First Kings Chapter 12 beginning here in verse 16.
If you were here last week, then you are fully aware that we took
our time through the introduction of this character
named Rehoboam, who is the six succeeding king to Solomon, his
father, to absorb these life preserving, relationally
flourishing God, glorifying promises that wisdom, biblical
wisdom provides. And unfortunately, it wasn't
through Rehoboam's positive example that we glean much of
these truths and these insights about wisdom, but through his
failures. And unfortunately, the sad
pattern of Rehoboam's thinking is only going to grievously
continue in these next set of verses.
And if that's not upsetting enough, then you and I are also
going to encounter the nation of Israel as a whole, making tragic
decisions to their own harm and injury for generations to come.
And if that's difficult to stomach, I'm sorry, there's even
more. Because we are also going to be
introduced to Jeroboam, not as a character, not as a person in
the Bible, but as the first king of the northern tribes of
Israel. And he too will make
dramatically foolish decisions that will also add to the harm
of the people for generations to come.
All in all, for the rest of this chapter, we're almost going to
get a sense that there's like a competition here.
Who can be the most foolish? There's this foolishness
everywhere, and we know what foolishness will produce in a
life that is unrepentant and unwilling to change and be
humbled before the truth of God. So to introduce a Bible study in
this way, I wouldn't be surprised if it's disheartening
and not the most exciting thing to uncover in the next hour.
But if there's any hope in digesting this together, it is
that this is good for us. This is good for us in that it
will contribute to your personal growth in the area of wisdom.
And so be encouraged in that because the Bible speaks about
what serious observation can produce in the life of a person
who desires wisdom, or who may not even know their need for
wisdom. The verse that comes to mind is
Proverbs 21, verse 11, and here's what it says in the first
part of Proverbs 21, verse 11. When the scoffer is punished,
this simple become wise. A scoffer is somebody who has
become stiff necked, who mocks at the idea of correction, who
rejects the idea of counsel, who is set in their own ways even
though those ways are destructive and wrong.
And a scoffer, according to the Bible, through divine
sanctioning or just because of the world today that we live in
that has somewhat of a grasp of right and wrong.
At least it should. A scoffer is susceptible to much
punishment consequences for his foolishness, and here's what the
Bible says following that When a scoffer experiences the outcome
of their own disregard for truth and biblical wisdom, the simple
the simple is not the same as a fool.
The simple can become a fool. But the simple in the Bible
speaks of the naive, the gullible, the uninformed, the
immature. This simple becomes wise.
The simple becomes wise. And seeing, oh, that's what
happens when a person lives foolishly.
Oh, that's what happens when a person lives as a scoffer.
That's what happens when a person implements human wisdom
above God's wisdom. And through that they learn
through what observation you and I are observing.
We're observing what foolishness can produce in a life, not just
in a life in society, not just in society to a nation.
And we are to become more wise as a result of it.
So let's begin here in verse 16. And when all Israel saw that the
king did not listen to them, the people answered the king.
What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, O Israel. Look now to your own house,
David. So Israel went to their tents,
but rail bomb reigned over the people of Israel who lived in
the cities of Judah. What's happening here?
Well, you and I learned it last week.
That rail bomb was counseled to approach the people who had a
request and a negotiation. That if they were going to
submit under his leadership, then he would have to lighten up
on the taxes, lighten up on the hard labor that his father
exercised during his reign. Rehab rejected their desire, and
he decided to go the authoritarian approach, You're
not going to mess with me. You think that you can determine
how this nation is going to function.
You got another thing coming. And so he implements an iron
fist and it backfires. As we read here, all Israel now
chooses to disassociate, not just from rehab but from the
dynasty of David. Can I ask you a question?
How many years did it take for both David and Solomon to
establish their monarch? How many years did it take in
total for these two to build this Kingdom so to speak in
honoring of God's covenant with David?
It's very simple. How long did David rule and
reign for 40, So total how many years?
80 with Solomon? 80 years to get to this point,
and he had. The last moments of Solomon's
life were quite shaky, but we can just generally say it took
80 years and after 80 years it took Rehoboam 3 days to
dismantle it. It took this man less than a
week to topple all that was built through the toil of his
father's. Can you imagine that?
We wish it wasn't so, but such is the reality of what our
decisions can do, such as the reality.
And don't worry about that, guys.
If it's not going to operate, don't worry about it.
It's not that bad. So you have here a man who makes
these kind of decisions, very few, but significant enough to
do what? To bring it all down to nothing.
And what we're supposed to take from that is that you and I have
to understand the significance of our choices in life.
And that is not meant to paralyze you in the advancements
that you have to make in this life.
And through those advancements, you have to make major
decisions. It's not meant to cripple you at
all, but what it is meant to do is encourage you to stay near to
God. Stay close to God.
Always be needy before God. Plunge every plan, every desire,
every decision in prayer. Receive the counsel of His Word
continually in the counsel of God's people who submit to this
Word, and you'll be more than safe.
You will actually flourish. This is not a man who innocently
made a mistake. This is a man who blatantly
chose to turn away from God's will, God's Word, God's
provision of guidance through other people, and He's paying
for it. And not just him, but you.
Think about what his Father's invested up to this time and
what will take place following Rehoboam.
And as we look at this, we think to ourselves how?
How did this happen? How is this now Kingdom for the
first time divided? Listen, this is such a calamity
and a stain to Israel's history that the scriptures will even
use this moment as a benchmark to measure future catastrophes
that this nation will face. Let me give you an example of
that and Isaiah 7 verse 17. The Lord speaks to the prophet,
and this is what he says, and it provides great insight to just
how profound this moment is. In our study of the Old
Testament, says here in Isaiah 7, verse 17, the Lord will bring
upon you and upon your people and upon your Father's house.
