(1 Kings 12:1 ff)

King Rehoboam was the son of King Solomon. He became a king at a time of serious political turmoil among the people of Israel.

Towards the end of King Solomon's reign, God raised enemies against his leadership because of continuous disobedience and unrepentant life. Consequently, some individuals started staging rebellion against him. These included Jeroboam who was one of his officials from the north and Hadad from the royal family of Edom

King Solomon's dictatorship made him to persecute Jeroboam who later took refuge in Egypt. Prior to this, God had promised Jeroboam through prophet Ahijah that he was to take the kingdom away from King Solomon and give him ten tribes.

The above scenario meant that Rehoboam became a king at a time of greater earthly administrative crisis than the kingdom had ever experienced. To worsen the situation, Jeroboam returned from Egypt on the day of his coronation.

As it turned out to be, Rehoboam became more of a dictator than his father Solomon. This proved to be a disappointment to the northern people under the leadership of Jerohoam. After their futile attempt to have their conditions improved by the southern leadership the northern people rebelled. They only wanted Rehohoam to make burdens lighter as opposed to what his father, King Solomon had imposed.

The events that followed saw the United Kingdom of Israel divide itself into two; the Southern Kingdom, which became known as Judah with the capital city at Jerusalem and the Northern Kingdom, which retained the name Israel with its capital city at Samaria.

CAUSES OF THE DIVISION AND THE COLLAPSE OF ISRAEL

The Role of King Rehoboam

Rehoboam continued with the dictatorship rule of his father, King Solomon. He became harsher to the northern people.

Rehoboam responded rudely and harshly to the request of the northern delegation who were seeking for lighter burdens upon them.

Rehoboam failed to give immediate response to the northern delegation. He referred them to come back in three days. This meant that he cared less about their fate.

Rehoboam ignored the good and genuine advice of the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisors. Accordingly, they told him to give a favourable answer to the northern delegation if he wanted their loyalty.

Rehoboam listened to the ill advice of his age mates. The young men advised him to place heavier burdens on the northern people marc than his father, Solomon had done.

Rehoboam ignored the genuine complaints of the northern people about their suffering. It was this reason that the people became determined to do away with the house of David.

Rehoboam was unsympathetic to the plight of the northern people for he promised to torture them more than his father had done when the people were wishing for relief from the burdens.

Rehoboam appeared to be unwise and someone whose decisions were dependant on what others could say. This was the reason he had to consult the old and the young men before he could answer the northern delegation.

Rehoboam's improper behaviour and negative attitude towards the northern people inspired a rebellion against the house of David. Unfortunately for him, he failed to suppress the rebellion as the people promised to do away with David's house.

Rehoboam became a coward and fled from the northern people after seeing their aggressiveness. The people had stoned Adoniram whom he sent to calm them down. Adoniram was a hated figure because of his role as the in charge of forced labour during King Solomon's reign.

Rehoboam also made a mistake of sending a hated person, Adoniram to calm the already unruly people in the north. This showed how much he could not judge the difficult situations around him.

Rehoboam watched helplessly as Jeroboam was taking root as the leader of the northern part of the kingdom of Israel.

Rehoboam used force to suppress the north rebellion, which worked to worsen the situation. He only needed to seek for peaceful means solving grievances of the northern people at such a decisive and crucial.

It was Rehoboam himself who declared war on the northern people by mobilizing 180,000 best soldiers from the South to go and bring down the northern rebellion.

Rehoboam concentrated on developing the southern region at the expense of those in the north. This made the northern people feel more ignored.

His reign witnessed an increase in the level of poverty particularly in the northern region. The economic situation was made worse by the fact that the people were still feeling the effects of over taxation.

Like his father Solomon, Rehoboam favoured the southern people as those from the north remained disadvantaged. This made him increasingly unpopular.

However it would be unfair and wrong to blame Rehoboam entirely for the division and the collapse of the kingdom of Israel. In any case, he inherited a kingdom, which was already at the climax, of its crisis and was already in its motion towards its division and collapse. Therefore, the following should be considered.

The Role of King Solomon

King Solomon gave away twenty towns in the region of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. This meant that a section of the population already belonged to another nation.

King Solomon overtaxed the northern people during his reign. This increased the level of poverty among them and they lived to hate him.

King Solomon concentrated on developing the southern part of the kingdom especially in and around Jerusalem. This made the northern people feel ignored.

King Solomon favoured only the people around him when decentralizing his power. This meant that only those who lived in and around Jerusalem benefitted from this policy.

King Solomon invited hatred from the northern people through his forced labour policy. No wonder, the northern people later stoned Adoniram to death because of the role he had played during his reign as the in charge.

