Kings & Prophets: God's Unfolding Plan in the Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel

By Bob Fopma

INSUFFERABLE KINGS AND LONG-SUFFERING PROPHETS-THE UNBREAKABLE THREAD FROM ANCIENT KINGS TO THE KING OF KINGS.

This is the story of Israel's kings and the prophets who encouraged or opposed them. It is a story of assassination, cowardice, greed, heroism, honor, incest, lust, political intrigue, power, sibling rivalry, treason, wa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: May 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887387536

Bob Fopma

Bob Fopma has been a television producer and director for over forty years. His most recent endeavors were as a producer on the Abraham Accords mini-series and a producer on the feature film Route 60: The Biblical Highway. His many trips to Israel have given him a unique perspective on the Holy Land as well as a thirst for understanding its history and significance.

Book preview

Kings and Prophets

God’s Unfolding plan in the rise and fall of ancient israel

Bob Fopma

Trilogy Christian Publishers

TUSTIN, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

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Kings and Prophets

Copyright © 2024 by Bob Fopma

All Scripture quotations marked CEB are taken from the Common English Bible, CEB. Copyright © 2018 by Common English Bible. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 979-8-88738-752-9

ISBN 979-8-88738-753-6 (ebook)

Contents

A Note about the Dates

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Kingdom Begins

Chapter 2: The Kingdom Grows

Chapter 3: Glory Days

Interlude—The Tribes of Israel

Chapter 4: The Kingdom Divided

Chapter 5: Israel Unravels

Interlude—High Places and Asherah Poles

Chapter 6: The Days of Elijah

Chapter 7: Cursings and Blessings

Chapter 8: Three Minors and a Major

Chapter 9: The End of Israel

Chapter 10: Jerusalem Besieged

Chapter 11: Jeremiah

Chapter 12: The End of the Kingdom

Afterword

References

Acknowledgments

About the Author

The Kings

A Note about the Dates

It is difficult to be absolutely certain about the accuracy of some of the dates used in this book. The reasons for this are many:

The long passage of time since the events of the Old Testament.

Neither the Jewish nor Gregorian calendars currently in place were yet in use.

The beginning of a year in ancient times started in the spring or fall.

The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah used different calendars.

Coregencies of fathers and sons often confused the start and end of reigns.

Despite this, due to archaeological finds and other historical writings, many key dates can be stated with certainty. Over the last century, many researchers have done significant work in trying to accurately create a timeline for the kings of Israel and Judah. A landmark work was Edwin R. Thiele’s The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, published in 1951.

Since then, many books and literally thousands of research papers have been published seeking to support, correct, or dispute Thiele’s work. However, his chronology remains the most generally accepted, is used in most Protestant Bibles and reference books, and is the basis for the dates used in this book.

The debate in academic circles continues, but it is important to remember that most of the differences come down to only a year or two at the start or end of a king’s reign. The historical proof for the existence of these kings and prophets is overwhelming, so please do not let the dispute over fairly minor matters take anything away from the larger, more important story.

Preface

This is the story of Israel’s kings and the prophets who encouraged or opposed them. It is a story of power, greed, lust, incest, sibling rivalry, political intrigue, assassination, war, heroism, honor, cowardice, treason, but most of all, faith and unbelief.

The story would appear to have two major players on the stage—kings who ruled for anywhere from a few days to many decades and prophets who were sometimes admired but often abused. The audience? The people of Israel. A fickle group for sure, but certainly no more fickle than people today.

However, there is also a director—God. He is the only one who truly understands the real story, the final act, and the sequels to come. Also, the director has an ultimate purpose… the eternal triumph of good over evil.

Even though it covers 500 years and is recounted in some form in over twenty books of the Bible, this is a story that is somewhat obscure to many people. Yes, they recall King Saul and his madness. They have heard of David and Goliath and of Solomon, who somehow tried to combine unparalleled wisdom with 700 wives. However, the full story, a significant part of God’s story, is much less known.

Why is this? Part of it is the way the story is laid out in the Bible. While the books of Samuel and Kings are basically in chronological order, Chronicles follows and jumps backward several hundred years to tell part of the story with a different filter. Later in the Bible, the prophetic books appear and give another perspective, but seemingly not in any kind of order. Even some of the individual books themselves (notably Isaiah and Jeremiah) jump back and forth from decade to decade, often making it difficult to give context to the narrative.

Then there are the names––David and Solomon are familiar, but then we have Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and later another Jeroboam. Ahab and Ahaz, Joash and Jehoash, Uzziah (aka Azariah), and finally Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin. Then there are the prophets Elijah and Elisha and a host of unpronounceable names. This all makes following the story even more difficult.

