Have You Swallowed An Alligator Lately? Series

Sometimes we just don’t pay attention to the warning signs. When we are doing well, we think we can do anything. And we are lucky if it doesn’t kill us.

Do you idolize yourself? Do you think that you can do it on your own? Are you like Rehoboam near the end of his reign – strong and established, not needing to follow the Lord? If that’s you, then you need to prepare your heart to seek the Lord.

Whatever temptations or trials you face, you cannot expect to successfully face them on your own. Yes, God has provided a way of escape – but it entails swallowing pride and leaning on Him. The apostle Peter puts it this way:

1 Peter 5:5b-6 "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

Rehoboam’s Pride

As much as Rehoboam seemed to humble himself before the Lord when He was in trouble, it seems that his pride still ruled the day. When Shishak came against Jerusalem, he took away all the treasures from the king’s house, including the gold shields that Solomon had made. We’re told in chapter 12, verse 10, that Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace them (presumably because he could no longer afford gold). But I don’t believe he really wanted people to know they’d been stolen, so he had the guard bring them out only when the king entered the house. After that, they quickly put them away before people thought too much about it and realized they were only made of bronze. Pride can make us do crazy things. I think that detail comes to us just to show us how hard it is to overcome pride and submit to God, when we don’t prepare our hearts to seek Him.

And we do that by admitting God’s authority in our lives, being willing to admit a mistake, and seeking to know His truths through scripture and godly fellowship so that His word is recognizable to us. We prepare our hearts by recognizing that we don’t have all the answers all the time.

We all face difficult decisions in life. We all have trials and struggles. We have our own battles and wars that we face each day. The question is: What are you going to do with them? Will you pridefully stand on your own two feet and do whatever you think is best, no matter what the godly people around you are saying? Or will you listen to wisdom, humble yourself, and take that second chance when it is offered to you? Will you prepare your heart to seek the Lord today?

© Susan Blader, 5-11-08

Sources:

1) Bible Works 5, Revision 2, (Bigfork, Montana: Hermeneutika Computer Bible Research Software, 2001).

2) Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible, Maps by Carta, Jerusalem, Regency Reference Library, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House), 1989.

3) Andrew Stewart, Welwyn Commentary Series: A House of Prayer, The Message of 2 Chronicles, (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press), 2001.

4) Charles Swindoll, Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives: Rediscovering Some Old Testament Characters, (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group), 2005.