Lessons from the Life of Solomon's Successor, Part 2

What's happening: Rehoboam, Solomon's son, becomes king. The people ask him to lower the taxes, but the new king raises them instead. This bad decision costs him ten out of the twelve tribes of Israel.

What made Rehoboam make such a bad decision? Why was he so focused on selfish desires, instead of the good of the kingdom? So what made him listen to his peers instead of his elders? These are all very good questions, and before I go any farther, I’d like to share a quote from one of my favorite books, Prophets and Kings. Prophets and Kings is a wonderful book, discussing the Bible stories all the way from Solomon to Nehemiah.

Here’s the quote:

Although Solomon had longed to prepare the mind of Rehoboam, his chosen successor, to meet with wisdom the crisis foretold by the prophet of God, he had never been able to exert a strong molding influence for good over the mind of his son, whose early training had been so grossly neglected. Rehoboam had received from his mother, an Ammonitess, the stamp of a vacillating character. At times he endeavored to serve God and was granted a measure of prosperity; but he was not steadfast, and at last he yielded to the influences for evil that had surrounded him from infancy. In the mistakes of Rehoboam's life and in his final apostasy is revealed the fearful result of Solomon's union with idolatrous women. (Prophets & Kings, p. 88)

So the bottom line is, Solomon didn’t give as much attention to Rehoboam’s upbringing as he should have. While Israel’s greatest king was chasing after gold, chariots, and idolatrous foreign women, he neglected being the father to Rehoboam that he needed to be. And so what happened? Rehoboam certainly wasn’t instructed in the ways of the Lord! His mother, according to 1 Kings 14:21, was an Ammonitess. You think she instructed her son in the ways of the true God? I seem to remember that the Ammonites served a false god named Molech, who quite consistently demanded live baby sacrifices to be appeased.

So this is the training that Israel’s next king got. Remember that Bible verse that goes like, “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it”? I’ve always liked to think about that verse in the positive way, but the case of Rehoboam is a perfect example of how this verse works in a negative way. The story really hits home, I feel, on how important godly parents are. Because if there are godly parents in the home, teaching and coaching their children to love the Lord, there is a good chance that the children will grow up and continue loving the Lord. However, the opposite is also true. If there are idolatrous or absent parents…

Rehoboam—and the rending of the kingdom—was just the start of the consequences of Solomon not spending enough time training his son. “By beholding we are changed”, and Rehoboam certainly beheld his father. For a few years of his reign Rehoboam did follow the Lord, and God blessed him then. But the bad times most certainly outweighed the good. Most of the time, Rehoboam followed his father’s evil practices. Solomon’s son, too, was idolatrous. Solomon’s son, too, had multiple wives (according to 2 Chronicles 11:21, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines). Solomon! The wisest guy ever to live on earth! And his son turns away from the True God of Heaven.

I’d like to share some more quotes, both a Bible text and another passage from Prophets and Kings. First the Bible verse:

“After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord…[Rehoboam] did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.” ~2 Chronicles 12:1, 14

“How sad, how filled with significance, the words, "And all Israel with him"! The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were turning from their Source of strength and seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam--the influence of wrong example led many astray. And as with them, so to a greater or less degree is it today with everyone who gives himself up to work evil--the influence of wrongdoing is not confined to the doer. No man liveth unto himself. None perish alone in their iniquity. Every life is a light that brightens and cheers the pathway of others, or a dark and desolating influence that tends toward despair and ruin. We lead others either upward to happiness and immortal life, or downward to sorrow and eternal death. And if by our deeds we strengthen or force into activity the evil powers of those around us, we share their sin.” (Prophets & Kings, p. 94)

Whether we like to think about it this way or not, it is true: no man is an island. Whatever we do or say, those actions don’t just affect ourselves. They affect the people around us, either for good or bad. I think we can really see how this happened in the lives of Solomon and Rehoboam. Solomon was idolatrous and obsessed with foreign women. Guess what Rehoboam was obsessed with? And I doubt that Rehoboam changed the cycle and spent much time with his son, Abijah. According to 1 Kings 15:3,

“[Abijah] committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God”

But back to Rehoboam. I’d like to take a closer look at 2 Chronicles 12:14—

“[Rehoboam] did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.”

Why did he do evil? Because, in so many words, he was riding the fence. He wasn’t for the Lord necessarily, but he wasn’t against idolatry either. He had not set his heart on doing either one, and in that condition it was very easy for Satan to bring Rehoboam into idolatry.

Now I want to throw this question back at you: do you have year heart set on seeking the Lord? On cultivating a vibrant, personal relationship with Him each day? Because if you aren’t purposely doing seeking the Lord, it won’t happen. (Just look at Rehoboam!)

The story of Rehoboam, and all his falls and mistakes, is placed in the Bible for a reason. I wholeheartedly believe that that reason is so that we can learn from his mistakes, and not make those blunders ourselves. And now the responsibility is on our shoulders—will I—will you—make God a first priority in our lives, and follow His leading? Do what He wants us to do?