The Divine Checkmate: When God Uses a Fool Text: 2 Chronicles 10:12-15
Introduction: The Politics of Pride
We live in an age that is utterly baffled by the interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We want our political leaders to be entirely of our own making, and when they prove to be fools, we want the blame to be entirely their own. We think in flat, horizontal lines. We see a cause, and we see an effect, and we assume that is the whole story. But the Bible will not let us get away with such simplistic, godless thinking. The Scriptures insist on a third dimension, a vertical reality that intersects our horizontal world at every point. God is always doing something. And what He is doing is always the main thing.
The story of Rehoboam is a political story, to be sure. It is a story of a new king, a tax revolt, and a kingdom splitting in two. It is a story of terrible leadership, foolish counsel, and the arrogance of a man who inherited power he did not earn. But if we stop there, we have missed the entire point. The Chronicler, inspired by the Holy Spirit, pulls back the curtain of mere political analysis and shows us the hand of God moving the pieces. This is not just a story about a bad king making a bad decision. This is a story about a sovereign God fulfilling His righteous word, and He is perfectly capable of using a fool to do it.
This passage is a bucket of cold water in the face of our modern political idolatries. We think that if we just get the right man in office, with the right policies, and the right advisors, then all will be well. We place our faith in political processes, in grassroots movements, in charismatic leaders. But God here reminds us that He can, and often does, turn the best-laid plans of men into a heap of rubble to accomplish His own purposes. He is not a frustrated spectator wringing His hands in heaven over the latest election results. He is the one who raises up kings and brings them down. And sometimes, He brings them down by first letting their own pride puff them up.
Rehoboam's folly was entirely his own. He was responsible for his sin, for his arrogance, for his contemptuous dismissal of his people. And yet, his folly was also the instrument of God's perfect and just decree. Understanding how both of these things can be true at the same time is the key to biblical sanity, both in ancient Israel and in our own tumultuous times.
The Text
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, "Return to me on the third day." And the king answered them harshly, and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders, and he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions." So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from God, that Yahweh might establish His word, which He spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
(2 Chronicles 10:12-15 LSB)
The Fool's Reply (v. 12-14)
We pick up the action on the third day. The people have returned, as instructed, to hear the new king's decision.
"So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, 'Return to me on the third day.' And the king answered them harshly, and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders, and he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, 'My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'" (2 Chronicles 10:12-14)
Rehoboam had a choice set before him. On one side was the counsel of the elders. These were the men who had served his father, Solomon. They had seen the immense cost of Solomon's building projects. They understood the political climate. Their advice was simple, wise, and godly: "If you will be a servant to this people... then they will be your servants forever" (1 Kings 12:7). This is the principle of servant leadership, a principle that finds its ultimate expression in Christ. Lead by serving. Lighten the load. Speak good words. This was the path of wisdom and peace.
On the other side was the counsel of the young men, his childhood friends. Their advice was the polar opposite. It was steeped in arrogance, insecurity, and brute force. Their counsel was not about governing; it was about posturing. It was not about strength; it was about the appearance of strength. They told him to answer with threats and intimidation. "My little finger is thicker than my father's waist." This is the language of playground bullies, not statesmen.
Rehoboam's decision reveals the state of his heart. He "forsook the counsel of the elders." He abandoned wisdom for swagger. He chose the flattering echo chamber of his peers over the seasoned counsel of his fathers. Why? Because the elders' advice required humility. It required him to stoop, to serve, to listen. The young men's advice catered to his pride. It told him what his sinful heart wanted to hear: that power is about domination, not service.
And so, he "answered them harshly." His words were not just a policy announcement; they were a declaration of contempt. "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it." He takes the people's legitimate grievance and throws it back in their faces. Then he escalates the threat. "My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions." A scorpion was a type of whip with metal barbs on the end. It was an instrument of torture. He is not just promising higher taxes; he is promising cruelty. This is the raw language of tyranny.
