1 Kings 12:1-24

[0:00] 1 Kings chapter 12, 1 Kings chapter 12. That's where we're at this evening, 1 Kings chapter 12. We're just continuing to make our way through Scripture.

[0:11] I'm so thankful this morning. I don't know if you guys caught it, but right at the end of my sermon, I lost my voice. So I was like, hey, that's a good time. And the Lord's like, time to be quiet. So it was really good.

[0:23] And I haven't talked at all today. Very, very little, so not bad. So we're good to go. But yes, so I was very thankful for that. I was preaching this morning and I was right there at the end.

[0:35] It was like, okay, you're done. But we were able to make it through the sermon. And it's just that time of year, but I was very appreciative for that. 1 Kings chapter 12. We'll look at verses 1 through 24 because that kind of gets us in the context of what all is going on here. And then we'll finish up the rest of the 12th chapter next time we're together on it. So let's put it in this proper section.

[0:59] Again, another one of the pivotal chapters that we come across in Scripture. And it's pivotal in that this is a transition time in the history of the nation.

[1:10] Any of you know your history of the nation and you know what immediately follows after the reign of Solomon is now we're about to see really the thing that will carry it into Babylonian captivity that is a divided nation.

[1:26] When we speak of the Babylonian captivity, we kind of have to put an asterisk beside it. And I know this is all just kind of side note stuff. It is because the Babylonian captivity really it was the southern tribes. It was Judah referred to commonly after this period in the history of the Bible is referred to as Judah. You become Israel and Judah. It was Judah who was carried away into the Babylonian exile. That would be the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. And the reason why they are the ones carried away into Babylonian exile is because the northern tribes had already fallen. They had fallen to the Assyrian Empire.

[1:59] Do your history. The Assyrian Empire had come in and the northern tribes because of their wickedness were getting ahead of ourselves in 1 and 2 Kings. But because of their wickedness they fall to the Assyrians.

[2:12] A number of years after that the southern tribe because God raised up some faithful leaders who did right in the side of the Lord as their father David had done. You know the caveat that we read when it gets to the history writings. So they remained faithful for a number of years after that and God's faithfulness stays true with them until they fall to the Babylonians.

[2:29] Now all of Israel is in quote unquote the Babylonian exile because Babylon overtook Assyria in world power and it is just kind of more that changing of empires that we see. And then we get into the book of Daniel and the man the statue and all the different figures in the kingdoms there. So I know it seems kind of technical but it helps us to understand what's going on historically so that we know how God is dealing with his people in that physical location. Right? So it's very important to understand that God is really in control not only of the events that we see recorded for us here in the pages of Scripture but he's also very much and we'll see in just a moment very much in control of all the things going on behind the scenes as well. Right? The things that really are working according to his plan. So I say that because when we open up Scripture we don't have the full historical account of everything that has happened in the world.

[3:29] We have the history of God's interaction with his people. But these things are happening in the setting of world history. So God is really in control of all that that is going on.

[3:42] He's bringing about this plan of redemption of man through Jesus Christ here in one locale with the nation of Israel in a historical setting.

[3:54] So it always helps us to take that into context. But getting ahead of ourselves because this is the beginning of all of that. This is the transitional period.

[4:05] Israel as of the end of the 11th chapter when Solomon dies is the most expansive it has ever been as a kingdom. Has the most political alliances that they'd ever possessed.

[4:17] Was more financial secure than they ever had been. Really had the temple and the palace and all the grand architecture and the buildings of Solomon. They looked poised moving into the future just to become a great power.

[4:33] But if you remember God told his people they would be a great power in direct relation to their faithfulness to him. That's when he brought them out of Egypt to bring them into the promised land and the reason they would never fall or flee from their enemies is because they were to be the head as long as God was going ahead of them.

[4:53] So in their relation to him they would be this great power. Unfortunately they had risen to a place of prestige based upon the performance of man. Solomon. And that's going to fall short. So that's what gets us to the 12th chapter.

