King Saul   -   David The Sheppard Warrior   -   David As King   -   Solomon   -   The Divided Kingdom 

In his farewell address to his people, Moses warns:

"When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you and inherit it and live in it, and you say,'Let us appoint over me a king like all the nation around me,' [then] you will appoint over yourself a king whom the Lord your God shall choose. From among your brothers are you to appoint over yourself a king, you may not appoint over yourself a foreigner who is not your bother. However, he must not acquire too many horses for himself ... And he is not to acquire too many wives ... neither shall he acquire too much silver and gold. And it shall be that when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself a copy of the Torah..." (Deut. 17:14-19)

This time has come to pass now.

The Jewish people have been living for close to four centuries without strong central leadership and they miss it. So they ask the prophet Samuel to appoint a king.

LIKE ALL THE REST

Samuel is not happy over this request but God tells him to go ahead. Still it is clear that God is not happy with it either:

"Listen to the voice of the people according to all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected Me from reigning over them." (1 Samuel 8:7)

Why are Samuel and God displeased, especially since Moses had predicted this turn of events and there is even a Torah commandment to do so?

The answer lies in the way the people asked for a king:

And they the people said [to Samuel] "... Now set up for us a king to judge us like all the nations ..." (1 Samuel, 8:6)

A Jewish king was not supposed to be a king "like all the nations" had. A Jewish king was supposed to be a model of what an ideal Jew is all about -- a figurehead for the rest of the nation to emulate.

To ask for a king "like all the nations" suggests that the Jews wanted a big strong guy so that they could sit back and throw off that heavy burden of responsibility that they've had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. It's much easier in many respects to have someone decide for you, which is why the Talmud says that "a slave is happier being a slave" -- a slave who is well treated will give up his freedom to know that he is being taken care of and decisions are being made for him.

In the year 836 BCE Saul is anointed as king by the prophet Samuel in accordance with the wishes of the people.

THE CHOICE

How was Saul chosen king?

The story of Saul's anointing tells us much about the functioning of Jewish society in this time period.

For one thing, there are many prophets around. So many in fact -- the Talmud says that from the time of Moses to the destruction of the First Temple there were over a million prophets -- that the people turn to them for everything. You have a profound question about Jewish law? Ask a prophet. You need advice on marriage? Ask a prophet. You've lost your donkey? Ask a prophet.

Indeed this is how Saul and the Prophet Samuel meet. Saul comes to Samuel for help in locating some lost donkeys.

It's an odd story. A man goes to the greatest prophet alive and asks, "Where's my donkey?" The prophet answers, "Oh, your donkey is behind the shed, and by the way, you're king of Israel."

When Samuel tells him that he will be king, Saul hides. This is where we first see the weakness of his character.

A FATAL WEAKNESS

The Talmud is very clear that Saul is not only head and shoulders above everyone physically, he's head and shoulders above everyone morally and ethically. He's an exemplary human being, but he has one weakness -- he suffers from misplaced modesty. A really humble person recognizes his or her true strengths and weaknesses; he also knows the difference between honor due him and the honor due his position.

But Saul is not really strong enough to be a leader of the Jewish people. To lead the Jewish people requires a unique combination of iron will and diplomacy -- as we saw in the difficulties Moses faced leading the Israelites in the wilderness (Part 13). If the leader is not strong enough the Jewish people will walk all over him, but if he's too strong they'll rebel. The problem of weak leadership -- which begins with Saul -- is something that will plague the Jewish people throughout history as will become glaringly apparent.

Saul reigns from 879 to 877 BCE. He's king for only two years and he dies a tragic death. Indeed, his brief reign in itself is tragic, and it has to do with a fatal mistake he makes early on. He disobeys the commandment of God to wipe out the nation of Amalek.

One of the key commandments that the Jewish people are given upon entering the Land of Israel is "to wipe out Amalek."

Amalek is the ultimate enemy of the Jewish people in history. This is the people that symbolize evil, and there is a commandment in the Bible to wipe them off the face of the earth, because their pathological hatred for Jews is so great, if they have a chance they will wipe the Jews off the face of the earth.

