1 Kings Chapters 12-14
When I was Pastoring in
Tear down and set up.
A) Hard – challenges with
sound – challenges with teachers –
But God blessed
B) Then the day came where the Lord provided a
building for us in a
1) But before we moved in the
inside of the Building had to be gutted rebuilt and reconfigured to meet our
needs
C) Learned: It is a lot easier to tear down than
it is to build up.
1) 1 week to
gut the Place – took us 4 months to build it out.
What is true about buildings
is also true about life
A) It is a lot easier to TEAR
DOWN – than it is to build up. { Family / Ministry/ Marriage / Church
B) As we come to Chapter 12 {We find this is also true
in Kingdoms –
1) One
Foolish decision tears apart what had taken more than a century to put
together.
Review: Saw last time Solomon
had a great first half
A) Horrible 2nd half – led the nation into
idolatry.
B) For that reason the nation was punished – the Lord
brought Hadad from
1) And Rezon from Zobah against
C) And the Lord said that after Solomon died the
nation would be torn in two
1) Ten Northern tribes &
2 Southern tribes –
D) They would be known as
1) Ahijah comes to
Jeroboam in dramatic fashion ribs his garment into – 12 pieces to
illustrate
E) 10 Northern tribes would be given to Jeroboam in
the North- while the 2 southern tribes of
A) Solomon dies – His son Rehoboam secures the throne
– at this point – the Kingdom is still united
B) He was 41 yrs old when he came to the throne – he ruled
for 17yrs
1) He was the 2nd of
19 kings who descended from David who would rule over
RD V.1-5
So after Solomon’s death –
Rehoboam was crowned king in Schechem –
A) Shechem was a strategic city – a city with a rich history.
B) Abraham worshipped there/ Jacob built an altar and
purchased land there.
1) Joseph was buried there
C) It was also the
geographical center of the northern tribes.
1) So over all it showed that
Rehoboam was in a position of weakness, having to meet the ten northern tribes
on their territory,
2) instead of demanding that
representatives come to
D) Reason: Those tribes were not eager to make
Rehoboam their King.
1) They had tired of Solomon
and his oppressive ways and were not ready for more of the same.
E) SO they came to Rehoboam to ask – How
are we going to be treated?
1) Will you lighten the load
that your father put on us with all his building projects?
2) They were calling for a
downsizing of his Govt & lifestyle.
It would have been a
Challenging task for the wisest of men to follow in Solomon’s foot steps
A) His 40 year reign had been marked by brilliance –
the nation rose to its greatest height.
B) The later yrs of his reign – were marked by great
apostasy.
1) Those yrs of apostasy
planted land mines that could only be avoided with great care.
C) Rehoboam asked for 3 days
to consider the request and to seek counsel. – SMART ---------------RD v.6-7
So Rehoboam does a smart
thing here – he consults the Elders – those with experience
A) They give him wise counsel – you need to have a
heart to serve the people.
B) They will be loyal to you – they will serve you if
they know that your heart is to serve them.
C) Same Principle that Paul lays out to Husbands in
Marriage – Serve your wives –
1) Love them
like Christ loves the Church –
D) Just like the Church responds to Christ love with
Love / submission/ service –
1) That will be the response
of your wife.
But a lot of men don’t heed
those words – because in their minds it is all about them –
A) That too is Rehoboam’s problem – He thinks it is
all about him.
B) Rehoboam forgot 3 very important leadership
principles.
1) Leadership is earned
not inherited.
2) People follow leaders
that have earned their respect.
3) Leadership is built on
trust – People will follow leaders they can trust.
C) But if that trust is compromised watch out.
1) If people start feeling exploited watch out.
D) Well Rehoboam does a very unwise thing here –he
rejects the counsel of the elders –
1) He turns to his peers – young men he grew up with
E) He ignores the advice of the Elders & ask these
young guys – with no experience – what
should I do?
RD V.8-11
Result instead of avoiding
the land mines Rehoboam carelessly plunges right into them.
A) Rehoboam follows their counsel and takes the
position that Pharaoh took with the Children of
Note Rehoboam sought the counsel of the elders and his
peers – but not of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 12:14 summarized
Rehoboam like this: And he did evil, because he did
not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.
B) This speaks to the lack of
his of personal relationship with the Lord.
C) The Bible declares that there is wisdom in a multitude
of Counselors -
D) But the
Starting place is the Lord – the counselors should confirm what the Lord is
saying.
1) Too often we make the
mistake that Rehoboam does – we turn to everyone else but the Lord.
E) Then we
Scratch our heads in confusion when things – turn into a disaster.
RD V. 12-15
Now up to this point we have
seen men acting on the basis of their own sinful desires.
A) The hand of God has been unseen – but it has not been
absent- v.15 tells us this turn of events was from
the Lord
B) In other words this was all a part of God’s plan to
divide the nation.
C)
God managed this whole series of events, but He did not make Rehoboam
take this unwise and sinful action. 1) God
simply left Rehoboam alone and allowed him to make the critical errors his
sinful heart wanted to make.
RD V.16-19
So the People
respond What share have we
in David? A) Rehoboam's
foolishness made
B) They rejected the descendants of
C) But Rehoboam is not going
to give up easy: The King Rehoboam sent Adoram, his
chief tax collector but all
D) Adoram was the wrong man for Rehoboam to send.
1) He was famous for his
harsh policy of forced labor there’s the guy who caused all this to begin with.
E) So Rehoboam’s tough-guy policy didn't work.
V.19
So
A) From this point on in the history of
B) and
the name "
1) Long
standing tension between the two!
