Meet me in First Kings Chapter 12 as we come to a very critical
part of the story. God's story that is being
written through a people called Israel that have been elected
and chosen by God for a particular purpose through a
specific covenant that would lead to a better and greater
covenant. The one that you and I are
enjoying today by the grace of God and the person of Jesus
Christ. One of the most disheartening
and disturbing factors of Solomon's descent into apostasy
is easily his harem, This harem that has been comprised of 700
wives and 300 concubines. It's just almost unimaginable
how that is real. And it is real, and most people
know that about Solomon's story. But what I believe most people
don't consider concerning Solomon's story in connection to
that is that with all the woman that he had been with, you only
have one recorded son mentioned in all of scripture.
Only one of Solomon's sons are mentioned by name in the Bible.
I mean you would think that if you had 700 wives and 300
concubines you would have more than one son.
And perhaps he did have more than one son, but only one is
highlighted in the scriptures and that is the one that we are
going to experience in this chapter Rehoboam.
But Rehoboam is not the only descendant that's recorded in
the Bible connected to Solomon. Solomon also had daughters and
two of them are mentioned in the Bible.
Does anybody know where the daughters of Solomon are
mentioned in the scriptures? Any idea?
If you know it, you can say it. If you think you know it, you
can still say it. We won't condemn you for trying.
Any idea where the daughters two of the daughters of Solomon are
mentioned? Well, it's in our study of first
kings. It's in First Kings chapter
four. Look at these two verses with me
briefly. When the scriptures highlight
the officials of Solomon, we're told of two of them who had
married one of the two daughters of Solomon.
Both are mentioned here. First kings 4 verse 11 Ben a Ben
Adab and all nefeth door. He had to fath the daughter of
Solomon as his wife. First Kings 411 There's one of
them. First Kings 415 Ahemaz and
Naftali. He had taken Basmath, the
daughter of Solomon as his wife. So if you collect those verses
with what we read in chapter 12 here we have a total of 3 of
Solomon's children that are mentioned in the script
scriptures. Most people believe that he had
plenty more and you can see why again with that harem with all
those women at his disposal. But what I find strange is how
very few are mentioned in the Bible and some would argue, well
it's because there's so many of them where you're going to
mention all of Solomon's children.
Others would say, well, the ones that are mentioned are the most
prominent ones, and the other ones are more, you know, they're
insignificant, they're not worthy of being highlighted in
the scriptures, and those are good points to make.
But again, I'm challenged because when you consider
Solomon's father, what's his name?
And when you consider Solomon's son Rehoboam, they have their
descendants mentioned in great detail.
David, you see different portions of scripture dedicated
to describing his offspring. And what about Rehoboam?
Do we have his descendants mentioned?
We do turn to Second Chronicles. It's not too far from First and
Second Kings. And look at Chapter 11, verse 21
concerning Rehoboam. Rehoboam loved Makka, the
daughter of Absalom, above all his wives and concubines.
Now look at this. He took 18 wives and 60
concubines and fathered 28 sons and sixty daughters.
So I find David's descendants. If you want to see a summary of
that, it's in First Chronicles chapter 3.
I read in Second Chronicles Chapter 11 of Rehoboam's
descendants. No such record is granted
concerning the man in the middle Rehoboam.
Or, excuse me, Solomon, we can just leave it at that and say,
well, it's not important for us to know.
And we we can again just make an argument based from common sense
that surely had more children than what we see here.
Or perhaps we can make another case.
It's a very difficult thing to imagine and something that's
very hard to swallow, but it's necessary to at least entertain
as a possibility concerning the silence of his offspring.
Did we forget what Solomon did leading up to his final moments
of life? Let me remind you in First Kings
11 and turn with me here to that chapter, and look here at verse
seven and eight. Then Solomon built a high place
for Himash, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the
abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
And so he did for all his former wives who made offerings and
sacrificed to their gods. Any light bulbs go off yet?
Yeah. Has it not?
Has it not registered yet? Let me remind you the first
place. One of these deities, these
false deities, are mentioned in scripture.
Molech is in Leviticus and Leviticus 1821, the first time
Molech is underscored in the Bible.
This is what we're told in Leviticus 1821.
You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech
and so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord.
One of the main ways that these false gods were worshipped is
that you would offer your children to them and grotesque,
unimaginable sacrifice. And I wonder, this is your
speculation. I'm not making a definite
argument here, but I wonder if one of the reasons why Solomon's
children are not mentioned to the extent and with the detail
that it deserved is because he participated in these gross acts
of false worship. How many of these children in
Solomon give up to Molech and these other false gods, I
wonder? You're saying, well, that's so
disgusting, such as the reality of this man's apostasy.
Now perhaps you can feel with the Lord when we're told that he
was angry with Solomon not just because his heart turned away
from the Lord, be what this heart turned did to the lives of
so many others. If this is how they worship
gods, these gods, then surely Solomon, after being told that
he worship these gods, participated in this to some
regard. And whether rebel was Solomon's
only son or was simply highlighted because he would be
the successor to the throne, I wonder if Solomon had rehoboam
in mind when he wrote Many of the proverbs Proverbs is
provided in the context in the framework of a father speaking
to who his son, and he says this in different ways in different
places. But the verse that came to mind
was Proverbs 2319, when Solomon said, Hear my son and be wise
and direct your heart in the way.