[5:05] 1 Kings chapter 12 starting in verse 1 it says Then Rehoboam that's Solomon's son Then Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

[5:17] Now Jeroboam the son of Naboth heard of it. He was living in Egypt for he was yet in Egypt where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon. Then they sent and called him and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying Your father made our yoke hard now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us and we will serve you.

[5:40] Then he said to them Depart for three days then return to me. So the people departed. King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive saying How do you counsel me to answer this people?

[5:54] Then they spoke to him saying If you will be a servant to this people today and will serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them then they will be your servants forever.

[6:05] But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. So he said to them What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me saying Lighten the yoke which your father put on us.

[6:20] The young men who grew up with him spoke to him saying Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you saying Your father made our yoke heavy now you make it lighter for us but you shall speak to them My little finger is thicker than my father's loins whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke I will add to your yoke My father disciplined you with whips but I would discipline you with scorpions.

[6:41] Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed saying Return to me on the third day. The king answered the people harshly for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men saying My father made your yoke heavy but I will add to your yoke My father disciplined you with whips but I will discipline you with scorpions.

[7:05] So the king did not listen to the people for it was a turn of events from the Lord that he might establish his word which the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shilamite to Jeroboam the son of Naboth.

[7:16] When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them the people answered the king saying What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents O Israel Now look after your own house David So Israel departed to their tents but as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah Rehoboam reigned over them Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the forced labor and all Israel stoned him to death and king Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day It came about when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over Israel None but the tribe of Judah followed the house of David Now when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin 180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God saying

[8:17] Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people saying Thus says the Lord You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel return every man to his house for this thing has come from me So they listened to the word of the Lord and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord 1 Kings chapter 12 verses 1-24 I want you to see the nation divided the nation divided a lot of confusion we start getting all these different names the Rehoboams the Jeroboams and all these things tend to blend together but we're going to try to take just a moment just to see what's happening historically but also just to see how God is working and applications that we can get from that just a few things I want you to see this evening again this is a very pivotal time in the nation of Israel we can mark these days and these times in the nation based upon either their obedience and their faithfulness to the Lord God or their disobedience and the result of that discipline and what happens in the nation and we can kind of follow this and we can see what God is doing because in all of this we need to remember

[9:25] God never deals with his people responsibly that is he isn't responding to a problem God is proactive God doesn't respond to man's failures and have to come up with a solution God has a solution before man fails that's why we find in scripture that Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world was laid what we find in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sin God isn't having to respond to that God is proactively seeking them because the plan of restoration is already in the mind of the father when he calls Abram out of the land of the earth the Chaldeans God is proactive he's rising up a nation when Abraham Abraham brings Isaac to offer him he's proactive he knows what he's doing God is not responding he is always in control and he's always working though we don't always see it according to his purpose and plan that purpose and plan is the restoration of man with a holy God through the relationship of Jesus Christ it's based upon his covenants it's based upon his promises again we have a tendency to kind of get lost in the history and say well there's a lot of things going on here but we want to look at the history and also see exactly what God is doing we have the grand benefit right of seeing how this fits in the story of God found in scripture what we have from Genesis to Revelation we have a clue in the text when the author we don't know exactly who it is

[11:00] I know that I've said it before that many people believe that it's Jeremiah and I think that's probably the case that this author is writing right before or during their time of going into captivity which would bode well for Jeremiah the prophet Jeremiah because he was one of the ones left behind when Nebuchadnezzar carried off the people Jeremiah was left in the city and we see it because he tells us that there was a division in the land which remains until this day so we know he's writing after the events he's kind of writing the history of the nation this is where we get our differences and our similarities in 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles 1st and 2nd Kings again it's just we remind ourselves we will read them successively so as soon as we finish 2nd Kings we'll start into 1st Chronicles that's not that way in the Jewish Bible 1st and 2nd Kings fall within the historical writings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles fall much later in the prophetic writings under the end of the Old Testament and the reason being is 1st and 2nd Kings were written pre-Babylonian captivity 1st and 2nd Chronicles were written post-Babylonian captivity so what you have is you have God raising up a man right as they are going into captivity recording the history of the nation for them which shows us this is how we got here right and then you have an individual after they come out of Babylonian captivity again many people believe it's probably

