Like Rehoboam, any time our personal agendas block out the voice of God, we’ll lose ground.
Care to guess what Rehoboam’s name means? Here’s some rich irony. It means “a people has enlarged.” That sounds like politician-speak, like passing a deficit-reduction bill that promises to reduce the increase in the amount of borrowing that they otherwise might have spent—if they hadn’t already spent it! Come again? Not only was the population not enlarged, Rehoboam had driven the majority of the people into the arms of the rebel. Jeroboam’s name, on the other hand, suits the man. It means “the people will contend.” Some common synonyms of contention are conflict, discord, dissension, and strife. Thus it would be throughout the whole history of the ten northern tribes. “So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day” (2 Chron 10:19), that is, until the time of writing. Now Rehoboam wasn’t going to take this rebellion lying down. He had a hair-raising chariot race back to his capital in Jerusalem, leaving Shechem posthaste after the assassination of his Secretary of the Treasury, a man named Hadoram. Now Rehoboam “assembled from the house of Judah and Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against Israel, that he might restore the kingdom” (11:1). But it was not to be. “The word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God” (v 2), whose name indicates two-way communication because it means “heard of God.” Through this brave man, the Lord told the king and all the assembled host, “You shall not go up or fight against your brethren!” And that was that. Here’s a bright spot in the story. “Therefore they obeyed the words of the Lord” (v 4). It’s still a good thing, isn’t it, when we obey the Lord’s words in not fighting against our brethren!