Proverbs 2319 Hear my son and be wise and direct your heart in
the way. And the reason why I bring that
verse to your attention before we come to this chapter is
because Rehoboam will prove to be the exact opposite of the
wishes of Solomon. He will not be wise, he will be
a fool, and he will prove his folly at the introduction of his
appearance here in the Bible. And that's exactly what we're
going to be doing tonight. In this Bible study, you and I
tonight are being prepared to explore the theme of wisdom.
And not just any kind of wisdom. We're going to look at life
saving, disastrous, dodging, heart unifying wisdom.
And this is what rehoboam was sorely lacking.
And it would lead to a catastrophe that would change
the course of this nation's history.
And these first 15 verses of Chapter 12 will lay that out for
us, a sharpened understanding of such kind of quality of wisdom.
And though they're going to be secondary points made
throughout, the way that the sharpening is going to take
place in your life and in mind is that looking at is we're
going to look at what rehoboam did right, and we're going to
look at what rehoboam did wrong. And by looking at both facets,
you and I are going to hopefully draw out principles and truths
that apply to you. Whether you're a king or have a
throne or not, wisdom is needed for all.
And so let's read the 1st 5 verses because I have 4 points
concerning what wisdom teaches. You Want to title this Bible
study what wisdom teaches 4 points, not limited to these
points, but four things in this great treasure chest.
Known wisdom that you and I can experience if we apply it to our
lives carefully. Verse one of First Kings,
Chapter 12. Rehoboam went to Shechem.
For all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king, and as
soon as Jeroboam, the son of the bat, heard of it, for he was
still in Egypt, we had fled from King Solomon.
Then Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and they sent and called
them, 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. We got to make a few mentions
here before we get to this main point.
The first point about what wisdom teaches us.
Rehoboam has his coronation service take place where
Shechem, you would think that it would take place where
Jerusalem, the city of David, the place where the king would
rule and reign. This is a detail that we might
overlook, but it's an important detail because, one, it's been
mentioned and two, we got to consider the implications of it.
If you had a map of ancient Israel and some of you have that
in the back of your Bibles, I'm not sure how much attention the
maps get in their Bibles, but they're there for a reason.
And now in the age of technology, you can make a
simple search and look for where Shechem is located in the
Promised Land. Strategically, Shechem is placed
in a central place concerning the northern tribes of Israel.
So this was a wonderful location for a king to be to hold this
inauguration because it would cater to the people and it would
hopefully even appease the people of the north.
Because perhaps Rehoboam is sensing that there is some
friction in the air between the 10 northern tribes and the
dynasty of David because of Solomon's foolishness.
And so Rehoboam is making a political move here.
He wants to make his way there instead of holding it in the
tribe of his father in the area that he already has allegiance
with. He wants to hopefully win the
loyalty of this people by parking himself here and
acknowledging their presence and wanting to again appease them in
some way. Now Jeroboam, we heard of him
last week. Jeroboam was one of the
adversaries, one of the three that God raised up to be a thorn
and Solomon's side because of his apostasy.
God wanted to discipline him and he raised up different people to
bring him to repentance. Jeroboam felt threatened by
Solomon because Solomon wanted to kill him.
So he he flees to Egypt. He hides, but he hides with a
careful eye and a listening ear. News comes to Jeroboam that rail
bomb the son of Solomon is going to be made king and check him.
So he returns to home turf and the northern tribes recognize
something in Jeroboam, perhaps the way Solomon did.
Remember, Solomon noticed something about Jeroboam and
hired him to have this governing role in his Kingdom and an
administrative role. He was an industrious man.
He was a very strategic man, a very hard working man, and it
could be that these tribes recognize the same qualities.
And he said you're going to be one of our spokespersons, and
Jeroboam had no problem with that.
So as a representative of these tribes with other leaders,
perhaps Jeroboam now approaches Rehoboam and he wants to make a
proposal. He wants to make some kind of
negotiation before they pledge their allegiance to him and his
Kingdom. And this is the summation of
what Rehoboam is requesting. Excuse me?
Jeroboam is requesting less taxes, less hard labor.
Your dad punished us. Your dad took so much away from
us. Your dad was overbearing.
And what I find fascinating about this is that these people
are experiencing the very thing that the prophet Samuel warned
in First Samuel chapter 8 when the people originally requested
for a king. If you read there in First
Samuel 8, eight, verse 10, down to verse 18, you get a summary
from the prophet who told this people exactly what they could
expect if they choose to have a human king over the divine king.
And one of those things is just that, taxation.
The other thing would be hard labor.
You'd be recruited outside of your control to do things in
order to promote the prosperity of this human ruler.
And now the people are tasting the consequence of their very
sin. And what's so sad to see is not
them just tasting it, but then tasting it and still not
repenting of it. This isn't repentance.
This isn't them looking back and saying, oh, we went wrong, our
fathers went wrong. Why didn't we listen to the
prophet, to the man of God who spoke on behalf of God?
We need to get back to God. They didn't do that.
They just wanted the consequences to be lighter.
They want to make a deal with the consequences of their
actions. But pay attention to this.
It's more disappointing than that.
Out of all the concerns that the tribes of Israel had at this
time, this is your ultimate concern.
Taxes and hard labor. Yeah.
It makes life difficult, I'm sure I understand.
But do you remember the scene that Solomon left before Rare
Bone would take his place? Are we not told in First Kings
11 verse seven? Then Solomon built a high place.
