When all
Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
“What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents,
Israel! Look after your own house, David!” So all the Israelites went home. But
as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still
ruled over them. (vv.16-17)
In 1
Kings 11, the prophet Ahijah predicted that the kingdom would split. Here in
our text we see the fulfillment of that prophecy. The
seeds of this situation lay in discontent with taxation and forced labor, a
result of decades of building projects.
Here in chapter 10, Jeroboam led a delegation asking Rehoboam,
the new king, to take it easier on the people. Rehoboam wisely asked for a
delay to seek counsel, but then foolishly took the wrong advice. Jeroboam then
led a revolt in which the majority of the tribes broke away and followed him. From this point on the ten northern
tribes would be called Israel, while the two remaining tribes, Benjamin and
Judah, would now be called the nation of Judah.
Today we
still see denominational divisions, church splits, doctrinal differences, but
when the Lord looks at His church, He sees us all as one people, one church,
one body – His. And even though in our text God’s people went in two different
directions, and formed two different nations, He still saw both nations as
“Israel”, because He did not acknowledge their division.
Oh that
we would all look to the One who unites us in Spirit and in Truth and not to
those who would cause division, for ultimately we answer to Him.
The Truth
“My prayer is not for them alone. I
pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that
all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they
also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given
them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them
and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world
will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
(John 17:20-23)
