Lessons of Rehoboam
Today I want to look at the grandson of David and to learn a few lessons from the life of the man who is remembered as the one who split the kingdoms of Israel.
Rehoboam was a man who had great big footsteps in which to follow. His grandfather was a great warrior and a man of whom it was said that he had a heart after Gods own. He was one of the most famous kings that the world has ever known. Rehoboam’s father, Solomon, was no mean feat to follow either. He was given the gift of wisdom to such an extent that nobody has been as wise before or since. He had built the very temple of the Lord, and had riches beyond number. He had even reigned at a time of total peace, where before, the people had constantly been at war.
Rehoboam had inherited all of this wealth, honour, and title. He was to be the ruler of the Lords chosen people. Along with this however, Rehoboam had also inherited some of the promises of God. The first promise, was one that he would receive with pleasure. This promise was given to David a few decades earlier.
2 Samuel 7:16
Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’ "
Rehoboam had a security in this promise. God had promised to establish David’s throne and had said that he would always have descendants that would rule in Israel. In today’s world there is no longer any such thing as job security, but for Rehoboam, he knew that his descendants would always have a throne in Israel as he lived in the promises given to David. Of course Jesus would eventually take the baton, as a descendent of David, Solomon and Rehoboam, and His throne will never pass away.
Rehoboam also inherited another promise however. This one had been given to Solomon because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord in his later years.
1 Kings 11:31
Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.
32:But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.
While Rehoboam inherited all of Israel, he was living under the promise that some day it would be split into two. Most of Israel would be torn a way from either his, or his descendants hand, and would be given to somebody who was not from David’s line. It was only the promise given to David that meant that his descendants would retain some rule in Israel. This second promise was a sobering one. I want to look at the life of Rehoboam and see what caused this promise to be fulfilled during his reign. The mistakes that Rehoboam made stand as an example and warning to us, in how we live our lives.
Followed his own will:
2 Chronicles 10:1
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.
2:When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.
3:So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:
4:"Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labour and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
5:Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away.
6:Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.
7:They replied, "If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favourable answer, they will always be your servants."
8:But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.
9:He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, `Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?"
10:The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, `Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter’ - tell them, `My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.
11:My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ "
Solomon had achieved many great things and had built many great buildings. In doing so he had demanded heavy taxes from the people and had put a heavy yoke on them. Although it was only the foreigners who became conscripts to Solomon’s building plans, the Jews had also had to carry the burden. They had had to serve in his army, but now they had had enough. They wanted the new king to listen to them and lighten the load slightly. They had come to make him king but also to present their request.
Rehoboam at first appears to want to do what is right, in asking the elders for their advice. However it soon becomes quite clear that he is only willing to take that advice if it matches his own will. As he doesn’t like what they tell him he decides to ask the men he grew up with instead. Whilst giving all the appearance of seeking what is right, he as actually just seeking confirmation of his own will. As a result of this the kingdom is split into two and becomes, the Northern kingdom of Israel, and the Southern kingdom of Judah.
It reminds of an illustration I recently read. A pastor received a call from a church that offered him a salary four times what he was then receiving. Being a devout man, he spent much time in prayer trying to discern what God wanted him to do. One day a friend met the pastor’s young son on the street. “Do you know what your dad is going to do?” he asked. “Well,” replied the lad, “Dad’s praying, but Mom’s packing! (Illustration by Pat Cook @ www.sermoncentral.com)
The people of Israel were no better than Rehoboam either. Notice that in 2Chronicles 10:3 it says that they sent for Jeroboam before they approached Rehoboam with their request. They had already got in their minds, that if the kings will didn’t match their own, they were going to set Jeroboam up as king. After rejecting Rehoboam, verse 10 of this chapter tells us that, because they rejected the line of David, they were in rebellion to this day. This then perhaps explains why a good portion of Judah’s kings are described in the bible as being good, godly men, while all of Israel’s kings were accredited with being evil. They could never please God because they were in a constant state of rebellion.
The first reason therefore that Rehoboam was responsible for the division of a nation was that, despite what he might have appeared to be doing, he was more interested in following his own will than discovering what was right.
Pride:
Rehoboam’s second mistake was one that many great Bible characters have fallen with, that of pride.
2 Chronicles 12:1
After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.
Even though the Lord had removed from Rehoboam the ten Northern Tribes of Israel, He was still merciful enough, and faithful in His promises, that He ensured Rehoboam’s position was firmly established in the Kingdom of Judah. Judah had become the centre of worship to the Lord as Israel had turned to idolatry. The Lord had enabled his army to become strong and the cities of Judah to be fortified. Rehoboam had for a time ruled wisely. However now he looked on all he possessed, and took courage in it rather than in God.
Rehoboam’s position had caused him to became proud and he felt that he no longer needed the Lord. We read that he abandoned the very law of the Lord. Because of this, the Lord abandons them, and allows them to be attacked by there enemies. It is only because they humbled themselves at the last minute that they were saved from total destruction. However even though Rehoboam wasn’t destroyed he still faced the humiliation of being subject to a foreign king and having the glorious riches of the Lords temple carried away from under his nose. The Lord had to allow the foreign ruler to have power over Judah to prevent the pride from reoccurring.
2 Chronicles 12:8
They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands."
