Author Topic: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?  (Read 1091 times)

Chris

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King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« on: May 20, 2013, 04:40:05 PM »
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The portion of the story of King Rehoboam I care about is located in I Kings 12. Currently he is listed as a King of Judah, however, I believe he should also be listed as a King of Israel. Here are a few verses from that chapter supporting this:

Verse 1: Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
Verse 17: But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
Verse 21: When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

Basically, this chapter discusses how Rehoboam ruled over Israel for a brief period of time, before the Israelites eventually rebelled, leaving him only with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin for the kingdom of Judah. Because Rehoboam did, for however brief a time, rule over Israel, I believe that for Redemption purposes, he should be considered a King of Israel. Clearly the amount of time a man was king doesn't matter for the identifier (Zimri was only king for seven days [1 Kings 16:15]).

Offline Alex_Olijar

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Re: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2013, 04:53:37 PM »
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I agree. In related news, Solomon as king of Judah?

Offline Drrek

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Re: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2013, 05:23:14 PM »
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I agree. In related news, Solomon as king of Judah?

Don't get us started on that again.
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Offline Redoubter

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Re: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2013, 05:43:40 PM »
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I am probably the most vocal supporter of changing up the identifiers for some of the kings, but I agree with Drrek, this subject is probably not going anywhere.  David has more biblical support for having both King of Israel and King of Judah identifiers, but the way that they are defined in Redemption, Saul, David, and Solomon are kings of unified Israel, with the Kingdom of Judah being defined as the start of Rehoboam's reign there without him actually ruling the unified kingdom.

Further, if you read the story, they all came to make him their king, but asked him to demand less than his father.  He basically told everyone "THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES!"  So they said "Umm...okay...nevermind, we're going home."  And for this he only actually ruled over Judah, never over Israel.

So while I can see the reasoning, I don't think it will change based on the definition we have been given for the kingdoms :)

Offline Gabe

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Re: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2013, 06:00:40 PM »
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The elders discussed this in detail and decided that the current identifiers are accurate. I don't have time to look up all the details right now, but maybe one of the other guys can share the final explanation.
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Offline Redoubter

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Re: King Rehoboam - King of Israel?
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2013, 06:21:04 PM »
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The elders discussed this in detail and decided that the current identifiers are accurate. I don't have time to look up all the details right now, but maybe one of the other guys can share the final explanation.

This was the most recent discussion that we can see.  In it, the same question was actually brought up, and the only Elder response was:

I think the Elders just don't want to claim someone to be a king before the country was founded.
My only question would be, why isn't Reheoboam King of Isreal and Judah, since he ruled both at one time or another.

Interesting point; his tenure as King over unified Israel was incredibly short-lived (a matter of days, really) but he was in fact King over unified Israel. I'd say it's an interesting argument to be sure.

So while I doubt that anything will change (particularly with the scripture available and Gabe's post), having the result of the referenced discussion would be good for this side of the boards, if someone could help out with that :)

 


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