The One Who Made Israel to Sin

Jeroboam’s Beginnings

You’ve probably heard of Jeroboam before. Maybe the name is a slightly familiar word, but not really tied to a character. Maybe the name reminds you of the name Rehoboam, because it has always been difficult to place who is who between the two. Or, maybe the name reminds you of the famous tag line that always follows it in Scripture — “Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”

For many of us, Jeroboam is a character that we may know a bit about, but he is always just seen as a rebellious, evil, deceitful character in a story, and not a living, breathing, man.

Jeroboam truly lived. He was as real as you or me. He had fears, he had desires, he had disappointments.

The goal of this series of five articles is to give a reality to the story of Jeroboam. Let us take our minds out of today, out of the struggles and hardships that we are going through in the present and for a few brief moments, place our thoughts into the time of Jeroboam. He is a character that is not often discussed, but his life was filled with many of the same decisions that we have to face, and his story is one that is not severely estranged from one that could be ours. He was a man with a powerful amount of potential, who threw it all away. Jeroboam paints a picture of what can seamlessly happen to us when we stop fighting — when we stop holding on to the Truth with everything we have, and allow the world to get a foot hold.

In the series, we are going to explore his early life and his faith. We will see the beginning months of his reign as king and will show his enthusiasm in reforma­tion, and then his deceit in apostasy. We will see him fall from his zeal and begin to fall into the clutches of false religion.

By looking at these events, we will more ably see into the mind of God and will note the rise and fall of Jeroboam — a man like us.

Background

Early in the history of Israel’s kings, the nation split apart. It separated into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom — the southern followed a man named Rehoboam and the northern followed Jeroboam. The split was not a friendly one, and it occurred as a result of Rehoboam’s refusal to lower the taxes created by his father Solomon. The people of the northern 10 tribes revolted with the charge “what portion have we in David?” They deserted the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the two kingdoms were born. The kingdom of the north was known as Israel, and the kingdom of the south was known as Judah.

The division happened only a few generations after the nation had chosen to have a king. The line of kings, from the first ruler to this split is as follows:

1. Saul
2. David
3. Solomon
4. Jeroboam and Rehoboam

Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom — the first king of Israel (made up of only 10 tribes). Rehoboam was originally the king of all 12 tribes, but as a result of the rebellion, he was left with only two. He was the king of Judah.

The kingship of Jeroboam, and the idolatrous worship that he created, are prob­ably the two events that fill our thoughts on this man. They are the two things for which he is the most famous. As we will see throughout this study, Jeroboam’s life was characterized by much more than just being a king and creating a new form of idolatry. He was a man who started off as a believer — who started off walking in Truth — and a man who had an explosive amount of potential for good, but wasted it all.

The Rebellion

Because of Solomon’s idolatry, Yahweh brought enemies against his kingdom. He stirred up Hadad the Edomite and Rezon king of Syria against him — adversaries who would perhaps cause him to turn back, to recognize his error. Amid this list of adversaries that God brought against Solomon, Jeroboam appears.

“And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king” (1Kgs 11:26 ).

Jeroboam was an adversary to Solomon, stirred up by God. He was an Ephrathite, which is better rendered “Ephraimite” as the word is used in Judges 12:5; also

compare 1 Samuel 1:1. It appears that his home town was Zereda, a city on Mount Ephraim. This Ephraimite enters the scene as a rebel, one who fought against his lord — trying to take the throne. This introduction to him can tend to taint our opinion of the man, painting him as a deceitful worker, as someone who was headstrong and never able to follow. However, this isn’t entirely the case. When we read the next verse, and as we unearth more about this rebellion, we discover some important pieces to the story of Jeroboam.

“And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solo­mon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father” (1Kgs 11:27 ).

Jeroboam’s rebellion was provoked. He didn’t just rebel randomly, he didn’t just rebel because he wanted to have the reins of power and rule over the country. Instead, he rebelled because Solomon built up Millo and repaired the breaches of the city of David. Something about Millo really aggravated Jeroboam.

