Then I hated all my labor in which I toiled under the sun,” Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “because
I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?” (Eccl. 2:18–19 nkjv).
His successor was his son Rehoboam, who occasionally made a shrewd decision but for the most part was a foolish ruler. At the beginning of Rehoboam’s reign, a selfish decision on his part divided the nation, and during his fourth year, Rehoboam decided to turn from the Lord and worship idols, and that brought the judgment of the Lord. His reign could hardly be called successful.
According to 1 Kings 14:21, Rehoboam was fortyone years old when he began to reign. Since Solomon reigned for forty years (11:42), this means that Rehoboam was born before Solomon became king. But the same text informs us that Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah, which means that the Egyptian princess Solomon married was not his first wife (3:1). His father David had married a princess from Geshur, a nation in Syria, and she became the mother of Absalom (2 Sam. 3:3). This was undoubtedly a political move on David’s part, so perhaps Solomon’s marriage to an Ammonite woman didn’t upset David in his latter years. The Hebrew text of 14: reads “Naamah the Ammonite” (italics mine), suggesting that she was distinguished above the other Ammonite women in the court. This would include Solomon’s Ammonite wives and concubines, which Rehoboam inherited when he became king.
What life does to us depends on what life finds in us. During Rehoboam’s reign of seventeen years, the way he responded to situations revealed what kind of a person he really was. At least four characteristics stand out in his short reign.
An arrogant king (12:1–17; 2 Chron. 10:1–19) Alexander Maclaren called this account “a miserable story of imbecility and arrogance,” and he was right. The story reveals that, whatever gifts Rehoboam may have possessed, he didn’t have the gift of relating to people and understanding their needs. David was a king who loved his people and risked his life for their welfare. Solomon was a king who didn’t serve the people but used the people to satisfy his own desires. Reheboam was a king who ignored the lessons of the past and turned his ears away from the voices of the suffering people. He was unfit to rule.
The assembly at Shechem (vv. 1–3; 2 Chron. 10:1–3). Solomon must have made it clear that Rehoboam was to be the next king, but it was still necessary for the people to affirm the choice and enter into covenant with God and the king. This had been done when Saul became king (1 Sam. 10:17) and also when David and Solomon were each crowned (2 Sam. 2:4; 5:1ff.; 1 Kings 1:28ff.). Rehoboam and his officers appointed Shechem as the meeting place, and Jeroboam and the men of the northern kingdom attended. Jeroboam had returned from his asylum in Egypt and was the acknowledged leader of the northern ten tribes. Rehoboam knew this man was his enemy, but he didn’t dare openly oppose him lest he alienate the people. Surely Rehoboam also knew the prophecy given by Ahijah that Jeroboam would become ruler of the northern kingdom, but perhaps he didn’t think it would really occur. No doubt he thought that the Davidic dynasty and the Solomonic prosperity would carry the day. He forgot 2 Samuel 7:12–14.
If Rehoboam selected Shechem for this important meeting, it was one of the smartest things he ever did. Shechem was located about forty miles north of Jerusalem, a good central city for such an important meeting. It was situated in the tribe of Manasseh, and this would please the people in the northern ten tribes. Joseph’s tomb was at Shechem (Josh. 24:32), the tabernacle had been in Shiloh in Ephraim, and Samuel the prophet was from the hill country of Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1). Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, had been in Shechem (Gen. 12:6) and so had Jacob (Gen. 33:18). Joshua had confirmed the covenant with Israel at Shechem (Josh. 24), so Shechem was a place of great historical and spiritual significance to the Jewish people.
Ephraim, and Manasseh, the descendants of Joseph, considered themselves the leading tribes in Israel and openly expressed their resentment of the leadership of Judah (Ps. 78:60, 67). David had welcomed volunteers from Ephraim and Manasseh into his warrior band (1 Chron. 12:30–31), but for years, Ephraim and Manasseh had sown seeds of division and dissension in the land (see Judg. 8:1; 12:1). Perhaps Rehoboam thought that being crowned at Shechem would be a step toward peace and unity between the north and the south, but it turned out to be just the opposite.
