The Kingdom of Israel Divided

Because Solomon worshiped false gods late in his life, God took ten of the tribes of Israel from Solomon's son Rehoboam and gave them to a man named Jeroboam.

Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God affected the people of Israel. They worshiped Ashtoreth (goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (god of the Moabites), and Molech (god of the Ammonites). Turning from God to false gods is called apostasy. God’s people turned away time and time again. Something had to be done.

The LORD was angry with Solomon. God had appeared twice to him, and still, he turned his heart away and followed other gods. God told him, “I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Yet, for your father’s sake, I will not do this during your lifetime. Your son will pay because I will rip the kingdom from his hand. Still, I will only take part of the kingdom from him. In honor of my servant David and respect for my chosen city, Jerusalem, I will leave one tribe.”

One day, Jeroboam, an official in Solomon’s administration, was leaving Jerusalem. A prophet named Ahijah, wearing a brand-new coat, met him on the road. He took off his coat and ripped it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself. God says, ‘Look, I’m going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes because they have forsaken me and worshiped other gods. They don’t follow Me or obey my laws as David did.’”

Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, succeeded him as king, but shortly after that, the kingdom was divided—ten tribes followed Jeroboam, two stayed with Rehoboam. The ten tribes in the north kept the name Israel, while the two in the south became known as Judah.

Since the temple was in Jerusalem, Jeroboam was afraid that his people would go there to worship and eventually give their allegiance to Rehoboam since he was king of the nation that housed the LORD’s temple. So soon after Jeroboam became king of Israel, he made two golden calves and told the people, “It’s too hard to go to Jerusalem to worship. Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” He set one up in Bethel in the south and the other in the northern city of Dan. The people sinned by worshiping these idols.

Sadly, both of the nations continued to follow idols and false gods, breaking God’s first two commands. Because of this, Ahijah predicted to Jeroboam’s wife that Israel would be uprooted from their Promised Land and scattered.

Yes, judgment was coming. In about 200 years, the northern kingdom would no longer exist. Every one of its 20 kings was evil and did not serve the LORD God.

The southern kingdom continued for nearly 350 years, with more than half of its kings being wicked. However, some of Judah’s kings served the LORD.