Rehoboam wises up quickly. He prepares for battle to get back what is his, to fight Israel. It’s going to be two tribes against ten. A man of God tells Judah and Rehoboam not to fight; he says this is from the Lord, and they listen and turn back.

Then Jeroboam, king of Israel, in thinking he was doing something wise, kicks out all the priests of the Lord. He thinks it’s going to enable him to hold his kingdom because Jerusalem is in Judah and the feasts are times when all Israel is commanded to gather together in Jerusalem at the temple. He thinks the Lord will bring them back to Himself in Jerusalem if they keep following the Lord.

It’s a move that will set Israel on their trajectory to failure. They are the ones who God eventually, after much long-suffering, will turn away from and they will be taken away and absorbed into other peoples and become the “lost tribes.” Without repentance and revival to bring them back to life, they are dead.

Not everyone in Israel suffers that fate. The priests are kicked out, so they make it to Judah, so many Levites join Benjamin and Judah. But another group joins them as well, and this is what sets Judah off on the right trajectory.

The Scriptures say all whose hearts were set on seeking the Lord came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord.

When Jeroboam made statues of goats and cows and said, “These are your gods that brought you up out of Egypt,” these were the people who knew better. They knew where God had dwelled among them and did go up to the temple as Jeroboam predicted.

They were a boon to Judah. We’re told they strengthened Judah. What was different about these people that they could strengthen a nation? They are described as people with their hearts SET on seeking the Lord.

That’s a godly heart, one set on seeking the Lord, an outlook that’s toward God.

It’s not perfection, but walking in the light because your face is looking toward THE Light, so that sins are exposed and dealt with in the light of His goodness and holiness.

We get three good years of Rehoboam acting in wisdom, walking in the ways of his father and grandfather. Judah gets three good years as they lived in security.