The Kingdom Is Divided

1 Kings 11-13

“As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”  1 Kings 11:4

King Solomon had many foreign wives from nations where God had instructed the Israelites not to intermarry. Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. These wives led Solomon into the worship of false gods. Solomon had a good beginning, but he did not finish well.

God was displeased with Solomon and told him that He would give ten tribes of the kingdom to someone else and would keep only the tribe of Judah in the hands of Solomon’s descendants.

Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s officials. As he was on his way to Jerusalem one day, Ahijah, who was a prophet, met Jeroboam. Ahijah tore the new cloak he was wearing into 12 pieces and gave ten pieces to Jeroboam. He told Jeroboam that God was going to make him king over ten of the tribes of Israel.

When Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam, succeeded him as king. Jeroboam and a whole assembly of Israelites went to Rehoboam and said, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor, and we will serve you.” Solomon had taken seven years and used many laborers to build the temple. Then he spent thirteen years building himself a magnificent palace. In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon said, “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.” Ecclesiastes 2:4-6 You can imagine how labor intensive all these projects were, and Solomon’s subjects provided the labor.

Rehoboam said he would address the request of the delegation in three days. Then he asked the elder advisors of his father for advice. They told him, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” Then Rehoboam asked his buddies for advice and they said he should answer that he would make their yoke even heavier. Rehoboam chose the advice of his contemporaries. He told the assembled crowd, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 1 Kings 12:14b When they heard this, ten tribes of the Israelites rebelled and made Jeroboam king. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to Rehoboam.

How can we apply what we learn from this? I think we can say Rehoboam “got too big for his britches”. Lord Acton wrote this opinion in a letter, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have seen instances where people in authority tend to mistreat those who are under their authority, but every person is accountable to God for how he treats his fellow man.

Father, may I always treat others as I want to be treated. Amen.