Study Desk

"At times the land will get so dry that no food will grow, or a great sickness will spread among the people. Sometimes the crops will be destroyed by locusts or grasshoppers. Your people will be attacked in their cities by their enemies, or will become sick.

"Everyone sins, so your people will also sin against you. You will become angry with them and will hand them over to their enemies. Their enemies will capture them and take them away to a country far or near.

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people gave the Temple to God.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people home, full of joy. They were happy because the Lord had been so good to David, Solomon, and his people Israel.

I have chosen this Temple and made it holy. So I will be worshiped there forever. Yes, I will always watch over it and love it.

People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the Lord , the God of their ancestors, the God who brought them out of Egypt. They decided to follow other gods and worshiped and served them, so he brought all this disaster on them.'"

All Solomon's work was done as he had said from the day the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was begun, until it was finished. So the Temple was finished.

So she said to King Solomon, "What I heard in my own country about your achievements and wisdom is true.

Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people left.

Rehoboam had told the people, "Come back to me in three days." So after three days Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam.

So the king did not listen to the people. God caused this to happen so that the Lord could keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.

When all the Israelites saw that the king refused to listen to them, they said to the king, "We have no share in David! We have no part in the son of Jesse! People of Israel, let's go to our own homes! Let David's son rule his own people." So all the Israelites went home.

‘The Lord says you must not go to war against your brothers. Every one of you should go home, because I made all these things happen.'" So they obeyed the Lord 's command and turned back and did not attack Jeroboam.

There were people from all the tribes of Israel who wanted to obey the Lord , the God of Israel. So they went to Jerusalem with the Levites to sacrifice to the Lord , the God of their ancestors.

Shishak had twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. He brought troops of Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites from Egypt with him, so many they couldn't be counted.

Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem because they were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, "This is what the Lord says: ‘You have left me, so now I will leave you to face Shishak alone.'"

When the Lord saw they were sorry for what they had done, the Lord spoke his word to Shemaiah, saying, "The king and the leaders are sorry. So I will not destroy them but will save them soon. I will not use Shishak to punish Jerusalem in my anger.

But the people of Jerusalem will become Shishak's servants so they may learn that serving me is different than serving the kings of other nations."

So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to take their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates.

Then worthless, evil men joined Jeroboam against Rehoboam, Solomon's son. He was young and didn't know what to do, so he could not stop them.