Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

When Solomon's son, Rehoboam became king, he listened to his friends counsel and put a heavy burden upon the people and ten tribes of Israel said, "Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:" "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!" (1 Kings 12:16). So the ten tribes made Jeroboam king over Israel while King Rehoboam ruled over Judah and Benjamin (1 Kings 12:17-24). When Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria, the capitol city of Samaria was then filled with foreign people by the king of Assyria and they did not fear the Lord. So the Lord sent lions into the region which killed some of the people and they requested help as they feared the God of those people they replaced was rebuking them because they did not know the customs of worshipping Him and so a priest was sent to live among them and teach them how to fear the Lord, "They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places. "They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile. To this day they do according to their earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel;" (2 Kings 17:32-34).

And so, we see that the stern lesson of the lions only got them to respect that the one true Lord did exist, but they mingled Him with their other idols and did not worship Him as the law commanded the Jews, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor sacrifice to them." (2 Kings 17:35).

That brings us to our question, "Which king built the city of Samaria?". During the time that Jesus walked, the region of Samaria was located between Galilee and Judea and still was occupied by foreign or mixed blood peoples. The Jews would often walk around Samaria rather than travel across that region. Jesus did travel through Samaria (John 4:1-4) and on one occasion met the woman at the well and proclaimed Himself the Christ to her, "The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.' Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am He.' (John 4:25-26)

"Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten Men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "'Jesus Master, have mercy on us!' And when He saw them, He said to them, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?'" (Luke 17:11-18) Philip even preached there (Acts 8:5-14) as prophesied by the Lord (Acts 1:8).

So then, for the answer to our question we turn and read, "In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and reigned twelve years; he reigned six years at Tirzah. Then he bought the hill Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and named the city which he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill." (1 Kings 16:23-24).

So there we have the answer to our question, as it is none other than Omri, the king of Israel (the ten tribes). This was a difficult time as the tribes were divided between Omri and Tibni, but the tribes following Omri prevailed and Tibni died, leaving Omri king over all ten tribes (1 Kings 16:21-22).

Jesus taught so many lessons by this area known as Samaria, let us remember them and just as the Samaritan who stopped to help the man from Jerusalem (a Jew) who was beaten and then robbed and left on the road. Both a priest and a Levite had passed by without offering help, while this Samaritan not only stopped to bandage him, but took him to an inn and paid for any expense the innkeeper needed to help heal his wounds.

Jesus asks the lawyer (who wrote themselves out of doing any of the duties of the Law), "But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" (Luke 10:29)

"Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?' And He said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'" (Luke 10:36-37) Notice the lawyer would not even speak the word "Samaritan." Let us remember who our neighbor is and show mercy to one another no matter his color or origin (Romans 10:12, Galatians 3:28 & Colossians 3:11)!