1 Kings 10:14-17, 14:25-28 – Stolen Gold and Second-Best Bronze
Well, let me tell you a story. It’s not for the faint of heart, though. It’s a sad story. A sad tale of a man who was robbed of his gold.
The man’s name was Rehoboam. He was the king of the land of Judah, which was part of the nation of Israel. He wasn’t a great king, and he did things on purpose that he knew would deliberately tick his people off. He inherited the kingdom from his father Solomon, who wasn’t perfect himself, but under Sol the nation prospered.
In fact, the Bible says that Solomon was earning for the nation 25 tons of gold every year. Every year. At today’s prices, that’s about $1.2 billion every year, not including what was brought in from foreign trade routes and so on. The guy was sitting pretty in bling.
And one thing he did with his gold was make some shields. The Bible says that King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; about 7½ pounds of gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with about 3¾ pounds of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. So, 200 large shields, about 7½ pounds of gold in each, and 300 small shields, each about 3¾ pounds of pure gold. That is a LOT of gold.
It’s impossible to say how much these shields would have cost, but let’s say, using an estimate of today’s gold prices, doing the math… probably close to $60 million in armour for the Israelite army, just hanging on the wall.
So then, Rehoboam came along and became the king. Rehoboam figured that he didn’t have to do what his father did, and went so far in the other direction that the nation was in turmoil.
And round about this time, other nations started looking at Rehoboam’s kingdom and starting thinking that they’d like a piece of it. One king, King Shishak from Egypt, figured he’d invade the nation to relieve them of their treasures gathered while Solomon was the king.
Shishak invaded the land, and you know what he did. He went to the palace, and saw the gold, and grabbed it. I mean, the shields were just hanging there, doing nothing, not being used in the war or anything. 500 big pieces of solid gold, almost begging to be stolen. So Shishak plundered the place and went home with stolen gold.
And Rehoboam found out. Here’s what the Bible says at this point: “So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.” Rehoboam wasn’t earning the bling his dad had, so he replaced the gold shields with something else. Bronze. Worth about $2 a pound. Rehoboam’s shields went from being worth about $60 million to about $5000. What a loss for the king and his kingdom.
I told you it was a sad tale. But you know… The saddest part of this whole tale is that some of you are going to be tempted to leave school and have the exact same thing happen to you. Except your temptations won’t be about losing anything as cheap as gold. You’re going to be tempted to lose something much more costly. 1 Peter 1:7 says that your faith is of much greater worth than gold, and you will face temptations to let your faith be stolen right out from under your noses.
I know I’m speaking more to those of you who have grown up in the church, but it applies to all of us. We are all tempted to do away with the values and morals we were brought up with.
But how could that happen? I know, some of you are thinking, “There’s no way it would happen to me.” I wish I could say that, but it really can happen to anyone. Katy Perry and Jessica Simpson first started out singing Christian music, and Britney Spears went on record to remain a virgin until marriage. Anyone can turn their back on what they say they believe.
Having your faith stolen can happen to you the same way that Rehoboam lost his gold shields. First, the shields were inherited. They didn’t originally belong to him; Rehoboam got them from someone before him. Likewise, some of you don’t have your own faith. You got it from your parents, or your grandparents, or your Sunday school teachers, or your youth leaders, or whoever. You believe because someone tells you to. It’s not really your faith, just what someone gave you.
Another thing about Rehoboam’s shields: they weren’t in use. They were hanging on the wall, for crying out loud, in the middle of a battle. Just hanging there, doing nothing. Some of you have a faith that you don’t do anything with. You come, you soak up what others give you, you listen to what people teach you, but you don’t do anything with it. You don’t obey, you don’t apply, you don’t serve, you don’t help, you just… sit there, doing nothing, with your faith almost begging to be stolen.
And the third thing about Rehoboam’s gold shields: they weren’t really made to be used. Hello? You don’t wear pure gold to a battle – it’s one of the softest metals out there. Poor fellas carrying a gold shield would be sliced in two. No, a gold shield is about looks and image. That’s what kind of faith some of you carry. Looks good, but not really of substance. Kinda weak, in fact, kinda soft. You know the right words to say, but you don’t really care. Or you don’t want others to know your struggles, and so you hide them. Because your faith is about how you look. And when how things look becomes more important than how things really are, you’re setting yourself up for a fall.
So Rehoboam replaced all his stolen gold shields with something cheaper: bronze. And the temptation that you and I and every believer face is to replace our faith with something else.
