Today a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. The man cried against the altar and said that a son would be born to the house of David named Josiah.
He would sacrifice the priests of the high places and human bones would be burnt on the altar. He gave him a sign that day that the Lord had spoken, saying that the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes poured out.
When the king heard the man saying these things, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him.” The hand which he stretched out against the man dried up so he could not draw it back to himself.
The altar was torn down and the ashes poured out, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. The king asked the man to pray for him so his hand would be restored. The man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and made how it was before.
The king said to the man to go home with him to refresh himself. He also said that he would give him a reward. The man of God said to the king, to give him half of his house, and he would not go in with him.
He would also not eat bread or drink water in that place, for it was commanded by the Lord who said, “You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.” So he went another way and did not return the way he came to Bethel.
Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that the man had spoken to the king.
Their father figured out which way the man went and saddled his donkey to follow him. He went and found the man of God sitting under an oak. He said to the man to go home with him and eat bread. But, the man of God told him that he could not because the Lord had commanded him.
The prophet told the man that he too was a prophet and an angel spoke to him and told him to bring the man back with him so that he could eat bread and drink water. But he had lied…
The man went back to the prophet’s house and ate bread and drank water. As they sat at the table the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. He cried to the man of God who came from Judah, and said that because he had disobeyed the Lord and not kept His commands, his body would not come to the tomb of his fathers.
After he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled his donkey and went on his way. He came across a lion on the road and it killed him. His body was thrown into the middle of the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside the body.
*The remarkable fact that the donkey did not run and the lion did not attack the donkey or disturb the man’s body clearly stamped the incident as a divine judgement.
And behold, men passed by and saw the body in the road and the lion standing by the body. They went and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. When the prophet who had brought the man back heard this, he went and found the body thrown in the road and the donkey and the lion standing there.
The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. The prophet took the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and bury him. He laid the body in his own grave.
*The old prophet did the only thing left for him to do in order to make amends for his deliberate and fatal deception.
After he had buried him, he told his sons that when he died he was to be buried in the same grave as the man of God and to lay his bones beside the man’s bones.
The saying that the man called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.
After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.
At that time Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, fell sick. Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise to see the prophet Ahijah. He told her to take bread, cakes, and honey with her to give to the prophet and ask what would happen to his child.
Jeroboam’s wife did as she was asked. Except the Lord came to Ahijah, and even though he could not see, the Lord told him that she was coming; so the disguise was pointless. The Lord told the prophet what he would say to Jeroboam’s wife when she arrived.
When she got there, Ahijah heard the sound of her feet and said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another?” Then he went on to explain that he was sent with unbearable news for her from the Lord.
Basically because Jeroboam did not follow the Lord’s commands and did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and made other gods and metal images, harm would come to the house of Jeroboam. Every male from Jeroboam would be cut off and the house of Jeroboam would be burned up.
None of them would be buried in the ground when they died. If they died in the city the dog’s would eat them, and if they died in the country the bird’s.
The prophet told her to rise and go back to her house. When her feet would enter the city, the child would die. All Israel would mourn for him and he would be buried. He would be the only one of Jeroboam that would go into a grave.
Moreover, the Lord would raise up for himself a king over Israel who would cut off the house of Jeroboam, and the Lord would strike Israel and root them out of their good land and scatter them beyond the Euphrates. This is what happens when they provoke the Lord to anger…you’d think they’d have that figured out by now!
The Lord would once again give up Israel for the sins of Jeroboam; for his sins, and for making Israel sin.
Jeroboam’s wife went home and as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and reigned, are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Is that Chronicles then, or 2 Kings?
The time Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. He died, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there.
Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all their fathers had done. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house. He also took away the gold shields that Solomon had made. King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house.
The rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. ? .
There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. Rehoboam died and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Abijam his son reigned in his place.