What is the story of Rehoboam and Jeroboam?

Son of Solomon and Naamah an Ammonitess: he succeeded his father. On the tribes seeking relief from some of the burdens laid upon them by Solomon, Rehoboam unwisely turned from the counsellors of his father, and followed the advice of his young companions. He proudly boasted that he would augment their burdens and treat them with increased rigour. The ten tribes then revolted from Rehoboam and chose Jeroboam as their king. This had been prophesied of, and the folly of Rehoboam brought it thus to pass. He raised an army to punish the rebels, but was forbidden by the prophet Shemaiah to fight against them, and he had to hear that the separation of the ten tribes was of God. It was because of the sin of Solomon. Though a civil war was at that time averted, there were continual conflicts between the two nations, as they must now be called.

The outward worship of Jehovah was maintained in Judah, but Rehoboam did not check the introduction of heathen abominations into the land, and the wickedness of the people became very great. Shemaiah rebuked them, and said the Lord would deliver them into the hand of Shishak, king of Egypt. The king and the princes humbled themselves, and God granted them some deliverance; nevertheless they were made tributary to the king of Egypt. Shishak took away the treasures of the temple and of the king's house, and the shields of gold that Solomon had made. Rehoboam replaced the latter with shields of brass. Thus the glory of Solomon soon passed away! Rehoboam reigned over Judah and Benjamin, under the title of JUDAH, seventeen years, from B.C. 975 to 958. 1 Kings 11:43; 1 Kings 12:1-27; 1 Kings 14:21-31; 1 Kings 15:6; 2 Chr. 10:1-18; 2 Chr. 11:1-22; 2 Chr. 12:1-16; 2 Chr. 13:7. He is called ROBOAM in Matt. 1:7.

What followed Solomon's fall when he turned away from the Lord, who so graciously had appeared unto him twice, is unrecorded in the Chronicles. 1 Kings 11:9-43 contains these events. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had lifted up his hand against Solomon (I Kings 11:27). He planned secretly a revolt against the king, and when he went out of Jerusalem, most likely to carry out his plans, the prophet Ahijah met him, and in renting his own garment into ten pieces announced that God would take the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give to Jeroboam the ten tribes. Then Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam and he fled into Egypt, and was in Egypt until Solomon died. It is here where the account in Chronicles comes in. Rehoboam (enlarger of the people), the only son of Solomon mentioned in the Bible, went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king. Jeroboam had returned from Egypt and appeared on the scene, sent by the people to conduct negotiations in their behalf. Jeroboam demanded a lightening of the heavy burden of forced labor and taxation which Solomon had put upon them. If this request would be granted they were ready to serve Jeroboam. The King asked for three days to consider the demand. He first turned to the aged men and consulted those who had been closely associated with his father. They advised him to use kindness to avert the threatening rebellion. "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger" (Prov. 15: 1). If Rehoboam had heeded this inspired saying of his father, he would have followed the advice which had been given. But instead he turned to the young men, "the young men (Hebrew: children) that had grown up with him." They readily gave advice how the peoples' demand, "Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us," should be answered. It was foolish advice. The threat to increase their burdens, and that while his father had used whips he would use scorpions (a cruel whip to which pieces of sharp metal were attached) was to overawe the people and bring them into submission. It seems almost impossible that Rehoboam should follow such advice. If Eccles. 2:18-19 applies to this son of Solomon, the father's fears were well founded. He certainly showed that he was not a wise man, but a fool. Yet there was another reason why Rehoboam listened to the foolish counsel. "So the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform His Word, which He spake by Ahijah, the Shilonite, to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. And the offended people answered the king with the same spirit and declared their independence. In contempt they said, "And now David see to thine own house." Then foolishly Rehoboam sent one of the officials who were hated on account of their office, Hadoram, who was over the tribute. The people became infuriated and stoned him to death. King Rehoboam had to make haste to escape a similar fate. The revolt had come. "And Israel rebelled against the house of David." The words spoken to Solomon (I Kings 11:11-13) were now fulfilled.

Such was the root of division, but how was the division actually brought about. The history is given in 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10. King Solomon dies and his son Rehoboam comes to the throne. Immediately a crisis arises. There had been a long history of harsh actions, and grievous bondage, during the preceding years, and now a portion of the people rise up in protest. How is this met by the leader of the day? Rehoboam is counselled by the old men, who are rich in experience, that all will be well if he will "be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them" (2 Chron. 10:7). Does not this carry our thoughts to Romans 15:1 - 4? In the first verse of this passage we have the "kindness" that bears "the infirmities of the weak" rather than putting grievous yokes upon them; in verses 2 and 3 we have the pleasing one another for "good to edification," rather than pleasing ourselves; and in verse 4 we have the "good words" of Scripture for our comfort and hope.

