Heroes
Rehoboam
1 Kings 12:1-14
February 15, 2009
In 1997, Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was invited to give the annual Lindbergh Address at the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her father’s historic solo flight across the Atlantic. On the day of the speech, museum officials invited her to come early, before the facility opened, so that she could have a closeup look at The Spirit of St. Louis, the little plane suspended from the museum ceiling that her father had piloted from New York to Paris in 1927.
That morning in the museum, Reeve and her young son, Ben, eagerly climbed into the bucket of a cherry-picker, a long-armed crane that carried them upward until the plane was at eye level and within their reach. Seeing the machine that her father had so bravely flown across the sea was an unforgettable experience for Reeve. She had never touched the plane before, and that morning, 20 feet above the floor of the museum, she tenderly reached out to run her fingers along the door handle, which she knew her father must have grasped many times with his own hand.
Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of what she was doing. "Oh, Ben," she whispered, her voice trembling, "isn’t this amazing?"
"Yeaaaaaah," Ben replied, equally impressed. "I’ve never been in a cherry-picker before!"
This morning we are going to diverged from the standard hero expectations and look at someone who might be called an anti-hero or a villain. He was almost a hero. He stood right at the threshold of becoming a great king and a great leader. He was faced with a decision that literally would make or break him as a leader and hero and would make or break the Israel nation. This man was Rehoboam, son of Solomon.
Last week we looked at Solomon in the prime of his life. However, I did not tell you about the end of his life. For some reason, Solomon strayed big time and unlike his father, David, he doesn’t seem to have repented. Solomon began to worship the false gods and idols. He seems to have a big problem with sex and women. His ambitions and pride grew well beyond his wisdom and his love for God. As a result, his son, Rehoboam, whose mother was a foreigner, did not see the best example. Ray grew up where a lifestyle of excess was embraced, which probably was Ray’s own downfall.
Yet, in a way Ray was a hero (at least by our culture’s standards). He was selfish. He was self-centered. He was egotistical. He was self-absorbed and was focused too much on power, privileges, and the pleasures that excessive wealth could bring. I say he was a hero because basically Rehoboam was not any different than us. He really wasn’t any different than the average human. The heroes of today are those who live excessive lifestyles like sports figures and those in the entertainment industry. He was the Hugh Heffner of his day except we have to wonder if Rehoboam’s empire was built more around Playgirl, if you know what I mean.
For the follower of Jesus he was really the anti-hero. He stood at a turning point and could have made a simple decision to be a servant and probably would have propelled him to greatness but he couldn’t and wouldn’t humble himself before others let alone God. He was almost a hero but even in this, Ray points us to move toward God in areas that he would not. Let’s look at 1 Kings 12:1-14.
Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam had been in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death he had come back.
Rehoboam assembled Jeroboam and all the people. They said to Rehoboam, "Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you."
"Give me three days to think it over, then come back," Rehoboam said.
King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: "What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?"
They said, "If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you."
But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, "What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ’Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?"
The young turks he’d grown up with said, "These people who complain, ’Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ’My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’"
Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, "Give me three days to think it over, then come back." The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set, "If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!"
It came down to this. All Ray had to do was serve the people for this moment and he would have won their respect, their gratitude, and their admiration. They would have been loyal to him and probably would have died for him. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t humble himself. He thought respect was something due to him because of his position, his authority, his title. He thought that power and privilege was his right. He thought that loyalty was something that was purchased because of fear. He was dreadfully wrong.
If you read on, you will see that while Solomon had taken David’s kingdom and made Israel one of the greatest kingdoms of that day and age, Rehoboam literally destroyed all that his father and grandfather had worked for within five years. Within five years, he lost half the king because of the rebellion of ten tribes, which in turn significantly reduced his political and military power. As a result he lost the respect of other nations including Egypt a previous ally, who saw the wealth that Solomon had accumulated as easy pickings.
I lift up Rehoboam to you to remind us that he was almost a great hero and draw some lessons from him so that we might avoid the mistakes that he made. If we can learn from his mistakes, then in a anti-hero sort of way, he becomes a hero because he urges us to be better servants and followers of God than he could be.
Almost a Hero
• Get Off Yourself
Everything in Ray’s life revolved around him. It was all about the king. It was all about him. What he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted. But then again, I’m not so sure that we are that much different. It is so easy to slip into this ME, ME, ME mode. It is so easy to think that our problems are the most important. Our struggles are the worst. No one else struggles like me.
Ray reminds us to get off ourselves. The people had been worked to death by Solomon. He built his own palace, the temple, the wall around Jerusalem as well as many other things using conscripted labor both Israelites and foreigners. The people wanted a break. They had lives. They had families. They had land and animals and homes to tend to. “Just give us a break, and we are yours.” But Ray thought it was about himself. He thought they were insulting him and disrespecting him by even requesting it. He thought they were disrespecting his father.
