1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 7

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-07
Revolt and Apostasy
Lesson Transcript

We have concluded our study of the first of the three major divisions of the two books, the Solomonic narrative, and we're now ready to look at the second major division, the divided kingdom that extends from book one, chapter 12, to book two, chapter 17. 28 chapters dealing with a period of about 200 years.

We can subdivide that division into three parts. The first is from the division to Ahab, 1 Kings 12 through 16, covering about 50 years, from 930, Solomon's death until round figures, 860 BC. That's from the division to Ahab, part A.

Part B then is the Elijah/Elisha narrative, which extends from chapter 17 of 1 Kings, to chapter 13 of 2 Kings. The Elijah/Elisha narrative taking in roughly 60 years from 860 to 800.

And then part C is Israel's final years, 2 Kings 14 through 17, about 80 years, from 800 to 722. So three divisions, the division to Ahab, Elijah/Elisha narratives, and Israel's final years.

We're looking at this lecture to chapters 12 and 13 of 1 Kings, which I have entitled "Revolt and Apostasy." One of the things that we see at the outset is what I've talked about before, and that is the power of the narrative. The narrator is not simply giving us bare facts, he is dealing with the intricacy of this story. This is not merely a question of the northern tribes walking out. It involves the foolishness of Rehoboam. It involves the question of good advice and bad advice.

So, there is an interplay of human behavior developing through this story that is, again, as I've said to you several times previously, the result of the Israelite understanding of revelation. God is revealing himself not in great recurring principles. God is revealing himself in the context of unique persons, unique events in time and space. God has entered into our world to show us who he is, and for that reason then, the recorders of the biblical events are going to record with unusual accuracy, because if you don't tell the story correctly as it happened, how are you going to know God? So it's in that context that we see this fascinating story.

Rehoboam, in fact, helped the northern kings out the door. Would they have gone anyway? Would they have departed? They said to him, "If you will remove your father's heavy hand from us, we will stay with you. We will continue to recognize you as our king." Well, we wonder, is that true, or is that verbiage?

Presumably, Jeroboam, before he went to Egypt, had told them about the prophecy that Ahijah had given the word of God to him, that he would become the ruler of the 10 northern Tribes. And the fact that they then called him back from Egypt for this event suggests that there's a bit of smoke and mirrors here, that they're going to go in any case, but nevertheless, they're going to mask their revolt in interesting ways. So again, I say here's the intricacy of the story, the interplay of human motivations and concerns, and God revealing himself in the middle of all of that.

We look at Rehoboam and we marvel at his folly. How could he have been so stupid? And then we look at ourselves in the mirror, and understand that indeed he is revealing human character in the light of God's work.

Solomon had provided the spark in his heavy-handed activities. You notice what the people said, "If you will remove his heavy hand." Solomon had used, as we said in the previous lecture, the slaves of the Canaanites, but he'd also used forced labor from the Hebrew people. So I say he provided the spark, the spark that Rehoboam fanned into flame. So the people say, "If you'll remove your father's heavy hand will serve you. And so Rehoboam goes to his counselors."

Now, as an old man myself, I tend to favor the old men's advice, but it was, I think, good advice. If you will loosen the burden, if you'll lighten the load, they will stay with you. So yes, that's what you ought to do. Well, Rehoboam didn't like that advice. I mean, goodness gracious, if I give in to them, I'll look like a wimp. So he went to the young men and the young men said, "Oh, no, no, no. You have to be hard. You have to tell them. You think you had it hard under my father? You have no idea how hard it'll be under me. You've got to establish your authority. You've got to show that you are in charge here." Well, for whatever reason, Rehoboam liked that advice, and the language that he uses is very coarse language. He basically says, "You think my father was a tough guy? Well, my little finger is bigger than his male member." Ouch, ouch. "Things are going to get worse here before they get better. And you better shape that you better face that fact."

