The Destroyed Cloak
So Jeroboam is walking down the road, out of Jerusalem. It has been a LONG day...hard work. Solomon had seen that he was valiant as a warrior and a hard worker, and had given Jeroboam a promotion ~ he became the chief superintendent ... he was in charge of the whole labor force of the tribe of Joseph. That is his tribe -- Ephriam being Joseph's son. Quite a promotion. His back is tired but more than that HE is tired. It is a weary time -- the air is full of discontent. In the distance the dust of the road rises in a flurry as a man runs toward him. Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh, ran to him. As he stops, he whips his mantle from around his shoulders, and begins to rip it apart. Tearing and ripping, Ahijah delivers to Jeroboam 10 pieces of the torn mantle and a shocking word from God. This drama of a destroyed cloak is the visible enactment of the pronouncement of God ~ God is ripping the kingdom apart: 10 pieces and 2 pieces. Ten pieces -- ten tribes -- are given to Jeroboam. The word from God is long and clear ~
"Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, 'Behold I will tear the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon and give you 10 tribes.' "
Ahijah continues ... for 9 verses ... telling Jeroboam the plan of God to punish the house of Solomon. God is doing this seemingly dastardly thing because Solomon had been actually dastardly -- he had turned from God and reintroduced idol worship to Israel and had himself participated in idol worship because he loved all his wives (700 of them) more than he loved God. God, it seems, has also noticed Jeroboam. God wanted to give Jeroboam a promotion that would make the promotion from Solomon pale to insignificance. God is going to give to Jeroboam 'an enduring house as I built for David'. Jeroboam is told that God says,
'I will take you and you will reign over what ever you desire, and you will be king over Israel.'
In the message from God is a powerful little word : IF... '
IF you do what ever I command you and walk in My ways and do what is right in My eyes by keeping my statures and commands, as David my servant did...'
On that word ~ IF ~ hangs the rest of the story, for Jeroboam did not walk in God's ways -- he in fact walked in Solomon's ways.
What did he think? How did this amazing prophetic drama impact him? WHY WHY did he make the stupid decisions that he made? What a drama Jeroboam's life was -- what a movie this would make!
I love this story for so many reasons ~ and ~ I hate this story for so many reasons.
I love the drama:
God sets up Jeroboam. He lets Solomon notice him. Solomon sees Jeroboam and gives him a big promotion...just before God gives him a HUGE promotion. (First the natural, then the supernatural? Seems even the natural is supernatural, actually.) It totally reminds me of when Saul is told that he has an evil spirit from God ... yeah that blows my mind still and always. Saul doesn't freak and say, "What terrible theology you have ~ evil spirit from God??? That can't happen!!!" In fact Saul has an amazingly lucid, accurate, wise idea -- he says 'Get me a great musician and let him play for me'...and someone advises him that there is this kid, David, who is the Bono of their day and when he plays his harp the evil spirit leaves Saul. It says that Saul liked David very much and David became one of Saul's armor bearers ... and then David gets to take the kingdom from the house of Saul. Surely Solomon knew that story. The verse after the prophetic drama with Ahijah and Jeroboam..."Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death" -- like that worked so well for Saul!
I love the prophet ripping the cloak! I can see it so clearly: he stops before Jeroboam and begins talking and ripping. How riveting: "Take for your self (riiiippppp) ten (rip) pieces; for thus (RRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPP)..." and so on. I just see God wanting Jeroboam to see that He is making a violent, radical decision. In fact for me, I can hear God's heart rip with the cloak. This isn't going to be a reversible decision: a ripped cloak may be resown, but it will never be the same again, even so. I am sure God gave him this long detailed explanatory word because it took that long to rip the cloak to pieces. I love that the part of the kingdom given to Jeroboam is represented by God with pieces of a prophets cloak -- his mantle: the symbol of anointing and authority...see the Elijah/Elisha stories.
