A Broken Country

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in 1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12. You know, my whole purpose for taking you through some of these, I guess they’re really just highlights of biblical history.

I’ve said all along that the purpose for it was not to just give you a history lesson. But, you know, there are a couple reasons for looking at these stories. Number one, some of them are stories that we don’t look at very often, like the one we’re going to look at tonight.

They’re a little less familiar, and they’re part of God’s word for a reason, so it’s good for us to know them and learn the lessons that he put them in there for. Another one is I’m a great believer that it’s true what was said, and I don’t remember who said it. I’ve heard it said by so many people that if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it.

If we don’t remember history, we’re doomed to repeat it. And, folks, the more I look at ancient Israel, I just see ancient Israel all over America in 2016. We are there.

We are in so many of the places, in so many of the predicaments that they found themselves, we’re in those same troubles. Things look different. We’ve got different hairstyles and different technology, but we’re there.

And we can learn from things that they experienced, and hopefully, if enough of us learn from what they did right and what they did wrong, maybe we can avoid some of the pitfalls that they fell into. But the third, and really the most important reason for us to look at all these historical accounts, is we start to, once you start to look at the Bible as one big story, not just all these little stories thrown out piecemeal like we learned in Sunday school growing up, where I think, okay, David and Goliath, great story, Daniel and the lion’s den, great story, Noah and the ark, Moses and the ark for that matter. Great stories, but how do they all fit together?

When you start to look at the Bible as one big story, you start to see that it’s really about one concept and one person. It’s about the concept of redemption where God takes lost and sinful man and through his own grace saves him and puts him somewhere where he doesn’t deserve to be, but where God gives us the blessings of whether it’s Israel being brought into a land of their own that they didn’t always deserve because they didn’t always follow God’s laws, or whether it’s us being set toward eternal life when we didn’t deserve it, of God redeeming lost and sinful men for his purposes. And it’s about one person being Jesus Christ. Now some of the stories that we’ve looked at, we go back to Adam and Eve, and we see their fall and we see how that leads to Jesus Christ because there’s the reason for our need.

Their sin, which we all inherited like a bad gene, their sin is the reason why Jesus Christ needed to come and die on the cross. It’s the reason why we needed the Savior was because of sin. That’s where sin started.

And we’ve looked at several stories. We’ve looked at Moses. And when I say he’s a picture, I don’t mean that he’s a made-up character that God just used to tell a story.

What God said really happened, really happened. What the Bible records, I believe, really happened. But Moses is a picture.

As much as he is a real person who really led God’s people out of bondage in Egypt, he is also a picture of God preparing a deliverer who would lead his people out of bondage to sin. Jesus Christ. Talked about King David. And King David is really the one who set up the expectation for what the Messiah was supposed to be.

For what the Messiah’s kingdom was supposed to look like. King David set up the expectation for the return of Jesus Christ. What we are looking for today to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. What Jews all over the world still look for to be fulfilled maybe in another Messiah. But much of the world is still looking for the fulfillment of David’s kingdom.

And the rest of the Bible teaches, the New Testament teaches, and we believe that that’s going to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now the story we’re going to look at tonight is a story that starts to set the stage for all those things to be fulfilled. Now when I say starts to, I mean God, honestly, God’s been working all throughout the Old Testament to set the stage for the coming of Jesus Christ. But what happens in 1 Kings chapter 12 is we start to see where the country that God set up to bring Jesus into the world, and the country over which Jesus would be the king on the throne of David one day, that country is starting to unravel and bring about the conditions over the next, it’s going to take 900 years, but over the next 900 years to set the conditions to be right for Jesus to come into the world.

God could have sent Jesus at any time, and God could have accomplished what he wanted at any time, but the Bible says that in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. At just the time that God had set up, Christ died. And it’s very interesting to me, and it cannot be a coincidence, that out of all the times that he could have possibly come, that Jesus Christ was born, and Jesus Christ was crucified, And Jesus Christ rose again from the dead during a time in which you could travel from one end of the known world to the other freely and relatively safely because there was one country that controlled all of it.

You were under the Roman eagle. You were under the control and under the protection of Rome. And it was Rome that in conspiracy with the Jewish leaders put Jesus to death.

It was Rome that sealed up his tomb. It was Rome that tried to help cover up the resurrection and couldn’t stop it. But folks, it was the Roman trading networks and it was the Roman roads and it was the common language of Rome that helped spread the gospel to the entire world.

