Israel Split up after a Civil War

In short

1 Kings 12. After a whopping 3 kings and 120 years, Israel can’t hold together as a single nation and they split north-south.

Why it is important

They never reunite. This is it. Each side limps along for a few more centuries, but eventually they both fall.

Main characters

• King Solomon
• Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and the rightful heir
• Jeroboam, leader of the uprising and king of the secession

What is in this story (1 Kings 12)

1. After king Solomon dies, one of his sons takes the throne and is soon challenged by a man named Jeroboam (v. 20).
2. Solomon’s son manages to keep only Jerusalem and the land around it (v. 21). This small territory is called JUDAH (v. 23)
3. Jeroboam gets control of the rest of the old nation, a much bigger territory.
4. Ok, pay attention now: Jeroboam’s territory, the land that seceded from Israel, is called… ISRAEL.

This is weird, right? Normally (to us), the rebel faction picks a new name, like the Confederacy did in the US Civil War, or like South Sudan did recently. The land with the capital city (where the king lives) is usually the one to keep the original name. But in Israel, the opposite happened.

Because this is so different from what we expect, you may hear people refer to:

• Judah as the “Southern Kingdom”
• The seceded Israel (Jeroboam’s territory) as the “Northern Kingdom”
• The old Israel as the “United Kingdom”

These north-south names are not in the Bible, but they are reasonable descriptions.

Theology and doctrine

It didn’t have to end this way. Jeroboam was trying to ask for mercy from Rehoboam, not start a war (vs. 3-4). And the older men around Rehoboam told him to be merciful. But instead, Rehoboam listened to the younger men who told him to rule with an iron fist (v. 10).

We would do well to seek and follow the advice of the older generations of believers.

Footnote

I think scholars would say that “civil war” is not the right term. This was a bloodless splitting up. I’m not exactly sure. But I think the term “civil war” makes it easier to picture the story.