The appeal of the ten tribes (vv. 4–5; 2 Chron. 10:4–5). Led by Jeroboam, the leaders of the northern tribes protested the heavy yoke that Rehoboam’s father had laid on them, including high taxes and forced labor. When Solomon reorganized the land into twelve districts (4:7–19), it appears that Judah wasn’t included, and this policy may have been followed when he conscripted laborers (5:13–18). We can easily understand how the other tribes would respond to such blatant favoritism. Why should these hardworking people sacrifice just so the king could live in a magnificent house, be pampered by servants, and eat daily at a festive table? The people were wearing a galling yoke, and they were tired of it.
Back in the days of the judges, when Israel had asked for a king, Samuel warned them that having a king would be a very costly luxury (1 Sam. 8:10–22). The very things Samuel warned about were done by Solomon and would be continued by Rehoboam unless he altered his policies. It must have irritated Rehoboam that Jeroboam was the spokesman for the ten northern tribes, for surely he knew about the prophecy of Ahijah and that his father Solomon had tried to kill Jeroboam (11:29–40). Furthermore, Jeroboam was a favorite in Egypt and Rehoboam didn’t know what plans he and Pharaoh had made together. The kingdom was not in good shape and only Rehoboam could make things better. Visitors to Israel were awestruck by what they saw, but they couldn’t detect the moral and spiritual decay that was creeping through the foundations of the kingdom, beginning in the throne room.
The people were willing to serve Rehoboam if only he would serve them and make life a bit easier for them. All of God’s truly great leaders had been servants to the people—Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and especially David—but Solomon had chosen to be a celebrity and not a servant, and Rehoboam was following his bad example. When the Son of God came to earth, He came as a servant (Luke 22:24–27; Phil. 2:1–13), and He taught His disciples to lead by serving. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet as an example of humble service (John 13:1–17), and He wants us to follow His example, not the examples of the “great leaders” in the secular world (Matt. 20:25–28).
The advice of the counselors (vv. 6–11; 2 Chron. 10:6–11). Let’s give Rehoboam credit for asking for a delay to give him time to think and seek counsel. However, time solves no problems; it’s what leaders do with time that really counts. There’s no evidence that the king sought the Lord in prayer or that he consulted with the high priest or with a prophet. We get the impression that his mind was already made up but that he was willing to go through the motions in order to please the people. One of the marks of David’s leadership was that he was willing to humble himself and seek the mind of God, and then pray for God’s blessing on his decisions. Leaders who try to impress people with their skills, but take no time to seek God, only prove that they don’t know the most important thing in spiritual leadership: they are second in command. (See Josh. 5:13–15.)
In making important decisions, we should seek sound spiritual counsel (Prov. 11:14; 15:22; 24:6), but let’s be sure the counselors we talk to are mature saints who are able to guide us aright. The British writer Frank W. Boreham said, “We make our decisions, and then our decisions turn around and make us.” Sometimes we forget our decisions, but our decision can never forget us, because we reap what we sow. If the path we choose turns out to be a detour, then let’s admit it, confess our sin, and ask the Lord to lead us back to the right road.
The elders gave Rehoboam the best advice: be a servant of the people and the people will serve you. However, Rehoboam had already made up his mind, so he immediately rejected that answer and turned to his contemporaries whom he knew would give him the answer that he wanted. He had no intention of weighing the facts, seeking God’s will, and making the wisest choice. In more than fifty years of ministry, I’ve seen so-called Christian leaders take the Rehoboam approach, do terrible damage to the work of the Lord, and then walk away from the mess, leaving behind poison and debris that will take years to remove.
The ancient world honored age and maturity, but our modern society worships youth. In our churches and parachurch ministries, there’s a desperate need for generational balance, with the older and younger generations communicating with each other and learning from each other, just like a family (Titus 2:1–8; 1 Tim. 5:1–2). A friend told me he wanted to start a church only for people fifty and older, and I suggested he put an undertaker on the staff. God meant for His church to include male and female, old and young, and those in between, and that all of them should learn from one another. There are old fools as well as young fools, and age is no guarantee of wisdom or even useful experience. The young people in my life help me catch up with the present, and I help them to catch up on the past, and so we all stay balanced and love one another.
