03.12. 1 Kings 12
1 Kings 12:1-33 Division of the Kingdom: Rehoboam PART 2: 1 Kings 12:1-33, 1 Kings 13:1-34, 1 Kings 14:1-21, 1 Kings 15:1-34, 1 Kings 16:1-34 1 Kings 12:1-24 - Division of the Kingdom: Rehoboam The Word of God is fulfilled by means of feelings in the depths of the heart of man that drive him to his own ruin.
All Israel comes to Shechem to proclaim Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king. Jeroboam is there, called by the people to be their spokesman before the king. These men complain to the king of the yoke his father had imposed upon them: "Thy father made our yoke grievous" - an expression showing that this had not always been the case. Christ’s yoke will never be grievous upon His people; to His own He will ever remain the same as they have known Him in the day of suffering and of grace: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Beyond all doubt, the nations must submit to Him, and He will smite them with a rod of iron, but all the prophets bear witness to the grace wherewith He will feed His people. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11).
Rehoboam consults with the old men who had stood before Solomon to drink at the fountain-head of wisdom. Their counsel is that of Jesus to His disciples: "Let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves" (Luke 22:26). "If this day," say the old men, "thou wilt be a servant to this people, and wilt serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever" (1 Kings 12:7). Rehoboam forsakes the counsel of wisdom in order to follow that of the young men who had grown up with him, and who stood before him (1 Kings 12:8). They could not thus be anything other than the mirror and reflection of their master’s thoughts. Had he himself stood before his father hearing the wise proverbs that fell from his lips, he could have communicated somewhat of this wisdom to others. He would have known what was becoming to a king; he would have known that "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1); that "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18), and many other precepts. But no, those who flatter his pride are the ones who win his approval. The counsel of the young men in the final analysis is but that of his own heart. Pride goes hand in hand with despising one’s neighbor; this base people counts for nothing in the eyes of a king who exalts himself. Great Solomon, his father, even seems little to him in comparison to his own greatness. This saying that his courtiers suggest to him: "My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins" (1 Kings 12:10), does not meet with his disapproval. In any case, he esteems himself stronger and more energetic than his father and despises the people of God. He does not listen to them; this thing was of the Lord, that He might fulfill His prophetic word (1 Kings 12:15). What God has purposed, must come to pass.
Israel rebels. "What portion have we in David? And we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse: To your tents, O Israel! Now see to thine own house, David! (1 Kings 12:16). This was the rallying cry to rebellion, the common cry of those who were malcontented in the days of David (2 Samuel 20:1). Rehoboam flees; nothing but Judah and Benjamin remain to him. To recover what he had so foolishly lost, he gathers together an army of 180,000 men against Israel. But Shemaiah the prophet exhorts them on God’s behalf: "Go not up, nor fight with your brethren, the children of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing is from me" (1 Kings 12:24). The king and the two tribes fear the Lord and return according to His word. Had they only continued in this path, which is the beginning of wisdom!
It should be noted that the role of the prophet becomes increasingly emphasized with the ruin of the kingship. In all this part of the history we are taken up with prophets. Ahijah was the first to appear, when Solomon fell under God’s judgment. There was also at that time a Nathan, and an Iddo who had a vision concerning Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (2 Chronicles 9:29). Now here is Shemaiah who turns Rehoboam from his plans of war. The role of the prophet was a great grace, allowing relations between God and His people to continue despite the ruin. Above all the prophet was the mouthpiece for the Word of God. This Word was addressed to him and he could say, "Thus saith the Lord." Whoever followed this Word could be sure of being well directed and of finding blessing. It is the same for us who live in these sad end times. Our prophet is the Word of God. God no longer grants us new revelations, as He did in times past, for He has revealed everything to us; but when His Word speaks to us, let us respect it and not turn aside. In the world there are many false prophets who pretend to know more than the true Word of God. They despise it, accusing it of being false, telling us that it is not God who has spoken. Let us turn a deaf ear to their words. God has spoken to us; our prophet has communicated His thoughts to us. Have we not proven a hundred times over that His Word is our souls’ life and safety? Let us prove it afresh; and when this prophet tells us, "Thus saith the Lord," let us do like Rehoboam and Judah who had no need to repent of it. Let us "hearken to the word of the Lord" and act "according to the word of the Lord" (1 Kings 12:24).
