Index

Back

Next

King Solomon died peacefully in his bed in 924BCE, but trouble was brewing under the surface of life in his kingdom. Heavy taxes and forced labour had made life hard for his farmers, but all hint of opposition had been suppressed. Jeroboam, son of Nebat, in the north, had fled to Egypt for sanctuary, where the new Pharaoh of the 22^nd dynasty, Shonkshenq, (known as Shishak in the OT), was renewing his interest in Egypt's 'lost territories', and looking northwards towards Israel.

Solomon's son, Rehoboam, inherited the throne without opposition, but went to Shechem, the ancient northern centre, to be acclaimed by the northern tribes. (See 1 Kgs 12). At the meeting they made the request that the new King should lighten their heavy load of taxation, and were told to wait three days for their answer. During that time, Rehoboam took advice from the older experienced counsellors, and also from his own young friends. He answered the people with his friends' words, and said, very rudely, that he would be an even stronger taskmaster over them than his father had been. All the people turned away and rejected him, with the rallying call, 'to your tents, O Israel'. Rehoboam's overseer was stoned to death when he attempted to assert authority over them, and Rehoboam scuttled back to Jerusalem in his chariot.

THE KINGDOM, DIVIDED. Jerusalem remained loyal to the dynasty of David, as they had agreed, and also the southern tribe of Judah, (David's tribe), The small tribe of Benjamin, just to the north of Jerusalem, became a political football for a while, but soon accepted the inevitable and became part of the small Kingdom of 'Judah', in the south and away from the main trade-routes. Judah kept the splendour of Jerusalem for a while, and the Temple of YHWH, but soon slipped into economic and political obscurity, especially after the campaign of Pharaoh Shishak six years later, when all Jerusalem's gold, silver and other treasures were stripped as a heavy ransom, and taken to Egypt.

Our Bible records are heavily biased in favour of the southern kingdom, but the true spirit of the Israelite tribes was more to be found in the Northern Kingdom, which, in fact, kept their ancient name of 'Israel'. It consisted of ten Israelite tribes, particularly those who treasured the Sinai tradition and the Law of Moses. It remained a geographical kingdom, however, so also included the Canaanites of the coastal plain, where Baalism still flourished even under the overlordship of YHWH. The northern tribes felt no loyalty, - or liking - for Judah. They considered the Davidic takeover as an unfortunate 'blip' in their way of life, so reverted to a simpler style of monarchy, and asked Jeroboam, son of Nebat, to be their King. It took the Northern Kingdom much longer to organise itself, because all the administrative expertise and organisation had to begin again from nothing, and Pharaoh Shishak had caused mayhem for them too.

THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF ACADEMIC JERUSALEM Before moving on to the story of the North, we must backtrack for a short while, to Jerusalem in the closing stages of Solomon's reign, when, in the academic heyday of that time, a most important development was happening in the writing of Israel's Sacred Story. This was the writing of the J-Code, the oldest of the four main literary strands of the Pentateuch, and the book of Genesis in particular.

As in the Wisdom tradition, there was an exciting atmosphere of enquiry pervading in the religious schools, with the scholars of Jerusalem wanting to know more about YHWH, the new top God to whom the new Temple was dedicated. The Israelites had many stories from their oral tradition to tell, stories of their escape from Egypt and journey to Canaan led by YHWH to whom they were bound by the Covenant, stories of their ancestors treasured and remembered at the ancient shrines, and of their more recent history since the time of Joshua. The scribes in Jerusalem began to write them, - in their language - which we now call Hebrew.

One person, unknown, but known to us now as 'the Yahwist', edited all these traditions in the J-code, and in so doing established the complete story-line of our scriptures so far. He was a brilliant theologian, and some people claim that he laid the foundations, not only of the whole OT, but also of the whole of the Bible as we know it now.

The Yahwist prefaced his story-code with a theological meditation, based on several common mythic stories known in his day. It is now to be found in Genesis 2 - 11. Through the stories of the Fall, of Cain and Abel, and Noah, there is a pattern, of Sin, followed by Punishment, followed then by YHWH's Gracious Care, - with the exception of the Tower of Babel. This story ends with YHWH's Punishment, - that he 'scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth', but, wrote the Yahwist, YHWH's Gracious Care is invested in the Call of Abraham in ch.12.1-3, for in Abraham 'all the families of the earth shall be blessed'. Thus he perceived YHWH's concern for all peoples in the world, a theme sometimes forgotten in later generations, but never totally suppressed!

The J-Code exudes a confidence that is startling, refreshing, and very exciting, especially as its language had no tenses for its verbs but the Present, - which makes YHWH's activities in the Story of Israel seem as if they are all happening in the here and now. It also implies that the Future is all in YHWH's control as well! It is an amazing composition. It is far more than ordinary 'History'. It is in fact, Sacred History, and truly inspired!

Back, now, to the events of the Northern Kingdom. The Israelites would have liked to return to the 'good old days' as in the reign of Saul, but that was not feasible.

a) Religiously there was a reassertion of YHWH, the God of the Mosaic Covenant, and the precepts of his LAW. They had no scholars to compare with Jerusalem, so their theology became almost 'static', and when they did eventually come to write their account of the tradition, (about 100 years later), in the E-Code of the Pentateuch, it was much more dependant on dreams and miracles to express YHWH's involvement with Israel.

b) Administratively, it was some time before the Kingdom could be properly organised. Jeroboam first made Shechem his capital, but there were still too many Canaanite associations with that ancient place, so he tried Penuel. He had no royal palace, but lived modestly at Tirzah. The disruption to normal life, and the lack of trappings of state, raised a big danger that they would all 'drift' back to join Rehoboam again, so Jeroboam fortified Bethel as a frontier town to prevent refugees from going to Jerusalem.

c) The Israelites had 'lost' the wilderness symbols of YHWH, - the Ark and the Tent of Meeting, - both now absorbed into the Jerusalem Temple, so Jeroboam established two special YHWH-centres, one at Dan in the north, and one at Bethel in the south, where the Israelites could gather for their special YHWH festivals. Mindful of the Law forbidding any graven images of YHWH, Jeroboam set up the traditional pedestal in the form of a golden calf, and left it empty for the Invisible YHWH, but it was too similar to forms of baal-worship for comfort, and many former Canaanites in Israel failed to remember the difference!

(Later OT writers condemned Jeroboam for this with great bitterness).

d) The greatest political weakness of the Northern Kingdom resulted from its lack of a stable dynasty of kings. Many would-be kings seized the throne by killing its present occupant, only to be assassinated themselves later on. Israel, therefore, was often in the hands of a military leader, especially as the skirmishes with the Southern Kingdom went on for the next 50 years or so. Matters did not improve much until OMRI became King, about 885 BCE.

e) This very instability, however, led to Israel's greatest religious benefit. In the absence of stable laws decreed by a king, Israel grew to appreciate the stability of YHWH's LAW. It became the work of the PROPHETS to comment on the events of their times in the light of the LAW, and to pronounce YHWH's edicts to his people, Israel.