Bible Society of South Africa

Bible Reading Plan – Day 149

Bible text(s)

1At the LORD's command a prophet from Judah went to Bethel and arrived there as Jeroboam stood at the altar to offer the sacrifice. 2Following the LORD's command, the prophet denounced the altar: “O altar, altar, this is what the LORD says: A child, whose name will be Josiah, will be born to the family of David. He will slaughter on you the priests serving at the pagan altars who offer sacrifices on you, and he will burn human bones on you.” 3And the prophet went on to say, “This altar will fall apart, and the ashes on it will be scattered. Then you will know that the LORD has spoken through me.”

4When King Jeroboam heard this, he pointed at him and ordered, “Seize that man!” At once the king's arm became paralysed so that he couldn't pull it back. 5The altar suddenly fell apart and the ashes spilt to the ground, as the prophet had predicted in the name of the LORD. 6King Jeroboam said to the prophet, “Please pray for me to the LORD your God, and ask him to heal my arm!”

The prophet prayed to the LORD, and the king's arm was healed. 7Then the king said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat. I will reward you for what you have done.”

8The prophet answered, “Even if you gave me half your wealth, I would not go with you or eat or drink anything with you. 9The LORD has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.” 10So he did not go back the same way he had come, but by another road.

The Old Prophet of Bethel

11At that time there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the prophet from Judah had done in Bethel that day and what he had said to King Jeroboam. 12“Which way did he go when he left?” the old prophet asked them. They showed him the road 13and he told them to saddle his donkey for him. They did so, and he rode off 14down the road after the prophet from Judah and found him sitting under an oak. “Are you the prophet from Judah?” he asked.

“I am,” the man answered.

15“Come home and have a meal with me,” he said.

16But the prophet from Judah answered, “I can't go home with you or accept your hospitality. And I won't eat or drink anything with you here, 17because the LORD has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.”

18Then the old prophet from Bethel said to him, “I, too, am a prophet just like you, and at the LORD's command an angel told me to take you home with me and offer you my hospitality.” But the old prophet was lying.

19So the prophet from Judah went home with the old prophet and had a meal with him. 20As they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet, 21and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, “The LORD says that you disobeyed him and did not do what he commanded. 22Instead, you returned and ate a meal in a place he had ordered you not to eat in. Because of this you will be killed, and your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

23After they had finished eating, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet from Judah, 24who rode off. On the way, a lion met him and killed him. His body lay on the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside it. 25Some men passed by and saw the body on the road, with the lion standing near by. They went on into Bethel and reported what they had seen.

26When the old prophet heard about it, he said, “That is the prophet who disobeyed the LORD's command! And so the LORD sent the lion to attack and kill him, just as the LORD said he would.” 27Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey for me.” They did so, 28and he rode off and found the prophet's body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion still standing by it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey. 29The old prophet picked up the body, put it on the donkey, and brought it back to Bethel to mourn over it and bury it. 30He buried it in his own family grave, and he and his sons mourned over it, saying, “Oh my brother, my brother!” 31After the burial, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this grave and lay my body next to his. 32The words that he spoke at the LORD's command against the altar in Bethel and against all the places of worship in the towns of Samaria will surely come true.”

Jeroboam's Fatal Sin

33King Jeroboam of Israel still did not turn from his evil ways, but continued to choose priests from ordinary families to serve at the altars he had built. He ordained as priest anyone who wanted to be one. 34This sin on his part brought about the ruin and total destruction of his dynasty.

The Death of Jeroboam's Son

1At that time King Jeroboam's son Abijah fell ill. 2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you, and go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives, the one who said I would be king of Israel. 3Take him ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Ask him what is going to happen to our son, and he will tell you.”

4So she went to Ahijah's home in Shiloh. Old age had made Ahijah blind. 5The LORD had told him that Jeroboam's wife was coming to ask him about her son, who was ill. And the LORD told Ahijah what to say.

