I Kings 12:1-32
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we meet Rehoboam and get reintroduced to Jeroboam. Almost immediately we have trouble with Rehoboam. He asks for advice from the “old men” and from his friends, then takes his friends’ advice – which from the beginning sounds horrible to us! So Rehoboam sets out on a path which will not end well.
Although we can cast sad eyes toward Rehoboam, what we see from Jeroboam is much worse. He becomes the acknowledged leader of the ten tribes that constitute Israel (with Judah and Simeon the other two tribes, simply referred to as Judah). The tribes of Israel make him their king and he institutes pagan worship, setting up alternative altars in Bethel (about a dozen miles north of Jerusalem) and in Dan (much further north). Later we see the Jewish people building synagogues in regions that are further from Jerusalem, but these were for prayer and gathering, not for sacrificial offerings. Jeroboam, however, built two golden calves (hello, memory…!!) and offered sacrifices to them. So as bad as Rehoboam has begun, Jeroboam is much worse.
Have you ever had a situation where you “didn’t get your way” and then you tried to “fix it” without first seeking the Lord? That seldom ends well. Nor will it end well for Jeroboam, as we follow him for the next few days.
Blessings.
See also: May 21 (2023) / I Kings 12-14:20.
If you read my 2023 post, you might note that I disagree with Fred as to which other tribe sticks with Judah. Fred says Simeon; I say Benjamin. Fred bases his statement on the fact that the territory originally allotted to Simeon back in Joshua’s day (i.e., after the Conquest of the Promised Land) was an enclave entirely within the territory of Judah (Joshua 19:1-9), so Fred’s position makes decent sense. However, aside from that historical territory, there is no indication anywhere that Simeon stays with Judah. I Kings 12:21, on the other hand, explicitly names Benjamin as allied with Judah against the rest of Israel, and Jerusalem itself is in Benjamin’s territory. Hence, I go with Benjamin. Note, though, that for most of us I doubt it makes any difference as to how we live our daily lives today.