1 Kings 12

The servant-king

And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. 1 Kings 12:7

The old men counsel that a king who serves his people wins their hearts for ever. Rehoboam refuses, but Jesus Christ lived this very pattern: the King who came to serve, and whose people follow Him for ever.

• alludes to Mark 10:42-45 — Jesus teaches that the greatest must be servant of all, for the Son of man came to minister, not to be ministered unto.
• alludes to Matthew 11:29-30 — Rehoboam makes the yoke heavier; Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light.

Jehovah

But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 1 Kings 12:22–24

Through Shemaiah, Jehovah speaks in the first person and stops a war between brothers. Judah obeys the word of the LORD, the premortal Christ.

How we know: a Church study aid lists it

• alludes to 1 Kings 11:31 — The division is 'from me', as Jehovah had told Jeroboam through Ahijah.

Jehovah the Deliverer (counterfeited)

Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 1 Kings 12:28

Jeroboam repeats Aaron's words at Sinai and gives golden calves the credit for the Exodus. The One who really brought Israel out of Egypt was Jehovah, the premortal Christ, so this is a counterfeit of the Deliverer.

• quotes Exodus 32:4 — Aaron's golden calf: 'These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'
• alludes to Exodus 20:2-4 — 'I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt... Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.'