1 Kings 12:21

REHOBOAM MOBILIZED FOR WAR; GOD'S PROPHET STOPPED IT

"And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, that were warriors to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel; return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they hearkened unto the word of Jehovah, and returned and went their way, according to the word of Jehovah."

This rash move by Rehoboam toward an all-out war with Israel indicates that he was still following those crazy young advisers. One cannot imagine anything any more dramatic than the appearance of the magnificent prophet of God suddenly confronting the king and 180,000 soldiers mobilized for war and SENDING THEM ALL HOME!

"This thing is of me" (the Lord) (1 Kings 12:24). At the time this disastrous division of the kingdom of Israel took place, nothing could have seemed any more contrary to the will of God. It looked like an omen of the complete extinction of the glory of the house of the patriarchs; it wiped out the vast majority of Abraham's descendants and reduced the remainder to the status of second-rate states in the ancient world. "But we, in the light of later history can now see that the destruction of Israel's unity worked out results of eternal advantage to mankind."[13] The idolatry of the northern Israel was incompatible with the purpose of God; and their separation from Judah was absolutely necessary to the promotion and preservation of the Messianic hope, which, in the last analysis, was the unique value of the Abrahamic posterity.