But if he was concerned for his image, he was also not very bright because after the northern tribes had said, "To your tents, oh Israel," and pulled out, what did he do? He sent the previous minister of forced labor to try to bring them back. Good grief. That was the issue. The issue was forced labor. And you're going to try to send the minister of forced labor to bring them back? Folly, folly.

And we say again, as we look at this whole interplay, "Well, it was going to happen. God had predicted that it was going to happen. So it had to happen." Did it? Could it have been different? Remember what I've said about the Hebrew concept of history, the choice is in our hands. Not the ultimate end, not the final strategy. That's in God's hand. God wins and we know, but how he wins. And so we see it here in this interesting situation. Were they going to go? Probably, but did they have to go like this? Probably not. And it is Rehoboam, in his foolishness, who helps them out the door.

And then, he musters the troops of his one and a half remaining tribes and is going to attack the troops of the 10 northern tribes. And the prophet says to him, "Don't do that." This is verse 22 of chapter 12, "But this word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, 'Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people. This is what the Lord says, do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home every one of you for this is my doing.'" Well, I think that saved Rehoboam from a terrible, terrible defeat. But again, you see a man who simply is not very wise, not very able to understand what people are like. I think as we saw with Solomon all the way back in chapter three, one of the things that Solomon was wise at was understanding human nature. It appears that Rehoboam did not have that level of wisdom, and as a result, he becomes the kindling for the fire that breaks out.

This is great literature, but it's not just that. This subtle exploration of human motives and human choices is the result of that understanding, as I've said to you again and again, that God is revealing himself in this context of unique individuals, unique events, and therefore you'd better keep a careful track of it. You'd better keep a careful record of it.

This is one of the things that convinces me of the historical reliability of the Bible. Why would it necessarily be historically reliable? Precisely because these writers have the motivation, "Hey, we are revealing the character of God in our reporting of what God did in these lives, in these situations, in these events. We'd better report it carefully."

We turn then to Jeroboam. Again, I want to emphasize what we said in the previous lecture. This is God's doing. This is not Jeroboam's choice. Now I'm sure it is his choice, but it's not simply Jeroboam saying, "Well, I want to be king here, so I'm going to work around, and I'm going to machinate among these tribes and I'm going to develop a support force." Not like Absalom did or a Adonijah did. No, he is king because God predicted that it would happen, and this is a fulfillment of God's promise. And as I pointed out to you, God promised him an eternal dynasty if he would be faithful. So everything at this point is positive with regard to Jeroboam. The future is wide open and the possibilities are endless.

But it was not to be. Why not? Well, Jeroboam has a challenge. Look at verse 26 of chapter 12. "Jeroboam thought to himself, 'The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They'll kill me and return to King Rehoboam.'"

Yes, this is the problem. Every male in Israel is supposed to go to Jerusalem three times a year. It's a little bit like the situation Jeff Davis would face in 1861 if every Confederate male was supposed to go to Washington DC three times a year. Well, if they go back down there, if they go back to that beautiful temple, they just decide to stay on that side?

Now, I've reflected a little bit on this. Is that what God expected? Did God expect them to go back to Jerusalem three times a year and worship God there? Well, it looks to me as though that is the case, but Rehoboam could not bring himself to face that risk. God had said that the 10 northern tribes would serve Jeroboam, so if they were going to go back to Jerusalem, they would still serve Jeroboam. Jeroboam didn't have that much faith. He didn't have enough faith in God's promise that the tribes would serve him to allow them to go to Jerusalem.

So what to do, what to do? Let's establish two new worship centers. Let's establish one at the ancient site of Bethel, the place where Yahweh met Jacob. What finer place to establish a worship center? And then, let's put one up at Dan in the far north, and say to those people in the north, "Hey, you don't have to make that 100 mile journey to Jerusalem. You can worship God right here close by at Dan." So at the southern edge of his kingdom and at the northern edge of his kingdom, he establishes these new worship centers.

