Lesson #22

I Kings 12 -- II Chronicles 36; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations; Hosea; Joel, Amos, Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; and Zephaniah

     After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam came to the throne. Then Israel divided. All of the tribes except Judah and Benjamin formed the larger kingdom of Israel. Judah and Benjamin became known as the kingdom of Judah. The kingdom of Judah seemed to make an effort to serve the Lord, but they often fell short of the Lord’s commands. The kingdom of Israel fell away almost at once. They served idol gods and did not keep the law of the Lord.

     God sent prophets to warn the two kingdoms of His displeasure with them. There are wonderful accounts of the great miracles of Elijah and Elisha, two of God’s prophets. Jonah was swallowed by the great fish during this period of Israel’s history.

     The kingdom of Israel sank into such immorality that God allowed the Assyrian army to capture the people and carry them off into foreign cities. Many of the people were killed.

     Meanwhile, down in the kingdom of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah was weeping and begging the people in that kingdom of two tribes to return to the Lord. God had decreed that someday Jesus Christ would descend from the tribe of Judah. Jeremiah’s preaching was to no avail. The people simply would not do better. God allowed the Babylonian army, under King Nebuchadnezzar, to take the people of Judah away to Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah had told them that when that would happen, they would be there for seventy years.

     At that point, the beautiful land of milk and honey which had been promised to Abraham’s descendants lay desolate. Armies of foreign nations came in and ravaged the land. They killed or carried away the best and strongest of the people. Now, only the poorest of God’s people remained along with foreigners who had been transported there by the Assyrian king.