232 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

priests, to suit the pretended gods whom he taught the
people to worship,—the calves that he had made.

Johnnie. Did he make calves for the people to wor-
ship ? Why did he do that ? |

Grandfather. To draw the hearts of the people away
from the temple, and from the worship of the true God.
And they willingly suffered themselves to be led by
him; but there were some of the people of those tribes
who set their hearts to seek the Lord. They went to
Jerusalem, and became subjects of Rehoboam.

Marianne. Then Jeroboam had been a bad man.
Why did God not allow Rehoboam to punish him and
the other people for rebelling? They deserved it, I
am sure.

Grandfather. They did; but it was not the Lord's
will that Rehoboam should punish them. He chose to
do it himself in his own time and way, and very se-
verely punished they were. In the list of their kings
there is not one respectable character. They were all
vicious and vile. They had rebelled against the sove-
reign whom God had set over them, and they were
justly punished for it in being obliged to submit to
these wicked princes.

George. Then was there no war in Rehoboam’s reign
at all?

Grandfather. There was a foreign invasion. As soon
as Rehoboam thought himself secure in the kingdom,
when he had fortified it by building the fenced cities of
which I told you, then he forsook the law of the Lord,