55. THE KINGDOM IS DIVIDED

"/ will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy serv ant. "

Aim

To show how the kingdom of Israel was divided.

God had blessed Solomon with all that a man could desire. The wealth, peace and happiness of his kingdom made life very pleasant, but as time went on he forgot that God had provided it all. God was not in all his thoughts, and he turned his mind to other things € things that God had especially forbidden. In His anger, God said: "/ will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant" (1 Kings 11:11).

1 Kings 12

SOLOMON FORGETS TO BE WISE: 1 Kings 10:26-29; 11:1-13

After Solomon had finished building the Temple, God appeared to him a second time and said: "If thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked... then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Is rael for ever" (1 Kings 9:4-5). As time went on, however, he forgot what his father David had taught him: "Solomon my son... serve God with a perfect heart and with a willing mind... if thou seek him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, He will cast thee off for ever" (1 Chroni cles 28:9).

Long before there was a king in Israel, God had given careful instructions for future kings. These are found in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. There were three things that God had warned kings not to do. In these three things Solomon failed.

• € He shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multi ply horses" (v 16; cp 1 Kings 10:28-29)

• Neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away" (v 17; cp 1 Kings 11:1-2).

• "Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold" (v 17; cp 1 Kings 10:27).

In all these things Solomon's heart was turned away from God. Of these three things, the one which finally led him astray from true worship was the marrying of many wives from foreign countries, who brought the worship of their idols into Israel. They never learned to worship Yahweh, but they taught Solomon to bow down to their gods. "When he was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (11:4). He even built altars for them to sacrifice to their gods and joined them in their false worship. "His- heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as was the heart of David his father" (11:4), and God was angry (11:9-10). So God told Solomon that the kingdom would be taken away from his son. Yet, for David's sake, He would not take it all away. Judah and Benjamin, whose border reached right to Jerusalem, would remain as the kingdom over which David's descendants would reign. The other ten tribes would be torn away and given to another (11:34-36).

Solomon's wisdom had brought peace and happiness to Israel. His foolish sins would bring great sorrow and suffering to God's people.

REHOBOAM IS MADE KING: 1 Kings 12:1-15

So Solomon died, having reigned over Israel for 40 years (1 Kings 11 ;42-43), and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead. The people gath ered together at Shechem to anoint him king over Israel.

Now many in Israel had grown discontented, because Solomon had taxed them heavily to raise the money to pay for all the buildings he had constructed during his reign. This taxation became a great burden to the people, and they hoped that the new king might make things easier. They chose a man called Jeroboam to speak to Rehoboam for them. "Thy fa ther made our yoke grievous, " said Jeroboam. "Make his heavy yoke, which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee " (v 4).

So Rehoboam the king told the people to give him three days to think about it and he would then give them his answer.

First he asked the old men, who had been his father's counsellors, "How do ye advise that I may answer this people? " The old men sug gested that it would be wise for Rehoboam to do as the people asked. "If thou wilt speak good words to them, " they said, "then they will be thy servants for ever" (v 7).

Rehoboam was not happy with this advice. For one thing, he knew that Jeroboam had hated his father, Solomon, and he did not really want to agree to his request. So he turned to the young men who had grown up with him and asked their advice. Like Rehoboam, they had been brought up in the ease and luxury of court life. They had no idea what was good for the people. So they advised the king not to give in to the people at all, but to threaten to make things much more difficult. There was no wis dom in this advice, but it pleased the proud young king. When the people returned after three days, he answered them roughly. "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke " (v 14). He wanted them to see that he was a strong king and that they must bow down to his wishes. In all this, Rehoboam did not think to turn to God for advice.

THE KINGDOM IS DIVIDED: 1 Kings 12:16-24

When the people heard his answer and could see that life would only get more difficult for them, they were angry. "To your tents, O Is rael, " they cried out. "Now see to thine own house, David" (v 16). They flung these angry words at the king.

So they rebelled and would not have Rehoboam reign over them. Instead they turned to Jeroboam as their leader and set him up as king in Shechem. When Rehoboam could see that his foolish words had turned the people against him he fled for his life back to Jerusalem. Only Judah and Benjamin remained faithful to him, just as God had told Solo mon (11:13).

