In this episode, we delve into the complexities of understanding biblical texts, focusing on the narratives within the books of Kings and the dual kingdoms of Israel and Judah. As we navigate through the intricacies of historical and cultural contexts, we unravel lessons from the leadership of Solomon, Rehoboam, and the contrasting approach of King Asa. This narrative sheds light on the importance of steadfast devotion and the dangers of idolatry highlighted in the biblical chronicles.
00:00:02 Introduction and Context of Biblical Texts
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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When you settle in to read the Bible, you run into any number of difficulties, none of them fatal, of course. The sense of the Bible is not that hard. It’s just that the writers of the Bible wrote, not only in a different language, but out of a different culture. Things that would be important to the modern reader don’t even cross their mind. There are mysteries in the Bible, to be sure, but there’s enough plain talk for us to know where we stand with God. We have enough trouble obeying the plain talk and living with that before we get too deep into the mysteries. The more difficult problem is that the modern reader is used to his history being presented in a certain way. The ancient writers of history operated on somewhat different principles. One of the confusing things, for example, about reading the book of Kings is the structure of the book. 1 Kings tells the story of the division of Israel into two kingdoms. After that, the story interleaves the parallel history of the two kingdoms, and it’s easy to get lost. There are any number of Bible handbooks and encyclopedias that provide charts to help you keep it straight. There are enough to make your eyes glaze over. If you really want to get the picture and keep it straight, the best way is to make your own chart. The careful reading of the Bible, writing down the names and the relative dates, will give you a feeling for the passage of time. But that’s not necessary for most readers. For the most part, we can just breeze through it and get a feeling for what’s going on. One of the most important things to remember as you read is that there are real people back there who suffered greatly because of the sins and the foibles of the leadership of the people. I can’t help reflecting on the poor guy on a farm with his wife and six kids. He plows the ground. He plants crops. He breeds his livestock, trying to make a living for his family. It was a hard time, even when times were good. But there weren’t a lot of good times for reasons that we’ll come to understand as we make our way through these chapters. The one who tells the story of these times, no doubt moved by the Holy Spirit, lets his frustration seep through from time to time. Because you see, the person who wrote down the words of 1 Kings is a real person too. All this happened because one man broke faith with God. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wasn’t wise enough to find one woman, take her home with him, love her, cherish her, forsake all others. He wasn’t smart enough to do that. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and you would think a grain of wisdom would have told him that was not going to work. Of course, it was all done for political reasons, but his women turned him to the worship of other gods. And that was the downfall of a people. And it happened because of one man. I learned a vital lesson from Solomon and his father David. With all of David’s sins and failures, he never even looked at another god, never crossed his mind, wouldn’t have considered it. It was off the table. As a result, even with all David’s sins, his failures, and boy, they were sometimes manifold, he always had a way of repentance open to him. The door back to God was never closed. He was never completely lost in the fog. You know, when you sin, you know where you are. He knew where he was. He knew the way back. But the problem is that when you follow idols, you lose the way back. And with repentance for David came forgiveness and an ongoing relationship with God. Just as with parents, when your kids do stupid things, it’s not that they’re not your kids anymore. you still love them. I learned also from this that wisdom is not an infallible defense against folly. It seems contradictory, but it is true with Solomon, because what he did with his women was rank folly. He was a powerful man, and there was no woman in his harem that could have held her sex life over his head to make him do anything, because there was another woman right down the hall. But he still followed after and served and built buildings to the gods of his other wives. Knowledge won’t keep you in the way of God. Wisdom won’t necessarily do it, not if you turn after other gods. It was God, not man, who divided Israel into two kingdoms, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And he did it perhaps not so much as a punishment of Solomon for what he had done, because he didn’t do this division while Solomon was alive. He did it only after Solomon died. I think it may have been to give some of his people a chance to return to the kind of life he envisioned for them at the start. Not many of them made it. And once again, the importance of leadership is underlined. Consider for a moment two terms. The house of Israel and the house of Judah. These are political entities now, not ethnic. And there is a distinct difference. We need to understand this. The man we know as Paul the Apostle was ethnically a Benjamite of the tribe of Benjamin. At the same time, he could be called a Jew also. How is that possible? Because normally a Jew would be an ethnic descendant of Judah. Well, it’s in the same way that a person can be an African American. There is a distinction between one’s ethnicity and one’s citizenship. The same thing was true in Israel. The biblical writers don’t anticipate the difficulty we would have with this, and so we have to be especially careful. They use these terms in ways that were highly significant to them, but sometimes are opaque to us, and we have a hard time sorting out exactly who they’re talking about. But for now. Remember, the House of Israel and the House of Judah are two separate governmental entities, two separate dynasties, if you will, of rulers governing two separate countries. For now, let’s take note that from the division of the kingdom forward, the House of Israel was composed of ten tribes in the northern part of Palestine, centered roughly on Samaria. The house of Judah was composed of three tribes centered primarily on Jerusalem. These designations will become quite important when we come to the prophets. Stay with me through this break, and when we come back, we’ll start down this long and winding road. through 1 and 2 Kings.
