Study Desk

When you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, you told your servant Moses to say to them, "From all people on earth, the Lord God has chosen you to be his very own."

The Lord our God was with our ancestors to help them, and I pray that he will be with us and never abandon us.

I pray that the Lord our God will remember my prayer day and night. May he help everyone in Israel each day, in whatever way we need it.

Then every nation will know that the Lord is the only true God.

Obey the Lord our God and follow his commands with all your heart, just as you are doing today.

Then they will answer, "We know why the Lord did this. The people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods."

I praise the Lord your God. He is pleased with you and has made you king of Israel. The Lord loves Israel, so he has given them a king who will rule fairly and honestly.

People from every nation wanted to hear the wisdom God had given him.

Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married three hundred other women. As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the Lord God.

Solomon also worshiped Astarte the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon.

Solomon built shrines on a hill east of Jerusalem to worship Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Molech the disgusting god of Ammon.

The Lord God of Israel had appeared to Solomon two times and warned him not to worship foreign gods. But Solomon disobeyed and did it anyway. This made the Lord very angry,

Here is how God made Rezon son of Eliada an enemy of Solomon: Rezon had run away from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah.

Then he said: Jeroboam, take ten pieces of this coat and listen to what the Lord God of Israel says to you. "Jeroboam, I am the Lord God, and I am about to take Solomon's kingdom from him and give you ten tribes to rule.

"Solomon and the Israelites are not like their ancestor David. They will not listen to me, obey me, or do what is right. They have turned from me to worship Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of Ammon.

Meanwhile, God told Shemaiah the prophet

"Please pray to the Lord your God and ask him to heal my hand," Jeroboam begged. The prophet prayed, and Jeroboam's hand was healed.

a message for the prophet from Judah: Listen to the Lord 's message. You have disobeyed the Lord your God.

Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: "Jeroboam, you know that I, the Lord , chose you over anyone else to be the leader of my people Israel.

Everyone in Israel will mourn at his funeral. But he will be the last one from Jeroboam's family to receive a proper burial, because he's the only one the Lord God of Israel is pleased with.