The death of Solomon ended the greatest period in the history of Israel, the United Kingdom. This was followed by the Divided Kingdom which lasted three-hundred and eighty-eight years. At Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam ascended the throne. His subjects had long chafed under the heavy taxation of Solomon. Led by Jeroboam, a general of Solomon’s, they asked Rehoboam to lighten their load.
Rehoboam foolishly replied, ‘My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke,’ 1 Kings 12:14. The people were so angry with this reply that ten of the twelve tribes revolted against Rehoboam and crowned Jeroboam as their king. Jeroboam’s kingdom became known as the northern kingdom of Israel.
Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained with Rehoboam in the southern kingdom of Judah. The little tribe of Benjamin was so small it was virtually swallowed up by the tribe of Judah. 2 Kings and the last part of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles tell the complete story of the Divided Kingdom.
The story of the northern kingdom is not a happy one. During its two-hundred and fifty-three years of history, it had one bad ruler after another, not a single one of its nineteen kings actually being ‘good’. Nine dynasties or families of kings reigned during this time.
Several kings were murdered and their places were taken by usurpers. Jeroboam was so afraid that the people would go back to Jerusalem in Judah to worship and desire Rehoboam for their king that he set up two golden calves at Dan and Bethel for them to worship.
So angered was God at his action that He sent Ahijah to him to predict the downfall of Jeroboam’s house and the doom of Israel. The prophet declared, ‘The Lord shall smite Israel and he shall root up Israel out of this good land and shall scatter them beyond the river,’ 2 Kings 14:15.
After Jeroboam’s death, idolatry became even more rampant than before, and under Ahab, the seventh king, worship of the idol god Baal was introduced. During its first eighty years, the northern kingdom was almost continuously at war with Judah.
The ascension of Ahab to the throne sank Israel to its lowest depths. Ahab married a foreign woman, Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre. She brought along her idols and soon abolished the worship of Jehovah in Israel. It is doubtful that a more evil, unscrupulous woman is described in the entire Bible and Ahab was so spineless that he yielded to his wife’s evil designs.
God sent the prophet Elijah to cry out again this idolatry. Elijah conducted a contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and when they were proved false he had them slain. This intensified their determination of Jezebel to kill Elijah, but she never succeeded in her attempt.
Perhaps the best of all the kings of Israel was Jehu who succeeded Ahab’s son as king. With a ruthless determination, he had Jezebel killed and Baal worship abolished. But his zeal ran out and he never did away with the golden calves set up by Jeroboam. Of most of the kings who followed Jehu, it is said they ‘departed not from the sins of Jeroboam,’ 2 Kings 10:31.
Israel’s political strength reached its greatest height since Solomon under Jeroboam II, but idolatry again grew worse. God carried out His promise made by Ahijah to punish and scatter Israel. In 722 B.C. the powerful Assyrian king carried the people of Israel into Assyria. They never returned. From this point, the story of the Jews is that of the Kingdom of Judah.
Judah was smaller and weaker than Israel. Yet, through its three-hundred and eighty-eight years of history, it remained much closer to God. Several kings were very good and on the whole, the bad were not as evil as those of Israel. All were of the family of David. Judah began to decline under Rehoboam, but during the reigns of good kings Asa and Jehoshaphat, a great revival swept the land.
In the following years, Judah borrowed the religion of Baal from Israel. It remained for King Hezekiah to completely root out idolatry. He and his great-grandson Josiah were the two best kings to rule Judah.
But Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, was as evil as Hezekiah was good. In his fifty-five year reign, he introduced every form of idol worship he could think of and even burned his own children with fire as a religious rite. This caused God to promise through the prophets that Judah would be sorely punished for its idolatry.
After Josiah became king he set out to bring the people back to God. When the lost book of the law was found in the temple, Josiah instituted such a religious revival as his people had never seen. Following Josiah’s death, Judah descended rapidly.
All the remaining kings were bad and weak. Judah was soon made a ‘satellite’ of Babylon, and when the kings dared to rebel, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 606 B.C. carried most of the people into captivity as the Assyrians had done with Israel over one-hundred years before.
Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, governed a few that remained, but in 587 B.C. he too and most of the rest were also carried into Babylon. This punishment of God taught the Jews a lesson. Never again did they return to idolatry.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Rehoboam was probably the only son of Solomon, for although he had a thousand wives, he had not the blessing of a numerous offspring and although he was the wisest of men himself, his son was a poor, unprincipled fool.’
Rehoboam goes to Shechem, which was north of Jerusalem to meet with the people so that he can be made king, 2 Chronicles 10:1 / 1 Kings 12:1.