Amalek's major ambition is to rid the world of the Jews and their moral influence and return the planet to idolatry, paganism, and barbarism.

Since this is a cosmic war between good and evil which cannot be settled with treaties, God commands the Jews to destroy Amalek -- the entire nation, down to the last cow.

Saul has the opportunity to do so. He wages war against Amalek as commanded and wins, but when it comes to fulfilling the decree he falters. The cows are spared, and Agag, the king of the Amalekites, is spared also.

IDEOLOGY OF AMALEK

To this day, history continues to struggle with the consequences of Saul's mistake.

Agag fathers a child before he is killed by the Prophet Samuel, and then the nation of Amalek goes underground.

Today, we have no way of identifying the descendants of Amalek, but we do know that the Amalekite ideology lives on. There has been more than one occasion when people have arisen bent on exterminating the Jews.

One such example was Haman, the Persian minister who tried to annihilate the Jews in the time of Queen Esther (355 BCE). And Hitler certainly espoused Amalekite ideology:

Yes, we are barbarians! We want to be barbarians. It is an honorable title to us ... Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I free man from ... the degrading self-mortification of a false vision called conscience and morality ... Conscience is a Jewish invention. (Hitler Speaks, pp. 87, 220-222.)

And looking at Hitler and the Holocaust we can understand that such intense hatred as the Bible ascribes to Amalek can exist in the world. The Nazis wanted to kill every Jew. A Jew could have been assimilated, intermarried with Christians for three generations but that didn't matter; the Nazis were bent on killing anyone with the slightest bit of Jewish heritage -- they were bent on wiping out any trace of the Jewish people and Jewish influence.

THE END OF SAUL

Meanwhile, the Prophet Samuel tells Saul:

"I shall not return to you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being King over Israel."

And Samuel turned to go and he [Saul] seized the hem of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it your fellow who is better than you.'" (1 Samuel 15:26-28)

With this critical mistake, Saul is finished. He doesn't get a second chance. God doesn't mess around when it comes to the King of Israel.

If this seems harsh, we must keep in mind the guiding principles of the relationship between God and the Jewish people.

1. According to your level of knowledge is your level of responsibility. The mistakes of people in positions of power have huge consequences.
2. According to your level of responsibility is your level of accountability. The greater you are, the bigger the impact of your decisions, therefore you must be held to an extremely high standard.

Therefore even the smallest mistakes of Jewish leaders are severely punished.

Although Saul is finished, this doesn't mean he gets deposed on the spot, but it means that his line will not carry on the monarchy.

Indeed, following this declaration to Saul, Samuel goes looking for another king to anoint and he finds him in the most unlikely place.

After Prophet Samuel realizes that Saul is too weak to be King of Israel, he goes looking for another candidate.

Guided by God, Samuel finds himself in the town of Bet Lechem (today's Bethlehem), paying a call on a man named Jesse among whose sons the next king is to be found.

Jesse presents seven of his sons, and Samuel sees that all are amazing men -- physically-fit, well-educated in Jewish law, dedicated to God. But not good enough. The Bible relates that as Samuel is admiring one of Jesse's sons, he gets a message from God:

God said to Samuel, "Do not look at his countenance and at his tall stature, for I have rejected him. For it is not as man perceives it; a man sees what is visible to the eyes but God sees into the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

So Samuel asks: "Don't you have any more sons?" Jesse, a little flustered, responds: "Well, there still the little one, but he is out tending sheep."

The little one is David. Samuel demands that Jesse go get him and as soon as little red-headed David appears, Samuel knows he is the one. Despite the fact that physically he's not so impressive, he has what it takes to be the strong leader Israel needs.

This teaches us a very important lesson on how we're supposed to judge people. We live in a superficial world. We are judged by how we look, which is why plastic surgery and looking eternally young is such a big thing. Judaism says true greatness of the individual is not measured by outward appearance; true greatness resides in the soul.

THE ANOINTED

Samuel takes a flask of oil and pours it on David's head. This is called "anointing" -- in Hebrew moshach, which is where the word Moshiach or Messiah comes from.

