Trying to understand something

[CDWolfe]

In reading of the various books/scrolls that make up the Tanakh, I am trying to honestly reconcile something...

1 Kings 9:4-7
4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances

5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples."

vs.

1 Kings 11:9-13
9 Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.

11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.

12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”



My question is this: does Solomon's disobedience not nullify God's promise of David's descendants reigning as kings in Israel?

 

[Levite]

In reading of the various books/scrolls that make up the Tanakh, I am trying to honestly reconcile something...

1 Kings 9:4-7
4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances

5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples."

vs.

1 Kings 11:9-13
9 Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.

11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.

12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”



My question is this: does Solomon's disobedience not nullify God's promise of David's descendants reigning as kings in Israel?

There are various explanations offered by the Rabbis as to why it does not. The one that chiefly sticks in my memory is that Solomon did as David taught him before and during the building of the Temple, and for a short time afterward also; and because of the merit of providing the Holy Temple to the people was so great, his punishment for going astray was lessened.

Rather than have the throne entirely pass from David's house forever, instead, the kingdom is split, with one full tribe (plus the majority of the tribe of Levi, which had no land of its own, being the priestly tribe) remaining loyal to the house of David, and the other tribes following other kings, who led them further astray, until the Northern Kingdom was doomed, and the majority of the ten other tribes were lost in the Assyrian Exile. But in addition to the house of David retaining kingship in ancient times of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the messiah will be a descendant of David, and will reunite all twelve tribes under the throne of David again, this time faithfully and forever.

 

[CDWolfe]

Thanks