The Kingdom Torn In Two Series

This is precisely what happened to the nation of Israel, when Solomon was the pilot, he made a series of fatal decisions which were very important to God. However, the impact wasn’t immediately felt, but they would be felt years later; which guaranteed the future crash of the nation of Israel.

If you turn back to chapter 13, on the last page of that chapter; we see this fatal error, in 1 Kings 11:9-13 ~

9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.

10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.

11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.

12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

Often times from a human perspective, even leaders think we’re in charge of things, only to discover God has an upper story plan which He’s working out. That’s what we see here. When Rehoboam realizes that Jeroboam has been made king of the northern part, Israel, which gives him an advantage; Jeroboam decides to go into battle with him in order to win back the 10 tribes he’s lost.

But the Lord intervenes, and in 1 Kings 12:24, tells Rehoboam, ‘Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the LORD and went home, as the LORD ordered.

Now Rehoboam’s decision not to take the advice of the elders and to take the counsel of his younger friends was an unwise decision. But this wasn’t the cause of the division in Israel. God is using Rehoboam’s immaturity to accomplish his upper story plan.

Well, as this part of the Bible is coming to an end, the director wants us to have a theme that grabs us and causes us to think about our real lives. The director wants you to be captivated by what this means in your life. I think there are 2 main themes running simultaneously.

One comes from the upper story. The theme is that God has a plan, and that plan cannot be thwarted. And God always keeps His promises. God promised to use the nation of Israel, and Israel was supposed to reveal God and bring Jesus to us; who would be the ultimate One to forgive our sins. To give every single one of us who was separated from God, an opportunity to come into an eternal relationship with the one true God, through Jesus Christ – who came from the tribe of Judah.

He does not have to use everyone in Israel. And what we see here is the unfolding of God’s decision to use a remnant of Israel to keep His promises. It appears that Jeroboam is the good guy. He rallies around the cries of the people and comes to their aid because they were being overtaxed, over-burdened and over-worked. He uses the cries of the people to gain an entrance into leadership and it looked like he’s the savior of the day. He has 10 tribes and it looks like God is removing Rehoboam and his family from the line of leadership in the nation. But that’s not what was happening at all.