By Dalton D. Baldwin
A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for July 20–26, 2002, on 1 Kings 11–14 The Great Controversy theme focuses attention on "prophetic movements that resist oppressive authority in the name of human rights and social justice as the key to the unfolding of history." This is the way an e-mail news report from Columbia Union College summarizes a paper presented by Doug Morgan to a conference on Ellen G. White and history in May of this year.
Abijah the prophet supported Jeroboam in his resistance to social injustice. The evils described in Deuteronomy 17:14–20 and 1 Samuel 8:9–18 "seem to be mainly those of the reign of Solomon," according to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 351. Verse 17 of 1 Samuel 8 sums up the oppression of a king by saying, "you shall be his slaves."1 Solomon oppressed his people by forcing them to labor like slaves to build his fortifications and grand public buildings.
Jeroboam was "very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph" (1 Kings 11:28). As administrator of forced labor, Jeroboam must have recognized the injustice of Solomon’s slave labor and other policies.
No doubt there had been much discussion among people of the ten tribes about Solomon’s oppressive policies before Ahijah tore his new garment into twelve pieces and gave Jeroboam ten of them. Probably Jeroboam did not lead the people to confront Solomon; as he later did with Rehoboam, because Solomon was so powerful and ruthless. Probably Solomon knew about the unrest among the people, which is why Jeroboam had to flee to Egypt.
After Solomon died, Rehoboam went to be crowned in Schechem in the North, rather than Jerusalem, probably because he knew he needed the waning support of the North to rule effectively.
As soon as Solomon died, Jeroboam was called back from Egypt. "Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel" then offered to "serve" king Rehoboam if he would "lighten" the yoke of taxes and slave labor (1 Kings 12:3–4). When they made this offer, they initiated a kind of proto-democracy. They offered the consent of the governed. They were willing to serve King Rehoboam if he would practice social justice.
The "older men" counseled Rehoboam to lighten the yoke and become a "servant to this people" (1 Kings 12:7). He would have become a servant if he had reduced and justly coordinated the labor they offered voluntarily. He would have become a servant leader, practicing the principles of the kingdom of heaven: "The greatest among you shall be your servant" (Matt. 23:11).
Certainly it was God’s will that Rehoboam become a servant leader. It is therefore puzzling when 1 Kings 12:15 says, "So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat."
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide asks the question, "Did the Lord purposely make Rehoboam stubborn and arrogant in order to fulfill His divine purposes?" (32). This rhetorical question expects a "No!" answer. The Study Guide goes on to ask, "Could Rehoboam have acted differently? If so, what would that have meant for the prophecy?" He could have and should have acted differently. If Abijah had decided to be a servant leader, his prophecy would have been shown to be conditional (Jer. 18:7–10), as was Jonah’s prediction (3:4) that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days.
Then what about Rehoboam’s stubborn, arrogant, social injustice being "brought about by the LORD"? The author of the Samuel-Kings history lived after the events described. His theology understood that God becomes angry and punishes sin by causing disasters and enemies to triumph, as in the idolatrous theology of the writer of the Moabite Stone (SDA Bible Dictionary, 8:728–30).
The following examples are a few biblical expressions of this faulty theology: - "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them [escaping Israel], so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army" (Exod. 14:4).
- "The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved [KJ ’prophesied’] within his house. . . And Saul threw the spear, for he thought, ’I will pin David to the wall.’" (1 Sam. 18:10–11).
- "Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go, count the people of Israel and Judah" (2 Sam. 24:1).
- When the "word of the LORD" from the prophets (1 Kings 22:5–6) predicted that Jehoshaphat and Ahab would be victorious in battle against Syria, Micaiah said, "The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (1 Kings 22:23).
Ellen White denied that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. She wrote, "God did not actually make Pharaoh stubborn and unyielding. He continued to give him light, and the king’s increasing stubbornness brought its sure result" (Youth’s Instructor, May 25, 1899).
She did not believe that an "evil spirit from God" came upon Saul, but gave a psychological interpretation for his bipolar mental illness. He opened his heart to the spirit of jealousy by which his soul was poisoned. . . The monarch of Israel was opposing his will to the will of the Infinite One. . .He allowed his impulses to control his judgment, until he was plunged into a fury of passion. He had paroxysms of rage, when he was ready to take the life of any who dared oppose his will. From this frenzy he would pass into a state of despondency and self-contempt, and remorse would take possession of his soul. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 650)
When a chronicler with a better theology rewrote the history of the kings of Israel he denied that God "incited" David to number Israel. He quoted most of the First Kings account word for word but wrote "Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel" (1 Chron. 21:1). Unfortunately, the chronicler’s theology had not improved enough to revise the statement that Rehoboam’s arrogant oppression was "brought about by the LORD" (2 Chron. 10:15).
The prophetic ministry of Ahijah not only sought to turn Israel away from Solomon’s idolatry and social injustice, but it also prepared the way to overcome the idolatrous theology represented in the Moabite stone. If Rehoboam would have turned away from oppression, as Jeroboam and the people suggested, his servant leadership would have been "brought about by the LORD," partly through the ministry of Ahijah the prophet.
1. A biblical quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
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