In our last study we read that because of Solomon’s apostasy, the Lord was now going to carry out the warnings he had repeatedly given him.
He will take the kingdom away from Solomon’s son, leaving him ruling over just one tribe. Someone else, an official in his palace, will take over a much-reduced northern kingdom.
Although the Lord had stated that for the sake of David he would wait until the death of Solomon, that didn’t stop him manoeuvring into place the people who would carry out his will, and they all signalled their rebellious intentions.
Starting with someone from the land of Edom – south-east from Judah on the map.
Read 1 Kings 11:14-22
14 Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, (2 Samuel 8:13-14) Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. 18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.
19 Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.
21 While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, ‘Let me go, so that I may return to my own country.’
22 ‘What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?’ Pharaoh asked.
‘Nothing,’ Hadad replied, ‘but do let me go!’
Next it would be someone from the North-east (Damascus and the Arameans).
Read 1 Kings 11:23-25
23 And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 When David destroyed Zobah’s army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25 Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile towards Israel.
And then, importantly one of his own officials.
26 Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.
Read 1 Kings 11:27-28
27 Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labour force of the tribes of Joseph.
‘Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king’ (v27). Well, I think that's a bit harsh! It seems to me that it is more an account of Ahijah the prophet delivering God’s plans for the future of the Northern Tribes - Israel. Also his intention regarding the rule of Rehoboam over Judah.
Read 1 Kings 11:29-39
29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.
33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.
34 ‘“But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.
(I know - 10+1 does not equal 12 - see note on TRIBES at the end. The cloak could have been a simple square of material - easy to tear into twelve pieces.)
37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not for ever.”’
Well, what an amazing prophecy for a ‘young man’ (v28) coming out of the blue as he was on his way to work!
Frustratingly we are not told how he responded, but he must have told others of his amazing meeting, and the news soon reached Solomon.
Ok I have to admit I was wrong: obviously merely suggesting that you were destined to take over as king would be considered as rebellion – treason perhaps, and Solomon responded appropriately.
Read 1 Kings 11:40
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death.
He now joined Hadad and Rezon, ‘Waiting in the wings’ for what was to come next.
Read 1 Kings 11:41-42
41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign – all he did and the wisdom he displayed – are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. 43 Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.
I thought that was a very abrupt ending for such an illustrious king but it seems that once Solomon had turned from the Lord, whatever he now did would be of no consequence. Perhaps the best epilogue was written by Solomon himself:
Read Ecclesiastes 2:10-11.
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
– I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labour,
– and this was the reward for all my toil.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
– and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
– nothing was gained under the sun.
And Mark 8:36
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
So what happened next?
Automatically those in charge of such events arranged for the coronation of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. (Here it is easy to get confused: Rehoboam was Solomon’s son, who would eventually be king of one tribe, Judah, in the south. Jeroboam was a palace official who would eventually be king over the remaining northern tribes.)
Read 1 Kings 12:1
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
So far so good. But with the death of a king, and before the new king takes over there is an opportunity to renegotiate some rules.
Read 1 Kings 12:2-4
2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labour and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.’
You will remember that in order to supply Solomon’s lavish lifestyle every month he had arbitrarily split the land into twelve parts (1 Kings 4:7). Effectively taxing them with quite excessive demands. The people hoped that the new King would not be so demanding. Remember that Jeroboam had been put in charge of Solomon’s ‘whole labour force of the tribes of Joseph’ (1 Kings 11:28) so he would be the obvious person to get to act as their representative.
Read 1 Kings 12:5-15
5 Rehoboam answered, ‘Go away for three days and then come back to me.’ So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. ‘How would you advise me to answer these people?’ he asked.
7 They replied, ‘If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favourable answer, they will always be your servants.’
8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, ‘What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, “Lighten the yoke your father put on us”?’
10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, ‘These people have said to you, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.” Now tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”’
12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, ‘Come back to me in three days.’ 13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, ‘My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfil the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
‘this turn of events was from the Lord’ yet at the same time all those involved would have said they were exercising their own personal free will!