He built a high place for Hemos, the abomination of Moab, and for
Moloch the abomination of the Ammonites on the mountain east
of Jerusalem. Solomon didn't just sacrifice to
these gods secretly. Solomon erected these false
places of worship near the temple of God.
So now Jerusalem, the holy city, Israel as a whole is littered
and polluted with not just false worship, but obvious tangible
places where these gods could be worshipped.
You would think that if this people were truly the people of
God, that one of their protests would be Solomon left us idols
and Solomon introduced to our people false worship.
We need to clean this place up for her.
Boom. If you're going to take his
place, please do something with your power and your authority to
cleanse the land from these false demonic deities.
No such thing. Taxes.
Hard labor. Obviously they were not
disturbed by the idolatry that was right before them.
And why are you mentioning this? Well, remember, early on in
Solomon's reign we discussed and we observed the cracks in the
foundation of his faith that ultimately ended up leading him
to the disaster that he was in. I argue that here's some cracks
in the faith of the people as a whole who are not disturbed by
what was taking place right around them, who are concerned
about themselves primarily. And you know your Bible well
enough to see where this is going to end up, where this is
going to lead the people for generations to come.
It's only going to get worse and worse and worse.
You know, I read that I thought to myself, Lord, let my heart
never be undisturbed by sin. Let me be sensitive to evil.
Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness, not merely because
he was rejoicing in righteousness, but because he
hated wickedness. You want to be like Jesus.
You're going to hate like Jesus. Lord help me love like you love.
Good. Pray that always, but include
this in your prayers. Help me hate as you hate and
these people did not care. Flag.
Huge flag. We see here that there is no
call for repentance, repentance, no call for reform, no call for
seeking the face of God wrapped up in the natural.
And they couldn't even interpret the fact that the consequences
of this leadership that was overbearing was a result of
their disobedience many books ago.
But here is where we see Rehoboam in a favorable light.
When he receives his proposal, he asks for time to think about
it. He retracts before he gives an
answer. Here is one of the marks of
wisdom, Mark #1. Wisdom will teach you to listen
closely and think carefully before answering.
Wisdom will teach you to listen closely, to think carefully
before responding. In Proverbs 1528, we're told
that the heart of the righteous ponders before he answers.
One translation says it this way.
The heart of the righteous studieth before he gives an
answer. So righteousness.
Wisdom looks like pausing, pulling away before giving
counsel, conclusions, explanations.
Often people limit how wisdom manifests by identifying
somebody who can, at the top of their mind, just right off a
whim, give some kind of answer without much preparation,
without much thought. We tend to crown people with
wisdom when they are able to demonstrate such abilities.
But broaden your understanding of wisdom, because the Bible has
a broader view of what wisdom looks like.
Wisdom also looks like silence. Wisdom also looks like Give me
some time. Wisdom also looks like.
Let me seek counsel from others on this.
Wisdom also looks like. I want to be careful how I how I
respond to this moment and to your need.
So give me a little bit of of time to reflect before I give
you what you're asking for. That person is just as wise as
somebody else who can solve mysteries and can confound
others with their brilliance. Who don't have to reach over to
a shelf and pull up something because of their lack of memory,
can say something right there and then.
Wisdom can manifest in such a way.
But as we see here, wisdom also looks like pondering Before
you're answering. That is a grace that is
especially needed when somebody or some people approach you and
based on what you say, may contribute to a life altering
decision or to establishing a set of convictions and beliefs.
So you don't have to ponder absolutely everything that is
brought to your attention, right?
Some people ponder way too long about where they want to go eat
after church. It doesn't.
You don't need to. I need to ponder about this and
seek wisdom. No, you don't.
You need to just go somewhere and eat.
OK, but there are decisions in life.
There are crossroads. There are moments where you will
be approached, especially for those who are leaders or
aspiring leaders, where you need to know this grace that wisdom
offers to listen closely, think carefully before responding.
I was reading numbers. I'm in the book of numbers in my
personal reading, and I saw this demonstrated in the life of
Moses. Moses.
Remember Moses back in Exodus? He would have a line of people
come to solve a variety of cases.
His father ended up saying, look, you're going to kill
yourself. You got to set up a different
system here where you have the major cases come to you and then
all these other people can deal with the minor case.
Moses is someone who who had a mind, who had the ability to
solve things, and yet he was also a man who possessed wisdom
in this way. So you had people who were
around and touch dead things, and the Passover was around the
corner, Numbers, Chapter 9. And so they approached Moses and
they say, hey, look, are are we supposed to participate in this
feast or not? Because we did this and we know
that we're supposed to be isolated for a time, cleanse
ourselves before we engage. And this is what Moses says in
in Numbers Chapter 9, verse eight.
It's just one verse that popped out and was able to minister me
for that day. And Moses said to them, wait,
that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
Oh, Moses doesn't know. No, Moses is wise.
Moses is wise. Give me a second.
Here, let me think about this. Let me seek God on this, and
then I'll give you a clear answer.
So what wisdom does is it releases the pressures of the
flesh to try to, for whatever reason, convey or explain or
give something right away. That's a pressure of the flesh,
and that's an increasing pressure of this culture and the
attitude of this generation, Is it not?
People of our day are addicted to reactions.
What are the most clickbaity things on YouTube?
One of them, at least my response to the Christian
response to, oh, I want to hear what this guy say.
Everybody wants to know what everybody's responding to
concerning an event or a cultural phenomenon, right?
Response. Response.