The young counselors were interested primarily in being important and magnifying themselves and the authority of the new king. They thought the best way to do that was to make a show of force. Youth, in general, seek to have authority and freedom, until they make the painful discovery that they may not be ready to use these precious gifts wisely. After admonishing both the elder saints and the younger ones, Peter wrote, “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5: nkjv).
The announcement of the king (vv. 12–17; 2 Chron. 10:12–17). A man forty-one years old who had grown up in the palace, who had been given three days to consider a matter, and who even had access to those who could determine the will of God, should never have made this kind of a decision. His father had even written a book of practical proverbs about wisdom, one of which said, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15: nkjv). However, Rehoboam’s leadership was motivated by pride, not humility, and pride knows nothing of gentleness and kindness. “There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health” (Prov. 12: nkjv). Apparently Rehoboam hadn’t taken time to read and copy Deuteronomy 17:18–20.
The king answered the people roughly, which is the same Hebrew word that is translated “grievous” in verse 4. The way he spoke was rough and the words he used were harsh. Instead of lightening the yoke, Rehoboam announced that he would make it heavier and more cutting. His little finger was bigger than his father’s waist, and if his father used whips, he would use scourges. (“Scorpions” was the name for a whip with metal pieces in it, similar to the Roman scourge.) Both in his words and his manner, the new king made it clear to the people that he was important and powerful and they were unimportant and weak, a dangerous message indeed.
Rehoboam represented the third generation of the Davidic dynasty, and so often it’s the third generation that starts to tear down what the previous generations have built up. The people of Israel served the Lord during Joshua’s days and during the days of the elders he had trained, but when the third generation came along, they turned to idols, and the nation fell apart (Judg. 2:7–10). I’ve seen this same phenomenon in businesses and local churches. The founders worked hard and sacrificed much to start the business or the church, and the second generation was faithful to the examples and beliefs of the founders. But when the third generation arrived, they inherited everything without working for it or paying for it, and they tore down what others had worked so hard to build up. Of course, if the second generation doesn’t teach the third generation the ways of the Lord, or if they won’t receive the teaching, it’s no wonder the new generation goes astray (Deut. 11:18–21; 32:46; Eph. 6:4).
The consequences of Rehoboam’s speech were predictable: “all Israel” (meaning the ten northern tribes) announced their decision to leave the other two tribes and establish their own kingdom. They shouted the words of Sheba, a troublemaker in David’s day (2 Sam. 20:1), left the assembly, and made Jeroboam their king. The only exceptions were the citizens of the ten tribes who had settled in Judah for one reason or another. They remained faithful to the throne of David.
Solomon’s first official decision brought him the reputation for great wisdom (3:16–28), but his son’s first official decision told the nation that he was foolish and unwise. For centuries, the Jews considered the division of the nation the greatest tragedy in their history and measured every other calamity by it (Isa. 7:17).
An angry king (12:18–24; 2 Chron. 10:18–19; 11:1–4) While Rehoboam was still in Shechem, he attempted some belated diplomacy and sent one of his trusted officers to the assembled ten tribes to try to bring peace or at least keep the discussion going. His choice of mediators was unwise because Adoram was in charge of the forced labor, and forced labor was one of the irritating areas in the dispute. Perhaps Adoram was authorized to negotiate easier labor arrangements or even lower taxes, but if he was, he failed miserably. The people stoned him and the frightened king took off for Jerusalem as soon as he heard the news. Rehoboam had followed the wrong counsel, used the wrong approach, and chosen the wrong mediator. What else wrong could he do?
He could declare war!