This is what pride does. It mistakes harshness for strength. It mistakes arrogance for authority. It is deaf to wisdom because it is obsessed with its own reflection. Rehoboam thought he was projecting power, but he was actually revealing his profound weakness and insecurity. True strength can afford to be gentle. True authority does not need to scream. It was his folly, through and through.
The Sovereign Checkmate (v. 15)
Now, in verse 15, the camera pans up from the horizontal drama to the vertical reality. The Chronicler gives us the divine commentary, the ultimate reason behind the event.
"So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from God, that Yahweh might establish His word, which He spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat." (2 Chronicles 10:15 LSB)
This verse is the theological linchpin of the entire chapter. The king's deafness, his hard-hearted reply, his idiotic political calculation, was not an accident. It was not a surprise to God. The text says it was a "turn of events from God." The Hebrew word here means a turning, a revolution, a thing brought about. God was turning the tables. God was orchestrating this disaster.
Does this mean God forced Rehoboam to sin? Not at all. God did not inject evil into Rehoboam's heart. He simply gave Rehoboam over to the pride that was already there. God did not have to make Rehoboam a fool; He just had to let him be the fool he was determined to be. Rehoboam made his choice freely, out of the overflow of his own arrogant heart, and he is fully culpable for it. But his free, sinful choice was the very instrument God used to accomplish His own righteous purpose. This is the biblical doctrine of concurrence. God works in, with, and through the choices of His creatures, even their sinful choices, to bring about His will, without being the author of their sin.
Think of it like this. A man with a murderous heart decides to shoot someone. He freely chooses to pull the trigger. But God, in His sovereignty, can guide that bullet to fulfill His own purposes. The man is guilty of murder; God is righteous in judgment. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery out of envy and hatred. Their act was wicked. Yet Joseph could later say, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). The greatest example, of course, is the cross. Wicked men, acting freely, murdered the Son of God. Yet Peter says they did what God's "hand and His plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28).
And what was God's purpose here? "That Yahweh might establish His word." God had already spoken. The prophet Ahijah had told Jeroboam that God was going to tear ten tribes away from the house of David because of Solomon's idolatry (1 Kings 11:29-39). God had passed His sentence. Now, through the foolishness of Solomon's son, He was executing it. God's prophecies are not hopeful predictions; they are declarations of what will be. And God is never at a loss for means to bring His word to pass. If He has to use a proud fool of a king, He will do so. God's word never returns to Him void.
This should be a profound comfort and a terrifying warning. The comfort is that no political folly, no tyrannical overreach, no cultural madness can ever derail God's ultimate plan. He is sovereign over it all. The warning is that when men, particularly leaders, harden their hearts against wisdom and godliness, it may be a sign that God is setting them up for a fall. When God gives a man over to his own foolish counsel, judgment is not far behind.
The Gospel in the Rubble
So where is the good news in this story of pride, folly, and national division? It is found when we see this story in the light of the greater story of redemption. Rehoboam is a picture of the kind of king we get when we rely on fallen men. He is a failed son of David. He is the anti-servant king. He came to add to our burdens, to crush us with scorpions.
But God promised a true Son of David, a king who would be the perfect servant. Jesus Christ is the king who, unlike Rehoboam, listened to the counsel of His Father. He is the king who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
Rehoboam said, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it." Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
Rehoboam promised whips and scorpions, the instruments of our punishment. But Jesus, the true King, took the whips and scorpions upon His own back for us. "He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
The folly of Rehoboam led to the division of the kingdom. The wisdom of Christ leads to the gathering of a new kingdom, a kingdom made up of people from every tribe and tongue and nation (Revelation 5:9). The kingdom was torn from Rehoboam because of sin. But the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ can never be torn from Him, because He is without sin, and His throne is forever and ever.
This story shows us that God's plan of redemption cannot be stopped. God's judgment on the house of David for its sin was necessary. The kingdom had to be humbled. It had to be broken. It had to be sent into exile. All of this was to prepare the way for the coming of the true King, who would build a kingdom not on political power and arrogant threats, but on His own shed blood and resurrection power. God's word through Ahijah was established. And because God always establishes His word, we can have absolute confidence that His ultimate word, the gospel of His Son, is established forever.