His father’s wise advisors said that if he would serve them here than they would serve him. But he couldn’t serve anybody but himself. How dare they ask him to serve them?
His friends who had grown up with the power of the king’s court and the power and privileges and the excesses basically told Ray to tell the people, “Hey look, you are peasants. You are nobody. You lot in life is to serve those of us who have the culture and upbringing of power and privilege. Your job is to make our lives better. So don’t complain and moan about it. Don’t whine about it. But you already have and I will show you what it means to be treated badly.”
Get off yourself. Albert Schweitzer said, “Whatever you have received more than others—in health, in talents, in ability, in success… all this you must not take to yourself as a matter of course. In gratitude for good fortune, you must render some sacrifice of your own life for another life.”
Ray didn’t get it. I hope that we do. Ray never connected with the people. He didn’t listen to them. He certainly didn’t care about them. Jesus calls us to serve and love one another. Secondly:
• Grow Yourself
Learn from others. Learn from their mistakes. Learn from their advice. Ray was too self-centered to do that. He wasn’t seeking advice as much as wanting people to tell him that what he was thinking was right. He didn’t really want his father’s advisors to help him as much as he wanted them to agree with him. Ray remained unteachable. He couldn’t accept the teachings of others because he was the king. Remember Solomon from last week? Solomon as least at first was very teachable. I don’t what to do. Help me, God, know what is right and wrong. Help me be wise so that I can help these people. Ray wanted nothing but to help himself.
Grow yourself. Learn from others. Value other perspectives even when you may not agree with them. Diverse perspectives can help us have a deeper and broader understanding of things. If Ray had listened to the elders, he might have realized just how hard it was to be a king and how much he needed to learn. But he didn’t and he destroyed a nation.
We might not have a country to run but our own unteachability will destroy the relationships that we value most. Grow yourself and grow beyond yourself. Lastly:
• Give of Yourself
Again, Ray was not willing to serve and sacrifice for others and not willing to give of himself. The University of Michigan found in a studies several years ago that people who volunteer their time on a regular basis have a greater love of life and actually live longer. Life’s most important question is: “What are you doing for others?” That is what adds the most fulfillment in life and that is what following Jesus is all about. If you pray for Jesus to be the Lord of your life and seek his forgiveness, then continuing to follow him and his ways and repenting of the life that is self-will run riot means giving of yourself to others. It means putting into life. It means adding value to others not taking from them.
Rehoboam never got that. He was more interested in control, power, prestige, and pleasure. He tried to hold onto control with a tighter grip and literally the nation slipped through his fingers.
The name "Auschwitz" brings terror and grief to the hearts of many people. It is the sight of an infamous Nazi death camp where four million Jews died during World War II. A half-ton of hair is still preserved. The showers that once sprayed poison gas still stand. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who had been helping the Jews escape the Nazis, was discovered and arrested, and then sent to Auschwitz. While there he still tried to care for the prisoners. He bandaged their wounds. He shared his food. He gave up his bunk. He prayed for his captors. He was soon nicknamed the "Saint of Auschwitz."
In July 1941, there was an escape. The camp rule stated that upon every successful escape, 10 persons would die. All the prisoners would be gathered in the courtyard, and an SS Officer would be randomly calling names of the prisoners, who would be immediately taken to a cell where they would receive no food and water until they died. One by one, names were called. The tenth person called was a man named Fraciszek Gajowniczek. He was a sergeant in the Polish Army who had been captured. When his name was called he cried, "My wife and children!"
The officers turn as they hear movement among the prisoners. The guards raise their rifles. The dogs tense, anticipating a command to attack. A prisoner has left his rank and is pushing his way to the front. It is Kolbe. One of the guards shout, "Stop or be shot!" Kolbe said that he wanted to talk to the commander. For some reason, they let him. He said to the commander, "Let me die in the place of this man. I have no family. Besides, I am old and cannot do much work. He’s in much better condition, and more useful to you."
For a reason that we’ll never know, the SS officer let Kolbe take the place of this man. This priest was marched off with nine other men to a cold basement cell, where they were stripped of their clothes and kept without food and water until they died. On August 14, 1941, the Saint of Auschwitz and another were still wretchedly and miserably alive, until a camp doctor injected phenol into each one’s heart and put them out of their misery.
Gajowniczek survived. He was liberated by the allies and was reunited with his wife and children. In his backyard in Warsaw, Poland is a plaque that he carved with his own hands as a memorial to Maximillian Kolbe. Until his death a few years ago, he returned to Auschwitz August 14th of every year and revisited the sight, and he wept and he prayed and thanked God that someone cared enough for him to die in his place.