After all, he was the king, and by declaring war he could assert his authority and demonstrate his military strength, and perhaps Jeroboam his rival might be one of the casualties. Didn’t Solomon, his father, want to have Jeroboam killed (11:40), and wasn’t his father the wisest man in the world? Didn’t the ten northern tribes rebel against the king and even kill an innocent man whose only task was to encourage peace? The beloved King David declared war on the Ammonites for only embarrassing his envoys (2 Sam. 10), while Rehoboam’s envoy was murdered. The ten northern tribes were dividing what the Lord had put together and they deserved to be chastised. They had even called an assembly and appointed Jeroboam as their king! To defy the covenants of God and desert the Davidic line was wicked. It seemed that every consideration pointed logically to one conclusion—war.
Every consideration except one: was this war the will of God? After Rehoboam had assembled an army of 180,000 men, he discovered that he had wasted his time. The Lord sent the prophet Shemaiah to tell the king to call off the fight and send the men home. Though what happened was the consequence of Rehoboam’s foolishness and Jeroboam’s aggressiveness, it was God who had ruled and overruled to bring about the division, thus fulfilling Ahijah’s prophecy. Each man had acted freely and so had their counselors, yet the Lord’s will was done. (See Acts 2:23.) Our sovereign God is so great that He lets people make their own decisions and yet accomplishes His purposes.
The plan of God was only one factor; a second factor was that it was wrong for Judah and Benjamin to fight against their brothers (v. 24). It seems strange, yet family and national conflict appears repeatedly in the history of Israel. Abraham and Lot disagreed (Gen. 13), and Abraham reminded his nephew that they shouldn’t fight because they were brothers (13:8). Jacob and Esau had a lifelong battle that their descendants continued for centuries (Gen. 27:41–46; Ps. 137:7; Obad. 10–13). Joseph’s brothers hated him (Gen. 37), and Aaron and Miriam criticized their brother Moses (Num. 12). Saul was David’s enemy and on many occasions tried to kill him. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Ps. 133: nkjv).
Frequently in Old Testament history we find a prophet confronting a king with “Thus says the Lord.” Whenever a king, a priest, or even another prophet stepped out of line, a prophet would step forward and rebuke him, and if the prophet’s message was ignored, God’s hand of judgment would fall. (See 1 Kings 13:21–22; 14:6–11; 16:1–4; 20:28ff.; 2 Kings 1:16; 22:14–15.) Israel was to be a people of God’s Word, and God’s Word must be held higher than even the word of the king.
To Rehoboam’s credit, he called off the attack, although in the years that followed, there were repeated border skirmishes and other irritating conflicts between Rehoboam and Jeroboam (14:20; and see 15:6, 16, 32; 2 Chron. 11:1). However, it’s possible that Rehoboam was grateful that his plans never succeeded. Like his father, he wasn’t a military man and he couldn’t be sure of winning. It was God’s plan there be two kingdoms, and that settled the matter. At least he submitted to the Word of God.
At this point in the record, the writer interrupted the Rehoboam story to tell us about Jeroboam. The Rehoboam account is amplified in 2 Chronicles 11:5–22 and then picked up and concluded in 1 Kings 14:21–36 (2 Chron. 12:1–16).
An astute king (2 Chron. 11:5–22) Rehoboam heard and obeyed God’s message from Shemaiah, and the Lord began to give him wisdom and bless his life and his work. Had he stayed on that course, he would have led Judah into godliness and true greatness, but he turned from the Lord and lost the blessings he and his people could have enjoyed.
God blessed his building projects (vv. 5–12). His father, Solomon, had strengthened the borders of the kingdom by putting up fortress cities for his soldiers, horses, and chariots (1 Kings 9:15–19; 2 Chron. 8:1–6), and Rehoboam followed his good example. The cities he selected formed a wall of protection for Jerusalem on the east and west and across the south. The king knew that Jeroboam was a favorite in Egypt, so perhaps he had Pharaoh in mind when he set up this line of defense. It’s interesting that he didn’t put defense cities across the northern border. After Shemaiah’s warning, perhaps the king hesitated to provoke the northern tribes or to give the suggestion that Judah was preparing for war. He may have hoped that an “open door policy” would ease the tension and make it easier for the people in the ten tribes to come to Jerusalem.
