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SERIES L --- THE NATION DIVIDES --- LESSON 16

ISRAEL REBELS

REHOBOAM AND THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES

From 1 Kings 12:1-24, 14:21-31, 15:6-8; 2 Chronicles 10; 11; 12

Jeroboam was still in exile in Egypt when Solomon died. But messengers sent for him and he arrived shortly after Rehoboam’s coronation ceremonies at Shechem. With a delegation representing the people of Israel, Jeroboam went to see the new king. [Your father made life very difficult for us,] they said. [If you lighten the load he placed upon us, we will serve you as king.] [Give me three days to answer you,] Rehoboam told them. Then he consulted his older advisers. [What should I say to these people?] he asked. [If you serve your people well and give them a kind answer, then they will serve you well,] the older advisers said. But Rehoboam was not pleased with this advice. He called for his younger advisers, those with whom he had grown up. [What should I say to these people?] he asked. The young men had a very different idea from that of the older men. [Tell those people that your little finger is thicker than your father’s loins and that you plan to be much harder on them than he was,] they said. [Tell them that you will punish them with scorpions, while he only punished them with whips.] On the third day, Jeroboam and the people’s representatives returned to hear Rehoboam’s decision. Rehoboam spoke harshly to the people as the younger advisers had said he should, ignoring the advice of the older men. [My father was harsh, but I will be harsher on you,] Rehoboam told them. [He punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.] The king showed no concern for the people. Actually, Adonai had brought this about so that His prediction through Ahijah of Shiloh would come true. The people were angry when they heard Rehoboam’s answer. [Go home to your tents!] the people said to one another. [We’ll no longer serve David’s family. Rehoboam can be king over his own tribe of Judah.] The people of Israel returned to their homes. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to Rehoboam. Later Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labour, to get men from the other tribes of Israel. But the men of Israel mobbed him and stoned him to death. King Rehoboam was glad to get away with his own life, escaping in his chariot to Jerusalem. Thus, Israel continued to rebel against David’s household until the time this was written. King Rehoboam immediately summoned the leaders of Judah and organized his army, one hundred and eighty thousand choice fighting men, to stop the revolt and bring order to the kingdom. But Adonai spoke through a man of YHVH named Shemaiah. [Tell Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah and Benjamin and their people not to go into battle against their brothers,] Adonai said. [Go home, for I am causing these things to happen.] The people of Judah listened to Adonai and called off their battle plans. Rehoboam ruled from Jerusalem, but he built up several other fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin, such as Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, Shoco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. He also strengthened the fortifications and placed armed men on the walls, with supplies of food, oil and wine. He built armouries in every city and did all he could to strengthen them, for only Judah and Benjamin were loyal to him. When Jeroboam became king over the other tribes, he forced the priests of Adonai to stop ministering, appointing in their place pagan priests who made the people worship idols instead of YHVH. They sacrificed to these gods made like goats and calves in places built on the high hills. The priests of Adonai and the Levites abandoned their homes and lands in the other tribes and moved to Judah and Jerusalem. Other people who wanted to worship Adonai also left their homes and moved to Jerusalem where they could sacrifice to Adonai YHVH of their ancestors. For three years the kingdom under Rehoboam was strengthened and there was a sincere effort to please Adonai as David and Solomon had done. Rehoboam, who was the son of an Ammonite woman named Naamah, married the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth. He also married Abihail the daughter of David’s brother Eliab. Abihail and Rehoboam had three sons; Jeush, Shaniariah and Zaham. Rehoboam also married Maachah the daughter of Absalom. Their children were Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. He loved Maachah more than any of his other wives and concubines. Altogether Rehoboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines who bore him twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. King Rehoboam made Abijah chief of all the princes, putting him in line to become the next king, then he wisely placed all his other sons throughout Judah and Benjamin in the fortified cities, providing each with all he needed and helping each find several wives. But at the very time when Rehoboam was at the height of his career and was both popular and powerful, he began to turn from Adonai. He also led his people away from Adonai, causing Judah to practice much evil in those days. The people of Judah made high places for heathen worship, obelisks and idols on the high hills and beneath every beautiful tree. There were men who practiced great evil and called it religion, so that in time the people of Judah became as heathen as the nations they had driven from the land. During the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign over Judah, Shishak king of Egypt invaded Judah and Jerusalem; this was a punishment because the people of Judah had turned from Adonai. Shishak brought an enormous force with him, including twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen and countless troops of Egyptians, Libyans, Sukkiim and Ethiopians. Shishak first conquered the fortified cities of Judah and then moved against Jerusalem. It looked as if Rehoboam and all Judah might be destroyed. In fact, Adonai sent Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who were gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, warning them that Adonai would cause Shishak to defeat them because they had turned away from Him. When Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah heard that, they humbled themselves and confessed that Adonai was the true YHVH. Because they did this, Adonai then sent Shemaiah back to tell them that He would not allow them to be ruined completely. However, they would have to serve Shishak and thus they would come to realize the difference between serving Adonai and serving another king. Shortly after that, Jerusalem fell and Shishak took the temple treasures and the treasures of the king’s palace back to Egypt with him. He also took the golden shields which Solomon had hung in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace the golden ones and gave them to the palace guards to protect. Whenever Rehoboam visited the temple, the palace guards marched before him with the bronze shields, then returned them to their place in the guard chamber. The rest of Rehoboam’s biography is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, the Book of Shemaiah the Prophet and the Visions of Iddo the Seer.

COMMENTARY

SHISHAK’S INVASION

Solomon was a very wealthy king, but the taxes he collected oppressed the people. When Solomon died, the people begged his son Rehoboam, to lower taxes. Rehoboam refused and threatened to increase the burden. At this, the ten northern tribes rebelled. They turned to Solomon’s old enemy Jeroboam, whom the prophet Ahijah foretold would rule the northern kingdom. Five years after the weakened Israelite kingdom divided, Pharaoh Shishak invaded both Judah and Israel. One of his immediate goals was to refill the royal treasury. When his victorious armies reached Jerusalem, they stripped the palace and the temple of all the wealth Solomon had collected there. Among the prize items were the golden shields from the House of Lebanon. Another motive was perhaps more important. Shishak resented the enormous power Israel had achieved under Solomon. He had come to power by overthrowing Egyptian rulers who had been Solomon’s allies and now he wanted to re-establish Egypt as the greatest and strongest empire in the Mediterranean area. Shishak did not have the strength to conquer the Israelites, but he weakened them considerably. From Jerusalem he marched north into Israel, destroying important cities as far north as Megiddo. Returning to Egypt, his armies cut through the Negeb Desert, pillaging towns along the way. His purpose was probably to destroy the Judean trading routes and return control to Egypt. Some historians believe Shishak destroyed the crucial Israelite harbour at Ezion-geber.

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