History and Prophecy - Part 1 [part2 of this article] by: Ronald L. Dart Jeroboam Here, Jeroboam, is introduced as a pivotal character in the history of Israel. Now at this point in time, Ill just pause for a moment to remind you, as you begin to read through the prophets from this point on, all the writing prophets will fall in this category. We have not gotten anywhere near any writing prophet yet. But as you get into the work of the writing prophets, you will find them divided into two camps. You will find those who live in Judah and wrote about Judah, Jerusalem and the sins of Judah, and then you will find a large body of them who lived in Israel, in the northern tribes and wrote of the sins of the northern tribes. Hosea is a particular illustration, or example, of that genre of prophet. So, you will find that the entire situation of northern tribes, from here and all through the entire 230 years of their history, is colored by what this one man, Jeroboam, does. 1 Kings 11:26: And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomons servant, whose mothers name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king. {27} And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king. Heres why he actually did this. Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. {28} And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph. The house of Joseph was composed of the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasses. {29} And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite. Now I mentioned to you Ahijah was the first of a new breed of prophet. He actually comes on the scene before the death of Solomon but he comes on because of what Solomon has done and because of what Jeroboam is about to do. Verse 29: The prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and Jeroboam had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field: {30} And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces. He tore it up into twelve pieces to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. {31} And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you: {32} (But he shall have one tribe for my servant Davids sake, and for Jerusalems sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.) Thirteen Tribes of Israel? You will notice here that this only accounts for 11 tribes. He said I am giving you ten, and Im giving him one. Whats the problem? We do know essentially who the 10 tribes are that went North. We do know historically that essentially Judah and Benjamin stayed in the South. Now if you figure that out for a moment and add the fact that Levi was principally in the South. You wind up with 13 tribes rather than 12. So the numerics of this are a little bit unusual. Of course, you may have understood already that the 13th tribe in Israel was achieved by the division of the tribe of Joseph into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasses, his two sons. Now what worked on this is that any division of the 12 tribes of Israel, in which Levi would not be figured, since Levi would not be given an inheritance, so Levi would not be counted. Levi then is pulled out, but because we divide Joseph into two tribes, we still have 12 tribes. Then if we have some count in which Levi is to be included, we put Ephraim and Manasses back into the one tribe of Joseph and we still count twelve. So the availability of the counting of twelve is always there. What happened in this particular division, in the final fulfillment of this prophecy, was that the 10 northern tribes, all of which can simply be named, everybody except Judah and Benjamin, broke away with Jeroboam. But Judah, not just one tribe, but two stayed in the South. 1 Kings 11:32: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant Davids sake, and for Jerusalems sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) {33} Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father. {34} Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servants sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes: {35} But I will take the kingdom out of his sons hand, and will give it unto you, even ten tribes. Is God the Author of Division? Now have you ever heard it said that God is not the author of division? Whoever said that was wrong, because this tells us that Jeroboam rebelled and revolted and left Solomon. It says the reason he did so is because a prophet of God came to him and tore a garment into twelve pieces, divided the kingdom, gave him ten and kept this other one for Solomons house. Who did it? God did it. Is God the author of division? Yes he is! In this particular case, He actually authored it, insisted upon it and worked it out that it would take place. 1 Kings 11:35: I will take the kingdom out of his sons hand,.... {36} And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put my name there. {37} And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel. {38} And it shall be. This is a very important statement in verse 38, If you will hearken (listen) unto all that I command you, and if you will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto you. {39} And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever. {40} Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. Now Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam because of this prophecy. Solomon somehow found out about the prophecy. It must have become common knowledge as to what was to take place. Faith in God Now wouldnt you think that a man who had been given that kind of a prophecy, you know, someone came up to you and tore up a garment and gave you back ten pieces and kept two and told you precisely what it meant. Then whenever Solomon died, you yourself would wind up being caught up, almost without your control, and swept into events and suddenly here you are in the north with full control, full leadership and total support of those ten tribes. Would you not also believe Gods statement that if you will obey me, keep My commandments, then I will make you a sure house? Dont you think you could have depended on that? Since you had seen the way the other part came to pass. You would have thought that Jeroboam could have. As history will show us, he did not. 1 Kings 1:40: Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. {41} And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? {42} And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. {43} And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead. The stage is set. Solomon is dead. The golden age of Israel is over. It had been quite stale for some time before this, because the adversaries of Solomon were getting stronger and he himself was getting weaker. Rehoboam Coronated as King 1 Kings 12:1 Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. This was the place for the coronation. This was the inaugural pulling everybody