Israel Kings Good and Bad Pt 1
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Well I took a break and thought I knew the preaching schedule but I got off by 1 so we are with the Kings
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
To give you some back story as your go back and read through scripture
David is king
David dies, and Solomon becomes king
8 Solomon said to God, “You have dealt with my father David with great lovingkindness, and have made me king in his place. 9 “Now, O Lord God, Your promise to my father David is fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 “Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours?” 11 God said to Solomon, “Because you had this in mind, and did not ask for riches, wealth or honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may rule My people over whom I have made you king, 12 wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed nor those who will come after you.” 13 So Solomon went from the high place which was at Gibeon, from the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem, and he reigned over Israel.
Solomon has become the King over the nation of Israel
Solomon doesn’t pray and ask for money
Solomon doesn’t ask for favor or honor
Solomon doesn’t even ask for all his enemies to die
But rather Solomon sought the Lord here and asks God give me wisdom as I lead your chosen people
This is how we seek the Lord
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Seems pretty clear to me
That like Solomon we are to seek the Lord to give us wisdom as we walk through this world
Remember we are to be in the world and not of the World
So God give us wisdom to walk after you in such a fallen world
Give us wisdom to be lights in such dark places
Give us wisdom and discernment to live a lost world
We need that wisdom just like Solomon the king of Israel did
And it was good
But wisdom and knowledge are only as good as the application
Just like sunscreen
You can have the best sunscreen on the market but if you don’t apply it then you get burned
Solomon has all the wisdom in the world
God even tells him to obey me
14 “If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”
God says if you will walk in my ways
If you will obey my commandments
If you will obey my word then I will prolong your days
If makes sense to also believe that if you don’t walk in the ways of God
Or if you don’t obey God’s word that your days won’t be prolonged
God gives him the wisdom and says now use it
But sadly Solomon has all that wisdom and doesn’t use it
Like having that sunscreen and not using it
Or an umbrella and not using it
He has the wisdom but doesn’t use it and walks away from obeying God
Till he walks away from God to follow one of the gods of his many many wives
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
Solomon walked with God and had obeyed him till
When he is old and his many many wives turn his heart from The Lord
Solomon dies and leaves the nation of Israel in the hands of Rehoboam
Then we start to see the nation of Israel split into 2 kingdoms
31 He said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes
God split the kingdom because Solomon had turned his back on God
The God who had been with him and had given him wisdom and even the things he didn’t ask for
So Solomon’s son becomes King
Rehoboam much like his father does not use the wisdom that he has
Half of the nation then goes with Jeroboam as he becomes the first King of Israel
Jeroboam becomes the bad king
And because being the first sort of set the nation of Israel on a downward spiral
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 “If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” 28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
Doesn’t that sound familiar
some 400 years earlier Aaron said the same thing
And it lead the people to serve idols
Jeroboam causes the Nation of Israel be led astray by raising up idols for them to worship
Jeroboam doesn’t trust the people to go to Jerusalem to worship thinking they will leave him and return to the King Rehoboam
When God has told him earlier that He will give him 10 of the 12 tribes
And because he doesn’t trust God
He develops as one commentary puts it “The King then set up a new system of worship for the people to keep them from going to Jerusalem for worship.”
Do you understand how he is a bad king
He doesn’t trust the Lord
He has done exactly what Solomon has done turn his back on God and building something else to worship instead
The first one sets the standard for a nation of God’s chosen people
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
You can understand how important it is to be a good king
How to lead the people to worship after the Lord God
But Jeroboam was lazy and scared people would return to the other king
Sets up places because he doesn’t want them to go to Jerusalem to worship
They can worship right here
In fact we will make cows and these cows are the gods who brought you up out of Egypt
From this moment on we see most of the kings of Israel talked about in this way
They walked in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sin that He made Israel Sin
Or He walked in the way of his father Jeroboam and the sin he caused Israel to sin
The sin was to serve other gods and have idols
Idols are a horrible thing
So what do we do with this
Like this is good information and maybe more history about the kings and maybe it is an understanding of how we got here
But what do we do with this good information
We ensure we are using the wisdom God has given us
If we don’t have wisdom
We ask for wisdom and then put into practice the wisdom God has given us
That means we read our Bibles, we spend time in prayer
When our Bibles call us to do something then we go and do it
When it calls us to go and share the Good News
Church we go and eveangleze
We go and tell people of the hope we have in Christ
We look for opportunities to turn the conversation from fleeting world junk to the Gospel
We utilize the wisdom God has given us
When a brother or sister in Christ comes to us and shares some hard things with us about our life
Rather than getting so defensize we pray through it
Maybe God has brought them to our lives to help us
We involve ourselves in Bible Study and Churches
We have Sunday School that you all need to be a part of
We have a great and awesome church with an amazing worship leader and band, awesome leadership amazing sunday school teachers and an ok pastor
You need to join a church
We flee from sin in our lives
Sometimes that means we don’t hangout with people who will lead us to sin
Like Solomon flee the sin
Like Jeroboam don’t listen to some of your leadership
Like Solomon we put to action the wisdom we have through Christ
Secondly what we do with today’s sermon
Ensure you are not being lead astray by someone
For that to happen you must be in the Word of God yourselves
That grows our trust in the Lord
Then it would make sense that you don’t lead other people astray like Jeroboam
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Lead that our in your families
If you have idols in your life
An Idol is something that is in the place of God
Then if you have one you need to smash it
Church the Scriptures are practical for us to put to use
We can read the History of scripture and still put it to good use
This morning as we come to a close
The band will come up
We would invite you to do business with God
Maybe you don’t know Jesus
Would you come to the front and speak with someone
Maybe you need to spend time in prayer
The alter is open
maybe you need to join the church this morning
Would you be obedient this morning
The altar is open
Ideas How many kings walked after Jesus
According to the books of Kings, two monarchs stand out as potentially the "best" kings of Judah: Hezekiah and Josiah. Both are praised highly for their devotion to God and their religious reforms. Hezekiah is described as unparalleled among Judah's kings, trusting in God like no other before or after him1. Similarly, Josiah is lauded for his wholehearted devotion to God and obedience to Mosaic law, with the text stating there was never a king like him before or since1. Josiah's reforms were particularly significant, with his Passover celebration being described as unmatched since the time of Samuel
How many king lead their people to sin
Ugly - Queen mother althea
Talk about each on both sermons in Chronological sermon
