April 12 - 1 Kings 10-12

Oooo...good stuff today!
King Solomon gets a visit from the Queen of Sheba.  She goes on and on about how wise and strong and good he is.  She even gave the king a whole lot of gold, spices, and precious stones.  In return, King Solomon gave th equieen of Sheba everything she wanted.  Solomon had not only been given great wisdom, but so many riches, as well.  Solomon, however, was quite the ladies man.  He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 hundred concubines...and I'm sure that's just an estimate!  Busy man.  God had warned him about who he was having relations with, saying that they would lead him to worship false idols.  Sure enough, Solomon started worshiping false gods, which made the Lord very angry.  The Lord handed down an interesting punishment, though.  Instead of killing Solomon or dethroning him, he said that he would not harm him during his reign as king.  However, when Solomon's son would take over as king, he would only be given the power over one tribe to honor King David.  God did this because it was a promise he had made to King David and He wasn't about to go back on that promise. 
There were quite a few people that rebelled against Solomon during the remainder of his reign.  One person, in particular, was Jeroboam.  He was told that he was going to be the next king.  He was given a message from God that he would rule over 10 tribes, and that the son of Solomon would rule over just one (to honor the promise to King David).  When Solomon caught wind of this, he tried to kill Jeroboam, but he stayed in Egypt until Solomon's death.  King Solomon reigned for 40 years.
After his death, Solomon's son, Rehoboam, took over Judah.  Jeroboam (ruler of the other 10 tribes)returned from Egypt and confronted Rehoboam.  "Jero" told "Reho" that his father had put too heavy of a burden on them and asked for their "harsh labor and heavy burden" to be lighter.  "Reho" told the people to go away and come back in three days for his answer.  After asking for advice from different people, "Reho" told "Jero" and his people that he would make things much worse for them because they complained.  "Jero" had planned on fighting "Reho" and taking over the land of Judah, but they were told by the Lord not to do that.  So, at this point, both men are ruling over different Israelite people, and they don't seem to care too much for each other.