gentile nations, in addition to the evil sin of serving the golden calf made by Jeroboam. Not only did Jezebel kill God’s prophets; but she even tried to kill Elijah, without repenting of her sin despite it being revealed to her on Mount Carmel that God Jehovah was the only true God. She did not even hesitate to commit the evil act of falsely accusing people who tried to follow God’s will correctly, killing them, and then taking all of their property.
Afterward, King Ahab went to a battlefield, where he was hit by an arrow and died. Ahab’s men washed his blood-stained chariot in a pool in Samaria, where dogs came and licked up his blood. Soon after, Jezebel too, faced her terrible end by being thrown out of a window and completely trampled on, to the point her body was no longer recognizable nor able to be found. In this way, the word that God had spoken through the prophet Elijah was fulfilled (1 Ki 21:20–24).
The Fall of Israel
Northern Israel, which did not obey God’s law, gradually became weaker as time passed. However, they did not repent, and God continued to punish Israel through the age of Assyrian rule.
When Northern Israel declined, the message of salvation spread from Judah in the south to Israel in the north, yet they refused to listen. Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent couriers throughout Israel, urging everyone to return to God and celebrate the Passover which had not been celebrated for a long time. However, most northern Israelites only scorned and ridiculed the couriers and their message (2 Ch 30:1–10).
Northern Israel refused to reach out and take God’s hand, which led them to eventually be destroyed by the Assyrian invasion. The Assyrian forces besieged Samaria, the capital of Northern Israel for three years, until completely capturing it around 721 BC (2 Ki 18:9–12). Consequently, Northern Israel disappeared in history and only Judah in the south survived.
The Brief History of the Kingdom of Judah
Repeated Blessings and Curses
The southern Kingdom of Judah (975 BC–586 BC) lasted for about 390 years, from the time Rehoboam, son of Solomon, sat on the throne until it was destroyed by Babylon in the time of Zedekiah, and there were a total of 20 kings. Among them, there were only four kings who were acknowledged by God to have “done what was right as David had done” and “walked in the ways David had followed”; they were Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. These kings kept God’s commands and decrees just as David had done, and God protected Southern Judah during their reign (1 Ki 15:11; 2 Ch 17:3; 2 Ki 18:3–6; 22:2).
King Asa, the third king of Southern Judah, followed God’s decrees and laws by forbidding idolatry, which was prevalent in Judah at the time. God gave peace to Asa, and granted him victory in the war when a Cushite army of one million men attacked Judah (2 Ch 14:9–15). King Jehoshaphat, the fourth king, realized through his father’s example that he could only be blessed by fully obeying God. As such, he kept God’s decrees and laws, by strictly forbidding idolatry (2 Ch 17:3–9). When the allied forces of the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir made war against Judah, King Jehoshaphat was blessed to win the war easily with God’s help and return home with much plunder (2 Ch 20:1–30).
Hezekiah, the thirteenth king, pleased God by keeping the Passover, which had not been observed for a long time. Immediately after keeping it, they completely destroyed all the idols. Southern Judah was in the midst of a war against Assyria, a great military power at the time, which had just destroyed Northern Israel. As a result of King Hezekiah keeping the Passover and commanding his people to do likewise, he was able to defend his kingdom, owing to God’s protection (2 Ki 19:30–35). Josiah, the sixteenth king, also received the honor of being commended by God, “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who observed the Law with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength” by keeping the Passover (2 Ki 23:23–25).
However, the rest of the kings of Judah did not serve God correctly, rather they turned away from God’s commandments and fell into idolatry, putting the kingdom in danger. King Ahaz made cast idols for worshiping the Baals, and even sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Eventually, several nations, including the Arameans, the northern Israelites, the Edomites, and the Philistines, attacked Judah; they killed many people, carried away prisoners, and took a great deal of plunder after fully conquering the city. After his death, Ahaz was not even placed in the tombs of the kings that preceded him (2 Ch 28:1–27).
King Manasseh, the son of King Hezekiah, rebuilt the high places his father had demolished and erected altars of worship for the Baals. He himself even made idols and built them in the temple of God to worship them, and also sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. As he provoked God to anger, God brought the Assyrian army against Judah in war. King Manasseh was captured and taken to Babylon, where he finally repented only due to his distress (2 Ch 33:1–20).
God’s blessings and curses repeated in the history of the southern Kingdom of Judah; whenever they turned away from God and worshiped idols, they suffered pain and agony; however, whenever they followed God’s decrees and commands, they were protected and blessed by God. Many of the kings of Judah did not realize this, but repeated the foolish practice of idolatry and were cursed.
The Fall of Judah
The last king, Zedekiah, also committed the evil sin of idolatry. The priests and the people of Judah followed King Zedekiah’s practice to worship idols. God constantly sent prophets to warn them, but they ignored the warnings. Eventually, Babylon invaded Judah and King Zedekiah had to watch the Babylonians kill his sons before his eyes, and his eyes were gouged out. Following this, King Zedekiah was bound with bronze shackles and taken to Babylon. The temple of God and all the buildings in Judah were burned to the ground. The people of Judah were either killed or taken as slaves to Babylon, and all their possessions were plundered (2 Ki 25:7–17). Judah, who forsook God, faced this miserable end around 586 BC.
God said that the reason for the terrible destruction of Judah was because the people did not obey God’s decrees and laws (Jer 16:10–11; 44:23). God sent His prophets to the people who had forsaken Him, and allowed them to declare the impending destruction of Judah, giving the people an opportunity to repent; but they did not obey God’s words and refused to listen. Eventually, they all missed the opportunity to receive salvation and were destroyed. Judah walked the same path Northern Israel had walked, and was destroyed by disobeying God’s law.
The rise and fall of individuals and nations in the history of the Kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament times awakens God’s people living in the New Testament times to how strict and precious God’s commandments are. It also teaches us that we can receive God’s blessing only when we do God’s will with a whole heart like David and keep His commands and laws.