together to continue the kingdom. Verse 2: It came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;) {3} That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spoke unto Rehoboam, saying, {4} Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve you. {5} And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. During the Golden Age Now when you think about this for a moment, it was an interesting point in history, and certainly a turning point. During the reign of Solomon a great deal was done. It was a golden age in Israels history. They had peace from their enemies on every side. They were a world power, but all of this was not without a considerable cost to the people. When they had originally asked for a king, Samuel had protested to the people. God gave him a message and told him: I want you to tell the people what is going to happen, because of having this King and He went through and he talked about how the King will take your sons and your daughters. How he will take your sons for the military, he will take your daughters to make bread for the palace, he will take parts of your crops, and you will be taxed and indeed that was fulfilled. I gather it must haven gotten worse as the years went by and it reached an absolute peak at the end of the kingdom of Solomon. They tell us about all the gold of Solomons kingdom, so great in fact that silver was little accounted for in the days of Solomon, if you can believe that. Now this wasnt done without some cost. Somebody had to pay for all this. Some men had to die in fighting the battles for all of this. Who knows how many ships were sent out by Solomon and never returned. Sons that were seamen and were never seen again. This was all done but not without great cost. When it came down to it, the people never said a word about it all during the days of Solomon. Of course there had to be an enormous amount of respect for Solomon, he had a done a great deal for the people and I am sure a lot of the people regretted what had happened to him in his old age. Make Our Burden Lighter It is almost as though they came and said to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, look, we had to endure this from your father, but we are not going to take it from you. You either make our burden lighter or else. This was implicit, because they said, you make our burden lighter and we will serve you, He then sent them away to consult and try to determine what he ought to do. 1 Kings 12:6: King Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do you advise that I may answer this people? {7} And they spoke unto him, saying, If you will be a servant unto this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever. {8} But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him: {9} And he said unto them, What counsel give you that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which your father did put upon us lighter? {10} And the young men that were grown up with him spoke unto him, saying, Thus shall you speak unto this people that spoke unto you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us; thus shall you say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my fathers loins. {11} And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. What a shocking thing to say. What in the world was in their minds? What did they think they could do? What were they trying to accomplish with this? Did they believe that they could build a greater kingdom than Solomon? Were they going to reduce their own people to abject slaves as it were, because this is what it sounds like. They were going to add to their yoke. They were going to burden them down more. They were whipped before, but now they would be whipped worse. What reason could their be? Was it that Rehoboam didnt want to live in is fathers shadow? Did he want to do greater things than his father ever did? I suspect it was ego and vanity that was in the minds of Rehoboam and these young men. The Irony of it All The irony of it all is that if he had been willing to say yes, we will make the burden of taxation lighter. Yes, we will begin to reform some of the things. Yes, we will give you back your land. As they said, these people would be your servants forever. He would have had them from there on out. 1 Kings 12:12: Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. {13} And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old mens counsel that they gave him; {14} And spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Do you have any idea what that did to these people listening there? They came back with hope, and he destroyed it all, as they stood there and listened. Verse 15: Wherefore the king did not listen to the people; for the cause was from the LORD. Who was the author? God was the author! That he might perform his saying, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. {16} So when all Israel saw that the king listened not to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? That is in the house of David, who was represented by Rehoboam. Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to your house, David. So Israel departed to their tents. In other words, you take care of yourself and we will take care of ourselves. Verse 19: But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. {18} Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. {19} So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. The house of David was the ruling household of King David which was represented by Rehoboam. Jeroboam Made King of Israel 1 Kings 12:20: And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. {21} And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. Rehoboam was making plans to go up and end this, this was civil war, all of these states in the union, just like President Lincoln who got all of the armies together and was going to fight the battle and was going to heal the nation and bring them back together. In verse 22 another prophet speaks: But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, {23} Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, {24} Thus saith the LORD, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. Now a very remarkable thing takes place, for one time in their history, they listened to a man of God. They listened to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD. And it was done. The kingdom was divided. God had prophesied it through Ahijah, and He had brought it to pass through Jeroboam. It was done. If Jeroboam Would Obey God Now remember, Jeroboam had the promise that if he would obey God, if he would be like David, if he would be a man after Gods own heart, if he would be faithful to Him and no other, that God would establish him and his family. The indications are, there could have been incredible dynasties and kings of his own sons, generation after