In response to the king's arrogance, the ten northern tribes secede, splitting Israel in two. by Rabbi Ken Spiro

Transcription

1 2008 In response to the king's arrogance, the ten northern tribes secede, splitting Israel in two. by Rabbi Ken Spiro Although at the time of King Solomon s death in 796 BCE, Israel was still a united country, there was already some tension between the north and the south. We have to keep in mind that the biblical kingdom of Israel was comprised of 12 tribes, but the king came from the tribe of Judah (and Jerusalem sat on Judah s tribal border) which could be viewed by the other tribes as unfair. A wise king would have to be especially aware of the sensitivities of the other tribes. Following the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam became king, and, in response to the political situation, went up north to the city of Shechem to have himself crowned. At this time, the northern tribes sent a delegation to tell the king their complaints. Chief of these was the toll that King Solomon s building projects the Temple in Jerusalem, his palaces, etc. 1

2 had taken on the people in terms of taxes and forced labor. The northern tribes, in effect, asked the new king for a tax cut. Rehoboam consulted his advisors. The elders who had served under Solomon told him to ease up on the people: Speak to them gently, and they will be your servants forever. 1 But the younger upstarts advised him to show the people who is boss. Rehoboam took the latter advice and announced, If you think my father was tough on you, just watch me! I m going to be even tougher. Big mistake. Rehoboam forgot that even God had called the Jews stiff-necked people. Jews are stubborn. In response to Rehoboam s arrogance, in the year 796 BCE, the northern tribes seceded, creating a new kingdom called Israel. Rehoboam was left with just the southern part of the country and Jerusalem his kingdom was called Judah. (The terminology we use today Judea and Samaria, which was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, has its origins in the split of the country after Solomon s death.) Rehoboam considered waging war, but the prophet Shemaiah warned him against it, telling him that he could not possibly win as this rending of the nation had been brought about by God. While the immediate cause of the split was the weakness and bad judgment of Rehoboam, the prime cause was rooted in idolatry of Solomon s wives, which the king had failed to stop. The split was clearly bad news for many reasons, both spiritual and geopolitical. The once strong, unified nation was now a weak, divided nation, and it was easy prey to the empires of Egypt, Assyria and later, Babylon. King Jeroboam The king of the northern country of Israel was Jeroboam ben Navat. He was a great man, a great leader and a great scholar who once stood up to King 1 1 Kings 12:7. 2

3 Solomon. 2 But unfortunately, the old saying power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely proved true. Soon, Jeroboam was worrying less about leading the people and more about hanging onto his throne. Jeroboam saw that the Jewish people in the north were still very strongly connected to Jerusalem after all, that is where the Temple stood with its Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant and that is where the presence of God was most strongly felt. On the three big festivals Passover, Shavuot ( Weeks ) and Sukkot ( Booths ) the people continued to stream to Jerusalem. He saw that this commonality with the south could bring about a re-unification, in which case he would no longer be king. So Jeroboam hatched a scheme. What did he do? He decided to set up an alternative place of worship. He built two other temples one in Bet El and one in Dan (where Tel Dan stands today). That was bad enough in itself. But then he set up golden calves in these temples and even used the same language as in the Golden Calf story: These are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt! 3 Once you open the door to idolatry by introducing alternative sites and alternative modes of worship, it means trouble. And there began a terrible period in Jewish history. In the next 220 years after Jeroboam, there were 19 different kings of the northern kingdom of Israel all bad, but some much worse than others. They were idolaters, corrupt and evil, and they led the Jewish people into idolatry. Some of these kings were potentially great leaders, but spiritually they were off. And one thing we know if the Jews don t get their act together spiritually, they re not going to have their act together physically either. So, we see a time period of great political instability and palace intrigue, when kings come and go, and the succession is usually very bloody. 2 1 Kings 11: Kings 12:28. 3

