A Prophet's Eye-View Of Bible History"

This period of history starts with Solomon and runs pretty much through the end of the Old Testament. God's people had taken governmental leadership out of God's hand and choose to rule themselves. This did not work out well for them at all. (It never works out well when we choose our own ways over God's ways.)

Solomon

The first of kings in this period of history was Solomon, David's son and successor. Solomon started out very well and the kingdom prospered under his rule. He built the temple and God came and inhabited the temple with His manifest glory. Solomon petitioned God and received this incredible promise in response (2 Chron 7:14): "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Then God gave Solomon a supernatural gift of wisdom that he might be a good leader. Unfortunately, Solomon had a weakness for women that became his downfall. He acquired many wives and concubines from other nations. He wanted to keep them happy, so he allowed them to bring their gods (idols) with them and worship them. Eventually Solomon started worshipping their gods/idols as well. When he did this, he fell out of favor with God.

The Kingdom Splits

Solomon died, and his son Rehoboam was appointed king. He was politically inept, and he managed to alienate the majority of the citizens in an incredibly short period of time. Almost all of them rebelled against him and set up their own government -- everyone but the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They called their government "Israel" and they made Jeroboam their king. (You can read the details of this split in 1 Kings 12).

Jeroboam (and the nation of Israel) got off to a very bad start. He made two golden calve idols and set up altars to them, so that his people would not go to Solomon's temple (in Rehobam's kingdom of Judah) to worship. He did this because worshipping God deeply saturated all aspects of Hebrew culture. Jeroboam tried to "replace" the true God with his own idols so that he could make his leadership secure. This, of course, brought God's judgment and wrath on Israel.

Unfortunately, Rehoboam (Solomon's son, king of Judah) did not do any better. He allowed the people to set up temples with prostitutes, Asherah poles, and other blatant forms of idolatry. And there was a constant power struggle and frequent war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. It was a real mess.

Israel

After these two kings died, both Judah and Israel had several miscellaneous kings. In general Israel had ungodly kings that brought the nation deeper and deeper into idolatry. One of the most famous wicked kings was Ahab (Jezebel's husband). Elijah the prophet lived during Ahab's reign. In fact, the book of 1 Kings devotes a lot of attention and detail to both Ahab and Elijah's lives and interactions. You are probably already familiar with many of these stories, but let me share a few of them.

Ahab set up some temples to Baal and made an Asherah pole and sacrificed two of his children to false Gods. He provoked God more than all of the kings that preceded him. So God sent Elijah to prophecy that it would not rain for the next few years until God said it would rain again. Then Elijah hid and Ahab sent soldiers looking for him. As the drought got worse, the intensity of the man hunt for Elijah increased -- Ahab wanted to coerce him to make it rain because the drought was making economic conditions really bad. But he could not find him.

Elijah eventually ended up with a widow and her young son, who were down to their last few bites of food before starving to death. Elijah prophesied that if she would feed him, God would supernaturally make their food supply last for the entire drought -- and it did! Later on her son became sick and died. Elijah prayed for the boy and he was raised from the dead.

Well into the third year of the drought, Elijah presented himself to King Ahab and prayed for rain -- and it rained. You would think that experience would be enough to convert Ahab, but it was not. He continued to promote Baal worship in Israel.

After that, Elijah had a power encounter with the prophets of Baal, a "showdown" of sorts. Both set up altars and prepared sacrifices and called on their God to send fire down to consume the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal went first. They cried out to Baal for hours and did not have any success. Then Elijah went at the time of the evening offering and God immediately sent the fire.. proving to all of the spectators that He was God. The Israelites worshipped God and executed all of the prophets of Baal.

This made Jezebel (queen and high priestess to Baal) very upset and she threatened to execute Elijah and he was forced to run for his life and go into hiding. Even though God had just used him to win an incredible power encounter, Elijah became very discouraged and wished he were dead. This teaches us that even after God uses us very powerfully, the enemy resistance and spiritual warfare may continue. And it is possible for a godly person to become discouraged in the midst of the warfare. Even God's most anointed (like King David and Elijah) were at times forced to flee for their lives and go into hiding. God does not prevent adversity just because we are His servants. However, He will usually meet and protect us in the midst of that adversity.

It was during that period of depression that Elijah went up to mount Horeb and God met him there. This is one of the most famous stories about Elijah, and you probably know it. God sent Elijah to go stand on the mountain where God would manifest His presence to him. Then there was a mighty hurricane-force wind, but God's presence was not in the wind. That was followed by an earthquake and then by a fire, but God's presence was not in either of those. Then God met Elijah with the 'still small voice.' This story has been very important in helping people learn how to hear and recognize God's voice, because He often chooses the still small voice to speak to us today.

