““They Shall Be One In They Shall Be One In Mine Hand”Mine Hand”

Principles of Fellowship and Brotherly Dealings from the

Divided Kingdom

• Division in IsraelDivision in Israel

• Two attempts at re-uniting the Two attempts at re-uniting the kingdom – a look at the method and kingdom – a look at the method and process for our learningprocess for our learning

•A glorious picture of the future – when A glorious picture of the future – when “they shall be one in God’s hand”“they shall be one in God’s hand”

Latent Division• In three separate numberings of the nation, Israel is

numbered (11 tribes), and then Judah is numbered separately (1 Sam 11:8; 15:4; 2 Sam 24:9)

• 1 Sam 18:16 – “But all Israel and Judah loved David”

• 2 Sam 12:8 – “I gave thee the house of Israel and Judah.”

• 1 Kings 1:35 – “ I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah”

• 1 Kings 4:20 – “Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.”

• Vs.25 – “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”

Division Openly Manifested• 2 Sam 2:10 – “Ishbosheth reigned over Israel….but the

house of Judah followed David… there was a sore battle.”

• 2 Sam 19 + 20 – “the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel…We have no part in David, every man to his tents O Israel… but the men of Judah clave to their king.”

• 1 Kings 12:16-33 “What portion have we in David? To your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house David… So Israel rebelled against the house of David.”

• Isa 7:17 – “from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”

• Isa 9: 21 – “Manasseh, Ephraim: and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah.”

“A miserable state of things existed in what was once a united nation (in Acts 7:38 it is called an ecclesia). The nation was weakened by division, and laid open to invasion. Wars and disputings spread over this land where there should have been peace. Families were divided by the split between North and South; political expediency took the place of Divine worship; apathy and error abounded. This was a grief of mind to those who truly loved Jerusalem and the Temple worship. Division in Israel led to hatred, bitterness and war. Forts were built, standing armies established, barriers erected, and every attempt to destroy unity explored. Israel had commenced to walk the road that leads to ruin. Yet Yahweh was for peace. He had commanded: “Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren” (2Chron 11:4). It is the duty of all true Israelites to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude), but the warfare that now broke out between the north and south was only designed to sustain sectional interests and not to maintain the faith. Care must be exercised that our contention for the faith does not descend to mere contention over the so-called rights of dominant personalities or mere sectional issues apart from the fundamentals of the truth. In Israel such things let to hatred, bitterness and irreconcilable warfare.” Story of the Bible, pg. 231

A Unilateral DecisionA Unilateral Decision

• Whenever Jehoshaphat said – “I am as thou art, my people as thy people”, he never consulted with the ecclesia on that, it was a unilateral decision on his part.

• “did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel” 2 Chr. 20:35

• “He joined himself with him to make ships” vs.36• “Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah”

vs.37