The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 45, The Northern Tribes Secede From King Rehoboam's Kingdom

In Sunday's study we found the people of the northern tribes appealing to the newly-crowned Rehoboam to lower their taxes and give them relief from conscription into forced labor. He told the elders who delivered this message to him to return in three days for his answer. During those days he consulted his late father's advisors who instructed him to do as the people asked so they would be loyal to him. He did not like this answer and consulted the men on his staff to whom he had given jobs because he grew up together with them. These men told him he had to act tough right out of the gate as he begins his reign. They instructed him to say something like, "If you think my dad's policies were grievous, just wait until you see how rough you have it under my authority!" Rehoboam liked the answer of these advisors because it lined up with what he felt inclined to do. Today the elders of the northern tribes return to the royal palace to hear his verdict. They return with Jeroboam of Ephraim, the man whom the prophet Ahijah identified in Chapter 11 as a man destined to be a king.

"Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, 'Come back to me in three days.' The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 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.'" (1 Kings 12:12-14, 2 Chronicles 10:12-14) The word translated as "scorpions" may be a reference to a type of whip with a spiked ball on the end. I do not know whether any of the overseers who managed Solomon's building projects ever used whips on any of the workers who were of their own nation of Israel. The use of the words "scourged" and "whips" may be metaphorical rather than literal. These words certainly have a negative connotation but if used metaphorically they may have been chosen because because King Solomon's taxation and conscription policies likely grew more burdensome and outrageous as time went on. We discussed what these policies may have entailed and why they may have grown more burdensome in yesterday's study. So in today's study we find Rehoboam not only refusing to lighten the load but vowing to add to it! He deliberately words his message to the elders in a way that antagonizes them. He fans a flame that is already burning and it's about to turn into a raging inferno.

Why does Rehoboam behave this way? I think he's a man who possesses very little of the following virtues: wisdom, discernment, restraint, diplomacy, or respect for God and man. We don't find any indication that he consulted the Lord when presented with the people's request for relief. We don't see any evidence that he took the time to consider the problem from their viewpoint. I think he asked the advice of his late father's advisors only to make it look like he valued their opinions---in other words, for propriety's sake. He wanted it to look as if he considered both their viewpoint and the viewpoint of his own personally-selected staff. But he already knew he didn't want to grant the people's request.

The Lord told King Solomon that his successor would lose a large portion of the kingdom he inherits. Because Solomon was not wholly committed to the Lord all his life, the Lord was not obligated to fulfill a conditional promise He made to David that if his descendants would remain faithful to Him, He would ensure that a man of David's family line was always seated on the throne of a united Israel. Solomon did not keep the terms of this conditional promise because he dabbled in idolatry. Therefore his son and his son's successors will not reign over a united Israel.

Does this mean Rehoboam had no choice in the matter? Was he unable to grant the people's request for relief? No, I don't feel Rehoboam is a helpless victim here. While it's true that he grew up with Solomon setting a bad spiritual example for him, which contributed to Rehoboam's failures of character, Rehoboam is a grown man who is responsible for his own decisions. Later in the Bible we'll be told that Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, although the translation of this number has been disputed by some scholars. If he was forty-one when he became king then he was born to Solomon before Solomon became king. There is no mention of Solomon being married until after he became king (when he married the daughter of the king of Egypt) but this cannot be considered proof that he didn't marry Naamah the Ammonitess (Rehoboam's mother) before he ascended to the throne. If that's the case he must have been quite young at the time of his first marriage since it's believed he was around eighteen to twenty at his coronation. 

Despite there being some disagreement among scholars regarding Rehoboam's age at his coronation, we cannot ignore the fact that most translations say he began to reign at age forty-one in 1 Kings 14:21 and in 2 Chronicles 12:13. This is the information we have to go on and I believe we can safely assume Rehoboam was no teenaged king. He was almost certainly middle-aged when he rejected the tax relief proposal of the people of the northern territories. He cannot blame anyone else for his scornful attitude and his harsh verdict. The prophet Ahijah did predict that Jeroboam of Ephraim would become a king in Israel but he was able to do so because the Lord knew the situation here in Chapter 12 was coming. The Lord knew how Rehoboam would react to the situation. The Lord did not force Rehoboam to be an unreasonable man anymore than He forced the pharaoh of the exodus to harden his heart. The Lord is simply allowing Rehoboam to be who he is and to do what he wants to do, in the same way as the Lord allowed the pharaoh of the exodus to be who he was and to do what he wanted to do. The Lord allows such things in order to fulfill His purposes. "So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite." (1 Kings 12:15, 2 Chronicles 10:15)

"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. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them." (1 Kings 12:16-17, 2 Chronicles 10:16-17) Israel and Judah are spoken of as if they are two different nations, which they effectively are now. The men of the northern tribes reject the Davidic dynasty. It is not enough for them that Rehoboam is the grandson of King David and the son of King Solomon. They will not accept him simply because he is of this lineage. David's grandson has refused to consider their plight or lighten their load; therefore they feel rejected by the house of David and, in return, they reject the rule of the Davidic dynasty over them. They secede from the union, to put it another way. They are declaring, "Rehoboam is not our king and we are not his subjects!" 

Rehoboam does not take their declaration of secession seriously. He overestimates his power over them. He thinks he can keep them under his control. We know he believes he can continue business as usual because he sends out one of his officials to continue conscripting men of the northern territories into forced labor. "King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death." (1 Kings 12:18a, 2 Chronicles 10:18a) Adoniram has been mentioned three times previously as the main person in charge of forced labor: in 2 Samuel 20:24, in 1 Kings 4;6, and 1 Kings 5:14. This man could not have been well-liked before and he's absolutely despised now. When he enters the northern territories to force men into service as he's always done, the people stone him to death.

It appears as if King Rehoboam traveled with him, perhaps as a statement to the northern tribes that he means business and that his orders will be enforced. When he sees the way the people react to Adoniram, he runs to his chariot and leaps in (I can't help imagining him leaping in head first) and barely escapes with his life. "King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day." (1 Kings 12:18-19, 2 Chronicles 10:18-19) At the time the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles were written, the author/authors could state that the northern territories were still in opposition to the southern territories. Rehoboam will not accept the secession of the northern territories and in tomorrow's text will almost plunge the entire nation into a civil war.