Verse 1 is important for indicating the internal political tensions in Israel. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, had succeeded his father in Jerusalem but it was necessary for him to go to the north of the country to be publicly acclaimed by the northern tribes as king of all Israel. He met their representatives at Shechem, the ancient sanctuary where Abraham had built an altar and where Joshua and the Israelites had renewed their covenant relationship with their God. What follows in the chapter shows that the unity which David had apparently established and which Solomon may have assumed was strong between the tribes of the south and of the north, was very easily broken. In the early years of David's rule, he had been accepted as king of the south for seven years before he was finally accepted as king of the north and therefore as king of all Israel. During David's reign there had been a rebellion led by Bikri, a man of Ephraim (2 Samuel 20:21). In 11:26-40 there is the account of the opposition of Jeroboam, a man of the northern tribe of Ephraim, in the later years of Solomon's reign.

Scholars have tried to trace the roots of the obvious tension between the Israelites of the north and of the south and have suggested various reasons, but we need not spend time on these. The Old Testament does not provide much in the way of evidence for the reasons, but it does make it very clear that the tension was there and finally resulted in the Covenant People being split into two. The northern people never acclaimed publicly that Solomon was king over all Israel at his accession which took place in the south, in Jerusalem (1 Kings 1).

Verse 2 records the return of Jeroboam from Egypt when he heard of Solomon's death.

Verses 3-19 describe the unwise and dictatorial behaviour of Rehoboam when he was challenged by the northern people about the injustice which they had experienced under his father, with particular reference to the forced labour. Their challenge in verse 4 is not unreasonable; they were willing to accept him as their king if he would give them some assurance of better treatment. Rehoboam's response indicates that his upbringing in the luxury of the royal court at Jerusalem had separated him from the life of the people he was now expecting to rule over in the rural areas. Instead of listening to their grievances, he threatened them with even worse treatment than they had experienced under the rule of Solomon. Verse 16 records the people's open rebellion. Rehoboam made yet another foolish move, sending Adoniram, who was the overseer of all the forced labour gangs, to threaten the people even further. They stoned him to death and Rehoboam fled for his life back to Jerusalem.

Verse 20 records the setting up of the independent northern kingdom, which continued to call itself Israel. Jeroboam the Ephraimite was made king. The date was 922 B.C.

Need this situation have happened? It is possible that the underlying tension between north and south would have caused a split in the end, but it is also possible that if Rehoboam had not become separated from the way of life ,of the majority of his people and had listened to their complaints sympathetically, he could have held the kingdom of his father and grandfather together. The rebellion began in the cause of justice and was supported by a nabi of God. Although Rehoboam's lack of wisdom was the immediate cause of the rebellion and the division of the kingdom, his father Solomon was responsible for the forced labour, the extravagance of royal schemes and spending, the system of administration which was aimed at obtaining supplies and taxes from each district, and the open syncretism in worship which allowed temples to other gods to be built in David's city. All of these things aroused opposition amongst many Israelites. It was also clear that Solomon had used immense wealth in making Jerusalem a great capital city and had done little for the rural areas which he used as the sources of the supplies he needed. While he w busy with his international trading schemes, he ignored what was happening amongst his own countrymen. The words of Samuel in Samuel 8: 11-18 describe what actually happened in the reign of Solomon. The members of the royal court and the officials and important men around the king lived in luxury, but the ordinary people lived under increasing oppression and injustice.        .

Verses 21-24 illustrate Rehoboam's continued lack of wisdom in his decision to try to regain control of the northern tribes by force and to plunge the Israelites into civil war. This was averted by a prophet named Shemaiah whose influence was obviously strong enough to restrain Rehoboam and the men of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the only two tribes who had remained in support of David's grandson, from attacking their fellow Israelites. Shemaiah made them aware of the covenant bond which bound all the Israelites together and which could not be dissolved by political divisions. The people of the northern tribes were still people of the covenant just as the people of the south still claimed to be. Any Israelite who maintained the covenant faith was brother to any other like himself, irrespective of political boundaries.

The appearance of two nebi'im of God, Ahijah and Shemaiah, at this time of crisis in Israel, both challenging the royal misrule which pointed towards disaster for the Israelites, is significant. Their authority is apparent and so is their stand for different aspects of the responsibilities of the Covenant People and their kings. They indicate that the covenant faith was strongly alive, in spite of what happened in the later years of Solomon's reign.

Verses 25-33 provide a summary of two significant developments which were initiated by Jeroboam as the first ruler of the northern kingdom. He was determined to cut links with Jerusalem, and to set up his own capital city. He fortified two cities, Shechem and Penuel, but finally settled on a third city, Tirzah, to the north-east of Shechem (1 Kings 14: 17). Tirzah remained the capital of the northern people until it was later replaced by Samaria. Jeroboam also set up new symbols of God at two old religious sanctuaries to prevent the people from going to Jerusalem to worship. Bethel was an ancient sanctuary and one of the places at which Abraham had built an altar to God, on the southern borders of Jeroboam's kingdom. Dan was on the northern borders.

Jeroboam had become king of the northern people with the approval of the prophet Ahijah and we can accept that his intentions in setting up alternative sanctuaries to Jerusalem for the worship of Israel's God were sincere. Bethel and Dan were henceforth places of sacrifice, with their own priests who were not of the tribe of Levi. But Jeroboam took a very dangerous step in making golden bull images as symbols of the power of Israel's God. The writer of the book of Kings has no doubt that Jeroboam was leading his people into idolatry and references to the sin of Jeroboam recur later in Israel's history.

The Old Testament does not give us much indication of what happened to the Canaanites who were not killed when the Israelites fought their campaign of conquest under Joshua. Undoubtedly many Canaanites continued to live in what had been their country, but under Israelite rule. Judges 1: 21-35 indicates this. If Canaanites and Israelites lived in the same areas on the basis of peaceful co-existence, integration almost certainly took place eventually. After the capture of Jerusalem by David's men, the Jebusites and the Israelites almost certainly lived together in an urban society. All this means that Canaanite influence was still present and may have been strong, particularly in the cities of Israel. When Jeroboam made two images to represent the mighty power of Israel's God, he was using the forms of Canaanite culture against which the Israelites under Joshua had been strongly warned. As the worshipper at Bethel or Dan offered sacrifice, would he be sure that he was worshipping Yahweh, the God of the Covenant, and not Baal?