“41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign—all he did and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 43 Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. 7 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” 8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “Tell these people who have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter’ tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 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.’”
12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men—to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’ ” So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.”
“And now the end is near so I face the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear. I’ll state my case of which I'm certain. I’ve lived a life that’s full. I’ve traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this: I did it my way.” That’s Sinatra’s biggest hit.
I remember a man singing that at a funeral held at a hall. He must have been the friend of the deceased; his suit was too big for him. He wore a grey fedora. It was just sad. At least with Sinatra you get the gravitas but here it was just some guy singing about his friend doing it his way and you could see that the results of “his way” was a fractured family. Put yourself in the shoes of one of his children. Remember your father stepping on your family and then hear, “Regrets, I’ve had a few but then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exception. I planned each charted course each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this: I did it my way.” “Yeah, you did Dad. You did it your way.”
Tonight we see Rehoboam do it his way. We see the first line of that song for Solomon, “And now the end is near so I face the final curtain.” We see the bitter fruit of the pride of their way but God can use even our prideful ways in His way; that’s the claim of this sermon.
We see this in three points. First: the death of Solomon. Second: the rise of Rehoboam. Third: the aftermath. First, in 11:41-43, the death of Solomon. Second, in 12:1-15, the rise of Rehoboam. Third, in 16-24, the aftermath.
To say “hello” to Rehoboam we need to say “goodbye” to Solomon and that’s our first point: the death of Solomon. And now Solomon’s dead. It’s that abrupt. It’s a very short account, “Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father.” This will become the template throughout the books of Kings—time reigned and buried. The longest death account we get of any king of Israel is found in the New Testament. The death and resurrection of king Jesus takes up a quarter of the story in Luke all the way up about half of the book of John. King Solomon just gets, “he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father.” Solomon’s death can’t change my death or Abraham Lincoln’s or yours. What happened after Solomon’s death doesn’t leave me with any hope—not so with king Jesus.
So what are we to make of Solomon now that he’s dead? What does the Lord make of him? He had a wonderful start—a first half for the ages—but it came undone at the end. Did he come undone enough to be undone forever? I don’t know. I’ll share what I wrote one of our members who asked me about this topic—I like to think that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes at the end of his life looking back and seeing his errors, repenting and trusting that the next life would be better. This book of 1 Kings, however, leaves it very ambiguous. It’s as if the author doesn’t see the need to answer this question of Solomon’s soul the way he did for David. Perhaps that’s part of the point—urging us to be wiser than Solomon and stay devoted.
Solomon was remarkable, though. We don’t know all there is to say about him. We don’t have the annals of Solomon. “As for the other events of Solomon’s reign—all he did and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?” The last words of John’s gospel are quite similar. “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Unlike Solomon, though, Jesus is still up to all sorts of wonders. The question is whether he is up to them with you. Jesus is a more ideal king than Solomon. He doesn’t fade in the second half. He never will. And so passes Solomon son David, son of Jesse. Now rises Rehoboam and that’s our second point: the rise of Rehoboam.
Solomon’s coronation was hastily put together to save his life and Bathsheba’s. It was an open question as to whether Solomon would hang on to the throne. Ironically from what we see at the beginning that doesn’t seem the case for Rehoboam who seems the obvious successor; verse 1 of chapter 12, “Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.” Rehoboam was the obvious successor and Shechem was a logical choice. It’s where Joshua ratified and renewed the covenant. That gave it optics of unity and new beginnings. It’s also in the north and the northern tribes had been bearing the brunt of Solomon’s decades of work projects. They were feeling left out in the cold and crowing Rehoboam here was, as Oswalt puts it, a sign that “they were not going to be ruled as second-class citizens.”
A rising power player we met last week comes to the coronation. Jeroboam had fled from Solomon to Egypt but as so often happened in the Ancient Near East, the death of a king cleared the decks regarding outstanding warrants for political opponents. The new king has his chance to make his choices as to who is in and who is out and so Jeroboam returns.
Jeroboam seems to want to make it work with Rehoboam. That’s remarkable considering that the Lord promised him ten of the twelve tribes which led to him fleeing the country. Jeroboam is presented here as honest broker. He’s not interested in smashing the system—just reforming it. He’s got the goodwill of the north; ‘So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him , “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Everything Jeroboam says here is true. We’ve seen that the other tribes were taxed and pressed into labor to build Solomon’s projects—both those devoted to the Lord and those devoted to his pride. Now the north want to tend to their own. The rising tide of Solomon has lifted their boats and they were not planning revolt. They were making a reasonable request. “If you stop bleeding us dry for all these projects and let us be, then long live the king.”
Rehoboam recognizes that they are asking for change. He wants time to think it over and so he sends them away for three days for him to consider. That’s not, in and of itself, unwise. You can make wise decisions on the way toward foolishness. Rehoboam does.
King Rehoboam consults his father’s advisors. They are, after all, the ones who know the score. They know who can be trusted and who can’t. He asks them, “How would you advise me to answer these people?” This seems to be a strong start for the new king. These advisors who know the political lay of the land advise him saying, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” These men know the understandable frustration behind the northern tribes’ request. They think it’s wise for the new king to agree. “Stop building like your father did. Solomon took it too far—just back off and it will be great;” that’s their advice.
It’s likely that the rest of this story would quite different if the new king listened to the old guard, but he didn’t. “But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.” We are told already that Rehoboam will listen to them rather than to his father’s advisors. Why? Why not let the drama play out? Why tell us the outcome first? Well, because the Lord has already decided the outcome. The kingdom will be peeled away from Rehoboam. That’s certain. What remains to be seen is how and this editorial comment about Rehoboam rejecting the advice of the old guard before even hearing what his friends have to say just makes that clear. We already know what will happen. We knew it before Solomon died. The point in this story is how what God determined happened. It will happen by pride and pigheadedness. God uses those in His plans just like He uses humility and honorable motives. It’s all His world.
