Module

The United-Divided Kingdom of Israel

ReEd 01 І Old Testament: Human Response to God’s Revelation
6
3 hours

OBJECTIVES:
After studying this module, you will be able to:

1. recall on how God established His kingdom through His people Israel.
2. evaluate on how the kings of Israel lead and the consequences of their leadership.
3. creatively promote the importance of a God-centered and Service-centered leadership.

A. HUMAN EXPERIENCE

“Pwera Gaba!”
Do you believe in Gaba? Why or why not?

Gaba is the Visayan term connoting a

karma, a punishment for wrong deed, and a
retribution for evil of an ethical action.
According to filipinophilosophy.weebly.com,
this can be classified into three levels namely
the personal, collective and temporal. As
personal, a person can experience this as a
repayment for her/his individual misdeed.
Collective Gaba moreover applies to a group
or a family or a clan. And lastly, the temporal
obviously as the word suggests exists
contingently like typhoons, earthquakes, and
other natural calamities.
Gaba is related to the Tagalog term
pagbabayad. With regard to human conduct,
“pagbabayad is expiation for a fault, and
pagbabayad- puri is atonement”.
As expiation and atonement, the
notion of Gaba originates from the Judeo-
Christian tradition. This is found in the story of
the Divided Kingdom of Israel. To learn how
this expiation and atonement has happened, let
us explore in this module the books of Kings.
In exploring 1-2 Kings, it is hoped that
you will be able to:
1.recall on how God established His
kingdom through His people Israel.
2. evaluate on how the kings of Israel
lead and the consequences of their leadership.
3. creatively promote the importance
of a God-centered and Service-centered
leadership.
 Module
The United-Divided Kingdom of Israel
ReEd 01 І Old Testament: Human Response to God’s Revelation
6
3 hours

B. SCRIPTURAL BACKGROUND
 Module
The United-Divided Kingdom of Israel
ReEd 01 І Old Testament: Human Response to God’s Revelation
6
3 hours

The Story of the United and Divided Kingdom of Israel according to the 1 and 2 Chronicles

In our English version Bible, the books of

Chronicles come next to the books of Kings. Modern
reader may ask a question why these books repeat what
happened in 1 and 2 Kings. But Chronicles do not
repeat the stories of the Kings but omit negative
narratives about David and add the Messianic hope
as a new material.

With an unknown author, the 1 and 2 Chronicles

retells the story of the United and Divided kingdom with
a fresh perspective. In fact, according to Jewish
traditional order of sacred books, these books are placed
after the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, the last books in
TaNaK. It is placed last because it summarizes all the
books of the Jewish Scripture, the TaNaK.

C. CHURCH TEACHINGS
The Divided Kingdom
Under the leadership of Kings David and
Solomon, Israel became one of the best organized
and wealthiest countries. It was at that time that Israel
became a nation. Solomon, however, was not able to
manage his power and wealth. He imposed higher
taxes especially in the North. The oppression was
greatly felt by the people. After his death, the nation
became divided: the Northern Kingdom – Israel, and
the Southern Kingdom – Judea. At that point, the glory
of the once united nation vanished.
Weakened because of the separation, the
Northern Kingdom was captured by the superpower in
those days – Assyria – in about 700 B.C. The entire
population was deported to Assyria and never
returned.
The same happened to the Southern
Kingdom. At about 550 B.C, the other superpower
Babylon occupied Judea and deported most of the
people. Still, some settled down in Babylon.
 Module
The United-Divided Kingdom of Israel
ReEd 01 І Old Testament: Human Response to God’s Revelation
6
3 hours

The Theology of the Books of Kings

The Theology of the Books of Kings

emphasizes the oversight of Yahweh during
the troubled times most especially when He
spoke His words through the prophets. The
prophets, Elijah and Elisha carried on the role
of Moses as mediator between God and men,
and hero of the faith. Thus, the books of Kings
give the lesson that infidelity to the
covenant given by God through Moses will
lead to disaster and destruction.

Missing the mark

Sin is etymologically described in the Bible as missing the mark. The story of the division of Israel shows to
us the horrible consequences of sin. Sin separates us not just from God but also from others. Sin destroys a
community like Israel.
The idolatry of Solomon, the heavy yoke he gave to the ten tribes who labored in building the temple, the
heavy taxation plus Rehoboam’s firm decision to make it heavier during his reign.
“Sin in the deepest sense is every rejection or destruction of something good is the rejection of good itself,
the rejection of God.”(YOUCAT 67). Israel rejected each other. Rehoboam rejected the plea of the oppressed and
oppressed them the more. Jeroboam to maintain political power over the 10 tribes rejected not just the leadership of
Rehoboam but most of all the true God and led his people to apostasy and idolatry.

Sources.
Searching and Longing for God: ReEd 10. Pp. 90-103.
Reading the Old Testament by Lawrence Boadt Pp. 254-268.
The Bible Project YouTube Channel
ACTS242.com
Filipinophilosophy.weebly.com

D. VALUES INTEGRATION

This activity will be published after the synchronous session under Submission tab.

Values Integration for Modules 6A and 6B will be only one. That will be a Group Biblical Reading and
Sharing of Comics: Reading on Chronology of Israel’s Kingdom-united and divided.