generation, sitting on the throne of a great kingdom in the northern part of Israel. If he would just obey, if he would just stay away from the idols, and not do as Solomon did. 1 Kings 12:25: Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from there, and built Penuel. Shechem was the capital of the northern tribes at this point in time. Jeroboam Did Not Have Faith 1 Kings 12:26: Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: {27} If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Now what is important about this is that having experienced the fulfillment of a dramatic prophecy in his own life, he was not able to have faith in the rest of that prophecy. He was not able to say in his heart, or in his mind, or somehow to bring himself to believe that this was of God, that God had brought it to pass, and that even when those nations were getting ready to come up and fight against them, to bring the kingdom back together again, that they stopped because God insisted on it, and God said No, this is of me. Jeroboam did not have the trust that God would preserve the kingdom in tact. He was afraid. And he said to himself If I let these people go up to Jerusalem to the house of God to do worship, their heart is going to return and the kingdom will be reunited and I am as good as dead. When did the People Go to Jerusalem? Now I would have to say that according to any rational thoughts of man that that is probably true. Lets stop for a moment and ask, when was it that the people went up to Jerusalem to do sacrifice? Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: They were not allowed to offer an offering just any old place. It was to be at Jerusalem and in certain times of the year. Jeroboam could easily see what was going to happen. The Feast of Tabernacles was coming up and autumn was in the air. When the first couple of cold fronts came through, the temperature began to drop a little bit, and everybody begins saying, this is the time of year that we go to the Feast of Tabernacles and the time is coming up to get everything together. Were going to Jerusalem to keep the feast. Jeroboam figured that it would not take very long for those people going down to Jerusalem to keep the feast and coming back, and going down again and coming back and pretty soon they will say: Why are we divided this way? Why cant we put this back together. He said to himself: How am I going to keep this from happening? 1 Kings 12:28: Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. {29} And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. {30} And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. {31} And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. {32} And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. I want to stop here for a moment to think about that. God’s Holy Days are Important Occasionally, Judah, was corrupted by idol worship, and even though they turned away from God repeatedly, they again and again repented and turned back to God. What is interesting as you study this is that in most cases, the focus of that repentance and that turning back to God, was the Holy Days. It was the Passover, or the Feast of Tabernacles, that was kept gloriously, in a way that they had never done it before, and it was a time of great renewal, and a great revival where the people turned to God and it focused on the annual Holy Days. So whenever you look down the list of the kings of Judah, in Halleys Bible Handbook, it gives you the list of them and has the dates of when they reigned, the approximate time, and what sort of a King they were: good, bad, indifferent, or worst, etc. Across the page is the list of the Kings of Israel, the northern tribes and they were bad, bad, worst, bad, the worst, awful. There is not one revival. Not one time, not one King listed as good in the entire 230 years of the history of the northern tribes of Israel. Two hundred and thirty years, and they never turned back to God. I suspect that they would basically say that the Holy Days dont need to be kept and just as sure as sunrise follows sunset, they didn’t keep them. They had become divorced from the sanctuary and they had become divorced from the Holy Days. This is the one continuing besetting sin of king after king after king, and it will say again and again that he departed not from the ways and the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who did sin and made all Israel to sin. Priests Made of the Lowest of the People Theres another thing that caught my attention in this passage of Scripture, and I think it is really worth stopping for just a moment to look at. 1 Kings 12:31 says: He made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. Now when I read that and began to wonder a little bit about it, it is kind of thought provoking. I can understand, of course, that having separated from Israel and having separated from the house of God, that you wouldnt have a Levite as a priest, unless you had a corrupted Levite to be your priest in this situation, but realizing that you couldnt have anybody of the house of Levi to be priest, why go to the lowest of the people? I suspect that Jeroboam sat back and said What kind of people do I want for priests? I dont want nobles, I dont want the intelligent, the wise, the dedicated, the devoted. I dont want respectable people, I dont want the charismatic leader type person. I want the lowest of the people. I dont think so, I think what he did was to make priests out of people who were available to suit his needs, to what he wanted done, and they turned out to be the lowest of the people. Why do you suppose that would have happened that way? You would think it would be wise to choose out among the noble or the intelligent or the aged and experienced, the man who has the respect of the people, wouldnt you? I wonder if it is because these men could be bought. They could be bought reasonably. They were right there, they were willing and able and their price wasnt to high. I think in any situation that you are going to find like this, you are going to wind up, if it becomes a matter of expediency or working out your own arrangements, you are going to wind up with the lowest of the people in this situation. Jeroboam Rebelled I want you to go over with me for a moment to 2 Chronicles 13 and let’s begin in verse one: Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. {2} He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mothers name also was Michaiah ..... And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Continuing in verse 4: Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam, and all Israel; {5} Ought you not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? {6} Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and has rebelled against his lord. {7} And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them. {8} And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David; and you be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods. {9} Have you not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever comes to consecrate himself (Margin says: to fill his hand) with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. The implication is that if the person who comes to fill his hands, to get, to accomplish, you wind up actually making this kind of person a priest. Here is the Abijah speaking to Jeroboam for what he did as he rejected the men who should be priests instead of accepting the lowest of the people. Now lets turn over to first Timothy and draw a little contrast between what Paul told Timothy of how he should be in a position of leadership among Gods people. 