Such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed
from Judah, the king of Assyria, the king of Assyria.
I'm going to release the king of Assyria upon you, Israel, and
you're not going to see these days.
They're going to not even be able to come close to what you
experienced in recent issue. The only thing I can compare it
to is First Kings chapter 12 when Ephraim, which is the
largest tribe of the northern tribes divorcing from Judah.
So this is serious. This is massive.
And we're supposed to feel the weightiness of this?
One man's choice would put a dent in Israel's history and
future now. Israel's severely divided,
right? They expressed this.
We have nothing to do with the House of David.
We're removing ourselves from him, and we see what Rehoboam
will do as a response. In verse 18.
Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster, over the
forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones.
And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to
Jerusalem. This is like it's almost
unimaginable, you would think, if you took the counsel of your
companions and it backfired like this.
The 10 tribes say we we want nothing to do with you.
We're going our own way. You deal with your own tribe.
We're going to deal with our own.
That you would learn and realize that the counsel you received
was way off. You would be humbled by that.
And if you're going to flee to anything, you would flee to the
prayer closet and then return to the drawing board and say, Where
did I go wrong? How can I make this right?
I've learned from my own mistakes.
God, please help me. Instead, what does he do?
He sends a taskmaster, the same taskmaster that was employed by
Solomon. In other words, what this man is
doing is even though the people denied his authority, he double
S down. He double S down.
He still tries to play that tough guy card.
He double S down. Though the system was condemned,
he says no, I'm going to implement it whether you like it
or not. Is this foolishness or what?
How much more of a fool can you be?
And I step back when I read this last night and I study this and
I thought, How can you be so idiotic?
How can you not just see the plane writing on the wall?
How can you not see the fruit of your decisions?
How can you think you know what this needs me to pursue with
greater aggression. How?
And then a verse came to mind. It's in Proverbs 11, verse 2,
where it says when pride comes then comes disgrace.
But with the humble is wisdom. What is this man illustrating?
A lack of humility. A man who could not admit he was
wrong. A man who could not admit
defeat. A man who could not return to
his former understanding of what the truth was when it was
advised to him and say, this is the way I went the wrong way.
And when you do not have humility, you also forfeit
wisdom. Humility must be pursued and
secured if wisdom is going to be realized.
No humility, no wisdom. And if you don't have humility,
there's no neutrality. There's pride.
And when you have pride, you inherit disgrace.
And the longer you hold on to that pride, the greater the
disgrace will be in your life and in mine.
So why is why is rehab doing this?
It's because he lacks humbleness, and because of that
he forfeited wisdom. Even in the plain sight of the
obvious thing to do, he still was headlong, stiff, necked,
determined to pursue what he saw to be right.
How do I grow in wisdom? Just set the bedrock of humility
in your heart. Express continuing your need of
him and his guidance, and that also includes admitting and
confessing you're wrong so that light can come in and that you
can receive the insight you need to avoid that mistake.
Again, Rehoboam lack that and it came to his own harm.
As we see here, A man died because of his foolishness.
Relationship dies because of a lack of humility.
Ministries die because of a lack of humbleness.
So many things die when humility is not priority.
Look at this common verse 19. So Israel has been in rebellion
against the House of David to this day for the rest of the
landscape of the Old Testament. From this point on, we're going
to see a shift in the terrain of Scripture.
And this is the verse that pivots it, saying what do you
mean? Because from now on, generally
whenever you see the word Israel or Israel being mentioned, it's
not speaking about the entirety of the 12 tribes of the sons of
Jacob. Israel from this point on will
reference the 10 northern tribes, whereas Judah will
represent the southern Kingdom and Judah will not stand alone.
Judah, the southern Kingdom, will also be comprised with and
connected to which other tribe? Benjamin.
Correct. So you have the 10 who represent
Israel, the Kingdom of Israel. That's not the whole nation, the
10 tribes, the northern tribes. And then you have the Kingdom of
Judah, which is Judah primarily, but also Benjamin partnering
with him. And sometimes you'll read about
Ephraim and that's one tribe, but in some context.
Actually in many contexts that tribe represents the 10 northern
tribes you just read it in in Isaiah 717.
Since Ephraim departed from Judah, well it was more than
Ephraim. So Ephraim also in many context
of the Old Testament represents the 10 northern tribes as a
whole. Why?
Why Ephraim? Any idea?
Ephraim is the largest tribe. It's as simple as that.
Ephraim is the largest tribe. Judah out of the two is also
larger than Benjamin. So just a simple way of
identifying these two different kingdoms now and we're going to
see that for the rest of our study in the Hebrew scriptures.
Verse 19 indicates that. But we read on what do we see in
verse 20? And when all Israel heard that
Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly
and made him king. Over all Israel.
There was none that followed the House of David but the tribe of
Judah only. So Rehoboam is not the only fool
in this chapter, Israel. Those 10 tribes are also
foolish. Any idea why this demonstrates
their foolishness? They made Jeroboam their king.
Why is that important? Who is God's chosen king?
Was it just David? Or would it be his descendants
forever? His descendants forever?
So the mark of God's favor was upon David and his descendants.
They were the chosen lineage to operate as monarchs for the
Kingdom of God, the reflection of the glory of God.
And here's this people saying we want nothing to do with David's
line. We want Jeroboam.
Jeroboam, though he was called by God to work in this way.
We also learned that the people here made a drastic mistake in
separating themselves from God's original choice for the king of
Israel. And as we looked at this, we
think to ourselves, well, what is this going to cost them?
