1 Kings 12-16
The kingdom of Israel split in two.
From God’s point of view, it was inevitable. He had told Solomon what would happen in the face of his idolatry, “I will tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant,” all but one tribe, he later added (1 Kings 11:11-13).
But from a human point of view, it was avoidable. The split needn’t have happened. A little humility was all that would have been required for Solomon’s son to keep Israel whole, but Rehoboam’s arrogance was as thick and sticky as molasses.
I love to tell young people (as I’ve told my sons for years) that they should honor the friends of their parents. “To honor your parents’ trusted friends,” I say, “is an extension of the Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.”
Had Rehoboam an ounce of respect for his father’s friends, the nation might have remained united. But when given the choice of following the advice of his friends or his father’s friends, he chose the latter, and responded to Jeroboam and the ten Northern tribes with harsh arrogance. The kingdom divided.
The split was a spiritual disaster for the Northern tribes (They kept the name, Israel), and only slightly less so for Judah. To keep people from going to Jerusalem in Judah for worship and atonement, Jeroboam built his own idolatrous worship centers, complete with golden calves! Where did he get that idea? Not one of the kings of the North ever sought the Lord with a sincere heart. Judah’s kings were a mixed bag, some bad like Rehoboam and Abijah, some good, like Asa.
But none of the Northern kings was quite as bad as Ahab, who appears first at the end of 1 Kings 16. So bad was he that God had to send one of the greatest prophets to do battle with him.
Until tomorrow,
Pastor Gary
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