Such is the spiritual advice of the old men; very different however is the counsel of nature, as given by the "young men". They advise Rehoboam to take a course which appears highly commendable to nature as taking a strong line, and as maintaining authority and the majesty of the kingdom. Alas Rehoboam follows advice of nature. He assumes an overbearing and unreasonable attitude and threatens the protesters with violent and extreme discipline (1 Kings 12:12-15). The violence of the King is met by the violence of the people who stone the King's officer, and, in result, division is consummated (1 Kings 12:16-19).

But Jeroboam knew nothing of faith. He had aspired secretly after power over his brethren (as the expression, "according to all that thy soul desireth," clearly shows), and probably sought the accomplishment of Ahijah's prophecy with pride's feverish haste, for which he was compelled to seek an asylum in Egypt, under the protection of Shishak, who had but recently overthrown the late dynasty with which Solomon had unlawfully allied himself by marriage. Ahijah had distinctly said that Solomon should be "prince all the days of his life," and it was only out of his son's hand that the kingdom should be taken and transferred to Jeroboam. But, like a wilful, impatient child, he could not wait, and must needs take the case out of God's hand and undertake for himself.

How long Jeroboam remained in Egypt is not known; but we read that on the death of Solomon he returned, and was present at Rehoboam's coronation; when the rebellion was consummated. "And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. And it came to pass; when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, … that they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying," etc. The time was ripe. Solomon's incompetent son and successor, instead of heeding his father's wholesome proverb, "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger," displayed his lack of wisdom and fitness to govern a liberty-loving people; and, as a consequence, he precipitated the separation of the already alienated northern tribes, to the weakening and almost ruin of a kingdom that had but recently extended from the Nile to the Euphrates, a distance of more than four hundred and fifty miles, and acknowledged by the surrounding nations as one of the most powerful empires of the earth.

The details of that memorable schism need not be entered into here, having been already gone over in the "Kings of Judah." (See REHOBOAM.) We have dwelt on the cause from the human, or circumstantial, side chiefly; the divine side is also given: "Wherefore the king (Rehoboam) harkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord, that He might perform His saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat."

Jeroboam now becomes the spokesman of the disaffected tribes in the presentation of their petition, whose rejection snapped the already overstrained link that bound the tribes together. Though only presenting the people's petition, it is nevertheless probable that Jeroboam was not idle, but, like an artful politician, busy behind the scenes, till the coveted crown became his: "And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel." He made historic Shechem his capital, and fortified it. He also made Penuel (the face of God — which should have reminded him of God's past dealings with the scheming Jacob) an important strategic point. Of Shechem one writes: "The situation is lovely; the valley runs west, with a soil of rich, black vegetable mould, watered by fountains, sending forth numerous streams, flowing west: orchards of fruit, olive groves, gardens of vegetables, and verdure on all sides, delight the eye" — the very spot for a man bent on self-pleasing, and aspiring to a life of luxury.

But the newly-crowned king quickly manifested that he did not hold his kingdom in faith as a trust from God. "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David" (the all-seeing Eye tells us what was going on in his heart, mark, which had never been anything but "an evil heart of unbelief"): and, he continues, "if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah." "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." This man has neither trust in God, nor confidence in his fellows. He was like a former king (Saul), who, departing from God, began to be suspicious of everybody about him. Jeroboam evidently felt that he had no real hold upon the people's affections, and that his tenure of the crown was very precarious. He therefore wickedly devised a plan (which, alas, proved all too successful) to prevent a return of the tribes to their former allegiance to the house of David. "Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan." The old limits of the land were "from Dan to Beersheba." Bethel lay near the southern border of Jeroboam's kingdom, and about twelve miles north of Jerusalem; while Dan was in the far north, at the sources of the Jordan. Thus by placing the calves at these extreme limits of his dominion, with the pretext of giving to all an easy access to a place of worship, the uneasy king hoped to prevent their return to Judah's God and kingdom. His kingdom, unlike Judah, with its temple at Jerusalem, had no divine centre. It was, in fact, a circumference without a centre, and its worship a matter of convenience and expediency.

It was not the noblest ground it is true. It was not the ground that would have left him in both liberty and responsibility. That would be the true ground I need not tell you, beloved brethren, and it ought to have been the ground if he would be a servant of Jehovah — if he would serve Jehovah in watching over the best interests of Jehovah's people. But said they according to their measure, "If thou wilt be a servant to this people this day, and wilt serve them and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever." It was prudence, it was good policy. I could not say there was faith in it but there was good policy in it, as far as that went. "But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, which stood before him. And he said to them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter? And the young men that were grown up with him spake to him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak to this people that spake to thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter to us; thus shalt thou say to them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father has chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."

