>> Jen: Hello, faithful listeners. Good morning. Welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. And today we're going to be talking about the new nation of Israel and how they pretty much immediately fall into idolatry. We'll talk about it. So, yeah, we are over halfway done with the Book of First Kings already, which is really crazy to me. I just feel like we just started talking about First Kings and we're already over halfway done with it. We only have, uh, 10 more chapters to go in the book of
first kings. Now when I move into second kings, I'm not going to change the season. Still going to be season eight. But anyway, let's go ahead and finish out 1 Kings 12 and talk about this idolatry that Israel begins to experience. And we're also going to see this schism that takes place where two countries come from 1 in 1 Kings 12, 16, 33. Grab your favorite hot beverage. Then also the version of the Bible that you prefer this morning, and let's read 1 Kings 12,
1633. When all Israel saw that King Rehoboam didn't listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, what portion do we have in David? We don't have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel. Now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents. But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then King Rehoboam sent Adiram, who was over the men subject to forced labor, and all Israel stoned
him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up on his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against David's house. To this day, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David's
house, except for the tribe of Judah. Only when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam
the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God saying, speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, Yahweh says, you shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house, for this thing is from me. So they listened to Yahweh's word and returned and went their way according
to Yahweh's word. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived in it. And he went out from there and built peniel. Jeroboam said in his heart, now the kingdom will return to David's house. If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh's house at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their LORD, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah. And they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah. So the king took counsel
and made two calves of gold. And he said to them, it's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your Gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. He set the one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a sin for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there. He made houses of high places. He made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of
Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of that month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the 15th day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of
his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense. So Rehoboam was no Solomon, even though he was the son of Solomon, he certainly did not have the wisdom that Solomon had. So Rehoboam makes a huge mistake where he decides that he is not going to listen to any of the people. He is going to take the advice of all of his young friends and not the elders who helped and counseled Solomon and not listen to the demands of
the northern tribes of Israel. Now this causes a huge problem. As we learned on Monday, the northern tribes really wanted Rehoboam to lessen their burden, because even though Solomon was a great king and did a lot for Israel and caused Israel to be very wealthy, Solomon was also an incessant go getter and probably caused the people to have a pretty significant workload. Even if they were well compensated for that workload, they still, it seems like, didn't have a Very
good work, life balance. And they were frustrated about this. And then on top of that, you know, Solomon, he did put pretty heavy taxes in place as well. So even the compensation that the people were getting was being taxed pretty heavily. So the northern tribes specifically were very frustrated with Solomon's reign. So now that Rehoboam, his son, has become the king, the northern tribes come to Rehoboam and they ask for him
to ease their burdens. And then Rehoboam, not being a very wise person like Solomon was, says, no, I'm not going to ease your burdens. In fact, I am going to make them even more difficult because I want to be a king. And how dare you come to me with demands? And the, uh, people in verse 16 obviously get very angry. And this is the start of the splitting of Israel. So from now on, pretty much Israel is no longer all of
Israel. Israel will now be referred to as the eleven tribes and Judah will be a separate country. That basically makes up the tribe of Judah and kind of of Benjamin as well. So this schism, um, begins to happen because of Rehoboam's foolishness. Now, of course, God ordained all of this. He planned all of this from the very beginning because he was punishing Solomon for what Solomon
had done. Solomon, when he was still alive towards the end of his life, had started making all of these temples to these other gods. And then not only that, he would cause the people to go worship at these temples because he himself with his wife, would be publicly seen worshiping at these false idol temples. And God of course, was not happy with that. So in order to punish Solomon and Solomon's descendants, he now breaks Israel into two
pieces. In verse 16, when all Israel saw that King Rehoboam didn't listen to them, the people answered the king and said, what portion do we have in David? We don't have an inheritance in the Son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel. Now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents. So now the formal breaking up of the state of Israel is now taking place. But Rehoboam didn't take this very seriously. It seems like King
Rehoboam stayed in the area. And then to make matters even worse, it says in verse 18, King Rehoboam sent Aderim, who was over the men subject to forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. So Rehoboam thought it would be a great idea to show how powerful of a king he really was. And he sends Adiram, who is mentioned briefly, in 1 Kings 4 and 5, as the man who Solomon appointed as the head of the workforce, the forced labor, Rehoboam sends him to go collect
taxes from all of the people. This makes the people infuriated because not only was Adiram the head of the forced labor, but he was also coming and demanding taxes for the king. The people of Israel get so angry that they stone Adiram with stones. This obviously was not the right response from Israel. They shouldn't have done that. But their anger is understandable because they asked for something from Rehoboam and
