A Failed Leader Who Trashed A Dynasty
(I Kings 11:26-40, 12:12-16, 25-33; 14:1-20)
1. Comedy, jokes, humor – those are involved subjects. Professionals write comedy shows or scripts for comedians. Anything that is a livelihood eventually becomes a science.
“In many comedies, the lead character is their own worst enemy. They get themselves into hot water by lying, scheming, cheating, faking, misleading, or acting in some other inappropriate fashion….Just as plot developments should become more dramatic as a story progresses, comedic predicaments should compound and multiply as you go. A bad decision leads to a predicament, which leads to more bad decisions and bigger predicaments, which ultimately lead to high dramatic stakes and a major dilemma at story’s end” [source: Scriptmag.com].
2. So when the Three Stooges make a ridiculous decision to masquerade as plumbers, you know it is going to go from bad to worse.
3. But in real life, bad decisions are rarely comical. Many of them are tragic, especially when they didn’t have to be.
4. And one of the reasons we are tempted to make bad decisions is because we want to be safe, and to be as safe as we can be, we want to be in control. And, for some, the desire for control can become obsessive and ultimately counter-productive.
Main Idea: Fearfully grasping for control can drive us to act sinfully and foolishly.
I. Jeroboam Was Given An Opportunity to Begin A Perpetual Dynasty, Like DAVID (11:26-12:16).
A. Jeroboam’s BACKGROUND (I Kings 11:26-40)
1. Jeroboam first king of the northern 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, reigned for 22 years, from 930–909 BC.
2. Solomon saw his leadership potential and put him in charge of filling in gaps around the walls of Jerusalem and making terraces out of those gaps.
3. But God was displeased with Solomon because of his idolatry, and would splinter Solomon’s kingdom after his death.
4. The prophet Ahijah meets Jeroboam, and tears fabric into ten strips and gives them to Jeroboam…
5. Promise: If you will obey me, I will make a dynasty for you like David’s…
6. Because Jeroboam became a spokesman for the discontent 10 tribes, Solomon was out to get him, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt.
B. Jeroboam’s RISE to Power (I Kings 12:12-16)
1. When Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam takes the throne (we studied him last week).
2. Jeroboam represents the demands of the northern tribes; when Rehoboam answers harshly, the 10 tribes form a distinct nation (Israel) and make Jeroboam king.
3. You see here God’s sovereignty/man’s responsibility; God’s prophet prophesied a divided kingdom to punish Solomon, yet Rehoboam is responsible for foolish choice.
II. Jeroboam Feared Losing POWER More Than He Feared God (12:25-33; 14:1-20).
A. What he feared most of all: LOSING his throne and being killed (12:25-33)
1. He wisely feared war and built up the city of Shechem (25).
2. But he had an unreasonable fear: losing the throne (read: 26-27)
3. This fear was contradicted and denied all God promised.
4. So he invented his own religion to keep northern Israelites from visiting the south.
• Made images of golden calls and called them the Lord.
• Instead of the Temple in Jerusalem, he made two shrines in Dan and Bethel, the north and south of his kingdom, as convenient centers of worship
• He ordained priests who were neither sons of Aaron or Levites.
• He invented new religious festivals to replace those of the Torah.
• He set the example by worshipping these idols.
B. Jeroboam treated fear with sin, ruining his LEGACY & bringing God’s judgment (14:1-20).
• His son, Abijah, becomes deathly sick.
• Jeroboam sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah, who is now old and blind.
• She disguised herself, but Ahijah knew who she was (the Lord told him).
• He prophesied that her son would die as soon as she returned.
• He also prophesied that all his male heirs would be put to death.
• Only Abijah would be buried; the rest would suffer the indignity of dogs consuming their bodies in the streets.
• He also prophesied that the idolatry Jeroboam initiated would result in the northern kingdom of Israel being conquered and its people deported.
III. What Can We LEARN from Jeroboam?
A. Many of God’s blessings are CONDITIONED upon our obedience.
1. God makes two kinds of promises: conditional and unconditional.
2. God’s promise to David was unconditional, to Jeroboam, conditional.
3. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus...
B. Unlike Jeroboam, David was a man after God’s own HEART.
I Samuel 13:14, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
1. Outward behavior is usually a result of inward conviction.
2. Regeneration, the New Birth, changes everything.
3. There are people who try to be good, and there are those from whom goodness flows because of what they have the life the Holy Spirit brings.
C. Desperately clinging to CONTROL has negative consequences.
Fearfully grasping for control can drive us to act sinfully and foolishly.
1. Ironically, the more you cling, sometimes the more control eludes you.
2. Power, control, pride – these are all connected to the origin of evil.
3. When the angel Lucifer rebelled against God and became Satan, as alluded to in Isaiah 14, it was about control.
4. When Satan tempted Eve, it was about control and self-exaltation.
5. Many of our marriage conflicts are about control; between parents and children; even between church members (who gets their way becomes the issue).
D. Our unchecked fears can bring about the thing we FEAR.
1. Jeroboam needed not fear because of God’s promise; faith and fear are somewhat opposites, somewhat not.
2. Caution, for example, is a good type of fear...
3. What is the difference between fear and unchecked fear? It is huge.
4. Checked fear is treated fear, not left unbridled.
E. Our bad choices HARM others.
1. Most bad choices are selfish to begin with.
2. Some of us are so independent and individualistic that we don’t even think about how we do affects others.
F. Bad TRADITIONS start somewhere, and age does not guarantee truth.
1. Because something wrong, sinful, or misleading has been around for a long time does not mean it is necessarily a good thing.
2. Jeroboam started the tradition of worshipping calf idols and a pagan priesthood, and this would continue for another 200 years.
Chuck couch tells the story of a woman who always cut off the end of the ham before she baked it. Her husband asked why she did this. She said because her mother did. Her mother was still alive, so they asked her why she did this. Her answer, “I didn’t have a pan that was big enough.”
Re-evaluating old traditions is a good idea, but we need to do the research first, and find out “why.” And everything has to be filter by the strainer of God’s Word.
3. This set the tone for all the later kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, “the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.”
4. Our wrongs can start traditions in our families and among those we influence, and some people are drawn, even subconsciously, to repeat the sins of their fathers.
Abraham sinned and lied and said Sarah was his sister when traveling. Isaac ends up doing the same thing with his wife. Alcoholism, workaholism, abuse, uncontrolled anger – all these things can be multiplied in our descendants…
One such hand-me-down sin is a fearful obsession with control.
Fearfully grasping for control can drive us to act sinfully and foolishly.
