1 Kings 12 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 Kings 12:1-4,20,22-33

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labour and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.’

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.

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 is now likely to 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.

A. Find Out:

1. How did Jeroboam come to be back in Israel? v.2
2. What was the outcome for Jeroboam? v.20
3. What was Jeroboam’s fear? v.26,27
4. So what did he do? v.28-30
5. What more did he do? v.31
6. How further did he create his own religion? v.32,33

B. Think:

1. How had Jeroboam forgotten God’s word to him?
2. What was his fear?
3. How did he seek to deal with that?

C. Comment:

      For the sake of time and space we have omitted Rehoboam’s folly from our study – you can read it yourself – we’ll pick it up in the series on the kings of Judah. Jeroboam had been in exile in Egypt but when he hears that Solomon is dead he returns to his own land. Immediately he is called by the people, who recognise his leadership qualities, to go to the assembly with the new king. Then follows Rehoboam’s folly, stirring up antagonism in the people, and rebellion follows. Jeroboam is a leader in the ten tribes who leave, and so is made king by them. So far this is all as God had said it would be.

     At this point Jeroboam SHOULD have directed Israel towards the Lord but he’s evidently not a man of faith because he looks at the situation and reasons with limited human intellect and acts accordingly – wrongly! Very wrongly! He reasons that people will still go to Jerusalem to meet with the Lord and if they do that they will turn back to Rehoboam. So he institutes a substitute religion to satisfy the people. He creates an idol at each end of the kingdom for the people to focus on, shrines for them to go locally and a festival annually to gather the people. It all looks all right; it all looks like it is creating spirituality in the land for the people; the only trouble is that it is godless. God has been completely left out of all this. This is just simply pagan idolatry!

D. Application:

1. God alone is to be the focus of our worship.
2. Let there be no substitutes!