I also hate this story -- I ache over the end of Solomon's life. When I say "SOLOMON" what do you think? Wisdom, right? The temple, right? Proverbs and Song of Solomon? All of those are right, but I think: sadness, grief, shocking fall ~ in fact, I think that the blame for everything that resulted in the captivity to Assyria and then to Babylon can be laid primarily on Solomon's doorstep. He reintroduced idol worship to the land and the people. Officially there had been no idol worship since the days of Samuel -- even Saul did not re-introduce it. Solomon ~ what an oxymoron! Shockingly Solomon who God had called Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord, at his birth, to whom God gave wisdom and power and wealth -- this man Solomon loved his wives -- all 700 -- more than God and "...when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart way after other gods...Solomon went after Astoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites." (1 Kings 11:4ff) No wonder God begins the drama of this time in history with violently ripped mantle of a prophet.
I hate the decisions of Jeroboam. I can not understand him at all! Why respond to fear? Why did he NOT repent? I am baffled, but more than that, I am grieved when ever I read it. It is sad at levels that bypass my mind and pummel my gut.
- - - - - -
Recently a very good friend began a blog and as her intro she wrote about her reasons for starting a 'weblog', and noted that weblog is the real word, and 'blog' is the slang/nickname. I felt like 'oh duh! Of course!! Why didn't I know that?' So anyway, it made me think about this blog...and how in the new year I might want to make it more 'log-like'...a real web LOG. So! I am going to write, for a season anyway, about my thoughts and musings. I am going to begin with my musings as I read the history of the kingdoms: Israel and Judah. I actually had originally decided to read and write about Isaiah -- I love Isaiah, kind of passionately. But as I got started I stopped at Isaiah 1:1
"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
I suppose I have told students so many times to read the prophets in their context, that nearly by rote, I flipped back to the story of Uzziah. Uzziah ~ who is called Uzziah in Chronicles and is called Azariah in Kings ~ anyway, his story can be found in 2 Kings 14, and 2 Chronicles 26. Well, I began to -- since I was thinking about context -- think about Uzziah's context: who had his father been, was he a good or bad king, did he follow and love God or not? One page back followed another until, you can guess...I got all the way back to Rehoboam and Jeroboam, where the kingdom was split. These are, for me anyway, great stories. So...I will get to Isaiah ~ I WILL! But I am going to start here back in 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10: the story of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah : the destroyed cloak.
"Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, 'Behold I will tear the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon and give you 10 tribes.' "
Ahijah continues ... for 9 verses ... telling Jeroboam the plan of God to punish the house of Solomon. God is doing this seemingly dastardly thing because Solomon had been actually dastardly -- he had turned from God and reintroduced idol worship to Israel and had himself participated in idol worship because he loved all his wives (700 of them) more than he loved God. God, it seems, has also noticed Jeroboam. God wanted to give Jeroboam a promotion that would make the promotion from Solomon pale to insignificance. God is going to give to Jeroboam 'an enduring house as I built for David'. Jeroboam is told that God says,
'I will take you and you will reign over what ever you desire, and you will be king over Israel.'
In the message from God is a powerful little word : IF... '
IF you do what ever I command you and walk in My ways and do what is right in My eyes by keeping my statures and commands, as David my servant did...'
On that word ~ IF ~ hangs the rest of the story, for Jeroboam did not walk in God's ways -- he in fact walked in Solomon's ways.
What did he think? How did this amazing prophetic drama impact him? WHY WHY did he make the stupid decisions that he made? What a drama Jeroboam's life was -- what a movie this would make!
I love this story for so many reasons ~ and ~ I hate this story for so many reasons.
