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Context No. 1254 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 10:1-5: in context

1Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned out of Egypt. 3They sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came, and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 4“Your father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore make the grievous service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.” 5He said to them, “Come again to me after three days.” So the people departed.

Solomon has died, and his son Rehoboam goes to Shechem, where all Israel has gathered to make him king. The moment is a crossroads for the whole kingdom. The people, led by Jeroboam, come with a reasonable request: your father laid a heavy yoke on us; lighten the harsh service and heavy burden he placed on us, and we will serve you. Rehoboam, faced with a decision that will make or break the kingdom, does the one wise thing at least: he does not answer on the spot. Come back to me in three days, he says, and the people depart.

The whole future of the kingdom hangs on the decision Rehoboam is about to make, and the passage catches him at the crossroads, before he decides. The people have made a fair request, lighten the burden and we will serve you, and Rehoboam has a real choice: to answer with grace and win a loyal people, or to answer with harshness and lose them. This opening scene does one thing right, at least: he takes three days before answering. In a decision this weighty, he does not react instantly; he pauses to seek counsel. That instinct is sound; the tragedy, revealed in the verses that follow, is what he does with the pause. He asks the wise old advisors, who counsel gentleness, and then rejects them for his young companions, who counsel harshness, and the kingdom splits. But the pause itself was right. There is wisdom in refusing to answer a weighty question in the heat of the moment, in taking time to seek counsel before a decision that cannot be undone. The failure was not in pausing but in whom he listened to during the pause. A three-day delay to seek advice is exactly the wise move; everything depends on whether, in those three days, we seek and heed good counsel or bad.

When I face a weighty, hard-to-reverse decision, do I take time to seek counsel rather than answering in the heat of the moment, and when I pause, do I seek and heed wise counsel or the advice that flatters what I already want?

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