And what we see in 1 Kings chapter 12 is just the very beginning of about a 900 year process that was going to lead to that being possible. And when we start here in chapter 12, verse 1, Solomon, King Solomon, David’s son, has just died. And Solomon has expanded Israel to be even greater, perhaps, and at least larger than David did.

And God allowed Solomon to do some things David didn’t get to do. He expanded Solomon’s kingdom. He allowed Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem.

He gave Solomon wisdom and wealth beyond comprehension. And yet Solomon took those things and those gifts from God and he squandered them. Which is a lesson that as he died, his son and heir did not learn from.

His son’s name was Rehoboam. And it says in verse 1, And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. Now I don’t know that that means every single person, but it’s like when I say everybody and their dog was at Walmart.

Well, it doesn’t literally mean everybody, but it just seems like everybody and their dog was at Walmart. All of Israel was at Shechem. And so Rehoboam goes there to be crowned king.

The people are expecting to crown him there as king. And it came to pass when Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt, that they sent and called him. Don’t get confused by Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

Rehoboam is Solomon’s son, who is now about to become king, and Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s government officials that he appointed, who eventually Solomon got to thinking, he poses a threat to me and my kingdom, he could possibly become king someday, and so he was forced to flee for his life to Egypt. He hears that they’re about to crown Rehoboam king, and he’s sent for in Egypt, and he comes back to Israel for the coronation. And they sent him and called him, and Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spake to Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous.

Now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke which he put upon us lighter, and we will serve thee. So the people got together, they’re about to crown Rehoboam, they sent for Jeroboam, come back, it’s safe now, we need your wisdom and your leadership, come as we deal with this new king. And so the elders of the country have come to the new king, a young man, and they have said, your father was very hard on us.

I think the people loved King Solomon, and King Solomon did great things at times for the nation of Israel, but it doesn’t matter if you, I mean, you can believe in what you’re building, and you can believe in the work you’re doing, but there comes a time where we are just exhausted. Even knowing that we’re building something great, we are exhausted. And that’s essentially what the people came to Rehoboam and said.

Your father with his taxes and his rules on us, we’re exhausted. His yoke was heavy. The yoke being the wooden piece that they used to attach cattle together to make them go where you want them to go.

It was heavy. It was burdensome. The people are exhausted.

And if you will just loosen up that yoke just a little bit, if you’ll lighten our load just a little bit, they said to Rehoboam, we will serve you. I mean, that’s a great offer for a king. If you’ll just come in and you’ll just lighten our load a little bit, you can look like the magnanimous leader and the people will love you and the people will serve you and the people will give you their loyalty.

I mean, he’s been given, I would think, a great offer here. All I have to do is lighten up on you a little bit, and you’ll consider me a greater king than Solomon. And his answer to him in verse 5, he said unto them, depart yet for three days, and then come again to me.

And the people departed. He says, give me three days to think about it. I don’t know if that was common then, but that to me is an odd response.

Let me think about whether or not I want to be. . .

Let me think about whether I want to go easy on you or not. Yet the people left, and they had hope that Rehoboam would do the wise thing. And King Rehoboam consulted with the old men that stood before Solomon his father while he had yet lived, and said, How do you advise that I may answer this people?

And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever. As you would expect from the elders of the country, the older men who had served Solomon, they’d been around a day or two, they knew a thing or two, they gave him the wise counsel that, yes, if you’ll agree to what the people said, and you’ll be a kind king to them, and you’ll speak kindly to them, and you’ll be an encouragement to them, if you will just decide, I’m going to take care of my people, then they’ll be loyal to you. And so Rehoboam does what you would expect a young king to do.

He completely ignores what the elders of the country said. They’re old. They don’t know anything.

They don’t get how things are done now in the 930s. Get with the 30s, guys. He ignores the elder statesmen of Israel.

It says in verse 8, but he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him and which stood before him. So forget all the collective wisdom of these older men who had served under Solomon, who knew how the kingdom was run, who knew the people who had a lot of wisdom under their belt. I’m going to go to the young know-it-alls I grew up with.

I’m going to ask them what they would do. And this is what a preacher friend of mine calls drinking deeply from a pool of ignorance. There are some groups that you stand in that you just don’t want to ask, what do you think about that?

