When Leaders Think Our Money is Their Money. 1 Kings 12:1-24

Psalm 19 is a tremendous meditation on God’s revelation of Himself non-verbally in the heavens. Verse 1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God”—general revelation, which is the non-verbal revelation of God through His creation. Psalm 19:7 puts the focus on the Word of God. This is the shift to God’s special revelation, the specific revelation that is in the canon of Scripture. ^NASB “The law of the LORD is perfect [complete or full], restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” It recovers the soul from the effects of sin. The word that is translated “simple” has the idea of one who is youthful or exhibits the characteristics of youth in terms of being naïve or inexperienced. This certainly characterised Rehoboam.

We need to have leaders with experience, especially in times of crisis, and this is what was going on in Israel at this particular time. But we see how God was working in the background as He was bringing about the discipline upon the nation through an inexperienced leader. The contrast between Solomon and Rehoboam was that Solomon had genuine humility, he submitted himself to the Word of God, and the Word of God shaped his thinking. What he desired more than anything else was the wisdom that comes from God’s Word, so that when God asked him what he wanted that was what he focused on. Rehoboam was more concerned about securing his own empire and securing all of the trappings that go with authority.

Another thing we learn about the fool in the Bible is in Psalm 14:1 and 53:1, one of the few verses in Scripture that is repeated twice. ^NASB “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” This is the person who functions within his soul as if there is no God, no accountability, as if he can run his life on his own terms totally apart from God. This isn’t talking about atheism but about the person who in terms of their soul, how they are living and thinking, are functional atheists. There are all sorts of religious people who affirm the existence of God but who are functional atheists in the way they think. That is what we see with Rehoboam. He acts as if he is set apart from any accountability to the God who established His covenant with the Israelites.

1 Kings chapter twelve represents a major turning point in the history of Israel because it is at this point that we see a tax revolt take place. The ten nations in the north are going to revolt against the leadership of the Davidic king. God has established the Davidic monarchy and in the human realm they are revolting but this is brought about ultimately by God, He is allowing this to occur as a discipline on the nation because of their idolatry and their failure to follow Him.

1 Kings 12:1 ^NASB “Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.” Shechem is about 50 miles north of Jerusalem in the central highlands of what is now Samaria. It is the modern city of Nablus. This is the first place that Abraham had built an altar when he came into the land that God had promised him, and this is where God reiterated to him the promise that he would give him this land. This is a reminder that this land was promised to Israel by God. Later Jacob settled here, and when he did his daughter Dinah was raped by Shechem, the prince of the city, resulting in the massacre carried out by Simeon and Levi. Another significance is that after the conquests of Jericho and Ai it became a place located between Mounts Gerezim and Ebal where the Israelites recommitted themselves to obedience to the Mosaic Law. Shechem later became the key city in the central highlands as a city of refuge, but one of its darkest periods occurred during the period of the judges. The men of Shechem decided that they wanted a ruler. They took Gideon’s son Abimelech and made him king over Israel. This is a sign of the rebellious history that goes along with Shechem.

One of the things we see as we look at the history of Israel is that the spiritual qualities and desires of the tribes really varied. Shechem is on the border between the tribal lands allotted to Ephraim and those allotted to Manasseh. Ephraim was a tribe that was often associated with idolatry and rebelliousness towards God, as was the tribe of Dan. Judah, on the other hand, was one of the tribes that exhibited the strongest and most positive volition towards God historically down through the ages.

The other things we should note about Shechem was that by having this meeting in Shechem it was getting Rehoboam out of his power base, out of his zone of comfort, out of the area of Judah, so that if things did not go right then he would have to flee. It was a well designed meeting place and it shows that they did not anticipate that Rehoboam would go along with his scheme and so they were setting things up to promote their own agenda. It also shows that they were rejecting Jerusalem as the key city in Israel. Remember that we saw in chapter eleven, verse 36, a reference to Jerusalem as the city which God had chosen for Himself to His name there. So by having this meeting in Shechem the author is also making a reference to the lack of spirituality of the northern tribes, a rejection of God. This also reflects an attitude of jealousy and division that had occurred between the ten northern tribes and the tribe of Judah ever since David had been chosen by God. And this is part of the background to this—the conflict between Judah and the other tribes.

Note that verse one in this chapter is a topical sentence, a kind of summary of the action. The reason for pointing this out is that if we read it as if Rehoboam goes to Shechem in verse one and then Jeroboam in verse two hears of Rehoboam meeting with them in Shechem—and he is down in Egypt—then he has to travel from Egypt back to the northern kingdom to come to this meeting and this would take a couple of months. So it doesn’t fit. The best way to understand this (and it fits better with the way things are written in 2 Chronicles 10:2) is to understand verse one as a summary of what is going to happen. This is going to tell the story about what occurs when Rehoboam met with the ten northern tribes in Shechem.

