2 Chron 10 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Chron 10:1-11

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labour and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.’

5 Rehoboam answered, ‘Come back to me in three days.’ So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. ‘How would you advise me to answer these people?’ he asked.

7 They replied, ‘If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favourable answer, they will always be your servants.’

8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, ‘What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, “Lighten the yoke your father put on us”?’

10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, ‘The people have said to you, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.” Now tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”’

A. Find Out:

1. What was happening to Rehoboam? v.1
2. What did Jeroboam and the people say to him? v.2-4
3. What response did Rehoboam give them? v.5
4. Who did he consult and what did they advise? v.6,7
5. To whom did he then turn for advice? v.8,9
6. What advice did they give? v.10,11

B. Think:

1. What do we learn here about Solomon’s reign?
2. What do we learn about Rehoboam?
3. Why do you think this was all happening?

C. Comment:

       We saw in the previous study the prophetic word that had come against Solomon that, because of his sin, in the next generation the nation would be split with ten tribes being taken from his family’s rule. The process now begins.

      The background to this, which is important to note, is that life for the ordinary people under Solomon had been tough. We’ve seen the riches he accumulated but that also meant power, and Solomon had obviously not spread those riches around the people but had dominated and used them for his own means. Life had been hard. Now his son is about to take his place, the hope of the people is that he will treat them less harshly; in fact if he doesn’t they are ready to rebel, for the son is not the father and doesn’t have the same authority.

      This last point is particularly clear in that when the people speak to him he hasn’t got an answer, he doesn’t have the wisdom of his father, and he’s not even spiritual enough to turn to the Lord and ask Him. First he consults the elders and gets a good and wise answer from them, but God has other plans. Foolishly Rehoboam turns to younger counsel, which means he doesn’t like the thought of being a gentle king and so turns to his contemporaries who are young and lack wisdom. They counsel more harshness but that is only going to cause rebellion.

D. Application:

1. Needing help? In doubt? Ask the Lord.
2. Needing help? Unsure? Express the character of Jesus.

Passage: 2 Chron 10:12-19

12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, ‘Come back to me in three days.’ 13 The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, ‘My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfil the word that the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

‘What share do we have in David,
    what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
    Look after your own house, David!’

So all the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labour, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

A. Find Out:

1. So how did Rehoboam respond to the people? v.12-14
2. Why? v.15
3. How did the people respond? v.16
4. Over whom did Rehoboam still reign? v.17
5. Who did the king send after them & what happened? v.18
6. So what was the outcome? v.19

B. Think:

1. What was the natural cause of Israel ‘s rebellion?
2. What was the ‘spiritual’ cause?
3. How do you think the two work together?

C. Comment:

       The new young king listens to his peers and refuses the wise counsel of his elders. It is often a failing of the young. The result here is that when the people return to hear the king’s response to them, he tries to act the big man, but the trouble is that he isn’t! Solomon had had the power and authority to rule over the people strongly, but that is not something that naturally comes, it has to be worked for, it has to be earned, and this new king hasn’t done that.

      Thus when the king tries to act big, we might say the people just laughed at him and left. That doesn’t just mean they departed; we are left in no doubt – they are coming out from under the reign of this family, they are rebelling – and there is nothing this king can do about it. He tries to, he sends his slave master after them, but they are not slaves and they simply turn on him and kill him! The king is lucky to escape himself.

      The reason for all this is stated quite clearly in v.15. It is that which we saw in 1 Kings. Solomon has turned away from God so God has turned away from him. God said this would happen and it has. We aren’t told how God did it. Perhaps He just stepped back and let the natural folly of this young man do it. Perhaps He whispered to him to reject the elders and his natural folly responded. God knows people and knows what they will do when left to themselves.

D. Application:

1. God’s absence. Without God we are left to our own folly. Seek Him!
2. The fruit of folly. Left to our own folly we just get it wrong. We need the Lord!