Bible Fun For Kids: 2. King Jeroboam

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Lesson 2

The Divided Kingdom: Jeroboam

First King of Israel

1 Kings 12:20-14:20 & 2 Chronicles 10

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Saul, David and Solomon were the first kings. Last week we studied Rehoboam. He was Solomon’s son and he became the king after Solomon died. God had said that the kingdom would be divided, and we will continue learning about the kings.

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God let Rehoboam have two tribes as part of his kingdom: Judah and Benjamin. They were the southern kingdom. Rehoboam was the King of Judah. The rest of the tribes rebelled and Jeroboam became the king of the other tribes known as the Northern Kingdom or King of Israel. We learn how that happened in 1 Kings 12-14.

Solomon saw that Jeroboam was brave and hard-working and made him an officer over the workforce.

Ahijah the prophet met Jeroboam when he left Jerusalem. They were alone in the field and Ahijah put a new garment on him. Ahijah took the garment and tore it into 12 pieces. He told Jeroboam to take 10 of the pieces.

Ahijah said that “God will take the kingdom away from Solomon and give 10 tribes to Jeroboam. Solomon would keep one tribe because of David and one for Jerusalem. They worship idols and do not walk in God’s ways. God said that you will be king over Israel.”

Solomon searched for Jeroboam to kill him.

But, he went to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died. When Solomon died, the people sent word to Jeroboam and he returned.

The people gathered together with the new king Rehoboam. They told him that his father Solomon had made their lives a burden and they asked that he lighten their load. He told the people to return in 3 days. When they were assembled together again, Rehoboam said he would make their burden even harder. He listened to his friend’s advice instead of the older men.

This was God’s plan to divide Solomon’s kingdom. The people rebelled against this burden. They sent for Jeroboam and made him king over Israel. The only ones that stayed with Rehoboam was Judah. Rehoboam gathered 180,000 men from Judah and Benjamin to fight. So, he had the tribes of Judah and Benjamin for his two tribes. Shemaiah went to Rehoboam and told him “The Lord says you will not go fight the people of Israel because this is because of Me.” They obeyed God and didn’t fight.

Jeroboam lived in Ephraim in the mountains. He made two calves of gold and told the people that it was too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship. He put one in Bethel and the other in Dan and told them “Here are your gods!” He built shrines in high places and made priests from all the tribes except for the tribe of Levi. He created a new feast and sacrificed to the gold calves he made. He made these changes “in his own heart” and these sacrifices and incense burning were not what God said to do.

There was a man of God that told Jeroboam that a child named Josiah would be born and will stop the priests from false sacrifices. When King Jeroboam heard about this, he stretched his arm over the altar and said to arrest him. His hand instantly withered and the altar split apart and the ashes poured out. Jeroboam asked him to pray and return his hand to normal. The man of God did and Jeroboam’s hand went back to normal.

Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick. He asked his wife to go see the prophet Ahijah disguised so he wouldn’t recognize her. But God told Ahijah who it was and what to say.

He told her that because Jeroboam had not kept the commandments of God, their son would die when she returned to the city. It happened just as God said and the people mourned for Abijah.

Jeroboam was the first king of Israel for 22 years. When he died, his son Nadab became king.

This set of worksheets is an idea from Christina Barkley. As you can see, there is an assortment of printing options and a teacher's answer sheet is included. Click here to download.

Jeroboam is one of the kings with a worksheet available.

Click here to download.

The application packs contain any extra posters, worksheets, maps, etc. specific for the king(s) listed. Each set is different and may contain printables that will be used for more than one king.

The Jeroboam application pack includes the fill-in-the-blank worksheet, word search, maze, map, the information poster, the posters shown above and more.

Click here to download the application pack.