Ahab continued to do wicked things and he had more run-ins with Elijah. But in the midst of that, God sent one of His prophets to Ahab with battle instructions to defeat Ben-Hadad's massive army that was attacking him. Ahab listened to the prophet and after a series of battles he won a huge military victory. You would think that would be enough to convert Ahab, but it was not. However, it did soften his heart a bit.

Later on Ahab wanted a vineyard that Naboth owned and Naboth would not sell it. Ahab began to pout and have a pity-party because he could not have this vineyard he wanted. So Jezebel had Naboth falsely accused and executed to give the vineyard to her husband, and Ahab was delighted. This was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" and God sent Elijah to Ahab with strong words of condemnation and of impending disaster for Israel. Ahab repented when he heard this, complete with fasting and sackcloth and generally humbling himself. God responded to Ahab's repentance by postponing the judgment until after his death. Ahab died in battle and immediately after that, Jezebel (the wicked queen and prophetess of Baal) was executed.

After Ahab died, Israel continued to have ungodly rulers. Their last king was Hoshea, who was defeated by the Assyrians and carried away into captivity. Many of the Israelite people were carried into captivity at that time.

Judah

Judah had some godly and some evil rulers -- fortunately they started off with more godly kings than ungodly ones. Asa and Jehoshaphat Hezekiah are examples of godly kings. Judah had some military defeats and was pillaged (the gold taken from the temple, etc). However, they did not go into captivity until much later than Israel did. Assyria attacked Judah (similar to how it attacked Israel). However, Hezekiah was king at this time and he cried out to God for help -- and God delivered them from the Assyrians in a miraculous way. (The prophet Isaiah lived at this time and God sent him to Hezekiah with the promise of God's deliverance from Sennacherib the king of Assyria.)

There is another interesting story regarding Isaiah and Hezekiah found in 2 Kings 20. Hezekiah was deadly sick and Isaiah came to prophesy to him that he should set his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah did not like that pronouncement so he began crying out to the Lord to spare his life. God heard his prayer and sent Isaiah back to tell him he would not die but would have 15 years added to his life. Then God, through the prophet Isaiah, offered Hezekiah his choice for a sign that He would heal him. He could either have the shadow on Hezekiah's staircase go forward 10 steps or back 10 steps. Hezekiah choose to have it go back 10 steps. So Isaiah prayed and the shadow on the staircase receded by exactly ten steps. Hezekiah was not healed instantly, but he did recover, just as the prophet Isaiah predicted.

Think of what that was like from the prophet's perspective. First God sent him with a strong word (and possibly a scary one to deliver) that the king would die. He delivered the message. Then, before he could ever get out of the palace grounds, God sent him back to reverse the message he had just delivered! Fortunately, Isaiah was mature enough in the Lord to faithfully deliver the messages he was given and not worry about what people might think about him. Hezekiah got his extra 15 years and Judah prospered under him. Then he died.

After that, Judah had two ungodly kings that permitted and encouraged idolatry and the worship of false gods. Then Josiah became king and the kingdom of Judah had a national revival that lasted the rest of Josiah's life. Unfortunately, when Josiah died, his son Jehoahaz became a wicked and ungodly king. He only lasted three months before the Egyptians defeated him in battle and installed his younger brother Johoiakim as king -- Johoiakim had agreed to pay a huge tax to Egypt to be allowed to be king. Johoiakim lasted for 11 years, and was an ungodly and idolatrous king. During his reign, the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians and moved in to take over Judah. Johoiakim served as a puppet king under the Babylonians for three years and then rebelled. He died shortly after that and his son took over for a while. But the Babylonians besieged and defeated Judah. And many of the people were carried away into exile. (God allowed this because of their idolatries and sins.)

The Captivity and Return

The book of Daniel takes place shortly after the fall of Judah to Babylon. Even during Daniel's life in Babylon, the Medes overthrew the Assyrians and took over Babylon. (I think this was through political intrigue rather than through a battle.) There are some incredible stories of faith and obedience recorded in the book of Daniel. You really have to read that book!

Daniel is followed (chronologically) by the book of Ezra. About seventy years after the Babylonian captivity, the exiles were permitted to return to Jerusalem. Ezra was one of the leaders of those who returned, and he was instrumental in rebuilding the temple and altar of the Lord. Shortly after that is Nehemiah's story. Bible scholars think that Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem about 13 years after Ezra arrived. Nehemiah was a Jewish man in captivity who became the king's cupbearer. God put Jerusalem on his heart and he was allowed to take some time off of work to go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He faced incredible opposition to this task and had to arm half of his workforce to warriors to protect the other half while they constructed the wall. The city of Jerusalem was rebuilt approximately 400 years before the birth of Christ.