We want to hear what people have to say.
And the greater the platform, the more we are longing to hear
from somebody. And these people who do have
platforms and do have voices, I believe, face that temptation
all the time. One, because they're being asked
and demanded to give an answer. And two, there is this weird
temptation of not just giving a response, but being one of the
first to give it, and often times at the cost of factual and
significant content. Some people don't even care
about getting their facts right. They just want to shoot off
their mouth and be able to have the most views and the most
clicks and the most recognition. Can you know what the Bible
prizes? Pondering, waiting, stepping
back, letting things surface, investigating all sides.
That's what wisdom teaches somebody, and that's something
you and I can use in this day and age where finger fingers
are. They feel the pressure of
posting, commenting, putting this up.
It's not always wise to do that. And I've seen many people in the
past four or five years make regrettable statements and
realize that only after the fact, when the smoke is cleared
and they thought maybe I shouldn't posted that, maybe I
shouldn't have said that, maybe I shouldn't have advised that.
Maybe I shouldn't give, I shouldn't have given to that
cause. Be slow, rare.
Bowman is honorable here. Give me 3 days.
Let me think about that. But here's the second thing that
wisdom teaches. Wisdom teaches us not just to
listen closely, think carefully, but it teaches us to seek
specific counsel. Look here with me in verse six.
Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old man who had stood
before Solomon, his father, while he was yet alive, saying,
how do you advise me to answer this, people.
So in the pursuit of wisdom, the path that wisdom places you on,
which caused you to listen closely, think carefully before
responding. You're also in that process
going to seek for counsel and notice.
I said specific counsel because we're told that Roboam sought
old men, not just old men, but men who stood before Solomon.
What does that mean? Here's a translation.
Men who had experience in the area that Roboam was uncertain
about. These men had a resume.
These men had history. They had experience.
And Roboam, again here is seen in a favorable light.
He was drawn to. He approached the right people.
I know this sounds like common sense, but you'd be made to know
how many people failed to grasp these life altering truths, life
saving truths. And at one point they might have
had it and then they let go of it for whatever reason.
So that's why we reminded of these things.
OK? If you're going to seek counsel,
I advise seeking counsel from people who are experiencing the
place that you're seeking counsel for.
If I'm going to seek counsel concerning ministry, who do you
think I'm going to go to for counsel?
Most likely people who have experience in history And what
ministry, right? And that is true for every arena
of life you should be able to identify.
You should be able to look for those who can say and not just
say from experience, but have the presentable and obvious
character in that moment. To be able to give you
principles from the experience that they had.
Because as we learn, years and experience and whatever you've
got going on in your life doesn't necessarily equate to
discretion and prudence. But if a person has character, a
person is trustworthy, a person has fruit with that experience,
that's gold. That is gold.
And your heart should, with that simple common sense truth, go to
people, say, I see counsel. OK, look, wisdom isn't about
just seeking counsels without speaking the right counselors.
How did you make that decision? Well, I asked people Who did you
ask? It's not just about seeking
counsel, but about the right counselors that you're seeking.
Proverbs 11 tells us in verse 14, Proverbs 24, verse six that
in abundance of counselors there is safety.
Another transition would say in abundance of counselors there is
victory. So wisdom teaches you and I to
seek specific counsel. And like the previous
misconception mentioned, some people believe that wisdom is
proven by one who is a self seeking arbiter.
I don't need to ask anybody's advice, I know it.
I have my own experience. I have my own ways of looking at
this. I I can figure this out, I can
crack the code. And though that might be true in
some instances, in the experiences you have should be
able to arm you to know what to do in particular moments.
I say a man or a woman is crowned with wisdom when they
have the humility to say I'm going to pick up the phone and
make a few phone calls. That's not you lacking wisdom.
That's you possessing wisdom. And so again, broaden your
understanding of what wisdom looks like.
It's not you figuring it all out because you have the
supernatural ability to solve things.
That's that's one way wisdom can manifest.
But God will often cause you to feel the need to get something
from someone else. That's the beauty of the body of
Christ. You're 1 member part of this
complex thing. You're benefiting from others.
God established his church that way.
So if you feel the nudge and the urge to seek counsel from
specific people, that's not you Lacking wisdom, that's you
having it. And this is what this man does.
And it's worth looking at the advice that they give you.
Ready. Here's what they said to them.
Verse 7. 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. So they're they're telling him,
look, if you do something for them, they will do something for
you in return. And what did he ask?
What did they ask? Rahabaum, to be a servant.
Rahabaum, you be a servant to this people.
Here's a transition. If you come humbly, if you
express that you are for them and you are with them, that
you're there to support them, that you're there to come
alongside them and to guide them and to empower them, man, you
will win their hearts and they'll get behind you and
they'll walk with you and they'll pledge their loyalty to
you. So Rearbaum approached them with
that kind of loneliness, and you will be rewarded.
Bad advice or good advice. Good advice, right.
And can I tell you why it's good advice.
Not because it makes sense. Not because there's a fragrance
there of humility that most, if not all people are drawn to, but
because it's rooted in the Bible.
Do you remember what the kings were supposed to do?
We've gone back to this text over and over again, but there's
so many details that we miss. In Deuteronomy 1716 to 20, we're
told what the kings were to avoid and what they were to do.
One of the things that they were to do was what absorb the word
of God, write a copy of it, get it approved by the Levites, and
read it and cling it to your breast every single day.