I have experienced times in my own life where pride has led to a downfall. About eight or nine years ago, although I would like to think it was longer, I had been swimming competitively for a number of years. I was about 17 years old and quite proud of my swimming ability and the physique that years of swimming had given me. One day I went to Waterworld (A large local water park) with the youth group from church. While the other lads in the party wore nice, sensible, long swimming shorts, I wore my slim line, racing, swimming trunks. After strutting about the pool for a couple of hours and having a number runs down the water slides, I suddenly noticed a few members of the youth group laughing behind me. I had unknowingly caught my trunks on one of the slides and had now developed a steadily increasing tear in the back of them.
After spending some time thinking how best to get to the changing rooms without anybody else noticing, I eventually swam on my back around the edge of the pool before climbing out and making a dash for the changing rooms. Needless to say my pride was crushed. In the same ways Rehoboam pride resulted in his humiliation.
Forfeited true Worship:
Rehoboam’s third mistake was that he forfeited the true worship of God. In his day the worship of the Lord centred around the temple. Rehoboam, however, had allowed false worship and the worship of idols to be practised in the land.
1 Kings 14:23
They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.
24:There were even male shrine-prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
Rehoboam was in a state of compromise when it came to the true worship of God. He was quite happy to have the temple of the Lord, and to worship the God of his father and grandfather, but he also allowed the worship of foreign Gods at the same time. I believe that this was the main reason that God allowed the temple to be robbed of its Glory. It represented the spiritual state of the people. It looked all right from the outside, but was empty on the inside.
The king of Egypt even took the hundreds of gold shields that Solomon had put in the temple and so Rehoboam had replaced them with shields made of bronze or brass. Rehoboam saw that the golden shields had been removed from the temple and so instead of being humbled by this he replaced them with shields of bronze. Bronze may be shined to the point that from a distance it may look like gold, but it will soon go dull. It doesn’t have the lasting shine of gold. Unlike gold, which has its value in its purity, bronze only exists because it is a mixture. It is a cheap imitation of the real thing. Because of Rehoboam’s unfaithfulness in the worship of the Lord, he had become like the bronze shields. At first glance he seemed pure and of value, but on closer inspection, his worship was just a cheap imitation of the real thing that wont last.
Application:
The same three mistakes that Rehoboam made, we have to be careful not to make in our own lives or in our church. Just as Rehoboam’s failures resulted in him losing a significant part of what God had given to him, we can find ourselves losing out on what God has for us in the church or personally if we make the same mistakes. Lets learn from the mistakes of Rehoboam.
Seek Gods will and not our own:
So often we can be asking God for direction in our lives. We can be at a cross roads and asking God which road to take. The question we need to ask ourselves is this, do we really want to know the answer and are we willing to accept it? Are we like Rehoboam and just want God to confirm our own will? If we want God to show us where we need to go then we need to have sacrificed our own will first. As a church we also need to be willing to accept His answer when we bring important decisions before him such as choosing the next pastor.
Is there a part of your life where you are already in rebellion? Are we like Rehoboam or Israel? Just as Israel could never have a good king while it remained in rebellion to the house of David, and everything king it had was deemed to be evil, neither can we ever please God while we are in rebellion in any part of our lives. I want to ask you to search your heart to see if there is any part of your life where you know that God has got one thing for you, but you are following your own will. If there is something like that then we have to realise the seriousness of it. We can never do anything to please God without repenting and turning back to him that part of our life that has been out of His will.
Humble ourselves before God:
Secondly, I believe that God is warning us today about pride. Because of Rehoboam’s pride, God caused him and the people of Judah to be subject to the kings of this world. Are you subject to one of the kings of this world? Do you suffer with a reoccurring sin or a problem that continually holds you down? Often, just as it was with Rehoboam, this can be because without it, we can rely on our own strengths, and turn away from God. That sin or problem remains so that we know the difference between serving the Lord and serving the kings of this world. The only way to defeat it is to humble ourselves before God, and to remember our own unworthiness.
The kings of this world are those things that wish to enslave us, just as Rehoboam was enslaved by the king of Egypt. These are the very things that Jesus came to give us freedom from. Reading through the bible you will find that the root cause of most sins, such as lust and greed, is actually pride. If you are suffering with one of these sins today then humble yourself before God and rely on His strength.
Restore True Worship:
The third of Rehoboam’s failures is one that is rampant within the Western church. This is where true worship has been substituted for cheap imitation, and in many cases has turned into the worship of idols. It is so easy to find a church or an individual in the same position as Rehoboam, all the appearance of worshipping God, but being empty inside. We need to search our hearts. Have we allowed high places of idol worship to be erected in our lives? Do we have all the appearance of being religious, but our hearts have grown cold? Have things become more important that God?
When the gold shields were taken away, Rehoboam replaced them with a cheap imitation. Are we like those bronze shields, because when we face the refiners fire, it will soon become clear what we are made of. I want to ask that we search our hearts and remove anything that is false. It is only then that we can truly worship God.
Conclusion:
Just as Rehoboam inherited the promises of God, there are many promises upon us as individuals and as a church. There is one promise in the Bible that I want to bring forward today. It applied to Israel and it applies to us today.
2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
I believe that this scripture is just as relevant now as it was when it was originally spoken. Many of us have been crying out for God to heal this land. For us to have an powerful effect on those around us. After a time of bareness of a move of God I believe that we are on the verge of moving into gods promises for His church right now. As we do so however I just pray that we don’t make the same mistakes as Rehoboam. Instead, let us seek His will and not our own, let us humble ourselves before God, and let us restore the true worship of God in our lives. We can then rely on God’s promise that He will come and heal this land.