4 King Ahab and Jezebel Of all the bad kings of Israel, one who stands out on the worst list is King Ahab. He married the infamous Jezebel and built a temple to the Canaanite deity Baal, popularizing this form of idolatry among the Jewish people. Of him the Bible says: Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the eyes of God, more than all who had preceded him. 4 It s important to understand when you re reading the Books of Kings and looking at what the Jewish people were doing then, that the ancient people of the world were very religious and were always looking for ways to heighten their spirituality, which is why idolatry was such a powerful draw and an ever-present obstacle that stood between the Jews and God. A basic tenant of Judaism is that there is only one power in the world God. There is no devil or other power competing with Him for control of the universe. The impure spirituality of idolatry was placed in the world by God to enable people to make the ultimate choice of living with, or ignoring, God. In the ancient world the attraction to idolatry was real and very powerful. This may be hard to fathom, because today we don t have the same drive for spirituality (as we will explain later in the course). Much of the Jewish people s drive to worship idols came out of a misguided desire to enhance their spiritual experience by incorporating Judaism and paganism. On a practical level it meant that they were still keeping kosher and observing other Jewish laws, but they wanted to have their cake and eat it too they wanted both God and the spiritual high of idolatry. The prophet of note at this time was Elijah. During this period of the divided monarchy, the primary function of the major prophets was to get the Jews of both Judah and Israel to turn away from their idolatry and evil ways and come back to God before it was too late. Elijah yearned to have the Jewish people repent. To this end, he decided to have a show down with the 4 1 Kings 16:30. 4

5 priests of Baal and to physically demonstrate the lie of idolatry to the Jewish people. So, Elijah went up north to Mount Carmel. (Today the modern city of Haifa sits on the western edge of the Carmel Mountain Range. On the eastern side of the range is a place called Mukhraka, where there is a Carmelite monastery. In front of the monastery, there stands a statue of Elijah which commemorates the site where Elijah took on the priests of Baal.) Elijah wanted the Jewish people to see that idolatry is nonsense and that there is only one God. So he challenged 450 priests of Baal to a contest. He proposed that each side offer a sacrificial bull to their deity and whichever deity sent a fire from heaven to consume the offering in full sight of the people would be accepted as the true God. The priests of Baal really got into it. They put up their bull on the altar, and they beseeched Baal, shouting to the skies. But after nearly a full day of trying, nothing happened and the animal carcass was only attracting flies. Meanwhile, Elijah mocked them: Shout louder! After all, he is a god, but he may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up. 5 They shouted louder, but still got no response. So they started slashing their heads with knives. It was an ancient form of worship, based on using blood to get the gods excited. Still nothing. It was really embarrassing for them with all the Jewish people watching. Toward the end of the day, Elijah finally gave orders for the preparation of his own offering. He had it doused with water three times so it would be even more difficult to set aflame. He even had a water-filled ditch built around the altar. He then said one short prayer: 5 1 Kings 18:27. 5

6 Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back again. 6 With that, a fire came down from the heavens consuming the sacrifice, the wood pile, the stones, the dust, and licking up the water in the ditch. The gathered multitude responded in awe: The Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God! (This is the source of the phrase Jews shout at the end of the Yom Kippur liturgy every year.) The priests of Baal were put to death, and it seemed that the nation would now reject idolatry. But the story does not end there. Hearing of what had happened, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah: Tomorrow I will kill you. She knew that the memory of miracles did not last long. Today, the Jews might be shouting the Lord, He is God, but tomorrow is another day. Sure enough idol worship resumed, and Elijah had to flee for his life; the impact of his miracle quickly faded from the memory of most of the population and the northern kingdom sank even lower spiritually. Eventually, God was going to get tired of this. There was a covenant after all, and the Jews were not keeping their part of the bargain. The covenant clearly specified that the Land of Israel, along with its bounty, was given to the Jewish people on certain conditions. If they violated those conditions, they would be expelled from the land. And this was about to happen to the northern kingdom, though not yet to the southern kingdom. 6 1 Kings 18: