Jeroboam, an effective administrator under King Solomon, pleaded Israel's cause before Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam: "Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you" (1 Kings 12:4).

Jeroboam, chosen spokesman for most of the tribes of Israel, addressed Rehoboam at Shechem, not Jerusalem. That their meeting was in this northern city added to Rehoboam's troubles, for he knew the northern tribes were chafing at the heavy-handed tax and labor policies administered from Jerusalem.

Jeroboam was talented, ambitious, brave and industrious in his responsibilities. Though he showed himself diligent in his early duties, his weaknesses eventually grew apparent.

Under Solomon's long and peaceful rule, Israel had lived in the lap of luxury, attributable at least in part to a heavy tax burden that allowed Israel to militarily and economically dominate the area and control its profitable trade routes. But this tax burden eventually generated considerable resentment among the people.

Rehoboam wanted to keep his father's affluent kingdom intact. But Jeroboam had different ideas: He planned to rule over a new kingdom to be formed from 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel, and Rehoboam unwittingly played right into his hands.

King Rehoboam needed a little time to consider his position and determine his response: "Depart for three days, then come back to me" (1 Kings 12:5).

In the privacy of his court, Rehoboam turned to the elders who had counseled his father and asked: "How do you advise me to answer these people?"

The elders answered wisely: "If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever" (1 Kings 12:6-7).

This is wise advice in any age, particularly so at such a critical time.

Although Rehoboam was the son of the wisest of men, he didn't inherit his father's wisdom: "But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. And he said to them, 'What advice do you give? ...' Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, 'Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, "Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us" ... "[But, he replied] whereas my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!' " (1 Kings 12:8-11).

The third day Jeroboam and other representatives returned to Rehoboam. "Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men ..." (1 Kings 12:13-14).

Rehoboam's abrasive words quickly drove a wedge among the 12 tribes: "Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: 'What share have we in David [Rehoboam's grandfather]? ... To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!' So Israel departed to their tents" (1 Kings 12:16).

The northern 10 tribes proclaimed Jeroboam king over their newly formed kingdom. Rehoboam was left with only two tribes—Judah and Benjamin—along with a good portion of the tribe of Levi, which was interspersed among all the other tribes of Israel. Thus Israel was split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north, ruled by Jeroboam, and Judah in the south, ruled by Rehoboam from Jerusalem.

Jeroboam's Background

Jeroboam had significantly gained prominence during King Solomon's reign. "The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, made him the officer over all the labor force of the house of Joseph" (1 Kings 11:28).

First-century Jewish historian Josephus adds further details: "... When Solomon saw that he was of an active and bold disposition, he made him the curator of the walls which he built round about Jerusalem; and he took such care of those works, and the king approved of his behaviour, and gave him, as a reward for the same, the charge of the tribe of Joseph" (Antiquities of the Jews, book VIII, chapter vii, section 7).

However, relations between Solomon and Jeroboam would not remain so respectful and peaceable.

As Solomon grew older he fell increasingly into idolatrous worship. He so disgraced himself through his worship of idols that God rebuked him: "I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant [Jeroboam]" (1 Kings 11:11).

Jeroboam's ascendancy wasn't the product of his own righteousness but came about, rather ironically, by Solomon's idolatry.

A Message from God

Privately the prophet Ahijah revealed to Jeroboam God's intention to make him the ruler of a new kingdom: "... When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem ... the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.

"And he said to Jeroboam, 'Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you ... because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David." ' " (1 Kings 11:29-33).

Here we see the reason for the kingdom of Israel splitting into two nations: idolatrous worship, or the rejection of the manner of worship God had prescribed in His Word.

Ahijah continued God's message: "However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you—ten tribes ... So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel" ' " (1 Kings 11:34-37).

Josephus complements the biblical account: "Being a young man of warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, he could not be quiet." Jeroboam decided to seek control of the northern tribes immediately, and "he endeavored to persuade the people to forsake Solomon, to make a disturbance, and to bring the government over to himself" (Antiquities of the Jews, book VIII, chapter vii, section 8). Solomon, who learned of Jeroboam's subversive design, responded by trying to kill him. But Jeroboam fled to Egypt, where he remained until the king died (1 Kings 11:40).