When Samuel anoints David, this does not mean David becomes king. It just means he has been designated by God as next in line.

Meanwhile, Saul continues to reign not knowing what has happened, although previously he has been told by Samuel that his days are numbered.

The Bible relates that the moment that David was anointed, "the spirit of God left Saul" and he fell into a black depression. To help relieve his angst, his advisors decide to bring in a harp player, reasoning that listening to music will make the king feel better.

And this is how David, still the shepherd, is brought to the palace -- he plays the harp beautifully and his playing relieves King Saul who doesn't know that this youth will soon replace him.

DAVID AND GOLIATH

During this time Israel is constantly at war with the Philistines (whom we introduced in Part 15 of this series.)

We know that ancient warfare was highly ritualized. In Homer's Iliad, we read how battles were conducted in ancient times in the epic story of the siege of Troy, (circa 1200 BCE). We see that each side would send out its great champion who would fight on behalf of his people. Often the battle would end with that, because whichever champion won the other side would be so demoralized it would retreat.

This is the same situation at this time in Jewish history -- the Philistines have a champion who is a pretty awesome guy. His name is Goliath and he's huge.

(There used to be in world of wrestling a guy by the name of Andre the Giant. I remember seeing this guy. He was 7-foot-5" and weighed 450 lbs. He used to wrestle three guys at once. Goliath was even bigger.)

The problem is that the Jewish forces have no champion at all.

The Jewish troops are stationed on the one side of the Elah Valley just south of Jerusalem -- a place which you can still visit today in Israel -- and the Philistines are on the other. Goliath is marching out in front of the Philistine lines, shouting curses at the Jews. And the mortified Israelite army has to listen to this, because no one is willing to take on Goliath.

One day, David -- who is still too young to serve in the army -- shows up on the battlefield bringing food for his brothers and he's shocked by what he sees.

FAITH IN GOD

Outraged that no one has the guts to fight Goliath, he volunteers for the job, though he has a hard time convincing everybody to let him go out into the field. Finally, he convinces King Saul with his steadfast faith in God:

And David said, "God who saved me from the claws of the lion and the claws of the bear, He will save me from the hands of the Philistine." (1 Samuel 17:37)

To that Saul answers:

"Go and may God be with you."

David goes out to meet Goliath without sword or armor, only with his slingshot and a few stones, and his deep abiding faith in God.

Seeing him Goliath laughs:

"Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?"

But David is undisturbed:

"You come towards me with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but I come to you with the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the battalions of Israel whom you have insulted. This day God shall deliver you into my hand ... and this entire gathering shall know that it is not by a sword or with a spear that God saves..." (1 Samuel 17:47)

As Goliath advances toward him, David uses his sling to hurl a rock at the giant's face. It hits him in the forehead and he falls to the ground, flat on his face. David then removes Goliath's sword and cuts off his head.

The stunned Philistines start running, pursued by the Israelite army. The end result is a tremendous victory for the Jews.

NOT BY MIGHT

The words that David speaks on the battlefield are very powerful. He emphasizes that the true strength of the Jewish people is God, echoing the famous words of the Prophet Zechariah:

"Not by strength, not by might, but with My spirit," says the Lord of Hosts." (Zechariah 4:6)

Jews have to remember that they will win if God is with them, but as soon as they lose sight of that, they are in trouble. We'll see this when we get to modern Israeli history -- the great victory in 1967 and the terrible losses of 1973.

Jews must always remember where the source of their strength comes from.

David is one Jewish leader who is not likely to forget that, even though overnight he becomes a super hero. He marries the king's daughter, Michal. And even a song is composed about him and it becomes very popular: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."

The adoration of David makes Saul insanely jealous. He tries to kill him, but, warned by Michal, David manages to flee. Saul hunts him all over the country, and David has to go into hiding.

But Saul has not much left to his reign; he is about to be killed in battle.

SAUL'S FINAL BATTLE

The Philistines attack again -- at Mount Gilboa, up north near the Galilee.

