A Divided Kingdom

God did some amazing things to rescue the people of Israel from Egypt, where they were slaves. He had promised to give them a land of their own, and He kept that promise!

If you want to learn more about that, check out our Into the Wild theme page by clicking here or on the image below!

After God brought the people into the land He had promised them, He wanted to be their king. But the people wanted to be like the other nations and have a human king. God warned them that it would cause problems, but He allowed them to put a human king in place.

God never makes mistakes, but human kings often do. The first king, Saul, started out good but then decided to do things his own way instead of God’s way. So God chose a different man to be king.

King David was Israel’s second king, and probably the most famous of all Israel’s kings. He made some choices that were wrong, too, but He loved God with all his heart and asked God to forgive him for those choices. David’s heart was so committed to God that God promised him someone from his family would be king forever.

After David died, his son Solomon became king. Solomon loved God and made many wise choices for most of his life, but when he was old he started to worship some false gods that other nations worshiped. Because of that, God again chose a different king. But He also kept His promise to David. He divided the kingdom into two parts: Israel and Judah. The new king would rule over Israel, and Solomon’s son would rule over Judah.

Image by Sweet Publishing / FreeBibleimages.org

From that point forward, it was a big mess of a few good kings and a lot of bad kings. Most of the kings wanted to do things their own way and didn’t care what God said. It was a lot like the Wild West, with everyone doing whatever they wanted and only a few people here and there actually following what God had told them to do.

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