[0:00] I'm coming together and gathering together, but I'm thankful for the ministry and the opportunity to be able to do that.! Take your Bibles, go into the book of 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 8. 2 Chronicles chapter 8. We're making our way through Scripture, and we have got to this point in the 8th chapter of 2 Chronicles.
[0:16] We're going to cover a number of chapters tonight. We're covering bigger sections and chunks of Scripture because much of it we have already read in detail. So, we're covering it not verse by verse and expositing the truths that are contained that we've already looked at when we were looking at 1 Kings.
[0:36] But we won't read every verse of these chapters, but we will read from chapters 8, 9, and 10. So, we'll be looking at 2 Chronicles chapters 8 through 10 this evening.
[0:48] I will read the entirety, I believe it would be the entirety of the 8th chapter, portions of the 9th, and then get into the 10th. So, a lot of verses to read, but I want you to have a good context for what we're looking at and why we're looking at it and the way we are.
[1:09] Let's open up with a word of prayer, and then we'll try to set the context of Scripture. So, let's pray together. Father, thank you so much just for allowing us to gather together. Thank you for the fellowship, which we've been able to enjoy already.
[1:22] Thank you for the encouragement of the midweek service. And Father, we pray your blessing now upon the reading of your word. We ask that your word would speak to our hearts and minds, that it would instruct us and equip us and encourage us in our walk with one another as we walk beside you and alongside you and after you.
[1:44] I pray for all that's taking place throughout this building and these grounds tonight, that it would magnify the Savior, that it would equip the individuals, and that it would call each and every one of us to a greater life of devotion for your glory.
[1:57] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, to put it in context, if you remember, in the book of Chronicles, the book of Chronicles is written post-Babylonian exile. So, that is, it is written to the nation that is back in remnant.
[2:11] It is not the big, large group of people that we would anticipate, but it is the remnant that has responded to the decree of King Cyrus of Persia. And they have went back to Jerusalem.
[2:22] They have rebuilt the temple, though it is a smaller temple. The ministry of Nehemiah, more than likely, by the time of the writing of 1 and 2 Chronicles, has already taken place. So, Nehemiah has come and they have rebuilt the walls.
[2:33] And we have, more than likely, the grandchildren of those who came back. And so, it is not a sovereign nation. They are still under the rule of the Persian Empire. They will not be a sovereign nation for a number of years yet.
[2:46] But they are re-identifying as the people of the Lord. And they don't really need anyone to tell them why they went into exile. The exile is clearly detailed for us in the book of 1 and 2 Kings.
[2:58] And we understand the sins of the nation which led them there. Some of that will be implied in our text this evening. So, the implication is they would understand that.
[3:10] They would know what happened, what took place. And you will see that in just a moment. But they want to know who they are as the people of God. What defines them. What roles they should have. How they should worship. What temple worship looks like.
[3:22] And we find that. The order of the priest. We find all of the construction of the things of the temple. And these things that we need to know to be the people of God at that time.
[3:34] And this is the intended audience. And they are reading this. And they are understanding it. And then they come to this portion. And you need to understand, too. We have said this before. That not a lot of negative things are really dwelt upon in 1 and 2 Chronicles.
[3:50] We read it and we say, oh, wow. Well, they did not spend a lot of time talking about all the little details. I know, I think Ms. PJ put it on the sign this evening. I tried to keep it to myself.
[4:00] But if any of you have looked at the sign, you know that Sunday morning we will be in the Gospel of Mark. So we will be making our way through the Gospel of Mark. And the Gospel of Mark gets kind of some of the same flack that 1 and 2 Chronicles does.
[4:13] There is so much more. Where is the rest of the details? Well, you have the synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke that go along with Mark. And just kind of a side note. Roughly 95% of what is in Mark is also contained within Matthew and Luke.
[4:28] So it is repetitive. But there is a reason. I am not going to set the scene for Mark yet. We will do that Sunday. But there is a reason for why he wrote it that way just as there is a reason why the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles wrote it this way.
[4:40] Now, spending a lot of time focused on the negative. But as they state the truth. Now, I say this with all sincerity.
[4:53] And hopefully, honestly. Because on Wednesday night we are studying Scripture, right? Sunday mornings I preach. On Sunday nights and Wednesday nights I teach. There is a difference. In pastors, you have to preach and then teach the Word.
[5:05] So you preach the Word, teach the Word. And I love the teaching of the Word. But with the teaching of the Word comes the assumption that we understand that it is the inspired Word of God.
[5:19] But that inspiration came through a particular person to a particular people at a particular time. So we want to have it in its context. And taking it in its context does not remove the inspiration.
