The Sin of King Jeroboam - The Book of 1 Kings

In this Bible Story, we watch the fragile kingdom of Jeroboam descend into idolatry and pride. Jeroboam erects altars of golden calves and establishes pagan priests. The Lord sends a man from Judah to rebuke him, but his disobedience does not cease. This story is inspired by 1 Kings 12:25-13:8 & 13:33-34. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is 1 Kings 12:28 from the King James Version.

Episode 118: Jeroboam, Israel’s new king, built a new capital in Shechem to separate themselves from Judah. However, because the temple of God was in Judah, people would still travel from his kingdom to worship in Judah. Jeroboam feared this would lead to the loss of his kingdom and his life. So he, like Aaron so many years before, made two golden calves and introduced them as Israel's new gods. Slowly Jeroboam added more and more idols into Israel’s public worship. God would not stand for the corruption of His people and sent a prophet to let him know what would become of his idolatrous altar.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray. Whereupon the King took counsel and made
two calves of gold, and said, unto them, it is
too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold
by Gods o Israel, which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, First Kings twelve twenty eight. Protect me,
Lord from the moments in my life when I want

(00:23):
to go back to the golden calves and false idols
that held me captive to limited beliefs and ungodly behaviors.
I confess that whatever success You've blessed me with isn't
a sign for me to take my foot off the
spiritual gas pedal and abandon the ways and principles that
have elevated my life and brought peace and understanding to

(00:45):
everything I do. The sins of Jeroboam will not be
copied in my life. The rejection from godly wisdom and
alignment will not be the action I take when I
am confronted for compromising my standards. When I am faced
with tough choices, I will be like Josiah, the descendant

(01:06):
of David, and I will bring down anything that isn't
in alignment with your words or your ways. For the
rest of my days, I will keep my mind and
heart focused on the main thing, and that will forever
be you in Jesus name. Amen, Thanks for making prayer

(01:33):
a priority in your life. To hear the Bible come
to life. Stay tuned for the Bible in a Year,
brought to you by Bible in a Year dot.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Com the sin of King Jeroboam. In our last story,
we witnessed the splitting of Israel. Solomon's sin had caused
God to strip him of his legacy. Ria Boam, Solomon's son,

(02:06):
used the throne as an opportunity to be cruel. Jeroboam,
the son of a widow and old servant of King Solomon,
was named king in place of Rioboam. So Riaboam ruled
over Judah while Jeroboam ruled over the other ten tribes
of Israel. Now we see that even the noble Jeroboam
is vulnerable to the traps of sin in idle worship,

(02:30):
and how God shows no partiality when it comes to
taking away kingdoms. Inspired by the Book of First Kings.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
This is Jack Graham with today's episode of the Bible
in a Year. In our last time together, we heard
how Rae Baam's pride and foolishness cost him most of
his kingdom. When given an opportunity to show mercy and
kindness to his people, he chose rather to oppress them
in an attempt to prove his own strength and gain
more power. And so Israel became a kingdom divided, with

(03:04):
ten tribes of the north serving Jeroboam, a man who
had served Solomon and was chosen by God to rule
much of Israel. Today we'll hear how, despite being warned
by God not to turn away from him and his commandments,
Jeroboam succumbs to temptations and sins in the eyes of
the Lord, And just like Solomon and Raaboam before him,

(03:26):
his disobedience will prove costly, as God will judge him
because of his unfaithfulness. Let's listen now to the word
of God.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
It had been over five hundred years since God led
his people out from the grips of Egyptian slavery. Since then,
the Hebrew people had learned to wrestle with their own
sin and shame. They learned to cling to God through
wilderness and hardship. In that time, a wonderful blossoming had
taken place in the hearts of every man and woman. However,

(03:57):
Sin still lurked at the borders of Israel, like a
hungry lion, seeking whom it may devour. Jeroboam, the new
king of Israel, built up a new capital in the
city of Shekam. He worked diligently and with much compassion. However,
his time spent in Egypt had muddied his mind. He
had forgotten the history of Israel and its history with

(04:20):
golden calves. Jeroboam noticed that people were still traveling to
Jerusalem to worship God at the Temple. Wary of this,
Jeroboam thought to himself, unless I am careful, the people
will return to the dynasty of David. They will kill
me if they spend too much time over there. So,
under the advice of his counselors, Jeroboam sought to build

(04:42):
a place of worship in the new capital. He amassed
fine gold and precious jewels from the storehouses and built
a beautiful new monument in the center of the city. There,
among the nation of Israel stood two massive golden calves.
The very image of ancient idolatry stood in the presence
of the people of Israel. Unaware of his ignorance, Jeroboam

(05:05):
yelled to the people, behold the gods who brought you
out of Egypt. Jeroboam was elated at his new project.
People came from all over to worship the golden calves.
Jeroboam smiled. However, God was burning with anger. Under the
influence of his time spent in Egypt, he also erected

(05:25):
pagan shrines and ordained his own priests to tend to them.
He established religious festivals and parties. Jeroboam led the people
of Israel into a time of laughter, revelry, and feasts. However,
their hearts drifted away from God. This God would not allow.
At God's command, a man of God came up from

(05:46):
Judah and went to Bethel, where Jeroboam was burning incense
at the altar. The sun had set and the people
of Israel were partying down below in the city streets.
Jeroboam lit matches and burned incense when he heard of
voice from behind him, Oh Altar, oh Alter. Jeroboam turned
around to see the man from Judah standing a few

