In the year 973 B.C., Nabat and Zeruah had a child, and that child’s name was Jeroboam. Little did they know, that baby boy would become the ruler over ten of the twelve tribes of Israel.
When Jeroboam was 38, he had a child named
Nadab, Nadab was born in the year 935 B.C. Somewhere in between the birth of Nadab and Jeroboam’s birth, Jeroboam became a servant for King Solomon. And in between Jeroboam becoming a servant, and the birth of Nadab, Jeroboam had Abijam.
A year after Nadab came into the world, Jeroboam
received a prophecy from God, telling Jeroboam that he would become king of Israel. King Solomon heard of this and grew extremely angry, so Jeroboam hid in Egypt under protection of the pharaoh. Jeroboam hid in Egypt for a duration of four years. He then returned to Israel and learned that Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, had become king. Jeroboam knew that now was his time to become king, and in the early times of the year 931 B.C., that was exactly what happened.
Israel was now divided, ten of the northern tribes formed Israel, two of the southern tribes formed Judah. The newly founded Israel had Jeroboam as leader, Judah had Rehoboam. But Jeroboam feared one thing, that the people would have no reason to stay. And in late 931 B.C. he had a plan, create a new religion that focused on things you could see. He created idols, alters, temples all against God. One day while watching a sacrifice take place a man walked up and shouted “This alter shall fall! God is displeased and shall destroy your fake idols, your fake god, All of it!”. This of course upset King Jeroboam, he then reached out to grab the man, but before he could grasp the man’s garbs Jeroboam’s hand withered up like a raisin. He of course had his hand fixed, but he lost many followers that day.
At this time Rehoboam had died and his son, Abijah, had become king. Unlike his dad, Abijah wanted to bring Judah and Israel back together. In the year 911 B.C., Abijah called Jeroboam to a battle, Abijah had 400,000 men and Jeroboam had 800,000, when the armies met thousands died almost instantly. In the end Abijah won, killing every single soldier Jeroboam had. Jeroboam retreated and had to deal with what the people thought of such a crushing defeat. Soon after the battle his son Abijam falls ill, Jeroboam calls for his prophet Ahijah. When Ahijah arrives he tells Jeroboam “Because of your sins against God all your descendants shall die violent deaths after this firstborn.”. Later that month Abijam died, Jeroboam was crushed with sorrow and guilt, he then died soon after Abijam, Nadab then becomes king. Jeroboam had reined Israel for 22 years, he was 62 when he died. Jeroboam was not a good king in the perspective of listening to God, but in the way of ruling his people he did a good job. This has been the life of a king who would set the stage to make Israel slowly decline into a ravaging demise of what once was a mighty civilization.
By: Alex Kahl
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