55. Israel from B.C. 975 to 918

Israel from B.C. 975 to 918

Chapter I

Timeline View:

1. Jeroboam made the ancient city of Shechem, in his own tribe of Ephraim, the seat of his government; and he had also a summer residence at Tirzah in Manasseh. Although released from its dependence on Judah, the new kingdom, which was called, by way of distinction, the kingdom of Israel, was still under allegiance to the Divine King, and bound, as much as Judah, by all the obligations of the ancient covenants. In both, therefore, we are to view the continued operation of the theocratical system, for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of the true God upon the earth. Both the kingdoms prospered or were humbled in proportion as their conduct advanced or hindered that great object.

2. Jeroboam, whatever may have been his original intentions, soon renounced the peculiar institutions of Judaism. Although the kingdoms were separated, there remained, according to the law, but one temple and one altar, one ecclesiastical establishment, for both. To the place of that temple and that altar all the descendants of Jacob were still absolutely required to repair three times every year, and that place was Jerusalem, the metropolis of the rival kingdom. Fearing that this might ultimately lead to the re-union of the tribes, and to the extinction of his separate kingdom, Jeroboam most presumptuously and wickedly dared to abrogate the unity of the nation (which might still have been maintained under two kingdoms), by forbidding his subjects to repair to Jerusalem, to render their homage to the Divine King. He alleged that the distance made the journey burdensome to them; and, therefore, he established two places, towards the opposite extremities of his own kingdom, to which they might resort. These were Bethel in the south, and Dan in the north. Having himself resided in Egypt, and recollecting the readiness with which the Israelites had, in the wilderness, set up a figure of the Egyptian ox-god (Mnevis) as the symbol of the true God, he now reverted to that superstition, and set up “golden calves” at Dan and Bethel, as objects of religious service and homage. He did not deny the God of Israel, and turn to other gods; but for political objects, he prevented the access of his subjects to the true symbols of the Divine Presence, and caused them to worship Him under forbidden and degrading symbols.

3. To their very great honor, no priests or Levites could be found who would connect themselves with this abomination. After a vain attempt to stem the evil, the Levites abandoned their cities and possessions, and removed into the kingdom of Judah. The priests were already there, for their towns were all within the territories of Judah. Jeroboam could not induce any respectable persons to arrogate the priestly office, and, therefore, the lowest and most unprincipled of the people became the fitting priests of the golden calves. As to the high-priesthood he took that office to himself, according to the practice in Egypt and other countries, where the sovereign was also supreme pontiff. As such, be officiated at high festivals, one of which, the Feast of Tabernacles, he presumed to change from the seventh to the eighth month. These innovations were so shocking to every mind well imbued with the principles of the theocracy and the true religion, that, by degrees, a large proportion of the most valuable men in Israel removed into the sister kingdom. By this and other accessions, the kingdom of Judah soon became, in real strength and power, less unequal to that of Israel, than the proportion between two and ten tribes would seem to indicate. Indeed, Judah was already a formed kingdom, with well-organized resources and establishments, and with much treasure; so that the balance of power may even be deemed to have inclined in its favor.

4. Jeroboam was not allowed to remain long unwarned. He was officiating as high-priest at Bethel, at his feast of tabernacles, when a prophet appeared and foretold that a future king of Judah, Josiah by name, should profane and destroy the very altar at which he was then burning incense. The power by which the prophet spoke was evinced by the instant withering of the hand which the king stretched forth to lay hold on the prophet; and not less by its being instantly restored at that prophet’s prayer. This, however, had no abiding effect upon Jeroboam; he persisted in his evil ways, which at length brought ruin upon his house. This doom was announced to his wife by the prophet who had anointed him for the kingdom. Ahijah was now blind with age; but when the queen, disguised, went to consult him about a beloved son who was dangerously ill, he knew her, and not only told her that the child should die, but that the dynasty of Jeroboam should soon be extinguished; and that the Israelites, for their iniquities, should, in the end, be carried away as captives beyond the Euphrates. After a reign of twenty-two years Jeroboam died, and was succeeded by his son Nadab, in the second year of Asa, king of Judah.

5. Nadab reigned only two years, during which he adhered to the system of his father. He was then murdered by a person called Baasha, of the tribe of Issachar, who usurped the crown and put to death the whole family of Jeroboam.

6. Baasha’s government was as offensive to God as it was oppressive to the people, great numbers of whom sought quiet in Judah. Displeased at this, Baasha engaged in a sort of skirmishing warfare with Asa, and took Ramah of Benjamin, which he began to fortify with the view of controlling the intercourse between the two kingdoms. But he was called off to defend his own country from the Syrians, whose assistance had been bought by the king of Judah with gold from the temple. Persisting in evil, Baasha incurred for his house the doom which had been inflicted on that of Jeroboam. He died after a reign of twenty-three years.

7. Elah, his son, reigned little more than one year, when he was murdered at a feast by Zimri, a military commander, who then mounted the throne. The army, which was in the field against the Philistines, no sooner heard of this than they declared in favor of their own commander Omri, who immediately led them against his rival. He was at Tirzah; and when Omri arrived, Zimri, despairing of the result, withdrew to his harem, which he set on fire, and perished, with all that belonged to him, in the flames.

8. The people, like the army, had refused to recognize the murderous Zimri as king, and had chosen one for themselves named Tibni, in whom Omri now found another competitor. It was not until after six years of civil war that Omri mastered this opposition and remained undoubted king (b.c. 923).The most memorable act of his reign was the foundation of a new metropolis in a very advantageous situation (b.c. 918).He called it Shemron or (as afterwards softened in the Greek into Samaria), after the name of the person (Shemer) to whom the ground had originally belonged. Omri reigned eleven years, and died in the thirty-ninth year of Asa, king of Judah.

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