[5:33] Okay? It magnifies it. It helps us to understand it accurately. And it's a safeguard to us because it keeps us from kind of naming and claiming it. Right? Saying, well, I'm going to claim that promise.
[5:44] When that promise was written for a particular time. But it reveals a character trait of the Lord God to His people, which we are. So there are some things like temple worship, which we say, well, we're not really concerned about the temple.
[5:59] Why do we need to read about the temple? Why do we need to read about the priests? Well, just today I've been reading about the salvation we have in Christ and how Christ saves us as a priest.
[6:11] And if we don't understand the role of the priest in the Old Testament, then we do not understand the book of Hebrews that He is our high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. That the priest had certain roles and responsibilities and there was a certain order to what they were to do.
[6:25] So this is why we study it. Not because we can say, oh, well, that's how we ought to do things. No, it's so that we can understand who we are as the people of God. Now, I know that's a long introduction to understand this because tonight's title would be the rise and fall of a nation.
[6:39] And you want to click out and say, well, what difference does it matter to me if in antiquity the nation of Israel succeeded and then they fell? Well, because the rise and fall of a nation really is the rise and fall of a people.
[6:51] And the application there is, what does it look like to be the people of God built on a sure foundation? What is that foundation? What ensures the stability of the people of God?
[7:06] Not just the nation of Israel, but the people of God. Now, for those originally reading this, they need to know this because they're coming back into the land. They want to be a nation that is theocratic, that is ruled under the kingship of Yahweh.
[7:24] So it's a theocracy. And they want to know what it looks like to be an established people with God as their king. Well, how do we establish that? By the way, you and I, even though we live in a democracy, as the people of the Lord, we are a theocracy.
[7:45] Because he is our king. Right? He is our sovereign ruler. And we need to understand what it looks like to be established as the people of the Lord.
[7:57] So let's start 2 Chronicles chapter 8. Now, it came about at the end of 20 years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, that he built the cities which Hiram had given him and settled the sons of Israel there.
[8:09] Then Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and captured it, and he built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath. He also built upper Beth-Horan and lower Beth-Horan, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, and baleth, and the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem and Lebanon and all the land under his rule.
[8:33] And he says, And all the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, namely from their descendants, who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, and them Solomon raised as forced laborers to this day.
[8:48] But Solomon did not make slaves for his work from the sons of Israel. They were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. These were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250 who ruled over the people.
[9:03] Then Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter. By the way, this should be one clue that there's a problem, that it's not telling us all the details about. Then Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house, which he had built for her.
[9:18] For he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, because the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered. Let me just stop right here. If your wife can't live somewhere that is holy, then there's a problem.
[9:34] Okay? So now we have this implied problem, so we're just going on. Then Solomon offered, even though he makes that statement, Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch.
[9:45] And he did so according to the daily rule, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.
[9:56] Now according to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule. And the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate for David, the man of God had so commanded, and they did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the storehouses.
[10:19] Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord until it was finished, so the house of the Lord was completed. Then Solomon went to Ezum-Geber and to Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom, and Hurom by his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea.
[10:37] And they went with Solomon's servants to Ophir and took from there 450 talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon. Now let's just read the first eight verses of the ninth chapter.
[10:49] Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, which by the way this is not coincidental that there's just a mentioning of the gold from Ophir, because the queen of Sheba is from the same region.
[11:02] Okay, so now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones.
[11:15] And when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart. Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was hidden from Solomon, which he did not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the house which he had built and the food at his table, the seating of his servants and the attendance of his ministers in their attire, his cupbearers in their attire, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless.
[11:40] Then she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless, I did not believe the report until I came and my eyes had seen it.
[11:50] And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpassed the report that I heard. How blessed are your men. How blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.
[12:04] Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, setting you on his throne as king for the Lord your God, because your God loved Israel, establishing them forever.
[12:16] Therefore, he made you king over them to do justice and righteousness. Now go with me down to verse 13 of the same chapter. Now the weight of the gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.
[12:30] By the way, another clue. 666 talents of gold. Besides that which the traders and the merchants brought, and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon, King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold using 600 shekels of beaten gold on each large shield.
[12:46] And he made 300 shields of beaten gold using 300 shekels of gold on each shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. We read, we don't have to read it.
[12:59] It says that silver was not even considered valuable during those days. But then in the 22nd verse it says, So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.
[13:14] And they brought every man his gifts, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year. Now Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen.
[13:27] And he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And he was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt.
[13:38] The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. And he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the low land. And they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.
[13:48] Now the rest of the acts of Solomon from first to last were they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilani and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Naboth.
[14:03] Solomon reigned 40 years in Jerusalem over all Israel. And then we read this, And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in this place.