What We're going to find out in a moment, and we see here that
the folly of Israel's only met with greater folly, and that's
with this man, Rehoboam once again.
Look at verse 21. When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem,
he assembled all the House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin,
180,000 chosen warriors to fight against the House of Israel, to
restore the Kingdom of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
So Rehoboam now, right? He sends a taskmaster.
He's killed. He learns that what the people
said early on in verse 16 wasn't just, you know, shallow talk.
This was real. They actually said we're cut
off, We're disconnected from you.
They made someone a king, real. One senses the seriousness of
this moment. So what does he do?
Humble himself before God. You know, he wants to declare
war. Round up the troops.
And now we sense there's a boiling point.
We sense the tension now, reaching a breaking point and we
we think to ourselves, this is this is getting ugly, this is
getting horrific so quickly, so fast.
And what's about to take place here is so amazing.
And verse 22. But the word of God came to
Shamaya, the man of God. We haven't seen a prophet in our
study in a long, long time and now all of a sudden appearing on
the scene is this man of God. He flashes on the scene, and he
will be removed from the scene just as quickly.
But what a pivotal moment for him to appear with a word from
the Lord. And this is what he says in
verse 23. Say to Rehoboam the son of
Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the House of Judah and
Benjamin, and to the rest of the people.
Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your
relatives, the people of Israel. Every man returned to his home,
for this thing is from me. So they listened to the word of
the Lord and went home again according to the word of the
Lord. What moves you about that?
Peace. But how did peace come about?
OK, the prophetic word, yes, that was the way peace could be
achieved. But was the prophetic word over
ruling? OK, that's another thing that
we're going to look at as well. There's the sovereignty of God
in this. It's very simple.
They obeyed him. Finally, some obedience.
In this downward spiral of rebellion, you see something
that's almost like this cold glass of water to your soul as
you're trying to endure this. What do we read here?
So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again.
According to the word of the Lord.
It's like a breath of fresh air. Wow.
If only Rehoboam had done this way back when he started out as
a king. Only he prized the word of the
Lord in such a way. All the disasters that could
have been dodged, all the pain that could have been prevented,
all the life that could have been saved, all the unity
perhaps that could have been kept.
But you can't go back, can you? He couldn't have you and I can
either. And so here's the lesson from
these verses. It is never too late to obey
God. It is never too late to step
outside of the lane of disobedience and enter into the
lane of consecrated obedience to the Lord.
You know, I've talked to some people throughout the years and
they've approached me after a message, whether that be on
purity, whether that be on living for the Lord, whether
that be on your prayer life, worship, serving, whatever it
may be. And some people are so convinced
that they are so invested, so steeped into a mindset or a
lifestyle of sin that they don't see any point of escaping it and
living for the Lord. That's a lie.
God is always waiting.
God is always willing to redeem, to reverse, to recycle, even
your failures, what you have done to yourself and to others.
And only is He waiting because he is worthy to receive that
obedience. But He is waiting to also reward
you for that obedience. Do you understand what was
prevented because these people obeyed the word, the Lord.
How many lives again could have been sabotage, could have been
slaughtered if they had just ignored what the Prophet said?
But so many things were prevented, so many things were
avoided. Yes, even if you are on a fast
track, 100 miles an hour away from the will of God, Into
Darkness, into sin, things can stop the moment you and I
repent. The moment we call upon the name
of the Lord, even though we feel like we don't have the strength
within ourselves, even though we feel like the brake pad is
broken, God can intervene and stop you from committing greater
mass, greater tragedy, and to actually more than that, lead
you on a path with greater fruit, greater life, greater
hope. It's never too late to obey God.
That's what we learned from this.
You may feel that it is, but according to Rahel Bohm story,
it's not. And as you read this, you also
see something else. Her brother mentioned it.
The Prophet says here every man returned to his home for this
thing is from me. He's speaking on behalf of God.
So there's something about the sovereignty of God in this
exhortation that also contributed to their willingness
to step back from their ways and to obey God.
Now you read this and you think to yourself, what does this
mean? Well, we know from verse Chapter
11 rather that the prophet Ah Heja prophesied to Jeroboam that
there would be a division and that he would be made king, and
that there would be a tribe preserved for the line of David.
So everything went according to the prophesied script.
We're seeing the fulfillment of that prophecy right here, right
now. But for him to say this thing is
from me is that is that Shamaya here saying that God was the one
who pulled the strings of the moral actions of these different
parties to commit these atrocities, to commit this
rebellion, this foolishness in order to accomplish his will.
Some would say that is the case, but I believe there is a higher
view of God's sovereignty than him playing both sides of the
chess board. I believe that the higher view
of God's sovereignty is that though he has permitted and
granted men to be able to choose and make their choices, whether
that be to surrender to the to God or to live their own way, he
will still have His way. God will still have His purposes
be performed, regardless of the attempts of men to thwart it, to
challenge it, to contradict it. God's way will prevail always,
and men will still be held accountable and responsible for
their decisions. No one can rewrite history.
God himself declares it, and God himself will have His way,
regardless of men's agreement with it.
This thing is from me. I allowed this to happen.
He could have got intervened. Absolutely he could have
intervened. But he allowed these parties to
pursue their foolishness. And through that, the folly
didn't cause things to fall apart.
They fell according to plan. This thing is from me.
I'm in charge here. I'm still in charge here.
And though you think that you're running your own little show,
this is going according to how I desire it to go.
This is you experiencing the consequences of your own sin.
You're going to be held responsible for it.
But don't you worry, I'm still in charge.
That's the view of God's sovereignty in this picture.
So they listen to the word of the Lord because they were
exposed to just how big God is. I'm sure that played a part in
it. But there's a side note here
from this text. I would use it to instruct the
believers, the community of faith, of how you and I can
avoid a civil war. Do civil wars happen in churches
all the time? Christians have really good aim
at shooting other Christians. I wish they were just as good as
picking up wounded soldiers. But what you have here is a
civil war ready to ensue. And there is a language that the
Prophet uses that I believe unlocks another factor that can
help us remain unified and less fearful.
Worrisome that there can be a civil war in our midst.
Let's read it again, shall we? Look at verse 24.
Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your
Who? Your relatives?
Other translations? Your brethren?
Your brothers. So even in the way that the
prophet addresses the situation, he reintroduces a lens that is
necessary. Are you actually going to go up
against your own brothers and kill each other?
It reminds me of that verse that I briefly introduced you a
couple Sundays ago. If you were here about love
being the secret ingredient to Christian unity and the verse,
if you remember that I brought forward, I think it's so
fitting. For this moment is Romans 1210.
But I have another verse that I didn't bring up to add to this.
What did Paul say in Romans 1210?
Love one another. With what kind of affection?
Brotherly affection. He could have just said.
Love one another. He says no, love each other with
Philadelphia. Love, the natural affection that
you would feel for somebody who has the same blood as you.
It's something that's almost indescribable, right?
And what I shared on on that evening, on that Saturday
evening with those Romanian brothers and sisters, I share
with you that although there are scrimmages at home, are there
not? Although there are disagreements
at home, although there is war sometimes at home, there is
something that takes place in your heart when something
happens to a loved one. Is it not true?
I can speak as an older brother that I have throughout my
history with my brothers and even my sister.
Spoken to them, maybe corrected them, tried to rebuke them,
instruct them, maybe in my flesh, especially when I wasn't
saved, maybe a little bit more unnecessary approaches.
And as a brother, you feel justified in that to some
regard, right? But as a brother, you know this.
If you're older, if somebody outside of your home is somebody
on the school play field or somebody at work where you both
work, speaks to your sibling in a way that only you should speak
to your sibling, what happens to your blood?
Oh, there's a protective rush that comes through.
You have no right to speak to my brother.
Only I can speak to him like that.
Right. What is that?
That's Philadelphia affection. Or when you hear some some bad
news, some tragedy that happens to your sibling, to your parent,
to your sister, something comes over you.
There's this natural inherited set of feelings that is a gift
from God. But in Paul's language here in
Romans 12/10, he wants you to understand that those natural
affections for your family are translated spiritually with your
family in Christ. In other words, what you
experience with your natural household, you should have a
mirroring set of convictions and longings and passions for those
who share the same spirit. So love with brotherly
affection. You know what that tells me?
Love toward my Christian brethren is more than just duty.
All right, I got to love them. I got to love them.
And all these different personalities and all these
different backgrounds. And you're calling me to love?
OK, I'll love them. Love what?
OK, agape. Love.
Serve them as sacrificial love. There's a higher call to love.
Love with feeling. How is that OK?
You think your challenge there, This is, this is a verse that I
remember reading it at one point, and it shot out like an
arrow and pierced my heart and it caused me to bleed for quite
a long time. So he tells us in Romans 1210.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
That's a high call. Thank God for the Holy Spirit's
help, but look what the Saint Paul says to the Philippian
Church and Philippians. One verse 8.
Brace yourselves, Philippians 18.
Look at this, for God is my witness.
He calls God to bear witness on this.
God is my witness. How I yearn for you all with the
affection of Philadelphia love. Look at the quality of affection
here. The affection of Christ Jesus.
Agape love, sacrificial love. Yes, it's the highest form of
love, but I argue there's a higher thing that we should
achieve, and that's, yes, agape love being the foundation, but
love one another with brotherly affection and we have even a
higher call. Paul exemplifies us.
I love you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
How strong is the love of Christ?
And here's Paul is bearing witness and calling God,
invoking the name of God to the validity of this testimony in
the introduction of his letter to the Philippians.
I love you with the affections that Jesus has, for you can't
call this man a liar. He means it.
Now you can read that and be like, oh, that's why he's the
apostle Paul and I'm not. But you read later on in
Philippians where he says what you've seen in me, what you've
heard in me, what you've seen exemplified in me.
Imitate it. Imitated, I'm called to the high
call of love with the affections of Jesus Christ.
Let's be honest now, don't answer, just answer in your
heart before the Lord. Do I have the qualities of the
affections of Christ for my brethren?
It's very difficult to go to war when you have that pumping
through your veins. So I don't present that to you
to just see this clever connection in the Bible.
I want you to see it so you can feel it.
That is what I am to pursue. And if everybody's convinced
that in a local church, I guarantee you you have heaven on
earth, you have heaven, at least a fragment of heaven on earth.
Every single time we gather, Every time a member is added
loving and yearning for one another with the affection of
Christ Jesus. What would churches look like if
that was in the atmosphere? I can tell you one thing for
certain. There would be no wars, or very
few of them, at least unnecessary wars.
Rehabalm has proven to be more foolish than we imagined, and
thankfully his mention in this chapter ends on a relatively
good note. Israel also foolish.
And we still have Jeroboam. Let's read verse 25 then.
Jeroboam built Shechem in the Hill Country of Ephraim and
lived there, and he went out from there and built Penuel.
So what's happening here? Well, Jeroboam is now the new
crown king of the northern tribes, and he wants to secure
two things. The first first thing that
Jeroboam wants to do is secure headquarters, a commanding
center. And he does so here in Shechem
and also here in Penuel, his palace, his primary abiding
place. And here's the second thing that
Jeroboam wants to protect, and that is the loyalty of the
people. And we see how he's going to do
this in verse 26. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now the Kingdom will turn back to the House of David.