I love the drama:
God sets up Jeroboam. He lets Solomon notice him. Solomon sees Jeroboam and gives him a big promotion...just before God gives him a HUGE promotion. (First the natural, then the supernatural? Seems even the natural is supernatural, actually.) It totally reminds me of when Saul is told that he has an evil spirit from God ... yeah that blows my mind still and always. Saul doesn't freak and say, "What terrible theology you have ~ evil spirit from God??? That can't happen!!!" In fact Saul has an amazingly lucid, accurate, wise idea -- he says 'Get me a great musician and let him play for me'...and someone advises him that there is this kid, David, who is the Bono of their day and when he plays his harp the evil spirit leaves Saul. It says that Saul liked David very much and David became one of Saul's armor bearers ... and then David gets to take the kingdom from the house of Saul. Surely Solomon knew that story. The verse after the prophetic drama with Ahijah and Jeroboam..."Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death" -- like that worked so well for Saul!
I love the prophet ripping the cloak! I can see it so clearly: he stops before Jeroboam and begins talking and ripping. How riveting: "Take for your self (riiiippppp) ten (rip) pieces; for thus (RRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPP)..." and so on. I just see God wanting Jeroboam to see that He is making a violent, radical decision. In fact for me, I can hear God's heart rip with the cloak. This isn't going to be a reversible decision: a ripped cloak may be resown, but it will never be the same again, even so. I am sure God gave him this long detailed explanatory word because it took that long to rip the cloak to pieces. I love that the part of the kingdom given to Jeroboam is represented by God with pieces of a prophets cloak -- his mantle: the symbol of anointing and authority...see the Elijah/Elisha stories.
I also hate this story -- I ache over the end of Solomon's life. When I say "SOLOMON" what do you think? Wisdom, right? The temple, right? Proverbs and Song of Solomon? All of those are right, but I think: sadness, grief, shocking fall ~ in fact, I think that the blame for everything that resulted in the captivity to Assyria and then to Babylon can be laid primarily on Solomon's doorstep. He reintroduced idol worship to the land and the people. Officially there had been no idol worship since the days of Samuel -- even Saul did not re-introduce it. Solomon ~ what an oxymoron! Shockingly Solomon who God had called Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord, at his birth, to whom God gave wisdom and power and wealth -- this man Solomon loved his wives -- all 700 -- more than God and "...when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart way after other gods...Solomon went after Astoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites." (1 Kings 11:4ff) No wonder God begins the drama of this time in history with violently ripped mantle of a prophet.
I hate the decisions of Jeroboam. I can not understand him at all! Why respond to fear? Why did he NOT repent? I am baffled, but more than that, I am grieved when ever I read it. It is sad at levels that bypass my mind and pummel my gut.
- - - - - -
Recently a very good friend began a blog and as her intro she wrote about her reasons for starting a 'weblog', and noted that weblog is the real word, and 'blog' is the slang/nickname. I felt like 'oh duh! Of course!! Why didn't I know that?' So anyway, it made me think about this blog...and how in the new year I might want to make it more 'log-like'...a real web LOG. So! I am going to write, for a season anyway, about my thoughts and musings. I am going to begin with my musings as I read the history of the kingdoms: Israel and Judah. I actually had originally decided to read and write about Isaiah -- I love Isaiah, kind of passionately. But as I got started I stopped at Isaiah 1:1
"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
I suppose I have told students so many times to read the prophets in their context, that nearly by rote, I flipped back to the story of Uzziah. Uzziah ~ who is called Uzziah in Chronicles and is called Azariah in Kings ~ anyway, his story can be found in 2 Kings 14, and 2 Chronicles 26. Well, I began to -- since I was thinking about context -- think about Uzziah's context: who had his father been, was he a good or bad king, did he follow and love God or not? One page back followed another until, you can guess...I got all the way back to Rehoboam and Jeroboam, where the kingdom was split. These are, for me anyway, great stories. So...I will get to Isaiah ~ I WILL! But I am going to start here back in 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10: the story of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah : the destroyed cloak.
Great blog. Makes the story come alive. There is so much to be learned by the mistakes of those who ruled Israel. Keep up the great writing. Also, good info on Uzziah and Azariah being the same person, didn't know that.
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