1 Kings 12:2 ^NASB “Now when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard {of it,} he was living in Egypt (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon).” What Jeroboam heard was probably a reference to the death of Solomon that is described in vv. 41-43 at the end of the previous chapter. So the way that events happen here is that verse one is a summary telling us about this meeting. The action actually begins in verse two. Jeroboam is in exile down in Egypt and he hears that Solomon has died and he knows that Rehoboam is going to succeed to the throne. At this point he goes back to Israel. Once he arrives back in Israel his presence is known and the ten northern tribes call a meeting at Shechem. They want Rehoboam to come to Shechem where they are going to present their concerns to him and decide whether or not they are going to accept him to be their king.

This may seem to be a little strange to us and that they should have accepted him to be king. But remember there was a rift that had occurred that had been present at the time that David became king. Apparently it never fully disappeared, was still there, and it had become aggravated by the excessive taxation of Solomon and the fact that he was not calling upon labourers from Judah but was putting excessive demands upon the other tribes to provide labourers, and that just exacerbated this jealousy. When David first became king at the beginning of 2 Samuel chapter one, we are told in 2 Samuel 2:9 that David was king of Judah first for seven years and six months before he could finally unite the ten northern tribes into one nation. So there was this division that had been present even at the beginning of David’s reign. So now that Rehoboam is about to take the throne they have certain grievances that they want to present to him, and depending on whether or not he is going to respond in a way that they like, they may or may not give him allegiance. So they have this meeting and they call Jeroboam who has returned from Egypt to be their spokesman.

1 Kings 12:3 ^NASB “Then they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, [4] Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you. [5] Then he said to them, ‘Depart for three days, then return to me.’ So the people departed.” The concept of yoke here represents a burden or obligation. This involved two things. On the one hand taxes, and on the other hand forced labour. Solomon’s glory was not built on the taxes of the people but on the blessing of God. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t taxes because that was the warning that God had given in 1 Samuel chapter eight; that when they had a king the trend would be to build a stronger and stronger centralised government putting more and more power into Jerusalem.

We see the same kind of thing going on in America over the past 150 years where there has been more and more power accumulate to central government in Washington. The more government grows, the more bureaucracy grows, and the mire that bureaucracy grows the more the tax base has to grow in order to feed the bureaucracy. Government is never efficient and so taxes continue to pile up and the burden is placed on the people. The trend in government leaders is to think that the money they get in taxes is their money and that they can do with it whatever they want to. In many cases, though not all, that money is used just to further their agendas.

In 1 Kings 12 we see that Rehoboam fails to be a leader because he looks at the people as a means to promote himself, promote his own agenda, to provide for all of the affluence of the position of king, and so he does what most governments do. He looks at the people as a means of income and thinks that he is entitled to what they produce, and that is 180 degrees contrary to the biblical principle of leadership.

Rehoboam doesn’t want to make a hasty decision and he goes to two groups of counsellors for advice. The first group is the group referred to as the elders. These are probably an official group of advisors to his father Solomon. 1 Kings 12:6 ^NASB “King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, ‘How do you counsel {me} to answer this people?’ [7] Then they spoke to him, saying, ‘If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever’.” These elders understand that a key principle in leadership is that the leader is there to serve the people; the people aren’t there to serve the leader.

Jesus has some comments about this in Matthew chapter twenty, and we see that this idea is pretty standard throughout the fallen world. It is typical of the view of leadership within the kingdom on man in contrast to the kind of leadership that is to be exhibited in the kingdom of God. Matthew 20:20 ^NASB “Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. [21] And He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She said to Him, ‘Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left’.” So she is requesting that Jesus give them the highest positions, second only to Him, in the kingdom. [22] “But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able.’” In their arrogance they don’t have a clue what He is talking about in terms of the fact that he is referencing His spiritual death on the cross. Verse 25, “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and {their} great men exercise authority over them.’” That is a universal description of the leadership in the kingdom of man—leaders think that they are there to rule the people for their own benefit.

Matthew 20:26 ^NASB “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, [27] and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; [28] just as [the comparison] the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The comparison is always to Jesus Christ; He always models what genuine leadership is like. The problem that the Jews had when they thought the Messiah was coming at the first advent. They thought he was coming to establish this political kingdom to defeat the Romans and to bring glory to the kingdom of Judah. They didn’t understand that the cross had to precede the crown. The leader who sees the people as simply a stepping stone for his own promotion and his own agenda is not a leader at all.

After Rehoboam talks to the elders we are told in 1 Kings 12:8 that he rejected the advice which the elders had given him “and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.” So these young men who were his peers, his cronies, are referred to rather sarcastically by the writer of Kings as the yeledim, the word for children. They, too, are simple in the sense of Psalm 19. They are naive and youthful and they see that the older generation is finally passing from the scene and so they are going to do things they want to do them and are going to change everything. They want to make sure that they get the same riches, the same glory that Solomon had and there is no capacity, no understanding that the reason that Solomon’s kingdom had all the glory that it had was because of God’s blessing on Solomon and his devotion to Him at the beginning. But at the end God was beginning to discipline the nation. They were losing the blessing of God and the only way that Solomon could maintain the façade of wealth and glory was to tax the people. So the young men wanted to continue that and to have all of the same façade and veneer that Solomon had.