And here is the result, one of the results of these kings doing
just that. Deuteronomy 17, verse 20.
Look at the fruit of a man who finds himself anchored in the
scriptures, and especially as a king, as a leader.
This is what God had in mind, that his heart may not be lifted
up above his brothers. So you can argue that the
counsel of these older men is rooted in that as a king, you're
not meant to Lord it over others.
You're not meant to lift up your heart above them.
No. Come to them as a servant.
Approach them in that kind of loneliness.
This is what God's will is for you.
This is what the Lord longs for you, and this is what we're
translating to you in this particular case.
So I argue that these men are hopefully basing it off this
truth, and I couldn't help but think about how that's a
universal truth for all spiritual leaders of all ages.
You know what verse came to mind when I was meditating on this
today? The last verse of Second
Corinthians, chapter one, Second Corinthians chapter one, verse
24. You don't have to turn there,
but if you want, you can listen to this glorious gem of truth
that Paul explains as a leader. He says in 2nd Corinthians 124.
Not that we Lord it over your faith.
Look as an apostle, as a leader of a church, as a church
planner. I'm not here to Lord myself over
your faith. I'm not here to abuse my
authority. But what is he here to do?
But we work with you, not over you.
You don't work for us. No, we work with you.
And notice what they're working together for.
For your joy. For your joy.
A few months ago we we installed another elder here, and this
verse was brought up because we wanted to let the people of God
know that one of the reasons you can rejoice when God raises up
Godly leaders in your life is that it will contribute to your
joy. They're there to work with you
for real joy, not just theoretical joy, real tangible
joy for you. Stand firm in your faith.
So leaders, aspiring leaders of any capacity, understand this.
You don't Lord it over others. You work with people, and people
should sense that. They should sense that you're
there with them, your partner with them.
And though you may have authority to a certain regard,
it's not to abuse, It's not to, It's not to manipulate, it's not
to take advantage of. It's to contribute to their joy.
This is what rare Baum received as counsel.
Wisdom teaches you to seek specific counsel.
I say specific because of the Third Point.
Wisdom will teach you to identify and reject the wrong
voices. The wrong voices.
Look at verse. 8 But he abandoned the counsel that the
old man gave him, and took counsel with the young men who
had grown up with him and stood before him.
Make a contrast between the men that he sought originally and
the men that he sought here originally.
He sought old men who stood before who?
Solomon? And now he seeks the counsel of
young men who grew up with him and who they stand before him.
So these are close friends, these are companions, these are
contemporaries. And this is where now Rehoboam
takes a wrong turn. So the first two points we
thought Rehoboam, you're headed in the right direction.
And though we can even question those, the motive of those first
two points, as we're about to, in principle they are still
true. But this is where it becomes
blatantly flagrant. This man now goes to these men
and he seeks the advice of the wrong crowd.
And here's what I want to say. As a side note, sometimes wisdom
will tell you to seek the counsel or the advice of an
outsider. What I mean by that, Sometimes
situations will require you to not seek the advice of those in
your immediate context and who are familiar with you and who in
the familiarity with you might be biased toward you and will
lean to defend you regardless, or might have blind spots
because they're caught up and entangled in the affairs.
So wisdom will whisper to you at times.
Talk to somebody who is not connected to this situation
because often times they can provide a clear assessment
because they are not again bound to the limitations that the
complexity of circumstances might bring one to sometimes,
not always. And this meant, unfortunately,
he he draws himself, he invites those that are very familiar
with him, that are biased toward him.
And rail bones problem is much deeper than that.
Compare his wording here in verse 9 to verse 6.
Let's read carefully, shall we? And he said to them, he's
speaking to his friends now. 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, Absorb that,
digest that. Now look at verse six.
Then King Realbaum to counsel with the old man who had stood
before Solomon, his father, while he was yet alive, saying,
how do you advise me to answer this people Anything stand out
to you this comparison Very good.
Did you catch that? Do you see the inclusive
language when he talks to his friends in comparison to him
talking to the old men? Look again in verse nine.
What do you advise that we answer this people.
And when he spoke to the old man look what he's asked and how he
asked. How do you advise who we me.
Solomon's. Excuse me?
Robohm's words here and how he identifies with the younger
people shows that his mind is already set on what he wants to
do. What do I mean by that?
He was simply looking for the counsel that would agree with
what he had already determined within himself.
Do people seek advice that way? Yes.
Do people hop from one person to the next until they land on
somebody who agrees with what they have determined already?
Is that wisdom? No, it's foolish.
That's foolish. And So what about him taking
that time off? What about him going to the old
men? Perhaps this man was just going
through the routine and the motions.
Perhaps he was just placating and just giving the the idea
that he was somebody who was, you know, he playing politics
here. But when it comes to the young
men, he says we proving to us that he already set his mind and
he's just looking for somebody to agree with him, to give him
the license to go ahead in the direction that he had
determined. That is a deadly way to set up a
support system, and I mean deadly.
To find people who will never disagree with you, never
challenge you, never rebuke you, never redirect you.
To find the Yes Men, Yes Woman to defend you whether you're in
the right or in the wrong, is devastating to your development,
your witness, and your fruitfulness for the Kingdom of
God. Such people listen to me.
Listen to This might sound harsh, but it's true.
Such people don't love you. They don't love you.
