1469 - I Kings 12, "Rehoboam, The Spoiled Brat"

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1469. I have been out all week due to surgery, eye surgery, and I wanted you to hear some of the most requested of all of the podcasts since we have been doing them in recent years. May God bless you as you listen. Well, we're going to get right into it simply because this is a power packed set of podcasts for leaders, for those who desire to be leaders, for those who desire to follow after God, for those who feel insecure most of the time, listen up. It's time to begin to walk with God in security because what happens when we are insecure is blazed across the sky in a man by the name of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. In chapter eleven, verse twenty six, we're going to begin this saga that ends in the splitting, the tearing up of the kingdom of Almighty God, the kingdom of Israel. Then Solomon's servant Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zareda, whose mother was Zarua, a widow, also rebelled against the king. Now remember in yesterday's podcast we looked at how Solomon's heart turned away from God to the point to where he was offering to foreign gods that God has specifically said, do not deal with these people. Do not intermarry with them. Do not let them intermarry with your children, because they will tear your heart away from me. That's exactly what happened. God is right every time. And sometimes we think we're smarter than God in this Western civilized spoiled generation that we live in. We begin to think that we are some kind of elite, that we can disregard the words of God and we not have to pay a price that doesn't happen. Sin will always cost us more than we want to pay. It will always take us farther down than we want to go. It will, in its effects, last longer than we ever dreamed it would. And were it not for God's grace we would be destroyed. So this man caused all of Israel to tear apart. Now he was not the only cause of it, but let's follow the story. And this is what caused him to rebel against the king. Solomon had built the Milo and repaired the damages to the city of David his father. Solomon had built a set of terraces. I believe that's what the Milo was. No one really knows. And if they tell you they do, they don't. They're guessing at best. An educated guess, perhaps, an archaeological guess, perhaps, but no one really knows what that is. But I believe that it was a set of terraces, is speculation on my part, that had to do with the walls of the city as they escalated down the steep embankment into the Kedron Valley. And the man, Jeroboam, was a mighty man of valor. Solomon, seeing that this young man was industrious, made him the officer force of the house of Joseph over Ephraim. That's the central part of the country. That's the breadbasket of the country. And so this man, Jeroboam, had great leadership ability, innate ability, and he was industrious. He wasn't lazy. He was always looking for an opportunity to lead. And it happened at that time when Jeroboam went out to Jerusalem that the prophet Ahijah, the Shalonite, that is, the man from Shiloh, met him on the way, and he had clothed himself with a new garment, that is, Ahijah had, and the two were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord God, notice all capitals, Lord, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel. Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you. But he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, because they have forsaken me and worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Kemosh, the god of the Moabites, Milcom, the god of the people of Ammon. And they have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my eyes and keep my statutes, my judgments, as did his father David. Now, this is exactly what we read yesterday and what I spoke about earlier in this podcast, that Solomon's heart was torn away out of deliberate, deliberate disobedience. And I want to remind you that most of our sin in Solomon's life, David's life, my life, your life, is not sins of ignorance. It's rebellion. Oh, we might cop out and say, Well, I didn't know any better. No, we know better. It's sin. And the Spirit of God usually will deal with us so loudly that we know it is the moment we start doing it. There is a check in our spirit, but we're so headstrong and rebellious we keep on. That's the sin that's within us. We desire to do it. It's our flesh, and we have to fight against that. And so it says, however, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life, and he did it for the sake of David, not for Solomon, whom he chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you ten tribes, and to his son I will give one tribe, that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself, and put my name there. Now here is what God said through Ahijah to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He said, I am going to give you ten tribes, because I have seen in you the potential to be the great leader that Solomon should have been, but was not. And I have seen that in you. I'm going to give you an opportunity, Jeroboam. And he goes on to say in verse 38, look at this. Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments, as my servant David did. Listen to this. Then if you do this, I will be with you and will build for you an enduring house as, do you hear that comparative? As I built for David, I will give Israel to you. He said, I'm going to build you the same kind of house. If you will just walk with me, if you will just listen to me, if you will just obey me, I will make you like King David. He offered him the same thing he did, David, and I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever. He said, Now I'm going to deal with Solomon and his descendants because of his great sin of total rebellion against me. Willful rebellion. Now let me just parenthetically say there were a lot of sacrifices in the Old Testament. There were all kinds of offerings in the Torah and the Tanakh, but there was no offering for willful, deliberate sin. There wasn't then and there is now. The only thing a person can do once they have sinned against God knowingly, willfully, and rebelled, is to cast yourself upon the mercy of God, and that's what every child of God, this side of the cross, has done in Jesus. We have cast ourselves upon the mercy of God because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Yes, God demonstrated his love toward us, his grace toward us, his mercy toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, rebelling against God, God sent the Lord Jesus to die in our place. And so he says, look at verse 40, new paragraph. Because it got out that Ahijah had said this, and by the way, it always does. Nobody can keep quiet. Nobody. Because you see, we've always got to take the news because we know what no one else knows. And we now we're saying this to you. This just a prayer request. No one else knows this. But I want you to pray about this because it's really, really big. And I'm the only one that knows about it because I'm the only one that was was trusted enough to tell you. So I know it. Now you can't tell anybody else because I've got this, and so here it is. I'm a privileged character, and I'm going to privilege you by letting you know. You see, it always gets out. Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam arose and fled to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now this is an amazing thing. It goes on to talk about how then Solomon died. He had ruled over Jerusalem, over Judah for forty years. Now, beginning in our chapter for today, chapter twelve, and Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all of Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king, that is, after the death of Solomon. Now when Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard it, he was still in Egypt. This is a parenthetical statement to bring you up to date, for he had fled there from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt. And when he heard that Solomon died, they sent and called him. Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Raboam, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the burden, this burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we'll serve you. Now Solomon was a wise man, but even in his wisdom, and even when he was walking with God, he was too harsh. He caused everybody to have to work. They had to work three months a year no matter what. They had to work one month a year no matter who they were. They had to serve, then they had to give. Nations have started over taxation. Ask the British. So he said unto them, Depart for three days, this is Raboam, then come back, and the people departed. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders, that is, those who had been his father's advisors in his heyday, who stood before his Solomon while he still lived, and said, How do you advise me to answer these people? This is what Raboam. He went to the older people, the elders, and he should have. If he had listened to them, then he could have kept the kingdom. Then they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to these people today, that's what the older people said. See, they don't know anything, but just listen to what they said. But if you will be servant to these people today and serve them and answer them and speak good, encouraging words to them, don't talk down to them, then they will be your servants forever. Now that's just really, really good advice. If you're a pastor, listen to me, that's really good advice. Just listen to the elders. Get you some older men around you. I don't care what age you are. If you're old, get you some older men or peers that are your age and but who have lived a lot of life and have kicked up a lot of dust and ask them, How should I rule this people? Because if you've just gotten in there, they already know the people better than you do. Why don't you ask them? What do you think about these people? And what now you can have all the ideas, strategy, experience, but they know the people. But he rejected the advice of which the elders had given him and consulted with the young men, that is, his peers, listen, who had grown up with him and who had stood with him. Well, no wonder they stood with him. He was the king's son. Everybody likes the king's son. This was a bunch of spoiled brats, is what it was. They had never had to do anything. They had grown up with Rhaboam. They had grown up at Solomon's feet. They had grown up and never had to work for anything. They were spoiled. They were entitled. You said, Well, how do you know that? Oh, uh, Pastor, I can't believe you're judging them. I don't have to. Look what they said. He said, What advice do you give me? How should we answer this people who've spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke which your father has put on us? Then the young man who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to this, saying, Your father made a heavy yoke, but you make it lighter on us, thus you shall say then, my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist. And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, if you think that's something, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, I'll chastise you with scourges. Now, this is a young whippersnapper who's never built anything, who's