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After the death of Solomon, Rehoboam his son took his place as king.

Before Solomon died, Solomon left the people of God in a difficult position and a desire to be treated better.

Solomon became a cruel leader.  He made slaves of non-Jewish people and he misused the children of Israel who were not slaves.  He overworked the people for his own selfish desires.  Solomon used people.  Solomon did not value God's people.

Israel was glad to have an opportunity to look for and ask for an easier way of being led.  They went to Rehoboam and told him that they did not want to be led the way Solomon led them.  After listening to what the people wanted, Rehoboam decided to listen to bad counsel.  He did not comply with the simple demands of the people's requests.  He told them that his father Solomon was a weaker leader than the leader he would be.  The people rejected him after hearing his words.  God knew that Rehoboam would respond as he did.  Rehoboam lost most of the people in Israel.  

If Rehoboam learned anything from his father, it was how to disconnect himself from the people he was to lead.

What we can learn from Rehoboam, Solomon's son, is we cannot lead people without God's being our personal leader.  God leads people.  People are not God.  People do not know how to lead people.  God made us and we desire God and God desires us.

If we put men in front of God we live a lower quality of life if any life at all.  People use people.  God loves people.

The Kingdom Divided

10 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.3 So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: 4 “Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5 Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

7 They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

8 But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him. 9 He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

10 Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! 11 Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.’”[a]

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” 13 Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice 14 and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy,[b] but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.”

15 The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

16 When all Israel saw[c] that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:

What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Israel, each to your tent;
David, look after your own house now!

So all Israel went to their tents. 17 But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram,[d] who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.