Rehoboam, the successor of Solomon had an impossible task. His father Solomon was a great spender and what he built required an enormous amount of income just to keep things working. Yet the people had already given to the limit. Government and its holdings had far exceeded the tax base. The new king left no room for negotiation. Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders and listened to his friends who counseled him to say, "My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." To this the Israelites replied, "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, o David!"

Jeroboam, son of deceased Nebat and the widow Zeruah Ephraimites (descendants of Joseph) was leaving Jerusalem to escape Solomon and ran into the prophet Ahijah form Shiloh. Jeroboam had a new overcoat and without saying anything, the prophet took a hold of the coat and tore it into twelve pieces then said, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand ad give you ten tribes. But for the sake of David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon’s father did.’”

It was after Saul’s first act of disobedience that Samuel was sent to sacrifice at Bethlehem and to anoint Jesse's son David as king over Israel. David was of the tribe of Judah, Leah’s fourth son and the royal heir apparent designated by his ancestor Jacob (Gen. 49:8-12). During the anointing, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. Saul, meanwhile, lost the Spirit of the Lord and became possessed with an evil spirit. To relieve the king of his mental anguish, a harp player was sought and David met the qualification. The king liked the young man, made him his armor bearer and felt relieved whenever he played the harp (I.Sam.16).

Samuel's god-fearing ministry came to an end when his sons perverted the religious office into personal gain. Israel began to cry out for a king. The elders said to Samuel, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” The idea was not new. Under the Judges, whenever there was a problem, it was because Israel had no king (Jug. 18:1; 19:1). The last statement in the Book of Judges was: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Jud. 21:25). It should also have said, “Israel demanded a king and God does not go against the will of man.” Man is a free agent and God gives him the right to choose good or evil (Gen. 3:22). It is the universal law of cause and effect. His deeds decide his destiny.

Joshua's prediction that it would be hard to serve the Lord dawned quickly. For eighty years, Israel had leaned on two domineering central figures namely Moses and Joshua. Without constant reminders by a strong leader, God became more remote and easily disobeyed. The historian wrote: "The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel" (Jud. 2:7).

The editor of the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua was enamored with Moses, Israel’s greatest leader and servant of Yahweh; nevertheless, he could not help himself but carve a notch into Israel’s history for Joshua the impeccable servant of God and of Moses. “On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel” (Jos. 10:12-14). Without a Creator God, the incredible is debatable. The editor knew it and so should we who believe in a God where nothing is too hard for him (Gen. 18:14).

It is a happy day, so they say when you reach seventy-five one day. The things I hoped that I could see did not exactly pen out for me. I did not strike gold, but metal wheels that keep me in the game of life. I push it from my computer room and to my kitchen and back. I have it carry for me things I need in my yard and on our deck. Outdoors, my husband and I admire our beautiful surrounding on wheels. Now, when I travel somewhere, wheels are waiting on standby to move me on to my destination. We have motorized wheels to get us places outside our home. Lately, my husband began to use the garden tractor to master the decline and rise in the driveway. He complains that his feet can’t carry his body when he picks up the mail. I know exactly how he feels for I too depend more on my wheels than on my feet. For us, the invention of the wheel has become the most beneficial and practical blessing in the world. I am learning new ways to handle my wheels.

Jesus gave this answer to his opposition: “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say” (Jn. 5:45-47). The answer is not just what Moses said but what the people asked for. “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet (spokesman) like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The Lord said to me, “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I commanded him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account” (Deut. 18:15-19). How did Israel do and how did Moses’ prediction turn out?

The mission or orders from heaven were to forge Israel into a theocratic nation. In a sense, Moses was the architect and engineer to implement the design and the rules that would govern the political and religious life of the Hebrews. Moses was a temporary representative of God and so was Joshua after him. Once the Israelites had settled they were to govern themselves guided by the Ten Commandments that were issued by God. The Levites were to administer the law and serve the people for ten percent of the nation’s income. It was the most cost effective system designed for human management.

"So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong" (I Kin. 3:9). King David's dream was to build a house for the Lord - a permanent place where the Law was to be preserved and God's Mandate to be kept. Samuel was sent to tell David that this was given to his son, "He is the one who will build a house for my Name"(II Sam. 7:13). Now the king and the Lord were to have costly places. A tragic shift was taking place, namely, God was no longer king and the Law was being moved from the hearts of the people into a Temple. Solomon was that great builder of his father David the architect. Solomon was placed into the huge shoes of his father David. More correctly, he was the man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His mother Bathsheba traded her love for a kingdom and then handed it to Solomon on a silver platter. It was David's most costly love affair and the cause of all his troubles in his family and the fall of Israel.