The Establishment of the Monarchy
The Establishment of the Monarchy
Israel’s first king, Saul the son of Kish, began his reign with great promise. He was rich, tall, handsome, young and popular. He was also a strong patriot, so that when he heard that Jabesh-gilead was being besieged by Nahash the Ammonite he immediately mustered a large army and made a bold dash across the Jordan to rescue its inhabitants.
He was not so successful against the Philistines, however. They had garrisons on Israelite territory and were a source of constant humiliation to Israel. It was Saul’s son Jonathan who one day routed a whole Philistine garrison single-handed, and the youth David (destined to be Saul’s successor on the throne) who slew the Philistine giant Goliath. The people were enthusiastic over these daring exploits. But Saul’s jealousy was aroused.
The major cause of Saul’s downfall was his disobedience. Three times he disobeyed the plain commands of God—in not utterly destroying the Amalekites, in usurping the priestly prerogative of sacrifice and in consulting a medium. God’s verdict through Samuel was inevitable:
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king. (1 Sam. 15:23)
Saul fell in battle against the Philistines, together with his three sons, and David was overcome with grief:
Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen! (2 Sam. 1:19)
David had already been designated heir to the throne during Saul’s lifetime, but spent the latter years of Saul’s reign a fugitive from the king’s jealousy. He began his own reign in Hebron, where the men of Judah (his own tribe) anointed him king. But, seven years later, representatives of all the tribes of Israel came to Hebron to do homage to him, and he was anointed king for the second time. He then moved his capital to Jebus (captured only now from the Jebusites), changed its name to Jerusalem, “city of peace,” and brought the ark there from Kiriath-jearim amid tumultuous rejoicing.
David’s first achievement was to unify Israel and make the country safe from her enemies. He won victories over all Israel’s traditional foes—the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Syrians—and ruled over the whole promised land from “the river of Egypt” (Egypt’s frontier wadi) to the River Euphrates. In view of these conquests it was all the more humiliating that he should have to endure rebellion at home, first from his son Absalom and then from a worthless pretender named Sheba.
But David was far from being a warlord. He was artistic, being both a poet and a musician (he had often soothed Saul’s melancholia with his lyre). He was also a sensitive spirit, magnanimous to his enemies and loyal to his friends.
Above all, he was devoted to his God. The psalms he wrote express a remarkable depth of spirituality, of penitence after his adultery with Bathsheba (Ps. 51) and of trust in the God of his salvation. For example:
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—
from violent men you save me….
For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect….
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies….
For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect. (2 Sam. 22:1–3, 32–33; Ps. 18:1–3,31–32)
Having built a palace for himself in Jerusalem, David was anxious also to build a house for the Lord. But through the prophet Nathan God forbade it, telling him that his son would be allowed to build the temple. Meanwhile God added:
Israel never forgot God’s everlasting covenant with David. Believers in Israel knew for certain that when Messiah came, he would be a son of David.
God began to fulfill his promise to David by setting his son Solomon on the throne, and during his reign the kingdom of Israel reached the zenith of its magnificence. It was not for nothing that Jesus referred to “Solomon in all his glory.”
King Solomon had a genius for administration and building. Soon after his accession he prayed that God would give him wisdom.
Give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. (1 Kings 3:9)
Solomon’s prayer was answered. He divided the country into twelve regions under twelve officers, whose responsibility was to make provision for the royal household, one each month of the year. He fortified cities, built up a standing army, and provided himself with 1,400 chariots and 40,000 horses. He was the father of Israel’s navy, whose ships (kept in the Gulf of Aqabah) embarked on adventurous voyages for trade. He built palaces for himself and his queen, halls for assembly, justice and armory and above all the great Temple, made of hewn stone, cedar and cypress wood and gold. He was also a kind of patron of the arts, and himself the author of numerous songs and proverbs (1 Kings 4:32–34). His reputation for splendor, wisdom and justice spread far and wide, and under his rule his people enjoyed peace and prosperity:
The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy…. Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree. (1 Kings 4:20, 25)
All was not as well as it seemed on the surface, however. Solomon did not love the Lord his God with all his heart. Nor did he love his neighbor as himself. He kept a harem of foreign (hea-then) princesses, in defiance of God’s prohibition of such intermarriage, and they “turned his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:1–8). And he was able to maintain his building program and his grandiose lifestyle at court only by oppressive measures, including high taxation and a levy of forced labor numbering 30,000 men.
It is not surprising, therefore, that when the people came together to make Rehoboam king in succession to his father Solomon they said to him:
Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you. (1 Kings 12:4)
The old king’s counselor gave Rehoboam wise advice, which lies at the foundation of every modern constitutional monarchy’s ideals of service:
If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them … they will always be your servants. (1 Kings 12:7)
But Rehoboam made a rash and foolish mistake. He accepted instead the advice of young and inexperienced counselors, warned the people that he intended to add to their yoke, and so provoked the ten northern and eastern tribes to proclaim their independence from the dynasty of David.
Saul, David and Solomon had reigned over all Israel for forty years each, so that for the 120 years from approximately 1050–930 BC there had been a united kingdom. But now the kingdom was divided. The northern kingdom was Israel, with Jeroboam its first king and its capital city Shechem (later changed to Samaria). The southern kingdom was Judah, with Rehoboam its first king and its capital city Jerusalem. Israel had several changes of dynasty and lasted just over 200 years until the destruction of Samaria in 772 BC. Judah was more stable, retaining the dynasty of David throughout its longer history of about 350 years until Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC.
The story of the divided monarchy is not easy to follow, as we try to understand the relations between the two kingdoms, their involvement with the mighty empires to their north and south, and the intervention of the prophets who spoke boldly in the name of Yahweh to kings and commoners alike. The biblical story is further complicated by the fact that much of it is told twice, once in the Books of Kings and once in the Books of Chronicles, the chronicler (possibly Ezra) writing later with the clear object of emphasizing the importance of the southern kingdom, the Davidic dynasty and the temple cultus. It may be best to concentrate first on the story of Israel.