1 Kings 14:25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 – Five Golden Shields
Everyone loves a good story. I’m about to tell you a story as background for our message today, but I have to say… it’s not a story with a happy ending. I wish that it ended better, but it’s a sad tale.
Our story starts back about 3000 years ago. The young nation of Israel had been living in the land God had given to them for some time… somewhere between 200 and 400 years. There had been no strong united leader in the land since Joshua had led them to the promised land, though temporary rulers called judges had arisen from time to time to point the people back to God. The people had been following a cycle: sin, suffering, supplication (that is, prayer), and then salvation. Over and over again, the nation fell into sin, suffered at the hands of foreign nations, cried out to God, and were delivered for a time.
So, having grown weary of the trend, they wanted a king, someone to lead them through a family dynasty, having authority to keep them right before God, and power to keep the outside nations at bay. So God raised up a man named Saul to be king. But Saul failed as a leader, and as a man of God.
So God raised up another man, a man after His own heart, a man named David, to be king. But not all the nation wanted David as king. The northern tribes, collectively called Israel, wanted a guy named Ishbosheth, son of Saul, to be king, so they followed him. David became king of the southern tribes, collectively called Judah.
After 7 years, David finally became king of the whole nation. And he was a good king, though not perfect. But he became the best king the nation ever had, sadly. The glory days of the nation were experienced under only their 2nd king. For after David, his son Solomon ruled.
Now, Solomon started off well. Smart man, and under him the nation prospered financially. Having said that, doing well financially often leads us away from God, and causes us to forget that He is the reason for living. But for a time, Solomon was a good king. And he loved all things beautiful. He spent 7 years building the Temple of God, and another 13 years building his palace.
Let me read to you from 1 Kings 10:14-17: “The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was about 22½ tons of gold, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. 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, Solomon made 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 determine for sure how much these shields would have cost, but let’s say, using an estimate of today’s gold prices… Gold sells for about $1400 an ounce. 16 ounces in a pound, 7.5 pounds per large shield, 200 large shields… The large shields would total over $33 million. And the smaller shields would total over $25 million. And that’s just the price of the gold, let alone paying the craftsmen to create such masterpieces. Close to $60 million in armour for the Israelite army, just hanging on the wall.
But the story doesn’t end there. Solomon died, and with him a powerful nation. Immediately following his death, the nation had a civil war, with the northern tribes called Israel taking a fellow named Jeroboam as king, and the southern tribes (called Judah) taking Solomon’s son Rehoboam as king. This was the year 931BC.
Folks, don’t ever think that sin doesn’t have consequences. Don’t ever think that people who know God but don’t obey Him are immune to the effects of sin. The nation was divided, and their days were numbered. The northern tribes of Israel would survive for another 200 years, and the southern tribes of Judah would survive another 350 years, but their best days were now behind them. And if you tolerate sin and disobedience in your life, they will eat you alive.
Five years after Rehoboam came to power, and allowed idol worship in the land, and set up Temple prostitution, and walked away from God as the Ruler of the land, King Shishak of Egypt decided to invade the land of Israel and Judah, part of God allowing sin to take its toll. Let me read to you from 1 Kings 14:25-27 – “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. 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.”
All those shields, $60 million worth, now gone. But Rehoboam, wanting to keep up appearances, decided to have new shields made. Except now, he couldn’t afford gold, as his father had. He had the new shields made of bronze.
Let’s compare, shall we? Bronze is way less expensive. Bronze sells for about, oh, $2 a pound. That’s pound, not ounce. 200 shields at 7½ pounds each, times $2 a pound = $3000 dollars, plus the 300 shields at 3¾ pounds each = $2250. The decorations in the royal palace went from costing $60 million to just over $5000. That’s downsizing.
So you see the sad, sad tale of Rehoboam’s gold shields? What’s even sadder is that everyday, people willingly trade something of great value to something worthless. Everyday, the words of Jeremiah 2 ring true: “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.”
