The political schism
1 ① Rehoboam went to Shechem because all Israel had gathered there to make him king. 2When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard of this in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and where he still remained, he returned from Egypt. 3They called for him, and he came with all the assembly of Israel.
The people of Israel went to Rehoboam with this demand, 4“Your father made our yoke heavy. So now lighten the heavy yoke and the hard labor your father imposed on us and we will serve you.” 5Rehoboam answered them, “Leave now but come back on the third day.” And so the people went their way.
6King Rehoboam sought advice from the elderly counselors who served his father Solomon while he was still alive, and he asked them, “How would you advise me to answer this people?” 7To this they replied, “If you attend to this people today making yourself their servant and speak to them with good words, they will serve you forever.” 8But Rehoboam disregarded the advice of the old counselors and asked the opinion of the greenhorns who had grown up with him and were in his service. 9He asked them, “What do you say we should answer this people who tell me: ‘Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us’?” 10The greenhorns who had grown up with him answered, “Since these people said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should now lighten it for us,’ tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier yet. My father chastised you with whips, but I will fix iron points to the lashes.”
12On the third day, Jeroboam together with the people went back to Rehoboam just as the king said, for he had said to them, “Come back on the third day.” 13Ignoring the advice given him by the elderly counselors, 14the king answered the people harshly in the way the greenhorns had advised him. He said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it even heavier. My father chastised you with whips, but I will fix iron points to the lashes.” 15The king did not listen to the people. It was, indeed, Yahweh who brought about this fateful event, fulfilling the word he had spoken to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, through Ahijah the Shilonite.
16All Israel realized that the king refused to listen to them, and they answered the same way, “What have we to do with David? Is the son of Jesse from our tribes? Let the son of David deal with his own and you, people of Israel, go back to your homes!” And so the Israelites left for their homes.
17Only the Israelites who dwelt in the cities of Judah let Rehoboam reign over them. 18Rehoboam sent Adoram, task-master of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death and King Rehoboam had to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. 19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to the present time.
20As Jeroboam had returned and was with them at the assembly, having been called by them, they made him king of Israel. And so, with the exception of the tribe of Judah, no one followed the house of David.
21When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he called together all the people of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, numbering a hundred and eighty thousand select warriors, to fight against the people of Israel in a bid to restore the kingship of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. 22But the word of God was directed to Shemaiah, the man of God, 23“Give Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, this message from Yahweh: 24You shall not go up to fight against your kinsmen, the Israelites. Let everyone return to his home for I am the author of this.” When they heard this word they went back home according to what Yahweh had ordered.
25Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then, he set out to fortify Penuel.
The religious division
26 ② Jeroboam thought, “The kingdom could return to the house of David. 27Should this people go up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh’s House in Jerusalem, their heart would turn again to their master, Rehoboam king of Judah. They would kill me and go back to him.” 28And so the king sought advice and made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29He put one of these in Bethel, the other in Dan. 30And so Jeroboam made the people sin; the people went as far as Dan to accompany one of them. 31Jeroboam also built temples on high places, appointing priests who were not from the Levites. 32Jeroboam also appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in imitation of the feast in Judah, and he himself offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel and sacrificed to the calves that he had made; there he placed priests for the high places he had made. 33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month which he had arbitrarily chosen, he ordained a feast for the Israelites and went up to the altar to burn incense.
- Soon after Solomon's death, what the prophet Ahijah announced comes true: the kingdom is divided. The author singles out the culpability and folly of Rehoboam. The king did not listen to the people. Neither had Solomon listened to them, while he lived isolated in his splendor.
When the people of Israel separate, they lose the benefit of the promises that God made to David, and which he will not withdraw even from his guilty descendants. The kingdom of the north (or kingdom of Israel) will be given some great prophets: Elijah, Hosea. But there will be no stability in power, and many usurpers will become kings without their descendants being able to maintain their kingship. It would seem that God treats each of them according to his own merits.
On the contrary, during this time in Judea, the kings - descendants of David, good and bad - succeed each other without interruption during four centuries: their history is governed and dominated by God's promise. Saint Paul says that the events of the Old Testament prefigure what happens with Jesus and the Church (Heb 9). Here we have a picture of the divisions that have torn apart the unique church of Christ.
During the fifteenth century the Church was like an empire with more human interests than humble service of God. Its leaders, often urged by the desire to leave behind them an indestructible witness to their own greatness, crushed the faithful with taxes in order to finance the building of magnificent basilicas, rather than respond to the spiritual thirst of believers. These rebelled in the name of greater fidelity to the Gospel, and gave rise to Protestantism.
However, while recognizing all that is good with the protestants and evangelists, it is clear that after separation from the successors of the apostles, they have had to face continual divisions, always seeking a union they have been unable to find. The Catholic Church has known many crises for which she bears full responsibility, and yet it would seem that God has treated her according to his promises, and not according to her merits, in order to put her again on the right path. The Church must of course recognize these aspects of her structures and present practice far from the spirit of the Gospel, even as she knows she may count on the promise of Christ. The Church is the center, the place of communion, around which all must one day be reunited (see Ez 16:52-59; Ps 87). - The twelve tribes are united by the same religion, but Jeroboam realizes that his authority will be weak as long as the Israelites go up to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices there. He ensures political separation through a schism, that is, a religious separation. He has a calf made to represent Yahweh in spite of the prohibition against making a representation of the invisible God and reducing him to the level of an animal.
In narrating the deeds of the kings of Israel in the north, the Bible constantly repeats: They followed and committed the sin of Jeroboam. Thus Scriptures emphasized the need to remain united to the center which God established in Jerusalem. It is not enough to think: We serve the same God, We serve in our own way.
Jeroboam is the model of other rulers who, much later, tried to establish national churches: in England, at the time of the Reformation; in France, after the Revolution; in China and socialist countries, after a communist revolution. Many Catholics were persecuted and died for remaining faithful to the only church which ought to be catholic, or universal.
