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1 Primary 2011 Church of God, Inc. A divided kingdom : Rehoboam and Jeroboam1 Church of GodSunday SchoolA divided kingdom : REHOBOAM AND JEROBOAM1 Kings 12:1 15:30; 2 Chronicles 10:1 12:16 King Solomon had married many wives fromheathen nations that worshiped idols. The Bible onlymentions one child from these many, many name was Rehoboam (ree-uh-BOH-uhm), and hismother Naamah (NAY-uh-muh) was from Ammon. When Solomon died, Rehoboam went to Shechem(SHEE-kuhm), where Israel made him king. WhenRehoboam "established the kingdom " and becamestrong, "he forsook the law of the LORD.

2 " (He was notlike his father Solomon nor his grandfather David, wholoved God's law; Psalm 119:47.)Jeroboam (jer-uh-BOH-uhm), who had fled toEgypt because Solomon wanted to kill him, returned tothe land of Israel. "Jeroboam and all the congregationof Israel" came before King Rehoboam with a said that the "yoke" (forced labor and taxes)Solomon had placed on the people was severe people told Rehoboam if he would lighten thisheavy yoke, they would serve him. Rehoboam told thepeople to come back after three days. The king askedthe old men who had given counsel to King Solomon,"How do ye advise that I may answer this people?

3 "The old men gave very good counsel, saying, "Ifthou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, andwilt serve them, and answer them, and speak goodwords to them, then they will be thy servants for ever."But Rehoboam did not take this good , he asked the young men whohad grown up with him what theythought. The young men told Rehobo-am to say to the people, "Whereas myfather did lade you with a heavy yoke,I will add to your yoke: my fatherhath chastised you with whips, but Iwill chastise you with scorpions [awhip with many sharp barbs]."This was terrible advice!

4 Thepeople were already unhappy, andsuch an answer would only makethings worse. The wise thing wouldhave been to heed the old men's ad-vice. But Rehoboam was foolish. When thepeople and Jero-boam came backon the third day,King Rehoboamanswered themroughly. He said just what the young men had told himto say, and he would not listen to the people. (God hadcaused the people to come to Rehoboam with this re-quest. God knew what Rehoboam would do, and thiswould be a fulfillment to the punishment God put onSolomon for his sin; 1 Kings 11:31.)The people of Israel returned to their tents.

5 The tentribes of Israel "rebelled against" Rehoboam as , they made Jeroboam their king. (Only thetribes of Judah and Benjamin stayed with Rehoboam.)Jeroboam did not want the people of Israel tojourney to the temple of God in Jerusalem. He thoughtthey might kill him and return to Rehoboam, king ofJudah. So, Jeroboam made two golden calves for thepeople to worship instead. One calf was placed inBethel and the other in proclaimed a feast day, and he went toBethel where he made sacrifices on the altar to thegolden calf. But a man of God also came and cried out,saying that the altar would break apart and the asheswould spill "put forth his hand" and said, "Lay holdon him.

6 " Immediately, his out-stretched hand withered, and he couldnot pull it back. Then, just as theman of God had said, the altar split"and the ashes poured out." Jeroboambegged him to ask God to heal hishand. The man of God did, and thehand was healed. Jeroboam askedhim to come home and eat with him,but God had warned the man of Godnot to eat or drink while he wasthere. As the man of God made his wayhome (by a different way, as God hadsaid), an old prophet in Bethel fol- Primary 2011 Church of God, Inc. A divided kingdom : Rehoboam and Jeroboam2 Rehoboamlowed after the man of God until he found him, "sittingunder an oak.

7 " He also invited the man of God toreturn home with him "and eat bread."When the man of God told the old prophet whatGod had warned, the old prophet lied and said that anangel had told him to bring the man of God home withhim to eat and drink. Sadly, the man of God was fooledby this, and he went home with the old they were sitting at the table, eating in thehome of the old prophet, God spoke to the old old man cried out to the man of God, telling himthat he would not return home safely. As this man wastraveling home, a lion came and killed him. The lionand the man's donkey stood beside the dead man.

8 When the old prophet heard of this, he went andfound the dead man of God. The lion had not eatenhim, nor had it bothered the man's donkey. The oldprophet took the dead man and buried him in his , Jeroboam did not change his evil his son Abijah (A-bye-juh) became very sick,Jeroboam sent his wife to the Prophet Ahijah (A-high-juh). He told her to go in disguise, so the prophetwould not know her. (Ahijah was the prophet who hadtorn his cloak into twelve pieces, giving ten to Jero-boam and telling him that he would be king.)Jeroboam's wife was to ask the prophet whatwould happen to the child.

9 The Lord told Ahijah, whowas blind, that Jeroboam's wife was coming and shewas coming in disguise. The Lord told him exactlywhat to say to her. When Jeroboam's wife arrived, Ahijah said, "Comein, thou wife of Jeroboam." He asked why she waspretending to be someone else, and he said that he hadbad news for her. She was to take a message from theLord back to her husband. God was going to bring great evil on the house ofJeroboam because he had not kept God's command-ments nor had he followed God with all his , Jeroboam had done evil: he had created idolsfor the people to worship.

10 He even declared that thesegods had brought Israel "up out of the land of Egypt."Ahijah told Jeroboam's wife when her "feet enterinto the city, the child shall die." It happened just as hesaid. A few years later, Jeroboam died, and his sonNadab was king. After only two years, he was to the prophet's words, Nadab and all of thehouse of Jeroboam was destroyed. This was the pun-ishment for the "sins of Jeroboam .. which madeIsrael to sin."MEMORY VERSE:".. when Rehoboam had established the king-dom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook thelaw of the LORD, and all Israel with him.