[12:24] Ezra or because Ezra was a scribe or one of the scholars of Ezra's school of scribes Ezra starts the school of scribes which leads to the Septuagint you ever do Bible study and you see the Roman numerals LXX that means 70 that stands for the Septuagint version of the Old Testament which I'm giving you a lot of history tonight right so this is good it's okay this is good for us this is why Sunday night we get deep Septuagint means the Greek version of the Old Testament well that was Ezra and the school of the scribes because there were 70 translators again as a result of the exile not many people could speak Hebrew anymore Bible translation is not a new thing by the way it was going on before the New Testament ever existed so not many people could speak Hebrew so they wanted to put it in their common language that is Greek and so the historical account goes there were 70 translators dispersed among the Babylonian Empire or what would later become the Roman Empire and they all independently worked on it when they came together all 70 had this this perfect they matched there was no difference at all in their translation that was commonly referred to as the Septuagint but that came out of the school of Ezra the scribal school of Ezra so that's why many people think he probably wrote 1st and 2nd Chronicles but there's a distinct absence in 1st and 2nd Chronicles than there is in 1st and 2nd Kings that is we don't pay much attention to the northern tribes because coming out of captivity they just wanted to know about the line of David they want to know about that reign right is God faithful to that promise is God keeping it we mention it but a little bit but not as much as we do in 1st and 2nd Kings but we got there because of this chapter because God is doing something okay

[14:05] God is working and God is is creating chaos in order to bring about restoration there's this great word in the book of the prophets where it says that God strikes but heals striking yet healing and it's this wonder of the fact that God creates a chaotic problem so that he may heal and restore and he's striking the nation of Israel and that prophet is crying out to it he is striking that nation for the purpose of healing them this is the beginning of that strike this is where God is causing a pain this is where the nation is divided and we see it's for the purpose of restoration which hey historically we have yet to see okay there are some kind of precursors 1943 God would call those the nation which had not been a nation to be a nation in a day or 1948 I'm sorry that happened in 1948 awesome boom the rebirth of the Jewish nation right it's back but that's not the full restoration the full restoration is when the you know in the fullness of the Gentiles is coming and God restores and redeems the nation of Israel we see it in Romans 9, 10, and 11 there's just a lot that's happening so we're still really very much in the midst of what God is beginning here right the church age falls within this sphere so don't look back at this and say oh that doesn't have any application to me well it absolutely does because we're a part of that story we're a portion of it but the first thing that we notice is how did they get here right we know of the sins of Solomon we know of his divided heart we know

[15:48] God gave him opportunity two times God spoke to him and then God creates chaos around him in order that Solomon may repent Solomon doesn't repent so since the covenant with Solomon was a conditional covenant since Solomon is not walking in faithful obedience then the kingdom is going to depart from the seed of Solomon but on the other hand since the covenant with David is unconditional that is God made you know a covenant with him and a promise based solely upon the faithfulness of God a small remnant will remain with the seed of David not necessarily the seed of Solomon but the seed of David we know we've looked at the New Testament long enough that while the seed of Solomon remains in order that Jesus may maintain a legal right to the throne in the book of Matthew the ultimate promise is fulfilled through the seed of David's other son Nathan who never sets upon the throne and we see that in the genealogy in Luke so it's very very important that God is so faithful in all these aspects God also is faithful that the seed of Solomon will not sit up on the throne forever because he doesn't but the seed of David does

