Tragedy of Northern Kingdom

I Kings 12:26-30; 19:1-4, 13-18; II Kings 17:7, 8

GOLDEN TEXT: “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”—Psalm 34:3

THE great tragedy of the northern, or ten-tribe kingdom of Israel was in the fact that they followed Jeroboam into the worship of heathen gods. This was far more reprehensible in the sight of Jehovah than was their rebellion against King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. As noted in the previous lesson, Solomon’s greatest sin was his turning to the worship of false gods.

Jehovah is a God of mercy, and while He does not tolerate sin in any form, yet He does show mercy toward sinners who, in the weakness of their fallen condition, inadvertently violate His laws. But the worship of other gods would not seem to be chargeable to Adamic weaknesses. Jehovah had commanded, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7) Solomon’s failure to obey this decree, and the subsequent failure of the northern kingdom under Jeroboam, cost these ten tribes the loss of their inheritance in the special promises of royalty which were given to the seed of Abraham.

I Kings 12:17 indicates that there was a remnant of the ten tribes who remained loyal to Rehoboam. This, together with the fact that some from these tribes returned to Palestine following the Babylonian captivity, is probably the reason why the New Testament does not recognize the separation of the ten tribes from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but refers to all the Jews in Palestine as “Israel.” Jesus said, for example, that He was not sent save to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”; and He confined His ministry to Palestine.

However, the vast majority of the ten tribes, having been started on a wrong course under the leadership, of Jeroboam, continued to drift away from God. They intermarried with the Assyrians and other heathen nations, and to all intents and purposes finally became Gentiles. This final breaking away from God on the part of a majority of the ten tribes did not occur fully during the reign of Jeroboam.

But long years of subsequent misrule by kings who disregarded the law of God left its mark of indifference to His promises, hence the majority of them finally became “lost” indeed—absorbed among the Gentiles. The claim now being made by some that the Anglo-Saxon race is comprised largely of the descendants of these lost tribes, would not, even if it were true, entitle them to any special favors from the Lord; for God’s promises of special favor to the natural seed of Abraham were conditional upon obedience to His law.

We can be thankful, on the other hand, that the ten “lost” tribes are not lost in the sense that they will be deprived of the privilege of obtaining salvation through Jesus and His ransom sacrifice on behalf of Israel and the whole world. Jesus referred to His blood as that which will seal the New Covenant. This New Covenant is promised in Jeremiah 31:31, where we read, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” Then “all Israel shall be saved.”—Romans 11:25-29

Note that while this promise recognizes the division which had occurred between the ten-tribe kingdom and the two-tribe kingdom, nevertheless by making the same promise to both groups God indicates that He loves them all and will recognize no difference between them when He establishes His New Covenant., Furthermore, in Ezekiel 37:15-23, the Lord promises that when His scattered people of all twelve tribes are by Him restored to their own land—brought back from the many nations among which they have been scattered—He will reunite them as one nation.

During the reign of King Ahab of Israel, God used the prophet Elijah to call special attention to the sin of the people in worshiping Baal, resulting in the priests of Baal being killed when a test revealed the impotency of their god. But even this failed to check the wayward course of the ten-tribe kingdom. Elijah became discouraged when Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, sought his life in revenge for the destruction of the priests of Baal. To him it seemed that there was no one left in Israel who really trusted in the true God. It was then that God assured him that there was still a remnant of the faithful—seven thousand—who had not bowed their knees to Baal.

Hoshea appears to have been the last ruler of the ten-tribe kingdom. It was during his reign that they were conquered and taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The ten tribes as a whole had never repented from their evil course in following Jeroboam into idolatry. The record states, “The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.” (II Kings 17:22,23) Such was the tragedy of the northern kingdom.

QUESTIONS:

What is one of the most reprehensible sins in the sight of God?

Have the ten lost tribes of Israel lost the opportunity for salvation?

Will the ten tribes of Israel ever be reunited with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin?

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