It's amazing how far the Philistines manage to encroache into the country. They are no longer just on the coast, they have actually reached the area of the major trade route in the ancient Near East -- the King's Highway -- which led through Mount Gilboa, up to Beit She'an and then up to Damascus. Strategically they're in a bad place for the Jewish people. Saul marches out with his army to go fight the Philistines.

Saul always knew the outcome of each battle by consulting with the prophet Samuel. But now the prophet is dead. He manages to contact him in the other world however, and Samuel tells him that he stands no chance, because God is no longer with him.

Nevertheless, Saul is no coward and he leads the Jewish people into battle despite the odds. His sons are killed before his eyes and defeat appears certain. Lest he, himself, be captured by the enemy, the wounded Saul falls on his sword and dies.

The Philistines take Saul's body and remove his head, which they send on tour around the country. They hang his body and the bodies of his three sons on the walls of the city of Beit She'an, but the Jews come back at night, steal the headless body and bury it.

Meanwhile, David reappears down in the south in Hebron, where he is crowned king and it is the story of his reign that we shall take up next.

King David is one of the most important figures in Jewish history. Born in 907 BCE, he reigns as king of Israel for 40 years, dying at age 70 in 837 BCE.

There is so much that can be said about him. Some people like to focus on the warrior aspect -- the chivalrous warrior fighting for God -- but when his persona and accomplishments are considered as a whole, it is his spiritual greatness that shines most of all.

David is a real man -- with real human faults -- whose first and foremost drive is to have a relationship with God. We get the glimpse of the beauty of his soul when we read the Psalms, most of which he wrote. Who doesn't know:

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want ... (Psalm 23)

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear ... (Psalm 27)

I lift my eyes to the mountains -- from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth ... (Psalm 121)

Even when we consider his military conquest, we see that the driving force behind them was his attachment to God.

THE CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

We know historically that the story of Israel during this entire period of time -- from the Exodus onward -- is the story of a tiny nation sandwiched between the two great ancient civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia (which was ruled at various times by the Assyrians, Babylonians or Persians).

When David takes the throne, Egypt and Assyria are both on a significant decline. They're not in any position to expand, which leaves a vacuum in the middle where Israel is located, and Israel is allowed to expand unmolested by these other great empires.

Thus David is able to subdue, at long last, the Philistine threat and to conquer the remaining Canaanite city-state -- Jerusalem -- that the Israelites have thus far not been able to conquer. (For background, see Part 14: Joshua and the Conquest of the Promised Land.)

For the 450 years since the Jewish people first entered the Land of Israel until the time of King David, Jerusalem has remained unconquerable. It is a city-state inhabited by Canaanite tribe called Jebusites (the Arab village of Silwan is located there now). It is heavily fortified, yet despite its seemingly impregnable appearance, Jerusalem has one weakness -- its only source of water is a spring outside the city walls. The spring is accessed from inside the city by a long shaft carved into rock.

The Book of Samuel and the Book of Chronicles describe how David's general, Yoab, climbs up a tzinor (literally "pipe") enters the city and conquers it. Some archaeologists speculate that this might refer to "Warren Shaft" -- a vertical tunnel running up from Gihon Spring -- which is a tourist attraction in "David's City," outside the walls of today's Jerusalem.

WHY JERUSALEM?

The first thing that David does after he occupies the city is make it his capital. And here we have to pause and ask: Why Jerusalem?

Certainly there were more suitable sites for the capital of Israel. Jerusalem does not adjoin any important body of water nor is it located on any trade route. All the capital cities in the world are built near oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, or at least near a major trade route.

(There are major trade routes crisscrossing Israel at this time. There is the Kings Highway, which is one of the major trade routes in the ancient Middle East, running from the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea to Damascus. And there is also the Via Maris, "Way of the Sea," which runs from Egypt along the Mediterranean coast then through Israel and on to Syria.)

The capital of Israel should have been on the Mediterranean Sea. Ideally a place like Jaffa (next to today's Tel Aviv) would have made the most sense.

So why Jerusalem?

The reason why Jerusalem has to do with a very unique aspect of the Jewish people, and why the children of Israel became a nation in the first place.

Normally, nations become nations by living in a piece of real estate for a long period of time, developing a common language and a common culture. Take the French for example. They didn't all wake up one day and decide they liked white wine, cheese and croissants. A group of people over a period of time moved into a common piece of real estate (which later became known as France), and shared a common language. After a shared period of national experience, they coalesced into an identity known as the French. More or less, this scenario works for every nation.

The Jews became a nation shortly after escaping slavery in Egypt. They were not yet in the land of Israel, they were camping out in no man's land, in the desert, at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Jews became a nation there, when they made a covenant with God, promising "we will do and we will hear." The nationhood of Israel is defined, first and foremost, by its communal relationship with God.

And it turns out that there is no better place to relate to God than Jerusalem.

GOD'S PLACE

As soon as David makes Jerusalem his capital, he buys a small hill on the northern boundary of the city from its owner Aravnah, the Jebusite. The purchase is recorded in the Bible in two places (2 Samuel 24:24 and 1 Chronicles 21:25).

This hill is Mount Moriah.

This is where Abraham went up to offer Isaac as a sacrifice and later remarked as the Bible records:

"The Lord will see," as it is said to this day, "On the Lord's mountain, He will be seen." (Genesis 22:14)

This is where Jacob dreamt of a ladder going to heaven, and said:

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:17)

No wonder this is a spot that every major conqueror in all of human history has wanted to own. (Jerusalem has been conquered or destroyed 36 times in 3,000 years.)

Today on this spot stands an Islamic structure known as the Dome of the Rock. Under this golden dome is a rock which is metaphysically known as the even shtiah, literally, "drinking stone." Drinking water and spirituality are synonymous, and the Torah is known as mayim chayim, "water of life." According to Judaism, the world is spiritually nourished from this spot, this stone.

This is the place where God's presence can be felt more intensively than in any other place on the planet earth. Therefore, this is the logical place to build a permanent resting spot for the most holy object that the Jewish people have -- the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.

THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE

King David wastes no time bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. And it is an occasion of great communal happiness. In ecstasy David dances wildly at this celebration. For this he is condemned by his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, who had stuck with him through thick and thin and who even saved his life when King Saul wanted to kill him. But now Michal attacks David, ridiculing his behavior (2 Samuel 6:16-23):

"How glorious was the king of Israel today, who was exposed today in the eyes of the maidservants of his servants, as one of the boors would be exposed!"

David -- who had thought nothing of his own honor in his gladness that he had made a special connection with God, -- responds in astonishment:

"Before the Lord I will make merry. And I shall behave even more humbly than this, and I shall be lowly in my eyes; and of the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them shall I will be held in honor."

The story concludes with the punishment visited on Michal for her harsh condemnation of the man chosen by God to be Israel's king:

And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

Although David brings up the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Moriah, he is not allowed by God to build the Temple. A number of reasons are given. One is that the Temple is a house of God and a house of peace and David has a lot of blood on his hands from subduing the enemies of Israel. However, he is promised that his son will build it.

Now David has a number of sons by several wives, some of whom give him serious trouble. One, Amnon, rapes his sister, Tamar. Another, Absalom plots against David and tries to have him deposed. But there is one special boy, Solomon, born from David's relationship with the beautiful Bathsheba.

DAVID AND BATHSHEBA

The story of David's relationship with Bathsheba is one of the most misread stories in the Bible, and we have to be careful in reading it as a soap opera. In summary, however, this is what happens.

Restless one night, David is pacing the roof of his palace from where he has a view of the homes and gardens in the city below. And there he spies a beautiful woman bathing. She is the wife of one of his generals, Uriah, the Hittite, who is away at war.

David sends for Bathsheba and spends the night with her. When she becomes pregnant, he commands that Uriah be placed on the front lines, where he dies in battle. David then marries Bathsheba.

At this point, the prophet Nathan pays a call on the king. (See 2 Samuel 12.) He says that he has come to inform the king of a great injustice in the land. A rich man with many sheep, stole the one beloved sheep of a poor man, and had it slaughtered for a feast.

Furious at what he hears, King David, declares, "As God lives, the one who has done this deserves death."