When Jeroboam's wife arrived, she pretended to be someone else. 6But when Ahijah heard her coming in the door, he said, “Come in. I know you are Jeroboam's wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. 7Go and tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to him: ‘I chose you from among the people and made you the ruler of my people Israel. 8I took the kingdom away from David's descendants and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who was completely loyal to me, obeyed my commands, and did only what I approve of. 9You have committed far greater sins than those who ruled before you. You have rejected me and have aroused my anger by making idols and metal images to worship. 10Because of this I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will kill all your male descendants, young and old alike. I will get rid of your family; they will be swept away like dung. 11Any members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

12And Ahijah went on to say to Jeroboam's wife, “Now go back home. As soon as you enter the town your son will die. 13All the people of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He will be the only member of Jeroboam's family who will be properly buried, because he is the only one with whom the LORD, the God of Israel, is pleased. 14The LORD is going to place a king over Israel who will put an end to Jeroboam's dynasty. 15The LORD will punish Israel, and she will shake like a reed shaking in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land which he gave to their ancestors, and he will scatter them beyond the River Euphrates, because they have aroused his anger by making idols of the goddess Asherah. 16The LORD will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and led the people of Israel into sin.”

17Jeroboam's wife went back to Tirzah. Just as she entered her home, the child died. 18The people of Israel mourned for him and buried him, as the LORD had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

The Death of Jeroboam

19Everything else that King Jeroboam did, the wars he fought and how he ruled, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. 20Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. He died and was buried, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

King Rehoboam of Judah

(2 Chr 11.5—12.15)

21Solomon's son Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshipped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon.

22The people of Judah sinned against the LORD and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done. 23They built places of worship for false gods, and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. 24Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practised all the shameful things done by the people whom the LORD had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country.

25In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26He took away all the treasures in the Temple and in the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. 27To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates. 28Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields, and then returned them to the guardroom.

29Everything else that King Rehoboam did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. 30During all this time Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other. 31Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

King Abijah of Judah

1In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Abijah became king of Judah, 2and he ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. 3He committed the same sins as his father and was not completely loyal to the LORD his God, as his great-grandfather David had been. 4But for David's sake, the LORD his God gave Abijah a son to rule after him in Jerusalem and to keep Jerusalem secure. 5The LORD did this because David had done what pleased him and had never disobeyed any of his commands, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. 6The war which had begun between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued throughout Abijah's lifetime. 7And everything else that Abijah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

8Abijah died and was buried in David's City, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.

King Asa of Judah

9In the twentieth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, 10and he ruled for 41 years in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. 11Asa did what pleased the LORD, as his ancestor David had done. 12He expelled from the country all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan places of worship, and he removed all the idols his predecessors had made. 13He removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol and burnt it in the valley of the Kidron. 14Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship, he remained faithful to the LORD all his life. 15He placed in the Temple all the objects his father had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated.

16King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel were constantly at war with each other as long as they were in power. 17Baasha invaded Judah and started to fortify Ramah in order to cut off all traffic in and out of Judah. 18So King Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the Temple and the palace, and sent it by some of his officials to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, with this message: 19“Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory.”

20King Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, the area near Lake Galilee, and the whole territory of Naphtali. 21When King Baasha heard what had happened, he stopped fortifying Ramah and went to Tirzah.

22Then King Asa sent out an order throughout all Judah requiring everyone, without exception, to help carry away from Ramah the stones and timber that Baasha had been using to fortify it. With this material Asa fortified Mizpah and Geba, a city in the territory of Benjamin.

23Everything else that King Asa did, his brave deeds and the towns he fortified, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. But in his old age he was crippled by a foot disease. 24Asa died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.

King Nadab of Israel

25In the second year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, King Jeroboam's son Nadab became king of Israel, and he ruled for two years. 26Like his father before him, he sinned against the LORD and led Israel into sin.

27Baasha son of Ahijah, of the tribe of Issachar, plotted against Nadab and killed him as Nadab and his army were besieging the city of Gibbethon in Philistia. 28This happened during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. And so Baasha succeeded Nadab as king of Israel. 29At once he began killing all the members of Jeroboam's family. In accordance with what the LORD had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh, all Jeroboam's family were killed; not one survived. 30This happened because Jeroboam aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, by the sins that he committed and that he caused Israel to commit.

31Everything else that Nadab did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. 32King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel were constantly at war with each other as long as they were in power.

1 Kings 13:1-15:32GNBOpen in Bible reader
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