RD
V.20-24
SO When all
A) Thus the prophecy of Ahijah in 1 Kings 11:29-39 was
fulfilled.
B) At the time the prophecy was made, it seemed
unlikely
1) but God's word through His
prophet was fulfilled.
C) This King Jeroboam is
sometimes called Jeroboam I to distinguish him from a later king of Israel also
named Jeroboam, usually known as Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-29).
D) Now: Rehoboam
intended to make war against the tribes of
1) but God spoke through a prophet and stopped him.
E) To
his credit - or perhaps due to a lack of courage - Rehoboam listened to God's
word through Shemaiah
Consider with me for a minute
this man Shemiah
A) Some of you never heard of him before, perhaps you
will never hear of him again;
B) he appears this once in
1) But what an appearance – His boldly
takes the word of the Lord to Rehoboam not to go to war.
C) Result 180,000
1) Civil war is postponed.
D) Oh that we would have such boldness to share the
Word of the Lord
1) I pray we would see those
kind of results
E) The power is not in our Delivery – Power is in our
message – remember that!
As we come to V.25 of Ch.12 –: We have a
shift in the story.
A) The author of 1 Kings –
style is to take us back and forth between what is happening in
B) So From v.25 of Ch.12 – V.
20 of Ch.14 The focus is on Jeroboam and the 10 northern tribes of
1) We will come back to them
– because I want us to finish Rehoboam’s story tonight
C) So we are going to jump
over to Ch.14V.21
RD V.21-24
Now the reign of each King of
A) The King’s name / Father’s name / Mothers name –the
length of his reign – his age when he came to the throne –
and usually a comparison to King how he fared in comparison
to King David. { Not given here.
Here is the sad run down on
Rehoboam
A) He lost most of his territory
B) He lost his spiritual integrity – they became like
the nations around them –
1) Practicing abominations
C) Provoked the Lord to Jealousy: Interesting concept
The root idea in the Old
Testament word jealous is to become intensely red.
A) It seems to refer to the
changing color of the face or the rising heat of the emotions which are
associated with intense zeal over something dear to us.
B) In fact, both the Old and
New Testament words for jealousy are also translated “zeal.”
1) So Being jealous and being
zealous are essentially the same thing in the Bible.
C) God is zealous—eager about
protecting what is precious to Him.
1) it is God’s Zeal for you that causes Him to pursue
you / Protect / get your attention.
D) How has God done that in your life this week?
1) Scripture / message / friend / song/
Israel was especially important to God
A) She belongs to Him as His special possession, His
unique treasure.
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for
Himself,
B) In fact, He views her as His wife.
1) Through the Prophet Hosea
He said to the nation, “And I will betroth you to Me forever” (Hosea 2:19).
C) No man with any moral fiber wants to share his wife
with another man, and neither does God.
1) He expects exclusive
devotion from her.
D) But when she goes after
other lovers, that is, when she worships other gods and thus commits spiritual
adultery, He
is said to be jealous.
E) When the term jealousy is
applied to God in Scripture it is usually because His people are worshiping
idols.
1) In the second of His ten commandments He
warned them not to do that, but they failed to listen to Him.
Psalm 78:58
“For they
provoked Him with their high places,
and aroused His jealousy with their graven images”
He is Also Jealous for our best interest – He knows
what is best for us.
So whom He loves He Chastens -
See next as God chastises Rehoboam through
RD V.25-26
It happened in
the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of
Shishak king of
B) No foreign enemy ever did
as much against God's people during the time of David and Solomon as happened
during this occasion during the reign of Rehoboam.
He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's
house:
A) Solomon left great wealth
to his son Rehoboam, both in the temple and in the palace. After only five
years, that wealth was largely gone.
He also took
away all the gold shields which Solomon had made:
B) 1 Kings 10:16-17 mentions
these 500 shields, 200 large and 300 small.
C) According to Dilday, each large shield was worth
about $120,000.
1) The smaller shields were
worth $30,000. $33 million was invested in gold ceremonial shields - and now in
the hands of the Egyptians.
RD
V.27-28
Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in
their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the
guard, who guarded the doorway of the king's house. And whenever the king
entered the house of the Lord,
the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.
D) The replacement of gold with bronze is a perfect
picture of the decline under the days of Rehoboam.
1) The dynasty of David went
from gold to bronze in five years.
(29-31) Rehoboam's death and the summary of his reign.
Now the rest of
the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of
Principles
learned from Rehoboam’s Mistakes
1) Wise
leaders learn that they are called to be servants in the best interest of those
that they lead.
“
Outside of Christ, you love to lead: in Christ you lead to Love” H. Butt
2) Wise leaders listen: They
listen to those they lead, they listen to qualified advisers and most of all
they listen to the Lord.
A) A wise leader needs to be a man of Prayer.
B) A wise leader needs to listen to the concerns of those
he is leading – and discern are those concerns legit.
C) A wise leader needs to choose wisely – those from
whom he is going to seek counsel.
3) Wise leaders realize that
they must earn the support of followers not demand or coerce it.
App Evaluate your motives honestly. Are you leading to
get your will done, or God’s?
4) Wise leaders focus on the
long range benefits, not the short term cost of their actions.
Application: Think deeply about your goals – what
legacy are you leaving by your present Choices? Are you thinking short term or
long term?
Easier to Tear down than to
Build back up!
A) Adam’s Bomb – Katrina
B) How Fix – God spoke world into existence in 6 days
–
C) Fix Adam’s Bomb – Sent his Son – 33yrs
1) Cross