They love something about you and something, perhaps, that you
offer them. And they're afraid that them
taking a stand against you will cost them such, so they will
never speak up against you. I need, I love, I am drawn to
those that I can tell, fear God, know God, absorb His word, live
by the Word, and will speak into my life whether I like to hear
what they have to say or not. That's wisdom.
That's a safe way to live. That's a true support system.
And unfortunately, this is not what this man had.
And I wondered why that was the case.
Well, we're not told why they gave this particular advice.
Let's read it, they say here. And the young men in verse 10
who had grown up with him, notice the repetition there, 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 you shall say, shall you
say to them, my little fingers 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 discipline you with
whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.
Who are these guys? What kind of advice is that?
The advice of young, proud, insecure people who don't
understand how leadership really works.
And you know, again, you wonder, why did they have this kind of
approach? Why did they come about with
this kind of advice? And perhaps again, this is a
speculation. They benefited much from the
prosperity and the power of their friend Rehab.
These are not random young people.
These are people who grew up with them, who stood before him.
And again, it could be that in hearing and knowing about the
advice of the old man, or to comply to the request of these
tribes, rehoboam would be weakened.
He would have to give up so much if he let go of the taxation
that the father had decided or the hard labor that would
generate the prosperity that they enjoyed.
So these friends, perhaps connected to the benefits of the
king, don't want to lose something themselves.
And so in wanting to secure their own enjoyment and their
own benefits, they said don't do it this way.
Vamp it up. Go the authoritarian approach.
Get aggressive. Let him know that what they've
seen will not even compare to what you will give to them.
It's so unfortunate. Whether you like it or not,
there will be many voices that will speak into your life, even
voices that were not invited to speak into your life.
They will make way to your mind, to your heart, to your ears
directly. Indirectly, and wisdom will
teach you how to identify and reject the wrong counsel that
comes your way. Here's how real Bomb could have
avoided it. Because this is arrogant, this
is selfish, and they took advantage of this moment with
their friend to the opposite of what the Crown asked.
And so this is where you and I have to be careful #1 Under this
Third Point, determine in your heart that you will receive
God's counsel no matter what it costs you, no matter what it
will cost you. I've met people who want advice,
and when they hear the advice that comes from the word of God,
they reject it because they realize how costly it is.
It costs your pride. It costs your time, it costs
your efforts, your discipline. And when it doesn't, again like
Ryrbohm, agree with your standard, you shun it.
You gotta determine in your heart, Lord, whatever you ask of
me in this moment, in the circumstance, with this
decision, I will do it. Lord, look at my heart.
Please, Lord, look at my heart and see that my heart more than
anything else, more than my comfort, more than anybody else.
Liking me more than how people will praise or condemn this
decision. I want you to be pleased.
That's got to be the foundation. That's got to be laid out flat
and clear, undeniably in your conscience.
Rebel didn't have that. His heart was so polluted.
It was so ugly. He was playing tricks and he was
trying to even convince himself, I'm going to go to the old men,
hear what they have to say. But he already determined his
mind and when he found the crowd that would speak into his pride,
he went with it. The second thing that you must
do is this. You have to so familiarize
yourself with the word of God, that through the discernment
that you develop in your engagement and your study of the
word of God, you can spot out what is false.
You can spot out what is wrong. You can come to the point and
your knowledge of the word of God.
Listen carefully, or even when a preacher preaches and 99% of it
is right, that 1% you'll be able to detect something's off here.
Something's not right. Everything sounds so good.
There's verses quoted, they're all these footnotes.
But there's something not right here.
And that's how Spurgeon defined discernment.
Discernment, according to Spurgeon, I agree with him, is
not determining between what is right and what is wrong, but
what is right and what is almost right.
It's not difficult to see what is right and what is wrong.
I mean, in this day of age, even in Christendom, it's becoming
increasingly more difficult. True discernment is saying this
is right. That's almost right.
How do you develop that? The Bible.
It's the supernatural empowerment for discernment.
You don't have a rich relationship with the Bible.
You're going to have poor discernment in life.
I'm telling you, it's not just knowledge.
There's a spiritual impartation that takes place where there's a
sensitivity to your ability to discern, to absorb what is pure
and holy, and to reject and remove yourself from that which
might pollute you and infect you.
Here's one of the strongest examples of that.
This came to mind, and you're gonna have to turn to the seat
with me, another leader who is the exact opposite of this man
rehab bomb. Nehemiah.
Go to Chapter 6 with me very quickly.
I want you to see this. This is a wonderful scene to
expound upon this truth of what wisdom teaches us.
Look at Nehemiah and go to chapter 6.
Nehemiah was called by God to build the walls of Jerusalem.
Was it an easy task or a difficult task?
Turbulence or no turbulence? Turbulence, threats or no
threats along the way? A lot of threats.
Here's one of them, and I want you to see how clever Satan can
be. I want you to see the kind of
tactics and the depth of his arsenal.
Here it is in Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 10.
Now when I went into the House of Shamaya, the son of Delilah,
son of Mihitabel, who was confined to his home, he said
let us meet together in the House of God within the temple.
Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to
kill you. They are coming to kill you by
night. So here's this man who is named,
who invites Nehemiah into his home.
And he's confined in his home, perhaps demonstrating his own
fears of the enemies of the people of God, who who brought
many threats throughout this construction project.
And this man now invites Nehemiah into his home.
And he says, look, I I got a word here.
I got a word from God. I got instruction here.
They're coming to kill you, and you need to hide.
