From the Divided Kingdom to The Exile Adapted from Chronogical Life Application Study Bible Tyndale Press
The Divided Kingdom & Wars
When David died, the kingdom passed to Solomon, to whom God had given the call to build a permanent home for the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. The result was The First Temple, which took seven years to build, starting in the fourth year of Solomon's reign and completed in 957BC.
Solomon's Temple Source: The Illustrated ESV Bible
The Consecration of The Temple
When the Temple was completed, the priests brought the Ark of the Lord's Covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies), and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. (1 Kings 8:6-7) When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple (1 Kings 8:10).
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven and said:
“Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today."
“Now Lord, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me faithfully as you have done.’ And now, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true."
“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. He ar the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive " (1 Kings 8:22-53)
Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats.
God Appears To Solomon with A Promise & A Warning
God spoke to Solomon promising
“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there."
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ "
“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’ ”
The Contradictions of Solomon
Solomon is a contradiction in many ways - a man who asked God for wisdom and God was pleased he had not asked for fame or wealth and gave him the privilege of building the First Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. A man who wrote The Book of Proverbs traditionally attributed to Solomon, who was reputed to be the wisest man in the world at the time and visited by the Queen of Sheba.
But Solomon also saw the Kingdom he had inherited from David riven asunder as a result of marrying foreign wives, who worshipped pagan gods and led him into idolatry.
King Solomon loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done (1 Kings 11:1-6).
The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord's command. So the Lord said to Solomon,
“Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:9-13)
The Kingdom Divided in Two & Attacked by Enemies
In 931 BC God divided the kingdom in two - The Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. In 922BC the Northern Tribes of Israel under King Jeroboam attacked the southern kingdom of Judah because of the oppression by Rehoboam, the son who had succeeded his father Solomon. It was the beginning of the era of the Divided Kingdom and the rise and fall of kings, both good and bad, of Israel (with its capital in Samaria) and Judah (with its capital in Jerusalem).
Jeroboam Sets Up Golden Calves at Dan & Bethel
Jeroboam was concerned that the people might think they could only worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. So after taking advice, he ordered the building of golden calves.
He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other. Jeroboam also built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites (1 Kings 12:28-31).