1Timothy 3:1: This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.The Greek word for Bishop is episkopos, (ep-is-kop-os;) , and it means in the simplest terms, an overseer. You seem to have listed here two categories of offices in the church. A deacon, or diakonos, (dee-ak-on-os); or servant of the church and an episkopos, (ep-is-kop-os;) or overseer of the church. More or less a pastor or bishop. Verse 2: A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; {3} Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; {4} One that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; {5} (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) {6} Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. {7} Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This is impressive when you think about it and compare or contrast it making a leader out of the lowest of the people. What does this say to us? You see what was actually taking place, and you will see other references that we will come to later on, that just about anybody who came to Jeroboam, and said I want to be a priest, was made a priest. Should you then when you come down to the Church of God, do that with people who want to be in the Ministry? Should you take anyone who wants to be a minister and make him a minister? I will tell you what you will wind up with, you will be making ministers of the lowest of the people. Now this isnt to say, that a man who wants to be in the Ministry is lowest of the people. Im talking about if that is your policy, as a bishop or a leader in the church or an evangelist as an existing minister. You are going to wind up with a pretty sorry Ministry. As you look at this thing that Paul wrote to Timothy, one thing becomes abundantly clear. You had better know any man you ordain as a bishop. You not only have to know him, you have to know him well. Youve got to know him and his children, and how those children behave. You have to be able to understand the little vagaries that sometimes do take place with his children and what they mean; because in some cases, albeit with misconduct of one child or two and with all of this occasionally, does not disqualify a man. You dont make your Ministry of unknown, or unnecessarily of people who want it, you make it of people who are qualified for the office of leader in the Church of God as manifested by a whole lot of things, that a person might do. Then you take a look at the next office in the church, the deacon. 1 Timothy 3:8: Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; {9} Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. {10} And let these also first be proved. A very critical qualification for a deacon, which Im afraid occasionally has been overlooked, Then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. What? You mean to tell me that a person has to use the office of the deacon before he can be one. Yes, thats what it says. Verse 11: Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. {12} Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. {13} For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Now then, do you make a man a deacon because he wants to be one? No you dont. If you just ordain those people who seem to want to be, who come to you and wants to be a Minister and he wants you to make him one, what are you going to wind up with, a deacon, Greek diakoneo, (dee-ak-on-eh-o), of the lowest of the people. Again, youre dealing with a man you know, whose character is obvious, he is actually proved in-service of the church. He has been given jobs to do that have been carried out. He has been there long enough for you to know where hes coming from. You just dont act quickly or halfheartedly. A lot of people, by the way, have noticed that the deacon has to be the husband of one wife and say: Does that mean that the church practiced polygamy? This was common in the church and a lot of people had more than one wife, but the minister couldnt have more than one wife. Interesting thought, if you think about it for a moment, however, if thats true, it would mean, that its alright that a member could be double tongued but the deacon couldnt be. A member shouldnt be double tongued either. The fact of the matter is, there are going to be members who are double tongued and you dont put them out of the church, because they are. You give them time to overcome and God gives them time to overcome and you hopefully can preach to them and help them to grow in what theyre doing. Just because a person is given to wine doesnt mean that you put him out of the church and refuse to allow him to be a part of the body of Christ, and so forth, but is it all right for a member to be given to wine and yet a bishop must not be given to wine? Is it alright for a member to be? No, its not, but if he is, you dont put him out. In other words, a person could be member of the church with a fairly broad spectrum of weaknesses that you should not put into the Ministry. You dont want to end up with your ministry being of the lowest of the people, but with people whove been proved, people with some ability, people that have high-caliber morals and with a great deal of integrity and who are not double tongued and not given to much wine, and not greedy of money. These are all nice characteristics to see developed in the Ministry. Jeroboam Ordained a Feast 1 Kings 12:32: And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah. Jeroboam ordained a feast, like the Feast of Tabernacles but not the same. And he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. {33} So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. Now, what was Gods response to this action that he did, to this change that he made to this most fundamental of Gods Holy Days? Next month, we will go into that. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This article was transcribed with minor editing from a Sermon given by Ronald L. Dart titled: History and Prophecy - Part 1
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 01:07:14 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015