Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
There was a penalty from God placed on Solomon because he followed the gods of his many wives and set up worship places for those gods.
I Kings 11
1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:
2 Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.
8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
(In the New Testament churches today many sacrifice to idols set up by their church, idols which are not commanded by God in the New Testament Bible.)
9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.
Because of David, God said the kingdom would not be divided during Solomon's lifetime but it would be divided after his life.
I Kings 11
12 Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
13 Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen.
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II Chronicles 9:31 And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
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God divides the kingdom:
Rehoboam, the son of Solomon is now king of all the tribes of Israel.
Jeroboam, who had fled from Solomon during his reign, returns to Israel after Solomon has died.
II Chronicles 10
4 Thy father (Solomon) made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.
But God is going to divide the kingdom, so the following happens.
Rehoboam seeks the counsel of the old men who had advised his father Solomon, and they thought it would be good for Rehoboam to loosen the yoke that Solomon had placed upon Israel.
Then king Rehoboam sought the counsel of the young men and they advised Rehoboam to make the yoke even more difficult upon Israel.
Rehoboam chose to go with the advice of the young men.
II Chronicles 10
14 And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
15 So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform HIS word, which HE spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
I Kings 11
30 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee 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 thee:
32 (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
33 Because that they have forsaken ME, and have worshipped 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 David his father.
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With this "rough" answer, which Rehoboam gave to Israel, the 10 tribes of Israel separated from Judah and Rehoboam, and they made Jeroboam their king. So, God divides the kingdom into two nations: Judah & Israel
17 But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
Now there would be Judah and Israel. The divided kingdom as God had told king Solomon that HE would do after his death and during his son's reign.
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The will of God:
One can think, "If only Rehoboam had followed the counsel of the old men then all the tribes of the children of Israel would have been one tribe."
But the word of God was going to be fulfilled, the penalty from God over Solomon because Solomon followed his strange wives and set up other gods according to the gods of his wives.
So the tribes are divided into the following:
Judah with Rehoboam as king.
Israel with Jeroboam as king.
Both kings would do evil in the sight of God and penalties of God followed their evil.
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II Chronicles 11
And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he gathered of the house of Judah and Benjamin an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men (180,000), which were warriors, to fight against Israel, that he might bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam.
2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
3 Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,
4 Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of ME.
2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
3 Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,
4 Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of ME.
And they obeyed the words of the Lord, and returned from going against Jeroboam.
Notice that God used a prophet to turn Rehoboam from attacking Jeroboam.
Therefore the kingdom is now divided into Judah and Israel.
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II Chronicles 11
5 And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah.
12 And in every several city he put shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side.
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2 Great sins of Jeroboam:
In the meantime Jeroboam, greatly fears that his people might return to Rehoboam and to Judah for Jerusalem was the place to worship, and Jerusalem was in the kingdom of Rehoboam.
In the meantime Jeroboam, greatly fears that his people might return to Rehoboam and to Judah for Jerusalem was the place to worship, and Jerusalem was in the kingdom of Rehoboam.
* So Jeroboam had 2 golden calves molded for the people of Israel to worship and set those calves in Bethel and in Dan and he told the people of Israel to go there to worship in front of the calves instead of having to go to Jerusalem to worship.
* And Jeroboam would not allow the Levites to minister to things of God as God had appointed them to do. Instead Jeroboam appointed the lowest of men to be "priests" and the Levites had to leave and move to the nation of Judah to be able to work in their appointed ministries.
These were great sins done by Jeroboam. God cited these "sins of Jeroboam" many times in other sections of scriptures as example of doing evil in the sight of God.
II Chronicles 11
14 For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord:
15 And he (Jeroboam) ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.
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Rehoboam turns from God:
II Chronicles 12:1 And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.
The divided nations both sinned against God.
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II Chronicles 12:9 So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
God raised up adversaries against both Judah and Israel.
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II Chronicles 12
14 And he (Rehoboam) did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.
15 ... And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
16 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers (died), and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.
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So today we say, "I'd never do that. I'd never worship golden calves."
No ... today people in churches set up:
* Ministers who call themselves "Reverend." And they make their preachers into idols. And the preachers do not refrain the people, and the preachers love to be called, "Reverend."
* In some church groups, they call their ministers, "Father". Jesus said: Call no man your father. Matthew 23
* They set up religious images in church groups. They set up man made crosses. Some groups teach their followers to cross themselves, which is not in New Testament Bible.
* The Catholics set up "Holy Water" for the people to use in religious context. This is not commanded by God in Bible. Therefore it is only by man and has no power of God.
* They confess sins to man and not to God.
* By all these idols, they trust in man instead of trusting in God, just as the nation of Israel trusted in the Golden Calves set up by Jeroboam.
It we are not told to do something in New Testament Bible, and it is set up in the New Testament church for us to do, it is a idol, and if we do that we practice idolatry in our religion.
And as Jeroboam would not allow the Levites to work in things of God although they were appointed by God to minister things of God:
Today they remove apostles and prophets from the ministers that Jesus gave to the church as ministers after HE arose, and they set up the New Testament church as they will.
After Jesus arose, HE set up the ministries for the New Testament church as follows:
Ephesians 4
11 And HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
* Ministers who call themselves "Reverend." And they make their preachers into idols. And the preachers do not refrain the people, and the preachers love to be called, "Reverend."
* In some church groups, they call their ministers, "Father". Jesus said: Call no man your father. Matthew 23
* They set up religious images in church groups. They set up man made crosses. Some groups teach their followers to cross themselves, which is not in New Testament Bible.
* The Catholics set up "Holy Water" for the people to use in religious context. This is not commanded by God in Bible. Therefore it is only by man and has no power of God.
* They confess sins to man and not to God.
* By all these idols, they trust in man instead of trusting in God, just as the nation of Israel trusted in the Golden Calves set up by Jeroboam.
It we are not told to do something in New Testament Bible, and it is set up in the New Testament church for us to do, it is a idol, and if we do that we practice idolatry in our religion.
***
And as Jeroboam would not allow the Levites to work in things of God although they were appointed by God to minister things of God:
Today they remove apostles and prophets from the ministers that Jesus gave to the church as ministers after HE arose, and they set up the New Testament church as they will.
After Jesus arose, HE set up the ministries for the New Testament church as follows:
Ephesians 4
11 And HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
The ministers in the church today are: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers
And the congregations love it as their churches are set up by the ways of men and they no longer speak of sins of the New Testament Bible, so no one can be offended today when they come to church, and the number of people attending their churches grows as sin is removed along with scriptures which pertain to sin.
We are no different today in church than they were in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, except for the fact that we do have the Bible to go by today, even if we do not go by the Bible. Having the Bible might even make us more guilty in the eyes of God than the people were in the time of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. For we can know the truth by the Bible.
But the stage is set for the return of Jesus, for the churches had to fall away from scripture which allowed antichrist to come into the churches, and this had to happen before Jesus could return.
II Thessalonians 2
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
(Churches would fall away from scripture, thus allowing the man of sin to be inside the church itself.)
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
And the congregations love it as their churches are set up by the ways of men and they no longer speak of sins of the New Testament Bible, so no one can be offended today when they come to church, and the number of people attending their churches grows as sin is removed along with scriptures which pertain to sin.
We are no different today in church than they were in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, except for the fact that we do have the Bible to go by today, even if we do not go by the Bible. Having the Bible might even make us more guilty in the eyes of God than the people were in the time of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. For we can know the truth by the Bible.
But the stage is set for the return of Jesus, for the churches had to fall away from scripture which allowed antichrist to come into the churches, and this had to happen before Jesus could return.
II Thessalonians 2
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
(Churches would fall away from scripture, thus allowing the man of sin to be inside the church itself.)
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
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