[14:14] Stay with me just a little bit longer. Look at chapter 10. Then Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. When Jeroboam the son of Naboth heard of it, for he was in Egypt where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, Jeroboam returned from Egypt.
[14:34] So they sent and summoned him. And when Jeroboam and all Israel came, they 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.
[14:46] And he said to them, Return to me again in three days so the people departed. Now I'm going to read these next few verses. But you know Rehoboam consults the counselors of his father.
[14:57] They say, Listen to these men. But he doesn't listen to the counselors of his father. He goes to the men who grew up with him, and they say, Oh, tell him you're a big bad guy, right? I know I'm paraphrasing just a little bit. But we're going to pick up exactly what he says in verse 12.
[15:09] So verse 12 says, So 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 them harshly, and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders.
[15:20] He spoke to them according to the advice of the young man, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father disciplines you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from God that the Lord might establish his word, which he spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
[15:45] When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, and the people answered the king, saying, What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel.
[15:57] Now look after your own house, David. So all 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 Hedorah, who was over the forced labor.
[16:11] And the sons of 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.
[16:25] That's a lot of territory to cover in just three chapters. We went from a prosperous grand nation to a divided nation.
[16:38] Now, much of what is recorded is recorded here very clearly by using the same source of 1 Kings, later on 2 Kings.
[16:53] Because we understand the quotations in that to this day, to this day. Understand that when the nation came back out of Babylonian captivity, they constructed the altar out of 12 stones.
[17:07] Everything was done with the number 12. God was seeing a unified nation, even though we have no record of all of the tribes coming back. There is no really lost tribe of Israel.
[17:18] Don't buy into that. We just don't have this record. But God saw them as the people, not a divided people. They came back as one nation. But here the implication is the reality that was once grand and great fell apart in the moment.
[17:34] Now, this is important in setting because the ones originally reading this, I mean, think about this for just a moment. So, they are reestablishing themselves as a nation.
[17:47] And the grand question is, what does it take for us to be a prosperous nation? To be the stable people of God?
[18:00] What does that look like? Well, if you go back and look in their history, then it can tell you about the rise and fall of the nation. And I want you to see tonight just three things.
[18:10] Two things which are not. Two things which are not able to ensure the security of a nation. And one thing that absolutely will.
[18:23] Number one, the security of the nation does not rest on the appraisal of others. The security of the nation and, by the way, the security of the people or the individual does not rest on the appraisal of others.
[18:48] We are told these events, now it came about at the end of 20 years. Solomon reigns 40 years, so we're halfway through his reign. By this time, Solomon has built one of the grand wonders of the ancient world.
[18:59] The temple is completed. His house is magnificent and it is splendid. He has a throne that is overlaid in ivory and gold. And there's a line on each of the six steps on either side.
[19:11] So there's 12 lines. Here it is, ornate. It is magnificent. I mean, if you think about it, even the steps that he takes to go to the temple from his house, which there is a breezeway that connected the two, is so overwhelming and amazing, it impresses the queen of Sheba who comes with this large retinue.
[19:28] Right? And so she is impressed by his staircase. If that tells you anything about the splendor of his glory at this moment. So we're not talking about a new king. We're talking about one here.
[19:39] But in everything that we read here, we see that he is a king of peace. Solomon's name means peace, right? He is a king of peace. Whereas David was a king of warfare. He was a king who fought the battles.
[19:51] Solomon fights no battles. Solomon is not a man of warfare. He reigns during a time of peace. He reigns during a time of expansion. He is reigning, not necessarily because Israel occupies, but most likely, well, not most likely, accurately, because of the amount of marriages that he had with other people.
[20:11] He has created all these alliances. He reigns over a large territory. It is the closest that we get in scripture to the entirety of the promised land that is promised to Abraham.
[20:24] This is the closest we ever get to it. And Solomon is reigning and ruling over all of this land. And we read over and over that when the queen of Sheba comes, she says, wow, the greatness, the half of it wasn't even told to me.
[20:37] All the kings were amazed and astounded by him. Everyone wanted to be in his presence. But friend, listen to me. We know what 1 Kings says.
[20:51] Because we know the reason he didn't bring his bride into the house that was holy was because after he built the temple of the Lord, he was also building these high places of idolatrous worship.
[21:04] And we know that with every wife, there was a new high place being constructed. We know when we read the rest of scripture that while everyone around him thought he was great, there were things going on that the Lord God did not approve of.
[21:23] Is he wise? Sure. Is he wealthy? Yes. We'll get to that in just a moment. Everyone loves him.
