2 Chronicles 10:1 – 19 Rebellion against Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:1-15)
“Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people departed.
Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.
They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him. He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”
After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders 14and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to it. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions!”
So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
The Kingdom Divided (1 Kings 12:16-19)
When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!”
So all the Israelites went home, but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem. So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.”
Rehoboam went to Shechem to be crowned as king over all Israel, but there was trouble in the kingdom. Consider Rehoboam for a moment. Rehoboam was the son of an incredibly wealthy and powerful man who went off into idolatry because he sexually allied himself with pagan women. There is never any indication that Solomon attempted to train Rehoboam or to impart wisdom to him in any fashion. In fact, in Ecclesiastes 2:18 – 21 Solomon laments the idea of handing the kingdom over to Rehoboam. “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.”
Say what??? Here Solomon was complaining about his successor; yet, he had done nothing to ensure that successor would behave wisely! Solomon had knowledge without wisdom or even common sense. Consider also, Solomon’s whining about “the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.” True, Solomon commissioned lots of works, but he was not the one out there skidding those cut stones in from the quarries or doing any of the other grunt work. Solomon was sitting in the palace giving orders, receiving rich gifts from ambassadors, and embracing 700 wives and 300 concubines.
How badly did the common people suffer during Solomon’s reign? Look at the complaints raised by Jeroboam. “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” Solomon had conscripted people from all walks of life, forcing them to work on his building projects and in his palaces, stables, etc. The old men who had advised – or who had tried to advise Solomon were aware of this. The elders gave sage advice to Rehoboam: “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
Rehoboam was an ignorant rich kid who had no clue as to the suffering of the common people. Rehoboam had been raised to believe that he was entitled to anything he wanted, including complete obedience from the Israelites. Rehoboam firmly believed that he was far better than any of the common people. If Rehoboam’s grandfather David had been alive, he might have been able to set Rehoboam straight; however, Rehoboam’s father suffered from these same delusions. Rehoboam had no desire to sympathize with the common people, so he sought advice from his buddies, all of whom were just as spoiled and clueless as he was.
I suspect Bible translators have cleaned up Rehoboam’s answer over the years. One translation says “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.” I suspect what Rehoboam may have said was, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s penis.” At any rate, Rehoboam gave the worst possible answer that he could have. The Israelites harked back to an earlier era and answered him just as they had King David at one point. “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!”
The Israelites took off so quickly they probably raised a dust cloud that enveloped everything from Shechem to Jerusalem. Rehoboam was left sitting, mouthing worthless threats and wondering what had happened. When Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, the head of the enforced labor, the Israelites gleefully stoned him to death. It suddenly occurred to Rehoboam that he could be next, and he hopped in his chariot and rushed back to the safety of the palace in Jerusalem. The coronation was a dismal flop, and Rehoboam was left with only the tribes of Benjamin and Judah as his kingdom.
APPLICATION: We read this account and think, “Oh, I would never have been so foolish! This guy lost a kingdom because of his arrogance.” Rehoboam’s biggest mistake was in taking advice from the wrong people. Rehoboam did not value the elders, nor did he respect them. Even though these men had advised Solomon, one of the wisest men in the history of the world, Rehoboam wanted nothing to do with them. Rehoboam wanted sycophants, boot lickers who would tell him what he wanted to hear. The elders might try to restrain Rehoboam while his contemporaries wouldn’t dare.
Recently, Dennis Prager has come out with the latest addition to The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses. In this book, Prager makes a telling case against those who have knowledge without wisdom, i.e., those who are educated but who have no moral compass. In Prager’s introduction, he states that “it is impossible to do good without wisdom. Without wisdom, all the good intentions in the world are likley to be worthless. Many of the horrors of the twentieth century were supported by people with good intentions who lacked wisdom.” Prager cites the German people who supported Hitler and who approved of the concentration camps as one terrible example. These people were highly educated; yet, they went along with a program aimed at exterminating an entire race.
Most of us don’t have formal advisors; however, we may have all kinds of news media and social media we access for information. In the last few years, much of the news media has become so biased that it is difficult to discern actual facts. Sometimes those who tell the truth are mocked and disparaged. How can we get true wisdom?
James 1:5 – 8 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” Sadly, Rehoboam’s father was not a man of faith, so he had no faith to impart to his son. Rehoboam was so foolish that he didn’t know that he didn’t know, and he suffered for it. May we all pray, asking God to give us hearts of wisdom!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to humble ourselves and ask for Your wisdom, knowing that You will gladly give it. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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