If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the
Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn
again to their Lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and
they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.
So Jeroboam understood that the capital city of worship was
where Jerusalem. And he also understood that how
many times out of the year were the Jews supposed to travel to
Jerusalem to honor the feasts? Not all the feasts.
There were seven of them. But how many out of the seven
were they to travel to Jerusalem?
3 three times in the year they were to make way to the House of
God to worship God. This is concerning to Jeroboam
because in his mind he's thinking, well, if you have the
people now travelling there and there in the territory of
Roboam, then perhaps they're more susceptible and vulnerable
to be influenced by Roboam. And so I need to do something to
minimize that possibility. And I also believe that Jeroboam
here is suffering from great fear, not just because of the
obvious, but also because the the, the fickleness and the
vacillating loyalty of the people that played in his favor.
By saying we're divorcing from David, we're going with
Jeroboam. I'm sure he knew that that could
quickly, just as easily turn on him.
And so he wants to again, try to strategize and think of a way to
eliminate as much of that as possible.
And so he comes up with this scheme.
And the scheme here is quite conniving.
It's so destructive to the spiritual state of the nation.
But he could care less. There's so many things to say
about what Jeroboam is meditating on.
But let me make this one comment, and let me ask you this
question. What is the root of this
foolishness that's brewing in his heart?
What is the root of the irrational anxiety?
Notice what he's saying? They're going to kill me.
They'll go back to Robo and they'll turn back on me.
That is an extreme view, but what's the reason for it?
There's something down deep inside, something that you and I
have heard of. Something you and I are warned
about constantly. Any idea this belief is the
right answer? Do you remember what I hate?
I told him in First Kings 11. Let me remind you, go to your
Bibles and turn to verse 38 at First Kings 11.
Here's what the Prophet here's what the Prophet told the same
person. And if you will listen to all
that I command you and will walk in my ways and do what is right
in my eyes by keeping my statutes and My commandments, as
David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a
sure house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you.
That's a promise from God, And for him to think in this way
shows that he didn't believe God.
Listen. Your heart and mind will never
be short in coming up with sinful alternatives to pacify
our fears and our worries. The only way that you and I can
defeat deceitful thoughts from sucking the life out of our walk
with God is by taking every object of your worry to arrest
it and then to release it into the ocean of God's Word and to
let it drown in it. And I can tell you, as you are
fully aware, that those creeping things will try to crawl back on
the shore of your faith. But it is your duty and mind to
identify it and to restart the process if need be, apprehend it
and launch it back into God's Word, and to submerge it, and to
let it drown under it until it dies.
It has no more life or strength to even visit your heart again
if you fail to be so familiar with the truth, and more than
just familiar, but to believe this truth, your heart will
never be short in stock of coming up with crazy ideas to
try to help you navigate through life or to respond to certain
situations. Unfortunately, this man had no
grasp of the truth. He was told the truth, but he
didn't cling to the truth. He didn't rehearse the promises
of God, and what was he left with?
The scariest thing you can be left with in this life, your
heart, your heart governing your own life is a nightmare.
Who has betrayed you more than you?
Who has lied to you more than you?
Who has convinced you of things only for you to look back and
think an embarrassment? How did I get to that point?
How did I think like that? And so God in his mercy and
goodness, gives us something to chain our hearts and for
something else to instead be the heartbeat behind all that we
say, think, or do His word. This man abandoned all of that.
And So what is he going to do? You know, it reminds me of what
we read in First Samuel 27. Do you remember the story of
David when he thought he would be better off going to the
Philistines? In verse one, it says, And David
said in his heart. Now Saul will kill me, and
there's nothing better for me to do but to go to the land of the
Philistines. You know what David's problem
was? What began in his heart as a
lie, as a temptation, stayed in his heart.
He never brought it and spilled it out before the Lord.
He never sought counsel from people to bring light to it.
He kept it in the chambers of his own thinking, and it led him
into disaster. It led him into backsliding, and
here we see kind of a similar statement, Jeroboam said in his
heart. And now he's seeing all these
crazy ideas, and we're hoping you're not going to stay there,
right, Jeroboam? You're going to do something
about this, bring it to the light, expose it with truth.
And the first few verses of verse 28 bring some kind of hope
to us. So the king took counsel.
Yes, you got it, man, And made two calves of gold.
Hold on for a second. What kind of counsel did you
get? He took counsel, something David
didn't do. But which counselors did you go
to? Do you remember one of the
things that wisdom teaches you from last week?
Wisdom teaches you to seek, not just counsel, specific counsel.
Wisdom is not just being counseled and being open to
instruction. It's about getting it from the
right source. Many people make foolish
decisions because of counsel. Isn't it amazing here that
Jeroboam mirrors the mistake of Rehoboam?
Rehoboam took counsel from his fellow companions, those who
grew up with him and stood before him, and it led him to
this mistake. And now here's Jeroboam
repeating that he took counsel from who knows who, and now it's
going to lead him to making a tragic mistake for generations
again to come. Why is the Bible repeating this?
To get it through our thick heads, that's why.
Be careful who you surround yourself with.
Be careful which voices speak into your life.
Be careful what your source of motivation in his life and how
to frame your view of the world. Especially in this day where so
many people are willing to speak freely with podcasts and ideas
and books and blogs, more voices and more accessibility to voices
than any point in history. So we, you and I, need to be
extra guarded. Extra guarded with the truth.
This man took counsel good. No, not good, and made two
calves of gold. What kind of counsel is this?
When we read on and we see what he's going to do with these two
calves of gold, And he said to the people, you have gone up to
Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Does this sound familiar to you? Tell me where it's from.