People always prefer to say that the Lord simply knew how people would react, and that he can’t influence our own personal choices.
My answer is that God is almighty and can do whatever he chooses – who are we to say ‘God can’t’ ? How inconsistent for us to say ‘I have absolute free will’ while at the same time praying that the Lord will intervene in other people’s lives?
It is also worth pointing out that Rehoboam asked advice from the ‘elders’ and the ‘young men’ but there is no mention of him asking the Lord.
Read 1 Kings 12:16-19
16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
What share do we have in David – what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel! – Look after your own house, David!’
So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labour, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
I do feel sorry for Adoniram, but not for Rehoboam. He knew what the prophet had said but his natural pride meant he still wanted to rule all Israel.
Read 1 Kings 12:20-24
20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
We would today call this partition – and we all know the trouble that will cause.
21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin – a hundred and eighty thousand able young men – to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
23 ‘Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 “This is what the Lord says: do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.”’ So they obeyed the word of the Lord and went home again, as the Lord had ordered.
I was struck by the choice of word ‘So they obeyed the word of the Lord’ which seemed to suggest Rehoboam was still reluctant. Am I being unfair?
For the last part of this study we will follow what happened next to those left in the south, now ruled by Rehoboam. Let’s jump forward and read 1 Kings 14:21
21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.
Obviously it was considered important to remind us that his mother was an Ammonite – the Lord had specifically warned that this would result in the return to pagan worship.
Read 1 Kings 14:22-24
22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine-prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.
I find it hard to imagine how a people who so recently had pledged themselves to follow the Lord at the completion of the Temple, could now turn so decisively against him. Not surprisingly, punishment was quick to follow.
Read 1 Kings 14:25-28
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. 27 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterwards they returned them to the guardroom.
‘How are the mighty fallen’. The Temple stripped of its treasures and the guards forced to carry imitation shields for state occasions.
Read 1 Kings 14:29-31
29 As for the other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 30 There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 31 And Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.
12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL - or 10?, 11?.....14?
Let’s start at the beginning. Israel was the name given to Jacob after he wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32:22-28) – it simply means ‘he struggled with God’. He had twelve sons:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. (12) (He also ‘adopted’ the two sons of Joseph - Manasseh and Ephraim. (14) )
When the land was distributed amongst the tribes, Joseph did not receive his own inheritance – it was instead given to his two sons (‘a double portion’) (13) . Levi, whose descendants were to be priests and temple servants, had no specific tribal land but towns within Israel were allocated to them with some fields (12) . (Their income was taken from the offerings brought to the Temple.)
So twelve tribes received an inheritance. But it was not that simple – these were nomadic tribal people, and were liable to move around. Manasseh received a split inheritance, half to the west of the Jordan, half to the east.
Simeon, once one of the most powerful tribes, was ‘scattered’ in accordance with the prophecy in Genesis 49:7. It became a weak tribe, allocated land within Judah’s inheritance. There is a suggestion that at least some Simeonites may have sided with Jeroboam and settled in the north – and later 2 Chronicles 15:9 has ‘large numbers’ moving back to Judah from Israel.
Dan was allocated land stretching to the coast through Philistine territory – who they could not defeat. So some of their members settled in the far north.
Benjamin was at one time almost totally destroyed – reduced to just six hundred men (Judges 20) and was eventually absorbed into Judah, which then became the name given to the area ruled by Rehoboam in the south.
Following the death of Solomon the nine northern tribes became known as ‘Israel’, and confusingly, sometimes called ‘Ephraim’.
In order to make the numbers up, to make ten tribes in the north, two-thirds of the Levitical towns were in the north so Levi could be included; and Simeon is sometimes included – but there is little biblical justification for that other than the fact that those listed in Ezra and Nehemiah as returning from the Bbabylonian exile do not appear to include Simeonites.
The tribes who were taken into captivity by the Assyrians are often called ‘The Ten Lost Tribes’.
