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their civil oppression, rather than their religious wrongs. It is still so, and political reform looks only on the surface and never takes into account the root of difficulties. Had Solomon kept true to God the people would not have been oppressed; but they were blinded to this because they partook of his sins. They, too, loved the heathen worship and only murmured at its cost. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>And yet there was an overruling cause why Rehoboam hearkened to the younger men, for God had intended to inflict punishment (<a href="/1_kings/12-15.htm" title="Why the king listened not to the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.">1 Kings 12:15</a>). <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Rehoboam seems to have been incredulous as to the reality of the revolt; but if so, what event opened his eyes (<a href="/1_kings/12-18.htm" title="Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.">1 Kings 12:18</a>)? What action is now taken by him (<a href="/1_kings/12-21.htm" title="And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.">1 Kings 12:21</a>), and why is it brought to a standstill (<a href="/context/1_kings/12-23.htm" title="Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,...">1 Kings 12:23-25</a>). <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><span class="ital">JEROBOAM’S FOLLY (<a href="/context/1_kings/12-26.htm" title="And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:...">1 Kings 12:26-33</a>) </span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></span>To build Shechem and Penuel meant probably to fortify them as protection from attack (<a href="/1_kings/12-25.htm" title="Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelled therein; and went out from there, and built Penuel.">1 Kings 12:25</a>). <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Had Jeroboam ground for thinking as is recorded in <a href="/context/1_kings/12-26.htm" title="And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:...">1 Kings 12:26-27</a>? (Compare <a href="/context/1_kings/11-37.htm" title="And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel....">1 Kings 11:37-38</a>.) He had become familiar with calf worship in Egypt (<a href="/1_kings/12-28.htm" title="Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.">1 Kings 12:28</a>), but in any event Solomon had prepared the people thus to be led astray. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Notice that it was for political reasons Jeroboam did this (<a href="/1_kings/12-27.htm" title="If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.">1 Kings 12:27</a>). He had no intention of throwing off the yoke of Jehovah altogether, but was foolish enough to think He could be worshipped in one way as well as another. Why was he compelled to make priests “from among all the people”? (Compare again <a href="/context/2_chronicles/11-12.htm" title="And in every several city he put shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side....">2 Chronicles 11:12-13</a>.) What change did he make as to the time of the feast of tabernacles? (Compare <a href="/1_kings/12-32.htm" title="And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like to the feast that is in Judah, and he offered on the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.">1 Kings 12:32</a> with <a href="/context/leviticus/23-33.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,...">Leviticus 23:33-34</a>.) Where did he get the idea (<a href="/1_kings/12-33.htm" title="So he offered on the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast to the children of Israel: and he offered on the altar, and burnt incense.">1 Kings 12:33</a>)? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><span class="ital">A PRELIMINARY WARNING (1 Kings 13) </span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></span>The story of this chapter, although containing supernatural wonders, is in the recital and meaning very plain. Jeroboam has his chance to repent and turn to the Lord if he will, but his heart is set to do evil. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>No one knows the name of the prophet (<a href="/1_kings/13-1.htm" title="And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.">1 Kings 13:1</a>) who, although a “man of God,” acted so unworthily as to be denied the honor of its record. Note the prophecy he uttered and compare its fulfillment, over three hundred years later, in <a href="/context/2_kings/23-15.htm" title="Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove....">2 Kings 23:15-16</a>. This has been cited as one of the most remarkable prophecies in Holy Writ, “whose definiteness and minuteness stand in marked contrast to the obscure oracles of the heathen.” What sign was given to its ultimate fulfillment (<a href="/1_kings/13-3.htm" title="And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD has spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.">1 Kings 13:3</a>)? What personal judgment fell on the king and why (<a href="/1_kings/13-4.htm" title="And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.">1 Kings 13:4</a>)? Do you think he was genuine in his invitation (<a href="/1_kings/13-7.htm" title="And the king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.">1 Kings 13:7</a>)? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>And the prophet referred to in the subsequent verses, if he were ever a servant of the Lord, surely he was a castaway now (<a href="/1_corinthians/9-27.htm" title="But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.">1 Corinthians 9:27</a>). What a warning his conduct brings before Christian workers today! Could his motive have been to curry favor with the King? How many supernatural events can be counted in <a href="/context/1_kings/13-20.htm" title="And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet that brought him back:...">1 Kings 13:20-29</a>? (Compare <a href="/context/2_kings/23-15.htm" title="Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove....">2 Kings 23:15-18</a>.) <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><span class="ital">A FINAL JUDGMENT (<a href="/context/1_kings/14-1.htm" title="At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick....">1 Kings 14:1-20</a>) </span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></span>Taking <a href="/context/1_kings/14-1.htm" title="At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick....">1 Kings 14:1-2</a> together, how do they reveal Jeroboam’s hypocrisy, political caution, fear and ignorance? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The Lord’s commendation of David as contrasted with Jeroboam (<a href="/1_kings/14-8.htm" title="And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you: and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes;">1 Kings 14:8</a>) is to be considered in the light of the pure worship the former maintained in accordance with the divine law. It does not mean that David never sinned, although, of course, even in that he differed from Jeroboam because he repented of his sin. The phrase in <a href="/1_kings/14-10.htm" title="Therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that urinates against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man takes away dung, till it be all gone.">1 Kings 14:10</a> refers to “a man child” and is so rendered in the Revised Version. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>What “good” was found in Abijah (<a href="/1_kings/14-13.htm" title="And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.">1 Kings 14:13</a>) is not stated, but doubtless he was not in sympathy with all his father’s wickedness and idolatry. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Note the earliest prediction of the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians as it subsequently came to pass (<a href="/1_kings/14-15.htm" title="For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.">1 Kings 14:15</a> compared with <a href="/2_kings/17-6.htm" title="In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.">2 Kings 17:6</a>). <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><span class="ital">REHOBOAM’S INIQUITY AND ITS RESULT (<a href="/context/1_kings/14-21.htm" title="And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess....">1 Kings 14:21-31</a>) </span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></span>What allusion (<a href="/1_kings/14-21.htm" title="And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.">1 Kings 14:21</a>) furnishes a hint to the reason of Rehoboam’s apostasy (<a href="/context/1_kings/14-22.htm" title="And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done....">1 Kings 14:22-24</a>)? What judgment falls on him and his people (<a href="/context/1_kings/14-25.htm" title="And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:...">1 Kings 14:25-26</a>)? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>We should not misunderstand “the book of the chronicles” (<a href="/1_kings/14-29.htm" title="Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?">1 Kings 14:29</a>), as meaning the book of the Old Testament bearing that name, but only one of the customary records of the kings. Neither should we imagine verse 30 to be a contradiction of <a href="/context/1_kings/12-21.htm" title="And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon....">1 Kings 12:21-24</a>, as the former (<a href="/1_kings/14-30.htm" title="And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.">1 Kings 14:30</a>) may refer to skirmishes in contrast with an aggressive war of conquest. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><span class="ital">QUESTIONS </span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span></span>1. were the people of Israel any more religious and God-fearing than their first king? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. Rehearse the story of God’s relation to the division of the kingdom. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>3. Did Jeroboam outwardly break the first or second commandment? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>4. What king of Judah was named by the Lord over three hundred years before his birth? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>5. Quote <a href="/1_corinthians/9-27.htm" title="But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.">1 Corinthians 9:27</a>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">James Gray - Concise Bible Commentary<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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