UNROLL
Before dawn on the trampled assembly ground below Shechem, between two great bare hills: one empty carved wooden chair stands on a low platform of fieldstones, dark tents and a few cooking fires around it, under a calm pale sky.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 10

Solomon is dead. All Israel waits at Shechem to hear what kind of king his son will be.

19 verses≈ 4 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1SolomonWisdom asked at Gibeon
  2. 2–5The templeBuilt on Mount Moriah
  3. 6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselves
  4. 8–9Solomon's gloryThe queen of Sheba
  5. 10–16DivisionRehoboam to AsaChapter 10
  6. 17–20JehoshaphatThe battle is God's
  7. 21–24Dark yearsJehoram to Joash
  8. 25–28Proud kingsAmaziah to Ahaz
  9. 29–32HezekiahDoors opened, Passover kept
  10. 33–35Manasseh to JosiahMercy and the Book found
  11. 36Exile and returnMay he go up

Rebellion against Rehoboam

A small walled town of mud brick on stone footings sits in the narrow pass between two great bare hills, its gate open, fields and a spring below it in the morning.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon.

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So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

The Israelites

“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam

Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.”

So the people departed.

At a hillside quarry above Jerusalem, rows of laborers in sweat-dark tunics haul a great dressed limestone block on a wooden sledge with ropes while others lever it with beams; an overseer with a staff watches from a rock, the city's walls and cedar roofs on the ridge beyond.
Rehoboam
Rehoboam

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

2 Chronicles 10:7

But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.

Rehoboam

He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

The young men

The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

Evening in a lamplit upper room of dressed stone and cedar beams at Shechem: Rehoboam reclines at a low table among richly dressed courtiers his own age; one leans in grinning and holds up his little finger, and the king laughs.

After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

Question

Quick question

Rehoboam’s harsh answer split the kingdom, and Chronicles says the turn of events was from God.

Whose word did this turn of events fulfill?

The Kingdom Divided

The Israelites

but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

Dusk, seen from far off on the hills north of Jerusalem: a lone light chariot with two horses races south along a pale road in a long plume of dust toward the plain gate of Jerusalem on its ridge, a king's purple-red robe streaming.

Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem. So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

0:16

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Reflect

Kind words or a heavy yoke

The elders told Rehoboam to “be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them.” His friends told him to show his strength. He chose the voices that sounded like him. When someone brings you a hard complaint, which do you reach for? Write down one conversation coming up where kind words could keep a friend.

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2 Chronicles 10

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A verse to carry with you

They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

2 Chronicles 10:7

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