always been the shadow of his father, and here he is out here, now telling grown men, old men, what he's going to do and how he's going to treat them, and it's going to be ugly all the way around because he's the boss. During the Vietnam War, you know who was the greatest casualty of all of the American officers? It was second lieutenants. Why, they'd just come right out of officer cadet school. And these sergeants, battle hardened, had been out there with the men. They had been dodging bullets for a long time, and here comes the young guy right out of school. Great guy. Oh yeah. And he knows it all because, see, he studied a lot about war and books. And he had been through boot camp and he had used some bullets before, but he had never had them by a whisp by his face because you see he hadn't been out there. He'd been in school. And now he's going to come in and tell this battle hardened sergeant what to do and what not to do. And so they said, okay, you go ahead, you show us, lead the way, and they went out through there and they shot him in the back. You don't think that happens in war? Oh my, my, my. You should get out more often. You should talk with some people in war. You see, this is exactly what happened. What Raya Bohem did as a spoiled brat, as someone who's never built anything but wanted to tell everybody who had already built something, who had already lived life, who had already had difficulty, who uh had already lived more life than Raya Boehm and had done more than Raya Bohem ever dreamed of, and yet here was this young man coming in and saying, Let me show you who's boss. Well, that just doesn't work. It doesn't work with a young pastor, it doesn't work with an old pastor, it doesn't work with a leader in business of any kind. It's in every trade, it's in every business, it's in every corporation. And so this is what he said. So Jeroboam and the people came to Rhabam the third day, and as the king had directed them saying, Come back to me on the third day, verse 13. Then the king answered the people roughly, roughly. Remember, these are the people, these are the people that kept him in office, and rejected the advice which his elders had given him, which was good, solid advice, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men. By the way, again, who had never built anything. Oh, it's amazing to me. You know, I'm 66 years old as I make this. I've been in the ministry 47 years, have been pastoring 45 of those years, and I have young men all the time getting right out of seminary. They're about 27 years old. They're telling me how I'm doing it wrong, how everything has got to be this way or that way. I just shake my head. You know why? Because people are people in any generation. And they say, well, you know, the last twenty years, twenty years is a drop in the ocean as far as the kingdom of God. You see, twenty, thirty years of something is just still a trendy. Let's see in twenty or thirty years if the message they're preaching is going to build lives and build our nation and build churches. And so it says, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastise you with whips, but I'll chastise you with scourges. So the king did not listen to the people. Look at verse 15. So the king did not listen to the people. For the turn of events was from the Lord. You see, because of Solomon's sin, he had ruined his kid. He had ruined Reboam's life. He had made him proud and cocky because he got that way with God. It says here, so the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of the events was from the Lord, that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord has spoken by Hahijah the Shalonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Are you meaning to tell me that God allowed that to happen? Well, of course he did. Because you see, God knew it was going to happen to begin with. Now when all of Israel saw the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, What share do we have with David? We have no inheritance with the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to your own house, O David. So Israel departed from their tents, but Raboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. That was one tribe. Then King Raboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue, but all of Israel stoned him with stones and he died. Therefore King Rahboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. I know it's not funny, but it is kind of funny. Because here is a guy that all of a sudden born that doesn't look like as those stones are flying, he's in charge anymore, is he? And so they rebelled against Rahoboam. And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation and made him king over all of Israel. And there was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. And when Rahboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand men, who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But listen to verse twenty two. But the word of the Lord came to Shemai, the man of God, saying, Speak to Raboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah, and Benjamin, the rest of the people, saying, Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel, let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me. This is the key. This thing is from me. Therefore they obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back according to the word of the Lord. Now what I'm going to do tomorrow is deal with the same promises made to King David and to Jeroboam the son of Anebat. How one turned out bad, one turned out good, and why. It's all right there in the Word. And we're going to look at it tomorrow. As we walk on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.