Divided Kingdom
1 KINGS 12
God began with a garden and two people. His desire was to
create a people and a place where they could all live in unbroken fellowship:
God to person, person to person, people to the rest of creation. There would be
no alienation, no frustration, no malice, no anxiety.
But it all went awry when these people rejected God’s plan
and went about trying to accomplish their own agendas.
Still, this God would not give up on His dream. From the day
they rejected Him, God began to reveal His larger plan to not only create a
perfect world but to redeem that perfect world from its own corruption. Slowly,
painstakingly, God began to work with the raw material of fallen and depraved
humans, men and women like Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, Saul
and David. Eventually, under the reign of King Solomon, it appeared as if God’s
plan might actually reach its fulfilment.
But these humans couldn’t stop shooting themselves in the
feet.
Solomon, as wise as he was, couldn’t keep himself from being
seduced by his many wives into worshiping other gods. At first he merely
tolerated them doing it. Then he began to endorse them doing it by building
them places of worship devoted to the foreign gods. Ultimately, he joined them
in doing it and offended the God who had given him everything he had.
As a result of his foolish actions, God told Solomon that
his son Rehoboam would lose a portion of the kingdom when he assumed the throne
after Solomon’s death. In fact, Rehoboam lost most of the kingdom (10 of the 12
tribes). Another man, Jeroboam, would be the king of the northern tribes.
Solomon, hearing this message from God, decided to try to do
something to prevent it. He attempted to murder Jeroboam, but Jeroboam escaped
to Egypt and stayed there until the king died. Unfortunately, Jeroboam picked
up many of the religious practices of the Egyptians while he was down there,
and he imported them back into Israel when he returned.
It’s hard to believe that some people think the Bible is
boring! The kingdom was officially divided shortly after Rehoboam took control
in 931 B.C. His father, Solomon, had imposed a heavy burden of taxation to pay
for the construction of the Temple and his personal palace. The people asked
Rehoboam to cut back on spending to lighten their load some, but Rehoboam, refusing
to listen to his wisest advisors, promised to make things even harder on the
people.
Jeroboam saw this as his opportunity, and led a revolt of
the masses. The kingdom would be divided from that point on, 10 tribes in the
north called Israel, and 2 tribes in the south called Judah.
As you can imagine, it would not end well.
And yet, God still had a few tricks up His sleeve.
Gracious Lord, Your kindness, patience and loving-kindness
have so often been tried by Your people over the centuries. I know that too
often I have done the same by taking Your grace for granted and doing what I
wanted to do, hoping that You would go along or ignore my actions. Deliver me
from the sin of presumption, in which I regard grace as my due. May I maintain
fidelity to You and to Your purposes for my life so that I will walk in the way
of wisdom rather than in autonomy. Deliver me from the folly of making
decisions without seeking Your will and without desiring to be pleasing to You.
I want to be vigilant against all forms of idolatry, so that I will not deceive
myself into thinking that flirtation with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of
the eye and the boastful pride of life could ever be gratified without dishonouring
You.
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