“and said to Jeroboam, “Take 10 pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. I will give you 10 tribes, but one tribe will remain his because of my servant David and because of Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel. For they have abandoned Me; they have bowed the knee to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and to carry out My statutes and My judgments as his father David did.” (1 Kings 11:31–33, HCSB)

After David died, Solomon became king. He was a great king, but he abandoned God. God warned him twice about this behavior. Solomon had a desire for foreign women and these relationships tore him away from his relationship with God. God warned Solomon of the consequences of this behavior. God also told this to Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon. Solomon had used slave labor and Jeroboam was in charge of the slaves. So having been a slave of Solomon, Jeroboam wanted to rebel against Solomon.

The prophet Ahijah came and revealed Solomon’s disobedience to Jeroboam. The prophet gave him permission to rebel against the king. He showed that the kingdom would go into civil war and that Jeroboam would get one of the tribes. The reason for this civil war is the fact that Solomon and the people abandoned God. They desired other gods and political civil war was the result.

The civil war also happens when I take an interest in something that replaces God. Jesus said: “You can’t serve two masters.” It leaves you with divided loyalties and they will always be in conflict. As a Christian, you have to learn to submit the other idols, gods, interests, to the One True God when He wants you to come to Him.

Ironically, Jeroboam would use this opportunity to against Solomon to abandon God himself after he took the throne (1 Kings 12:25-33). This spiral of abandonment continued from one generation to the next. If Solomon’s sin was bad, Jeroboam’s sin was worse – because he was informed why God was going to use Jeroboam to punish Solomon’s descendants. So Jeroboam took that information and used it selfishly. One lesson to be learned here is that it is one thing to know that there are consequences to abandoning God. It is even worse for my life if I know this about God and I still choose to abandon Him.

Photo by Stijn Swinnen on Unsplash