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The book of Kings includes so much valuable history and it lays the foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible. The entire series of programs on Kings and the book of Samuel is available for a special price this week only. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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And the days which Jeroboam reigned were 22 years. And he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead. That’s 1 Kings chapter 14, verse 20. And we’ve come to the 22nd year of the divided kingdom. From the death of Solomon, the kingdom divides into two houses, north and south. 22 years have passed. It’s not very long, and the die is already cast that’s going to influence the entire history of the house of Israel. Jeroboam could not rest on God’s promises. He divorced the religion of the people from the temple in Jerusalem. He introduced idolatry with two golden calves. He discouraged the people from the worship of God as God had commanded them. The annual festivals of God were designed to keep the people mindful of him. They are kind of appointments with God, the real God that the people had, that happened seven times a year. They provided reminders of their history, of who their God was, of their purpose as a nation. Jeroboam’s most grievous error was probably changing the holy days of Israel, because in the process, he took away from them the way back to God and locked them up in idolatry. Meanwhile, back in the house of Judah… Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began his reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah. She was an Ammonite. Turns out that his mother was one of Solomon’s foreign wives, so Rehoboam is only half Jewish, it seems. That in itself was not important. His mother’s influence may have been because she is specifically mentioned. What’s of passing interest? is the effect of the way the author laid out his story. Because the reign of Rehoboam in Jerusalem, being addressed as it is after Jeroboam, you might assume that he outlived Jeroboam. But he didn’t. In other words, you kind of get the feeling as you read along, well, here’s Jeroboam, he’s down to this chapter. And then now we go to Rehoboam, and Rehoboam goes on from here. But no, they are going along parallel with one another. And Rehoboam died before Jeroboam died. Actually, 17 years into the reign of Jeroboam in the north, Rehoboam died and his son succeeded him. At that point, you are in year 17 of the divided kingdom, and Rehoboam was a mere 58 years old when he died. Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done. They built high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. Idolatry would come in the course of history to do Judah in, just as it would the ten northern tribes. There were also male prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abomination of the nations which the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. I mean, there was a reason why God had them drive these people out of the land, and now the Israelites are doing the same thing. These are called sodomites in the King James Version, but they’re actually male shrine prostitutes. They were not there, by the way, to serve women. In many of the religions of the time, sex acts were a part of the rites. Female and male temple prostitutes were common, and so they made their way into and through and permeated the culture of Judah as they did much of the rest of the Middle East. It came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, this is not very long after Solomon’s death, five years, that Shishak, the king of Egypt, came against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, the treasures of the king’s house. He took everything away. He took all those gorgeous shields of gold that Solomon had made. And you know what’s interesting as you read this? There does not seem to have been much of a fight, if any. Why Rehoboam let him do that, how that came about is not said. One wonders, was it a siege that in order to get him to get up and go home, they gave him these shields? Or was it even a matter of buying a relationship? One wonders. Well, King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, shields out of brass. So for gold, now they got brass. He committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard who kept the door of the king’s house. And it was so when the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard carried them, and he brought them back into the guard chamber. It’s incredible. They could only really make this place look good when Rehoboam came in, and they had to go put it all away and lock it up, let somebody steal it and walk off with it. What a crying shame. The whole thing had been debased, and they even had to lock up their brass doors. Now, the rest of the Acts of Rehoboam and all he did are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. It’s an interesting thought, just a sidelight here. You will assume, naturally, that this is the book of Chronicles in the Bible, but that’s not necessarily the case. You have a book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, and later it will mention a book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. And I suspect that our books of Chronicles were compiled from those two separate and distinct books. We don’t have any way of knowing. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. The whole period of time they overlapped, they fought. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah and Ammonite. And Abijam, his son, reigned in his stead. Seventeen years, year 17 of the divided kingdom. Jeroboam still reigns in the north. We’ve come now to 1 Kings chapter 15. In the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. Now, this is a small illustration here of the headaches you’re going to run into when you try to do biblical chronology. We can’t always discern the methodology of the chroniclers. Where do they begin and end in counting a year, for example? Did they begin on the day of the king’s death and the ascension of his son, or did they do it on some royal calendar? In other words, was the last year or last six months of one king’s reign counted as a whole year or a part of a year? is if he died six months into the year and his son took over six months into the year, does that year count for father or does it count for son? And you can be left scratching your head when you try to get through this. One thing is certain, they didn’t do it like we do it. Years ago, I taught a class in Old Testament Survey, and one of the things we did in this class was to read the entire Old Testament through front to back in nine months of a school term. And one of their assignments, it was a part of their grade, they had to do it and turn it in. Through the entire nine-month period, they had to maintain a chronological chart. They had to actually study as they went along, take every single reference to a chronological event, a time, the number of years of this and the number of years of that. They had to go through and write every one of them down and make a chart showing how they were, what the dates were, and as they made their way down through the entire Old Testament. What was amusing to me as instructor when I laid these out and went over them, in all the seven years I taught that class, I don’t think I ever found two students who agreed in their chronologies. It serves as a useful illustration. The problem is not the accuracy of the scriptures. The problem is the variance in the methodology, the style, the culture, the way we look at things, the way they look at things, and the fact that we simply don’t have enough information. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. This man, his mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. He walked in all the sins of his father that he’d done before him, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord as the heart of David, his father. Now, this is David’s grandson, actually. And you should realize this. You’ll run into it from time to time in the Bible, and it confuses the issue terribly. The designation for father or mother in the Bible can also be used for grandfather or great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather or grandmother. You know, it doesn’t matter. If the person is in your descendant, he is your father or she is your mother. And so consequently, you run into these small confusions as you read. Maybe if you don’t read too carefully, they won’t bother you. Nevertheless, he goes on to say, Why? Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life except one. in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, that most famous incident of David and Bathsheba and the military murder of Uriah. You know, that’s not what I would call a small thing, and it wasn’t a small thing to God either. But the point is, David, in his greatest sin, did not turn his back on God. The way back was always there, because he always knew who God was. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. That’s repeated again. And the rest of the acts of Abijam, all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the King of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And finally Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his stead. Now we’ve come 20 years deep into the divided kingdom. And just so you’ll think about this, just cast your mind back 20 years in your own life. Where were you? What were you doing? Where did you live? What house were you living in? What job were you working at? How many things have happened in your life since that time? You know, when you look back over 20 years, in a way it seems like it’s almost yesterday. Things happen so quickly. It’s really sobering. You look back 20 years and think, good grief. When that period of time passes, I’ll be 20 years older than I am today. A little sobering consideration for myself at age 72. Looking ahead 20 years, I’ll be 92. This is only 20 years in, and all this stuff is still happening. And I still think about that poor guy out there with his wife and six kids, plowing his ground, raising his animals, nursing his sheep and his cattle, and trying his best to feed and clothe and house his family and to be happy and to enjoy life with his relatives. And all this intrigue, all these wars, rage back and forth for 20 solid years. In the 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa began his reign, and he reigned for 41 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maaka, the daughter of Abishalom. He reigns all the way down to year 61 of the divided kingdom. Now, there’s a peculiarity here. Asa and his father appear to have the same mother. But TNIV solves the problem by pointing out this has to be a grandmother, maybe even a great-grandmother. The generations are not noted in the term mother. And if you don’t have anything better to do, you might enjoy some time beginning to trace some of these names with a Bible dictionary or a concordance and just put together a little family tree of who was who. Asa… is going to be a very important player in the history of Judah. We’ll talk about him, but first, grab a pencil and a piece of paper. I want to give you an address, a phone number, and a free offer.
