and said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces; for thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee;
Solomon received the kingdom whole. Now God is about to tear it in pieces, and the news comes through a prophet who meets Jeroboam outside Jerusalem. Why did God tear away ten tribes, why did He leave anything at all, and what did Jeroboam do with the promise he was handed?
Ahijah's appearance is itself part of the message. Prophets appear in Israel's story where the appointed order has broken down.
When the king failed in his responsibility, it was really the people's relationship with God that suffered. But then something happened that lasted through the whole life of the kingdom, and even after it: the prophet came on the scene. His appearance proved that the grace and mercy of God could not be destroyed even when everything was ruined.
The garment Ahijah tore was new. That detail carries the meaning of the sign.
Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam outside Jerusalem. He tears the new garment he is wearing (the kingdom was indeed still quite new), and gives ten parts to Jeroboam. At that very moment the kingdom is torn out of the hands of Solomon, although people only realize this later.
God does not leave the cause in doubt.
But God's reason for breaking up the kingdom is most clearly stated. Israel had forsaken the Lord and had sunk down to the level of worshiping various idolatrous gods and goddesses, ignoring God's statutes and judgments (v.33). Solomon was the leader in that guilt. God's plain hatred of it ought to have struck Jeroboam's conscience, so that he would keep clear of such practices. Yet soon after he became king of the ten tribes, he fell into the same evil ways.
Rossier stops on the word "they" in that charge.
"They" was Solomon, the king! No doubt all the people later followed that same path, but at this moment one man had sinned — the king. God had set him in a position of responsibility for all the people, and his unfaithfulness brought judgment on Israel.
Ten pieces go to Jeroboam. The reason the rest stays is not Solomon's worth.
"However," God said, "I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand" (v.34). He would allow Solomon's son to keep the tribe of Judah (which included Benjamin) for David's sake, not for Solomon's sake. God also made it plain to Jeroboam that He had chosen Jerusalem to put His name there (v.36).
What is left to David's line is small, but the light in it never goes out.
What mercy! "a light always." Judah was greatly reduced — reduced in the extent and glory of the kingdom. But there was this marked difference from the ten tribes, the much larger part that passed to the other man. They would shift their loads from time to time. Their ruling family changed again and again, and one man after another rose up. Not so with Judah. Judah was reduced to what God calls only one tribe — the strongest possible way of stating their complete loss of glory. Still, there the light shall be always.
The difference between Jeroboam's kingdom and David's was not size but foundation.
David's kingdom stood on grace, and in due time that grace would assert its rights again. Jeroboam's kingdom, and Solomon's own, stood not on grace but on responsibility. God never takes back His promises; He delights in grace. So the future kingdom of the true King of Glory will rest on a new covenant — a covenant of grace, where God alone is under obligation.
Jeroboam had a plain promise. He still went to work to secure it himself.
God's promise to Jeroboam was plain. The kingdom was his, with no conditions attached. Keeping it in his family, on the other hand, depended on his obedience. The kingdom was his. He had only to believe the promise of God for that. Yet, like Jacob, he felt he had to work out his own schemes to get the promise fulfilled. Are we not ourselves sometimes guilty of the same mistake? So often we are not content with God's clear promise, but try by our own efforts to get what we want, sometimes at the cost of obedience to God's Word.
- Cause. The torn garment is judgment, not politics. Israel turned to other gods, and Solomon led the way.
- Restraint. God did not take the whole kingdom — one tribe was kept back, and kept for David's sake, not Solomon's.
- Light. The small portion carried a promise of light that would never go out, steady while the ten tribes changed one ruling family for another.
- Foundation. Jeroboam's kingdom rested on his obedience. David's rested on grace. That is why the coming kingdom rests on a covenant where God alone is under obligation.
- Waiting. The kingdom was already Jeroboam's by promise; he schemed for it anyway — the warning is against helping God keep His word.
but one tribe shall he have for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel
Ahijah tore a new cloak into twelve pieces and handed ten of them to Jeroboam. In God's sentence, the kingdom Solomon built was already broken. God held back one tribe only. The two reasons He gives for keeping it have nothing to do with Solomon.
