1 Kings 14:7-10 Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, "and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; "but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back -- "therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone.
Let’s take a moment and review the life of Jeroboam. As a result of Solomon’s disobedience in the latter years of his life, the Lord raised up Jeroboam to rule over the considerably larger share of the house of Israel. This took place in the days of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, who foolishly listened to the advice of his peers rather than the elders who had served under his father, which then led to the division of the nation.
Once the 10 tribes were under his control, Jeroboam chose to reject the promise of God and, out of fear he would lose the kingdom, set up his own system of worship, which included idols and unqualified priests. This led to Israel’s apostasy and its eventual exile; Jeroboam was the primary reason for all of this.
True to His Word, the Lord brought Jeroboam’s “dynasty” to an abrupt end, during the reign of his son, Nadab. Baasha staged a coup and subsequently killed Nadab and everyone in Jeroboam’s family. The “dynasty” of Jeroboam serves as the prime counter-example to David’s. Even though God had promised Jeroboam a lasting dynasty like David’s, Jeroboam’s ended after one generation.
On the contrary, even though David’s descendants were not all good kings (Rehoboam was a terrible one), God remained true to His Word and kept the dynasty going for David’s sake. Throughout the rest of Kings, Jeroboam is repeatedly cited as the one who led Israel astray, as the negative paradigm of every Northern King (not one of them was a good king).
And so there are two models: David is held up as the standard for good kings; Jeroboam is held up as the example for evil kings. The one is a grand legacy; the other is a shameful legacy. Jeroboam had every opportunity to have a lasting dynasty like David’s, but he threw it away out of unbelief.
David’s on the other hand, continued, and is still going right up to this very day, with his Son, Jesus the Messiah of Israel. What makes this even more amazing is the way God described David: as one who followed Him with all his heart, to do only what was right in His eyes! God had, in a sense, “forgotten” about the Uriah incident to portray David as a good and faithful king, whose overall pattern of life was indeed one of wholehearted devotion to God.
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