This is the Bible Book Club.

I'm Heather.

And I'm Susan.

And we're in the book of First Kings.

Welcome to the club.

Last episode in Chapter 12, the kingdom that David fought so hard to unite, divided.

Rehabom, the son of Solomon, was to become king, but there was a conflict

in the north because of a heavy yoke that Solomon had placed on the people. Rehobom informed the

people he would make it worse, not better. The ten tribes in the north rebelled and chose Jerobom

to be their king, just as the prophet

Aijah had said. They became the northern kingdom, or Israel, and Rehoboam retained the

southern kingdom or Judah. Jeroboam, the new king of Israel, initiates idolatry, and he leads

the northern kingdom away from worshiping God. His idolatry then makes him a benchmark

of evil which future kings of Israel will often be compared. And spoiler alert, not many of them are

going to be called good. Only a few. Most of them unfortunately become the evil comparison.

And he's the beginning. The beginning of the evil. Okay, so set up a little

background here. When the kingdom divided, many priests and Levites who had originally served in the

northern kingdom moved to Judah. These men, the priests and the Levites, were well-versed in the

Torah or law, and the covenant between God and the people.

They knew that the promised king had to come from David's line. And they knew of the laws

surrounding worship and how it was to be done. And they knew that Jeroboam was disobe

was disobeying the Torah and breaking the covenant. So when it talks about priests and Levites,

...