Who was King Rehoboam in the Bible?

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.

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.

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.

And this was the thing that filled David's heart spite of many a fault in him. He felt that it was God's people that was entrusted to him, and this alone was at the bottom of his dependence upon God. For who was he? He needed God who was sufficient for such a thing. God alone could guide in the keeping of His people. But Rehoboam was the foolish son of the wise father, but of a wise father whose last days were clouded with darkness and with guilt, and who now is to reap bitter results in his family and is only spared by the grace of God from utter destruction. Rehoboam then, it is said, reigned in his father's stead. "And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king." The very first word shows the state of the king and the state of the people. Why to Shechem? What brought them there? What business had they there? Why not come to Jerusalem? When David was coming to the throne the tribes of Israel came to Hebron because Hebron was where the king lived. It was the king's chief city, where he had reigned before he reigned in Jerusalem, and the people came, as became them, to the king. Rehoboam heard that the foundations were being loosened and about to be destroyed for the king goes to Shechem. It was there that the people chose to go, and there the king perforce follows. He was a fool; he did not understand how to reign; he did not own his place from God.

"He went to Shechem, for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king." That is the reason of it. It was not that God had made Shechem the centre or the right place for king or people, but evidently the people chose to go there, and Rehoboam followed them, and that was the way in which his reign began. It was an ominous beginning, but it was a beginning remarkably suited to the character of Rehoboam. Where Rehoboam ought to have been firm he was loose, and where he ought to have been yielding he was obstinate; and these two things unfit any man to govern, for the grand secret of governing well is always knowing when to be firm and when to yield, and to do so in the fear of God with a perfect certainty of what is a divine principle, and there to be as firm as a rock; and to know, on the other hand, what is merely an indifferent thing, and there to be as yielding as possible.

Now it was not so with Rehoboam. "He went to Shechem, for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king." There was not now an association of divine grace, or truth, or purpose, or any other thing at Shechem; it was merely that Israel went there and he followed; he went there too. "And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt), that they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake to Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous — "You see the rebellious spirit from the very beginning. It is now in their language, as it was in their act before. "Now therefore, make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee. And he said to them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? And they spake to him, saying, 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."

There is little more to say of Rehoboam. Whatever was in his father's mind when naming him "Liberator," or "Enlarger of the people," he failed utterly to become either. He enslaved the nation to Shishak by his sins, and decreased the numerical strength of his kingdom by more than three millions through his folly at the very outset of his reign. He followed his father's shameful example in taking many wives. He displayed wisdom, however, in distributing his sons over the countries of Judah and Benjamin, placing them in the garrison towns, and providing them food in abundance. He probably remembered and was desirous to avoid such scenes as had occurred at the close of his grandfather David's life in connection with his sons. Would God that Christians had always as much spiritual wisdom as Rehoboam manifested natural wisdom in this. Were God's people well fed with truth, and well taken up with the affairs of Christ in the various services of His kingdom, there would be less strife among us. But alas, it is still too often true that "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Rehoboam's wisdom was rewarded when, at the end of his seventeen years' reign, his son Abijah quietly assumed the crown without opposition from his many brethren.

Rehoboam died at the age of fifty-eight. The Spirit's last comment on his character is significant: "And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." There we are told in a single sentence the whole secret of his failure, both as king of Judah, and servant of Jehovah, who gave him this exalted position, he applied not his heart to seek Jehovah. May God in His grace, help us to apply our hearts to seek first and always His kingdom and righteousness. Only so shall we be kept from evil, and preserved from making the record of our lives read anything like Rehoboam's — one sad succession of decline and failure.

REHOBOAM was not what we call a strong character. He was, in the beginning of his reign at least, as his own son Abijah said to Jeroboam, "young (inexperienced) and faint-hearted, and did not show himself strong" against the troublers of his kingdom (2 Chron. 13:7, N.Tr.). Why Solomon should have chosen him as his successor is not clear. It is difficult to believe that he had no other sons; yet it is a fact that Rehoboam is the only one mentioned (1 Chron. 3:10). His father seems to have had misgivings concerning his ability to rule the kingdom (see Ecc. 2:18-19; 4:13-16, N.Tr.). And it was probably not a question of favoritism; for Pharaoh's daughter, and not Naamah the Ammonitess (Rehoboam's mother), appears to have been his preferred wife. But if Rehoboam was his only son, he had no choice; so we read, "Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead."