God blessed his people (vv. 13–17). King Jeroboam ordained his own priests and turned the ten northern tribes into a center for worshipping idols, but for three years Rehoboam kept the people of Judah true to the law of Moses. As a result, the priests and Levites in Israel who were devoted to the Lord came into Judah and enriched the nation greatly. Some priests and Levites merely “sided with Rehoboam” (v. 13) and remained in Israel, but others gave up their property in Israel and moved permanently to Judah (v. 14). A third group stayed in Israel but traveled to Jerusalem three times a year for the annual feasts (v. 16). (To some extent, we have these same three groups in the churches today.) The addition of these godly priests and Levites and their families to the population of Judah strengthened the kingdom and brought the blessing of the Lord. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen as his own inheritance” (Ps. 33:12).
God blessed his family (vv. 18–23). Like both David and Solomon, Rehoboam disobeyed the Word and took many wives (Deut. 17:17). Only two of his wives are named in the record: Mahalath, a granddaughter of David through both her father and mother, and Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. Since David’s son Absalom had only one daughter, Tamar (2 Sam. 14:27), Maacah could have been his granddaughter. Maacah’s father’s name is given as Abishalom in 1 Kings 15:2, and in 2 Chronicles 13:2, Maacha is called the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. If this Uriel was indeed the husband of Tamar, the only daughter of Absalom, then Maacah was the granddaughter of Absalom and the great-granddaughter of King David. At least two of Rehoboam’s eighteen wives were from solid Davidic stock.
It was important that kings and queens have large families so that there would be an heir to the throne and replacements if anything should happen to the crown prince. King Rehoboam was blessed with many children—twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. The king did a very wise thing when he appointed his grown sons to royal offices and distributed them throughout Judah and Benjamin. This accomplished several things that made for peace and efficiency in the palace. To begin with, the princes weren’t engaged in their own pursuits and getting involved in palace intrigues, as some of David’s sons had done to the sorrow of their father. Rehoboam had grown up in the lap of luxury, but he was smart enough to put his sons to work.
The second benefit was that Rehoboam could assess their character and skills and decide which son would succeed him. God called David to be king and later told him that Solomon would be his successor. There’s no evidence that God named Solomon’s successor, so Solomon must have appointed Rehoboam to take the throne. After watching his sons, Rehoboam selected Abijah, son of Maacah, to be his heir, even though Jeush, his son by Mahalath, was the firstborn (vv. 18–19). First, Rehoboam made Abijah “ruler among his brethren” (v. 22; “chief prince” niv), which suggests that Abijah was his father’s right-hand man, perhaps even coregent. Rehoboam recognized in this son the ability that was needed for a successful reign. Unfortunately, Abijah didn’t live up to his name, “Jehovah is father.”
The “many wives” that Rehoboam secured for his sons may have been “treaty wives” to guarantee peace between Judah and her neighbors. This was the plan his father, Solomon, followed.
An apostate king (14:21–31; 2 Chron. 12:1–16) Rehoboam walked with the Lord for three years after becoming king (2 Chron. 11:17), but in the fourth year of his reign, when his throne was secure, he and all Judah turned away from Jehovah to worship idols (2 Chron. 12:1–2). “And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chron. 12: nkjv). The phrase “forsaken [abandoned] the commandment of the Lord” occurs frequently in the record of the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel (1 Kings 18:18; 19:10, 14; 2 Kings 17:16; 21:22; 22:17; 2 Chron. 12:1, 5; 13:10–11; 15:2; 21:10; 24:18, 20, 24; 26:6; 29:6; 34:25). David had warned Solomon about this sin (1 Chron. 28:9, 20) and so had the Lord Himself (1 Kings 3:14; 9:4–9; 11:9–13), but Solomon in his latter years worshipped both the Lord and the abominable idols of the heathen. Solomon was influenced by his pagan wives to worship idols; perhaps Rehoboam was influenced by his Ammonite mother. Whatever the influence, the king knew that he was breaking the covenant and sinning against the Lord.