basically immediately didn't receive it. And then now they see the workforce guy coming and demanding taxes from them when the populace is both frustrated with the amount of work they have to do and also with the amount of taxes that they are paying. So they stone Adiram with stones. And King Rehoboam is terrified now. So now he suddenly takes all of this seriously. It says he hurries to get himself up to his
chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So now Rehoboam is scared for his life, and he decides to go back to Jerusalem, which was the capital city of Israel, but now only the capital city of Judah, to protect his own life. So when he gets down to Jerusalem, the tribes of Benjamin and the tribes of Judah still followed King Rehoboam. They did not defect. Now, at this point in Israel's history, Benjamin and Judah have kind of, um, merged into one super tribe. Judah was already a very big tribe. Benjamin was
a very small tribe from my understanding. But because Jerusalem was in Benjamin, Benjamin and Judah kind of became like one very large super tribe. And now Rehoboam only has control of Benjamin and Judah. And the northern tribes have completely rebelled. At this point, it says that in verse 19, Israel rebelled against David's house. And when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation and made him king
over all Israel. So Jeroboam, yes, it's confusing the two names, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. You're just going to have to remember which is which. Rehoboam is the king of Judah. Now Jeroboam is the king of all the other tribes of Israel. So Israel hears that Jeroboam is back from Egypt. And because Jeroboam had a very big following as an insurrectionist, as somebody that went against King Solomon, Israel, of course, thinks that Jeroboam is the perfect person to become their next king. So they anoint
Jeroboam as their next king. It Says there is no one who followed David's house, except for the tribe of Judah only. And we just talked about how Judah and Benjamin kind of became one giant tribe. When Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam, the son of
Solomon. So Rehoboam gets to Jerusalem and he immediately organizes an army of 180,000 very strong warriors. And he decides he's going to go up to the northern tribes and he is going to take back his kingdom. But God has other plans, because don't forget, all of this was orchestrated by God. God was splitting off Israel into two pieces. So God calls a man named Shimea. And this is the only time Shemaiah is ever mentioned in Scripture, is in
this little verse. God's word came to Shimeah, the man of God, saying, speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people saying, Yahweh says, you shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house, for this thing is from me. So to Rehoboam's credit, he actually listens. They listened to Yahweh's word and returned and went their way according to
Yahweh's word. So now the split off is official. God says, there's going to be now a country of Israel and there's now going to be a country of Judah. And I don't want you guys fighting with each other because this is from me. And thankfully, Rehoboam actually listens to God You're going to actually notice going into Israel's history a little bit that the country of Judah overall listens to God a little bit more than the country of Israel does. Israel falls away very, very quickly. In fact,
it falls away in the next paragraph. So it says Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived in it. And he went out from there and built Peniel. So Shechem was now the capital of Israel, no longer Jerusalem. Jerusalem is now the capital of Judah. Shechem is the new capital. But after Jeroboam completes all of these projects, he starts to get concerned that he will not maintain control of Israel for much longer because the temple to Yahweh was in
Jerusalem. And he was scared that if his people start traveling down to Judah to go worship God in Judah, that he is going to lose control of his people. Since belief in God is supposed to be a very unifying thing, which is why Satan always comes into churches and tries to cause divisions and problems in churches. Because when the people of God are unified, it's amazing the things that can happen. Jeroboam understood
this pretty well. But what's really sad is that God actually told Jeroboam in the last chapter, if you follow after me and you don't turn away from me, I will establish your kingdom forever. God told Jeroboam straight from the prophet's mouth, that if Jeroboam would just follow him, his kingdom would be firm and established and God would be with Jeroboam and Jeroboam's descendants forever.
But Jeroboam doesn't listen. And he gets afraid because he's scared that his people are going to start becoming unified again with the country of Judah. So Jeroboam decides to make a fake religion. He goes and gets counsel from all of his elders who counsel him that this is a great idea for some reason. So it says that the king took counsel and he made two calves of
gold. And he said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. So he set one golden calf in Bethel, and he set the other golden calf way up in the tribe of Dan, which is at the very, very tippy top of the northern part of Israel. Now this would be much more convenient for the Israelite people to not have to travel all the way down to Jerusalem to worship
Yahweh. Now they can just go to a local golden calf and worship that thing and do all of their religious ceremonies and all their sacrifices at the temple of these golden calves. And it works. Israel loves the convenience of this. They say, yeah, you know, this is perfect. We can worship at these temples. And it's possible even some of Israel was thinking, oh, I can go worship Yahweh at these temples. But these were temples of false idols. And this actually causes Jeroboam's country to sort of
split off even more. Because what ends up happening is after Jeroboam makes this false religion with the golden calves, he also appoints priests. And these priests were not Levite priests. They were just any random old person that Jeroboam decided to use. Now, of course, we know that God specifically told the Israelite people that they should never appoint a priest who was not from the tribe of
Levi. So the Levites who were initially, it sounds like on Jeroboam's side actually get very angry about this and they leave and they go down to Rehoboam and start living in Judah and Benjamin. You can see that story. It's not mentioned here in 1 Kings, but it's mentioned in 2 Chronicles, chapter 11, verses 13 through 17. Here's what it says. The priests and the Levites from all their districts throughout Israel
sided with Rehoboam. The Levites even abandoned their pasture lands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. So yeah, the Levites leave Israel to go down to Judah because they were angry about the fact that he was appointing priests that weren't Levite. Now it's kind of sad about that. Though.
