The Gates Of Hell Series

“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.” (I Kings 11:11-13)

Once Solomon died Rehoboam took the throne. Almost immediately, the tribes of the north pled with him to give them relief from the burdensome taxes Solomon had imposed to raise money to build the Temple. Rehoboam's older advisers told him to heed the cry of these people… but his younger friends mocked that idea and said he should prove he was truly a King by making conditions even worse for these people.

In anger, the 10 tribes of the north followed Jeroboam into rebellion and established their own kingdom. To keep the northern tribes from returning to worship at Jerusalem (and possibly re-establishing loyalty to descendants of Rehoboam) Jeroboam built two temples with pagan altars – one in Bethel (it doesn’t seem that that site has been discovered yet) and one in the north at the city of Dan. As long as his people had an alternative worship area (he reasoned correctly) they would be less likely to desire reuniting the nations.

(Slide with map showing the layout of Tel-Dan and showing where Jeroboam’s temple was)

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan2.jpg

As you can see from this map, Jeroboam’s pagan altar was at the North East corner of the city within the city walls.

(Slides of the temple, altar and ritualistic quarters)

https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/templeunreconstructed1.jpg

https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/img_2047.jpg

https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lishka1.jpg

These are pictures of the excavation of the temple of Jeroboam (later improved on by King Ahab). The first picture is that of the “temple” – a smaller rendition of the Temple in Jerusalem. The 2nd slide shows the altar where sacrifices would have been made. And the third shows a complex of rooms – I’ve heard speculations that these were either living quarters for the priests or places of ritualistic activities for the priests.

The Bible wrote about these priests in Dan (1 Kings 12 31): “...And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi”.

(Slide showing an artist’s conception of how the walls of Dan may have looked in Jeroboam’s day) http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-laish-leshem-micah-Jonathan-jeroboams-three-city-gates-inner-outer-piazza-judgment-seat-house-of-david-inscription.jpg

This is an artist’s conception of how the gates of Jeroboam’s city of Dan must have looked. Note the arrow that points to the seat of judgment (we’ll talk about that in a moment).