[16:50] Jesus is not the seed of Solomon he is the seed of David and the reason we bypass that is because of Nathan Joseph according to the genealogy in Matthew is the seed of Solomon but if you remember Jesus is not the seed of Joseph he's the seed of a woman which is really an oxymoron it's because she was overpowered with the Holy Spirit and she conceived child right is the son of God so all the faithfulness of God is just so apparent in scripture and we really see it being played out in the Old Testament this is why I've begun to love the Old Testament not just because I like history it's not that I love looking back and seeing the history of how God is so true in the faithfulness of God then and what he's doing now even as it corresponds into the New Testament it gives me assurance that God is still very much in control today right and all of our chaos and all of our craziness God is not taken by surprise but we've seen everything that Solomon did but now we transition we have Rehoboam

[17:50] Solomon's son who's up on the throne we don't really know his age there's some kind of confusion it says in 1 Chronicles he's 41 but there seems to be an implication that he's also young so many people believe that was kind of a in some of our scribal translations there's only like one stroke difference between 41 and 21 so maybe he's 21 we're really not sure but it doesn't matter we know he makes a foolish decision whereas Solomon displayed wisdom as his very first act as king Rehoboam will display foolishness as his very first act of king okay and we know that God uses this even Rehoboam we'll see that in just a moment but the first thing I want you to notice all that to get to this one point right is there is a concern that's overlooked there's the concern that is overlooked so we put it right in this proper setting because again the omnipotence of God and bringing everything about intentionally it says then Rehoboam went to Shechem now the place of David or the city of David is Bethlehem but the place of his reign is Jerusalem right the place of anointing before this had been Hebron but Rehoboam goes to Shechem

[19:12] Shechem said all of a sudden call your attention because and I know you remember this from well I don't even know if any of you were here eight years ago other than my family and you might not remember this that that very first night or actually the very first few weeks where I was going through on Sunday nights the book of Genesis the very first place that Abram goes to or Abraham goes to in the promised land is Shechem and it is there that he built an altar and he calls upon the name of the Lord very first place it's a place of grand importance in the nation of Israel and now you also remember that because we've said this before to call upon the name of the Lord is so much more than just a cry out in prayer it is really to declare the worthiness of God's name so Abraham went to Shechem and preached this is why the inhabitants of Canaan by the way are without excuse for their rebellion they had heard of God

[20:13] Abraham went throughout that land calling upon the name of the Lord he wasn't just praying he was publicly declaring the worthiness of God's name that's what that means so Shechem is that place it is also at the foot of Mount Gerizim which is one of the places when they come in you have the Mount of Blessing and the Mount of Curse there is a really great place where the stone was supposed to be set between the two mounts it was where the king was supposed to record or the people were supposed to see the Ten Commandments displayed there upon the stone Joshua sets this up but one other thing that you need to know about Shechem is Shechem is located within the tribal allotment of Ephraim okay and the reason you need to know that is because when you go back to the 11th chapter Jeroboam who had been declared through the prophet Ahijah that he would rule over ten tribes was from the tribe of Ephraim and the Ephraimites had problems with people from Judah which is where Rehoboam and the people of David are from so there's kind of this animosity building there so what we have is we have

[21:20] Rehoboam going into the land of Ephraim Jeroboam comes back from Egypt back to his hometown Shechem is the most prominent place of the Ephraimite territory by this time and so everything is aligning perfectly they call him back here they call Jeroboam back and what we notice is Jeroboam is coming as a spokesman for all of Israel it says before King Rehoboam and again pay attention to this because what he is asking Rehoboam is not attempting open rebellion okay it's not like he's heard the prophecy God has declared that to him I'm not trying to paint a better picture of Jeroboam than we should because by the time we get to the 25th verse we see that Jeroboam really is not going to walk after the way of the Lord and God judges Jeroboam and he will be set forth as the center of all sinners for all the kings that follow after him I'm not doing that but what I want you to see is at the beginning he didn't come in and say Rehoboam we're taking the kingdom away from you we're going to he didn't do that he came with this concern and the concern was the weight of your father is heavy upon us right if you remember