Because God loves them, you’re not going to get a good answer. And I’m not saying that all young people are unwise. I’m just saying the way the Bible describes this, it was very apparent.

God had blessed him with this wisdom and these advisors, and instead he’s going to go ask the frat boys that he runs around with. I mean, that’s how I picture this when I read it. I’m going to go ask them what would they do.

And he said unto them, verse 9, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which my Father did put upon us lighter. And it’s interesting, I’ve just noticed here in verse 6, he asked the older men, What do you advise so that I can answer them? But when he’s talking to his young friends in verse 9, what counsel give you that we may answer this people?

See, in his mind, he’s already put distance between himself and the wisdom. You know, give me some advice, elders of Israel, give me some advice and then I’ll decide what to do with it. And then he sits down with his friends and says, what are we going to do?

See, he’s already made up his mind. He’s drawn them into the inner circle while he’s kept wisdom at arm’s length. He’s already made up his mind.

And the young men, verse 10, the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us. Thus shalt thou say unto them, My fingers shall be thicker than my father’s loins. And now whereas my father did lay you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke.

My father had chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. So a lot of wisdom there. Here’s what you go back and say to the people.

My father has been heavy handed with you. But you’re going to think his hands are heavy because my finger is going to be bigger to you than my father’s thigh. So in other words, the heavy hand that he’s used on you, my hand is a whole lot heavier.

He says, and you’ve asked me to lighten your yoke, I’m going to add to it. And my father punished you with whips, I’m going to punish you with scorpions. I don’t even want to speculate as to how you punish somebody with scorpions.

And I don’t want to speculate what kind of sick mind comes up with that idea. But he says, basically, oh, you thought my father was tough. You hadn’t seen tough yet.

Verse 12, so Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day as the king had appointed, saying, come to me again the third day. And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him, and spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform his saying which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Naboth. Okay, so God had already told Jeroboam what Rehoboam’s answer was going to be. Okay, don’t take from that, though, that God made Rehoboam be stupid.

Okay, God didn’t force him. God didn’t force him to give them a bad answer. But God also wasn’t surprised when he did, because God had already told Jeroboam this is what was going to happen.

Verse 16 says, So when all of Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, that he didn’t listen to them, and in fact just wanted to show how rough and tough he was, when Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents, O Israel. Now see to thine own house, David.

So Israel departed unto their tents. Now, to understand what’s happening here, the people loved David. but probably even more so now that we tend to look on things with nostalgia.

That’s why former presidents, they oftentimes leave office with very low approval ratings. And then when we see how bad their successors are, at least in hindsight there’s a sense of nostalgia that, you know, I will tell you when George W. Bush left office, almost nobody liked him.

He had like 3% approval rating. And I hear people say, oh, I miss George Bush. Same thing said with Bill Clinton.

I’ve heard people say, I’d give my right arm for Bill Clinton. You know, we look at, that’s nothing new. That’s nothing new.

We tend to look on the past with nostalgia. And so I say that because David was a great king, but there was also a lot of turmoil during his reign. And yet, in hindsight, they realized what a good man David was, even with his flaws.

even with his sins. He was a man after God’s own heart because he was a humble man. And the people loved David as evidenced by the fact that we still talk about the throne of David.

Still waiting for that fulfillment of the throne of David, of David’s kingdom being brought back under a new king. And yet the people were so angry that they forgot about that love of David and they’re basically saying here we have no loyalty to the house of David. You think, Rehoboam, that we’re going to support you just because you’re of the house of David?

Guess again. Do you think we’re going to go along with whatever you want to do to us? Just because David was your grandfather?

You are wrong. And it says they went back to their tents. They departed from him.

Verse 17 says, But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. And the king Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the tribute, and all Israel stoned him with stones that he died. Therefore, King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

So what has happened when Israel has gone back to their tents, it doesn’t mean that they just all went home. It means that they have turned their back on Rehoboam and on the house of David. What we have here is essentially 11 of the 12 tribes in rebellion.

Now, Judah, which is the tribe that David and Solomon and Rehoboam came from, they remained loyal. to the house of David. And eventually the tribe of Benjamin, which was the smallest because of some things in history where they ended up almost being wiped off the map, they were the smallest and they were totally surrounded by the tribe of Judah. They eventually said, you know what, it’s probably best if we don’t get involved in a war with our much bigger neighbor who surrounds us on every side.