Confrontation with Rehoboam

After Solomon's death and Rehoboam's ascension of the throne, Jeroboam's countrymen summoned him from Egypt. Shortly thereafter he and Rehoboam had the confrontation.

After the northern 10 tribes announced their intention to reject the House of David, Rehoboam became desperate: "... He assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

"But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 'Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, "Thus says the Lord: 'You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me.'...' Therefore they obeyed the word of the Lord, and turned back, according to the word of the Lord" (1 Kings 12:22-24).

Jeroboam: The Good and the Bad

Jeroboam had a golden opportunity to succeed, even during a time of great division. The Bible says little of his early life, although his parents are named. His father, Nebat was deceased, for Scripture identifies his mother, Zeruah, as a widow (1 Kings 11:26).

Jeroboam was from the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 11:26), one of the most powerful tribes among the 12. He was talented, ambitious, brave and industrious in his responsibilities. Though Jeroboam showed himself diligent in his early duties, his weaknesses eventually grew apparent.

In one of his first acts, Jeroboam chose Shechem—between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in northern Israel—as his new capital and set about rebuilding and fortifying it (1 Kings 12:25). Shechem's strategic location was geographically as well as religiously significant. Its religious ties went back not only to the patriarchs but to the Canaanites. Jeroboam sought to distance himself and the people from the influence of the kings of Judah in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26-27).

Jeroboam was also apprehensive about his people's religious life, which centered around the temple and priesthood in Jerusalem. He devised a cunning plan, creating two golden calves for the people to worship, and strategically placed them at the northern and southern ends of the country (1 Kings 12:28-29). The one in the south he placed at Bethel, on the main road to Jerusalem. Those among the northern tribes who intended to travel to Jerusalem for God's feasts (Leviticus 23) then could be easily diverted to worship at Bethel instead.

Jeroboam also established idolatrous worship on high places and appointed his own priests from other than the tribe of Levi (1 Kings 12:31). Perhaps his greatest single change was to tamper with God's annual Holy Days. Instead of observing the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month as God had commanded, Jeroboam instituted an alternate feast in the eighth month, "in the month which he had devised in his own heart" (1 Kings 12:33).

The king's terrible spiritual blunders were to bring untold suffering on the House of Israel and Israel's descendants. Under Jeroboam's leadership the northern tribes soon drifted away from the pattern of religious worship God had commanded. It was bad enough before the national schism (1 Kings 11:30-33), but the degeneration only worsened after the nation separated. In the south religious worship and morality similarly suffered a sharp decline (1 Kings 14:22-24).

Degeneracy and Destruction

Jeroboam's counterfeit religion, with its own priesthood, gods and religious festivals and observances, was destined to play a major role in Israel's downfall.

Through Ahijah God had encouraged Jeroboam to rule properly: "... You shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel. Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you" (1 Kings 11:37-38).

But Jeroboam failed to exploit his remarkable opportunity. Rather, he instituted an idolatrous form of worship as the official religion of the new kingdom. In spite of God's warnings, Jeroboam refused to turn from his idolatrous ways.

God pronounced a sobering final edict against Jeroboam: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back—therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam ..." (1 Kings 14:7-10).

A Legacy of Tragedy

Summarizing Jeroboam's and his successors' rule, the Bible says: "Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day" (2 Kings 17:21-23).

So Jeroboam's sins had far-reaching consequences. They led to the removal of God's blessings on the 10-tribed nation because not one of Israel's kings who followed Jeroboam initiated the necessary reforms that would have led the nation back to God's way of worship. Instead, all continued in his sins (2 Kings 3:3; 2 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 13:2; etc.). God does not give us a choice on how we are to worship Him (Deuteronomy 12:32). He gives us a choice of whether we will worship Him according to the instructions He has given.

Israel was instructed to worship the Eternal God, not two golden calves. God's people were told that the Feast of Tabernacles was to be observed in the seventh month of the year, not the eighth month. Not one of Israel's kings restored the true worship of God. The result was a horrific national captivity for all 10 tribes.

Many in the mainstream Christian world have not learned this vital lesson from the life of King Jeroboam. The practices he set in motion—substituting his own days, methods and kinds of worship for those God commanded—have continued down to this day.

God tells us in His Word when and on which days we are to worship. He does not want us to invent our own special festivals or borrow them from the pagan practices of yesteryear.