Well, that's a dangerous move. The place where God put his name was in Jerusalem, and that's where people are to worship him, alone. No other place. What's the problem in multiple worship centers of Yahweh? Why not let people worship Yahweh wherever they wanted? Because in that world, the tendency would be to say, "Well, I worship Yahweh of Beth Horan. You worship Yahweh of Gilgal." Different Yahwehs. Again, remember the issue for paganism? Of course there are multiple gods. Look at the world. The world is multiple. So there are many gods. And here alone are these Hebrews. I say it again, alone. No, there is only one God, and that one God is not part of this world, so there's only one place that you can worship him.

So, there's the initial problem, creating two new worship centers. But that temple there in Jerusalem, oh my goodness, so gorgeous, so complex, so beautiful. How are you going to compete with that? Golden bulls. There's some indication that that golden bull thing had simply been underground ever since the golden calf at Mount Sinai. Now you say, wait a minute, you said golden bull, and then you said golden calf. I think that they were bulls, and that the Bible is mocking them by calling them calves.

Now, I can't prove that. I can say that the Bible regularly mocks paganism. The man's name was Ishbaal, and the Bible calls him Ishbosheth. Man of Baal? Nah, man of shame. And that kind of mockery goes on through the Old Testament. So I think it's very probable here. You don't have a little calfy. You have a big, brazen, brawny bull.

The road that I take to my workplace takes me by a farm, and the farmer has two bulls in the field close to the road, and every time I pass by there, I think, "Yeah, I understand why those ancient people worship bulls." There they stand in all their power, deep chests, big heads, just looking around. Power, raw power, sexual power, able to reproduce themselves, to stamp themselves upon the world. Power, beauty, sexual fertility. Yes, yes. That's what we worship. That's what we want in our god.

And so, yes, let's build a golden bull and put it at Bethel and at Dan. You don't have to go down to that temple in Jerusalem. Here, here is a better one. And that temple in Jerusalem, what are you going to see there? If they have the big doors open, all you're going to see in there is the table of showbread and the lamp stand, and maybe there in the smoky distance, the altar of incense. You're not going to see anything more. Oh, but come to Bethel. You'll see beauty and power and fecundity right there before your eyes. That's Yahweh. Now you see again, this is not at this point the worship of some other God. It's the worship of Yahweh, but it's the worship of Yahweh in an idolatrous form.

What about that second commandment? You shall not make me in the image of any created thing. Why? Ah, because not only does the Old Testament take a unique position when it says God is one, it takes a unique position when it says God is not this world. How many iconoclastic religions are there in the world? Three. Same, three as are monotheistic: Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and they all get it from one single source.

You see, if you make God this world, you almost immediately begin to make him many. You almost immediately make him someone who can be manipulated through this world, and the list goes on. This is an astonishing idea that this world is not ultimate. There is something beyond the cosmos. Oh, and better than that, someone beyond the cosmos, and therefore you may not represent him in any form of this world. Jeroboam said, "No. No, I'm going to tie Yahweh to this world and its forms and its power and its beauty and its fertility."

Again, powerful literature. We can understand why it was a problem. We can understand why he was concerned and troubled. We can understand why he did what he did, and all the time understanding, but it was wrong. But it was wrong.

Of course, Jeroboam didn't stop there. He moved the festival calendar by a month. They might be tempted to go to Jerusalem for that festival, but we've got another one another month. He chose priests who were from the people at large, not from the Levitical tribe. He simply wrote his own new religion to replace that one that he was so frightened of.

Again, the application to our own lives, I think, is frighteningly real. We can find justification for doing what we want to do. We can find reasons to support what we want to do, in defiance of what God wants. God had said, "Walk in the ways of David with a whole heart as David walked, and I will establish your dynasty forever." And Jeroboam at the outset has gone off the path, has chosen another way.