(06:07):
yards behind him. The man approached him with great force, saying,
the Lord has spoken, saying a child named Josiah will
come from the dynasty of David. He will come and
make sacrifice of your priests and false worship. The words
shook Jeroboam, but he did not budge from his idolatry.
Jeroboam shrugged and continued worshiping. The man struck his staff

(06:31):
under the ground, demanding Jeroboam's attention. The Lord has promised
you this sign. Your precious altar of evil will split
in half, and ashes will pour forth from it like snow.
King Jeroboam stood up from where he was kneeling. Fuming
with anger. He turned to his guards who were with him,
and yelled, seize that man. Spit fell from his face

(06:54):
as he screamed. He pointed to him, but as he
was yelling, a jolt of pain coursed through his arm.
Jeroboam fell to the floor holding his right arm. It
was paralyzed in a pointing motion. As he fell to
the floor, writhing in pain, cracks could be heard from
behind him. He turned his head and watched his altar
split in two. The sound of stone cracking pierced his ear.

(07:16):
Drums and ash poured out from the middle and flew
through the air like snowfall. Jeroboam could barely stand the
pain from his arm. He turned to the man and said, please,
ask the Lord to restore my arm. He did, and
his arm was restored. The king rose to his feet.
Sweat dripped from his whole body. He panted and stared

(07:39):
at the broken altar. He gripped his arm and faced
the man, saying, please, come to the palace with me
and eat. I will give you a gift. The man
looked at Jeroboam. He was a pathetic sight. Indeed, the
man turned his back to the king and said, even
if you gave me half your kingdom, I would not
go with you. I would not eat or think anything

(08:00):
in this city of darkness. And with that he departed
back to Judah. Despite all that Jeroboam just witnessed, his
heart did not turn from its corruption. He continued to
ordain priests and burn incense at the altar of false gods.
His idolatry seeped into the hearts of Israel. God would
not allow any king to corrupt the hearts of his people.

(08:23):
Soon he would remove the throne from Jeroboam in order
to protect his sheep.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Today's scripture begins with King Jeroboam establishing the capital of
the Northern Kingdom in Shachem, the new king, showed potential
for greatness, and he acted kindly and graciously towards his people,
as David had once done and Solomon after him. But
within Jeroboam's heart was a seed that lives in all
of us. Unfortunately, it is the seed of sin that

(08:53):
was planted long ago when Adam and Eve turned from
God in the garden. God had told him that if
he would obey his commands, Jeroboah's kingdom would be established.
Yet Jeroboam followed the seed of doubt and allowed this
seed to grow in his heart. As he saw his
people traveled to Jerusalem to worship God in his dwelling place,

(09:16):
the Temple, Jeroboam began to fear that he would lose
power and sway over them, and that raye Boam would
soon have the kingdom once more. In One Kings twelve
twenty seven, we see what Jeroboam was thinking when he
says to himself, if this people go up to offer
sacrifices in the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then

(09:38):
the heart of this people will turn again to the Lord,
to Raeboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me
and return to Raeboam, king of Judah. So clearly he
was afraid of losing power and control. But rather than
believing God, he built a place of worship in Shachem.
What's worse, he didn't build a temple for the Almighty God.

(10:01):
He repeated the mistakes the terrible sin of Erin, the
brother of Moses, and erected golden cash for people to worship.
This angered God and brought judgment five hundred years before,
and it angers him again when Jeroboam does the same thing.
Jeroboam also repeated the pagan practices of the Egyptians, among
whom he had lived when he was exiled escaping Solomon's sword.

(10:25):
He built shrines to pagan gods. The Lord would not
allow this to continue. He loved his children too much
to watch as they gave their hearts to lifeless idols
and forget their covenant relationship with him. So God sent
a prophet to Jeroboam to rebuke him and to deliver
some very bad news. The kingdom that God had entrusted

(10:47):
to Jeroboam would be taken from him. A man named
Josiah of the line of David would rise up and
destroy Jeroboam's priest and false gods, and he would send
a sign. The altar on which Jeroboah made sacrifices to
his pagan deities would be split open right before his eyes.
The king, rather than repenting, became angry and ordered his

(11:09):
men to seize the prophet, But God struck Jeroboam down
with intense pain. His arm shriveled up. At that very moment,
he watched as the altar was torn in two and
ashes poured from it. There was no question that this
was God's doing, and the king recognized this. He pleaded
with the prophet to ask God to restore his arm,

(11:30):
and God did just that. But when Jeroboam asked the
man of God to stay with him and have a
meal so he could give him a gift, the prophet refused,
saying he would never remain there with Jeroboam, not at
any price. It may seem a small point, but it
is a valuable lesson about how we should deal with
people who reject God, that we should separate ourselves from

(11:52):
worldly idols and people who do not honor God, genuine
biblical separation. This man had given Jereboam a word from
the Lord. He had given witness to God's power, but
he was not about to remain in the king's inner circle.
He would not allow himself to be seduced by the
power and the riches of the King because he refused

(12:14):
to turn away from God. So he left. But Jereboam
did not change his ways. He remained unfaithful, and soon
the Lord would deal with his unfaithfulness in order to
love and protect his own people. Dear Lord, may we
never be lured into the sin of idolatry, including the
idols that people put in their hearts, the idols of

(12:35):
money or prestige or power, or even sinful Satanic idols
that people worship. Today. God, may we be alert that Satan,
like a roaring lion, is roaming throughout the whole earth,
seeking whom he may devour. May we always look to you.
May we protect ourselves with your armor, the armor of God.

(12:56):
And may we pray always knowing that you will deliver
us from evil. For this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to today's Bible in a Year podcast.
I'm Jack Graham from Dallas, Texas. Download thepray dot Com
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(13:19):
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