His days were numbered — the days of the kingdom of Rehoboam. "So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day." He was in the plot, he was the one that well knew what the prophecy was, and now there was an opportunity of taking advantage of it. This is not the only connection you will find of Rehoboam with Shechem. "And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him; And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king hearkened not to the people; for the cause was from Jehovah, that he might perform his saying, which Jehovah spake by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Did that excuse Jeroboam? This is a very important principle that you will find constantly in the word of God. A prophecy is in no way a sanction of what is predicted. Prophecy takes in the most abominable acts that have ever been done by the proud, corrupt, or murderous, will of man.

Prophecy therefore is in no wise a sanction of what is predicted, but nevertheless to a crafty and ambitious man as Jeroboam was, it gave the hint, and it gave him confidence to go on according to what was in his own heart. He therefore soon gives the word. "So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them, Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute." But this only became the overt occasion for the rebellion to display itself. "And all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day." And that rebellion was never healed. Alas we shall find greater abominations than this, but thus the bitter fruits of evil were beginning to show themselves; and he that had sown the wind must reap the whirlwind.

"And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only."

Rehoboam wants to fight. It was in vain. God had given away ten parts out of the kingdom and God would not sanction that the man who is himself guilty should fight even against the guilty. God had not given them a king of the house of David in order that they might fight against Israel. "Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They harkened therefore to the word of Jehovah and returned to depart, according to the word of Jehovah."

Rehoboam (enlarger of the people) is the only son of Solomon mentioned in the Bible (1 Chron. 3:10). Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 and 4:13-16 seem to give a hint that his father was fearful about his reign in his stead. In 2 Chronicles 10:13 we find the history of Rehoboam more fully, which we follow in the annotations of that book. He was the son of the Ammonitess Naamah. During the first three years he was outwardly faithful, but after that he drifted like his father into idolatry and its moral evils (1 Kings 14:23-24; 2 Chron. 11:13-17). He forsook the law of the Lord and the people followed him (2 Chron. 12:1). The polygamous tendency of his father and grandfather were also indulged by him (2 Chron. 11:21). Jeroboam who had fled into Egypt (11:40) was recalled and the history of the revolt follows. Jeroboam was made king over the ten tribes, while Rehoboam reigned over Judah. What took place was from the Lord "that He might perform His saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (12:15). The disruption of the kingdom had taken place. Up to the deportation of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser (722 B.C.) covers 253 years. During that time thirteen kings reigned over Judah and twenty over the ten tribes; there were also two periods of lawlessness. The apostasy of the ten-tribe kingdom was complete; none of their kings served the Lord. Under Ahab and his two sons Ahaziah and Joram the Baal worship became universal. It was different with the kings of Judah. A number of them were God-fearing (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah). Others were wicked blasphemers as we shall see from their history. It is also noteworthy that the reign of the wicked kings was shorter than the reign of those who feared the Lord.

After the stoning of Adoram, Rehoboam's collector, Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem and gathered an army from Judah and Benjamin to fight against Israel to bring back the kingdom to the son of Solomon. Shemaiah (heard of Jehovah), a man of God, brought the message from the Lord not to fight against Israel. They were obedient and the war was averted. Many Israelites, who were true to Jehovah, as well as all the priests and Levites remained in the Kingdom of Judah. (As failure had come in, prophecy at once reappears. Shemaiah must have been a very courageous man to stand in face of a gathered army of 180,000 men, an angry king and an angry people and declare a message which must have been decidedly unwelcome. And one cannot but admire the gracious submission of king and people.)

Son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, and king of Israel. He reigned twenty-two years: B.C. 975-954. He had been an officer under Solomon, but Ahijah the prophet, having found him, tore his new garment into twelve pieces, and gave him ten of them, telling him that he should be king over ten of the tribes. Solomon thereupon sought to kill him, but he fled to Egypt and stayed there till the death of Solomon. On the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam was made king of the ten tribes. Fearing that his subjects, if they went up to Jerusalem to worship, would be alienated from him, he made two golden calves, placing one in Beth-el in the south, and the other in Dan in the north; and declared that these were the gods that had brought Israel out of Egypt. Priests of the common people were ordained by him, sacrifices were offered, and feast days devised. Thus the nation through their king sank at once into open idolatry: a warning to those in Christendom who devise out of their own heart their forms of worship, etc.