Today, I would like to speak to you for just a few minutes about 5 golden shields, 5 things of great value to our character that we trade for worthless things. This being Father’s Day, I thought of 2 verses in 1 Corinthians 16 that contain 5 nuggets of truth, 5 mini-sermons in themselves, 5 character traits that we often allow to have stolen from underneath us by the enemy of our souls. These 5 golden shields are what you look like when you follow God with a fully committed heart.
The first shield, the first character trait for a committed Jesus follower, says, “Be on your guard.” It means, Be alert! Be vigilant! Be watchful! Pay attention! Open your eyes! See what’s going on around you. We are never safe, so we must pay attention. God is moving, but so is Satan. God is drawing people closer to Him, and Satan is fighting it. You never reach a level of spirituality so high that you can’t be tempted.
But instead of being on our guard, we are unprepared and unobservant. We have no idea what God or Satan is up to. We live our lives blissfully unaware that eternal things matter. We think life is all about us, and making ourselves happy. No! The reality is that what we do on earth in the here and now affects eternity. Your choices, your decisions, your actions… all have a lasting effect. Be aware that what you do matters forever.
The next golden shield says this: “Stand firm in the faith.” It means, stand true to what you believe. Know what you believe, and why you believe it. You don’t have to have all the answers, and you don’t have to agree 100% with me, or Nancy, or Dean, or Beth Moore, or Jim Cymbala, or whoever. But dig for yourself in the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to truth, and let that guide your faith. So be mature and stable! Grow up in your faith.
But instead of standing firm in the faith, we are unstable and wobbly. We trade faith for feelings. If I feel it, then it must be so. Or maybe we say we believe what someone else says, just because we don’t want to argue. Or we flip-flop between the loudest voices, never settling in on one place to land. As they say, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. Then, when things get hard, and we hit rock bottom, if we haven’t grounded ourselves in truth, we will lose faith.
The third golden shield, the third characteristic for a disciple of Jesus, says, “Be men of courage.” The KJV says, “Quit you like men.” Which is why I chose this passage for Father’s Day. Of course, it was addressed to all believers, Be courageous! Life is hard, but press on. Living for Jesus has its challenges, but it’s worth it. It’s not always easy to believe, but it’s worth it.
But, alas, instead of being courageous, we are cowardly and fearful. We are timid. We are scared to try. We are scared to learn. We are scared to change. We are scared to speak up. We are scared to serve. We are scared to admit we were wrong. We are scared to step out and do something new. We are scared to pray in public. We are scared to stand up to someone or something. We say we live by faith, but in reality, we live by fear.
The fourth golden shield says, “Be strong.” Ephesians tells us to be strong in the Lord, and in His mighty power. It’s not a strength that comes from ourselves, but a power that comes from a relationship with God, having the Holy Spirit flow through us. And even when we do get tired, which happens, we wait on the Lord to have our strength renewed like eagles.
But instead of being strong, we are weak and fragile. We are easily offended, as if we are the most important people in the church. We trust in our own strength to get us through, instead of counting on the power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference through us. We go about our daily lives, barely getting by, instead of drawing strength from God Almighty to help us do what we need.
The last golden shield, v14, says, “Do everything in love.” That should go without saying. This church should be all about love. It’s the command Jesus gave us: love one another. If a church has not love, it has cold theology, cold worship, and cold relationships. I’m not saying that love is the only thing, but might just be the main thing. Love towards God, love towards others.
But instead of being loving, we are cold and apathetic. We don’t care, and we don’t try. We share the truth, but it’s not in love. If you can’t get along with others, what does that say about your God? Without love, you are a resounding gong and a clanging symbol. You are nothing and gain nothing. What you need is to go to God, and say, “Lord, I don’t love as I should. I am cold and apathetic and heartless and mean and cruel and rude and proud and easily angered and unforgiving. I know that I cannot remain this way. Lord, change me.”
And He will. He wants to change you. He wants you to have a real and genuine faith, something of great value, or greater value than gold, as 1 Peter tells us. We want to be watchful and faithful and courageous and strong and loving, but too often we are inattentive and gullible and timid and weak and apathetic. And we need God to change us.
