#66. The Northern Kingdom.#--Jeroboam as its first king, fearing that if the religion of the two peoples remained substantially the same, and if his people went regularly to Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom, to worship, they would be alienated from him, devised a system of calf worship, and set up two golden calves, the one at Bethel, just over the border of Judah, and the other at Dan, in the extreme north of his domain. To these two centers of worship he invited his people to resort, in order to keep them from assembling with the men of Judah in Jerusalem. "It is too much for you," he said, "to go so far as to Jerusalem; behold your gods right in your midst" (1 Kings 12:25-33). All this he did in utter defiance of God's command, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," and in spite of the bitter experience of Israel in the wilderness in the matter of the golden calf that Aaron made. #67.# This action on the part of Jeroboam "set the pace" for the Northern Kingdom, and from that day to the end of their history the land was full of gross idolatry. Not that all the men of the Northern Kingdom refused to follow Jehovah, for this was not the case, but the rulers were leaders in one form or another of idolatry. #68. Ahab and Jezebel.#--In 925 B. C. Ahab ascended the throne of the Northern Kingdom. He married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, a most masterful and wicked woman. She led her husband to establish the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, nature divinities, whose worship was connected with most abhorrent practises. Not only so, but between them they did their best to root out all those who persisted in the worship of the God of Abraham. They persecuted the sons of the prophets, and put them to the sword. It was now no longer safe to try, even in secret, to worship the God of truth. #69. Elijah and Elisha.#--It was just at this time that God in his mercy sent two very great prophets to Israel to try to win them back to their allegiance to the God of Moses and the Patriarchs. This, the student will remember, was one of those periods which was mentioned in the introduction, in which the narrative is amplified and the miracle multiplied, as betokening that the period was of great importance. Elijah and his successor, Elisha, did their best to stay the downward tendency of their people, but quite largely in vain. For a while it seemed as though there was to be some real reformation. But it did not last long, and soon the people, led astray by their rulers, lapsed into idolatry once more. #70. Jehu.#--The one bright spot in all this sad story of the decline of the Northern Kingdom is found in the story of Jehu, 891 B. C. (2 Kings 9, 10.) He dealt drastically with the worshipers of Baal, and tried his best to put a final stop to all Baal worship. He ruled about twenty-eight years. His son Jehoahaz continued the sin of calf worship, and led his people once more into the downward path.