And they stayed loyal also. But you’ve got most of the tribes of Israel now in a state of rebellion. They’ve decided Rehoboam is not our king anymore.

Now they’ve not yet set up their own country. That comes in a minute. They’ve not set up their own king.

But when Rehoboam sends one of his advisors, one of his overseers, to try to restore order, to try to get some work done out of the people, they took this royal advisor and they stoned him to death. So things were not peaceful in Israel at that moment. there was open revolution going on in the countryside.

So much so that Rehoboam got in his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. And it said in verse 19, So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation and made him king over all Israel.

This is where the revolution turns into, we have two countries now that are about to be at odds with each other. Because they’ve said, these ten tribes in the north are going to break away, and you know what, we’re going to set up our own king. We’re going to set up our own kingdom.

And forget about the tribe of David, the house of David and the tribe of Judah. It says that they made him king over all Israel, and there was none that followed, the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. Now it’s going to say in the next verse that Benjamin remained loyal to King Rehoboam.

That is not a contradiction. writer of 1 Kings would have to be would have to be insane to in one verse say there’s only one tribe and in the next verse say there are two loyal tribes. Either very forgetful or just there’s got to be another explanation.

And I believe that’s what it was. That probably the tribe of Benjamin hesitated for a moment thinking we’re not really part of Judah. We don’t care about Rehoboam.

And they kind of wavered and were on the fence about what side they were on and then realized where their interest really lay in not being wiped out. Because it says in verse 21, and when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin and 104,000 chosen men, so 180,000 chosen warriors which were warriors to fight against the house of Israel to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. So he’s raised 180,000 troops and he is prepared to march into the north and hang Rehoboam the first tree he sees, and reassert his dominance over the ten northern tribes.

But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel, return every man to his house, for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the Lord, and returned to depart according to the So they’re poised to invade the northern kingdom when God speaks through a prophet and says, no, you’re not going to attack the northern kingdom. You’re not going to attack Israel.

You’re not going to attack Jeroboam. Go home. Put your arms down and go home.

Because I’ve set these wheels in motion. Now again, God didn’t make Rehoboam make stupid choices. But he knew that he would.

He said that he would. He had warned Solomon. He had warned the house of David of the consequences of this kind of thing.

Because Solomon did the same thing. God told Solomon, if you will do X, Y, and Z, then I will do. Then I will keep you in power.

But if you don’t, the kingdom is going to be rent from you. It’s going to be taken away from you. And Rehoboam failed to learn from his father’s failures.

And so God says, I’ve allowed them to go on their own way, and you’re not going to invade them. but then you know a few weeks ago when I was when I first started the series on Elijah on Sunday mornings talked to you about Ahab being guilty of the sin of Jeroboam this is where that started this is where that idolatry started here in verse 25 where it says then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein and went out from then and built in Penuel and Jeroboam said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of David If this people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of the people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah.

Jeroboam got the idea in mind, wait a minute, I can’t let the people continue to go down to the temple at Jerusalem to worship, because then there will always be some residual loyalty to Jerusalem. Some loyalty left over. To Jerusalem, to the temple, to that kingdom, maybe even to the king of Judah.

And eventually, they might decide that they want to rejoin Judah, and they want to be under the king of Judah, and then they’re going to kill me and they’re going to follow him. So he says, I can’t let them continue to go down to Jerusalem and worship. I know I’ll build something much more entertaining and much closer to home for them to worship.

And so it says in verse 28, whereupon the king took counsel, again, apparently he drew from a, he drank deeply from a well of ignorance, because he sought counsel, and still, it says, made two calves of gold, and said unto them, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, by gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he made it sound like it was for the good of the people of Israel.

It’s too far. It’s too much for you to have to travel all the way down to that other kingdom that caused us so much trouble. It’s too much for you.

So I’ve made you these golden calves. They’re for you. Behold your gods that brought you out of Egypt.

I’m sorry. The people, you know, under Israelite law, the people should have dragged him out in the street and stoned him right there. Those were not the gods that brought them out of Egypt.

They knew what God had brought them out of Egypt, and it wasn’t some stupid metal cow. but he had the nerve and the people I don’t know why but the people went along with it and he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan so he put them in different places in the country where they’d be available to the people and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan the Bible records that it turned the people to sin because they said, we’ll go worship there at Bethel. We’ll even go out to the one, we’ll even go way out to the one in Dan and we’ll worship there.

