Rehoboam's Foolishness
1 Kings 11:26-12:24

Introduction

This past week … preparations have been made for talks between Trump and Putin and Zelensky … to try and end the war in Ukraine. Now no one knows exactly how many soldiers have been killed so far in this war. Neither side wants to project weakness … by publishing exact figures. But conservative estimates are around 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed … and a further 400,000 wounded … and around 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed … and a further 800,000 wounded. Add to that civilian casualties … and this war is approaching half a million deaths. Some estimates claim it’s closer to a million.

Now although I’m not a geopolitical expert … I DO know the situation leading up to Russia invading Ukraine was complicated. But in the end … those 500,000 deaths lay at the feet of just 1 man; President Putin. If he had not chosen to invade a sovereign nation … this war would not have happened. And so regardless of how good a leader Putin might be in other areas … he’s likely going to be remembered as a leader who was single-handedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people … all because he wanted annex one of his neighbours.

Now the reason I begin with this is because our passage today looks at another disastrous leader. If President Putin goes down in history as being responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths … King Rehoboam has gone down in history as the FOOL who caused the nation of Israel to split in two.

So we’re working our way through the book of 1 Kings this term. And 1 Kings has some of the BIGGEST milestones in Israelite history. For example:

It has King Solomon being given divine wisdom from God … along with incredible riches
It has King Solomon building the Temple … which became central to Israelite worship
It has King Solomon throwing his divine wisdom in the bin … by getting 700 wives and 300 concubines … then worshipping the foreign gods his foreign wives worshipped.

Well today’s passage is another HUGE milestone. It is the kingdom of Israel splitting into two nations; the northern kingdom … which KEEPS the name Israel … and the southern kingdom of Judah. And this episode governs the rest of OT history … including ALL the prophetic books. And the question we need to ask with this passage is … ‘how did this happen?’ How can the nation of Israel … who just 20 years earlier enjoyed the pinnacle … the high point of her history … be literally torn in 2?

Well as we’re going to see … a big part of the answer has to do with how poor a leader Rehoboam turns out to be. Yet the beauty of this tragic passage … is it shows us exactly where Rehoboam went wrong. And if we have ears to hear … WE can learn from this … so as to avoid these disastrous mistakes ourselves. Now while very few of us will likely go on to be world leaders … we ALL have responsibilities of some description … right? What this passage shows us … is HOW we can execute our responsibilities in life … in a way that doesn’t lead to disaster … like it did for Rehoboam.

And I’ve got 3 points to help us find success in life … as your sermon outline shows. So I want to begin by showing that this turn of events is actually GOD’S doing … as we’re told in the second half of 1 Kings 11. So I’ve titled this point (i) God’s judgment on idolatrous leadership. Yet in bringing his plans to fruition … God uses the foolishness of Rehoboam … the first half of 1 Kings 12. And I’ve titled this (ii) Rehoboam’s arrogant leadership. We’ll then conclude with our application … which is what God WANTS from his people … which I’ve titled (iii) God’s wish for servant leadership. So … I pray you can stick with me for our next instalment of 1 Kings … as we look at how to avoid Rehoboam’s foolishness.

God’s judgment on idolatrous leadership (1 Kings 11:26-43)

And we pick up the narrative a little after last week’s passage. So in case you missed it … Malcolm outlined for us how Solomon took ALL that divine wisdom he’d been blessed with … and threw it in the bin. So IN his prayer of dedication of the Temple … that we looked at 2 weeks ago … Solomon told Israel to be ‘careful in all they do and walk before [God] faithfully’. Yet INSTEAD of doing that … Solomon married 700 wives of foreign descent … then got 300 concubines to make it a cool thousand women … and started worshipping the GODS of his foreign wives. And we saw God’s response to this in last week’s passage:

1 Kings 11:11 (NIV) … “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.

And before the chapter is out … we learn who that subordinate is. It’s a guy by the name of Jeroboam. Now … before we go any further … Rehoboam and Jeroboam. It sounds like the start of a bad joke … Rehoboam and Jeroboam walk into a bar. Or is it that they’re brothers … Reo Boam and Jero Boam. Well they’re not related. Jeroboam is an official in Solomon’s kingdom. Now if you want a memory hook … to try and remember which is which … just think ‘Rehoboam is the Rightful heir to the throne’. R-R. Rehoboam … Rightful heir. Jeroboam was just an official.

