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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="1">I.</abbr> THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES. <abbr title="First">1</abbr> Kings <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr>   <abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chron.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 10">x.</abbr>   B.C. 975.</h3> REHOBOAM, the successor of Solomon, was 41 years of age when he came to the throne. Though his title does not seem to have been disputed at Jerusalem, he deemed it right to obtain a more general and public recognition, and probably as a concession to the powerful house of Joseph, convened a solemn assembly of the tribes at Shechem, its ancient but ruined338 capital. On his arrival there he encountered Jeroboam, who had been summoned from his retreat in Egypt, and now boldly appeared at the head of a deputation from all the tribes requesting a remission of the taxes and other heavy burdens, which had been laid upon the nation during the late reign. Thus directly appealed to, Rehoboam requested a space of three days for deliberation, and during this period first consulted the old advisers of his father. They unanimously suggested that he should accede to the nation’s request, and lighten its burden. But besides these experienced counsellors there were young men of rank, who had been the king’s companions, and were now about his court. They could ill brook any line of policy that seemed likely to lower the power of their patron, and advised him to take up the matter with a high hand, and by a firm denial of the nation’s request put down once and for all any similar demand. In an evil hour Rehoboam listened to their counsel, and at the end of the three days, when the envoys, again headed by Jeroboam, were summoned into his presence, announced to them his final resolve. My father made your yoke heavy, said he in the true spirit of an Oriental despot, and I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15). This senseless reply was no sooner made known to the tribes than it roused a general spirit of rebellion. What portion have we in David? exclaimed the great tribe of Ephraim, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel; now see to thine own house, David (<abbr title="Compare">comp.</abbr> <abbr title="Second Samuel">2 Sam.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 20">xx.</abbr> 1). The assembly broke up in confusion, and each man returned to his home. But Rehoboam did not yet discern the full force of the rising storm. He was unwise enough to send Adoram, who had been chief receiver of the tribute during the reigns of his father and grandfather (<abbr title="Second Samuel">2 Sam.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 20">xx.</abbr> 24; <abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 5">v.</abbr> 14), to levy the usual dues. But the fate of his envoy proved the strength of the popular feeling. All Israel stoned him with stones, that he died, and the king himself was obliged to fly in haste to Jerusalem. His first impulse on his return was to punish the rebellious tribes, and for this purpose he gathered together an army of 180,000 men. But his preparations for a civil war were forbidden by Shemaiah, a man of God, who declared it to be the will of Jehovah that all hostilities should be laid aside, for the rending of the kingdom was from Him (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 18<abbr title="through">–</abbr>24). Thereupon the projected war was given up, and the rebellion was complete339. According to the new division of the land, (i) The kingdom of Judah included that tribe itself, together with Benjamin, which transferred to it its allegiance probably because Jerusalem was within its borders, and, at least eventually, a part if not all of the territory of Simeon and of Dan. For the present Edom appears to have remained its faithful vassal, and guarded the caravan trade with Ophir, while Philistia continued, for the most part, quiet. (ii) The kingdom of Israel, on the other hand, included that of the remaining eight tribes, <abbr title="that is">i.e.</abbr> Ephraim, and half Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, as well as the coast line between Accho and Joppa, on the west of the Jordan; Reuben, Gad, and the remaining half tribe of Manasseh on the east of that river. Its vassal states were Moab (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 4), and so much of Syria as had remained subject to Solomon (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 11">xi.</abbr> 24)343. The first act of Jeroboam, on being declared ruler of the Ten Tribes, was to give a capital to his kingdom. For this purpose he rebuilt and fortified Shechem. His next step was to secure his dominions against his powerful northern neighbour, Syria. He, therefore, fortified Penuel344 beyond the Jordan, which commanded the fords of Succoth, and was on the great caravan road leading over Gilead to Damascus. But it required little reflection to convince him, that so long as the yearly pilgrimages summoned their thousands and tens of thousands to Jerusalem, his authority was but nominal. The Levitical class would constantly require to go up to the City of David in the order of their courses345, and the majority of them began to leave his kingdom for that of Judah. Without a Temple, without the Ark, without a Priesthood, he felt he could not maintain his power. Within the boundaries, however, of his realm were two sanctuaries, Bethel in the south, and Dan in the north. These, after some deliberation (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 28), he resolved to elevate into seats for national worship, which he hoped might rival the Temple at Jerusalem. Instead, however, of erecting altars there in honour of Jehovah, he made two calves of gold, figures probably of Apis or Mnevis, whose worship he had often witnessed during his residence in Egypt, and set them up at either sanctuary, with the address, Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 28). Moreover, at both places he established a new order of priests, not taken from the sons of Levi, but from the lowest of the people, and therefore absolutely dependent on himself, and into this order any one could obtain admission on sacrificing a young bullock and seven rams (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 9). Having taken these measures, on the <abbr title="fifteenth">15th</abbr> day of the eighth month346 he proclaimed a solemn Festival of Dedication, and went up to Bethel, to offer incense in person on the altar. But at this critical moment, as he was standing there, a man of God from Judah appeared, who boldly confronted the king, denounced the idolatrous service, and foretold the desecration of the altar by a future king of the house of Judah, Josiah by name, who would offer upon it the priests of the high-places, and burn men’s bones upon it (See <abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 23">xxiii.</abbr> 15). Enraged at this out-spoken defiance, Jeroboam stretched forth his hand, and bade the bystanders seize the bold stranger. But at the moment his hand became suddenly paralysed, and at the same time the altar was rent asunder, and the ashes of the victims were poured out. Now thoroughly alarmed, the king implored the prophet to intercede with the Lord for him, that the heavy judgment he had incurred might be removed. The other complied, and the king’s hand was restored. Grateful for this signal favour, Jeroboam would now have hospitably entertained the man of God. But the latter had been sent on a special errand, and his commands had been precise, and peremptory, neither to eat bread, nor drink water in a place so openly profaned with idolatry, nor even to return thence by the same road that he had come. Accordingly he declined the royal invitation, and went his way (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 10). On the road, however, as he lingered under an oak, he was overtaken by an old prophet of Bethel, who had heard from his sons of the day’s occurrences at the festival. His own guilty silence had wellnigh made him a partaker in the sins of the king, and the bold bearing of the stranger reminded him of what he himself should have done. Either, therefore, from a wish to win respect for himself once more by intercourse with such an accredited messenger of the Most High, or with the full intention of deceiving him, and so bringing discredit on his words, he hurried after him, and now announced himself as the bearer of a distinct Divine command that he should return to Bethel. Overcome by this solemn declaration, the other accompanied him to the town. But as they were seated at the meal, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the guilty host, and the Deceiver was constrained to pronounce the doom of the Deceived. The man of God had been faithless to the terms of his commission, and a certain death awaited him, nor should his body ever come into the sepulchre of his fathers. With his doom upon him he went his way, and a lion met and slew him (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 24). But though dead, he was yet to speak, and testify to the solemnity of the mission on which he had been sent. When he was found lying dead on the road, the lion also was standing there, as well as the ass on which he had ridden; the beast of prey had not eaten the corpse, nor torn the ass. Thus the mysterious circumstances of the prophet’s death confirmed that sign of his authority, which he had weakened during his life; and the old prophet of Bethel, by laying him in his own sepulchre with all honour, and charging his sons after his death to bury him beside the victim of his own deceit, preserved in Jeroboam’s new religious capital a silent witness against the idolatries there practised (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 30<abbr title="through">–</abbr>32). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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