The Lord God made a promise to Jacob (Israel) for a land of milk and honey and it came to pass.
After a long and tumultuous journey, the tribes of the generations of Jacob finally settled on the promised land.
The land was vast such that the original boundaries of Israel extended far and beyond.
The books of Joshua, chapters 13-17 talk about the boundaries and division of the land which was parceled out and allocated according to the tribes of the generations of the children of Jacob (also named as Israel).
The original country of Israel was very extensive until King Solomon disobeyed God. Today Israel is a much smaller, but strong nation as a result of his disobedience.
Solomon initially was God-fearing and in very good books with the Lord. He was the first King to build the largest temple ever for the worship of the Lord.
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As a result, God made a covenant with King Solomon which reads (1 Kings, chapter 9:1-9): When Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the King’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and application, which you have made before me; I have consecrated this house which you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there all the time.
And as for you (Solomon), if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and up-righteousness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Israel?
But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have consecrated for my name and I will cast you out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished by it, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’
Then they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them and served them; therefore, the Lord has brought all this evil upon them’”.
1 Kings 11:1-14 tells of how King Solomon loved many foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, E’domite, Sido’nian and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods”: Yet Solomon clung to these in love.
He had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
For Solomon went after Ash’toreth the goddess of the Sido’nians, and after Milcon the abomination of the Ammonites.
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord commanded.
Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the Kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen”. And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the E’domite; he was of the royal house in Edom.
Subsequently the once large and mighty land of Israel was reduced to only that allocated to one tribe, Judah, to fulfil what the Lord had spoken to Solomon as a result of his disobedience.
The fact that Israel still remains a small but powerful nation is biblical, despite their efforts to expand territory.
The Lord had also spoken on the destruction of the temple which Solomon had built, that He would see to its destruction should Solomon disobey God.
2 Kings 24:10-14 reads: At that time (between BC600-500) the servants of Nebuchadnez’zar King of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
And Nebuchadnez’zar King of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it; and Jehoi’achim the King of Judah gave himself up and his mother, and his servants, and his princess, and his palace officials.
The King of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign, and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon King of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold.
This is then what transpired in the total destruction of the temple which Solomon had built, according to 2 Kings 25:8-9 in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the ninetieth year of King Nebuchadnez’zar, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
And he burned the house of the Lord, and the King’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, every great house he burned down.
This was in fulfilment of what the Lord had already forewarned Solomon of what would happen should he deviate from God.
*Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile & Whatsapp – 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@gmail.com