In The first time I read the entire Bible I had a lot of questions.
So many. Things like, "When will I get to the part where it says to ask Jesus into my heart?" and, "Where are Christmas and Easter?" or "When does God say to forget all the instructions he gave?"
I enjoyed the beautiful and poetic writings of the prophets and enjoyed the adventures of the rulers in Kings and Chronicles, but one thing didn't make sense. Why does it keep switching from Israel to Judah?
At the time I assumed they were both names for the same thing. Still this caused me great confusion because often the statements about or directed towards Israel were very different than the words about Judah. Several years ago, I stumbled across this quote:
"Not to understand the distinction of Israel from Judah is to positively misunderstand seven-eighths of the Bible." -Edward Hine.
So what's the difference?
The first time the word Israel appears is in Genesis 32:28 when Jacob is renamed Israel. His name is used to describe his descendants. His twelves sons and their families are known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
One of those tribes is known as Judah, after Jacob's fourth son. His descendants would later be known as Judahites, and later after that a certain sect of them would be known as Jews, known for practicing Judaism.
For centuries the tribes peaceably lived united under the name of Israel. Around 930 B.C. the nation of Israel was divided when King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, raised taxes and caused the tribes that were in the northern part of the country to rebel. They seceded from the King who was from the tribe of Judah and were ruled by Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim. You can read about this in 1 Kings 12. We know from 2 Chronicles 11:1 that in addition to the tribe of Judah, King Rehoboam also continued to rule over the tribe of Benjamin.
So when the stories in Kings switch back and forth from the King of Israel to the King of Judah, this is why! This seems obvious now that I know it but I missed this for years. I had read Kings, Chronicles, and the prophets many times without catching this! Learning this made understanding Scripture much easier for me and I hope it will for you as well.
