In the court of Rehoboam "the wisdom and experience of the
aged were contemptuously hissed off the seat of judgement by the irreverent
folly of the young" (EB).
1Ki 12:11
SCORPIONS: Special whips, with thorns and stones
embedded in the lashes; a type of whip which inflicted esp biting, stinging
wounds.
1Ki 12:16
Greatly similar to the revolt of Sheba against David: 2Sa
20:1.
1Ki 12:18
The tax collector was not the right man to send!
1Ki 12:24
FOR THIS IS MY DOING: God is in all things; there is
neither power, nor life, nor thought, nor existence apart from Him. "For in him
we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). And all things are upheld by
His might. He is in the earthquake and the great storm, but He is also in the
gentlest breeze.
God is even to be found in events which seem to be produced
merely by the sin and the stupidity of men. This breaking up of the kingdom of
Solomon into two parts was the result of Solomon's sin and Rehoboam's folly; yet
God was in it: "For this is MY doing!" God had nothing to do with the sin or the
folly, but in some way which we can never explain, in a mysterious way in which
we are to believe without hesitation, God was in it all.
The most notable instance of this truth is the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ; that was the greatest of human crimes, yet it was
predetermined by God's set purpose and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23), and it was
right and proper.
How, then, was "this" -- the rebellion -- God's "doing"? It
was His doing in two ways: (1) It was a matter of prophecy. The prophet Ahijah
had prophesied that the ten parts of the rent garment which were given to
Jeroboam should be symbolic of the ten tribes that would be given to him when
they had been torn away from the house of David. The prophecy was now literally
fulfilled (1Ki 11:29-31). (2) It was a matter of punishment. He sent it as a
punishment for the sins of the house of David, of which Solomon had been guilty
when he set up other gods in Israel, and divided the allegiance of his kingdom
from Yahweh by introducing the gods of Moab and Ammon and Egypt. And so God
ordained this "evil" that He might punish the greater evil of idolatry on the
part of his servant Solomon.
There are some events which are especially from God, although
at first look it may seem incongruous. And in this we may take comfort. Even
that which appears "evil" or disastrous (Isa 45:7) is nevertheless from Him, and
it is right -- because it serves His own purposes, which we may only dimly
comprehend, or even not comprehend at all. Accepting this general principle,
even when we cannot see how it might work out, we learn to trust in Him in all
things; for He alone knows the end from the beginning: "And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28).
1Ki 12:28
HERE ARE YOUR GODS, O ISRAEL: // Exo 32:4,8.
1Ki 12:29
BETHEL... DAN: Situated at the very northern and
southern ends of the Land. Intended to "counterfeit" the true cherubim, as if
God's presence were overshadowing the whole Land, from one end to the
other.