The Living Bible (112 page)

1 Kings
12

Rehoboam’s inauguration was at Shechem, and all Israel came for the coronation ceremony.
^2-4
 Jeroboam, who was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, heard about the plans from his friends. They urged him to attend, so he joined the rest of Israel at Shechem and was the ringleader in getting the people to make certain demands upon Rehoboam.

    
“Your father was a hard master,” they told Rehoboam. “We don’t want you as our king unless you promise to treat us better than he did.”

    
⁵
 “Give me three days to think this over,” Rehoboam replied. “Come back then for my answer.” So the people left.

    
⁶
 Rehoboam talked it over with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon.

    
“What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

    
⁷
 And they replied, “If you give them a pleasant reply and agree to be good to them and serve them well, you can be their king forever.”

    
⁸
 But Rehoboam refused the old men’s counsel and called in the young men with whom he had grown up.

    
⁹
 “What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

    
¹⁰
 And the young men replied, “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, well, I’ll be harder!
¹¹
 Yes, my father was harsh, but I’ll be even harsher! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”

    
¹²
 So when Jeroboam and the people returned three days later,
^13-14
 the new king answered them roughly. He ignored the old men’s advice and followed that of the young men;
¹⁵
 so the king refused the people’s demands. (But the Lord’s hand was in it—he caused the new king to do this in order to fulfill his promise to Jeroboam, made through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.)

    
^16-17
 When the people realized that the king meant what he said and was refusing to listen to them, they began shouting, “Down with David and all his relatives! Let’s go home! Let Rehoboam be king of his own family!”

    
And they all deserted him except for the tribe of Judah, who remained loyal and accepted Rehoboam as their king.
¹⁸
 When King Rehoboam sent Adoram (who was in charge of the draft) to conscript men from the other tribes, a great mob stoned him to death. But King Rehoboam escaped by chariot and fled to Jerusalem.
¹⁹
 And Israel has been in rebellion against the dynasty of David to this day.

    
²⁰
 When the people of Israel learned of Jeroboam’s return from Egypt, he was asked to come before an open meeting of all the people; and there he was made king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah
*
continued under the kingship of the family of David.

    
²¹
 When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he summoned his army—all the able-bodied men of Judah and Benjamin: 180,000 special troops—to force the rest of Israel to acknowledge him as their king.
²²
 But God sent this message to Shemaiah, the prophet:

    
^23-24
 “Tell Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin that they must not fight against their brothers, the people of Israel. Tell them to disband and go home, for what has happened to Rehoboam is according to my wish.” So the army went home as the Lord had commanded.

    
²⁵
 Jeroboam now built the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and it became his capital. Later he built Penuel.
²⁶
 Jeroboam thought, “Unless I’m careful, the people will want a descendant of David as their king.
²⁷
 When they go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple, they will become friendly with King Rehoboam; then they will kill me and ask him to be their king instead.”

    
²⁸
 So on the advice of his counselors, the king had two golden calf idols made and told the people, “It’s too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship; from now on these will be your gods—they rescued you from your captivity in Egypt!”

    
²⁹
 One of these calf idols was placed in Bethel and the other in Dan.
³⁰
 This was of course a great sin, for the people worshiped them.
³¹
 He also made shrines on the hills and ordained priests from the rank and file of the people—even those who were not from the priestly tribe of Levi.
^32-33
 Jeroboam also announced that the annual Tabernacle Festival would be held at Bethel on the first of November
*
(a date he decided upon himself), similar to the annual festival at Jerusalem; he himself offered sacrifices upon the altar to the calves at Bethel and burned incense to them. And it was there at Bethel that he ordained priests for the shrines on the hills.

1 Kings
13

As Jeroboam approached the altar to burn incense to the golden calf idol, a prophet of the Lord from Judah walked up to him.
²
 Then, at the Lord’s command, the prophet shouted, “O altar, the Lord says that a child named Josiah shall be born into the family line of David, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests from the shrines on the hills who come here to burn incense; and men’s bones shall be burned upon you.”

    
³
 Then he gave this proof that his message was from the Lord: “This altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will spill to the ground.”

    
⁴
 The king was very angry with the prophet for saying this. He shouted to his guards, “Arrest that man!” and shook his fist at him. Instantly the king’s arm became paralyzed in that position; he couldn’t pull it back again!
⁵
 At the same moment a wide crack appeared in the altar and the ashes poured out, just as the prophet had said would happen. For this was the prophet’s proof that God had been speaking through him.

    
⁶
 “Oh, please, please,” the king cried out to the prophet, “beg the Lord your God to restore my arm again.”

    
So he prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm became normal again.

    
⁷
 Then the king said to the prophet, “Come to the palace with me and rest awhile and have some food; and I’ll give you a reward because you healed my arm.”

    
⁸
 But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn’t go into it; nor would I eat or drink even water in this place!
⁹
 For the Lord has given me strict orders not to eat anything or drink any water while I’m here, and not to return to Judah by the road I came on.”

    
¹⁰
 So he went back another way.

    
¹¹
 As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons went home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.

    
¹²
 “Which way did he go?” the old prophet asked. So they told him.

    
¹³
 “Quick, saddle the donkey,” the old man said. And when they had saddled the donkey for him,
¹⁴
 he rode after the prophet and found him sitting under an oak tree.

    
“Are you the prophet who came from Judah?” he asked him.

    
“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

    
¹⁵
 Then the old man said to the prophet, “Come home with me and eat.”

    
^16-17
 “No,” he replied, “I can’t; for I am not allowed to eat anything or to drink any water at Bethel. The Lord strictly warned me against it; and he also told me not to return home by the same road I came on.”

    
¹⁸
 But the old man said, “I am a prophet too, just as you are; and an angel gave me a message from the Lord. I am to take you home with me and give you food and water.”

    
But the old man was lying to him.
¹⁹
 So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man’s home.

    
²⁰
 Then, suddenly, while they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the old man,
^21-22
 and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, “The Lord says that because you have been disobedient to his clear command and have come here, and have eaten and drunk water in the place he told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers.”

    
²³
 After finishing the meal, the old man saddled the prophet’s donkey,
^24-25
 and the prophet started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Those who came by and saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing quietly beside it, reported it in Bethel where the old prophet lived.

    
²⁶
 When he heard what had happened he exclaimed, “It is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord’s command; the Lord fulfilled his warning by causing the lion to kill him.”

    
²⁷
 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey!” And they did.

    
²⁸
 He found the prophet’s body lying in the road; and the donkey and lion were still standing there beside it, for the lion had not eaten the body nor attacked the donkey.
²⁹
 So the prophet laid the body upon the donkey and took it back to the city to mourn over it and bury it.

    
³⁰
 He laid the body in his own grave, exclaiming, “Alas, my brother!”

    
³¹
 Afterwards he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the prophet is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.
³²
 For the Lord told him to shout against the altar in Bethel, and his curse against the shrines in the cities of Samaria shall surely be fulfilled.”

    
³³
 Despite the prophet’s warning, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways; instead, he made more priests than ever from the common people, to offer sacrifices to idols in the shrines on the hills. Anyone who wanted to could be a priest.
³⁴
 This was a great sin and resulted in the destruction of Jeroboam’s kingdom and the death of all of his family.