[22:35] Solomon made himself out to be a popular king and really made himself out to be popular with the world and he built his popularity literally upon the backs of his people he not even taxed them he also pressed them into service this is why you spend 20 years nearly 20 years in construction 7 years in the temple 13 years on your own palace and he builds the Milo which is just this raised embankment around Jerusalem and fortifies it he builds all these chariot cities and he rebuilds all these cities you don't build when it says he did it Solomon wasn't building it okay he did it literally upon the backs of his people again go back to the 11th chapter Jeroboam because he was a valiant warrior Solomon made him the ruler over the laborers from all of Joseph which is Ephraim and Manasseh so I say all that if there was one man who knew well how hard it was on the laborers it was Jeroboam and they're sitting in Shechem in the central location of the tribe of Ephraim and if there is an opportunity for the nation to be reconciled it's here

[23:52] Rehoboam is showing favor towards the inhabitants of Ephraim the people who had discord with them by having the coronation of the king in their locale it's also one of the most central cities in all of Israel he's moved it there and one of their own who knows full well how hard the task is on the laborers because he has been the overseer of the laborers goes before the king and just begs the question can we lighten the load there's a concern he's not even asking you have to keep in mind he is not leader over the slaves of other nations all the ites that God said they could enslave for forced he is labor over the forced labors of the nation of Israel his own people something the kings were never supposed to do and he comes with this request and it's just discarded it's overlooked why because the king doesn't want to serve them the king wants them to serve him read your scripture every great leader among God's people was first a servant of the people

[25:09] Moses served the people Joshua served the people David served the people every great leader among the people Samuel served the people we can go on and on and on Mark 10 45 is a key verse all chapter Mark Mark 10 verse 45 is a key verse all chapter Mark all the book of Mark and Mark 10 45 says for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many Jesus didn't come that he may be served every great leader every great tool of God towards the people of God is first and foremost a servant Jesus says that the one who wants to be the greatest should be the least washing the feet of the disciples the model that he set before them he calls them to serve one another yet we see this thing called pride in that

[26:10] Rehoboam just completely overlooks this concern because much like his father his concern is what can you do for me not what can I do for you now again God's in charge of this we'll see this in just a minute so we see the concern overlooked the second thing that we see is the counsel forsaken the Bible tells us a wise man seeks a multitude of counsel right that we ought to seek counsel that we don't make decisions in isolation and Jesus himself said that if you're going to go face an army you need to sit down and first figure out if you can win the battle and if you're going to build a house you need to first sit down and figure out if you can finish the task we need to seek counsel we need to have wisdom and we approach that and Rehoboam had the opportunity and King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive so he brings this question first of all to the elders and these are people that not only had sat under the wisdom of Solomon but also had sat and experienced kind of the suppression of Solomon's reign what it had done not economically for the nation but physically to the people right these were first hand witnesses to what had happened the whole time

[27:29] Solomon reigned for his 40 years and so these are people who had experience and of course they make the decision or they make the request of Rehoboam and said well if you'll serve the people now then the people will serve you forever we know that so just lighten the load a little bit listen to their concern but then we're told that Rehoboam forsook their counsel and then went and talked to the people that grew up with him it says that he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him unfortunately we always have somebody around us who will tell us what we want to hear always if we ask enough people we'll finally find somebody that will agree with us but that isn't what scripture tells us to do right scripture doesn't tell us to find people who agree with us and put them around us as a matter of fact scripture tells us to seek the counsel of those who maybe don't see eye to eye with as I have found some of the best counsel I can ever get is from people who don't always see things the way I see it and I appreciate that