This is from Exodus 32. This is how diabolical this
council is. Whoever gave it to him was very
strategic, satanically strategic.
So I don't know how it happened, but perhaps Jeroboam heard it
this way. You remember the people of
Israel when they first came out of Egypt and how all it took was
a golden calf for them to cut away from their allegiance to
Moses and Yahweh Jeroboam. If it worked then surely it can
work now. And here's how wicked Jeroboam
is. Does he build 1 Golden calf?
He builds 2. He builds 2.
So he's telling himself and he's telling others.
I'm going to make sure that this works, and it almost seems
unimaginable, but remember, Jeroboam here is not operating
under honoring God, is he? You know, he wants to secure and
maintain his throne, his governance, his rule.
And when you put anything, listen so closely to this.
When a man puts anything above God, anything, then he or she is
willing to use God as a means to achieve that thing that they
love more than God. You and I have seen it.
We've seen it with our own eyes. We see it on online.
We see people using the name of God, using the truth of God.
No problem declaring things about their faith in God when
everything about their life contradicts it.
How is a person able to do such a thing?
It's very easy. When you have idolatry in your
life. You're willing to use God to
serve your idol, manipulate God's word to serve your idol,
to trick people about the truth, and with the truth of God to
serve your idol. And this is the horrific thing
about Jeroboam's actions here. But notice what he does in
telling the people what he said. And he said to the people, you
have gone up to Jerusalem long enough, Who here has a New King
James or King James or a new American standard?
Can you read how it reads in New King James?
Because all these other word for word translations spell out
Jeroboam's words slightly differently.
And I think it really captures what's happening here.
Yes, stop. It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem. What is Jeroboam doing here?
He is enticing the people and preparing them to compromise in
this way by appealing to what you and I understand.
And that is convenience. There's an allurement here.
There's an attraction here to worship these gods.
And the gateway for these people to remove any hesitation or to
let down their arms of defence is convenience.
It's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
You don't want to travel all the way down there.
You don't have to book time off. You don't want to have to bring
your family. You don't have to bring the
it's. I'm about to give you an easier
way to worship. Compromise loves to feed off of
convenience. It's not the only reason for
compromise. But convenience is a seduction,
and much compromise is justified by what convenience can offer.
I mean, it's true for this moment.
It's true for people in the Church today doing what the Lord
asked me to do in this area or not in that area.
It's not convenient. It's not convenient to my
schedule. It's not convenient to my social
life. I know what God is asking of me.
Like basic things of the Christian walk.
But it's not convenient to my career path.
It's not convenient. It's not convenient.
A consecrated life crucifies the nagging of convenience.
Convenience with many other things are nailed to the cross.
When Christ becomes your treasure, the Christian who is
filled with the Spirit is no longer operated by convenience.
He is now under the operation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Convenience as a justification to disobey dies when a man or
woman carries his cross. And with all our advancements
today, convenience is a greater allurement to a diluted
Christianity more than at any time in church history.
So this is this is how Jeroboam is tempting the people.
It's easier. It's more convenient.
Oh yeah, we have to think rightly about how we go about
life. We can't be foolishly radical
even in our pursuit of spirituality.
But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what God
plainly asked of us and for us to look at it.
And then to look at our own lives, look at our comfort, look
at our goals, look at our man made convictions and say this
isn't really convenient to support these other things that
I prize more dangerous way to be a Christian.
So what do we see here? Verse 29.
And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan.
Then this thing became a sin for the people went as far as Dan to
be before 1. So here's the Holy Spirit's
commentary and something that's obvious to us, right?
God doesn't approve of what Jeroboam did.
And why this is mentioned here is because though there is this
division that took place, Jeroboam had no right, no
liberty by disconnecting from the line of David to also
disconnect from the covenantal requirements that he was bound
by as an Israelite connected to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And so God plainly says this thing became a sin.
This is not right. And notice this additionally,
for the people went as far as Dan to be before one of these
golden calves. And what's mentioned here is
that these people, though initially invited into this
through convenience, we're actually willing to make great
sacrifices to worship one of these false gods.
Do you see that language here? Some of these guys went as far
as Dan. Evidently, Dan wasn't as close
to some of these neighboring tribes, but they were still
willing to go that way. What an accurate example, an
illustration of how idolatry works.
Willing to give more sacrifice, more love, more.
Set your affections on something, more on anything than
what God deserves. That's what it is.
They're willing to go that far to worship a false God, but they
weren't willing to go to Jerusalem to worship the true
God. That's what we're what we're
being told here are the people today who have their investments
and who have their longings and other things more than the Lord
Jesus. You know the answer to that.
I don't have to stay on that point too long, do I?
And it's as old as the story going as far as then.
But when God and his goodness and his mercy and love set some
relational requirements with us, I don't know.
It's not very convenient. But that I'll go as far as I
need to go. This is this is a real
confronting Bible study. Is it not good?
It's good for us. If you thought that this man's
calamity ends here, It doesn't. Verse 31.
He also made temples on high places and appointed priests
from among all the people who are not of the Levites.
So not only this is this man. Establish places of worship to
replace the House of God. He now comes up with his own
line of priests. God had consecrated one line,
Aaron's line to be set apart for the ministerial work in the
temple. Jeroboam thought to himself, You
know what, this is going to be a problem.
So I'm going to make up my own roster of ministers, and he
creates this mixed inclusive group to be ministers under his
self-made religion. Why do you think Jeroboam came
up against the Levites in this way?
I have a hunch. Personally, I'm just curious to
know if you have insight on it. Let me ask you a question in
connection to the golden calf in Exodus 32.
Moses comes down from the mountain and he sees this, this
gross idolatry, this orgy, this, this festival of the flesh.