Som in that context, God sends a man. I said earlier in this series of lectures that there are more prophets associated with the northern kingdom than there are with the southern kingdom. God did not simply write them off now that Jeroboam has set them on this path, a path from which no northern king will diverge. God does not say, "Well, that's that I'll just put all my eggs into Judah and hope they make it." No. No, he pours out his love on the northern kingdom by sending these prophets. And it's interesting that they are frequently not called prophets. They're frequently called, as is the case here, a man of God. Because you see, prophets have something of a bad name in the ancient world. These are predictors of the future, the future that has to happen. You've looked at your omens, you've looked at your signs, and so you can say, "That has to happen tomorrow."

But the Hebrew prophets are men of God, men who are in touch with the living God, the creative God, the joyful God, the righteous God, and therefore, they're not so interested in predicting the future. Oh, they do. No question about it. But their primary focus is on what's happening in your life today that's going to affect the future. It's not what's happening to a flight of birds. It's not what a sheep's entrails look like that determine what the future is. No, your present behavior is going to shape the future.

And so God sends a man, a man from Judah, and he's quite explicit. He says, "I want you to go there. I want you to declare your message. I don't want you to eat or drink. I want you to declare your message, turn right around, and go home." And his message is a shocking one. He says, "The day is going to come when this altar that you have built will be used by a king named Josiah, and he will sacrifice the bones of your priests upon it."

Now, many scholars are troubled by that. Josiah would live nearly 300 years in the future. There's no way this man of Judah could have known the name of Josiah. Oh? If we believe in a God who stands outside of time and space, and sees it whole, then there's no reason in the world why God did not know that man's name and could give that information to his chosen man.

This is a terribly important point. If we were to bow to scholarship and say, "Oh, well, somebody in the time of Josiah, knowing what Josiah actually did, he wrote that back into this," we have undercut the whole nature of the Bible's understanding of revelation. So does it matter whether this is a correct report or not? Yes, it does. It matters a lot.

So that's the message. Here it is in verse 1 of chapter 13, "By the word of the Lord, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel as Jeroboam was standing." Now, the NIV here says, "Standing by the altar." Older translations say, "Standing on the altar." Either one is possible. I think on is probably more likely. He's up there on the altar, playing the part of high priest, something that was forbidden to Hebrew kings. You cannot do that, because today's high priest is tomorrow's God. But there's Jeroboam, preparing to make an offering. "By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar. 'Altar, altar.' This is what the Lord says. 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you, he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here and human bones will be burned on you. That same day, the man of God gave a sign. This is the sign the Lord has declared. The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.' When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, 'Seize him.' But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up so that he could not pull it back." Oops. Oops. Seize him.

And what happens next is very interesting. Then the king said to the man of God, "Intercede with the Lord your God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored." He doesn't say that to one of his appointed priests, does he? Jeroboam still knows in his deepest heart who God is and where God is to be found. "And so the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king's hand was restored and became as it was before. The king said to the man of God, 'Come home with me for a meal and I'll give you a gift.'" Here's the temptation. Here it is. And the man of God answered, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here, for I was commanded by the word of the Lord, 'You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.' So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel."

Good for him. The temptation came and he rejected it. He said, "No, I will not." Now again, we can say, "Oh, well that was easy enough." No, it wasn't. This is a king. This is a man with royal power, and he's offering for you to come home with him and receive a gift from him. But the man of God says, "No, I'm going to do what God said."

Now, the rest of this story is in some ways troubling, because we have the feeling that the person who should have been punished wasn't punished. But I think we'll see in the end the importance of the story. An old prophet, prophet... Remember what I said about prophets and men of God? An old prophet who was in Bethel heard from his sons about this amazing incident, and he wanted to meet this man, this man of God from Judah. And so he asked his sons who were reporting what had happened, which way did he go? And they said, "Well, he went down that road." "Well, harness my donkey, quickly." And so the old man went. He found him. This is verse 15, "So the prophet said to him, 'Come home with me and eat.' The man of God said, 'I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I've been told by the word of the Lord, 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'' The old prophet answered, 'I, too, am a prophet as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water,'' but he was lying to him. So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house."

