The Biggest Fool That Ever Hit The Big Time; By Acting Naturally

The biggest fool that ever hit the big times by acting naturally ...1st. Kings 12:1 - 13

A good musician friend to me, Buck Owens passed away a few days ago...He recorded a song that really done well for him. The name of it was “Act Naturally” Well. Rehoboam had big shoes to fill. His illustrious grandfather was the beloved King David and his distinguished father was the WISE King Solomon.

However, the new king was not left without help. His father’s advisors were ready to help the young man make a good start, succeed his father, and complete the course, but the young Rehoboam took things too personally, too lightly, and immaturely.

He had more to prove than he thought, more to lose than he thought, and was more to blame than he thought for his misfortune. Although Rehoboam was the son of a wise father, he himself had a small mind. From the fifty references to this man, who despised wise counsel, we can learn a great many facts.

Although named as an ancestor of Christ (Matt. 1:7), he was unworthy of such an honor for three reasons.

1. He was dominated by a false principle. Rehoboam entertained an erroneous idea of the relation between God and these people. He was haunted with the false offer that the people existed for God and not God for the people. He carne to accept the ridiculous fiction of "the divine right of kings," that led him to treat his people as puppets if you will, to be manipulated for his benefit.

Rehoboam had been brought up under the high-and-mighty rule of his father, Solomon, When the people appealed, it was more against Solomon than Rehoboam, who had not had the opportunity of proving his quality as a king. So, the first appeal to Rehoboam was, "Thy father made our yoke grievous," and the son sought to copy the harm of his father.

2.. He followed the wrong advice. Alexander Whyte introduces his sermon on Rehoboam with the sentence: "Just by one insolent and swaggering word, King Rehoboam lost for ever the ten tribes of Israel. And all Rehoboam’s insane and suicidal history is written in our Bible for the admonition and instruction of all hot-blooded, ill-natured, and insolent-spoken men among ourselves."

What a different history of the Jews would have been written, had Rehoboam not followed

the advice of reckless counselors. When he went to She-kim, the rallying center of the northern tribes, to be formally crowned as king following Solomon, the people were willing to accept Rehoboam on one condition... that he should lighten the burdens imposed upon them by Solomon. This reasonable request, which should have been adhere to without any hesitation, was met with the cautious reply: "Come again to me after three days." But Rehoboam lost a golden opportunity of healing the sores of fears of preserving the unity of God’s people. Romans:1:22: Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

first of all, the king sought the advice of the old men who had been counselors of his father and whose ripe experience qualified them to guide Rehoboam. They urged the king to be kind and considerate.

Speak good words to them, and they will be thy servants forever." with his mind already made up, he rejected the counsel of the old men and consulting the opinion of his young, rash companions who always fed his vanity, he followed their advice and, assuming a haughty attitude, announced that he would add to the yoke of the people.

The effect was firsthand, and a long-suffering people, aching for a long time, under a sense of wrong, refused to be inspire with dread, like the brave Hungarian people, by empty boastings. And as a result, the kingdom was tore into and Israel’s greatness was destroyed.

Have you ever taken the advise from someone because they said what you wanted to hear, only to find out it was VERY bad advise? These older men had been around. They knew what they was talking about. But Rehoboam thought he knew the best by going to the guys he grew up with. Look at our country today as opposed to 50 years ago or even less.

It used to be a persons word was their bond...It used to be the Andy Griffith days in America. Now, if cartoons is not saying curse words and shows with gays and lesbians as the stars...and if some little so-called judge sitting on the bench fails to uphold the homosexual pervert who says “they was born that way and they just can’t help it . That is a lie straight out of hell!...and this so-called judge says it’s alright to take God out of the pledge to our own flag, we are just not normal. We just don’t understand.