[21:34] And they are overwhelmed by him. And they are drawn and attracted to him, it tells us. They all want to be in his presence. He is a man of peace.
[21:46] He's a man of prosperity. He's a man of rule. And the fame of the king went beyond the borders of Israel. The queen of Sheba came out of Africa, came into the land just because she heard about him.
[21:59] And she probably heard about him because he had sent people to get gold from that region. And now all of a sudden we realize in hindsight, looking back, that while everyone else's appraisal of Solomon is he, listen, the queen of Sheba told him he was a blessing to the nation and that he was a blessing to the Lord God.
[22:24] Be careful there. She was declaring his worthiness.
[22:37] But very quickly the Lord God would declare his unworthiness. It is not the appraisal of others that secures our standing.
[22:54] Too often the faith of the individual is based more upon appearance than it is authenticity.
[23:08] Do you notice that even Solomon maintained temple worship? We read that in the eighth chapter. While he couldn't bring his bride into the house because the Ark of the Covenant had been there and it had become holy, they were still offering the sacrifices on the altar.
[23:28] They were still maintaining the three annual feast. They still ensured the priestly order that David set up. They still had the gatekeepers there. They didn't miss a beat of going through the right motions.
[23:42] And looking on from the outside, if we read it like this, we say, what happened? Why did the nation fall apart? The reason the author doesn't have to include it is because they know something bad happened.
[23:56] They just came out of captivity, right? They just came out from under the disciplinary hand of the Lord God. So they would be fully aware as Daniel had cried out, Lord, forgive us of our sins.
[24:08] Nehemiah had cried out, Lord, forgive us of our sins. They would know what it was that led them into captivity. But if we're just a casual observer and we open up scripture here and we read these passages, we're like, wow, Solomon was a great guy.
[24:24] What happened? Why did the nation fall apart? Rehoboam must have been terrible. Rehoboam didn't have a chance. Because what was going to happen had already been decreed by the Lord God before Rehoboam ever came upon the throne.
[24:42] It was Solomon, in spite of what everybody else around him said about him. By the way, it's not hard to get the appraisal of others to be favorable to you when you completely succumb to everything they do.
[24:57] If you make an alliance with someone and you just adopt their form of worship and add it to your worship, it's not offensive. I'll build you a high place over here and I'll build you a high place over here and build you a high place and I'll worship with you over here and you worship with me over here.
[25:14] We're okay. But it really, our security is not founded upon how other people appraise us.
[25:31] And that's a hard thing to accept. Because like it or not, each and every one of us want to be liked.
[25:42] we want people to see us favorably. Sometimes that security rests in being different in spite of what their appraisal is.
[26:02] Number two, security is not founded on the acquisition of goods. If the security of the nation was founded upon their possessions, then nothing should have happened when Solomon passed off the scene.
[26:20] Security is not found in the acquisition of goods. Solomon had a large amount of gold, 666 actually, which six being the number of man is the full measure of man, so he had the fullness of all that man would ever want amount of gold brought to him every year.
[26:35] He had so much silver that silver was like the stones in the land. I don't know what it looks like around your house, but around our house we have a lot of rocks, so we don't really, you know, we see rocks as kind of a hindrance, not necessarily as a blessing, and we're like, oh, there's rocks everywhere.
[26:49] Silver was not even valuable even though people were bringing him. He was bringing peacocks and mules. I mean, he was bringing all these strange things into the land. He had these cedar trees that were there, just like the algal trees that were bringing it.
[27:01] Everything he wanted, anything he wanted. By the way, he wrote a book about it. It's the book of Ecclesiastes, right? I sought to see if I could find my purpose in life in the acquisition of good, and I told myself, enjoy your life, have pleasure, do all these things.
[27:15] Vanity of vanity, I said, right? All is vain. Make yourself merry, drink much wine, do whatever you want, acquire for yourself all these goods, and if there was a nation that would endure because they had it all.
[27:33] Listen, Israel, during the reign of Solomon, possessed more and owned more than any other time in history. They had greater riches, they had the wisest king, and yet, as soon as he dies, the nation falls apart.
[27:50] It is not the acquisition or the acquiring of goods which ensures stability.
[28:04] That's not just an Old Testament principle, by the way. It is not in the amount of things we have that ensures how stable we are before the Lord.
[28:17] It is not if we get this, this, this, and this, then we'll be okay. Stability is never found on material possessions.
[28:32] One of the proverbs I love the most, and I almost wish I didn't love it so much, but I've had to love it so much over the years, is where he cries out, give me neither riches nor poverty, lest in my riches I forget you or in my poverty I forsake you.
