1 Kings 12
McGeeCHAPTERS 1214THEME: Division of the kingdom under Rehoboam and JeroboamIn chapter 12 Rehoboam, son of Solomon, succeeds to the throne. Jeroboam returns from Egypt and leads ten tribes in demanding a reduction in taxes. Rehoboam, under the influence of the young men of his kingdom, having rejected the counsel of the old men who were Solomon’s advisors, turns down the request of the ten northern tribes. Instead of reducing taxes, he threatens to raise them. Therefore, Jeroboam leads the ten tribes in revolt. Jeroboam divides the nation religiously as well as politically by setting up a golden calf in Bethel and one in the tribe of Dan. The northern tribes go into idolatry.
1 Kings 12:1
REHOBOAM’S ACCESSION AND FOOLISHNESSSolomon dies, and his son Rehoboam comes to the throne. Solomon had carried on a tremendous building program at great cost. After his death the people asked for their taxes to be lowered. We hear about the government costing so much today. If you want to know why it costs so much, go to the capital of any state, or go to any county seat or to our capital in Washington, D.C., and you will see why taxes are like they are. Believe me, government is a fat calf. It is really spending money and putting up many buildings.
Spending requires increased taxation; this is something that is always going to cause trouble. Our problem today is one of taxationour government costs too much. We are seeing the increase in buildings to house more committees and more workers. Before long there will probably be more people working for the government than are working in all other jobs put together. This is the movement today; there was the same problem during the days of Solomon. He kept building and in order to do it, he had to increase the taxes. Rehoboam was asked by the people to reduce taxes. This young ruler had an opportunity to move in and make himself popular by reducing taxes. If he had done that, the people would have followed him. Where is the man today who has the nerve, after being elected to office, to fire about half of the government workers? If someone would do that and cut down taxes, he would make himself popular. Leaders are afraid to take the first step. Rehoboam called a meeting of his wise men (only they were very unwise).
1 Kings 12:6
Rehoboam first turned to the wise men in the kingdom who had counseled Solomon his father. Their advice was good, but Rehoboam did not follow it.
1 Kings 12:8
Then he asked the young men who had grown up with him what they would advise. They too gave him advice, but it was foolish.
1 Kings 12:12
Rehoboam heeded what the young men told him rather than what the wise older men said. He told the people, “Instead of decreasing the taxes, I intend to increase them. Instead of being less severe with the people, I intend to be more severe.”
1 Kings 12:16
JEROBOAM BECOMES ISRAEL’S KING AND THE KINGDOM IS DIVIDEDThis is rebellion. This is the splitting up of the kingdom, and it will result, of course, in civil war.
1 Kings 12:18
All Israel stoned Adoram. That is the way they got rid of the tax collector. And when Rehoboam heard what had happened, he fled to Jerusalem.
1 Kings 12:19
Israel rebelled against the house of David until the time 1 Kings was written. It was a rebellion that continued on until they returned from the Babylonian captivity. Rehoboam’s unwise decision in not listening to the people enabled Jeroboam to take the ten northern tribes and build a northern kingdom.
