And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
After Solomon's death the kingdom was divided, with his son Rehoboam retaining Judah while the ten tribes revolted to Jeroboam, leaving two and a half tribes in Judah under Rehoboam and ten tribes in Israel under Jeroboam. Israel and Judah then continued as separate kingdoms, sometimes at war and sometimes at peace, until Israel's overthrow in 721 B.C. The conflict recorded here was the continual war and strife between those two divisions, between Rehoboam of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel, throughout Rehoboam's life.
The division came because Solomon multiplied wives to himself until they turned away his heart and left little for God, though he later repented when he penned Ecclesiastes. Rehoboam was a weak and foolish and deplorably weak king, while Jeroboam was the strong young man who induced Israel to revolt and was in some respects a much stronger king. The history to which the verse belongs is told in 1 Kings 12-16 and covers about eighty years through the death of Jehoshaphat.
That history includes Jeroboam's idolatry, the prediction against the king and the altar, Ahijah's prediction concerning Jeroboam's seed, the spoiling of the temple by Shishak of Egypt, and the brief reign of the wicked Abijam over Judah and the better reign of Asa with prosperity under him. It continues with the two-year reign of Nadab ending the house of Jeroboam, the twenty-four-year reign of Baasha who slew him, the two-year drunken reign of his son Elah ending the house of Baasha, the seven-day reign of Zimri the captain who slew him, and the rise of Omri from whom sprang the wicked Ahab with the work of Elijah. The verse belongs to the account of Israel's apostasy in which the kings led the nation to forsake the worship of the living God and the God-given plan of worship pointing to Christ and revealing salvation from sin, and to turn to the worship of idols, of Baal and Ashtoreth. In so doing they forsook all that was pure and true and uplifting for what was impure, untrue and degrading, worshiping the creature instead of the Creator.
After Solomon's death the kingdom was divided, with his son Rehoboam retaining Judah while the ten tribes revolted to Jeroboam, leaving two and a half tribes in Judah under Rehoboam and ten tribes in Israel under Jeroboam. Israel and Judah then continued as separate kingdoms, sometimes at war and sometimes at peace, until Israel's overthrow in 721 B.C. The conflict recorded here was the continual war and strife between those two divisions, between Rehoboam of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel, throughout Rehoboam's life.
The division came because Solomon multiplied wives to himself until they turned away his heart and left little for God, though he later repented when he penned Ecclesiastes. Rehoboam was a weak and foolish and deplorably weak king, while Jeroboam was the strong young man who induced Israel to revolt and was in some respects a much stronger king. The history to which the verse belongs is told in 1 Kings 12-16 and covers about eighty years through the death of Jehoshaphat.
That history includes Jeroboam's idolatry, the prediction against the king and the altar, Ahijah's prediction concerning Jeroboam's seed, the spoiling of the temple by Shishak of Egypt, and the brief reign of the wicked Abijam over Judah and the better reign of Asa with prosperity under him. It continues with the two-year reign of Nadab ending the house of Jeroboam, the twenty-four-year reign of Baasha who slew him, the two-year drunken reign of his son Elah ending the house of Baasha, the seven-day reign of Zimri the captain who slew him, and the rise of Omri from whom sprang the wicked Ahab with the work of Elijah. The verse belongs to the account of Israel's apostasy in which the kings led the nation to forsake the worship of the living God and the God-given plan of worship pointing to Christ and revealing salvation from sin, and to turn to the worship of idols, of Baal and Ashtoreth. In so doing they forsook all that was pure and true and uplifting for what was impure, untrue and degrading, worshiping the creature instead of the Creator.