[Because King Solomon, in his old age, had turned his heart away from the Lord, God tore the kingdom from him. After he died, two rival kings ruled. Jeroboam was king of Israel, and Rehoboam ruled Judah.]

   Jeroboam thought, "Unless I'm careful, the people will want a descendant of David as their king. When they go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple, they will become friendly with King Rehoboam; then they will kill me and ask him to be their king instead."

   So on the advice of his counselors, the king had two gold calf-idols made and told the people, "It's too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship; from now on these will be your gods - they rescued you from your captivity in Egypt!"

   One of these calf-idols was placed in Bethel and the other in Dan. This was of course a great sin, for the people worshiped them.

   As Jeroboam approached the altar to burn incense to the golden calf-idol, a prophet of the Lord from Judah walked up to him. Then, at the Lord's command, the prophet shouted, "O altar, the Lord says that a child named Josiah shall be born into the family line of David, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests from the shrines on the hills who come here to burn incense; and men's bones shall be burned upon you."

   Then he gave this proof that his message was from the Lord: "This altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will spill to the ground."

   The king was very angry with the prophet for saying this. He shouted to his guards, "Arrest that man!" and shook his fist at him. Instantly the king's arm became paralyzed in that position; he couldn't pull it back again!

   At the same moment a wide crack appeared in the altar and the ashes poured out, just as the prophet had said would happen. For this was the prophet's proof that God had been speaking through him.

  "Oh, please, please," the king cried out to the prophet, "beg the Lord your God to restore my arm again."

   So [the prophet] prayed to the Lord, and the king's arm became normal again. To be continued.

Taken from I Kings 12, 13, The Living Bible.
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