A man of God came from Judah to cry against the altar at Beth-el, and the king's hand, on being put forth to seize him, was dried up. On the prophet entreating the Lord his hand was restored, but he repented not of his idolatry. He had been told that if he would follow the Lord as David had done, his house should be established; but his dynasty extended only to his son Nadab. Jeroboam is charged with doing evil above all that had been before him, and his doings became a proverb. For Israel to sin "as Jeroboam the son of Nebat," was a mark of consummate wickedness. 1 Kings 11:26-40; 1 Kings 12.- 1 Kings 14., etc.

According to the king's lamentation (Ecc. 2:19), he to whom Solomon left all the fruit of his labour was not wise. His folly brought the consequences upon him which, in God's counsels, were attached to his father's sin. Under the guidance of Jeroboam ten tribes shook off the authority of the house of David. Looked at with an eye to its responsibility, the house of David has entirely and for ever lost its glory.

We have to follow the history of the two kingdoms, and yet more particularly that of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which retained the name of Israel, although God still caused the lamp of David to shine at Jerusalem.

Now, the moral fall of the new king — of Jeroboam — was not long delayed. Judging by human wisdom and forgetting the fear of Jehovah, he made two golden calves, in order that the powerful links of a worship in common might be broken, and no longer attach his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. A new priesthood had to be set up; everything, with respect to worship, was devised of his own heart. Israel's sin was an established rule, and the phrase, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," became the sad designation of their first king.

The disruption of Israel followed Solomon's death, and the breach has not been healed to this day. Ten tribes followed the lead of Jeroboam the son of Nebat; the remaining two continued with the house of David. Jehovah promised Jeroboam "a sure house" if he would walk in His ways, for Jeroboam understood that God was disciplining the unfaithful royal house through him; nevertheless, Jeroboam having no faith in God and His word, and fearing for the security of his throne if the people continued to go up to Jerusalem to worship, installed golden calves in Bethel and Dan, and presumably built sanctuaries for them (1 Kings 11:37-38:1 Kings 12:26-30; Amos 7:13). He ordained priests from amongst all classes (ignoring the special privilege of the Levites); and he instituted feasts of his own devising in defiance of Jehovah's law as laid down in Lev. 23. Thus the people were wholly diverted from God's centre, and from His order connected therewith. All this was more than unfaithfulness; it was open apostasy. Happily, considerable numbers abhorred these evils, for the Word of God had some authority over their hearts; they turned their backs upon Jeroboam's evil inventions, in some cases surrendering their homes and lands, and they went south where there was still a measure of respect for Jehovah's Word, and where at any rate they could worship in the house that was called by His name. That this large movement was a true spiritual work is clear from the following passage: "out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek Jehovah the God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah the God of their fathers. "The influence of these pious immigrants was so good that for three years the two tribes "walked in the way of David and Solomon" (2 Chron: 11:13-17). The deplorable break-up of the nation; the report of the wickedness of Jeroboam and his followers; and the coming amongst them of a crowd of pious souls (leaving their all behind them), apparently woke up Rehoboam and his two loyal tribes to the seriousness of the devilries which had been developing in the land for some years, and for a time (alas, only for a time) things went well.

The provocation to go to war with the tribes which had revolted was great. Rehoboam was ready to start the civil war. He gathered 180,000 men of Judah and Benjamin to fight against Israel and to restore the tribes to his kingdom. Shemaiah, the man of God, the prophet in Judah, received a message from the LORD, which he faithfully delivered. "Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren; return every man to his house, for this thing is done of me." It required courage to deliver such a message in the midst of the great preparations for war. Rehoboam and the people obeyed and did not go to war. They must have realized that if they disobeyed they would have fought against God. And the LORD also blessed the king and his people for believing the Word and being obedient. He always blesses when there is obedience. He built and fortified fifteen cities. "He fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them and store of victuals and of oil and wine." In several places he put shields and spears. Thus he made ready for a possible invasion from the side of Egypt, for Jeroboam, his rival, had been there. Rehoboam's fears were well founded, as we shall find in the next chapter.

Then there was a great exodus of priests and Levites from the domain of Jeroboam. As we learned from 1 Kings 12:25-33, Jeroboam established a wicked worship, setting up two golden calves at Beth-el and Dan. The priests he made were taken, not from the sons of Levi, but from the lowest of the people (1 Kings 12:31). The true priest and Levites who had remained with him were cast off from executing their holy and God-given office. He also had priests "for the devils." The Hebrew word translated "devils" means "hairy ones" and "goats." In Egypt the sacred goat was worshipped and Jeroboam's worship was patterned. The priests and Levites who were driven away by Jeroboam strengthened the Kingdom of Judah. They had a wholesome influence upon the otherwise weak son of Solomon. "They made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong." They all walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years. Most likely fear had much to do with it. We read nothing of turning to the LORD and seeking His face.