LONG ago, soon after the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, they
asked Aaron to make a Golden Calf for them to worship, which could be
carried in front of them, and would, they hoped, lead them into the
Promised Land. But we know how dreadfully they sinned in this.
And five hundred years after that, Jeroboam, King of Israel, made
two Golden Calves, and built two altars, one in Dan at the North of
Palestine, and the other in Bethel at the South of his Kingdom.
He told the people of Israel that it was too far for them to go to
worship at Jerusalem, three times in the year, and that they could go
instead to worship his Golden Calf, and could offer sacrifices upon the
altars he had built.
Now God had told the Jews that Jerusalem was the place He had appointed
for Worship; and also that only God's Priests, the sons of Aaron, were
to offer either Sacrifices or Incense to Him.
One day, when King Jeroboam was himself offering incense on the altar
he had made in Bethel, a Prophet of the Lord was sent to him with a
message from God.
And this was the message—That one day, on this; very altar, the priests
whom Jeroboam had made from the lowest of the people, should be
offered, and their bones should be burnt upon this altar.
God gave a Sign, by which King Jeroboam should know that the Prophet's
words were true, and that he had been sent by God.
This was the Sign. This altar of Jeroboam's should be rent—torn in
pieces—and the ashes should be scattered on the ground.
King Jeroboam was very angry at the message, and he tried to seize the
Prophet, but his hand dried up, and he could not use it.
And the Sign came to pass at once, for the altar fell to pieces and the
ashes were scattered.
Jeroboam was very frightened, and begged the Prophet to ask the Lord to
restore his hand.
And the Prophet did; and Jeroboam's hand was made quite well again.
[Illustration: A Prophet of the Lord was sent to him with a message
from God.]
Then the King pressed the Prophet to come in to refresh himself, and to
receive a reward.
But the Prophet answered that the Lord had strictly forbidden him to
eat bread or drink water in that place. So he turned away, to go back
by another road, as the Lord commanded him.
But now a great temptation met him.
For as the Prophet was turning away from Bethel, an old Prophet who
lived there, thought he would ask him to come back and rest at his
house. He had heard how the Prophet had cried against the Altar, and he
longed to hear all about it.
But the Prophet again explained that the Lord had forbidden him to eat
and drink in that place.
Then the Old Prophet lied to him, and said that an Angel had told him
he was to ask him home to refresh him.
So the Prophet listened to his fellow-prophet, instead of obeying God,
and he turned back and went in, and ate and drank.
But when he had finished the meal, the Word of the Lord came to the Old
Prophet, with a terrible message to the disobedient man.
"Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the Lord, and hast not kept the
Commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee . . . thy carcase
shall not come to be buried in the sepulchre of thy fathers."
So the Old Prophet gave the message, and he sorrowfully saddled the ass
of the disobedient Prophet, and sent him forth on his return journey.
But very soon a lion met him in the way, and slew him; and his body lay
by the roadside, and the lion and the ass stood by, but the lion did
not eat either of them.
By and by people passed that way, and they hastened to the city to tell
what they had seen.
[Illustration: THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET.]
Then the Old Prophet told his sons to saddle his ass, and he hurried
along the road until he came to the spot where the dead Prophet lay.
And he found all as he had been told, and saw that the Lord had not
allowed the lion to touch the dead man, or the ass.
Then the old man laid the body of the Prophet on his ass, and brought
him back to bury him in his own grave; and he mourned bitterly for him,
for he knew he had tempted him, and had been the cause of his death.
He charged his sons, that when he came to die, they were to bury him in
the same grave with the Prophet; and he added a solemn assurance that
the words of God which the Prophet had uttered against King Jeroboam's
altar in Bethel, and against the other idolatrous places which he had
built, should surely come to pass.
All this was literally fulfilled three hundred years after, in the
reign of Josiah, the good young King. We read the account of it in
three verses in 2 Kings 23.15-18.
But King Jeroboam, knowing of this Prophecy, remembering as he must
that his withered hand had been healed by God, did not set his heart to
seek God and to find forgiveness.
He went on in his evil ways all his life, until at length we read in
the Bible the name by which he was known after his death, "Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."
This long ago story speaks an ever-living lesson.
The God who commands will enable us to obey. Let us seek Him with all
our hearts: let us learn His will in the Bible, and then the promise to
each one of us will come true—
"To him that soweth righteousness, shall be a sure reward."
[Illustration]