The Lord God had told the men in Israel not to marry women from other countries because they worship the bad ones and would turn the men’s hearts away from the Lord God who is our life and gives us all good things. This would cause bad things to happen.

But king Solomon saw and loved and took many women from other countries and they turned his heart away from the Lord God to other gods, gods from the bad ones, who didn’t make us or the world or all the good things we like.

 

 

 

He built places for them in Jerusalem and bowed down to them.

 

 

 

 

So the Lord God told Solomon, Since you have done this, and turned away from what I said to do, I will tear the kingdom away from you

 

 

 

 

and give it to someone who is your servant.

 

 

But I will let you keep one of the 12 families in Israel because your father David was to faithful to Me.

Then the Lord God stirred up the heart of three men from other countries who gathered men to them and made big trouble for Solomon and Israel.

God sent his prophet Ahijah to tell Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam, I will tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten of the families of Israel because they have turned away from Me and bowed down to the bad ones.

But I will keep Solomon as leader over one family because of David, My servant’s sake, to have a light before me always in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to be in this world.

 

 

 

I will take you and make you king and you can do whatever you want as king over Israel.

 

 

And if you will listen to all I say and do what I have said, I will make you a family of kings after you from you, like I did for David.

 

 

 

But I will make trouble for David’s family for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

Solomon was king for 40 years and then slept with his fathers and was buried in Jerusalem. And his son, Rehoboam was king in his place.

 

 

 

 

 

During the years that Solomon had been king he had put heavy taxes and work on the people that he ruled.

So when Solomon was dead and his son was sitting on the throne to rule Israel, the people came to king Rehoboam and asked him to take off some of the heavy load that Solomon had put on the people.

Rehoboam asked the older leaders of the people if they thought he should take off some of the load and then asked the young leaders what they thought.

The older men said, Take off some of the load and the people will stay with you forever; but the younger men said, Tell the people you are going to add more burdens to their load and put awful punishment on them if they don’t obey.

 

Rehoboam did what the young men said and talked meanly to the people, so the people turned away from him

 

 

 

 

 

 

and followed the servant of Solomon, Jeroboam, and they let him be their king.

This came from the Lord to do what God had said because Solomon turned away from the Lord to follow bad ones that aren’t God at all.

King Rehoboam sent the army after the people to bring the people back under him,

but God, the King over all kings, sent a message to him saying, Do not go up against your brothers to fight. All of you go home. This split of the people is from me.

 

 

 

 

So Jeroboam was king in the north over ten families of Israel and Rehoboam was king in the south part of the land over two families of Israel.

But Jeroboam didn’t believe God’s promise that if he kept following God the Lord, the Lord would make his family kings forever.

Instead of trusting God, he became afraid the people would leave him and go back to the other king when they went back to Jerusalem to the feasts to love God and to celebrate the Lord God for saving them from bad things and from being slaves in Egypt and for giving them this great land to live in and all good things.

Jeroboam made two golden calves to worship, calves that couldn’t do anything, they couldn’t walk or talk or even breath. He put one at each end of the land and told his people they were their gods that gave them life and helped them.

 

 

 

This was the very first thing that the Lord God had said not to do because it isn’t true. It is a lie from the bad ones that leads people to bad troubles and death.

The Lord God sent a man to tell His words to Jeroboam, to tell the bad things that would happen because of the bad thing Jeroboam did.

God was going to give a child to be born who would be king and do what God wanted; to break down the altar and smash the golden calves. Because doing these things cut the people off from the Lord God and His goodness and blessing.

 

The peoples lives would have bad things because of this king instead of the good blessings God wanted to give them.

 

God gave signs to the king and the people that these words were from Him and what he said would happen.

Then the kings son got sick. So the king told his wife, the queen, to dress up like someone else and go ask God’s prophet what was going to happen to the son.

 

 

 

God told the prophet that she was coming and what to say to her.

God gave signs to the king and the people that these words were from Him and what he said would happen.

When she got there he said, Come in, queen, why do you pretend to be someone else? I have heavy news for you.

 

 

Go tell the king this is what God the Lord says, I lifted you up from the people and made you their king, and tore the kingdom from the house of David and gave it to you.

But you have not done like David and followed me with all your heart but have done bad things from the bad one who makes much suffering and pain for my people.

 

 

 

Since you have done this I will cut off all the young men from your family.

The Lord will strike down those in Israel who stop my blessing by following the bad ones and He will take Israel out of this good land that I gave them because of this king who makes the people to sin.

 

 

Jeroboam was king over the people of Israel for 22 years then he slept with his fathers and his son, Nadab was king in his place.