Theological Commentary: Click Here
Ah! The period of the kings starts with a
bang. In some respects, this is one of
my favorite areas of the Bible to study because it is a great example of how
society declines when we focus simply on what pleases the individual. In other respects, this is a hard place to
study because the story spirals deeper and darker throughout the next few
hundred years of history with only the occasional bright spot of relationship
with God. Ultimately, to study the book
of Kings we must be prepared to see the downward spiral while knowing that God
never abandons the faithful. In that
truth can we keep our sanity while studying human society.
Start with
Rehoboam today. Here is a man who inherits
his father’s – Solomon’s – throne. The
people come before him with a simple request.
Solomon’s building campaigns have been hard. They just want a reprieve. The tell Rehoboam that if he will lighten the
load they will serve him. It seems like
a simple request.
I have two
points about this respect. First, I am
skeptical of the people. They say that
they will follow Rehoboam, but I doubt that they will. In the end, people always feel the need to
rebel and be the master of their own life.
I do think that if Rehoboam would have lightened the load that he could
have kept the country together. But to
think that the country would have been an idyllic state of cooperation would go
too far. The people might have complied and
followed Rehoboam, but it would not have been perfect. Things weren’t perfect under Solomon or
David, either.
The second
thought is that my prior conjecture really doesn’t matter because the impudence
of youth wins out in Rehoboam anyways.
Rehoboam promises to make things worse!
This is the follow of some leadership.
There is a theory out there that the best way to rule is fear. In some circumstances, that model does
work. You can motivate people quite far
through fear. However, all people have a
breaking point. There is a point where
the motivation of fear is weaker than the motivation for overthrowing the
regime. Rehoboam finds that out
here. He presses the people hard and
they revolt against him. Leadership must
seek to find the balance of how hard the people need to be pressed to sustain
the society but not press too hard so that revolt happens.
Before
ending, I do want to talk a little about the consequences of Rehoboam’s
leadership. The country splits, which is
going to have lasting implications for hundreds of years. However, I think there are greater
consequences than the geopolitical ones.
The people in the north establish new places of worship because they no
longer have access to Jerusalem.
However, this is not what annoys God.
If you read through the chapter carefully, what annoys God is that
Jeroboam establishes new gods to worship.
It isn’t the place that annoys God, it is wat is happening at the place!
I think that
it is sad that the poor leadership choice leads directly to a whole nation
finding new gods to worship. I doubt that
Rehoboam sought that outcome when he made his decision. Yet, it is still a consequence of the
act. Our
sinfulness often has both intended and unintended consequences.
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