And I'm telling you, the best place to hide is in the House of
God. The House of God, then, is not
the House of God that we experience, you and I, every
week. It was the temple, and he was
told that, and we're being reminded that it's a temple.
Hide in the temple, close the doors, and they won't find you.
They'll never look in there, and you'll be safe.
So this man is coming, presumably as a man speaking on
behalf of God, as a friend, speaking in supposed care and
compassion. I love Nehemiah.
Look how he responds to verse 11.
But I said, should such a man as I run away and what man such as
I could go into the temple and live, I will not go in.
You know you read Nehemiah 6 in your devotion and you pick up
the Bible app and you see these verses in verse or verses of the
day. I don't know how they do it
anymore. You say OK, Nehemiah is he's
he's courageous. He's not going to hide.
No. Nehemiah knows his Bible.
It's not just him being courageous as him identifying
and discerning that though this man speaks and supposed
knowledge and care on behalf of God, he's off.
He's off. Why is he off?
Can anybody tell me while he's off?
How? How is Nehemiah able to discern
this? Nehemiah wasn't a priest.
Implying what? Nehemiah had no right to go into
the House of God. Only the Levites.
Only the priest could abide in the Tabernacle in the temple.
And Nehemiah understood his identity.
He understood God's requirements and the boundaries.
And so when this man speaking with authority, this man
speaking as a spokesperson, this man speaking as a supposed
friend, he was off and Nehemiah could sense it because he had a
knowledge of the scriptures. And that's how verse 12 comes
about. Look at this verse 12.
And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had
pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat
had hired him. How did he identify that this
was a false prophet? How did he identify that this
was a word? Not from God?
Because it didn't line up with the word of God, full stop.
It didn't line up with the word of God.
And he was able to have not just discernment into this moment,
but even discernment into what was going on behind the scenes.
This was a hired man. To do what?
Look at verse 13 for this purpose.
He was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and
sin. And so they could give me a bad
name in order to taught me. That's wisdom, man.
That's discernment, and it is directly correlated to your
grasp of the word of God, your grasp of the word of God.
And that's how deception is going to rank.
And that's why you and I are going to see more people bearing
the name of Christ as we approach the culmination of the
age, turning their back on the truth, getting swallowed up by
false teaching and false teachers for this one main
reason they don't know the Bible as they should.
This is a terrible time to be lazy with the Bible.
Let me say this in love. To my brothers and sisters, this
is a terrible time because Jesus prophesied that the first son of
the last days is that there will be rampant deception.
And the scary thing about deception, You heard me say this
once. Let me say it to you again.
The scary part about deception is that you don't know you're
being deceived. Do you think people who are
being deceived know that they're being deceived?
No, They believe they're in the truth.
So know the word. Eat the word.
Drink the word. Talk about the word.
Familiarize yourself with the word.
Because mark my words, we've seen wave after wave in the past
few years. I believe it's going to only
intensify. More and more spiritual tsunamis
are on the way that will cost people within.
Christen them to question what you and I would think is common
sense biblically. But because they have forfeited
the supremacy and the authority of the word of God, they're
susceptible to dangerous teachings.
Cling to the Bible. You want discernment.
You want to be able to see pastor.
You want X-ray vision? Get in the word cover to cover.
Master it. Hear it.
Hear faithful preachers talk about it.
These days, require it. Wisdom will teach you to listen
closely. Think carefully before
responding. Two, wisdom will teach you to
seek specific counsel. 3. Wisdom will teach you to
identify and reject wrong voices. 4 Wisdom will teach you
to be in alignment with God. Let's read here verse 13 down of
First Kings chapter 12. Let's begin in verse 12 and
conclude this section. So Jeroboam and all the people
came to Rehoboam the third day as the king said come to me
again the 3rd day. 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. Verse 15 is so important to pay
attention to. So the king did not listen to
the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about the Lord
that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahija
the Shiloh knight to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
What's so disappointing about these first 15 verses in First
Kings chapter 12 is that verse 15 is the first time the Lord is
mentioned. He should have been mentioned
much earlier in this story saying what do you mean Rehoboam
was right And asking for three days to ponder, to reflect, to
seek counsel. Is there any evidence in here
that in and during those three days he sought God?
No, no prayer, no fasting. Any evidence that he opened his
personal copy of the law to seek God's voice and counsel as a
king. And what to do in this time?
No, nothing of the sort. God is not mentioned.
God is absent until the Holy Spirit, as a commentator, brings
insight into how sovereignty is at work.
Even in this he doesn't seek the Lord.
He doesn't inquire the Lord the Lord's on his mind, the Lord's
not on his lips. You think that you're going to
be able to navigate through life that way.
You think you're going to succeed as a king.
By excluding God from the equation, Wisdom will teach you
to be in alignment with God. In every season of life we see
that this man, the absence of actively seeking God, produced
the absence of God working in favor for him.
What would have been like if he humbled himself before the Lord?
So you want the best outcome for your future.
Amen. So do I.
Stay close to him, Cling to him, remain desperate, remain
desperate for him. And you should never fear what
will come if you do that about where your heart will lead you,
or how outcomes will direct you when your heart is sudden,
pleasing the Lord above all else.
I am more desperate at 32 years old than I was when I started
this journey at 20 and I pray that never changes.
And I hope you feel the same way that as you grow in life, as you
grow in advance in years and more responsibilities come your
way and more opportunities are presented to you, that that
would only amplify your sense of being a desperate child that
comes to his father every moment of the day.