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For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings Number Nine. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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Now something really special happens. It’s really special because it is so unusual. It never happens in the house of Israel, but it did rarely in the house of Judah. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David, his father. He took away the male prostitutes out of the land, got rid of them. He removed all the idols his father had made. Mayaka, his mother, even her, he removed from being queen. Why did he take away the queen mother? Because she had made an idol in a grove. This was the very thing that got Solomon in trouble. Asa said, no way. And he took her out of her privileged position. He destroyed her idol. He burnt it. But the high places, he didn’t remove them. But his heart was perfect with God all his days. You feel like saying, you know, nobody’s perfect. Nobody gets it right all the time. But his heart was right. And this long 41-year reign is really important. It never happened in the north. Here you have a good king who obeys God, a time of clearing away the pagan idols. It underlines the importance of strong leadership in the safety and prosperity of the people. And it probably accounts for the fact that Judah as a kingdom lasted far longer than the house of Israel did in the north. And I think one of the reasons was a king named Asa. He brought in the things his father had dedicated, all the things which he himself had dedicated, into the house of the Lord, silver and gold and vessels. And so he tried to restore things like they used to be. There was war, though, between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. So they’re constantly in a fight between the north and the south. And this after God told the kingdom of Judah to leave them alone. I wanted this distinction to be made. Now, there are goings on in the north that aren’t recorded yet. Jeroboam had died and been succeeded not by Baasha, but by Nadab. But here, the king of Israel that he’s dealing with is a later guy. His name is Baasha. The reason why this is happening is because our author has moved completely to talk about only the important things to the kingdom of Judah. And Nadab, that intervening king, is not important. Nothing ever happened where he was concerned. But for Baasha, it was war from the get-go. Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah. He built Ramah so that he could actually put a blockade there and not to suffer anyone to go in or come out to Asa, the king of Judah. So Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left and the treasures of the house of the Lord, every last bit of it, and the treasures of the king’s house, He gave them to the hand of his servants, and he sent them to Ben-Hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, the king of Syria that dwelt at Damascus. What did he do that for? He’s buying a friend. He said, “‘There’s a league between you and me, and between my father and your father. I have sent you a present of silver and gold. You have a long-standing relationship now with my family.'” I’ve sent you this present. Come, break your league with Baasha, the king of Israel, so he can get off my back. So Ben-Hadad said, okay. He sent the captains of his army that he had against Israel. He smote Ijon and Dan and several other cities, all in the land of Naphtali. And it came to pass when Baasha heard what was going on, he left off building Ramah and went home to Tirzah. So then King Asa made a proclamation through all Judah. Nobody was exempt. They took away the stones of Ramah and all the timber of it that Baasha had built there. And he took them and built with them Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah. So all the stuff is stripped away. All the barricades are gone. Now the rest of all the acts of Baasha, all of his might, all that he did and the cities he built, These are all written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, a book which we can only piece together from Kings and Chronicles. Nevertheless, in the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his fathers. He was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead. All this in year 61 of the divided kingdom. Now take today’s, I mean this year today, subtract 61 years from it and see where it takes you. What was the world like then? Who was doing what to who in that time? What kind of wars were there that were being fought? How were things going in the world at that time? Sort of think that through and think what’s happened since that time to get a feeling for the passage of time. Because that’s the length of time that had passed when Asa died. from the beginning of the divided kingdom of Israel. Now we get to flash back to year 22 and look at Jeroboam. But that will have to wait until next time.
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