1 Kings 12:25-33 - Jeroboam and His Policies The division of the kingdom being an accomplished fact, we enter upon the history of the kings of Israel. That of the kings of Judah does not enter into our account except to explain certain events or to give the context, except that at the end of the Second Book of Kings the independent history of the kings of Judah is traced to its end. In contrast, the Second Book of Chronicles gives us the history of the kings of Judah from the special point of view that characterizes this book.
What is now to become of this new kingdom? Jeroboam had received a conditional pledge from the Lord: "And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my sight, in keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with thee, and build thee a lasting house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee" (1 Kings 11:38). He had only to let God act in his favor, to obey Him, and he was assured of reigning over all that his soul desired (1 Kings 11:37).
Events unfold without his having to interfere, but he is mistrusting and says in his heart: "Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David." Not having confidence in God, he weighs over the probabilities and stops there. Faith never stops at probabilities - I would even go so far as to say that it feeds upon impossibilities and is the better for it. Having once admitted the probability that the kingdom would return to the house of David, Jeroboam carries his reasoning even further. It is necessary, he thinks, to prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem and offering their sacrifices there, lest they have contact with the royal house of Judah. The king concludes that this is a matter of life and death: "The heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me." His decision is made: Israel must have a new religion. Out of his unbelief in God’s promise, out of his indifference to the worship of Jehovah, comes the establishment by Jeroboam of a national religion, distinct from that worship which God had instituted at Jerusalem. From that moment on that this worship was not a worship of the Lord, what could it be? Idol worship. To forsake the worship of the true God is to fall into idolatry, whatever form this may take. In religion there is no middle ground. No doubt Jeroboam thought he had found such a middle ground: he did not adopt the false gods of the nations round about; he wanted only to establish a common religion for Israel. Having no heart-knowledge of the God who had spoken to him, he took counsel with himself and made two golden calves. "Behold thy gods, Israel," he says, "which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." He restores to honour that Jewish idolatry which had been practiced by the people at the foot of Sinai and which had brought down upon them the judgment of God. Only he goes further than Israel had in the wilderness: his forsaking of God is more complete. "Behold thy gods," he says, whereas the people had said, "This is thy god" (Exodus 32:4-5, J. N. Darby translation). He does not add as Aaron had done, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah!" The Lord is completely set aside.
Jeroboam is a cunning politician. He sets up one calf at Bethel, on the boundary with Judah, and the other at Dan, the northern frontier of his territory. He patterns his worship after the form of the worship prescribed by the law of Moses. "A house of high places" replaces the temple; the Levitical priesthood is replaced by "priests from all classes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi." As Israel had its Feast of Tabernacles, Jeroboam also established a feast, but a month later than this. He sets up an altar at Bethel corresponding to the brazen altar, setting it up before the idol, and burns incense upon it instead of burnt offerings (1 Kings 12:31-33). All this "he had devised of his own heart"!
Thus, despite its misleading external forms, this religion was a complete forsaking of the worship of the Lord, an instrument of polity in the hands of the government. Lulled by false appearances, souls were kept far from the true God, and the king of the line of David became a stranger to them. Can we not find similar principles in the religions of our day? Are they based upon faith in the word of God or upon practices that only vaguely resemble the worship of God - an arbitrary religion, a voluntary worship, a forsaking of the house of God, the Assembly of the Living God, a denial of worship in the Spirit, priestly functions accorded to such who are not true worshippers, the efficacy of the sacrifice replaced by perfume, so that one worships and pretends to approach God without having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! Doubtless it is not idolatry, properly speaking, as in Jeroboam’s false worship, but we know from the Word that before long it will all be part of the lifeless religion characterizing professing Christendom today, and that this latter, left to itself, without ties to Christ, making religion a matter of the intelligence, not of the conscience and of faith, will end up by returning to idols and by bowing down before the works of its own hands.