Scripture somewhat implies that the only reason the Levites were angry about what Jeroboam was doing was because they weren't appointed priests. It doesn't seem like they were very angry over the fact that Jeroboam was causing the people to worship goat demons. It sounds like they were more upset over the fact that they couldn't be the priests of these goat demons. Now that might not be the actual case. There could have been Levites who were just upset over everything and left
because of that. But it kind of sounds like some of the Levites were just angry that their jobs had been taken from them. So they go down to Judah. But something good actually happened from that. When the Levites started leaving Israel and going down to Judah, the rest of the God- fearing people of
Israel left with them. It says that in verse 16 of 2 Chronicles 11, those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD the god of Israel followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD the god of their ancestors. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, following the ways of David and
Solomon during this time. So something good happened from uh, the Levites leaving was the rest of the God- fearing Israelites left as well because they wanted Yahweh. They were seeking after Yahweh and Jeroboam was just putting up a false religion. But not only was this religion false and convenient and easy for the people to follow, it was also kind of a mimic of the practices of
Yahweh. So going back to 1 Kings 12 and reading verses 32 through 33, it says Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of that month, like the feast that is in Judah. And he went up to the altar and he did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. So Jeroboam literally made a counterfeit religion that looked very similar to
the worship of Yahweh. He even appointed a feast to these calves on the same day as one of the feasts that God had ordained. And he was also doing very similar practices like burning incense and sacrificing animals to these calves. And, you know, uh, what else did he do here? He also m ordained the priests. He did all these feasts, but he was making it all up. It actually says he devised all of these things in his own heart, meaning God had no hand in any of
this. God did not want Jeroboam, obviously, to do any of this. God wanted Jeroboam to follow him. And if Jeroboam would have done that, then God would have actually established his kingdom forever. But Jeroboam didn't do that because he was afraid. He wanted ultimate control of the people. But all this did was actually cause Judah to become far stronger as the moral people left Israel to go and live
in Judah. And Jeroboam, it seems like, didn't care all that much that certain people were leaving. He was like, well, whatever, I have control of Israel. And, uh, who cares about those Yahweh worshipers? They can go down to Judah. But it's really sad that the rest of Israel was pretty much okay with this because it was convenient. And also they could worship their God in any way they wanted to worship God That's why God says so many times in the Old Testament, don't worship me just
any old way you want to worship me. Worship me the way I tell you to worship me. Because even if you're worshiping Yahweh the way that you want to worship, you are making up your own version of Yahweh. You are not worshiping him the way he calls you to worship him. You're making things up. That's not going to be the true Yahweh. You're not going to understand Yahweh's heart if you're just doing whatever you want to do. God calls us to worship him in spirit and in
truth. And what Does Jesus say in the New Testament? I quote this verse quite often. If you love me, keep my commandments. Don't just make things up. Keep my commandments. Jeroboam didn't do that. He just made things up. He devised all of these things in his own heart. And that is going to cause the new nation of Israel to fall into some serious trouble in the upcoming chapters.
I can't believe we're over halfway done with the book of first Kings already, but the Kings and the Chronicles are some of my favorite books of the Old Testament. I love the Book of Judges as well. And, and the reason I love these books so much is because they all have something in common. People suck. And God's grace is great. And I just love, I love talking about that because so many people think that, you know, Yahweh in the Old Testament was just so mean and terrible
and he just punished people all the time. No, you're going to see how kind and forgiving and loving God really is. And, you know, yesterday we talked about First uh, Corinthians 13, which is what we'll be talking about tomorrow, and I hope to see you there. But yesterday we talked about the different attributes of what love truly is. And you're gonna really see how God the Father shows agape, uh, love to the Israelites and to the Judites in the upcoming
chapters. All right, faithful listeners, I'll see you guys tomorrow for another discussion from First uh, Corinthians 13 or the Love chapter. But as always, happy listening and God bless.