- 79-
which Rehoboam and his young friends entertained, appeared only too clearly in the
first act of the king's reign. In general, we gather that Rehoboam was vain, weak, and
impulsive; ready to give up under the influence of fear what he had desired and
attempted when he deemed himself secure. Firm religious principles he had not, and
his inclinations led him not only towards idolatry, but to a form of it peculiarly
dissolute in its character (1 Kings 14:23, 24; 2 Chronicles 11:f17; 12:1). During the
first three years of his reign he remained, indeed, faithful to the religion of his fathers,
either through the influence of the Levites who had gathered around him from all Israel
- though even in this case his motives might be rather political than conscientious - or
else under the impression of the outward consequences of his first great mistake. But
this mood soon passed away, and when the state-reasons for his early adherence to the
worship of Jehovah had ceased to be cogent, or he felt himself secure on his throne, he
yielded, as we have seen, to his real inclinations in the matter.
Here, at the outset of the separate history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it may
be well to take a general view of the relation of these two divisions of the Jewish
people to Jehovah, their King. That the sin of Israel was much deeper, and their
apostasy from God much sooner and more fully developed than in the case of Judah,
appears from the circumstance, that the Divine judgment in the banishment of the
people from their land overtook Israel 123 years earlier than Judah. Yet at first sight it
seems almost strange that such should have been the case.
Altogether, the period of the separate existence of the two kingdoms (to the deportation
of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser, about 722 B.C.)extended over 253 years. During
that time, thirteen monarchs reigned over Judah, and twenty over Israel - besides two
periods of probable interregnum, or rather of anarchy in Israel. The religious history of
the ten tribes during these two and a half centuries may be written in very brief
compass. Of all the kings of Israel it is uniformly said, that they "walked in the ways of
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat," except of Ahab and his two sons (Ahaziah and Joram),
under whose reigns the worship of Baal became the established religion of the country.
It follows, that there was not a single king in Israel who really served the LORD or
worshipped in His Temple. On the other hand, there were at least five kings in Judah
distinguished for their piety (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, and Hezekiah), while
of the other eight, two (Joash and Amaziah) continued for a considerable, and a third
(Rehoboam) for a short period their profession of the religion of their fathers. Four of
the other five kings acquired, indeed, a terrible notoriety for daring blasphemy.
Abijam, the son and successor of Rehoboam, adopted all the practices of his father
during the last fourteen years of that monarch's reign. During the reign of Joram the
worship of Baal was introduced into Judah; and we know with what terrible
consistency it was continued under Ahaziah and Athaliah, the measure of iniquity
being filled by Ahaz, who ascended the throne twenty years before the deportation of
the ten tribes, when the doors of the Sanctuary were actually closed, and an idol-altar
set up in the Temple court. But, despite all this, idolatry never struck its roots deeply
(^)