1. Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.
2. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon),
   he returned from Egypt.
3. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:
4. "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor
   and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
5. Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then come back to me.
  " So the people went away.
6. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime.
   "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.
7. They replied, "If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them
   and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."
8. But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men
   who had grown up with him and were serving him.
9. He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me,
   'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"
10. The young men who had grown up with him replied,
   "Tell these people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us,
   but make our yoke lighter'--tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
11. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier.
   My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'"
12. Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam,
   as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days."
13. The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,
14. he followed the advice of the young men and said,
   "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier.
   My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions."
15. So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD,
   to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
16. When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
   "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents,
   O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home.
17. But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18. King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor,
   but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however,
   managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
19. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20. When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him
   to the assembly and made him king over all Israel.
   Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.
21. When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin
   --a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men--to make war against the house of Israel
   and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22. But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
23. "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah,
   to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,
24. 'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites.
   Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.
  '" So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
25. Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there.
   From there he went out and built up Peniel.
26. Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.
27. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem,
   they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah.
   They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."
28. After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves.
   He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
   Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
29. One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
30. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
31. Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people,
   even though they were not Levites.
32. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,
   like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar.
   This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made.
   And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.
33. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing,
   he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel.
   So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.




아! 어리석은 이간이여...

하나님의 세우신 인간 왕들이
얼마나 어리석은지 ...

이스라엘의 왕이 누구인가하는 것은
구약성경의 계속되는 질문이자
이스라엘의 정체성과 관련되는 것이다.

하나님의 백성 이스라엘은 하나님을 왕으로 섬기며
그 말씀에 순존하고 그 법을 따르는 사람들이다.
나아가 그들의 왕으로 세워진 사람들은
하나님의 기름부음을 받음으로
스스로가 왕이 된 것이 아니라 하나님이 세우셨음을 알고
그 하나님의 청지기로 삶을 살아야 하는 것이다.

이스라엘의 왕은
종종 목자로 비유된다.
이스라엘백성은 양이요
하나님의 소유된 백성이다.
그리고 하나님은 그 양떼를 치기 위하여 왕을 목자로 세우신다.
그런데 문제는 그 목자들이 삯꾼이라는 것이다.
자신의 양떼를 돌보지 아니하고
오히려 그 양의 고기로 배를 불리고
그 양의 털로 몸을 따뜻하게 하는 것에 집중하는 것이다.

여로보암은 하나님의 위임하신
하나님이 세우신 왕이라는 사실을 잊고
자기의 왕위를 견고히 하기 위하여
우상의 산당을 짖고
금송아지로 하나님을 대신하고자 한다.
단순히 자신의 왕권을 공고히 하려는 목적으로
이스라엘 사람들을 유대의 예루살렘 성전으로 보내지 않기위하여....

하나님을 예빼하는 일과
하나님의 말씀에 순종하느 ㄴ것은
너무도 가볍고 단순한 논리에 의해 바뀌어지고
어겨지고 마는 것을 본다.

우리는 어떠한가?
하나님의 백성으로
우리의 삶과 모든 주권이 하나님께 있음을 고백하는가?
나의 삶은 청지기의 삶이며
나를 세우시고 주관하시는 이가 하나님임을 믿는가?
하나님께 예배하기위하
나의 삶에서 이 땅이 유혹하는
수많은 가치들과 우상들을 멀리할 수 있는가?

혹시 나의 마음에도
르호보암의 어리석음과
자만, 그리고 탐욕이 있지는 않은지
또 여로보암의 불신과 소욕이 있지느 ㄴ않은지
하나님보다
하나님의 말씀보다.
나의 판단과
이 세상의 가치가 더 중요하지는 않은지 고민해 볼  문제이다.