Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lMfxRDp5118

Jeroboam had been a thorn in the side of Solomon and returns in 1 Kings chapter twelve. Rehoboam goes to Shechem to become his father’s successor. Jeroboam returns from Egypt and is asked to join them at Shechem. Israel asks to have the tax and labor burden reduced. Remember the King’s comments in Ecclesiastes about everything he had built and accomplished. The people think they have completed these projects.

After three days, Rehoboam answers Jeroboam and his supporters. The younger advisers disagreed with Solomon’s men. The new King follows the youthful answer. Often older heads are more conservative. In this situation that could have prevented a split between Israel and Judah.

Shechem is the seat of Jeroboam’s new government. To prevent the people from returning to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah, he had two golden calves made and established worship of idols. Nothing he did was to worship the one true Creator God.

1 Kings 13 tells of Jeroboam and a man of God who came from Judah and announced Jehovah’s displeasure with the new altar that has been built to worship the golden calves. When the Israelite King tries to take him, the altar is split in two and the hand of Jeroboam shrivels. The King repents, and his hand is restored.

Yahweh has instructed His man not to accept anything from the Israelites and to return to Judah by a different route. An older prophet intercepts him and lies to him. We all need to listen to God and sometimes ignore others if they try to contradict what God has told us. This man of God’s disobedience is punished by death. The old prophet has no remorse but does bury him.

Jeroboam does not correct his mistake, and this is the reason his line is removed from the rule in Israel. His sin is followed by all the other Kings of the Northern Kingdom. It will ultimately result in the fall of the country.

Has God ever told you something that was going to happen? In 1 Kings 14 Jeroboam sends his wife to the prophet Abijah to ask for his son’s healing. The Prophet knows that she is coming because Jehovah told him. He also has a message for the King of Israel. He is the last of his line. Israel itself will fall because of the idolatry the Kings allow. Jeroboam is the first of many evil rulers. The next monarch is Nadab, the son of Jeroboam.

Rehoboam was not much better in Judah. Shishak, who was the Egyptian Pharaoh attacked them. He took the gold items from the Temple that Solomon had dedicated. Abijah took over for his father when Rehoboam died.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger