The story of Jeroboam’s idolatrous shrines, his withered hand, and the lion that killed the prophet who condemned Jeroboam’s apostasy contains important lessons for us today. Discover the connections in this strange story with the prophecies in Revelation 13.

<p>The story of Jeroboam’s idolatrous shrines, his withered hand, and the lion that killed the prophet who condemned Jeroboam’s apostasy contains important lessons for us today. Discover the connections in this strange story with the prophecies in Revelation 13.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Pathway to Paradise Ministries

Tim Rumsey

Jeroboam’s Withered Hand and the Mark of the Beast

♪ Hosea, the prophet, wrote in the fourth chapter of his short book, he said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

We don't wanna fall in that same error, do we?

And so we're gonna be studying for some understanding and knowledge this morning.

And 1 of the major ways that the Bible expresses truth and teaches truth, and Jesus did this himself, in many of the things that he spoke about, was to refer back to stories earlier in the Bible.

So in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus said, after giving all the signs of his second coming then he made a comparison and he said the comparison would be at the end of time.

If you want to understand what the situation in the world will be like just look at the days of Noah right?

As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.

Jesus also made similar statements about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

When God destroyed those 2 cities because of their sinfulness, he said, remember Lot's wife.

And we could look at many other examples of this.

In fact, the entire book of Revelation, or much of it, is really pulling from things found earlier in the Bible, including this story, and we're gonna see that.

And the story that we're gonna look at today has many connections with end time prophecy.

We'll make some of those connections today.

But in some ways, this story presents a clearer picture about the final deceptions that are going to come on this earth than we even find in some of the prophecies in Revelation.

And I think by the time we're finished, hopefully that'll be clear.

And we're gonna see these deceptions not only in regards to the world, you know, the things happening out there, but also some of these deceptions that we as Christians and we as Seventh-day Adventist Christians need to be on guard against.

Before I go any further, I'm going to ask for the Lord's guidance and leading, so let's pray.

Our Father in Heaven, what a privilege it is to open your word together.

As we do this, we do it with a bit of fear and trembling because we realize that this book was written not by humans but by the Creator of the universe and we do it with a bit of fear and trembling because we realize that the things you say in here are important.

So we ask that we would hear and understand your message through your word this morning.

Please send your Holy Spirit to guide and direct us.

1 Kings chapter 12 I'm going to start by just summarizing the story.

We're going to start in 1 Kings 12 verse 25 and then go all the way through chapter 13.

So we're not going to read every single verse right now.

I'm just going to quickly summarize the story.

Then we'll back up and we'll start working our way section by section through the story and see what picture emerges.

And this story takes place very shortly after the kingdom of Israel splits into the 10 northern tribes of Israel and then the 2 southern tribes known as Judah.

And that split happened after Solomon died and Solomon's son Rehoboam was taking the throne and the children of Israel, the tribes gather there and they ask Rehoboam, what kind of ruler are you going to be?

Are you going to be like your father Solomon who taxed us and worked us heavily?

Or are you going to be a little more lenient?

Are you gonna be more like Solomon's dad, David?

And Rehoboam says, let me get back to you in a few days.

And if you know the story, you know what he did next.

He first asks all of the old advisors, the aged men that had been counselors to his father Solomon.

And they said, if you want to be a good king, if you want to have a firm grip on this kingdom, you need to go a little bit easier on these folks than your father did.

And then he went over to the young guys, his peers that he'd grown up with.

And they said, you need to come down hard on these people.

You need to treat them more harshly, you need to tax them more heavily and so forth than your father did.

And so that's the advice that Rehoboam takes and he comes back 3 days later and he says if he thought my father was tough I'm gonna be worse.

If he did this to you I'm gonna do this and this to you.

The 10 northern tribes say, forget this, we're gonna basically form our own kingdom.

And so Jeroboam, who you'll see right here in verse 25, he is the 1 that ends up being king of these 10 northern tribes.

And Rehoboam maintains control of Judah and Benjamin, those 2 southern tribes, which is where Jerusalem was.

And now I'll summarize the story beginning in verse 25.

Jeroboam realizes now, a short time later, okay, I'm king over these 10 northern tribes, but there's a problem the capital of this Whole thing called Israel is down there in Jerusalem.

That's in Judah the 2 southern tribes How am I going to consolidate power?

How I'm going to keep people from going to the temple which is beautiful I mean this is still a brand new temple right that Solomon had built how do I keep people from going there and worshipping there and if they go and worship there eventually they're going to return to Rehoboam and I'm gonna be out of a job and maybe lose my head over the whole thing.

So he thinks about this and he says, okay, the best way to do this is to set up some false places of worship, or my own places of worship.

And so he does 1 at the northern border of the kingdom, that was in Dan, and he sets up another temple or shrine at the southern border between those 10 northern tribes and Judah.

And that southern shrine or temple was in Bethel.

And much of this story is gonna focus on Bethel and that region.

Now we'll read some of these verses in greater detail in just a minute, but he doesn't stop there.

The Levites whom God had appointed to serve as the priests and those that took care of the sanctuary and the worship, They wanted nothing to do with Jeroboam's false worship.

And so they kind of started drifting down south toward Jerusalem and he said, I need some priests to run these things.

And the Bible says that he took of the lowest of the people and he made them priests.

He sets up a false day of worship and we'll get to that.

And so he sets up this whole system of false counterfeit worship.

And then he sets himself up as the high priest of this false system of worship.

Now about this time as things are getting underway a prophet shows up and we're not even told his name he's just called a man of God and this is the beginning of chapter 13 now and as Jeroboam is standing there in front of his altar this prophet comes and stands before him and he basically condemns what Jeroboam is doing he condemns the altar and everything that's happening and he calls down a curse from heaven and sure enough the altar splits in half right there and there's ashes that are kind of dumped out on the ground.

And you can imagine how Jeroboam felt about this.

And so he stretches out his hand like this to say grab hold of this guy and his hand withers up.

Shocking and strange but it's highly significant in terms of Bible prophecy.

Well immediately he confesses at least enough to ask to be healed and he says, please pray for me.

And the prophet says, okay, I'll do that.

And he prays and sure enough, Jeroboam's hand is healed.

And then comes the strange part of the story.

As this unnamed prophet is returning home, first the king, Jeroboam, says, will you come to my place?

I'd like to give you some food and a reward for healing me.

And the prophet says, no, I can't do that.

God told me expressly to not eat bread or drink water or even go home by the way I came.

And as we move through these middle verses in chapter 13 there is another prophet or perhaps we could say a false prophet that catches up with this man of God and says hold on where are you going first of all he asked are you the man of God or the prophet that cursed the altar and he says I am.

He says well I have a message for you an angel of the Lord told me that you need to come to my house and they kind of go back and forth for a little bit but eventually this man of God is convinced and so he goes to this false prophets house and as they're eating a true message comes through this false prophet and he stands up at the table and probably points his finger at this this prophet of God and says you have made a drastic mistake And as a result of your disobedience, you will not be buried with your fathers.

And sure enough, as he's going back home to Judah that afternoon, a lion meets him in the road and kills him.

We're going to go back to 1 Kings 12, verse 25, and we'll just work our way through some of the significant parts of this story.

And I'm going to start with King Jeroboam.

And let's look more carefully at some of the things that he does.

Verse 26, Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, 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 to their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Israel." So what was the critical issue in Jeroboam's mind in regards to the stability of his kingdom?

If we could boil it down into 1 word it starts with W.

He recognized that worship would be the success or the downfall of his kingdom.

So I'm just gonna write some significant words as we go through here.

Now let's look more carefully at some of the aspects of this worship.

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Jeroboam’s Withered Hand and the Mark of the Beast

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