We trade faith for feeling good. The world has already tried, and will continue to try, to get you doing anything that makes you feel good. Whether it’s the things that have traditionally tripped people up, like drugs and alcohol and sex, or newer obsessions like cutting or online gaming, the message you will hear all the more, when you’re out from under your parents’ eyes, is, “If it feels good, do it.”
That temptation also shows up in how you spend your time and your money. Hey – it’s all about doing what you want to do! God just wants you to be happy, so as long as no-one gets hurt, it’s all OK.
Now, I know: there’s nothing wrong with feeling good. But if feeling good, being happy, doing whatever you want, living for the weekend… if they become your main priority in life, you will be missing out on what’s important.
We also trade faith for fitting in. Our culture is funny. It says, “Be different! Be unique! Be yourself… just as long as we all dress and talk the same, and like all the same movies and TV shows, and stuff.” Wear whatever you want, as long as it’s Aeropostale and Hollister.
Our culture doesn’t enjoy people who don’t fit in and play nice. If your lifestyle makes someone else uncomfortable, you will feel pressure to conform. If your beliefs get in the way of someone else’s comfort level, you will feel the strain to ease off. If you go away to university, you may feel a lot of pressure to put away the so-called superstitious beliefs that your parents drilled into you. Be aware that colleges don’t have much appreciation for faith raised in a small town.
We also trade faith for façade. You know what that is… looking the part… saying the words… doing our duty… showing up… but missing it on the inside. That’s what happens a lot when people feel comfortable in a church. They come, they put a little in the offering, they listen, and they go home. They never serve, never reach out, never go to anything new, never come to prayer meetings, never go on mission trips, and so on. Churches are full of people who are so comfortable, that they would never disrupt it at all costs. They know all the words, they can tell you when and where they gave their hearts to Jesus, but they can’t tell you when the faith started losing the adventure.
It’s because the faith was stolen over a period of time. Your faith will tested and tempted to become something less valuable, whether it’s about feeling good, or fitting in, or the façade. I tell you: don’t let it happen! Colossians 2:8 says, “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.”
That word, capture, means “carry you off like booty”. Not booty, like how the word is often used today, but like pirates carrying off stolen loot. That verse means you are valuable, and your faith is valuable. You mean so much to God. Don’t let anyone or anything try to steal your faith away from you.
Don’t fall for the lie of feeling good. Anything besides Jesus that you fill your life with will not satisfy. Sure, it’s OK to have stuff, but just understand that the newest truck or the biggest boat or the best house will not quench the thirst in your heart for something that matters.
Don’t fall for the lie of fitting in. Listen: you need to be strong enough in yourself to be who you really are. Don’t let anyone tell you who you should be or need to be. While the culture has a way of crowding out people who are different, in a way, people respect someone who is just himself or herself, and not trying to be someone else. And there’s an old saying: Hurt people hurt people. If someone mocks you for who you are or what you believe, there’s a pretty good chance that deep down, they’re not really happy with themselves either. Dr. Suess wrote: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”
And don’t fall for the lie of the façade, to look good, to look the part, to fit in, to be comfortable. Rock the boat! Turn some heads! Let people feel the weight of who you are, and let them deal with it. If you feel God leading you to do something, don’t let the sceptics and doubters in the church turn you away. A friend of mine, when he first came to know Jesus, was so fire for Him. And that sometimes makes others feel uncomfortable. He was told: It’s easier to restrain a fanatic than resurrect the dead. That is, getting people excited about God takes a lot of effort, and it’s really a lot easier to calm down an enthusiastic fan of Jesus. So, the church usually tries to quench someone’s excitement. If this is you, don’t let them get down. Live the faith!
Don’t settle for second-best, bronze faith! Don’t let the world with its seduction steal you away from what matters most. Don’t hide your faith where it isn’t applied in your daily life. Take it off the wall, and live it out every day. Don’t just believe everything that people have always told you – check it out for yourself.
You’ll face hard questions, and you may have to get comfortable with saying that you don’t know. But don’t give up just because you face a challenge – check it out! Look into it! Do some research. Your faith is worth spending some time to find answers.
So, to finish this off, grads, I say, Congratulations. You’ve gotten this far, and that’s awesome. But this isn’t really an end – it’s a beginning. Start it off right, and affirm your faith in Jesus. Yes, I’ll follow. Yes, I’ll serve. I won’t let what I’ve given to You to be stolen by others.