King Solomon's disobedience and unrepentant life annoyed God that he promised to take the kingdom away from him and give it to one of his officials, Jeroboam.

Besides, King Solomon's disobedience made God to raise enemies including Hadad and Jeroboam against his administration.

King Solomon introduced idol worship in Israel because of the influence of his pagan wives. This divided the Israelites in their religious practices.

The Role of King David

King David remained popular only in the southern region as the northern people considered him as someone from an insignificant family since his father, Jesse was only a shepherd.

King David became autocratic as his reign was coming to an end. He centralized all power around him thus he ruled the kingdom single handedly.

King David tended to favour his own tribe especially when he was assigning positions of authority.

King David made the division in his family caused by succession dispute to divide the people of Israel. The northern people supported his son, Adonijah and the southern people supported his son, Solomon.

King David was very harsh and ruthless in eliminating internal enemies, resistance and opposition within the kingdom. This saw him kill the family of King Saul in revenge for the attempted murder.

The Role of God

It was Gap who willed the division and collapse of the kingdom of Israel because of the continuous sinfulness of the people.  

God promised to take away the kingdom from King Solomon because of his continued rebellion and disobedience towards him.

God raised enemies against the leadership of King Solomon so that his reign could come to an end. The enemies included Hadad from the royal family of Edom and Jeroboam.

God dramatized the division of the kingdom of Israel through prophet Ahijah. Ahijah tore his new robe into twelve pieces, each representing the twelve tribes of Israel to show that Jeroboam would be given ten tribes.

It was also God who stopped King Rehoboam from attacking the rebellious people from the north revealing that it was his will.

It was God's will that King Rehoboam ignored the northern people who had simply come to make peace with him.

The Role of Jeroboam

Jeroboam was favoured by God himself. He raised him as an enemy to King Solomon's leadership.

Jeroboam's personality attracted northern people who rallied behind him during the trouble period of king Solomon's reign.

Jeroboam returned from exile from Egypt at the time Rehoboam was being enthroned as king of Israel.

Jeroboam led the northern delegation to Shechem where all the people had gathered to make Rehoboam a king.

The Role of the Israelites

Some people in Israel failed to recognize David as their king right from the time of his anointing because of his insignificant background.

The northern people promised and were determined to do away with the house of David during their nasty encounter with King Rehoboam.

Revision Questions

1.          "Rehoboam was largely responsible for the division and the collapse of the kingdom of Israel. Discuss

2.          "Rehoboam was solely responsible for the division of the kingdom of Israel". Discuss.

3.          To what extent could have the division of Israel been avoided?

The consequences of the division of the kingdom of Israel

There emerged two separate kingdoms out the one united kingdom of Israel; the Northern and the Southern kingdoms.

The Northern Kingdom retained the name Israel and the Southern Kingdom became known as the kingdom of Judah.

Jeroboam became the king of the Northern kingdom, Israel while Rehoboam remained as king of the south, Judah.

Samaria became the capital city of the northern kingdom; Israel and Jerusalem remained the capital city of the south kingdom; Judah.

Idol worship became common in the northern kingdom as Jeroboam made two golden bulls for the people to worship (1 Kings 12:28).

The people of Judah built places of worship for false gods and went on to put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship (1 Kings 14:22).

Besides, the people of the south practiced male and female prostitution at the pagan places of worship (1 Kings 14:24).

Bethel became a worshipping centre for the northern people while Jerusalem remained as a central place for worshipping in the south.

The division weakened Israel militarily. It made it easier for the enemies to attack the one time powerful kingdom of God.

It marked the beginning of a series of power struggle especially in the eastern part of Israel. This resulted into a number of assassinations of leaders like Baasha who was killed by Nadad.

Judah was later attacked by the Egyptians. During the attack, all the treasures in the temple and in the palace including the golden shields which Solomon had made were captured.

The division led to a continued war between the northern and the southern kingdoms (1 Kings 14:29-30).

There we also the development of the practice of male and female prostitution who served at pagan places of worship in the southern kingdom (1 Kings 14:24).

Jeroboam took responsibility of ordaining his own priests from ordinary families to serve at the altars he had built. This meant that he ignored and sidelined the priest of Yahweh (1 Kings 13:33).

Baal temples became common especially in the northern kingdom especially in and around Bethel and Dan.

The people in the northern kingdom practiced religious syncretism. This was because of the foreign religious practices that King Solomon had introduced through his marriage.

It led to the rise of active prophetic age in Israel. God revealed himself to the people through personalities like Elijah as he wanted to see them turn back to Him through obedience.

Trade and commerce was encouraged and promoted in the northern kingdom and this led to its economic prosperity.