And he stands at the gate, and he makes one final call before
God's judgment comes. Whoever is on the Lord's side,
come to me. Who comes to him?
Levi and only Levi. Levi, awakened from what was
taking place, was sobered up by the confrontation of a man of
God and pledged their allegiance to the Lord.
And more than just verbally affirming it, Moses puts a sword
in each of their hands. And he says, Now run back and
forth and kill whoever you see on site for this idolatry of
worshipping this golden calf. And they did it without
blinking. I wonder if Jeroboam understood
the history of the Levites. And now that he has these golden
calves on site, he's concerned that these Levites will be up to
no good to his new found program.
So let's get rid of them, not even include them to begin with.
And guess what? He was right.
Look at the parallel accounts in our Bible study in Second
Chronicles. And look here at verse 11,
Chapter 11. Excuse me, verse 16.
We can begin in verse 14 rather Second Chronicles Chapter 11,
verse 14. This is in the same context of
what's taking place in the Kingdom of Israel, and the
Chronicler writes by the Spirit Second Chronicles, 1114.
For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings
and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons
cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord.
And he appointed his own priest for the high places and for the
goat idols. So we don't just have calves, we
have goat idols and for the calves that he had made.
Do you see this? Not everybody was pleased with
Jeroboam's decision, though they appointed him as king.
Once he start flirting with idolatry and being very obvious
with it and flaunting it, there was a group that said we're not
going to take place of place in this.
The Levites. No part in this.
And here's a man who persuaded a majority of the people through
convenience. And yet you have a people here
now who did not budget with this request because they were
consecrated. Talk about a cost for being
consecrated. Talk about not being convenient
to them. Look what happens verse 14.
The Levites left their common lands and their holdings.
They moved. They left their familiarity.
They left their their livelihood.
They left their jobs. They left their ministry
positions. They weren't going to surrender
their allegiance to the Lord, no matter how much it costs.
This is the opposite of worshipping through convenience.
This is what consecration looks like, no matter what it costs
me. I want to be where God is
worshipped. I want to be where God is truly
served. I want to be where God
prescribed true worship. And if it means you and I
packing up and leaving. Honey, let's get going, because
we're going to honor God even if it costs us our convenience.
Can I tell you something? This attitude, demonstrated by
the Levites, is absolutely vital and necessary for God to use
you. When convenience dominates a
heart, it's very difficult for the Lord to find somebody to
recruit. But when you have people like
this who are willing to pay any price to honor God, the
possibilities of being used for the glory of God are endless.
Can I prove that to you? You remember this from our study
in Deuteronomy. But let me remind you, in
Deuteronomy 33, verse 8, here is a prophetic declaration that is
made over every single tribe. And in that verse you have the
tribe of Levi, and the tribe of Levi had the honor of being who
they were as Levites priests and ministers and mediators.
Because of what? Let me remind you from
Deuteronomy 33, verse eight and nine, here's what the scripture
says. And of Levi, he said, Give to
Levi your Thummim and your Urim, to your godly one, whom you
tested at Messiah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of
Meribah. Who said of his father?
This is what Levi said of his father?
Who said of his father and mother?
I regard them not. Huh.
I regard them not. He disowned his brothers and
ignored his children, for they observed your word and kept your
covenant. What is that consecration?
What is that? I uphold the word of God above
the opinions and above even the threats of those who are closest
to me. If obeying God in love, yes in
humility, yes in gentle, not in legalism, not in self
righteousness, in genuine good heartedness.
If me obeying God in that regard will cost me, even my brothers,
my sisters, even for my children not to love me, then so be it.
What's their reward? For they observed your word and
kept your covenant in verse 10. They shall teach Jacob your
rules and Israel your law. They shall put incense before
you and hold burnt offerings on your altar.
Because you honor my word above everything and everyone, I'm
going to use you. I'm going to use you in the most
intimate way possible, in closest proximity to my
presence. You will now forever be my
priests and the attitude that the Levites displayed early on
in their history is still alive and well in the days of
Jeroboam. If we have to go away, if we
have to move, if we have to go down to Judah, then so be it.
We will honor God. What a refreshing display of
obedience in a very dark chapter.
But notice this in verse 16 of Second Chronicles.
I hope you're still there. Something else happens.
There's an important lesson here for leaders who are tempted to
compromise, to achieve or maintain something that their
flesh desires or equates with true success and fulfillment.
I want you to see what happens after Jeroboam established these
calves and these high places and his carnally appointed
ministers. Not only did the Levites leave,
what else happens In Second Chronicles 1116, You read it of
another group of people who leave and those who had set
their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them
from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the
Lord the God of their fathers. So it wasn't just the Levites.
You had a remnant of people in the northern tribes of Israel
who had their hearts set on seeking God, who said we're
going with the Levites leaders, especially in spiritual context
and spheres, who attempted to compromise concerning God's
standard, God's protocol for worship, God's blueprint for the
local church in every regard. I never, personally, I never
understood the temptation to bend what God had made so clear.
I never understood that temptation.
Do you know why? Because no matter what you think
you're going to win with compromise, you will always lose
something of true value and substance.
Always. So what do you have here?
You have Jeroboam, who was able to win the northern tribes
allegiance to him by introducing idolatry in the land.
And who did he lose as a result? He lose the true priesthood.
He lost the true priesthood and the people who really wanted
God. You know, the same thing happens
in ministries that compromise today.
OK, who do you win? Who do you win?
When you when you tiptoe around the truth.
Who do you win when you placate and give into what the culture
wants to hear? Who do you win?
Who do you bring in people who want the truth?
No. And what else happens?
You push away the people who want the truth.
