A comparison of two kings

By Steve Leininger

Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin
I Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34
Mark 8:1-10 

Today’s first reading starts out: Jeroboam thought to himself: "The kingdom will return to David's house. If now this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me." [1 Kings 12:26-27]

Do you feel like you walked in on an “ongoing situation?”

That’s the way I felt. I wasn’t really familiar with Jeroboam, except that his name is used to describe 3-liter bottles of sparkling wine. We are told here that Rehoboam is the King of Judah and if “this people” go to the temple in Jerusalem, they will return to following Rehoboam and will kill Jeroboam. 

We don’t have to backtrack too far to find a lot of really useful context. Chapter 11, the preceding chapter of 1 Kings, shows that Solomon was in decline. We are told of the once-great king:

He had as wives seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and they turned his heart. When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of David his father had been. [1 Kings 11:3-4]

The LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and commanded him not to do this very thing, not to follow other gods. But he did not observe what the LORD commanded. So the LORD said to Solomon: Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and the statutes which I enjoined on you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. [1 Kings 11:9-11]

We soon discover that the servant is Jeroboam, a member of the Tribe of Ephraim, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Solomon saw that Jeroboam was a very able man and a good worker, so he put Jeroboam in charge his fellow tribesmen in the construction of the fortress Milo in Jerusalem.

Jeroboam soon meets the prophet Ahijah, who tells him:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and will give you ten of the tribes, while keeping one, Judah, for Solomon’s son Rehoboam of the house of David. If, then, you heed all that I command you, walking in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments like David my servant, I will be with you. I will build a lasting house for you, just as I did for David; I will give Israel to you.

When Solomon finds out about this, he tried to have Jeroboam killed. Jeroboam fled to Egypt, where he remained under the protection of Pharaoh Shishak until the death of Solomon.

After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam became the King of Israel. When Jeroboam returned from Egypt, the tribes, except for Judah, rebelled against Rehoboam because he was a horribly repressive leader. When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

We are caught up now, let’s review the beginning of the first reading again.

Jeroboam thought to himself: "The kingdom will return to David's house. If now this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me." [1 Kings 12:26-27]

That’s not good. So Jeroboam does something reminiscent of Exodus 32, when in the time of Moses, Aaron crafted the Golden Calf, declaring “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” You may recall this did not turn out well.

Our first reading continues:

After taking counsel, the king [Jeroboam] made two calves of gold and said to the people:Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan. This led to sin, because the people frequented those calves in Bethel and in Dan. He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the people who were not Levites. Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month to duplicate in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah, with sacrifices to the calves he had made; and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built. [1 Kings 12:28-32]

Repeating the Golden Calf gambit not once, but twice, making priests from those not of priestly lineage, and replacing the main feast in Judah with his own feast day in his own temples, what could possibly go wrong? A lot, as is recorded in 1 Kings 13:1-32. We rejoin the readings at verse 32:

Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this, but again made priests for the high places from among the common people. Whoever desired it was consecrated and became a priest of the high places. This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth. [1 Kings 13:32-33]

We aren’t told today what happens next. I invite you to read the next chapter, 1 Kings 14, where Ahijah the prophet makes another appearance, speaking for the Lord, this time to Jeroboam’s wife. It does not go well for Jeroboam and his kingdom. The Lord’s punishment was going to be particularly harsh, because Jeroboam did not do “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

Often the gospel reading has a theme that can be closely related to the first reading. Not so much today. The reading today is a familiar one, the feeding of the four thousand, which was recorded by Matthew and Mark. Our reading is from Mark, Chapter 8. The story is similar to the previous feeding of the five thousand, as recorded in all four gospels.

The Gospel begins:

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” [Mark 8:1-3]

You remember the rest of the story — a small number of loaves of bread and a few fish, when broken and blessed by Jesus, are enough to feed a huge crowd of followers.

So what is the connection to the Jeroboam train wreck? I believe these readings are meant to contrast each other. Jeroboam what shown to be given an opportunity to serve the Lord but failed miserably when he put the focus on himself at the expense of the unity of God’s people. He was worried that another king, Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, would steal away his followers, so he did things that were against the Lord’s commandments to keep his people under his control. Jesus, in comparison, was Jesus. In his own words, he was moved with pity for his followers, putting their needs above everything else at the moment. He was not competing with anyone for power but was working as a servant himself to see that the crowd ate and was satisfied.