We Believe: Chapter 15
The students will learn:
Solomon's kingdom was divided.
Elijah and Elisha proclaimed God's faithfulness.
The Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom.
Other prophets brought God's message to Israel.
Faith Words
idolatry- giving worship to a creature or thing instead of God.
Facts:
King Solomon, the son of David, was a powerful man who ruled a United Israel.
Solomon made the people pay heavy taxes and forced them to work long hours on many projects.
He gradually forgot the covenant.
He followed the ways of many false gods.
Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became the next king.
But Rehoboam announced even heavier burdens.
The ten northern tribes refused to accept Reheboam as king.
Instead they followed a man named Jeroboam.
Solomon's empire was divided into two separate kingdoms.
The kingdom made up of the ten northern tribes, with Jereboam as their king, was knows as Israel.
The kingdom made up of the two southern tribes, with Reheboam as king, was known as Judah.
One of the worst northern kings was Ahab.
Early in his reign Ahab married a foreign princess named Jezebel.
She worshiped a false god named Baal, and King Ahab began to worship Baal too.
Eventually Ahab even allowed Jezebel to kill hundreds of people who believed in the one true God.
God tried to help the people of the kingdom of Israel to stay close to him.
He sent prophets to guide the people in his ways.
The first prophet whom God sent to the northern kingdom was Elijah.
Elijah lived during the reign of King Ahab.
The name Elijah means, "Yahweh is my God."
Elijah threw his cloak over Elisha as a sign that he was called to the mission of a prophet.
These two prophets spoke God's words to many and urged the people to live in justice and faithfulness.
After Jereboam II's death in 746 B.C., Israel's power and prosperity vanished.
This downfall was due to the rise of Assyria.
Assyria was centered on the city of Nineveh on the Tigris River in Mesopotamia.
In 724 B.C. the king of Assyria attacked Israel and took over the countryside.
Great numbers of Israelites were sent away, or deported, to Mesopotamia and other places to live as slaves.
The Israelites who were deported - over twenty seven thousand in all - were never heard from again.
They became known as the ten lost tribes of Israel.
In encouraging the people to change their lives, prophets often had to point out he ways God's people failed to show him love.
Amos declared that Israel would be punished, and he predicted the kingdom's final destruction.
Hosea told the people that God refused to abandon Israel even though its people had been unfaithful to him.
Constructed Response
What happened to the united nation of Israel when Solomon's son Rehoboam became king?
He made their burdens heavier.
The tribes refused him as king.
They followed Jeroboam.
They separated into two kingdoms.
What does the first commandment call us to do?
Love and honor God above all else.
What lessons may be learned from the words of the prophets Amos and Hosea that are useful for us today?