37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’”
The promise to Jeroboam is lavish, generous, and full of any and every of the promises we would expect God to make. God was downsizing Solomon’s dynasty, from all Israel to a single tribe. That meant a drastic downturn in the economy of Judah. It meant a much smaller pie. But look at the gospel God includes for Judah in the last phrase: “But not forever.” The hard times would not last forever.
Anyone who knows some Bible history must realize that this isn’t a promise of a restoration of Judah’s fortunes. That never happened; not really even under the Herods, who were Roman puppets. The list of opponents who pounded the Jews (the people of Judah) with their mighty hammers includes Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Islam, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and of course the holocaust under the Nazis. But the promise is for us: David had a descendant who was not humbled by God. Jesus Christ humbled himself, for our sake, so that we are glorified in his blood forever.
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death.
As with Hadad, Jeroboam went to Egypt for refuge. Egyptologists think that Shishak (also called Shoshenk I) reigned from the 940’s to the 920’s BC (c. 945-924). In a document called Shishak’s Geographical List, the pharaoh described the many cities in Canaan that he conquered or forced into giving him tribute.
Solomon’s Death
41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign—all he did and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 43 Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king. (NIV)
At the beginning of Solomon’s reign, his brother Adonijah rose up in open rebellion against him. Now at the end of his reign, there was another man after the throne. But the kingship over the entire land—all twelve tribes—passed at least briefly to Solomon’s son Rehoboam.
The Lord’s assessment of Solomon is best summarized by this judgment: the kingdom was taken away from Solomon because he fell into idolatry and led his people astray into idolatry. As we saw with David’s obituary (1 Kings 2:12), we can’t really say that the Holy Spirit shows any judgment of a king’s soul with the formula “he rested with his fathers.” In 1 Kings, this is used about as often for bad kings (Rehoboam, Abijah) as it is for good kings (David, Asa, Jehoshaphat).
What we see in verse 43 is a fulfillment of God’s promise to keep a descendant of David on the throne. For now, that would be Solomon’s son Rehoboam. But just like in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:15-30), it would be up to Rehoboam to use what God gave him: to do his best, his worst, or nothing at all.
We will pray over and over again throughout the rest of Kings that God would enable us to do our best for him and to serve him with all our hearts. Many of the stories that follow from this point are applications of the Ten Commandments, and what it means to obey the two tables of the Law. Jesus kept the Law perfectly in our place. We look to him for forgiveness, and for guidance as we wend our way toward our eternal home.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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