The names have not been changed to protect the innocent (and guilty), but the goal is to give additional context to the story and make it more accessible because it is God’s story, an amazing story. Around the catalog of human failings, it is the story of His unending faithfulness in the midst of His not unending patience. For His chosen people, there is always another chapter, a triumph ahead—a return to the Promised Land and, beyond that, an eternal Messiah. The rise and fall of Israel and the ups and downs of the kings and prophets are fascinating, but underneath is something more important… the unfolding revelation of God’s ultimate plan. That is the real story. A story that will be slowly revealed through Kings and Prophets.

Introduction

It was 1080 B.C., but of course, no one knew that. Christ had not yet been born, and most people had little or no idea of a coming Savior. In fact, many of the Messianic Prophecies, such as the Christ would be a descendant of David, born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, come out of Egypt, and be wounded for our transgressions, had not yet been uttered.

It was the year 2680 or 81 on the Hebrew calendar, but no one knew that either. The Jewish calendar, as we know it, would not be instituted for over 2000 years.

We know them as the Israelites, or the Children of Israel, after the Patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, but their tribe and clan were vital to their identity. The nation, if you can even call it that, was a loose confederation of these sovereign tribes with periodic leaders (called Judges) ruling in widely separated areas. Each tribe had its own enemies, their struggles, and often different judges who rescued them. These tribes sometimes worked together against common enemies but sometimes fought each other. The neighboring peoples knew them as Hebrews, and their neighbors did not like them at all.

Their God was Yahweh (Jehovah or the Lord in our English translations), and there was some sense that He had chosen them, but they were surrounded by other peoples who had their own set of gods. More than 300 years earlier, Moses had led them out of Egypt, and Joshua had taken them into the Promised Land. There were stories of great and amazing things Yahweh had done through Moses and Joshua, but 300 years is a long time, and many of these accounts were considered just myths and legends.

The previous centuries had seen a general decline in their fortunes. After Moses and Joshua, new generations sprang up who had not experienced Yahweh for themselves. The Children of Israel would forget about their God and begin to follow the ways of their neighbors, worshiping idols and other gods. The Lord’s favor would leave them. Neighboring forces would attack and overwhelm them, occupy their land, steal their crops, and force them into servitude. The people would cry out to God, and God would raise up a leader or judge who would defeat the enemy and bring peace and prosperity to the land. Then, another generation would forget Yahweh and the cycle would begin again.

The features of the land were, of course, like what we see in Israel today––deserts in the East and South, fertile areas in the center and North, and a coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea. However, the populated areas were very different. Tel Aviv did not exist, and the Philistines controlled the coastal areas of Israel, where much of the population lives today. The Philistines were sea people who had migrated from the Aegean Sea area of Europe to Israel a little over 100 years earlier. The world was transitioning from what we now know as the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age, and the Philistines were more technologically advanced in this transition. They had iron weapons, and the Hebrews did not, which consistently gave the Philistines a great advantage in battle.

Most of the Hebrews lived farther to the east than the current Israeli population, in what is now considered Central Israel, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), or Jordan. Most lived in the highlands, and being in these areas helped avoid major conflicts with invading nations moving on trade routes. However, the Israelis were continually pestered by neighboring peoples, particularly the Amalekites and Philistines. Jerusalem was a small town in the area assigned to the tribe of Benjamin, but it was inhabited by the opposing Jebusites and was not yet significant to the Jewish people. Virtually no Hebrews lived in or near what are now the major Israeli cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, or Haifa.

The typical community was a small farming village comprised of homes and small plots of farmland. The homes commonly housed three generations of a family, generally 8 to 12 people. Families would grow wheat, barley, figs, grapes, olives, and legumes and would often have a few sheep or goats. The rhythm of society was regulated by the new moons and the planting and harvesting seasons, which were only interrupted by droughts, floods, or hostile invasions. Occasionally, large groups of people gathered for special celebrations or to defend the land, but most people never traveled more than a few miles from where they were born.

Identity was with the community––the tribe, clan, and family. It was a patriarchal society; marriages were arranged, and it was assumed that sons would carry on for their fathers. Having a son to carry on your name was important, and men would often add or change wives if their current mate was not producing children. Girls married at 14 or 15, and their success in life was typically measured by how many children (especially sons) they would bear. More children meant more hands to plant and harvest and more people to be counted in the clan and tribe.

Stories of creation, a great flood, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were passed down as part of the oral tradition, along with the account of the Exodus from Egypt under Moses. Parts of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) may have existed in some scattered written form, and a handful of Psalms were likely in existence, but only a few people could read.

There was no temple, but the Tabernacle of God (where Yahweh met the people) did exist and had been for many years in Shiloh, a town about thirty miles north of Jerusalem. The once mobile tabernacle was now housed in a more permanent wooden building. Shiloh had thus become the place of God’s presence and the spiritual center for the Hebrews. Eli was the High Priest, but he was weak and did little to inspire or unite the country or protect its various tribes from enemies.

