Because Solomon sinned by accepting the gods of his foreign wives and brought these foreign religions and philosophies into Israel the Lord raised up Jeroboam as an adversary. Jeroboam had been Solomon’s superintendent of labor (1 Kings 11:26-28) but when Solomon feared Jeroboam would try to take the throne he attempted to kill him, but Jeroboam fled to Shishak, the new Pharaoh of Egypt who had recently overthrown the 21st dynasty which was the royal house of Solomon’s father-in-law the previous Pharaoh of Egypt.

After Solomon died his son Rehoboam went to Shechem to be anointed king by all of the twelve tribes of Israel, but Jeroboam returned from Egypt to speak for the northern ten tribes concerning the continued rule of the house of David over all of Israel. Solomon had heavily taxed the people of Israel and had forced them to do labor on his public building projects. Meanwhile, Solomon had ran the nation of Israel into debt.

Jeroboam and the northern ten tribes simply asked for a lighter yoke concerning the forced labor and the heavy taxes of Solomon’s day. In his youthful, ignorant arrogance Solomon’s son Rehoboam refused to cooperate, and instead threatened the people with a heavier burden saying,

“My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions!” – 1 Kings 12:14

Of course, this did not go over well with the northern ten tribes who stoned Rehoboam’s superintendent of forced labor Adoniram and would have done the same to Rehoboam if he had
not escaped back to Judah in his chariot.

This was the beginning of the divided kingdom of Israel that from now on will be known as two separate kingdoms:

1. The southern kingdom of Judah (basically the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin) whose first king would be Jeroboam
2. The northern kingdom of Israel (basically the ten other tribes) whose first king would be Solomon’s son Rehoboam

At this point in the scriptures the books of Kings and Chronicles begin discussing the activities of  the kings of Israel in the north and the kings of Judah ruling from Jerusalem in the south.

“Whether one chooses to believe biblical Christianity, Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism-Leninism, Cosmic Humanism, or Postmodernism, we are accepting a worldview that describes the others as hopelessly distorted.”
- David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times

God’s Wrath and
Divine Judgment – God’s judgment against sin takes place throughout history and at the final judgment.

Imputation – means to “credit over to one” or “to charge to one’s account.” Imputation occurs three times in our salvation:

- Adam’s sin to us
- Our Sin to Christ
- Christ’s righteousness to us