The division of the kingdom
12
📚And Rehoboam went to Shechem 📖, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 📚And it came about when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt, heard this (for Jeroboam had fled from the presence of King Solomon, and he lived in Egypt), 3 that they sent word and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 4 📚“Your father made our yoke hard. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you”. 12:4 1 Sam 8:10-18. Solomon’s demand for provisions and his huge building projects were a burden evidently felt by many people (1 Kings 4:7, 22-25; 6:38; 7:1; 9:15-19).⚜
5 📚And he said to them, “Depart for three days, then come back to me”. And the people departed.
6 📚And King Rehoboam conferred with the old men who stood before his father Solomon while he was still living, and said, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”
7 📚And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and answer them, speaking good words to them, then they will be your servants 📖 forever”.
8 📚But he rejected the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and conferred with the young men who had grown up with him and who stood before him. 9 📚And he said to them, “What advice do you give to us to answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us?’ ”
10 📚And the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Speak to this people who spoke to you like this and said ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us’, and tell them this: ‘My little finger will be thicker than my father’s waist. 11 📚And now, though my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.’ ”
12:8-11 Rehoboam rejected the counsel of experience and wisdom and allowed himself to be led into a ruinous policy. This advice was to make the burdens of the people heavier, and to punish them more if they failed in carrying them. Youth may sometimes be wise (see Job 32:6-9), but in this case they were extremely foolish. But behind their foolishness and Rehoboam’s acceptance of their advice, God stood, working out His purpose (v 15).⚜
12 📚So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, “Come back to me on the third day”. 13 📚And the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the old men’s counsel that they gave him, 14 📚and spoke to them in accordance with the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. And my father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions”. 15 📚So the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from the LORD, that he might fulfil his word which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
12:15 God can use even the foolishness and the evil acts of men to accomplish His will. The supreme example of this is the cross. See note at Gen 50:20.⚜
16 📚So when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What part 📖 do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now see to your own house, David!” So Israel 📖 departed to their tents.
17 📚But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah 📖, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 📚Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labour, and all Israel pelted him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
12:18 Rehoboam, of course, was reluctant to see 10 tribes slip away from his authority.⚜
19 📚So Israel is in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20 📚And it happened that when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent and called him to the congregation and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David, no one else.
21 📚And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
22 📚But the word of God came to Shemaiah 📖, the man of God, saying, 23 📚“Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, 24 📚‘Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up, or fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Each man is to go back to his house, for this thing is from me 📖.’ ” So they listened to the word of the LORD, and turned around and went back, in accordance with the word of the LORD.
Jeroboam creates a false, idolatrous religion
25 📚Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim and lived in it, and went out from there and built Penuel 📖.
26 📚And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David, 27 📚if this people go up to offer sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem. Then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah”.
12:27 Jeroboam was aware of the unifying force of religion with its central place of worship. He cared nothing about obedience to God’s laws; he wanted only to cling to power.⚜
28 📚Then the king took counsel and made two gold calves, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. See your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
29 📚And he placed one in Bethel 📖 and the other he put in Dan 📖. 30 📚And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, to Dan.
12:30 Israel had just complaints against Rehoboam, but they allowed their objections to move them to accept the leadership of an evil man, Jeroboam, who led them to spiritual ruin. A wrong reaction to injustice or troubles of other kinds can lead people into still worse troubles.⚜
31 📚And he made houses on high places 📖, and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi 📖. 32 📚And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he made offerings on the altar. He did this in Bethel, offering sacrifices to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 33 📚So he made offerings on the altar in Bethel, which he had made, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had chosen 📖 in his own heart, and ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and he made offerings on the altar and burned incense.