It seems difficult to realize that little more than half a century had passed since the death of Solomon when Elijah came across the Jordan from the wilds of Gilead with his terrible announcement of the coming drought! In order to understand the gravity of that moment, we must keep before us the evil doings of the ten tribes after they broke away from the house of David, and also forsook Jehovah for the gods of the heathen. God bore with much patience the doings of those years, but the time had now come for drastic punishment. Jehovah in His righteous government was constrained to assert Himself, and in order to bring home to the people the folly of idolatry, and the gravity of disobedience to His Word.
After the disruption, the Northern Kingdom continued about 260 years. Then the Kings of Assyria destroyed it, and deported the people. Nineteen kings in all reigned over the ten tribes; alas, there was not a single good king amongst them, although some were admittedly more desperate in their wickedness than others! As we examine the history we find frequently the dismal refrain: “he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 26:26 etc.). The Southern Kingdom outlived the Northern by 130 years. The King of Babylon was the instrument used by God for its extinction. The people were carried away into captivity, “and the land enjoyed her Sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36). Nineteen kings and one queen ruled over the two tribes, several of them as wicked as any who polluted the Northern Kingdom, while other kings, such as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, were really excellent men. The “salt” of these pious leaders preserved the decaying kingdom from ruin for many years. Alas, for the day when Jehovah could no longer permit any of Israel’s tribes to continue in the land. His righteousness demanded that He should expel them all.
Jeroboam, in spite of his wickedness, was allowed by Jehovah to reign twenty-two years. Jehovah had used him for the chastisement of the guilty house of David; but his own evil course, in spite of his knowledge of Solomon’s sins, and also of God’s encouragement of himself to go well, made it impossible for him to establish a new dynasty. The “sure house” mentioned in 1 Kings 11:38 could not be; for Jeroboam had led the people far away from their God.
Who can God entrust with power but Christ? He who was faithful and obedient in the days of His humiliation will be equally faithful and obedient in the golden Kingdom-age when God will place all things beneath His feet (Heb. 2:8). At the end, “He will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father: when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power When all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that did put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:24-28). Perfect Administrator, seeking the glory of God, and the blessing of all His creatures!
God might use Jeroboam to chastise Solomon and his house; He might use the Kings of Assyria to chastise Jeroboam’s subjects; and He might use Nebuchadnezzar to chastise Judah and its kings; but all these in their turn God has been obliged to judge, for these rods of His anger (Isa. 10:5) were no more faithful to God than those against whom He employed them.
Jeroboam’s son Nadab reigned two years only. (1 Kings 15:5). He was then murdered by one of his captains—Baasha—while they were at war with the Philistines, and were besieging Gibbethon. Baasha occupied his bloodstained throne twenty-four years, and he became Jehovah’s instrument for the extermination of Jeroboam’s vile family. Baasha’s son Elah succeeded his father, but was murdered two years later by an officer named Zimri. This man hoped to establish himself in Tirzah the capital of the ten-tribe kingdom. But another captain Omri aspired to the throne, and within a week he captured Tirzah, Zimri perishing in the flames of the royal palace, which he himself set ablaze when he perceived that his cause was hopeless. But even this did not settle the country. Yet another aspirant to the throne appeared Tibni the son of Ginath. “Then were the people of Israel (i.e. the ten tribes) divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him King; and half followed Omri. But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned” (1 Kings 15:21-22). Deplorable record! We are speaking, not of pagan nations, but of God’s chosen people, for whom He had done great things from Egypt onward, and to whom He had made known His holy will. They were still dear to his heart— “beloved for the fathers’ sake” (Rom. 11:28). At a much later date, Jehovah, when pronouncing judgment upon His people spoke of Israel as “the dearly beloved of My soul” (Jer. 12:7). Israel possessed the Scriptures; no other nation was so privileged.
Yet what a story of lawlessness and transgression is written in the Books of the Kings! Ambitious captains, plunderers and murderers, contending for supremacy in God’s inheritance, with no thought of glorifying Him, nor of doing good to His poor people. Jehovah might well have challenged those ruthless leaders as in Jeremiah 13:20: “Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?” Yet not a trace of exercise of conscience is discernible in the land concerning this condition of things; none crying out in the anguish of faith: “How long, O Jehovah.... Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins for Thy name’s sake” (Psa. 79:5-9). A downward course is always slippery. Let us all beware of the smallest beginning of departure from the revealed will of God. “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe, and I will have respect unto Thy commandments continually” (Psa. 119: 117).