However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”
God's word to Solomon here is both a sentence and a reprieve. He will tear the kingdom away, but not all of it. His reason has nothing to do with Solomon. It points to David, long dead, and to a city God had chosen.
Judgment real, but tempered
The judgment stands. What limits it is God's faithfulness to His own word.
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.God always acts in faithfulness to His word and in keeping with His character. So here God holds back His judgment during Solomon's lifetime. He does this in line with His word to David, whom He calls "My servant," and for the sake of Jerusalem, which He had chosen. God also softens its severity. He would not take away the entire kingdom, but would give Solomon's son one tribe, and so keep a lamp for David always in Jerusalem.
Not for Solomon's sake
God gives David's name as the reason, twice over. Nothing in Solomon, and nothing in the nation, earned what He leaves behind.
Leslie M. GrantYet the Lord would not do this while Solomon was living because the Lord respected Solomon's father David. But Solomon's son would suffer the humiliation of a broken kingdom. God would still leave one tribe to that son, also for the sake of David, not for Solomon's sake. Judah was that tribe, though it also included Benjamin, which was very small and weak. God granted this for Jerusalem's sake too, since His choice of that city stood despite the failure and disobedience of all Israel.
"One tribe" — the measure of the loss
One tribe sounds like almost nothing left. Yet what is left carries a promise the ten tribes never had.
William KellyWhat mercy! "a light always." The kingdom was greatly reduced in size and in glory. But there was a very marked difference from the ten tribes, the much larger part that passed to the other man. They would change rulers from time to time. Their governing family kept changing, and one man after another rose up... Not so with Judah. God calls it only one tribe, to state their utter loss of glory in the strongest possible way. Yet the light shall be there always. This was how the Lord God of Israel dealt with them: merciful, and at the same time completely righteous.
Why God keeps returning to David
God says the same thing again later in this chapter, when He speaks to Jeroboam. One writer draws from that repetition what God prizes most.
H. L. RossierIn verse 34 God comes back once more to the grace He had shown to David. He adds in verse 36: "Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My name." Grace is more in God's eyes than all glory. Or rather, grace is the most precious part of glory, for it stands, so to speak, at the head of all divine perfections.
The same reason, generation after generation
This is not a one-off mercy. The phrase becomes a refrain running through the later history of the kings.
W. W. FeredayWould the royal house of David be true to its trust as witness for God among the nations? Sadly, we know the answer. Yet the patience of God was wonderful. In His anger He told Solomon that He would tear his kingdom away. Then He added, "but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David My servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen" (1 Kings 11:13). To Jeroboam He said that David His servant was to have a lamp always before Him in Jerusalem, "the city where I have chosen to put My name" (1 Kings 11:36). Later God recorded the unfaithfulness of Abijam, Solomon's grandson. Even then He said, "Nevertheless, for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem" (1 Kings 15:4).
Affliction, but not for ever
God's word to Jeroboam sets a limit on the affliction that follows. It also points to a kingdom built on different ground from Solomon's.
H. L. RossierBut God makes one reservation: "And I will afflict the offspring of David because of this, but not forever" (v. 39). In due time that grace, on which David's kingdom rested, would assert its rights again. Jeroboam's kingdom and Solomon's own stood not on grace but on responsibility. The promises of God are without repentance; 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.
Summary
- Cause. God keeps His word, so the sentence falls: He tears the kingdom from Solomon, and Solomon's son bears the loss.
- Limit. God does not take the whole kingdom. The judgment is real, but He holds it back and softens it.
- Reason. God spares that one tribe for David's sake and Jerusalem's sake, not for Solomon's. The mercy rests on someone other than the man He is judging.
- Refrain. "For David's sake" comes back again and again in the later chapters, keeping a lamp in Jerusalem for generation after generation.
- End. God afflicts David's line, but "not forever." The kingdom He intends at last rests on grace, where He alone is under obligation.