Rehoboam is the son of one of Solomon’s wives. We are told twice in 1 Kings 14 that she was an Ammonite.
The Ammonites have been at battle with Israel. In Judges we read how God sent the Ammonites to defeat Israel.
The Ammonites do not give food and water to the wandering Israelites, and so God refuses to allow them into the assembly of the Lord.
The Ammonites were the ones who made themselves odious to David by cutting off his men’s beards and tunics.
The law was that they were not to intermarry with those in the land. Solomon does. In Ezra, when this sin of intermarriage is dealt with, it is pointed out that the rulers have been the worst offenders.
Solomon marries someone who is even forbidden to join in the assembly, at times like gathering for a feast celebration. If they obeyed that law and she kept out, you could see how she might ask Solomon to give her a place to worship her god, and hence, the sin of making high places to other gods.
We’ve seen before one sin snowballing into others. Solomon’s life is another example.
Jeroboam, on the other hand, fares much worse. His whole family is cut off for his sins, but not only that, the whole group of ten tribes which make up Israel will be uprooted from the land and scattered.
This doesn’t happen right away, but it will. They do not repent.
Why does no one heed the warning? Why do they know these things and then turn from them anyway? Jeroboam had God tell him he would be king, and it happened. He knew God’s word was true. Why doesn’t he obey?
This reminds me of the story in the New Testament where a man goes to hell and pleads for God to allow him to go tell his brothers and warn them. God tells him that even if someone came back from the dead, they still wouldn’t believe.
We may try to convince ourselves that we would believe, and show it by obeying, doing or not doing this or that, if God would just show us a sign, show us clearly what it is He wants from us.
But it’s a delusion. If you aren’t willing to do it now, you won’t be willing to do it even for a sign.
God knows your heart. Give it over to Him for a new version that loves Him alone.