AGE: 10 - 11 YEARS
STANDARD/GRADE: V & VI
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LESSON – 18
JEROBOAM’S HAND BECOMES STIFF
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In the previous lessons we
had learnt how some of the greatest kings ruled Israel and also about the
beautiful Temple built by King Solomon. The nation of Israel consisted of 12 tribes
and the priestly tribe Levi. King Solomon ruled over all the 12 tribes of
Israel. He was considered to be the wisest person on earth because God had granted
him special wisdom. King Solomon loved God and did many good things to please
God during the beginning of his reign. As years passed, King Solomon married
many foreign wives and started to build altars for foreign gods to please his
wives. He soon turned away from God and began to worship these false gods
himself. God appeared to King Solomon twice in dreams and warned him not to go
astray. But King Solomon failed to take heed of God’s advice. God told Solomon
that since he did not keep God’s laws, the kingdom was going to be torn away
from him and given to someone else.
After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel was
divided into two kingdoms. God gave 10 tribes of Israel to a man named Jeroboam
and he became the king. It was called the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of
Israel. King Jeroboam made Shechem the capital of the
Northern Kingdom. King Solomon’s son Rehoboam became King of only two
tribes, Judah and Benjamin. It was called the Southern Kingdom or the Kingdom
of Judah. Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom.
The Temple of God built by King Solomon was in Jerusalem, the Northern ten tribes did not have a separate place to worship, so people from both the Kingdoms worshipped in the Temple at Jerusalem. King Jeroboam was afraid that his subjects would be influenced to join King Rehoboam’s side when they visited Jerusalem for worship. To overcome this fear, Jeroboam built two new sanctuaries (places of worship) in the towns of Bethel and Dan in Northern Israel. He setup golden idols in the form of calves and called them as God (Elohim), the name almost exclusively reserved in the Holy Bible to refer to the one true God.
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Jeroboam brazenly told the Israelites that those were the gods which brought them out of the land of Egypt and hence they need not go all the way to Jerusalem to worship God. King Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival celebrated in Judah. He appointed people whom God did not approve of as priests according to his own wishes.
One day, as King Jeroboam was standing beside the
altar to make an offering, a “man of God” arrived there from Judah. He was sent
by God to prophesy against the false altar at Bethel. The man of God cried out
against the altar saying, "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says:
'Look, a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. He will sacrifice
on you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifices here and human bones
will be burned on you.' That was an astounding prophecy, since a king named
Josiah would not be born for another six hundred years in Israel.
To affirm the prophecy the
Lord gave a sign to King Jeroboam that the altar would split apart and its
ashes would be poured out. King Jeroboam disliked what he heard, since the
priests appointed by him in the Temple of the golden calves had never uttered a
word against him. So, he stretched out his hand and angrily commanded that the man
of God be seized. Suddenly something happened! His stretched-out hand was
paralyzed and he was not able to pull it back. At that time the altar split
open and the ashes poured out, fulfilling the sign from the Lord. The king pleaded
with the man of God to intercede with God and pray for his hand to be restored.
The man of God did so and Jeroboam’s hand was immediately restored.
King Jeroboam tried to please the man of God and
invited him to his home. But the man of God declined and explained that God had
strictly commanded him not to stop anywhere in Israel. The prophet told the
king that even if he were to give him half of his possessions, he would not go
with him and neither eat nor drink in that place. For God had given him strict
orders not to eat or drink from that place and also not to return home through
the same way. So the man of God from Judah started his travel back home on
another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel.
On his way back home, the man of God met
an old prophet who lied to him saying that God had sent him to take him home to
dine. The old prophet convinced the man of God from Judah by saying that he too
is a prophet who gets special messages from God. The man of God did not enquire
of God and believed the old prophet’s lie. He went to the old prophet’s house. While
they were having their supper, the old prophet suddenly received a true word
from God against the man of God from Judah. God spoke through the old prophet
to the man of God and stated his displeasure at the man of God for defying his
word, going back to Israel, eating bread and drinking water. His mistake
brought disaster and was later killed by a lion when he was about to continue
his journey back home.
Listening to lies and acting according to them is
equally bad as speaking lies. Satan is the originator of all lies. He is called
as the “father of lies” in the Holy Bible (John 8:44). Misrepresenting the
truth by adding, deleting, exaggerating, diluting or twisting the information
with an intention to change the outcome contributes to lies. There are many
warnings in the Holy Bible against listening to lies. The word of God is truth
(John 17:17) and all lies work contrary to the purpose and essence of the word
of God. Anyone who listens to lies and accepts them without trying to find the
truth because it is convenient, comfortable or adavantageous and acts
according to it shares in the punishment of the liars. Sometimes it leads to
permanent and irreversible consequences, without a second chance to repent as
we see in the case of the man of God from Judah. The people of Israel who
listened to King Jeroboam’s lies and worshipped the golden calves also had a
miserable ending. Even after all these things happened, King Jeroboam did
not change his ways and continued his wicked deeds, which led to his downfall.
Bible
Reference: I Kings 12:25-33; 13th & 14th
Chapters
Memory Verse: See to
it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that
turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long
as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s
deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13 NIV).
ASSESSMENT
ACTIVITIES
Fill in the blanks:
1. King
Jeroboam made ……………….. the capital of the Northern Kingdom.
2. King Jeroboam setup golden idols in the form of ………….. and
called them as God.
3. The Lord gave a sign to King Jeroboam that the altar would
split apart and its ……………. would be poured out.
4. King Jeroboam’s wife visited Prophet …………….. to inquire if her
son Abijah would live.
Give short answers:
1.
Why did the people from the ten Northern tribes visit Jerusalem?
2.
What did the man of God cry out against the altar?
3.
What did the man of God tell King Jeroboam when he invited him home?
4. During King Jeroboam’s reign how was priesthood determined?
Answer in
brief:
1. Elaborate on the circumstances
that led to King Jeroboam’s hand being paralyzed.
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