Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
Jeroboam's story stops here. Scripture names a state record of his wars and his reign, but does not copy it — so this short verse raises a question: what does God write down about a life, and what does He leave to other books?
Two Sets Of Books
This formula appears again and again in Kings. One commentator explains what these records were — and what they were not.
H. L. RossierThese chronicles were drawn up during the reigns of all the rulers of those times, whether Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. Whatever the Lord has not chosen to record or explain is found recorded there... The believer needs none of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds all that is necessary for him, as well as the divine evaluation of people, events, and things. Deeds may be recorded in writings that are not inspired, and recorded with great exactness. But these deeds never carry more than a human evaluation.
So the difference is not accuracy. The palace scribes may have been exact about every campaign. What they could not supply was God's estimate of the man.
What God Passes Over
Jeroboam went on warring and reigning for years after this. Scripture will not spend a line on any of it.
H. L. RossierFrom this moment Jeroboam's history comes to a close. The chronicles of the kings of Israel have recorded it, but God passes over it in silence.
The Name That Was Kept Instead
One writer sets this verse beside the later verdict on Jeroboam. What Scripture keeps is not his wars but his sin.
C KnappThis is that Jeroboam who "drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin" (2 Kings 17:21). God has placed the stamp of eternal infamy on his name.
That verdict is not stated once and dropped. It returns again and again through the books that follow.
H J VineJeroboam stands out prominently in the Old Testament as the great division maker. Under him the great mass of God's people, ten of the twelve tribes, broke away from God's centre at that time. Like a death knell, the Spirit marks this man out with sad words, repeated again and again: "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." One chapter alone solemnly repeats it four times (2 Kings 15:9, 18, 24, 28).
Human Sources, Divine Hand
Kings points to several outside sources like this one. One writer lists them, and notes who guided the author who used them.
Arend RemmersIn several places the writer refers to books that tell more about the life of the king in question. He may have based his accounts on them. He refers, for example, to the book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41), and several times to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19; 2 Kings 15:31)... The author of the books of Kings was able to use these references under the guidance of the Holy Spirit while writing his God-inspired work.
Even records drawn up by godly men are not Scripture. One commentator makes that line sharp.
H. L. RossierMen of God — prophets and seers — could be used to draw up these chronicles, to make these genealogical registers, to write these commentaries (2 Chr. 12:15; 2 Chr. 13:22). These writings are still not the inspired Word of God. Whatever human interest they hold, they have no importance at all for setting out the truth of God.
The Record That Outlasted The Records
Those royal annals are gone. Nobody can read what Jeroboam's own scribes said about him. What remains is the account that judged him.
H. L. RossierWhen they still existed, they testified to the divine character of God's Word and to the reality of the facts recorded in it. Now that they have disappeared, they have no other witness than the mention of them in the sacred writings. These things fall into ruin and vanish, yet the Word of God remains — the only monument, the only document that cannot be shaken!
Summary
- Two records. The state annals kept the facts of Jeroboam's wars and reign; God's Word keeps the divine evaluation of them. Exactness is not the same as judgment.
- Record withheld. The state annals recorded the rest of his reign; God passes over it in silence.
- Record kept. What God wrote down instead was his sin, stamping eternal infamy on the name of the man who made Israel sin.
- Record repeated. That verdict tolls through the books that follow like a death knell — four times in one chapter alone.
- Record remaining. The chronicles that recorded him have vanished; the Word that judged him stands as the only document that cannot be shaken.