1 Ki. 12: Traps, Ensnares

1 Kings 12:24 "'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.' " So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered."

This chapter is a political cluster-fooey, and it took like six times to read it. Ridiculous. Rehoboam is the king, but the nation of Israel appears to prefer Jeroboam, who had fled to Egypt. Rehoboam sought advice from the elders to decide what to do with the people of Israel, who requested that he not be as hard on them as Solomon apparently was. After a three day thought vacay, Rehoboam rejects the advice of the elders to give the people what they want, and for some reason threatens to crack down on them even harder. What a jerk.

Israel heard about this, and was like, "Well forget this guy, we'll rule ourselves." They even stoned the guy who came out to force labor on them. And they would have killed that snaked Rehoboam, too, but he got away in the chariot.

Jeroboam was back in town, so Israel was like, "He's gotta be a better option." So they made him the king instead. Redividing the kingdom. Only one tribe, Judah, was loyal to Rehoboam and the Davidic line. They were able to get Benjamin on their side, too. Benjamin's loyalties, throughout history, appear to be very flexible. They are like Julian Sark if the Bible were a really long episode of Alias. Which makes sense, considering Joseph's blessing on their patriarch. Rehoboam takes Judah and Benjamin to fight, but God tells them to cool their jets, man, so they obey and go back home. They obeyed the direct word of the LORD. Which is good. Finally. Why did God not want them to fight against Jeroboam? Especially considering what happened next.

Jeroboam turned out to be a mess as well, installing golden calves for worship in Bethel and Dan. These gods were probably more installed to divert travel to the temple to keep the wrong people out of Jerusalem. The wrong people who would maybe kill him and turn for Rehoboam. He even installed priests for these ridiculous idols, completely flying in the face of what God commanded, claiming that it was these gods who brought Israel out of Egypt. Their leader set the traps for them.