Today's Daily Bread

GOD DIVIDES ISRAEL

Date : Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Passage : 1Kings 12:16~33
Keyverse : 19  
16
When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!" So the Israelites went home.
17
But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18
King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
19
So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20
When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
21
When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin - a hundred and eighty thousand able young men - to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22
But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
23
"Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,
24
’This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’" So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
25
Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.
26
Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.
27
If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."
28
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
29
One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
30
And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.
31
Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.
32
He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.
33
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
The king of Israel, Rehoboam, refused to listen to his people when they asked him to be a merciful king. Instead, he promised a hard, uncompromising rule. This alienated most of the rest of the kingdom, and so ten tribes broke off from the tribe of Judah. When Rehoboam sent out Adoniram to put down the rebellion, he was murdered, and the king barely escaped with his own life. After the northern kingdom made Jeroboam king, Rehoboam mustered a huge army to take back the nation. But God warned him not to even try it, as this was from the Lord. The nation of Israel was torn in two, its glory days gone forever. This was a result of the sin of Rehoboam.

The Lord had promised Jeroboam that, if he obeyed his word, the Lord would make an enduring dynasty. But Jeroboam did not value the word of God. When he became king of Israel, he quickly abandoned the word of God and set up convenient places of worship. He made two locations in Israel as places to worship the Lord, and set up a golden calf in both places, so the people wouldn’t have to travel to Judah to worship the Lord. He also significantly loosened the qualifications to serve as priest. The nation of Israel was ensnared in sin from the beginning.

Prayer: Father, when we don’t value your word, sin is the inevitable result. Help our leaders to hold to your word.
One Word: Leaders must fear God