Basic HTML Version
Rehoboam’s Arrogance: The Kingdom Torn Apart
“Solomon rested with his fathers. ... And Rehoboam his son
reigned in his place.”
1 Kings 11:43
.
Soon after coming to the throne, “Rehoboam went to Shechem,”
where he expected to receive formal recognition from all the tribes,
“for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.”
2 Chronicles
10:1
. Among those present was Jeroboam, who during Solomon’s
reign had been known as“a mighty man of valor,” and to whom the
prophet Ahijah had delivered the startling message, “Thus says the
Lord, ... ‘I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and
will give ten tribes to you.’”
1 Kings 11:28, 31
.
Through His messenger, the Lord had spoken plainly to Jer-
oboam. This division must take place, He had declared, because
Solomon “has forsaken Me, ... and has not walked in My ways,
doing what is right in My sight and keeping My statutes and My
ordinances, as his father David did.”
Verse 33
, NRSV. Yet Jeroboam
had also been instructed that the kingdom was not to be divided
before the close of Solomon’s reign: “I have made him ruler all the
days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose
because he kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take
the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you—ten tribes.”
Verses 34, 35
.
Although Solomon had longed to prepare Rehoboam to meet
the coming crisis wisely, he had never been able to exert a strong
influence for good over his son, whose early training he had sadly
neglected. Rehoboam had received the stamp of a weak character
from his mother, an Ammonite woman. At times he tried to serve
God, but in the end he yielded to the evil influences that had sur-
rounded him from infancy. In the mistakes of Rehoboam’s life and
in his final apostasy we see the fearful result of Solomon’s union
with idol-worshiping women.
The tribes had long suffered under the oppressive measures of
their former ruler. Extravagance had led Solomon to tax the people
44