You always lose. Never forget the example of
Jeroboam. OK, what did he gain?
But what did he lose? And it's no different today.
I don't. I I'm honest.
I don't get it. Because when you give people the
truth. What's going to happen?
Well, one, you honor God. One, you please God.
But two, you win The people who want the truth, You you win the
people who want all of what God has to say.
Isn't that? Isn't that what you want?
Isn't that what you desire to make up this ministry in the
name of Jesus Christ? I I'm telling you, man, this is
confession time. Maybe I don't get it.
I don't understand. It just doesn't make sense to
me. The loss will be much greater
than whatever you win, and sometimes people don't see it
because they're so intoxicated by different idea of success, as
Jeroboam was. So we come back to our text as
we close. If you thought the compromise
ended there, it didn't. The dagger only goes deeper into
our hearts in verse 32, And Jeroboam appointed a feast on
the 15th day of the 8th month, like the feast that was in
Judah. And he offered sacrifices on the
altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing
to the calves that he made, and he placed in Bethel the priests
of the high places that he made. He went up to the altar that he
had made in Bethel on the 15th day, in the eighth month, in the
month that he had devised from his own heart.
And he instituted A feast for the people of Israel and went up
to the altar to make offerings. There's a phrase that repeats.
What is it he made, he made, he made he made?
This is self-made religion. This is what it is.
But before we get into the ingredients of self-made
religion and our closing thought, what's the other
violation that Jeroboam performs?
He sets up a place of worship where it's not supposed to be
two places of worship. On top of that, he sets up high
places for localized expressions of worship.
He raises up his own priesthood and then he does something else.
Did you notice it? He comes up with his own feast.
You don't do that. God had raised up a calendar
already where several feasts, 7 in particular feasts, would be
honored. Those feasts point to the person
and work of Jesus Christ. Here's a man now who wants to
compete with the feast, because what?
What kind of reason are you going to get people to come to
these places of worship? And so he sets up a feast on the
15th day. Of what month?
Of the 8th month? What's the closest feast to
that? According to the Hebrew
scriptures? How many feasts were observed on
the 7th month? Out of the seven, there was 3.
The last one is what, on the 15th day of the 7th month?
In the Hebrew calendar, it's the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast
of Booths. It was a celebratory feast.
It was the way to sign off on the year.
And that was one of the feasts where the people of Israel would
have to make way toward Jerusalem to celebrate an honor.
And so, in order to compete against that, he sets up a feast
on the 15th day, not on the 7th month, but on the 8th month.
He made, He had made, He had made.
And look at this dangerous phrase here in the month that he
had devised from his own heart. This didn't come from God.
This didn't come from his word doesn't come from a prophetic
revelation. It came from the cesspool of a
heart that is not surrendered to the Lord.
Let me tell you based on this the ingredients of self-made
religion #1. Oftentimes it puts a great
emphasis on convenience. How does this benefit me the
most? Even at the cost of clear
obedience? Convenience is the goal for
self-made religion, but not just that, a disregard for God's
credentials, for ministers and for his standards of worship.
You know worship is about God, right?
What does God want to hear? What does God want us to do?
What does God require? That's worship.
The will surrender to the wishes of God. self-made religion has
no regard of God being the priority aim of our pleasure.
Lastly, though there may be other things we can include,
self-made religion includes the ingredient of a liberty to bend
what God has made so clear in his word.
I want to be worshipped on the 15th day of the 7th month.
We're going to worship on the 15th day of the 8th month.
It's so clear what God has revealed many cases and all
we're called to do is to receive it, understand it and give
ourselves to it. self-made religion does not do that and
we're going to see that God does not tolerate self-made religion
for too long. Let's pray, Lord, we do thank
you from the bottom of our hearts with a difficult chapter
to dissect. Yet we remember how we opened
our time together, that when the scoffer is punished, the simple
become wise. So we believe that you have
instilled in US a greater nourishment in the place of
discretion, in the place of consecration, in the place of
true worship. Thank you, Lord, that week after
week we've come here to know what you want.
And Father, we confess that is our desire more than anything
else. Lord, please fill us with your
spirit. We want to love you more.
We want to love one another more.
We can't do it in our own strength.
And what as we sang tonight, as people see a power working
through us to obey your commandments, may they know that
that power does not come from us.
So inspire this love, this love that Paul could say with
confidence was real in him the affection of Christ Jesus for
one another, inspiring us a ferocious zeal for true worship.
That, Lord, when convenience gnaws at us, and when the heart
devises its own plans contrary to your will, that we would be
quick to take every thought captive with the authority of
Christ, but to declare even in that spiritual warfare in the
heart and the mind trust that you are glorified in it, and
that you are pleased by it. Lord, tonight we afresh declare
that you are everything to us. And Lord, our desire to serve
you and to live for you does not come from a fear of being
rejected by you or fear of being punished by you.
But, Lord, our obedience is built on grace.
You have first loved us. You, the Creator of all things,
extended your heart toward us and invite us to live in it.
Lord, we pray that whatever we need to do, even if we are faced
with the pressures to compromise, what would stimulate
us to stand our ground, and like these Levites, even to make the
moves we need to make, but would encourage us, Is I love my
master more than these? And so, Lord, in this place, in
our homes, in our marriages, in the, in the babies that are
coming through the families of this house, may we reflect the
attitude of those Levites who allow the word of God to be
supreme and who live by that standard for generations.
We pray that that would be true of us.
We pray that would be true of this ministry.
We pray that we would never be fooled by the lies of
compromise. But we remember that we always
win when we stand with you. And for you, Lord, we worship
you tonight, in great honor of your name, in Jesus name we
pray. Amen.
Let's stand together.