Lessons from Rehoboam
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Intro:
Intro:
AG:
TS: Background
God called a family to become a nation in Abraham’s descendants.
They were slaves in Egypt and God sent a deliver, Moses, to lead them out to the promised land.
They were to be an example of living for God and receiving God’s blesses. They failed. IN the time of judges, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” and blamed it on not having a king
God finally gave a king: Saul
He had it all together, handsome, tall, charming
He sinned and directly violated God’s Law and instructions
God rejected Saul and sent David who grew the kingdom after Saul’s death to its greatest size.
For 7 years the northern tribes didn’t recognize him as King but eventually all 12 tribes were under him
David’s son Solomon followed him to the throne
We looked at him last week
Now we move to the next generation Rehoboam
Don’t walk in the Sins of the our Fathers
Don’t walk in the Sins of the our Fathers
Solomon build great wonders and taxed the people heavily to do that. HE also conscripted people into essentially slave labor from among their enemies who had been conquered.
Solomon had allowed and even helped support idolatry in Israel
This led GOD to declare:
And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice
and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.
Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
Solomon’s sins had a lasting impact on future generations.
Rehoboam inherited that judgment, yet how he walked could have had a great impact on it.
And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.
And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam,
“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.”
He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.
Rehoboam had a choice to make.
How he approached that choice is where we see lessons for us today:
Choose Wise Counselors
Choose Wise Counselors
Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”
And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”
But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.
And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”
And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs.
And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”
The issue isn’t in the age of the counselors, but rather in their wisdom and experience.
The wise experienced:
They recognized the kingdom was in jeopardy and that people needed relief.
They suggested meeting the demands for a lightening of the load.
They called on Rehoboam to serve the people.
The inexperienced:
Advised him to speak harshly and to double down.
‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”
I see a clear difference in motivations
The first group recognized the king served the people
The latter saw the people as servants
The first cared for the unity of the kingdom
The latter the image of the King and what they could get out of it
Rehoboam choose the counsel of those who said what he wanted to hear
Ask enough people and eventually you will find the advice you wanted to follow in the first place!
AP: We must choose our counselors wisely
It begins with turning to other believers for counsel, NOT lost people
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
worldly wisdom is
earthly- it is “under the sun” thinking
only focused on here and now
unspiritual
only on physical things
demonic
inspired by sensual fleshly and DEMONIC thinking
Spiritual warfare is waged in our minds:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Counselors who are lost will not give wise counsel!
Some principles to help us choose wise counselors:
1. There is wisdom in numbers:
IL: Crowd sourcing
Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Seek several believers be in your circle
Having an ongoing relationship with several BIBLE based people to point the way is profitable
2. Be open to counselors
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
NOBODY has all the answers and all things figured out
We must be willing to listen to their wisdom as they point to the Scriptures
3. God’s word is the source of counsel
SO all counselors to whom we listen MUST point us to God’s word!
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Caution: their opinion NEVER supplants the word of God
IF they tell you to violate the Word of GOD, quit listening to them
counsel must point us to understand the word of God, if not it is foolishness!
Consequences of our Actions
Consequences of our Actions
Rehoboam choose poorly
He wouldn’t give up the tax funded luxuries
He wouldn’t be pushed around, He was king!
So he spoke:
And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him,
he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
God’s prophesy to Solomon was fulfilled by the his own son’s horrible choice!
The kingdom was divided never to be unified in Biblical times again.
They at times were enemies and at times loose allies
Israel (the 10 who left) abandoned worship at the Temple and any semblance of Biblical worship
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel.
And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David.
If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.
He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.
And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.
She had not 1 single king who honored God
Ultimately, they ended up going into captivity to Assyria and were never set free. They were scattered and are often called the “lost tribes”.
Rehoboam’s choice was costly!
He choose based upon selfish desires
He choose based upon pride
He choose based on foolish counsel
AP: We face choices every day and they too come at a price
We have heard a phrases in modern America often repeated by all political parties: Elections have consequences
Science teaches that for every action, there is a reaction
This is Biblical idea as well.
Our choices will lead to consequences!
Several times in the Bible it is compared to sowing and reaping.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
We will either live in a way that is sowing in eternal or the temporal
We live for God or ourselves and we will face the consequences!
NOT about salvation
IS about sanctification!
God is working to conform us into Christ’s image
Removing the bad and building the good
He does this through discipleship and discipline!
What are you choosing today?
Selfish or selfless?
Sin or Serving the Savior?
Actions which indulge our lust or glorify our Father?
When we answer that, it becomes clear what we can expect to reap tomorrow!
IF I leave here and go eat a whole pizza by myself, I will face the consequences!
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Don’t automatically follow in the steps of those who came before us.
Choose wise counselors
Make Biblical choices!