Weakness and vacillation marked his reign from the beginning. His going to Shechem to be crowned was evidently a concession to conciliate the already disaffected tribes to the north. He might have succeeded in his efforts to allay the dissatisfaction caused by the enforced levy of labor by his father (see Kings 11:28), had he wisely and humbly heeded the advice of the aged men who had been his father's honored counselors. They, from long experience, knew the temper of the people well; and in petitioning for the lightening of their burdens, they were only doing what any people not reduced to the condition of slavery, or serfdom, might have asked. And had the newly crowned king granted them their reasonable demands, and been "kind to them," and "pleased" them, and spoken "good words" to them, they would, as the old cabinet ministers said, have been his loyal subjects forever. But he forsook their wise counsels. Influenced by a handful of callow novices and young court favorites, who, like himself, thought more of the rights of the king than of his responsibility to govern righteously he replied with as rash and insolent a speech as was, perhaps, ever uttered from the throne to a civilized nation. The outraged people answer in the same spirit as the king; and we have the sad, portentous cry, "What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house." (See also 2 Sam. 20:1.)

REHOBOAM'S REIGN OVER JUDAH (vs.21-31)

Though David and Solomon had both reigned 40 years, Rehoboam reigned over Judah only 17 years, dying at the age of 58 (v.21). It was no advantage to him that his mother, Naamah, was an Ammonitess. She had turned away Solomon's heart from the Lord to the worship of Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites (ch.11:4-5). Having such a mother, it is not surprising that Rehoboam followed idolatrous practices also.

Judah of course did not follow Jereboam in his idol worship, for Judah continued to hold the temple worship at Jerusalem. But in spite of having the wonderful privilege of the true worship of God in God's prescribed center, Judah took the initiative in serving and worshiping idols (v.22), as an addition to the true worship of God. They had seen Solomon's example, not only in worshiping Milcom but in making high places for his many idolatrous wives and favoring all their evil religions. This is the boasted "tolerance" of our own day, which tolerates anything except the exclusive worship of the living God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Judah became worse than their fathers in provoking the Lord to jealousy by their gross evil (v.22). This scripture does not speak of their revolting crimes against other people, but of their brazenly insulting God by their false worship.

The hardness and pride of Rehoboam, king Solomon's son, had been the direct cause of the division of the kingdom of Israel, though elsewhere the divine decree had announced it as a judgment on the behaviour of Solomon.

After the convulsions which had marked the beginning of his reign and a period of three years which seemed to be a promising start, Rehoboam “forsook the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him” (2 Chr. 11:17; 2 Chr. 12:1). God then sent the king of one of the great powers of the era, Egypt, against them, with an immense army. The fortified cities of Judah were taken. Rehoboam and his chiefs took refuge in the city of Jerusalem, and there the prophet Shemaiah came to find him. He gave him this brief and solemn analysis of the situation: “Thus saith Jehovah: Ye have forsaken Me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak” (2 Chr. 12:5).

"A man shall eat well the fruit of his mouth" (v. 2). This verse indicates two distinct uses of the mouth, for the fruit of the mouth refers to fruitful, healthy words spoken. If he has a habit of speaking good words, he will benefit by this greatly, so that he will find himself supplied with good food to eat. Closely connected with this is the virtue of guarding one's mouth (v. 3), which is a significant preservative of life. Rehoboam, sadly, did not guard his mouth when responding to the request of the Israelites to lighten the load of taxes Solomon had imposed. He answered them, "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges" (1 Kings 12:13-14). This was "opening his lips wide," and ended in the destruction of the kingdom."

But as David's sin, and his son's wicked conduct, brought about upheavals in the kingdom, so, later on, through Solomon's departure from God and oppression of His people, occasion is found at his death to make demands upon the new king coming to his father's throne. His insolent and foolish answer brings about the crisis in which the unthankful and heartless cry is heard, "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" (1 Kings 12:16). Ephraim, headed by Jeroboam — an Ephraimite — then takes leadership of the ten tribes revolted from the house of David, and a new kingdom is formed, in which every one in the line of their nineteen kings is an apostate from Jehovah.