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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Two days ago in our reading, Solomon died and his son, Rehoboam, or Re as we're calling him, took over the throne. Today we launch into the reign of the new King Rey. We've got a lot of important stuff to cover today, and it's a big day in Israel's history. So if you're listening at a speed faster than 1x, you may want to slow me down and you may even want to listen twice to make sure you catch it all. As soon as Solomon died and his son King Rey took the throne, Jeroboam, or Jerry, as we're calling him, came back from hiding in Egypt. He fled there because Solomon was trying to kill him, because he had received a prophecy that he would be king over 10 of the tribes. So Jerry has come back to Israel to see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Then Jerry gathers a bunch of people to approach King Rey about a problem that had been developing over the last few years, which was Solomon had been so involved in his construction projects that he'd started to treat his workers like slaves. The people know it isn't right, and they ask King Re to lighten their load a bit. King Re confers with some of his counselors, and they say the people are right, but he doesn't like their advice. So he asks his buddies for a second opinion. But these guys grew up in the palace with him, and they have no idea what it's like to be a regular person who has to do manual labor. They aren't compassionate, and they have no experiential wisdom and leadership. They suggest that he increase the people's workload. King Rey does what his buddies suggest, and the text tells us that it was because God had ordained that he would reject the people's request as a part of God's plan to fulfill his prophecy. To Jerry, and this is the moment when the kingdom is divided. This part can get kind of confusing. And since we're going to be dealing with this for a while, I want to explain a bit about how the divided kingdom works and, and give you some tips for remembering the important parts. 10 of the tribes become the northern kingdom, also known as Israel, and two of the tribes, Judah and Benjamin, become the southern kingdom. And they're often collectively referred to as Judah. Here's how I remember. Which is Israel starts with an I, and they're the northern tribes. Judah starts with a J, and they're the southern tribes. If you're reading from top to bottom. They're laid out in alphabetical order. I comes before J. Maybe that will help you. But if not, we've also included a map in the show notes. One important thing to remember is that during this time of division, when we read the word Israel, it's now referring to only those 10 tribes in the Northern Kingdom, not all 12 tribes. King Rey remains king, but only over the southern kingdom of Judah. And then the northern kingdom of Israel makes Jerry their king. And again, if it helps Jerry, J comes before R. So if you're looking from top to bottom, the kings are laid out in alphabetical order too. Rey is not happy about the 10 tribes breaking away from him, so he gathers an army to go fight them. But God positions a prophet to speak to him and warns him not to fight because he would be fighting against God's plan. So they shut it down. In the meantime, Jerry moves up north, but he feels threatened because he realizes his people are probably still going to travel down to the southern kingdom to make their sacrifices to go. And then they might get all nostalgic and decide to reunite with King Rey in the southern kingdom. And then Rey will come kill him. Jerry decides that the best way to keep people from making that pilgrimage south is to set up his own place of worship in the northern kingdom. Brilliant idea, right? Also wicked. He sets up two altars. One at Bethel, which used to be the religious capital before Jerusalem, and one at Dan. Jerry decides to make dun dun dun two golden calves and sets one up in each city. I feel like I know where this is going, don't you? He sets up his own temples, appoints his own non levite priests, establishes his own days for feasts and sacrifices, and just generally does whatever he wants without any regard for God simply because he's afraid of losing power. Fear will drive you to unholy ends. Chapter 13 gets kind of crazy. A man of God shows up to rebuke Jerry, but Jerry is not having it. He points at the man and orders him to be killed. But then his hand immediately withers. Then the altar is torn down just like the man said would happen. The man prays for Jerry and his hand is restored. Jerry tries to win the favor of this obviously powerful man, but the man remains resolute. Word of all this reaches an old prophet who lives nearby and he goes to track down the man of God. He lies to him and says, God told me you're supposed to come to my house for dinner. First of all, he sounds like a serial killer. Second the prophet really is a prophet, not a serial killer. And he tells the man of God he made a terrible mistake by listening to him instead of God and that the punishment is death. Wow. As it turns out, the prophet is right, and the man of God is killed by a lion on his way home that day. The moral of this story is to obey the voice of God, not the voice of man. Despite all that has happened, King Jerry keeps worshiping at the high places and keeps ordaining any old Brando as priest. He isn't repentant. That major obvious sign God gave him of a withered hand and a healed hand, those weren't enough to change his heart. Then Jerry's son gets sick, and now Jerry knows they need real help, not metal livestock. He sends his wife in disguise to see Ahijah, the same prophet who tore his clothes and gave 10 pieces to Jerry when he prophesied that Jerry would be king. Ahijah is old now and can't see very well. But before Jerry's wife even arrives in her disguise, God gives him a heads up that she's on her way. When she arrives, he calls her out. And then he has terrible news. For their son will die. Like his promise to David, God's promise to Jerry was contingent upon obedience. Since Jerry doesn't follow Yahweh, Yahweh takes the kingdom from him, and he suffers the consequences of his sin, just like David did. Jerry's sin hurts so many other people. We never sin in a vacuum. Our sin always impacts others. Jerry dies, and he's succeeded by his son Nadab. Meanwhile, back in the southern kingdom of Judah, Rey is still reigning. But things aren't going well there either. They're sinning too. Setting up high places and pillars and male cult prostitutes. The division between the two kingdoms persists. And after Rey dies, his son Abijam takes his place. A lot happened in today's reading. Where did you see your God shot? Despite all of man's idolatry and wickedness, there was a comforting little phrase that reminded me of God's compassionate heart. In 1413, when Jerry's son dies, the verse says, all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel. When we think of God taking someone in death, it's easy to think of it as a cruel and angry act. But here we see another side of God that's easy to miss. He took the one who pleased him. I think there's something incredibly sweet about that. But Just to clarify, God didn't need another angel like well meaning people sometimes say. Because first of all, people don't become angels when they die. Angels are a whole different kind of being and they're actually a lower order of created being than humans because they're not made in God's image like we are. So that would be a downgrade for us if we had to become angels when we die. And second of all, God doesn't need anything. He is entirely self sufficient. He took the boy because he delighted in him. That's all just delight. He brought him home to himself. So the boy escaped the wicked world his earthly father ruled and went to the peaceful home of his heavenly Father. That's a fantastic trade off, truly, because he's where the joy is I'm a big fan of the Dwell Audio Bible app. Not just because I'm an auditory learner, but because for thousands of years people have engaged with scripture by hearing it and listening is still one of the best ways to connect with God's Word. We've partnered with well to bring my daily recaps with right into their app. Not only can you listen to each day's reading, but you can also hear my recaps right inside the app. If you're reading along with TBR in 2025, check out the Dwell Audio Bible app. Look for it in the App Store or Google Play and get a free 7 day trial or click the link in the show notes. There's a good chance you may have no idea exactly how many people are behind the scenes of all our TBR operations. And every single day it takes a whole team to bring you to Bible Recap. Each episode is researched, written and recorded by me, Tara Leigh Cobble, and sound engineered by Allison King. Emily Pickell is our Recaptains Manager, Abby Dane is our Communications Manager and oversees church partnerships. Sarah Yocum, Sally F. Phillips and Emily Anderson manage our social media. 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