1 Kings 12-13

12

Solomon's son Rehoboam becomes king when Solomon dies.  Jeroboam sees his chance, and gets Israel to pressure him to loosen Solomon's burden on the people.  Solomon's counselors agree and urge Rehoboam to do it, but his peers advise the opposite - make it heavier and show them you're the boss.  Israel refuses to have him as king, and they stone the tax man he sends to them.  When he raises an army to force union, God stops it with a prophet's warning.

Jeroboam fears Israel will reunite with Judah if they all worship in Jerusalem together, so he sets up golden calves in Bethel and Dan, giving the people something new, on the wrong dates with the wrong priests, against the Word of God.

13

A prophet from Judah goes to Bethel and prophesies its altar will be torn down and its priests killed on it at the hand of a man named Josiah (this eventually happens).  As Jeroboam calls for his arrest, the hand that points at the prophet withers.  He repents and invites the prophet to lunch to give him a gift.  The prophet refuses and heads home.  A prophet from Bethel chases him down and invites him back for lunch, lying that God told him to invite him.  So he goes.  At lunch God speaks through the Bethel prophet rebuking the Judah prophet for going back.  He'll die before getting home.  Sure enough, a lion kills him, but then stands by the body without eating it.  The Bethel prophet retrieves the body (with the lion standing right there!) and buries him with honor.

How this is about Jesus

God's people are torn in two, and only in Christ will they be reunited.  He is the prophet who comes foretelling doom for Israel if they will not return to God's ways, but He does not listen to lies but only to God.

Application

Leaders should listen to older counselors more than to peers.

Don't mess with the worship of God for political reasons - to get people to like you.

The point of chapter 13 seems to be that Israel needs to listen to Judah's prophets; Judah shouldn't listen to Jeroboam's sham prophets.  Discerning who speaks for God is important.