Jeroboam probably remembers what Ahijah the prophet told him concerning him reigning over ten tribes, 1 Kings 11:29-33, and so, he had earlier ran away to Egypt because Solomon had tried to kill him, 1 Kings 11:40, comes with a request that Rehoboam lightens the harsh labour and heavy yoke from his people that Solomon had put on the people, 2 Chronicles 10:2-4 / 1 Kings 12:2-4.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The complaint was probably twofold. The Israelites no doubt complained in part of the heavy weight of taxation laid upon them for the maintenance of the monarch and his court, 1 Kings 4:19-23. But their chief grievance was the forced labour to which they had been subjected, 1 Kings 5:13-14 / 1 Kings 11:28.’
Solomon’s taxes were just too much for the people and so the northern tribes had every right to make this request because most of the money from taxes came from the northern tribes and most of it was spent in the south in Judah and Jerusalem. Rehoboam tells Jeroboam to go away for three days and back and so the people went away, 2 Chronicles 10:5 / 1 Kings 12:5.
Rehoboam speaks to the elders, 2 Chronicles 10:6 / 1 Kings 12:6. These were the men who stood before Solomon when he was alive and reigned as king and it appears that Solomon never listened to their complaints. It appears that Solomon was a bit of a dictator who refused to listen to the counsel of the elders, Proverbs 11:14 / Proverbs 15:22 / Proverbs 24:6.
Rehoboam asks the elders how would they advise him to answer these people? And the elders tell him of he will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favourable answer, they will always be his servants, 2 Chronicles 10:6-7 / 1 Kings 12:6-7. Rehoboam rejects their advice and goes to the young men who had grown up with him and served him, 2 Chronicles 10:8 / 1 Kings 12:8.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The age of Rehoboam at his accession is an interesting and difficult question. According to the formal statement of the present text of 1 Kings 14:21 / 2 Chronicles 12:13, he had reached the mature age of 41 years, and would therefore be unable to plead youth as an excuse for his conduct. The general narrative, however, seems to assume that he was quite a young man, 2 Chronicles 13:7. Perhaps the best way of removing the whole difficulty would be to read in the above text ‘twenty-one’ for ‘forty-one.’ The corruption is one which might easily take place if letters were used for numerals.’
He asks them for their advice on how to answer the people’s question, and they say, ‘my little finger is thicker than my father’s waist’, 2 Chronicles 10:9-10 / 1 Kings 12:9-10.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘As much as the thigh surpasses the little finger in thickness, so much does my power exceed that of my father and the use that I shall make of it, to employ and tax you, shall be in proportion.’
The young men appear to be very dictatorial in their attitude toward the people. No doubt they were like this because they were spoiled by the king whilst living in the king’s court. In other words, they didn’t want to give up their lavish lifestyles.
The young men says, ‘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,’ 2 Chronicles 10:11 / 1 Kings 12:11. In other words, if they rebel, he will punish them. Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam just as Rehoboam suggested, 2 Chronicles 10:12 / 1 Kings 12:12 / 1 Kings 12:5.
We can see from Rehoboam’s decision that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and rule as a dictator so that he can continue to live in luxury as king, 2 Chronicles 10:13-14 / 1 Kings 12:13-14. As always, with this type of leadership, the rich get richer and the poor pay more taxes which results in them becoming poorer.
It’s very clear that all Rehoboam is interested in is looking after himself, he didn’t care about anyone else. Notice that 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, 2 Chronicles 10:15 / 1 Kings 12:15.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘God left him to himself, and did not incline his heart to follow the counsel of the wise men.’
When Israel saw that the Rehoboam refused to listen to them, they ask, ‘what share do we have in David, what part of Jesse’s son?’ 2 Chronicles 10:16 / 1 Kings 12:16. They were basically saying if the northern tribes were to be burdened with a heavy taxation that would only go to David’s house in the south, then the northern tribes would feel that they could no longer be loyal to any descendant of David who was king, 2 Chronicles 10:16 / 1 Kings 12:16.
There were several devout Israelites who emigrated to Judah so that they could remain under the rule of Rehoboam, 2 Chronicles 10:17 / 1 Kings 12:17, but also so that they can worship God in the manner in which God wanted to be worshipped in Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 11:16.
Adoniram, 2 Chronicles 10:18 / 1 Kings 12:18, or Adoram was probably the same officer as the Adoniram of 1 Kings 4:6, and some believe that he might have been either a son or grandson of David’s Adoniram.
Rehoboam tried to regain his reign in the northern tribes by sending Adoniram so that he could put them into forced labour, however, he was stoned to death, 2 Chronicles 10:18 / 1 Kings 12:18. By doing this, the northern tribes sent a clear message to Rehoboam that they were rebelling against him and they have now officially split from Judah and Rehoboam, 2 Chronicles 10:19.
Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 10:18 / 1 Kings 12:18. Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day, 2 Chronicles 10:19 / 1 Kings 12:19. When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel, 1 Kings 12:20. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David, 1 Kings 12:20.
Think about this, in just one day, because Rehoboam listened to the young men, and because of Rehoboam’s response to the northern tribes, we see Israel dividing into two kingdoms, and Rehoboam’s reign is reduced to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The northern kingdom will now be known as Israel and the southern kingdom will now be known as Judah.