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| INSIGHTS FROM THE SCRIPTURE: Problems were nothing new for Israel. Initially, Israel was a theocracy where God was the ruler. But the Israelites weren’t satisfied with that—they wanted to have a king like other surrounding nations because they felt they needed a king to give them protection. So God gave them a king (Saul) and they moved from being a theocracy to a monarchy with a king as the ruler. With this change from a God-ruled nation to a nation ruled by a king, the Israelites also went from being freed from slavery in Egypt (through the Exodus) to being slaves of their own making under Solomon. Solomon enslaved his own people and overtaxed them so that many had to sell their land to pay debts. When Solomon disobeyed God, God decided he’d had enough and was going to rip the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. The prophet Ahijah brought the news to Jeroboam that God was going to take the Kingdom out of Solomon’s hands and give it to him—that he would be the king over the ten northern tribes. When Solomon found out about the prophecy and set out to kill Jeroboam, Jeroboam fled to Egypt and lived there under Pharaoh Shishak until he heard of Solomon’s death and then returned to lead a rebellion against Rehoboam and the Southern tribes. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, took over as king, and Jeroboam asked him what kind of king he was going to be. Rehoboam went to his older advisors and they recommend him to lower the taxes and labor. Rehoboam also talked to his younger advisors and they recommended that he make the labor and taxes more. Rehoboam decided to take the advice of the younger advisors and make the yoke heavier for the northern peoples. After the northern people went home, Rehoboam decided to attack the Northern people to reunite all of Judah and Israel, but was unable to do that because of the attack they were getting from the Egyptians and Pharaoh Shishak. Through the prophet Shemiah, God also told him not to fight the Northern tribes. Continued... |
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