Rehoboam to Asa

IT DIDN’T take long for simmering tensions in Israel between north and south to erupt into civil war. Following the death of Solomon, Jeroboam led the northern tribes in rebellion against Judah and the House of David. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, wanted to go to war immediately but was warned by the prophet Shemaiah that it was not the will of God to do so, since the rebellion was God’s punishment for Solomon’s fall into the worship of pagan gods. However, after just three years of peace, north and south were at war. Egypt’s pharaoh, Shishak, seeing the weakness of his northern neighbor, plundered the temple in Jerusalem. Rehoboam humbled himself before God, which saved himself and the kingdom of Judah from destruction—but it didn’t take long for Judah to fall back into pagan practices, even in the royal household. Rehoboam was succeeded by his son, Abijam, who was followed just three years later by his son, Asa (reigned c. 910–873 BC). Asa removed the male cult prostitutes and the Asherah poles from the kingdom, and even had to remove his mother as queen mother because she’d made an image for Asherah, which probably fertility connotations (to put it politely). It appears that even during the reign of good kings like Asa, the cult practices of the Amorites and Canaanites were a powerful snare for the people of Israel and Judah. Question of the week: Are cemeteries the modern equivalent of ancient dolmens?