[28:30] I've learned more from my criticism and I've learned more from people who don't see things the way I do I'm not saying it's easy I don't say I like it but I've learned more in those opportunities than I have from people who always say oh yeah everything you say is right because it's not really right even in my reading I read people who don't see things the same way that I do not that I'm going to have agreement with them it's just because I want to make sure that I'm not pigeonholing myself to always think in one way I'm not saying that I'm going out here reading things that are anti-Christian I'm saying within the Christian circle there are people whose interpretations are a little bit different than mine and some of them I look and go ah that's crazy and you know even they have wisdom and cast aside sometimes I read things and I go now that's way out of the box and I never read that book again I kind of put it over there on the shelf and actually I don't even put it on the shelf I just get rid of it because you know when we get into big rock issues if we don't line up then we don't line up but again I always kind of challenge myself surprise surprise I don't only read

[29:31] Southern Baptist authors as a matter of fact the majority of my favorite authors are non Baptist authors and you know that's quite shocking I know but it's astounding that those are the ones that really I think have a greater alignment sometimes I think scripturally they're more accurate but anyway I do that because I want to seek a multitude of counsel I want to seek a multitude of wisdom if I'm ever reading a portion of scripture and I come up on interpretation I've always told people this when they're teaching it and when they're getting ready to preach it and I try to tell people this in Sunday school too if they're teaching there if I have an interpretation of scripture and I because this is usually how I do my sermon prep is I will go through the text I'll go through the text I'll go through the text in a number of different translations I'll go through the text I kind of come up with what I think the text says and then I begin to consult other people about what they thought the text says if I'm the only one that thinks it says that then more than likely I'm wrong okay it's not like I got a new revelation no that's not what happened

[30:33] I mean somewhere I got off the path just a little bit right so now that doesn't mean I'm always in alignment with what everybody thinks it says but I need to be close so that's the same principle that we see going on with Rehoboam here he had elders and he had people that were yes men or people that agreed with him he forsook the counsel of the elders and the reason we say this the reason this has application now is because that is so dangerous even in our own life today right it's easy to find people who agree with us it's so hard to listen to people who may tell us things that are difficult but we need to be wise and not only the counsel we give let's give honest counsel but we need to be wise in the counsel we receive we just do we need to be wise in how we receive it we need to be wise in who we ask of it and we need to make sure that the people we're seeking counsel from are people who've walked that path you cannot fail to realize that God had established an opportunity for Rehoboam but he forsook it he didn't want that counsel he followed the counsel of the young men who grew up with him he grew up with his buddies and we see what happened here but this leads us to the third and final thing because it's something that we must acknowledge because up to this point we say well

[31:49] Rehoboam really messed this up sounds the case but till we get to the third thing and not only is there a concern overlooked a counsel forsaken the third thing is there's a control of one greater why did Rehoboam forsake the counsel of the elders and go with the counsel of the youngers it says in verse 11 so the king did not listen to the people for it was a turn of events from the Lord for it was a turn of events from the Lord that he might establish his word which the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Naboth now this is where we have to get into this thing called sovereignty okay stay with me just for a minute it's a technical term that kind of we don't like to talk about very much God did not overstep the bounds of mankind's free will that is Rehoboam by free will neglected the counsel of the elders and chose the counsel of his friends God didn't make him do it but

[32:57] God did use the free will of man to align with the purposes of God I know it kind of makes our minds smoke it does mine I've really thought over the years I've thought heavy on sovereignty did God make him make that decision no did God know he was going to make that decision yes and this is where we really get our minds God knew what Rehoboam was going to do long before he ever told Ahijah to go talk to Jeroboam long before he was king because God does not see things past present and future God sees it in one instance he is outside of time so while the free will of man is not overruled by the will of God God uses the will of man to bring about the purposes of God so it's a good way of saying is God's not playing with puppets Rehoboam is still accountable for his decisions but his decisions do not dictate