Imagine the situation with me. The man of God has done what he was told, took his life in his hands. He's done it, and now he's headed home by another road. He's tired. The adrenaline rush is over. He's fagged out. He's sitting under a tree hungry, thirsty. And again, we have to give him credit. "Come home with me. Eat and drink." "No, I can't. God said to me, 'Don't do it.' I can't do it." But when the old prophet lied to him, did he ask God, "Is this right or wrong?" No. He said, "Oh, goody. Good." Again and again, I see that in the Bible, where people who want to do something don't ask God whether they should or not. An open door is not always opened by God.

That's what happened to Abraham and Sarah, or Abram and Sarah, as they were at that point. "Abram, you are going to have a son." "Oh, good. Where's Hagar?" Not, "God, how do you want to do that?"

And so here, I think the error... Now again, I've been wrong at least once before, and I may be wrong here, but I think the error is that he did not ask God, "Is this the truth or not? Is this really coming from you or not?" At any rate, he goes.

Now I want this old prophet to be punished. He is the liar. He's the one that trapped this good man. But suddenly, as they are eating, the old man says, verse 21, "This is what the Lord says, 'You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore, your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.'"

Oh, my. I've often said that the first full sentence our children learned was, "It's not fair." And I'm tempted to say that here. "Oh God, this isn't fair." Stick with me. "So, he finished eating and drinking." "Well, if this is my last meal, I might as well enjoy it, I guess." And starts down the road home, and the word comes back. He has been attacked by a lion. The lion has not eaten him. The lion has not eaten his donkey. The lion is just sitting there beside the corpse of the prophet and the donkey. When, this is verse 28, 26, excuse me. "When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, 'This is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him as the word of the Lord had warned him. So saddle the donkey for me.' And he went and he picked up the body of the man." This is verse 29, "Put it on the donkey, brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him." Oh, good grief. "He laid the body in his own tomb and they mourned over him and said, 'Alas, my brother.' After burying him, he said to his sons, 'When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside him, for the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.'"

Would the word that God had spoken against Jeroboam and his false worship, would it come true? Oh, yes. And what had happened to the man of God of Judah just sealed that in iron. If God said to you, "Do this, and if you don't do this, you will die." Then Jeroboam, you better believe that the word of God that was spoken to you is going to come to pass.

Now, it's interesting, he's not challenged openly to repent, but I'm confident that repentance is written all over this. "Jeroboam, Jeroboam, if you would now repent, if you would destroy those idols, if you would get rid of the false festival calendar and the false priests, who knows what mercy God would have on you?" It's not spoken. It's not spoken, but I think it's written all over it. And Jeroboam did not take the opportunity. He could not deny the reality of God's word and the certainty of God's promises, but he would not repent.

This reminds me of what we read in the book of Revelation. Two different times, we are told, "But in spite of all this, they would not repent." In spite of the terrible, terrible tribulation that they are going through, they would not repent. As you're probably aware, the graph of acceptance of Christ looks something like this: birth, age 16, age 80. Most conversions to Christ occur between the ages of 12 and 20. And after that, fewer and fewer and fewer. Thank God there are deathbed conversions, but there are very few. When a person has lived for themselves long enough, repentance is no longer an option. Could they repent? Oh, yes. Will they repent? No.

And that's what we see of Jeroboam. Jeroboam has chosen his road. And in spite of this inescapable evidence that God's word will come true, he will not vary from it. And in so doing, he sets Israel on a path from which none of his successors will vary. Every one of his successors will walk in the way of Jeroboam.

And in the end, 200 years later, people talk about, "Oh, the God of the Old Testament. He's that raging, angry God. 200 years of patience, 200 years of calling his people, 'Oh, turn, turn.'" And they will not. So we see in these two chapters, it seems to me, a frightening picture of the possibilities and the refusal to walk in God's way.