A Kingdom & Worship Divided (1 Kings 12-14)

Intro

Folly (12:1-15)

Chapter 11 gives us the “why”.

Chapter 12 gives us the “how”.

Israel, the prosperous, wise land of God’s chosen people is reduced to squabbling, intense political unrest.

Solomon’s death opens the door for the prophecy against the Kingdom to be brought to full realization.

Let’s read together how this plays out...

Will someone please read 1 Kings 12:1-15?

Rehoboam is carried along by his foolish friends.

They were the friends that he grew up with

They are called the “young men” here.

But, how old was Rehoboam when he began his reign? (41)

Youth here is related to folly specifically.

The “old men” are advisors full of wisdom from Solomon’s time.

Rehoboam should have heeded the words of his Father.

Proverbs 1:8 ESV

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,

and verse 10...

Proverbs 1:10 ESV

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

How did Rehoboam lose the confidence and respect of the people?

Jeroboam was mixed up in this as well!

It’s a measuring contest!

Solomon has been taxing and working the people too hard (harder than God ever intended)!

Authority wielded in this way will never produce the lasting fruit of prosperity.

Not when God’s king is talking to God’s people.

This isn’t some pagan nation that Rehoboam is flexing on.

It is his own people!

His brothers!

And yet, God is continually, firmly, unquestionably in control (vs 15).

Someone could turn this into a leadership seminar.

Someone else could turn it into a socio-political study.

But the entire point of 1 Kings fitting into the whole of Scripture is to showcase YHWH’s unwavering holiness, power, providence, and control.

What is the people’s response to Rehoboam’s power trip?

Let’s keep reading...

Kingdom Divided (12:16-24)

Will someone please read verses 16-24?

Israel (except for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) follows Jeroboam.

They desert their posts and pursue new leadership.

They kill Rehoboam’s messenger.

Everyone is poised to go to war with one another before a prophet, the voice of God to the people, delivers the Lord’s distaste for what they are planning.

Bloodshed is averted.

Crisis is not.

There is a kingdom divided, fractured, splintered in a way that shows that God is going to have to continue progressively revealing His plan of salvation.

If you thought it was David uniting the tribes, reconsider.

If you thought it was Solomon, think again.

It is going to take more than a mere man to undo the damage Fallen humanity.

No one born of this world is going to put an end to Satan and His schemes.

Throughout the next weeks, we will see bleak picture after bleak picture (king after king) that reminds us that there is no hope outside of God’s grand design.

Worship Divided (12:25-33)

Would someone please read verse 25 through the end of chapter 12?

Bootlegged worship.

Location (not Jerusalem with the ark), temple (high places), priests (not of Levites), offerings (out of convenience), feast (appointed by man).

You don’t have to go to where God says to go.

You don’t have to worship the ways that God says to worship.

It’s all right here in a convenient little package!

Just stay with me!

What does verse 28 remind you of?

Aaron and the golden calf (Ex 32:4).

Verse 33 - Jeroboam devised a course of action in his own heart.

Jeremiah 17:5 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

and...

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

A Parable of Prophets (13)

This chapter serves more as a parable than a historic account (though it really happened).

There are no names given to these prophets.

Where were the prophets from?

Judah & Israel.

They represented their lands.

Unnamed prophet from Judah.

Dangerous job from God, obeys without fear or hesitation.

We will see that his prophecy comes to pass more than 300 years later (2 Kings 23:14-17)

God’s decrees are stunningly accurate.

When God speaks, it’s a matter of when (not if) it will occur.

How did this man escape with his head?

Jeroboam points and orders his seizure.

His hand dried up and could not return to him.

This changed his tune and he begged the prophet to pray him well.

He is also a warning against disobedience.

He trusted an older prophet instead of the voice of the Lord.

Galatians 1:8–9 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

He paid with his life.

What made his death/punishment stand out as clearly from the Lord? (the lion simply stood by him and allowed the donkey to stand there as well)

He does not return to his land (just like Judah)

Unnamed prophet from Israel.

Complacent.

Lived in Bethel

What had recently happened hear?

A golden calf was established there with incorrect sacrifices being made.

Lied. Seemingly just because.

Buried the other prophet.

Jeroboam steeped in his treachery.

He continued the sin of ordaining priests promoting his version of worship.

This unfaithfulness is going to be synonomous with his name as other kings rise and fall.

“continued in the sins of Jeroboam” will be a descriptor we read again and again.

This entire account plays out as the author is symbolically showing the returning exiles what brought them to this point and what to stay away from if they wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Listen to the voice of God, not the voice of me.

We also cannot worship in any fashion by which we choose, even if it feels right or is “convenient”.

We must submit our worship to the Lord and His Word.

Justice Is Served (14)

Jeroboam has 2 sons. What were their names?

Nadab & Abijah (what should these names once again remind us of? Aaron)

What happens with his sons?

Abijah gets sick and is going to die.

What is the plan that Jeroboam lays out for his wife?

He suddenly finds himself seeking out a prophet of YHWH.

Go secretly (don’t let if be known that you are my wife)

Interesting… How do you plan on tricking a prophet of God who has the reputation of having everything revealed to him?

Jeroboam has laid his legacy as the one who made Israel to sin (vs 16).

The justice for him is that every male will die.

Strong language in this passage...

Dung is stronger than simply “poop”. More along the lines of “crap”.

It’s crass and dirty language.

“Male” (as in every male… will burn up) is represented by Hebrew that literally means “those who pee on the wall”

This is Jeroboam’s legacy.

It is only deserving of dirty filthy language.

There is actually a mercy in this judgement against Abijah, the son who is sick, that He will die relatively peacefully instead of being purged from the face of the earth with the rest of his house.

Jeroboam rules for 22 years and dies, passing along the throne to his son, Nadab.

So what do we learn from Jeroboam?

The mark that we leave on this world can go 1 of 2 ways.

We should strive for a good, godly reputation.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 ESV

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

We should keep ourselves from sin, and make sure that we are not the cause of others being led into sin.

Mark 9:42 ESV

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.