These young guns think it’s their world; “like Rehoboam,” House tells us, “are young, ambitious, proud, and insecure.” They, like the new king, came to age later in Solomon’s reign. They’ve known nothing but affluence and peace. They think it can just get better. They are foolish.
Rehoboam has finally secured the throne. He has “been waiting all his life for his chance at this great opportunity, and he was not about to listen to some foolishness about serving others,” as Oswalt puts it. We are coming to see that this young man thinks he knows more than his father’s advisors and more than his father. It’s his time in the sun—Rehoboam rises.
He asks his group—his brain trust, ‘What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, “Lighten the yoke your father put on us”?’ Notice the difference in the way he presents the question. To the elders he said, “how would you advise me to answer these people?” He is charge. They aren’t. To the young bucks he says, “How should we answer these people…?” You see where his loyalties lie. His question to the old guard which seemed so wise when we first heard now seems like just playing politics. We see that the apple has fallen far from the tree when it comes to wisdom.
There might be mocking tone in his question, ‘How should we answer these people who say to me, “Lighten the yoke your father put on us”?’ He might be looking for a good come back. This is quite unlike the reasonable tone of the northern tribes’ request. You see the terrible contrast in their advice, ‘Tell these people who have said to you, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter” tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist,”’ but, in the Hebrew, it’s not as family friendly. They seem like frat boys with positions of power.
They tell Rehoboam to make clear that he’s more of a man than his father ever was. They think the northern tribes are getting too big for their britches. They advise Rehoboam to play it tough. “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.’” That’s pride, pompous, pigheadedness, which will engender resentment and lead to rebellion.
Now ask yourself—what would the exact opposite response be? What is the opposite of prideful pigheadedness? What is the opposite of a heavy yoke that you are asking to escape? Can you think of any king in the Bible who offers this opposite? “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It’s hard to believe that King Jesus didn’t have today’s passage in mind when he said those words. To which king do you swear loyalty? Which king are you becoming more like? Which king’s plan works?
After three days, Jeroboam and delegation return for the king’s answer. He plays it tough like his friends advised—the advice he wanted. “The king answered the people harshly,” as the author put it. We’ll see how foolish that is. “Stupidity under the Sovereignty of God,” is how Davis described this because as we read in verse 15, “the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord.” The Lord’s providential will doesn’t negate or excuse or justify Rehoboam’s pride. It just says that this pride is the “how” that leads to the “what” God declared. We see what He declared come to pass in our final point: the aftermath.
Rehoboam wanted to play it tough—to put the north in their place. The north went to their place. “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son?” they said to each other after hearing Rehoboam. “To your tents, O Israel!” The ten tribes left not just the meeting physically but politically. The kingdom is no longer united. What was once twelve is now ten and two. Rehoboam lost the ten in one act of pride but that one act of pride came from a prideful character.
Rehoboam doesn’t accept their leaving. He, in an even rasher decision, sends Adoniram—the official we’ve seen in charge of forced labor—to press the northern tribes not just back alignment but into forced labor. Put yourself in the position of the northern tribes. You’ve now got a good read as to what Rehoboam is about and it’s not your well-being. The north assassinates Adoniram. Rehoboam barely escapes with his life. It’s hard to imagine a worse beginning—a far cry from Solomon asking the Lord for the wisdom necessary to govern this great people.
Rehoboam continues his foolish path by raising an army from the two tribes he has left—Judah and Benjamin. He’s going to take back what’s been lost with “a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men.” That number might impressive until you remember another set of numbers—ten and two and ten is much greater than two. The two tribes Rehoboam has left can’t defeat Israel and even if they could, they can’t keep them. “Rehoboam was living in a fantasy world,” as one commentator describes his plans for war.
In this fantasy world, Rehoboam is fine with thousands of men dying to make up for his mistakes or even more likely just to assuage his pride. Imagine your son dying in battle because you’ve got a king who is too prideful and pigheaded to accept the consequences of his own foolish decisions. The northern tribes will make all sorts of horrible mistakes in 1 and 2 Kings but it’s hard to fault them from wanting nothing to do with the foolishness of Solomon’s son.
Rehoboam is ready to kill men he used to reign over using men he currently reigns over. He is stopped and it’s instructive as to who stops him. ‘This is what the Lord says, “Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you.”’ That’s the Lord’s take on this idiocy. Rehoboam had said, “go,” and the Lord says, “no,” and that’s it. The Lord stops him. There is a King behind the kings.
The Lord is in charge. You see that in the word “dabar.” It’s translated here as “doing.” “Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.” We saw it with Solomon translated as “acts”, “Now the rest of the acts of Solomon…” We saw this same, flexible word in the back and forth of Rehoboam’s negotiations translated as “said”, what the delegation said to Rehoboam, what the advisors said to Rehoboam, what Rehoboam said to the delegation. Which “dabar” carries the day? Solomon’s acts? Rehoboam’s words? No, it’s the Lord’s doing that always carries the day.
And so it is and so it will be. The question for Rehoboam and for you and for all of us as end this time in Kings is whether we are fine with that. King Jesus tells you that’s what’s best—for the King of Kings to have his way; pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done.” Are you happy under king Jesus? It’s better than being under Rehoboam. It’s better than being under Solomon. It’s better than you being under you. Be happy Christ is king. And so ends our time in Kings. Amen.