Responds the prophet, "You are that man!"

David is humbled. "I have sinned before God," he says.

This is an enormously complex story and there is much more here than meets the eye. Technically, Bathsheba was not a married woman since David's troops always gave their wives conditional divorces, lest a soldier be missing in action leaving his wife unable to remarry. However, the Bible states clearly that David acted improperly, and the Sages explain that while David did not commit adultery in the literal sense, he was clearly morally wrong.

As noted in earlier installments, the Bible takes a hyper-critical position of Jewish leaders. It never whitewashes anyone's past, and in that it stands alone among the records of ancient peoples which usually describe kings as descendants of gods without faults.

David's greatness shines in the humility of his admission and the repentance that follows. This is part of the reason that the ultimate redeemer of the Jewish people and the world will descend from David's line -- he will be "Messiah ben David."

Shortly thereafter, Bathsheba gives birth, but the child becomes deathly ill as the prophet Nathan had predicted. David goes into a period of prayer and fasting, but the child dies nevertheless. David realizes that this happened in atonement for his actions. He also knows that God has forgiven him.

Before long Bathsheba is pregnant again. And this time, she bears a healthy child -- who is named Solomon, and who will be the golden child, gifted with unusual wisdom.

Before David dies, he appoints as king his son Solomon, who is 12 years old at the time, with these words:

"I go the way of all the earth. You shall be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments and His testimonies. As it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn." (1 King 2:2-3)

This classic blessing is what today a boy receives on the day of his Bar Mitzvah. It restates the cardinal rule that has guided the Jewish people from the time of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai: in order to prosper just keep the Torah.

Shortly after Solomon is anointed king, God appears to him in a dream in which He invites Solomon to make a request for himself. Solomon answers:

"I am but a small child ... Give therefore your servant an understanding heart to judge your people..."

His request pleases God who tells him:

"Because you have not requested riches and honor but only that which would benefit all the people, I will give you not only an understanding heart like none other before or after you ... but also riches and honor like no other king in your days."(1 Kings 3:7-13)

Born in 848 BCE, Solomon dies at age 52 in 796 BCE, ruling as king for 40 years -- the best years in all of Israel's history. He is known as chacham mi'kol ha'adam, "wisest of all the men." The Bible relates that kings from all over the world came to hear his wisdom, which included not only Torah wisdom, but also wisdom in secular knowledge and science.

His fame spread through all the surrounding nations. He composed 3,000 parables, and 1,005 poems. He discoursed about trees, from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows from the wall. He also discoursed about animals, birds, creeping things and fish. Men of all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom, as did all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 5:11-14)

THE TEMPLE

The crowning achievement of Solomon's reign is the building of the Temple which his father, King David, had dreamt about.

As we learned in the last installment in this series, King David brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah -- "the gate of heaven" -- but because he had been a warrior who had blood on his hands, he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, this is left for his son to accomplish, which he does.

The Bible devotes several chapters to the construction of this most important building to the nation of Israel -- the place of communion between the Jewish people and God. It tells that the entire Temple both inside and outside, including floors and doors were overlaid with gold. Besides this there were bronze structures such as columns, an immersion tank, and basins. The magnificent structure took seven years to build.

When it is finished, Solomon dedicates the Temple:

"Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built? Yet have regard for the prayer of Your servant, and for his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer, which Your servant prays before You today; that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, 'My name shall be there,' that You may listen to the prayer ... of your people Israel ..." (1 Kings 8:27-29)

THE PINNACLE

This is the pinnacle of Jewish history. Everyone is united. Their neighbors don't bother the Jews -- in fact, they come to learn from the Jews. There is peace and prosperity.

This is as good as it gets for Israel. This is the zenith. So why doesn't this golden age last?

Solomon makes one big mistake. He takes too many wives. In fact, he has 700 wives and 300 concubines.

If we go back to the Book of Deuteronomy where the idea that Jews would one day want a king is first discussed, Moses warns that the king should not have too many horses or too many wives (Deut. 17:17). The great Torah commentator Rashi tells us that this means no more than 18, and that King David had only six. So we see that Solomon goes overboard a little bit.

