The third adversary God raised up to oppose Solomon was Jeroboam from the tribe of Ephraim. He was one of Solomon’s officials and the son of a widow. First Kings 11: 27-33 then went on to describe how he rebelled against Solomon. Verses 27 said that while Solomon was having the Millo built and the fort of the city built by David repaired, he took notice of Jeroboam. The king acknowledged him by promoting him and made him take charge of the workers from the tribe of Joseph. Unwittingly, Solomon had promoted a man who would gain enough power to bring an end to the rule of the Davidic dynasty in the northern part of Israel.
Of
course, this was God’s plan to punish Solomon as He had promised. As providence
would have it, Ahijah, a prophet, found Jeroboam on a road outside of Jerusalem. Verse 29 says that Jeroboam met the prophet,
who was dressed in a new cloak, in the field alone. There Ahijah gave him a
dramatized prophetic message. He took hold of his new cloak and tore it into
twelves pieces and gave ten pieces to Jeroboam. He was told that God would tear
ten tribes out of the hand of Solomon and give it to him. But for the sake of
David and Jerusalem, the chosen city, He would allow the heirs of
Solomon to remain ruler over one other tribe besides Judah, his own tribe.
In
verse 33, God reiterates how Solomon had invited these impending disasters upon
himself and the nation. He said, “…because they have forsaken Me, and have
worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab,
and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways,
doing what is right in My sight and observing My statutes and
My ordinances, as his father David did.” Deflecting from God to
worship idols was not a small thing. As we have said, it is a clear violation
of the first commandment laid down by God. Hence God had to discipline
him.
As
troublesome as Hadad, Rezon and now Jeroboam were to Solomon, they were not as
potent as the influence that came from the people who were near him. The source
of his degeneration could be traced to his many foreign wives. This clearly
shows how needful it is for us to develop a spirit of uncompromised loyalty to
God. If he had stayed within the bounds of God’s instructions, all this could
have been avoided. From Solomon’s life, we learn that faithfulness is an
indispensable factor if are to stay blessed by God. We need to have faith that
will cause us to be dogged in our walk with God. There are enough warnings for
us not to follow after other ‘gods’!
No comments:
Post a Comment