When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam succeeded to the throne and the people petitioned him to reduce the very heavy taxes which Solomon had imposed. Rehoboam refused, and in fact said he would increase them instead. Jeroboam had returned from Egypt by then and he raised the 10 northern tribes in rebellion. Thus, the kingdom split. Jeroboam was crowned king of the North, which being the larger part retained the name Israel, while the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the dynasty of David, with Rehoboam as king. The little southern tribe of Benjamin had little option but to side with Judah. I was appalled at this outcome but the Almighty would not let me interfere because He would not over-rule the decision of mankind (an attitude I find difficult to understand).

Another thing Solomon had allowed to happen was the worship of false gods. He did it to appease his many wives from different nationalities and religions, but the result was that idolatry began to spread through the land and the righteous behaviour, which is the characteristic of Godly people, began to disappear. Jeroboam set up his capital at Shechem and also built shrines at Bethel and Dan which he furnished with two golden calves as gods.

Things went from bad to worse in Israel as king succeeded king, often in rapid succession, even though the Almighty sent prophet after prophet to warn them and try to steer them back. The worst king was probably Ahab, although it was his wife Jezebel who was the really nasty one. Under Ahab, worship had turned from that of the Almighty to Baal, a manifestation of Satan himself.

The Almighty sent one of the greatest-ever prophets, Elijah, to challenge the prophets of Baal to a demonstration of power. They had a ceremony in which, by trickery, they made fire come from the mouth of the statue of Baal, but Elijah took them up onto the top of Mount Carmel away from their tools of trickery. He then had them build an altar and call upon their god to set fire to the offering on it. I stationed my angel-army around the scene to prevent Satan's angels interfering and of course nothing happened. Then Elijah showed his faith in the Almighty by getting his altar and offering thoroughly soaked with water before he asked the Almighty to send fire. But water is no match for the fire from heaven and the offering was burned up. The prophets of Baal were so exhausted by their frantic efforts to get the non-existent Baal to answer that they put up little resistance when Elijah ordered their execution.

Prior to this the country had suffered for three years from drought, so Elijah then prayed for rain and the Almighty sent rain - in torrents. This show of strength turned the people back to the Almighty for a while but they soon reverted to idolatry. However, Jezebel was not impressed and sent a message to Elijah saying she would kill him. Elijah fled from Jezebel but the Almighty met him and sent him back to continue his work.

There are many stories I could tell of the decline of Israel in spite of the warnings and guidance the Almighty gave through the prophets. On one occasion He allowed me to deploy my full forces to rescue the city of Samaria. The city had been besieged by the Arameans (Syrians) for some time until the Samaritans were desperate for food. Then the Almighty sent the prophet Elisha to say there would be food enough in the morning. No one believed him. However, I was allowed to send my angel-army to frighten the Arameans (we could not actually harm them - we are not allowed to do that) and we did such a good job that they all ran away leaving all their supplies behind. Four lepers were the first to find the empty camp, and after satisfying their own needs they told the Samaritans.

However, even after all the prophecies, show of strength and provision of food the Israelites still would not return to the Almighty, and he reluctantly allowed them to be destroyed by the Assyrians.

Meanwhile, the little kingdom of Judah fared a little better as they did retain some allegiance to the Almighty and so retained the dynasty of David for their kings. They did, however, nearly lose that dynasty when Athaliah became queen. She was the daughter of Ahab of Israel, who had been given in marriage to the king of Judah to try and make peace between the two kingdoms. In due course, her son became king of Judah, but he died after one year on the throne and she took over. She had almost all the descendants of David killed, but one survived, a baby called Joash.

When Joash was 6 years old he was proclaimed king and all the temple guards protected him. The people rejoiced that they had a king of David's dynasty and when Athaliah came out of the palace to see what the noise was she was put to death. Joash and his advisers did try to re-establish the true faith, but eventually idolatry crept in again.

Another king who was to make an effort to return to the religion given through Moses was Hezekiah. He repaired the temple and purified it of all the pagan influences which had crept in. He was king when the Assyrians destroyed Israel, and when they turned their attention onto Judah, Hezekiah saved the nation by paying tribute to Assyria. However, later he refused to pay and the Assyrians attacked Jerusalem. I intervened by getting my angels to raise a rumour that the king of Assyria was in difficulty elsewhere (he was engaged in a battle) and the Assyrian army withdrew from Jerusalem to help their king.

Eventually, Hezekiah fell seriously ill and nearly died but the Almighty, through the prophet Isaiah, gave the king 15 years longer life. Hezekiah asked for a sign; he was given a choice - should the shadow thrown by the sun on the palace's steps move forward 10 steps or backwards? The king knew that shadows do not move backwards - so he specified 'backwards'. Then the Almighty moved the sun backwards in the sky so that the shadow on the steps actually did move backwards.

The other king who was true to the Almighty was Josiah. He became king at 8 years old and, because he had good advisors, he tried to be a good king. When he was 26 he ordered the temple to be repaired, and during the repairs an ancient book was found. It was a copy of the book of law written by Moses. When it was read to the king he was horrified at how far they had departed from what was written, and he set about restoring the Mosaic teaching and worship. Josiah was killed in a battle against the Egyptians and his son un-did all the reforms which Josiah had made.

Eventually, as a result of their repeated sinning, the Almighty allowed even the nation of Judah to be destroyed by the Babylonians, though he sent a prophecy via the prophet Jeremiah that the exile in Babylon would only last 70 years. I will tell you later about the return...