This happens because at this time in history there were only two reasons for marriage among nobility -- to create offspring and to make political alliances.

The Middle East in Solomon's time is made up of many city-states and all the kings of these city-states want to send their daughters to marry King Solomon and in this way form an alliance with him.

That sounds good, but why is it wrong?

The Bible gives us the answer:

In his old age, his wives turned away Solomon's heart after other gods. (1 Kings 11:4-5).

This, of course, does not mean that King Solomon became an idolater, but the Bible uses these harsh words because he did not prevent his wives from carrying on their idolatrous practices. As a king, he is held responsible for the actions of those under his influence.

One of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people, a man on his spiritual level -- who wrote the Song of Songs, the Book of Ecclesiastes, and the Book of Proverbs -- must be suffering eternal pain in heaven knowing what has been written about him in the Bible.

The Bible ends Solomon's story relating that God was angry with him and told him:

"Since you are guilty of this, and you have not kept My covenant and My laws ... I will tear the kingdom away from you ... But I will not do this in your time, for the sake of your father David. Instead, I will tear it away from your son ... I will give your son one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:9-13)

It is clear from this how much God loved King David and how completely He had forgiven him for his faults. It is also clear that hard times are coming for the Jewish people as the kingdom of Israel is about to be torn in half.

Although when King Solomon dies in 796 BCE Israel is still a united country, there is some tension between the north and the south.

Ten tribes occupy the north and two (Judah and Benjamin) occupy the south. Jerusalem is middle ground -- it is considered a different place geographically, and a different place spiritually.

Following the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam becomes king, and, in response to the political situation, goes up north to Shechem to have himself crowned. At this time, the northern tribes send a delegation to tell the king their complaints.

Chief of these is the toll that King Solomon's building projects -- the Temple in Jerusalem, his palaces, etc. -- had taken on the people in terms of taxes and forced labor. The northern tribes, in effect, ask the new king for a tax cut.

Rehoboam consults his advisors. The elders who had served under Solomon tell him to ease up on the people: "Speak to them gently, and they will be your servants forever." (1 Kings 12:7) But the young upstarts advise him to show the people who is boss.

Rehoboam takes the latter advice and announces, "If you think my father was tough on you, just watch me! I'm going to be even tougher."

Big mistake.

Rehoboam forgot that even God had called the Jews stiff-necked people. Jews are stubborn. In response to Rehoboam's arrogance, in the year 796 BCE, the northern tribes secede, creating a new kingdom called Israel. Rehoboam is left with two tribes and Jerusalem; his kingdom is called Judah.

At first he considers waging war on the north, but the prophet Shemaiah warns him against it, telling him that he cannot possibly win as this rending of the nation had been brought about by God. (For an explanation why, see Part 19.)

The split is clearly bad news -- it is a disaster for many reasons, both spiritual and geopolitical. The once strong, unified nation is now a weak, divided nation, and it is going to fall prey to the re-emerging empires of Egypt and Assyria.

THE SCHEMES OF KING JEROBOAM

The king of the northern country of Israel is Jeroboam ben Navat. He is a great man -- a scholar who was capable of debating King Solomon -- and a great leader.

But unfortunately, the old saying -- "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" -- proves true. Pretty soon, Jeroboam is worrying less about leading the people and more about hanging on to his throne.

Jeroboam sees that the Jewish people in the north are still very strongly connected to Jerusalem -- after all, that is where the Temple stands with its Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant, that is where the presence of God is most strongly felt. On the three big festivals -- Passover, Shavuot and Succot -- the people continue to stream to Jerusalem. He sees that this commonality with the south could bring about a re-unification, in which case he will no longer be king.

So Jeroboam hatches a scheme. What does he do? He decides to set up an alternative place of worship in the north. He builds two other temples -- one in Bet El and one in Dan (where Tel Dan stands today).

That's bad enough in itself. But then he sets up golden calves in these temples. Now he doesn't tell people that these images are gods, per se, but he clearly violates the commandment against graven images. Furthermore, once you open the door to idolatry by introducing alternative sites and alternative modes of worship, it means trouble.