But he proved himself a very capable official. And this maybe why God chose Jeroboam for an important ask. And we’re told about that task in:

1 Kings 11:29-32 (NIV) About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.

Now the FIRST thing we need to note here … is that the OT plays it loosey goosy when it comes to numbers. So when you and I read this section … we think ‘OK … Ahijah tears his cloak into 12 pieces, gives 10 to Jeroboam … and 1 to David. So where does the 12th tribe go? Well the 12th tribe is the tribe of Banjamin … who sticks with Judah in being loyal to David’s dynasty. Truth be told … 4 tribes actually stick with David’s dynasty. The tribe of Simeon was allotted land WITHIN the tribe of Judah. It’s like how the ACT … the Australian Capital Territory … is located WITHIN N.S.W land. So too was Simeon located WITHING Judah. And we believe Simeon had basically been assimilated … subsumed into Judah at this stage … because we never hear about them. Then there was the tribe of Levi … who are never actually counted among the 12 tribes of Israel … even though Levi was one of the 12 sons of Israel. Then Banjamin and Judah.

So when Ahijah says ‘1 tribe’ for David … he really means 4 tribes. The remaining 8 sons of Israel make up 10 tribes … because Joseph is split into 2 tribes … Ephraim and Manasseh … and Manasseh is split again into 2 tribes … the Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan and the Manasseh on the west side of the Jordan. But just know the OT is a bit more loosey goosy with numbers than we modern people are used to.

The SECOND thing to note … is this ENORMOUS milestone … of the nation of Israel splitting into 2 … is God’s doing. Now we’re going to see in our second point that God uses Rehoboam’s foolishness to bring this about. But make no mistake … as the Colin song goes … ‘NOTHING takes God by surprise’. The nation of Israel splitting into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah … was God’s judgment on king Solomon … for leading the Israelites to worship foreign gods.

And the moral of this passage is that our God is a jealous God … who does not tolerate rivals. Now it’s not the kind of violent or irrational jealously … like a husband demanding his wife not even TALK to other men. It’s the kind of jealousy of a spouse not wanting their partner sleeping with other people. The Bible constantly describes idolatry as spiritual adultery. And cheating on your creator with other small ‘g’ gods … v. 33 … comes with consequences. And one of those consequences … is this enormous milestone of the nation of Israel being slit into 2.

Rehoboam’s arrogant leadership (1 Kings 12:1-14)

Well … although we the reader have had the curtain pulled back on what God is about to do … it doesn’t minimise what happens next. Because one of the things that makes God ‘God’ … is that he uses human actions … whether they be good or bad … to bring about his purposes. And we SEE this when Rehoboam … Solomon’s son … goes to Shechem to be crowned the new king of Israel. And while he’s there … we read this:

1 Kings 12: 3-4 (NIV) … 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.”

So in 1 Kings 4-5 we’re told that Solomon (i) taxed the Israelites … to provide provisions for his royal palace … AND (ii) conscripted labourers from Isael for his building projects. And it seems as the years wore on … these taxes and conscriptions became a heavy yoke for the people of Israel. So they ask their new king to:

1 Kings 12: 4 (NIV) … now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Now to begin with … Rehoboam shows great wisdom. This is the first major decision he has to make as king. Solomon himself said leading the people of God is a heavy responsibility … which is why he asked for wisdom. So Rehoboam wants to think this over for a few days. Tick. And the first thing he does … is consult the elders in v. 6. Another tick. And the elders say this:

1 Kings 12:7 (NIV) … “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.”

So both the people in v. 4 and the elders in v. 7 have put before Rehoboam the path to success. If you look after your subjects … they will be your faithful servants for life. And the reader is left thinking ‘OK … maybe THIS is the descendant of David who will bring God’s promises to fulfilment’. Solomon looked the part … for almost 20 years. But he turned out to be a bitter disappointment. Let’s see how Rehoboam goes:

1 Kings 12:8 (NIV) But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.

Sigh. Rehoboam rejects the unanimous wisdom of the elders … and seeks advice from the young men. And by ‘young’ the author doesn’t mean 16–17-year-olds. If they grew up with Rehoboam … they in their late 30s. So what do these young men say:

1 Kings 12:10-11 (NIV) Now 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.’ ”

Now a little side note. He word ‘finger’ is not there in the Hebrew. English translations ADD the word ‘finger’. But in the Hebrew … they say ‘my little THING is thicker than my father’s waist’. Let the hearer understand. So these young men are not only being excessively cruel … they’re being downright crass in the process. And guess which advice Rehoboam takes? The cruel and crass version.

And so our SECOND piece of application for today … the FIRST was God hates idolatry. Our SECOND piece of application … is be careful where we get advice from. Where do MOST people under the age of 30 get their advice from these days? Tik Tok. Teenage or early 20-something influencers on Tik Tok.

Now here’s the thing. Getting old sucks. I’m only 51 … and I know that. What hairs I’ve got left on my head are all going grey. My body is getting wrinkly and saggy. I don’t back up from injuries like I used to. And I get it … Bommers and Gen-X grew up in a different time to Gen Y and Z. But please understand young people … the one saving grace of getting old … is you grow in wisdom. Now that’s not guaranteed. There are some very dumb old people out there. But in general … with age comes wisdom.