1 Kings 12:25
JEROBOAM’S IDOLATRYJeroboam put a golden calf in Bethel and one in Dan. He put them there for the people to worship so that they would not go to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. This marks the division of the kingdom into the northern and southern kingdoms. We will now follow the account of the divided kingdom and will find that the method used in 1 and 2 Kings is to record some history about Israel and then some history about Judah. The record goes back and forth. We will be looking at both kingdoms as we go along, but the kingdom of Judah will last longer than the kingdom of Israel. Also, almost all of the prophets, except the postcaptivity prophets, prophesied during this period (see Chronological Table of the Kings of the Divided Kingdom, p. 227). The Table shows which kings of Judah and Israel were contemporarythat is, those who ruled at the same timeand which prophets prophesied during each reign. This brings us to the end of 1 Kings 12. Rehoboam is the king of the southern kingdom following in the Davidic line. Jeroboam is the king of the northern kingdom. He has introduced idolatry into the north by building two golden calves and placing them in Bethel and Dan so that the people would no longer go to Jerusalem to worship. There is a divisionsoon civil war will break out. It will continue until the northern kingdom goes into captivity. And we will find that eventually the southern kingdom will also go into captivity. This is a sad period in the life of the nation of Israel. It contains many lessons for us and for our government. In chapter 13 we see God’s judgment against the false altar of Jeroboam and the strange incident of the man of God who was deceived by a fellow prophet. The kingdom has now been divided following the rebellion led by Jeroboam who took the ten northern tribes and formed the kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam, a man who certainly did not have the wisdom nor the diplomacy of his father Solomon, was actually responsible for the splitting of the kingdom. The northern kingdom will eventually go into captivity in Assyria and the southern kingdom into Babylon. There can be a great deal of confusion as we go through this section and read of king after king. You may wonder whether this king belongs to the northern kingdom or the southern kingdom, and whether he is good or bad. The chronological chart of the kings will give you that information. (See page 227.) When I was a freshman in college, I took a Bible course that was puerileit was a weak cup of tea. There were certain questions that were always asked in the class. One of the questions was, “Name the kings of Israel and Judah and briefly describe the reign of each.” Well, some freshman in years gone by had made a profound discovery. He found out that if he memorized the names of the kings and wrote after each one"a bad King"he could make 95% on the test. What freshman would want to make a better mark than that? So that is what all the freshmen did. You are going to find that in the northern kingdom every king was bad. There wasn’t a good one in the lot. There were only eight kings in the southern kingdomover a two-hundred year periodwho could be called good. The rest of them were bad kings. This is a dark blot in the history of Israel. Yet, I think you would find a similar record in other lands. If you want to bring all of this down to today, how many good presidents have we had? Party allegiances aside, I believe that history will have to record that we did not do so well either. We have probably had a better percentage of good leaders than Israel, but our batting average hasn’t been very good. The thing that makes Israel’s record so bleak is that these people had light from heaven. They had a revelation from God, and their responsibility was greater. But I also feel that the responsibility of our nation is greater than that of other nations because we have, in certain respects, more light from heaven than other nations. Unfortunately our political affairs are a black spot in the life of our nation. I would like to look back to Solomon for a moment to see why the kingdom was rent. Here is what happened. Solomon was given a special dispensation of wisdom from God to administer the kingdom. Yet that wisdom, apparently, did not enter into his own personal life: Solomon obviously did not have spiritual wisdom or discernment. He did understand certain basic principles and concepts which enabled him to be a very wise ruler, but which did not enter into his personal, private, and certainly not his spiritual life. You begin to see early in his career that he never really broke with false religion.
At the beginning, when he came to the throne, there was idolatry, and he closed his eyes to ithe took no particular, definite, positive stand against it. Then he began to engage in that which was the mark of prosperity. He sent ships out to bring back apes and peacocks. There’s nothing particularly wrong with apes and peacocks, but such an obsession is wrong if you have been called to glorify Godto witness and live for Him. Solomon had a definite weakness. The Book of Proverbs reveals the wisdom of Solomon, but the Book of Ecclesiastes reveals his foolishness. You will not find any failure of Solomon’s or his father David’s in the Book of Chronicles. The two Books of Chronicles cover the same ground as the Books of Kings with one difference: in Kings you have man’s viewpoint; you have the history given. Chronicles gives God’s viewpoint. God forgave David; and, when God forgave him, He blotted out his sin. Written from God’s viewpoint, the sin is not mentioned in Chronicles, but God put it in Kings for men to see. Likewise God forgave Solomon his failure, and his sin is not recorded in Chronicles. In Kings we do see Solomon’s weaknesshe began to multiply wives. God never approved of polygamy; His wrath was against it. The interesting thing is that immorality and false religion always go together. John made it very clear for the Christian when he said, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1Jn_1:6). Don’t kid yourselfyou cannot serve God and have fellowship with Him if you live in sin. You can fool the people around you. Unfortunately, we have Christian leaders today who live in sin. They have been proven immoral, and yet people go ahead and support themI have never quite understood why. But they are not fooling God, and they certainly are not having fellowship with Him. Solomon was a man who was a great failure. There are two men in the Scripture who had tremendous potential and opportunity: one was Samson, and the other one was Solomon. Both of these men failed God in a tragic way. In Ecclesiastes Solomon said, “Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecc_2:17). The glory of Solomon was a passing glory. Our Lord could say that Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like that little flower by the side of the road that you passed unnoticed. May I say to you that the wealth and achievements of this world are also a passing glory. I have given this background of Solomon at this pointI guess I have more or less preached his funeral servicebecause now we are seeing a kingdom divided, and it is divided because of the sin of Solomon.