United Kingdom of Israel   When YHWH called David to replace Saul as king over Israel he was no more than a boy tending his father’s sheep. YHWH passed by Jesse’s seven older, more experienced sons in favor of this brave young man with a heart for the Lord. As Samuel looked upon the 8 sons of Jesse for YHWH’s anointed, David appeared to be the least likely candidate, and his older brothers were bigger and stronger than the youth David. Any one of them must have looked to be a strong and capable leader, someone worthy to rule a nation. But while Samuel was looking outward YHWH was looking inward, and thus dismissed what must have seemed the most likely chose.   “But YHWH said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. YHWH does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but YHWH looks at the heart.” 1st Samuel 16:7   When YHWH gazed at David He did not see the Shepard boy everyone else saw. YHWH saw in David an honest, brave, and obedient leader, someone with a heart for YHWH. As soon as Samuel anointed David the Spirit of YHWH came upon David in power. (1st Samuel 16:13)   In 1st Samuel 13 Saul performed sacrifices to seek YHWH’s favor, even though he knew he was not qualified to do so. He disobeyed YHWH for two reasons, first because Samuel had not yet arrived and Saul was fearful of the Philistine army. Secondly, and the most probable reason, was because he doubted YHWH. When it was time to stand and wait for YHWH, Saul’s faith was weak.  This was not the case with David. When the Philistine’s champion, Goliath, was taunting the Israelite army, David volunteered to go out and fight him. When questioned by Saul about the wisdom of this, David’s reply showed his confidence in his creator’s ability to deliver him.   “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. YHWH who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” 1st Samuel 17:36-37   David did not doubt the call of YHWH on his life; because of this he was able to have complete confidence in his Creator.   David loved YHWH and tried to always do what was right in the eyes of his Lord. When he did sin he repented and asked for forgiveness. David seemed to understand what Samuel meant in 1st Samuel 15:22 when he said to Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”  Our heart is what YHWH has always wanted, no more, no less. A heart full of love for the Heavenly Father is a heart full of the desire to please him. When you desire to please YHWH, you study His word carefully to learn what he does and does not desire from His children. David’s love for his Creator was evidently very great, YHWH knew David’s heart and He called David His friend. Because of David’s desire to keep his heart pure before YHWH, YHWH blessed him.   “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.”  2 Samuel 7:16   YHWH promised David a perpetual kingdom, a royal line that would never fail. YHWH’s love for David was so great that no matter what David’s descendants would do, YHWH would never turn from them.   “I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, it they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness - and I will not lie to David - that his line will continue forever and his throne endures before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Psalm 89:28-36   It was through this line that our Savior would be born.   “The Lord God will give him (speaking of Y’shua/Jesus) the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:33   David ruled over Israel for forty years. Before his death he passed his scepter to his son, Solomon. As Solomon assumed the throne of his father he realized that his youth and lack of experience would be a hindrance to him as a ruler. When YHWH appeared to him in a dream in Gibeon, (1st Kings 3:4-5) He offered to give Solomon anything he requested. Solomon asked for wisdom to properly govern YHWH’s people. This so pleased YHWH that he not only granted Solomon wisdom unequaled by any man but also riches and honor (3:13).   News of Solomon’s wisdom and enormous wealth spread throughout the known world. Kings sent their representatives to listen and learn from Solomon, bringing costly gifts with them. (1st Kings 4:34)  Solomon built a magnificent temple for YHWH to dwell in and then a vast palace for himself. After the dedication of the Temple, YHWH appeared to Solomon again and made him this conditional promise. “YHWH said to him (Solomon): ‘I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’”  1st Kings 9:3-5  The kingdom will stay in Solomon’s line if he will continue to obey YHWH’s decrees, laws and commandments; however, if he strays from YHWH’s path and pursues his own, there will be consequences.   “But if you and your descendants turn away from me and do not keep the commandments and the laws which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will sweep Israel off the land which I gave them; and I will reject this House which I have consecrated to my Name; and Israel shall become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, once so exalted, everyone passing by it shall be appalled and shall hiss. And when they ask, ‘Why did the LORD do thus to the land and to this house?’ They shall be told, ‘It is because they forsook the LORD their God who freed them from the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them.’”             1st Kings 9:6-9 JB   The first consequence would be to sweep the Israelites from Israel. The Hebrew word for sweep is ‘karath’ (Strong’s #3772) and it means to sever, as one would sever a limb from a tree. The price for disobeying YHWH is to be severed, removed from, and denied access to the land (Israel). YHWH’s presence is in His Temple, in the land, the land is YHWH’s promise to them. To be cut off of the land is to be removed from YHWH’s presence.   Next YHWH will reject the House or Temple that Solomon built for YHWH. The Hebrew word for reject is ‘shalach’ and it means to send away or put away, make leave, make depart. In the book of Deut. the word Shalach is used for sending away a man’s wife, divorcing her. YHWH will send away, put aside, divorce, his people.   Then the people of Israel will become a proverb and a byword. Israel itself will become an object of scorn and ridicule, a joke if you will. A once great nation cast down low. When people pass by the magnificent temple they will scoff and laugh at it. Then, when these enemies of Israel inquire as to why YWHW would allow this to happen they will be told that Israel lusted after other gods.   The seriousness of YHWH’s warning shows how much He desires our willing obedience. Solomon walked with YHWH for awhile, but evidently he had never fully given his heart to YHWH. As Israel’s presence and influence expanded, Solomon took wives from among the surrounding nations. Alas, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to surround yourself with things of the world and not be drawn to them. This proved to be the case with Solomon. Because of his love for his foreign (pagan) wives and their refusal to give up their pagan culture, Solomon refused to obey YHWH.   “King Solomon however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter-Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which YHWH had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray;. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods.”  1st Kings 11:1-4     Despite all of Solomon’s wisdom he succumbed to sins of the flesh. He gazed upon that which was forbidden and desired it, then made the arrangements to have it. Once he agreed with the sin, he took it into his heart and turned from YHWH, turning instead to fake, man-made gods. Because of this sin all of Israel would suffer the loss of a united kingdom.    “YHWH became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from YHWH, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods Solomon did not keep YHWH’s command. So YHWH said to Solomon, ‘Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David, your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son! Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’” 1st Kings 11:9-13   This could have been avoided by following the Torah of YHWH. As king, Solomon should have  “written for himself on a scroll a copy of this law”.  Then he was to keep it “with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere YHWH his Elohim and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not considered himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.” Deuteronomy 17:20   Solomon took his eyes of YHWH and his kingdom became divided.     Click here for A House Divided.