The verse says who keeps the one tribe, and then gives the two reasons why. One writer follows both reasons back to David and to Jerusalem, and also names who was counted inside that "one tribe":
The Lord told Solomon that because he had done this, and had not kept His covenant and His statutes, He would surely tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant. Yet the Lord would not do this while Solomon was alive, because the Lord respected Solomon's father David. Solomon's son would suffer the shame of a broken kingdom instead. Even so, God would leave one tribe to that son — again for David's sake, not for Solomon's sake. Judah was that tribe, though Benjamin, very small and weak, was counted with it. God granted this also for Jerusalem's sake, because His choice of that city stood despite the failure and disobedience of all Israel.
The split that followed is often blamed on Rehoboam. One writer traces it further back:
In the hour of Solomon's idolatry, God decreed the ruin of his kingdom. For David's sake God put off the judgment during Solomon's own day. But in the days of Rehoboam, his proud and foolish son, Jeroboam the son of Nebat rebelled and snatched ten of the twelve tribes out of his hand. Rehoboam was about to go to war to win back what he had lost. Shemaiah, the man of God, stopped him with a word from God: this division was from God. Division was the judgment for idolatry.
Judah and Benjamin both stayed with David's house, so the count in this verse puzzles readers. A reference work on the tribes explains how Benjamin drops out of the count:
When the kingdom divided, Benjamin stayed with Judah, but Israel seized a large part of Benjamin's land. At times Benjamin seems to drop out of sight. Ahijah said that God had kept one tribe for the house of David — as if Benjamin counted as cut off in judgement, 1 Kings 11:36. People spoke of the two tribes together as "Judah," while they called the ten tribes "Israel."
The verse gives two reasons, not one. One writer sees them bound together long before Ahijah spoke:
David and Jerusalem were linked by ancient decree in one covenant of peace and joy.
Ten tribes sound like the better share. Yet Jeroboam's throne changed hands again and again, while the one tribe kept something the ten never had:
What mercy! "a light always." The kingdom was greatly reduced — reduced in size and in glory. But mark the difference from the ten tribes, the much larger part that went to the other king. They would shift their load from time to time. The family that governed them changed again and again, and one man after another rose up. It began with a rebellious servant, and it would not end with him. Many a rebellious servant would rise up against the king of Israel, and so the ruling family would change over and over again. Not so with Judah. They were reduced to what God calls only one tribe — His way of saying in the strongest possible terms how completely their glory had shrunk. Still, there the light shall be always.
Keeping one tribe back kept a family line going. That line had somewhere to arrive:
For this future Son to be "the offspring of David," David's line had to be kept alive until He appeared. That is why God had promised David "to give to him always a lamp, and to his sons" (2 Chron. 21:7). Now, how was this lamp going to shine in the royal house until the promised Son appeared? How was it to pass through man's poisoned air and moral darkness without being put out? If it went out, David's true Heir could never appear. Satan understood this. If he could put out the lamp, all God's purposes for the "Just Ruler over men" would come to nothing. But the Son of David appeared in the world, despite all the enemy's efforts to put out this light.
- Cause — Solomon's idolatry tore the kingdom. Rehoboam's folly was only the occasion, and God held the blow back past Solomon's lifetime for David's sake.
- Concession — God keeps the one tribe for David's sake and Jerusalem's, never for Solomon's. The mercy is borrowed, not earned.
- Count — "one tribe" means Judah with Benjamin inside it. Benjamin was small, and Ahijah spoke of it as though cut off.
- Contrast — the ten tribes got size and endless changes of dynasty; the one tribe got a light that never went out.
- Continuance — that light was David's line, kept burning through the dark until the Son of David came.
because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my sight, and my statutes and mine ordinances, as David his father.