1 Kings 12:9 ^NASB “So he said to them, ‘What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’? [10] The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!’” This I an idiom: What my father did with his little finger, the burden, is going to be much heavier from me. His little finger is going to weigh a lot more than the heaviest of burdens than what his father put upon them. [11] “Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” The term “scorpion” was a term used to describe a particular type of whip that had barbed points woven into the leather that resembled the point of a scorpion’s sting. They would be much more painful than the leather whips. So the whole point is that Rehoboam was not only not going to reduce the tax load but was going to increase it exponentially to teach the people a lesson. The result of that, of course, was that it just establishes the split between the southern tribes and the ten northern tribes. The contemporaries of Rehoboam look on the resources, the work of the people, as something that they are entitled to and this is just a further fulfilment of the prophecy of Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter eight that once they had a king the trend would be toward increasing centralised power. As power becomes more and more centralised then the government itself seems to view itself as being entitled to the resources of people and this always destroys freedom and liberty, and is always antagonistic to biblical truth.

1 Kings 12:12 ^NASB “Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, ‘Return to me on the third day’.” We see that the king answers the people, rejects the advice of the elders and tells the representatives of the ten northern tribes what his young friends had told him to say, that he was going to increase the load upon them. The conclusion is given in verse 15: “So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn {of events} from the LORD, that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.”

Verse 15 is also and editorial comment. The writer tells us that what happens here—even though we see that the sovereignty of God fits with the volition of man, that the sovereignty of God doesn’t compromise or override the volition of man—shows us how that man is making his decision within the framework of God’s plan, that rehoboam of his own volition had rejected God, had rejected humility, and had rejected the request of the people. This results in a split and this is exactly what Ahijah had informed Jeroboam about back in verse 26ff in the previous chapter. In the promise back in 11:38 God would bless Jerobaom and establish his house if he would follow the Lord. But that never happened because God in His omniscience knew that Jeroboam would reject Him and that Jeroboam would set up an alternate religious system in the kingdom.

The consequences of Rehoboam’s action: 1 Kings 12:16 ^NASB “When all Israel {saw} that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, ‘What portion do we have in David? {We have} no inheritance in the son of Jesse; To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!’ So Israel departed to their tents.” At this point they reject the house of David, they reject God’s promise to David of a king on the throne, and they separate themselves from the tribe of Judah. [17] “But as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.” This opens the next section dealing with the reign of Rehoboam over the tribes of Judah.

The first thing that Rehoboam does is try to win back these tribes. He doesn’t show a lot of wisdom in the way that he does this. The first thing he is going to do is send a group of tax auditors in order to start collecting taxes. 1 Kings 12:18 ^NASB “Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.” Adoram is in charge of the revenue. [19] “So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day”—to the day in which the writer of Kings writes this. This would have been written before the northern kingdom was taken out into captivity by the Assyrians in 721 BC.

1 Kings 12:20 ^NASB “It came about when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None but the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.” BY this time Benjamin had been pretty much absorbed by Judah so that Benjamin and Judah had basically become for all practical purposes one tribe. The distinction is no longer clearly there. When Rehoboam goes back to Jerusalem he calls the army together to fight against Israel and to bring them back under control, but something interesting happens.

1 Kin 12:22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, [24] ‘Thus says the LORD, “You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD, and returned and went {their way} according to the word of the LORD.” Surprisingly, this arrogant new king listens to Shemiah and stands down the army. In 1 Kings this is basically all that we are told about Rehoboam until we get over to the end of chapter fourteen and these are reiterated in 2 Chronicles chapter 11.

In 2 Chronicles 11 we learn that after Rehoboam sought to use the army to bring the northern kingdom back under control apparently he went through a period for three years where he was obedient to the Lord. This is described in vv. 13ff. It also shows that there is a strong group of believers throughout the northern kingdom that are not following in the rebellion of Jeroboam and his apostasy. 2 Chronicles 11:13 ^NASB “Moreover, the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel stood with him from all their districts.” They take their stand with Rehoboam in the south, knowing that he is the son of David and they reject the religious move of Jeroboam in the north. [14] “For the Levites left their pasture lands and their property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from serving as priests to the LORD.” Jeroboam sets up a completely alternate religion and priest system.

2 Chronicles 11:16 ^NASB “Those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers. [17] They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.” So there were a number of believers in the northern kingdom in the ten tribes who reject the apostasy of Jeroboam, and they move south. The Levites move south and many others move south, so from this point on the southern kingdom is going to have living within it not only members of the tribe of Judah but also members of the ten tribes in the north. There was not a true loss of the ten tribes; there is no such thing as the ten lost tribes of Israel.

After Rehoboam has three good years of following the Lord he is going to shift away from obedience to the Lord and will once again install idolatry into the southern kingdom. God is going to bring discipline on him through Shishak who is the Pharaoh of Egypt. The southern kingdom is going to be invaded and the gold from the temple is going to have to be melted down by Rehoboam and paid as tribute. So much of this gold is going to be taken back again to Egypt and the glory of Jerusalem and the temple is going to be diminished because of the sinfulness and arrogance of the southern kingdom. This is going to be a visible indication that God’s blessing on the nation is not what it once was and that they are under divine judgment.