And he made a house of high places and made priests of the lowest people which were not of the sons of Levi. So in that day the priests were only supposed to be of the tribe of Levi. And we may wonder about that.

Why was God so particular? And there’s a lot we don’t understand about the Old Testament law. There’s a lot that we may never understand about God’s reasoning for why he said this or that in the Old Testament law.

But it starts to make a little more sense when you realize that so much of what God told Israel to do or not to do was to be a picture of their separation to him and from the rest of the world. And so God had even separated out of Israel a tribe that would serve him to be the Levites, to be the priests. And Jeroboam said, I’m going to make a class of priests who aren’t the Levites, who haven’t grown up knowing that this was their calling to serve God.

Because at the point when you say, let’s worship golden calves because it’s easier, you’re no longer really concerned about how God wants you to worship. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah. And he offered upon the altar, so did he in Bethel sacrificing unto the calves that he had made.

So they’re sacrificing things to these false gods. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. And he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the 15th day of the 8th month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart.

So again, we’re not going to celebrate the feasts and the worship rituals that God told us to do. It says he made it up on his own, out of his own heart. Hey, maybe this should be a holy day.

Let’s pick August 15th. Now I know their 8th month is not the same as our 8th month. I’m just going to pick a date at random, and we’re going to have a feast. We’re going to have a worship celebration on August 15th, because we can do what we want.

And he ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar, and he burnt incense. The people of Israel thought at this moment they were free. We’re no longer under the oppressive thumb of Rehoboam and Solomon.

We’re free. We can do what we want. But folks, this caused them nothing but trouble.

Nothing but trouble. It leads to King Ahab, for crying out loud, where they’re sacrificing their children because they think that the gods Baal and Moloch are going to somehow hear them more, are going to bless them more because they sacrifice. It’s sick.

And it all started here, saying, I care more about two men. Rehoboam and Jeroboam both saying, I care more about my power than about doing what’s right by God and right by the people. and it was devastating to Israel.

So how has this affected our world, this story? The division of the two countries weakened them. It weakened them politically, it weakened them militarily, economically, spiritually.

They go on fighting from here and there. The people of Israel never had a good king from this point on. Never.

Never had a king who honored God. The southern kingdom, at least, you know, they had some bad kings, they had some good kings, these things go in cycles. Israel, the northern kingdom, never had a good king.

And you had generation after generation after generation of people growing up thinking that it was okay to worship false gods, and the nation just got further and further and further and further away from the one true God. And it led to suffering, it led to punishment, it led to times of not even punishment. just times of chastisement where God says, I’ve got to wake you up.

I’ve got to shake you out of your sleep like with Elijah telling them there’s going to be no rain. It wasn’t that God was trying to starve the nation of Israel. It was that God said, I’ve got to get your attention somehow.

And it was devastating to Israel from then on. And it paved the way for the conquest of Israel. Israel as one fairly united country of these twelve tribes would have been much more difficult to defeat but instead they’d split and they’d fight against each other and sometimes they’d fight within themselves sometimes they’d go fight together against another country, sometimes one would ally with another country on the outside and come against the other one sometimes they’d both ally with other countries they were the constant one upmanship weakened the countries.

It weakened both of them. And it made it possible for these other countries to come in and take little bites out of Israel. Take a nibble at a time out of Israel and Judah until there was nothing left.

About 200 years after this, the Assyrians came in. And because they were divided, because they were divided, it was easier for the Assyrians to come in and just completely take over Israel. And then they attacked Judah.

They were repelled a little bit, but they took over Israel and they took the ten northern tribes and they scattered them across the Assyrian Empire and they moved other people who were conquered in here and tried to mix everybody up so that you didn’t have all the Israelites together and all of the Phoenicians together and all the Philistines together because they thought at that point people can get together and they can rebel against us. Let’s just mix everybody up so they’re all confused and they can’t come together. And so we see from that time Israel, the northern ten tribes are just scattered.

We call them the lost tribes of Israel. They’re not lost. God knows who they were, but they were scattered. They weren’t intact in this form like they were again.

And then, you know, just a couple hundred years after that, you had these two little tribes in Judah, Judah and Benjamin. They didn’t have the ten tribes up in the north anymore, and the Babylonians were able to co