God has just promised Jeroboam ten of Israel's tribes. Here He gives the reason for the loss: three foreign gods have taken the place that belonged to Him alone, and David is named as the standard Solomon failed to meet.
The verse opens with a plural: "they have forsaken me." Yet God is judging one king here. One reading takes the plural as pointing straight at Solomon:
"They have forsaken Me," says the Lord... "They" was Solomon, the king! No doubt, all the people later followed that same path, but at this moment one man had sinned — the king. God had set him in a position of responsibility for all the people, so his unfaithfulness brought judgment on Israel. What a severe punishment Solomon had incurred.
Commentators differ here. Others read the plural as widening the blame beyond the king, and point out that Scripture gives more than one reason for the same disaster:
Ten of the tribes of Israel were torn from Rehoboam. In 1 Kings 11:11 we are told it was for the sin of Solomon, but verse 33 of the same chapter says it was for the idolatry of the people. In chapter 12 we find the immediate cause was the harsh spirit in which Rehoboam met the people, when they asked him for a gentler rule than his father's. The fact is that the sin of any one of the three parties named was quite enough to bring all the trouble, and so the responsibility is left at the door of each.
God names the three gods instead of speaking of idolatry in general. One writer identifies each one, and says that building shrines for his wives left Solomon himself guilty:
It has been stated that Solomon himself was not actually guilty of idolatry. If he built the places of idolatrous worship for his many wives only, he was guilty of the sin of idolatry. Luxuries, wealth, self-indulgence, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life led into idolatry. It is the same in the closing days of the present age. Ashtoreth, a Phoenician goddess, was worshipped with impure rites. Milcom (Molech) was the idol-god of the Ammonites. Chemosh was the sun-god and war-god of the Moabites.
Behind the name Milcom lay a rite in which parents gave up their own children:
Then we move from wives to children, and to that most inhuman rite: parents were so blinded by Satan that they gave their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch, and probably Malcham or Milcom.
The astonishing thing is the identity of the man. The one who built the house for God's name set up shrines for Chemosh and Milcom. The path there was traced backwards to a single earlier step:
We may wonder how such a man as Solomon could ever be led to "build high places for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites." But the reason is easy to see. He had first disobeyed the Word of his Lord by going to those nations for wives. From there he fell easily enough into the deeper error of adopting their worship.
The collapse was slow, not sudden — and that is what makes it dangerous:
His reign opened amid the glory of a little millennium... But as we go on examining his conduct, it is easy to see that his early glory fades, the king's heart turns to the world, the world becomes his master... And how had this decline begun? Note, dear brother, it did not happen all at once, but gradually; without his noticing, the things of the world gained access to his heart, and he went from bad to worse until he became an idolater.
The verse ends by comparing Solomon with his father. David failed too, yet God's verdict on him was striking:
David failed, yet this could be written about him: "David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite" (1 Kings 15:5). This is a remarkable divine commendation.
God still holds one tribe back, and the reason is David, not Solomon:
In verse 34 God comes back once more to the grace He had shown to David. He adds: "And to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may have a lamp always before Me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen for Myself to put My name there" (v. 36). Grace is more in God's eyes than all glory, or rather, grace is the most precious part of glory, for it is, so to speak, at the head of all divine perfections.
Jeroboam, who received these words and the ten tribes, learned nothing from them:
Israel was guilty of this, and Solomon was the leader in it. God's plain hatred of such guilt should have impressed itself deeply on Jeroboam's conscience, so that he would take care not to follow such disgusting practices. But soon after he was made king of the ten tribes, he fell into the same evil ways.
- Cause — The kingdom was not lost to politics. One step away from God's Word made the next step easy.
- Named — God lists Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom. Their worship was impure, and it cost children their lives.
- Reach — What the king did in private became the nation's religion. Leaders carry others with them.
- Measure — David failed too, yet God commended him for keeping His commands. He is the standard this verse holds up.
- Remnant — Judgment stops short of total loss. God leaves one tribe for David's sake, so the lamp keeps burning — grace, not merit.