(NOTE:  This is a continuation from Day 174, which I didn’t cover yesterday.  OOPS!   I’ll do it here.) (Day 174 (missing = 1 Kings 13-14) 

Day 175.  Reading 2 Chronicles 10 – 12

1 Kings 13. (This is a crazy-weird chapter!)

A “man of God” from Judah went to Bethel by the Word of the Lord.  He prophesied to the northern king, Jeroboam, who was standing there, about to make an offering to one of his golden calf idols, about a future king of the southern kingdom who would come and sacrifice THE FALSE PRIESTS on it.

Jeroboam stretched out his hand against the “man of God” to seize him. BUT HIS HAND FROZE IN THAT POSITION!  Jeroboam pleaded for him to pray to the LORD to restore his hand. He did, and God answered his prayer.

Jeroboam was so grateful that he invited the “man of God” to his home for some refreshment.

“Not on your life, for God has commanded me saying neither to “eat bread nor drink water in that place, NOR even to return the way I’ve come.”  And off this unnamed “man of God” goes …

So far, so good.

But then the STRANGE PART:  An “old prophet” lived nearby. His sons told him about the happenings at the idolatrous altar at Bethel and what “the man of God” had said.  He sent his sons off to meet the man on his return to Judah. The “man of God” repeated his instructions from God … BUT this (false) prophet counteracted God’s word and lied to him.  He said that he could get some refreshment.

The “man of God” believed this false prophet’s son OVER God’s word to him. (Hey, does God’s Word ever change?)  Sinfully, he returned to the “old prophet’s” house and had some bread and water. 

As he was sitting at the table, perhaps a piece of bread heading toward his mouth … the WORD OF GOD came to him. “You have disobeyed, Now will soon die.“

The “man of God” immediately left, and a lion killed him on the way home, then stood by his body (not eating him). The “old prophet” heard about it, went to the body, took it home with him, and buried it.  He mourned. He told his sons that when HE died, they were to open this man’s grave and bury him there too. (???)

He also admitted, ‘Surely the Word of the LORD against this altar in Bethel will come to pass.”  (It did in 2 Kings 23:15-20 with Josiah.)

The Old Prophet repented and believed, but Jeroboam did not. He appointed fresh false priests (anyone who wanted to be) and continued to cause Israel to sin.

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1 Kings 14.

Then another prophecy came to Jeroboam when his son, the crown prince, got very sick.  Jeroboam told his wife to go to the prophet of God, Ahijah, the one who had told him he would become king, and ask if their son would get better.

His wife obeyed, but the prophet identified her right away, despite being blind, because God alerted him..  Bad news. Yes, the son would die as soon as she returned home.  And here is why.

• “I exalted you, Jeroboam, from among your people and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet you have NOT been like my servant David, who followed me with all his heart.
• You have done evil. You made for yourself other gods and metal images and have cast Me behind your back. 
• Therefore, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and cut off every male. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam until it is all gone.

AND, this dire prophecy as well …

• And the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

Yep, the boy died as soon as his mother came to the doorway of the house. All Israel mourned for him. He would be the ONLY one of Jeroboam to be buried and mourned, BECAUSE THERE WAS FOUND SOMETHING PLEASING TO THE LORD IN HIM.

Jeroboam reigned 22 years and died. His next son, Nadab, reigned in his place.

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TODAY’S READING:

2 Chronicles 10.

This chapter retells the split of the Kingdom of Israel, after King Rehoboam’s foolish decision to be even harsher to the people than his father, Solomon, had been.

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2 Chronicles 11.

After the LORD forbade Rehoboam from warring against the people of the ten northern tribes, the king turned to Judah/Benjamin, the remaining tribes under his rule, and BUILT UP THE CITIES and FORTIFIED THEM HEAVILY.

It’s interesting that the priests and Levites who lived in all Israel moved south and presented themselves to King Rehoboam. They had left their land and holdings (cities) in Israel and came to Judah and Jerusalem.

“Those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel, to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They “strengthened” the kingdom of Judah … for they walked in the way of David and Solomon.

**** (And this saved their progeny.  For after the Babylonian Captivity, only the people of the southern kingdom of Judah returned to rebuild and live in the Land again.)

Rehoboam followed his father’s example and took a lot of wives and concubines (only 78, as compared to Solomon’s 1,000!)  But his “fave” wife was the daughter of Absalom!  Seriously??  And her son, Abijah, is the one he appointed to be king after him.  (Remember, Rehoboam was the son of one of Solomon’s foreign wives, Naamah, the Ammonite.)

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2 Chronicles 12.

So, after Rehoboam strengthened all his cities, sent his many sons to rule them, and welcomed the people and religious leaders from the north….. guess what?  He abandoned the law of the LORD, and Israel with him. (sigh)

And so … Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and people without number, including some from Libya and Ethiopia.  (He actually made it all the way to the Sea of Galilee!!)

He was unable to conquer both Israel and Judah, but he destroyed cities in Judah, took many of the gold treasures Solomon had amassed, and gained some control of the trade routes.

The princes of and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”

When God saw this, he sent His prophet, Shemaiah, with the message…

• I will not destroy them, and I will grant them “some” deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. NEVERTHELESS, they shall be servants to him, “that they may know My service … and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

****(This was the first major military encounter with Egypt since the Exodus.  A taste of being enslaved again was bitter. God’s message was clear.  Forsake the worship of God, and they would lose His protection and blessing.)

And so ,,,

Rehoboam reigned seventeen years (five years less than Jeroboam) in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all of Israel to put His Name..  And although he did “humble himself before God” when the Egyptians came, he will go down in Jewish history as ….

“He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.”

So Rehoboam died and was buried in the City of David.

His son, Abijah, reigned in his place.