Reading: 1 Kings 11-13, Psalm 97
Today we begin the long and unfortunate story of the divided kingdom. Solomon’s many wives and his worship of foreign gods will prompt God to fracture the kingdom. We have seen the problem of rebellious tribes against the house of David before, and now this will come to full flower in the revolt against Solomon’s son Rehaboam. Mistrust and disobedience will define the relationship between the northern tribes and the land of Judah from this point onward. After the reign of David and the bright beginning with Solomon, it is another fall story. We have had some high points, but the story reminds us: humans have a problem.
We know that David accumulated a bunch of wives, with disastrous results in the lives of his children. David pales to Solomon in this department. His seven hundred wives, who were royalty, and three hundred concubines, who we assume were not, are going to spell disaster for Solomon. It is not just that he married so many women. The 700 princesses were from foreign nations, many of which were expressly forbidden to intermarry with by covenant law. Worse, Solomon begins to adopt their gods, including even the Moabite gods Chemosh and Molech, whose cults included child sacrifice. Solomon has fallen very, very far from the man who stood in front of the Temple and declared his covenant loyalty.
This has not escaped God’s notice. He appears to Solomon and tells him this will result in the fracturing of the kingdom, with Judah left to the house of David. It is a rejection of Solomon’s glory. He is not who he thinks he is. Solomon begins to have rivals. We are told about another bloody massacre carried out during David’s time by Joab against Edom, a people God told Israel not to assault. We hear about the rebellion of Syria, which had been under David’s control. Finally, we are introduced to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, a fantastically capable leader who is called by God to punish the Solomon’s house for their disobedience. Solomon hears of this, and tries to have Jeroboam killed. Another bad look for Solomon.
Jeroboam escapes, and Solomon dies. While the reign of David ended with Israel at the height of it’s power, Solomon dies in a time of rebellion and doubt, with enemies foreign and domestic. His son, Rehoboam, is through an Ammonite queen, a group Israel was forbidden to intermarry with. Rehoboam lives up to the expectations this sets. Upon his accession to the throne, he is asked by the northern tribes for a break from the tough time Solomon was given them. Instead of winning their loyalty by agreement, he listens to bad counsel and threatens them. They respond by starting to leave, and when Rehoboam sends the director of forced labor after them, they stone him to death.
Rehoboam flees to Jerusalem and raises an army to attack the northern tribes. There is no consultation of God in this, but God goes out of his way to stop them, sending a message through a prophet. Rehoboam listens, though one must wonder at this point if it is really the people who are listening and Rehoboam realizes he doesn’t have the clout to contradict the prophet.
Meanwhile, Jeroboam has heard that Solomon is dead and he returns home from Egypt. The rebellious tribes hear he’s back and make him king. Jeroboam is being used by God to discipline the house of David, in accordance with the Davidic covenant. But he is no righteous man himself. Realizing that if the people keep going to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel they will eventually turn back to the king there, he sets up his own places of worship. By building golden calves and declaring that they are the God of Israel! Yeah, Exodus 32 all over again. God is not amused, and he sends a prophet from Judah to curse Jeroboam’s altar. When Jeroboam hears this he tries to have the prophet killed, but his hand shrivels as he is giving the order. He repents (sort of) and asks for the prophet to pray for his restoration, which he does.
The last story in today’s reading is one of the strangest. This same prophet, whom God had told not to stop and eat in the land of Israel, is met by another prophet, who tells him God has told him to stop and eat in the land of Israel. We are given the inside scoop and told he is lying. The first prophet agrees and goes with him. In the middle of their meal, the second prophet gets a real word from the God of Israel and curses the first prophet for his disobedience. And when he leaves he is killed by a random lion. Then the second prophet, the lying one, goes out and gets his body, buries him, and mourns over him like a brother.
What is all this about? There are a number of things going on here, but I think mainly we are being introduced to the problem of true and false prophecy in the land of Israel that will persist through the rest of the story of the Hebrew Scriptures, and in some ways even into the Church age. The first prophet received a true word from God and obeys it. The second first lies about a word from God, then gets a real one. It is not clear what is a true word and what is a false one until the consequences are known. This is not a neat and tidy story, as the problem of true and false prophets is not neat and tidy. In an era were the leadership of the nation is in rebellion against God, prophecy is also muddled and uncertain. This is the condition of the people of Israel from this day forward. The sins of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and those of their descendants, will cause sorrow, confusion, and destruction in both Israel and Judah. The actions of those in authority matter.