[34:08] God's plans and the reason we have to say that here is because if we say well God made Rehoboam do it then we're opening up the Pandora's box so to say because we have to keep continue carrying that on throughout history and every evil and every wickedness that we see being done throughout history all of a sudden we have to imply that God caused that or God did that right so we would have to take it to its furthest end if we're going to be honest in our theology but the only honest way to do it in theology is we have this thing called sovereignty that is God is going to bring about his purposes and it coincides at the same time with what man does because of their fallen nature and the purposes of God and the plans of God are not overruled or even underworked according to the decisions of man that they work together perfectly and I know that's deep and

[35:11] I'm not going to sit here and tell you there's an easy answer to it that's where we walk by faith and not by sight but we know that ultimately Rehoboam is not the one in charge he did this because it was of the Lord this was according to the purposes of God and we know this even as they they because the natural tendency here is for Rehoboam to want the nation back together and that's natural so we know that he sends one man out a man ends up getting stoned when all this happens when everybody says to your tents and all Israel goes to their tents he sends the forced laborer guy over them he gets stoned so then Rehoboam has to get in his chariot and hightail it back to Jerusalem when he gets to Jerusalem you have Benjamin and Judah the two tribes that are the southern tribes the question is why is Benjamin united with Judah well it's because Jerusalem was on the border between the tribe of Judah and tribe of Benjamin and Benjamin probably got pretty used to having all the temple worship and all the you know the king's presence and everything there so just they got caught up in it they're a little tribe so they're there and he raises up 180,000 men and he's going to go get back his throne and God sends a prophet and tells him not to do it why because this is from me this is from me this wasn't a mistake that Rehoboam made this was the disciplinary action that God had promised and we need to understand that even though we can't fully comprehend it we have to accept it and the reason we have to accept it is because we're not looking back historically and going man

[36:43] Rehoboam messed that up we're looking back historically and say well God's doing something here God's divided the nation now one thing that we notice and we don't want to skip over this in this text because just in case that we think well now Jeroboam is the favorite of the Lord he's not he's made king of the nation of Israel of the ten tribes of Israel but notice what happens when he's made king it says they went and got him and they made him king it's all it says right there's no anointing there's no priest and there's no prophet none of that's there the northern tribes kings are never anointed they're not the anointed of the Lord there's never priest never prophet all those still in the southern tribes because that's where the temple is the kings of the south are the anointed so when we follow the faithfulness of God God is sovereign he's working all this out according to his plans and purpose he's got he's got a reasoning behind it we don't always understand it we don't always see it but so much more is going on here than just man messing up so much more God is really bringing the Savior and the need for the Savior as we I know we keep saying that in every chapter but that's what we see in the Old Testament is we're growing towards something right we're growing towards something with all the historical right and then it's followed by the prophets later on I know we have you know our our poetic books in the middle there but the prophets it's really just longing for something it's this need God's creating a need here and this need is just heightened because of the vision of the land and we see it in first Kings 12 verses 1 through 24 let's pray and then we'll be dismissed let's pray together

[38:38] God I thank you so much thank you God that I know we get very technical tonight we can we can look at the facts of history and see what you're doing but God we just pause and we just declare the worthiness of who you are oh God that you don't work in response to what we create but God you're working in relation to us and you're sovereign we don't always understand it but that is your plans and purposes are coming about perfectly fully and finally and when we just want to walk in that we want to walk in the reality that you are in control that you're not caught off guard that you know all things even before they take place for your God so God there's things that await us later on this evening there's things that await us this week that may catch us off guard they may catch us by surprise but God you are not surprised so may we rest in reality that all things lay secure in your hand and if you can turn the heart of the king in your hand and you can direct our steps and you can direct our lives for your glory and honor and we just want to surrender to that say oh God you know so much better than us may we not be those who act hastily may we not be those who who respond rashly but may we be those who walk wholly and completely and fully before the Lord our God for your glory and honor be with us as a church be with us as individuals and may we continue to shine the light of your presence in this community and may you just be honored by it we ask it all Lord as we get ready to leave here tonight then all things in all aspects you would be honored and glorified and magnified glorified this week through our lives and we ask all in Jesus name amen thank you guys so much thank you thank you