Thus, a terrible period begins in Jewish history. In the next 240 years, there are 19 different kings of the northern kingdom of Israel -- one worse than the next. They are idolaters, corrupt and evil, and they lead the Jewish people into idolatry.

Some of these kings are potentially great leaders, but spiritually they are off. And one thing we know -- if the Jews don't get their act together spiritually, they're not going to have their act together physically either.

So, we see a time period of great political instability and "palace" intrigue, when kings come and go and the succession is usually very bloody.

KING AHAB AND JEZEBEL

Of all the bad kings of Israel, one who stands out on the worst list is King Ahab. Of him the Bible says:

Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the eyes of God, more than all who had preceded him. (1 Kings 16:30)

He marries the infamous Jezebel, and built a Temple to the Canaanite deity Baal, popularizing this form of idolatry among the Jewish people.

It's important to understand when you're reading the Books of Kings and looking at what the Jewish people were doing then, that the ancient people of the world were very religious and were always looking for ways to heighten their spirituality, which is why they stumbled onto false gods so often. This may be hard to fathom, because today we don't have the same mentality. The false gods of today's Jewish world are money and humanist secularism. These Jews who went over and worshipped Baal were still keeping kosher and observing other Jewish laws, but they wanted "to have their cake and eat it too" -- they wanted both God and the spiritual high of idolatry.

The prophet of note at this time is Elijah. Elijah yearns to have the Jewish people repent. To this end, he decides to have a "show down" with the priests of Baal and to physically demonstrate the lie of idolatry to the Jewish people.

Elijah goes up north to Mount Carmel. Now if you go today to Mount Carmel, you will see a big mountain range. On one end of this range is Haifa, on the other is a place called Mukhraka, where there is a monastery. In front of the monastery, there stands a statue of Elijah. This is almost certainly the place where Elijah took on the priests of Baal because the geographic description matches perfectly.

Elijah wants the Jewish people to see that idolatry is nonsense and that there's only one God. So he challenges 450 priests of Baal to a contest. He proposes that each side offer a sacrificial bull to their deity and whichever deity sent a fire from heaven to consume the offering in full sight of the people would be accepted as the true God.

The priests of Baal really get into it. They've got their bull on the altar and they are beseeching Baal, shouting to the skies. But after nearly a full day of trying, nothing is happening and the animal carcass is only attracting flies. Meanwhile, Elijah mocks them:

"Shout louder! After all, he is a god, but he may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up."(1 Kings 18:27)

They shout louder, but still nothing. So they start slashing their heads with knives. It's an ancient form of worship, which still continues in the Moslem world, incidentally. Still nothing.

It's really embarrassing now, and all the Jewish people are watching.

Toward the end of the day, Elijah finally gives order for the preparation of his own offering. He has it doused with water three times so it would be even more difficult to set aflame. He even has a water-filled ditch built around the altar. He then says one short prayer:

"Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their heart back again." (1 Kings 18:36-37)

With that a fire comes down from the heaven consumes the sacrifice, the wood pile, the stones, the dust, and licks up the water in the ditch.

The gathered multitude responds in awe: "The Lord He is God, the Lord He is God!" (This is the very phrase we shout out during the Yom Kippur liturgy every year; this is where it comes from.)

The priests of Baal are put to death. But the story does not end there.

Hearing of what had happened, Jezebel sends a message to Elijah. "Tomorrow I will kill you." She knows that the memory of miracles does not last long. Today, the Jews are shouting "The Lord He is God," but tomorrow is another day.

Sure enough. Idol worship resumes soon enough and Elijah has to flee for his life; and the northern kingdom sinks even further down spiritually.

Eventually, God is going to get tired of this. There is a covenant after all, and the Jews are not keeping their part of the bargain. The covenant clearly specifies that the Land of Israel, along with its bounty, is given to the Jewish people on certain conditions. When they violate those conditions, they will be expelled from the land. And this is about to happen to the northern kingdom, though not yet to the southern kingdom.

The people who are just waiting to take over are the Assyrians, inhabitants of today's Syria.