1 Kings 12:1-24

Jim Butler1 Kings 12:1–24

The division of the united Israelite monarchy under Rehoboam, recorded in 1 Kings 12:1–24, is examined here as an event simultaneously driven by human folly and ordained by divine sovereignty. Rehoboam's rejection of the elders' counsel in favour of his contemporaries' bluster, his dispatch of Adoram, and the northern tribes' revolt under Jeroboam are each shown to be the outworking of God's word spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite in 1 Kings 11. The sermon presses the Reformed conviction that divine sovereignty neither erases human responsibility nor is frustrated by human stupidity, and calls God's people to rest in a sovereign God rather than despair over the folly of human rulers. The restraining word of God through Shemaiah, which alone prevents civil war, stands as a practical illustration of that same sovereignty extending covenant mercy toward a people who cannot undo the consequences of their own sin.