And what this passage is screaming at us … is be very careful where we get advice from … wisdom from. The author mentions TWICE that Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders … and instead listened to his Tik Tok influencers. And it resulted in an unmitigated disaster. The 10 northern tribes ALL reject Rehoboam as king.

1 Kings 12:16 (NIV) … “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!”

Now Rehoboam tries to stop them … by sending out Adoniram … who was in charge of the labour force. But Israel stones him to death. Then they go and proclaim Jeroboam their king. And we’ll see how that turns out NEXT week.

But friends … what we have here … is a master class in stupidity. Both the people and the elders laid out the path to success for Rehoboam. Yet he listened to the wrong advice.

God’s desire for servant leadership

The NEXT question we need to ask is … WHY was Rehoboam so eager to take the young men’s advice? WHY would he choose to answer his subjects so cruelly and crassly? The ANSWER is … he was trying to fill the God-shaped hole in his heart with ‘ego’. We talk about this at Earlwood Anglican all the time. As Blaise Pascal famously said … ‘there is a God shaped hole in the heart of every human … that CANNOT be filled by created things’. Rehoboam was trying to fill that hole with ‘ego’. Yet when we let our ego call the shots … we soon learn it is a very terrible master. Because our ego always feels like it’s being hurt … being disrespected … or being shunned. And so we’re ALWAYS in self-protection mode. Take Rehoboam for example:

(i) He needs to compare himself to others:

1 Kings 12:10 (NIV) ‘My little [thing] is thicker than my father’s waist.

(ii) He needs others to be serving him:

1 Kings 12:11 (NIV) My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier.

(iii) And he goes to extreme lengths … cruel lengths … to ENSURE he’s respected:

1 Kings 12:11 (NIV) … My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.

Now what he failed to comprehend … is humans don’t like being led by self-centred … insecure despots. So of COURSE the northern tribes rejected him. What people WANT … and the elders said it … is a leader who will serve them. And this is why Rehoboam is NOT the king we’re looking for. He’s NOT the one who will bring God’s promises to fulfilment. That king came about 1,000 years later. Recall what the people cried out for:

1 Kings 12:4 (NIV) … now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke [your father] put on us, and we will serve you.”

Then recall what Jesus offered:

Matthew 11:29-30 (NIV) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. […] 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Is that not the kind of leader we’re all looking for? Not one who will demand his people die by the hundreds of thousands … for his petty wars. But one who will serve his people. That’s the kind of leadership God wants. Servant leadership. Now like I said at the beginning … not many of us are going to become world leaders. But most of us have SOME leadership responsibilities in life. If you’re a parent … you’re a leader of your children. If you’re a schoolteacher … you’re a leader of your class. If you’re a manager … you lead those under you. If you’re a small business owner … you lead your staff. If you have ANY kind of responsibilities in this world … then you’re a leader of some description. What God wants … is NOT that we use our positions of authority … responsibility … to serve our own ends. What God wants … is servant leadership.

So … final question. If MOST of us have SOME form of responsibilities in life … how can we avoid making the mistake of Rehoboam here? How can we avoid letting our ego call the shots? Because if we’re using our position of authority to build our egos … then we’ll ALWAYS be in self-protection mode … demanding that everyone serve our ego. So how do we get to the point where instead of demanding others serve us … we can happily serve others? The simple answer is … by focussing on how Jesus served you. Let me explain.

You and I don’t really understand what it means to have our sins punished. Like as Christians … we KNOW the punishment for sin is eternity in hell. The problem is … hell is an abstract principle for us humans. The reason being we’ve never experienced it. We’ve never even come close. But Jesus came close … in the Garden of Gethsemane. The night before Jesus died … the Father gave him a glimpse of the horror that God was about to pour out on him. The reason being … Jesus needed to volunteer for the cross … with his eyes open. He needed a taste of what he was signing up for.

And that taste traumatised him. We’re told he sweated blood … which medical experts tell us only occurs under extreme emotional or physical stress. It’s called hemotohidrosis. Yet even though Jesus KNEW what the cross meant … you and I have NO idea what God’s wrath means … even though he KNEW what the cross meant … he went through with it. Why? Because he saw you as worthy of his service. Jesus looked at you … and said I’m willing to suffer the infinite wrath of God for you.

And when that sinks is … that’s all the honour an ego ever needs. When that sinks in … any need to jockey for position starts to fade. Any need for others to respect you … serve you … starts to fade. Our heart has been filled with all the affirmation a person will ever need … which then frees us up to start giving that same affirmation to others. And that’s what God wants; people who focus on others.

Conclusion