anchor of faith by which it rides out the storms of this world. Ever to look up straight to God, to turn from

events and secondary causations to Jehovah as the living God and the reigning King, is that denial of

things seen and affirmation of things unseen, which constitute the victory of faith over the world.

On the death of his father, Rehoboam seems to have at once, and without opposition, assumed the reins of

government. His enthronement at Jerusalem implied the homage of Judah and its neighbor-tribe Benjamin.

According to ancient custom, the representatives of the more distant tribes should have assembled at the

residence of the king, when in a great popular assembly the royal dignity would be solemnly conferred, and

public homage rendered to the new monarch (comp. 1 Samuel 11:15; 2 Samuel 2:4; 5:3; 1 Chronicles 29:22).

But, instead of repairing to Jerusalem, the representatives of the ten tribes gathered at Shechem, the ancient

capital of Ephraim, where important popular assemblies had previously been held (Joshua 8:30-35; 24:1-28),

and the first claimant of royalt y in Israel, Abimelech, had set up his throne (Judges 9:1-23). Only one

meaning could attach to their choice of this place.178

They had indeed come to make Rehoboam king, but only with full concessions to their tribal claims. All that

they now required was an energetic leader. Such an one was to hand in the person of Jeroboam, who in the

reign of King Solomon had headed the popular movement. After the failure of his attempt, he had fled into

Egypt, and been welcomed by Shishak. The weak (21st Tanite) dynasty, with which King Solomon had

formed a matrimonial alliance, had been replaced by the vigorous and martial rule of Shishak (probably about

fifteen years before the death of Solomon). The rising kingdom of Palestine - allied as it was with the

preceding dynasty - was too close, and probably too threatening a neighbor not to be attentively watched

by Shishak. It was obviously his policy to encourage Jeroboam, and to support any movement which might

divide the southern from the northern tribes, and thus give Egypt the supremacy over both. In point of fact,

five years later Shishak led an expedition against Rehoboam, probably not so much for the purpose of

humbling Judah as of strengthening the new kingdom of Israel.

The sacred text leaves it doubtful whether, after hearing of the accession of Rehoboam, Jeroboam continued

in Egypt until sent for by the representatives of the ten tribes, or returned to Ephraim of his own accord.179

In any case, he was not in Shechem when the assembly of the Israelitish deputies met there, but was

expressly sent for to conduct negotiations on their behalf.180

It was a mark of weakness on the part of Rehoboam to have gone to Shechem at all; and it must have

encouraged the deputies in their demands. Moderate as these sound, they seem to imply not only a

lightening of the "heavy" burden of forced labor and taxation, but of the "grievous yoke" of what they

regarded as a despotism, which prevented their free movements. It is on this supposition alone that we can

fully account for the reply which Rehoboam ultimately gave them. The king took three days to consider the

demand. First, he consulted Solomon's old advisers, who strongly urged a policy of at least temporary

compliance. The advice was evidently ungrateful, and the king - as Absalom of old, and most weak men in

analogous circumstances - next turned to another set of counselors. They were his young companions - as

the text throughout contemptuously designates them: "the children (the boys) who had grown up with him."

With their notions of the royal supremacy, they seem to have imagined that such dating attempts at

independence arose from doubt of the king's power and courage, and would be best repressed if sternly met

by an overawing assertion of authority. Rehoboam was not to discuss their demands, but to tell them that

they would find they had to deal with a monarch far more powerful and far more strict than his father had

been. To put it in the vain -glorious language of the Eastern "boy-counselors," he was to say to them, "My

little finger is bigger than my father's hips. And now my father did lade upon you a heavy yoke, and I will

add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips [those of ordinary slaves], but I will chastise you with

[so-called] 'scorpions'"  181 - or whips armed with hooks, such as were probably used upon criminals or

Grossly foolish as this advice was, Rehoboam followed it - the sacred writer remarking, in order to account

for such an occurrence: "for the turn (of events) was from Jehovah, that He might perform His word which

Jehovah spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat."  182