Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Two days ago in our reading, Solomon died and his son, Rehoboam, or Ray, as we're calling him, took over the throne. Today, we launch into the reign of the new King Ray. 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 Ray, 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 Ray 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 had started to treat his workers like slaves. The people know it isn't right, and they ask King Ray to lighten their load a bit.

King Ray 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 passionate, and they have no experiential wisdom in leadership. They suggest that he increase the people's workload. King Ray 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 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 10 give you some tips for remembering the important parts. Ten 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 Which.

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 Ray 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, J comes before R. So if you're looking from top to bottom, the kings are laid out in alphabetical order, too. Ray 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 God.

And then they might get all nostalgic and decide to reunite with King Ray and the Southern Kingdom, and then Ray 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 users, one at Bethel, which used to be the religious capital before Jerusalem, and one at Dan. Jerry decides to make 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 unh Holy ends. Chapter 13 gets 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 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 Ahija, the same prophet who tore his clothes and gave 10 pieces to Jerry when he prophesied that Jerry would be king. Ahija 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 her. Their son will die. Like his promise to David, God's promise to Jerry was contingent upon obedience. Since Jerry doesn't follow Yahwe, Yahwe 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, rei is still raining, but things aren't going well there either. They're sinning, too, sitting at pie places and pillars and male cult prostitutes. The division between the two Kingdoms persists, and after Ray 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 14:13. 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 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 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 have to squeeze a lot of content into this 7 Minute podcast, so I'm excited that we can also offer you a deep dive on the gospel of Matthew. It's called Knowing Jesus as King, and it's our first ever Bible study. And it's been picked up by Sam's Club. You guys, this is a big deal. Sam's Club doesn't usually carry Bible studies, so we would love to shock them with how well it sells in hopes that maybe they'll even stock more Christian content and Bible studies. So while you're stocking up on triple A's and paper towels, grab a copy or four. And I'm sorry we don't have any free sample have any free samples to offer you unless our Matthew episodes of TBR count for that.