When we look deeper into the Word of God, as almost always seems to happen, an answer becomes apparent. Millo and the breaches of Jerusalem were just one of many building projects that were started by Solomon. Throughout a 20 year period during his reign, Solomon had been starting new building projects — be­ginning with the temple, and then moving on to his own house. In the 4th year of his reign, Solomon began to build the temple (1 Kgs 6:1). This took him seven years to complete, and at the end of those seven years, he began to build his own house (cf. 1 Kgs 6:38, 1 Kgs 7:1, 1 Kgs 9:10). His own house was thirteen years in the building, meaning that the total building time for both houses was 20 years. Solomon then went on to build Millo (cf. 1 Kgs 3:1 and 1 Kgs 9:24).

All of these building projects were supported by a staff of men that Scripture refers to as “the levy.” They were a group of conscripted Israelites who were forced by Solomon to work for him.

“And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jeru­salem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer” (1Kgs 9:15).

They built up all of these various projects, all of these cities — at the command of the king. More detail is given about the levy in 1 Kings 5:13-14. This levy was a group of 30,000 men who worked alongside the workers of Hiram, king of Tyre, to cut down trees in Lebanon. The trees were used to build up the projects of Solomon. Each worker in the levy spent one month in Lebanon, and then two months back home; four months of his year would be spent in Lebanon. This levy lasted over 20 years, because it was used to build up the house of God, to build up Solomon’s house, and to build up Millo and the wall of Jerusalem.

When we then begin to see what was taking place, Jeroboam’s revolution becomes more understandable. Jeroboam was probably one of the hewers of wood, one of the workers under the levy, and each year he had to work in Lebanon for four months. He had probably been going over to Lebanon for years and was finally tired of having to do it. He had a widowed mother. Who would take care of her?

He probably had a wife and a son! To be gone for four months every year would be terrible! Picture the scene. Finally the laborers had finished building Solomon’s house (after 13 years of this!). Finally they could return to their cities, to their families, and have normal lives. Then, the command passed through the ranks, down to the poor hewers of wood. The king was restoring the walls of Jerusalem and was also soon going to build up Millo. The dreams of returning to the family were crushed, the hope of leading a normal life was ruined, and the levy would continue. Jeroboam may have been able to justify spending the time away from his family when he was building up the house of Yahweh, but to spend 13 years building the king’s own house — this was the last straw.

This understanding of the rebellion makes complete sense with the rest of the story. It fits with what we are told about Jeroboam. He was Solomon’s servant — i.e. part of Solomon’s workforce, part of the forced labor. This would be how Solomon had seen that he was “industrious.”

“And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph”( 1Kgs 11:28 ).

Solomon saw the way that Jeroboam worked in Lebanon, saw his hard work, and to quell the coup, Solomon gave him a position of prominence in the na­tion. Interestingly, it seems as though Solomon actually just promoted the future king. In the margin of the KJV, the word charge is rendered “burden.” Other versions translate it as such, as well. This is referring to the levy, to the forced labor! Jeroboam had originally been a hewer, and so he was promoted to being one of the leaders of the levy. He was in charge of the forced labor that came from Manassah and Ephraim.

When we look into the rebellion of Jeroboam, it helps us to understand why he stood up against the king, why he was willing to try to overthrow the government. Jeroboam wasn’t an initially rebellious and devious man. In fact, by studying this rebellion, it helps us to see that Jeroboam was actually someone who knew the Truth and who grew up during the glory days of Solomon — when true wor­ship was the norm. Scripture tells us that he was a young man at the time of his rebellion (1Kgs 11:28). This revolution probably took place around the 24th year of Solomon; Solomon began working on the temple in the 4th year of his reign, worked on it for 7 years, then worked on his own house for 13, finally after that he built Millo. Jeroboam, as a young man, probably somewhere in his 20s, was most likely born just before Solomon came to the throne.

The future king enters the scene as a young man, one who had grown up during the glory days of Solomon. He probably saw the temple being built, went to Je­rusalem to celebrate the feasts, and knew all about proper worship. He had been surrounded with the Truth all throughout his life. Initially, as we will see in the next article, Jeroboam was a man of faith. He was a man who had the potential to command an audience, lead the nation, and save God’s people from the idolatry that they had so willingly embraced.