Lead me, guide me, direct me, and doesn't have to look like
you shutting your door and pounding the your fists against
the wall. Some situations might require
that kind of seclusion. But even as you're driving and
you're about to meet somebody for a potential contract with
that business. Lord, give me wisdom here.
Help me see things that I can't see.
Don't let me fall for the give me a night deception.
If there's something here that I don't know about, expose it.
Talk like that to God. He will honor that.
He will bless that. He will shepherd you in a way
that you cannot even imagine. And when you listen to this,
this is the beauty of it, because you have people all the
time that wonder, how did this happen?
How did this come about? Where do things go wrong?
And my go to question is this, Did you give it to the Lord to
begin with? Did you saturate it in prayer?
Did you ask the Lord to go before you?
If you did, then you can trust in any outcome, whether it's
immediately favorable or not, because you did your part.
Anxiety should be foreign to the soul that is dependent upon God.
Why? Because I did my part.
I put it in the hands of God. Oh, look at that didn't didn't
result in how I thought, but I did my part.
Lord, no, teach me what to do with this.
That's the way of the Christian. That's the way of the wise.
Wisdom will teach you to remain in alignment with God.
Along the way you start doing things without God.
You should be scared. You start thinking you're
getting smart here. Now you're getting clever should
be afraid, because here's a man here who is absent and actively
seeking the Lord, and as a result, he was absent in
experiencing the favor of the Lord.
And all we're told here is that the king did not listen to the
people, and it was a turn of affairs brought about by the
Lord that he might fulfill His word.
Here's what we're meant to see here.
Obama is about to make a decision that's going to that's
going to do some serious damage for hundreds of years to come.
And in anticipation of this fallout, we're going to see the
Kingdom Divided for the rest of this chapter.
The Holy Spirit now wants us to see behind the scenes.
He removes the curtain. He goes, hey, hey, before we
read and before we move on, I want you to be comforted to know
that though leaders throughout history, though leaders in your
life have caused much havoc and chaos because of their own
foolishness, it never escapes God's sovereignty.
That's what we're supposed to see here, where Obama is going
to blow it and the Holy Spirit wants you to see, but God knows
it, God's in control of it. And in fact, even through the
failure of this man, the failure of this people, it will never
throw out the purposes of God. What a word that we need here in
this election year and for these past many years where we've seen
just incompetence and foolishness, news headlines and
podcasts and interviews that have caused us to think, How can
somebody be so inadequate and making simple decisions, making
the average person feel like I can be a better president than
this? How governors and politicians,
how have we stooped so low? How we, how we left with these
kind of options? And I take that verse and I
apply it to this particular season in the West, and I see
behind the veil behind all of it.
I don't get overwhelmed by it. I don't get caught up by it.
God's purposes are not thwarted. In fact, everything is going
according to plan. In fact, he's going to come out
victorious in this. And you and I are attached to
that God. You and I are linked to that
God. The safest place to be is close
to God. You have nothing to fear because
of that. The Lord wants you to be adorned
with wisdom. You don't have to wait till you
get Grays like me just a little bit.
Here you don't need Gray hairs. You don't need numbers to your
years for that wisdom to come. You can like James, one says,
ask freely to the Lord and he will bountifully give you
wisdom. And when you have that wisdom,
it's going to teach you how to listen, how to answer.
It's going to teach you who to go to, who not to go to.
It's going to teach you you can't do this without God.
Lord, we thank you for this Bible study.
We feel enriched because your word is true and because you
have given us understanding through the example of this man,
Brahul Balm. We thank you that you've
included him in holy writ and you did not delete or remove his
story from the scriptures. Lord, at this time it's obvious
what we need to pray for. We as a church, individually, as
a congregation, maybe people representing different
assemblies in this place ask you for wisdom.
We can't do this without you. Many of us here have to make
more serious decisions than others.
All of us in here will eventually have to make life
altering decisions and we pray, Lord that you would build in us
a discretion and an ability to be navigators through this life
in the most successful God glorifying way possible.
So that even now as we sit in our respective places, we pray
that you would shower us with heavenly wisdom, Ones that would
make us look more like the Son of God.
One that would secure righteousness and fruitfulness,
one that would help us avoid unnecessary suffering.
And so, Lord, we ask, and we believe that you will give it to
us. We have no reason to fear.
And Lord, at this time whatever decision is gnawing at us, if if
some here are standing at a crossroads, not knowing what to
do with the voice of wisdom, be louder than ever.
May even leaving this place provide a clarity and a strength
that can only come from the Spirit.
Teach us to listen at the ponder.
Teach us and show us who it is that we need to receive from.
Show us if the people around us are speaking into our lives to
our own demise and Lord, every hour, help us stay close to you.
Help us include you and all of our plans to seek you for
wisdom, to ask for clarity, to expose deception, and to be at
rest to know that when we have brought it to you, we've done
all that we could. And that no matter what
decision, even if it's two good decisions and we don't know
which one is your will, they're both awesome.
We can trust that the one that we go for, after doing all that
we could do, you will redirect us if it wasn't the right path.
This is how good you are, Lord. This is how merciful you are.
Renew our vision of the goodness of the shepherd of our souls.
And now we give you praise and glory and honor.
For you have given us what we desperately need.
Wisdom. To the glory of the name of the
Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Church.
It was a joy and an honor. Now let's stand and worship this
king. He is for you.
He is with you and he will guide you.