God’s holy jealousy (vv. 21–24). When the Bible speaks of the Lord being “a jealous God” (14:22), it refers to His jealous love over His people, a love that will not tolerate rivals. Israel was “married” to the Lord at Mount Sinai when they entered into the covenant, and the worship of idols was a terrible breach of that covenant, like a wife committing adultery. Surely Rehoboam knew what God said to the nation at Mount Sinai: “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex. 20: nkjv). This same truth is included in the Song of Moses as well: “They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols” (Deut. 32: nkjv; see also Ps. 78:58; Jer. 44:3). Paul used the marriage picture when he warned the church to avoid pagan idolatry (1 Cor. 10:22), and James called worldly believers “adulterers and adulteresses” (James 4:4).
The king allowed and encouraged the building of idolatrous shrines in the land (“high places”), the erecting of sacred stones (“images”) and phallic images and Asherah poles (“groves”). He also permitted the shrine prostitutes, male (“sodomites”) and female, to serve the people at these shrines, a detestable practice expressly forbidden by the law of Moses (Deut. 23:17–18). Idolatry and immorality go together (Rom. 1:21–27), and it wasn’t long before the pagan sins condemned by the law became commonly accepted practices in Judah (Lev. 18, 20; Deut. 18:9–12). The Jewish people were no longer a light to the Gentiles; instead, the darkness of the Gentiles had invaded the land and was putting out the light.
Before we pass judgment on the king and people of Judah, perhaps we had better examine our own lives and churches. Surveys indicate that, when it comes to sexual morality, the “born-again” people in the churches don’t live much differently than the unsaved people outside the church. The materialistic and humanistic idols of the unsaved world have made their way into the church and are both tolerated and promoted. The Lord punished Rehoboam for his sins. How long will it be before the Lord punishes His church?
God’s loving discipline (vv. 25–31; 2 Chron. 12:1–16). For a year, the Lord was patient with Rehoboam and the people of Judah, but by the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, the longsuffering of the Lord had come to an end. God directed Shishak, king of Egypt, to invade Judah with a huge army and, in spite of Rehoboam’s new defenses, he defeated town after town. (One Egyptian inscription states that Shishak took 156 cities in Israel and Judah.) When the Egyptians got as far as Jerusalem, the prophet Shemaiah once again appeared on the scene with a message from God, short and to the point: “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak’” (12:5).
Whenever God’s people experience discipline because of their sins, they can make a new beginning by hearing the Word of God and humbling themselves before the God of the Word. This was the promise God gave His people when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 Chron. 7:13–14). Rehoboam and his officers humbled themselves before the Lord and He stopped Shishak from attacking Jerusalem. However, Judah was now subject to Shishak and had to pay him tribute. God’s people discovered that their “freedom to sin” brought them into painful and costly bondage to Egypt, for the consequences of sin are always costly.
To satisfy Shishak’s demands, Rehoboam gave him gold from the temple and from the king’s palace. This included the five hundred gold shields that Solomon had made for the palace (1 Kings 10:16–17). Rehoboam was too poor to make duplicate shields, so he replaced them with shields made of bronze, and the royal ceremonies went on as if nothing had happened. How often the precious treasures of former generations are lost because of sin and then replaced by cheap substitutes. Life goes on and nobody seems to know the difference. That’s what happened to the church at Laodicea (Rev. 3:17–19).
After the invasion of Shishak in 925 BC, Rehoboam reigned for twelve more years and died in 913 BC. Had he continued to walk with the Lord and to lead his people to be faithful to God’s covenant, the Lord would have done great things for him. As it was, his sins and the sins of the people who followed him left the nation weaker, poorer, and in bondage. As Charles Spurgeon said, “God does not allow His people to sin successfully.”
Rehoboam went the way of all flesh and died at the age of fifty-eight. We trust that the humbling that he and his leaders experienced lasted for the rest of their lives and that they walked with the Lord.