The last great judge, Samuel, stepped into this moment in history to lead a people with no national identity, harassed on every side by enemies, and chronically unfaithful to their God. Samuel would become the first in a new line of prophets and would be the bridge from a weak, disorganized confederation to a powerful kingdom—a kingdom whose kings and prophets would set the stage for the coming of the Messiah.

Twelve Tribes of Israel (Joshua 13–19)¹

• Chapter 1 •

The Kingdom Begins

Saul Samuel

Shiloh was the center of Jewish life. To the devout, the place was familiar. Downhill from the town, the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant were housed within a large rectangular wooden building on a flat piece of land surrounded by hills. To the worshippers of Yahweh, the people of Shiloh were as familiar as the surroundings. One familiar person was a large, corpulent man named Eli, the Priest. He had been a fixture at the Tabernacle for decades, and his two younger sons assisted him. Hophni and Phineas were corrupt. They stole from the sacrifices of the people, but what could the worshippers do? The Tabernacle was the way to the Lord, and the way to the Tabernacle was through the sons of Eli.

However, something is now different in Shiloh. There is a young boy helping Eli, the Priest. Eli is too old to have children, and the boy does not belong to Eli’s sons either. Who is he?

The salvation of God often started with a baby. The stories of baby Moses in Egypt and baby Jesus are obvious examples. Additionally, that baby was often born to a woman who had been unable to conceive and, because of that, had suffered ridicule and shame. The long-awaited and unexpected conception brought miraculous significance to the birth and foretold important events. Such was the case with Sarah and Isaac, Rachel and Joseph, and would be the case with Elizabeth and John the Baptist. It was also the case with a woman named Hannah, which means grace,² and another child of promise who would be named Samuel.

Hannah was married to a man named Elkanah, and they lived in Ramah, about six miles north of Jerusalem. Hannah was one of two wives in the family and was faring poorly. Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, had borne several children while Hannah was barren. To make matters worse, Peninnah ridiculed and provoked Hannah over her unfortunate situation. However, Hannah was a godly woman who looked to Yahweh for her breakthrough.

Every year, the family went to Shiloh to make a special sacrifice and worship the Lord. These family trips, which included the children, always reminded Hannah of her barrenness. During one of these trips, Hannah wept and fervently prayed at the Tabernacle and made a vow that if the Lord gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord for service to Him. Hannah prayed so fervently and with such emotion that the High Priest, Eli, actually thought she was drunk. This was a strong rebuke from the land’s most prominent spiritual leader.

Imagine praying in front of the Pope or Billy Graham and subsequently being told that you were obviously drunk. But Hannah knew herself and knew the Lord and explained her cry to God. Once the mistaken perception was straightened out, Eli blessed Hannah and requested that the Lord grant her request.

After the family returned home, Hannah finally, miraculously, became pregnant. She gave birth to a son and named him Samuel, which means heard of God.³ Hannah kept the boy at home for about three years, and when he was weaned, she fulfilled her promise and took him to the House of the Lord at Shiloh.

Now, let us take a minute to consider what exactly Hannah was doing. She was taking her precious 3-year-old son away from his family and home to live in a faraway town in the care of the High Priest, Eli, in the House of the Lord. This same High Priest, who had failed so miserably in bringing up his sons Hophni and Phineas, was to be entrusted with this young miracle child. Hannah was obviously following instructions from the Lord and trusted Him because Eli certainly did not have a good track record.

Hannah not only trusted in the Lord but remembered His great works for her, saying:

My heart rejoices in the

Lord

;

in the

Lord

my horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies,

for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.⁴

Hannah’s prayer, or song, has been repeated in Jewish congregations ever since and was a model for the prayer Mary sang after conceiving Jesus.⁵

So, Samuel went to Shiloh to live in the House of the Lord. This house was likely a wooden building that had been built around the Tabernacle, the same tabernacle that had been carried through the wilderness for forty years in the time of Moses. Samuel undoubtedly learned the existing scriptures (parts of the Torah) and helped Eli in simple tasks around the house. Every year, Elkanah and Hannah came to Shiloh for the annual feast and brought Samuel a new set of clothes. During this time, the Lord blessed Hannah with five additional children. Interestingly, nothing more is mentioned about the spiteful Peninnah.

At this time, it was assumed that a man’s sons would follow in his footsteps, but Hophni and Phineas were evil men, unfit to be priests. However, Eli was aware of this, but lacked the strength to remove his sons. An unnamed prophet came to Eli and told him that since he honored his sons more than God, that judgment was coming. An enemy would come into the Lord’s dwelling place, and Eli’s sons would die on the same day. He also gave a Messianic prophecy about a future redeemer, I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always.⁶

A significant event occurred in young Samuel’s life during his boyhood. This event would confirm the previous prophecy given to Eli and begin to establish Samuel’s special giftings. As he was going to sleep one night in the House of the Lord, he suddenly heard a voice say, Samuel. Assuming it was Eli calling for help, Samuel rushed over to him, but Eli