I’m a big fan of homeschooling. I believe that of all the forms of “schooling” that are out there, it is the most biblical. But homeschooling in and of itself does not guarantee godly children. This fact can be clearly seen in the life of Solomon’s son Rehoboam as it is recorded in 1 Kings 12.

Every Israelite was commanded to teach their children in their home (Deut. 6:7). Today, a commonly used name for parents educating their children is homeschooling. Solomon took seriously the command to educate his children, and even wrote a book to teach his children how to live a godly life. We call that book the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs was written as instruction to all of Solomon’s children (Prov. 4:1), but primarily it was written to his son (1:8, 10, 15; 2:1; 3:1; 5:1; etc.). This means that the book of Proverbs was written to Rehoboam, and yet, Solomon’s instruction to his son doesn’t seem to have had much effect. When Rehoboam becomes king of Israel, the people ask him to be a less oppressive king than his father Solomon was (1 Kings 12:4). He refuses, and unwisely promises to be an oppressive tyrant (v. 14). What happened?

There could be many reasons as to why Rehoboam became the man that he did, but I believe the Bible gives us some hints as to a few of those reasons.

First, it should be noted that even perfect parents can have sinful children. Adam & Eve had the perfect Father, and yet they still rebelled. That being said, there are some things that parents often do that may cultivate or encourage sinfulness in their children. We see a couple of those things in the case of Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

One of those things is not being careful about the influence of peers on children. Though the Bible may not specifically say “thou shall not allow your children to hang out with a bad peer group,” the principle is clearly taught in Scripture.

Young people are usually not as wise as older people. In fact, it is said that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Prov. 22:15). Since a student is going to be like his teacher (Luke 6:40), and the ones you spend the most time with are the ones you learn the most from, a young person who spends the majority of his or her time with other young people will not grow out of this “foolish” phase. They will have a hard time fleeing youthful lusts (2 Tim. 2:22) and putting away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11).

A companion of fools will end up in big trouble (Prov. 13:20). There is an account in the Bible where a group of unsupervised youth did something foolish and were destroyed because of it (2 Kings 2:23-24). That group of youths decided to mock a man of God, and were mauled by two bears!

Just by looking back at your own childhood you can probably see that these things are so. Think of the times when you did foolish things and got in trouble as a result. Did those times happen when you were with wise adults or with a group of peers who were as immature as you were?

We see this principle being played out in the life of Rehoboam as well. He did not listen to the wise advice of the older counselors who advised his father, but listened to the younger guys he had grown up with (1 Kings 12:8). They were obviously fools, because they gave him foolish advice (vv. 10-11). Rehoboam took their advice and lost most of his kingdom because of it (vv. 16-24).

I cannot prove that Rehoboam spent more time with his peers than with his father, but that seems likely since his heart trusted his peers more than his father. I also think that Solomon was much to blame for that.

Solomon asked Rehoboam to give him his heart (Prov. 23:26), but Rehoboam’s heart was more loyal to his peers. The last half of Prov. 23:26 gives us a clue as to why that was the case. Solomon says “give me your heart, and observe my ways.” The problem was that when Rehoboam observed his father, he saw a hypocrite. Though Solomon had much wisdom early in his life, he quickly fell into the folly of sin.

Deuteronomy 17 gives us the rules that Israel’s kings must abide by (vv. 14-20). Many of these rules were broken by Solomon. Verse 16 says that kings are not to have a multitude of horses, and they are especially not to go to Egypt for their horses. Solomon had a multitude of horses (1 Kings 4:26). And where did he get some of those horses? From Egypt (1 Kings 10:28). In verse 17 of Deuteronomy 17, we are told that kings may not multiply wives to themselves. Solomon is the most infamous wife multiplier in history (1 Kings 11:3). Also in Deut. 17:17, kings are told not to have a multitude of silver and gold. Solomon actually didn’t have a multitude of silver, but that was because he had so much gold that silver became worthless (1 Kings 10:14-21).

Solomon told his son to observe his ways. When Rehoboam did, he saw a man who spoke a lot about wisdom and godly living, but who didn’t live it out. It appears as though Solomon repented later in life (compare Eccl. 2:1-8 and 12:13-14), but by then he had already lost his son’s heart.

He who has an ear, let him hear.