Listen and Be Wise

1st Kings 12

I remember thinking my parents did not know what they were talking about. I would think, man what do you know, you are old. As I am getting older, I am seeing the same thing happen but now younger people are saying that about me. It is funny we listen to the advice of friends more than those who are wiser and older than us. 

In this chapter we see the kingdom being split and how that happened.

Rehoboam

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam took over the throne. The people gathered to usher in his kingdom but they wanted their load lightened. They said, “Your father was a task master, will you lighten the load?” He asked for 3 days to think about it. Rehoboam asked for thoughts and suggestions from the elders who were with his father and they told them if he served the people by giving in to their request then they will serve you forever. Then Rehoboam asked his younger friends for their thoughts and they said, “Give them more work and tighten the yoke.” The sad thing is Rehoboam took the suggestion from his friends and when he told Israel about this they revolted. 

The Kingdom is split

The people revolted and all of the tribes except one abandoned Rehoboam as what was told to Solomon in chapter 11. Rehoboam was only king over Judah the rest of Israel followed after Jeroboam. The warning was given to Solomon and we see that he did not listen to God about the warning. Instead he rebelled even more and now the consequence was a split kingdom. 

The kingdom will remain split until the Babylonians come in and destroy Jerusalem. We will read about the continual downfall of the two kingdoms and the prophets who came to warn Israel and Judah of what will happen.

Israel, Not so Great a Start

In verse 28 we see that Jeroboam did not want the people of Israel to follow after the Lord so he decided to make two golden calves and have them worship that instead. Then he decided to tell all of Israel that these gold calves that he just made were the gods that led their fathers out of the land of Egypt. Now he was not just leading them down a wrong road he was lying about truth. He builds places of worship and people start