Yet Rehoboam was not willing to give up so easily. He gathered together all the fighting men of Judah and Benjamin and prepared to go into battle against his brethren in the north. If he acted speedily, he thought he could turn the other ten tribes back to him and put an end to their rebellion.

While he was preparing for war, God sent a prophet to stop him. "Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel," the prophet said. "Return every man to his house; for this thing is from Me."

This was the beginning of many sorrows for God's people. The glorious reign of Solomon was over, for by his sins he had turned its strength and glory into shame and unhappiness. The ten tribes in the north became known as the kingdom of ISRAEL, while the two in the south were called the kingdom of JUDAH.

THE SIN OF JEROBOAM: 1 Kings 12:25-33

Now that the people had made him king, Jeroboam wanted to make sure that they would not turn back to "the house of David." He knew that people would soon want to go up to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh at the Temple, and he was afraid that they would realize that they had made a mistake. They might even want to have Rehoboam as their king again and kill him. So he thought up a very evil plan. He made two golden calves and said to the people: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusa lem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (v 28). He put one in Bethel, in the south of his kingdom, and one in Dan, right up in the north. Foolishly the people believed him and wor shipped before these idols. He proclaimed a feast day and made a house for these idols and appointed priests from the lowest of the people. All of this sounded a little bit like the things they had done before € but it was all evil; none of it was what God had commanded. It was idolatry, which God hates. So Jeroboam is known in the rest of the history of Israel as the man "who made Israel to sin" (1 Kings 14:16; 15:34 etc.).

LESSON FOR US

We should take careful notice of the instructions God wrote down for kings. The things God was warning kings against were the pleasures of the world. Solomon allowed the pleasures of the world to take the place of God in his heart. God tells us, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him " (1 John 2:15-16). "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). So we must love God and His ways, doing all that we can to please Him. He tells us in Deuteronomy 17:18-20 how a king could do this. He had to copy out the law of God and "read therein all the days of his life. " We each have a Bible and must read it each day, so that we may learn to be faithful to God all the days of our life.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

Who was Jeroboam? He had been a very hard-working officer in Solomon's days. The king had been pleased with his diligence and put | him in charge of the work done by the families of the tribe of Joseph. He was obviously ambitious and stood out as a leader among the people.

One day as he left Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah met him in a field. No one else was there. Ahijah was wearing a new coat. He took off his coat and tore it into twelve pieces. Ten of these pieces he gave into Jeroboam's hand and said: "Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith Yahweh, The God of Israel, behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee" (1 Kings 11:31). He went on to tell Jeroboam that God would not give him the other two tribes but would keep them for the house of David, "that David my servant might have a light always before Me in Jerusalem" (v 36). If he obeyed God and promised to keep His commandments (v 38), then God would surely establish his kingdom.

God had already revealed to Solomon His decision to divide the kingdom (vv 11-13). Now God had made known the man He had chosen to take part of the kingdom away from the house of David.

It seems that Jeroboam must have been very pleased to hear this astounding prophecy, and he must have talked to others about it, for the news soon reached King Solomon's ears. The king was angry and tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled into Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died.

QUESTIONS

Short Answers

1. Who turned away Solomon's heart from worshipping God?

2. How long did Solomon reign over Israel?

3. Where did the people gather to make Rehoboam king?

4. What did the people want Rehoboam to do?

5. What did the old men tell Rehoboam to do?

6. What did the young men tell Rehoboam to say?

7. What 4id the people feel when Rehoboam gave them his answer?

8. Whom should Rehoboam have turned to for advice?

9. Which two tribes stayed with Rehoboam?

10. How many tribes chose Jeroboam to be their king?

11. What was the name of the kingdom in the north?

12. What was the name of the kingdom in the south?

Detailed Answers

13. (a) What three things did God warn kings not to do?

2. What one thing did God say every king over Israel must do?

3. What lessons do we learn from this?

14. Tell what wicked things Jeroboam did to make the people follow him as their king.

15. (a) Tell what happened after Rehoboam gave his answer to the people.

(b) How did God stop Rehoboam from fighting against the other ten tribes?

Additional Answers

16. Tell how God revealed to Jeroboam that he would be king over Israel.