442 A SHORT VIEW OF SCRIPTURE HISTORY: 23. Q. What followed upon this threateningof king Rehe- boam? A. All the tribes of Israel, except Judah and Benja- min, made Jeroboam their king ; and thus the nation was divided into two kingdoms, which were afterwards called the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel ; 1 Kings xii. 15, 20. 2 Chron. xi. 11, 12. CHAP. XI. Of the Kings of Israel. 1. QUESTION. HOW many kings reigned over Israel after they were se- parated from Judah ? A. These nineteen, and not one of them was good ; Jeroboam the first, Nadab, Baashach, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Je- roboam the second, Zachariah, Shallum, Manahem, Pekahiah, Pekah and Hoshea. 2. Q. Who were the most remarkable among these kings of Israel? A. Jeroboam tile first, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehu, Joash, Pekah and Hoshea. 3., Q. What was the chief character and crime of Jerobo- am ? A. Instead of worshipping God, who dwelt between the cherubs in the temple at Jerusalem, he made two golden images which are called calves, and set them up in two distant parts of the land of Israel, viz. Dan and Bethel, and taught the people to worship before them ; 1 Kings xii. 28-30. 4. Q. What was the worship which he appointed? A; Something like the worship which God appointed at Jerusalem, with an altar, and priests, and sacrifices, and incense ; Verse 32, 5. Q. Wherein did it differ from theworship at Jerusalem ? A. Besides the forsaking of the temple and the place which God appointed ; he also made priests of the lowest of the people, instead of the sons of Levi, and ordained feasts at a different time from that which God had appointed, and set up the images of calves to represent the presence of God ; Verses 23, 32. and 2 Chron. xi: 0. and xii. 13. and xiii. 8, 9. Note, Here it is not to be supposed that Jeroboam forsook the God of Israel, and taught the people to worship mere calves; but only that he devised of his own heart other times and places, and other forms and circumstances of worship to be paid to the God of Israel ; and that by images or idols, which were pro- bably the figures of the cherubs on the mercy-seat where God dwelt : But the scripture in contempt calls them calves. See Chapter V. Question 37. and Chapter VII. Question 3. And the worship is called idolatry, and the worship of other gods. The prophet I- Iosea, who lived in the days of Jeroboam the se- cond, the son of Joash, perpetually rebukes this sin of idolatry, and inveighs against these idols the calves ; Hos. i. 1. and viii. 4, 5. and x. 5. and xiii. 2.
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