[28:50] Sometimes I'm like, but Lord, I would lean more towards the riches, I'd be okay with that, I mean, but he says, give me neither riches nor poverty, but give me what I need.
[29:05] Because stability is not found, and I have to tell myself this quite often, on what we can lay our hands on. If we fast forward to modern era, I know I've shared this with you, but it's been some time.
[29:24] If you know anything about Henry Blackaby, studying the experience in God, knowing and doing the will of God, when Henry Blackaby died just a year or two ago, he was living in Atlanta, but when he wrote that book, he was actually pastoring in Canada, and he was pastoring a little church in Canada, and he and Avery Willis wrote it together, the original one, not the one that he wrote later with his son, Richard Blackaby, but at that time, this little church in Canada was sponsoring a seminary and training pastors, and they were planting churches, and they were doing all these amazing things, and God was using that church in just an unbelievable way, and they were finding out where God was working, and they were joining him, just the way he said it in his book, you know, so he wrote, well, Blackaby puts the book out, goes more into intentional discipleship, starts doing discipleship things, and he moves down to Atlanta, Georgia, and when he moves to Atlanta, the church calls him to the pastor, and he's a great man, I'm not trying to put the man down, but the pastor comes into this church that Blackaby had been pastoring for years, and the very first thing the pastor did is he looked at the budget, and he looked at the budget, and he said, this budget doesn't make sense, and he said, you have so much more going out than what we have coming in, we're a small church, financially, there's no way this church can support everything it's doing, so the pastor led the church to begin cutting some of the supports that had been done in just a number of years, the church all but dried up, why?
[30:41] It's because it became more concerned about the acquisition of what they had, they could put their hands on, than the one that was calling them to do, stability and security never rest upon the acquisition of goods, because if that was the case, Israel was sitting pretty, and they would have had no problem, and third and finally, let's see what it does rest upon, rather security is found in one thing and one thing alone, security is ultimately and only found not in the appraisal of others, not in the acquisition of goods, but it is found solely in the approval of God, security is found in the approval of God, now we know this because there's some hints to it, when Solomon dies, it speaks of the record of his life as written by those who prophesied during his time, verse 29 of the 9th chapter says the Acts of Solomon from the first to last are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet and the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and of the visions of Ido the seer concerning
[32:05] Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, and then when we get to the 10th chapter we meet this Jeroboam who was in Egypt, who came out of Egypt, now we don't need to sit here and talk about all the things that Solomon did that displeased the Lord God because we can go back and read those and we're not casting judgment upon him but we understand that even though man had nothing against him, the Lord God did.
[32:30] We know that he's bringing horses in from Egypt even though God clearly said and I don't care how you split it, I don't care how you divide it, some people say oh it's commerce trade and that's not what God was talking about but when I read the word of God and God says do not go back to Egypt and acquire horses then when I read that it means do not go back to Egypt and acquire horses.
[32:47] There are some Bible scholars that will say oh well they didn't really mean that because he's doing it by way of commerce because he's turning around and selling them somewhere else. Listen if God says do not go do this I don't care what you do with it after you go do it do not go do it means do not go do it.
[33:00] Maybe I'm too simple and I don't understand exposition well enough but when I say do not do not always means do not at least that's what it means in my house and so when it says don't go back to Egypt get horses but yet annually we're getting horses from Egypt there's a red flag there right?
[33:16] Something is wrong. It seems pretty simple. I don't care what you do with it after you get them but you're not supposed to be going there and getting them. So there's this any number of things which though he's wise he is not really intelligent and so really it's not a lack of intelligence it's a lack of obedience.
[33:34] We have this saying around our house that if you know what you're supposed to do but you're not doing it it's not ignorance it's disobedience.
[33:48] That's all it is there's no other way to spin it. You're just choosing to disobey. We don't like that because that means we're disobedient sometimes because ultimately we know and you know the word of God says to him who knows to do it but does not do it to them it is sin.
[34:04] So we understand this right we have all these other things but then when we get to Jeroboam coming back because he fled from Solomon we can read that in Kings and he asked a question he goes before Rehoboam Rehoboam took the wrong counselors I understand that and we would like to say man foolish Rehoboam if only he had listened to the wise men why didn't he listen to the wise men why didn't he listen to the ones who ruled with the father you say well it's because those others were his friends but the word of God says the reason he didn't listen to them for this was a turn of events from God so the division of the nation is directly connected to the work of God that he might fulfill his word someone once said when you have a problem it's an issue but when God is your problem then you have a real problem when he says
[35:06] I'm against you you've got a problem the judgment for Solomon's disobedience God said that he would remove but not all of Israel from the house of David for the sake of David not the sake of Solomon we stand in hope of the Davidic covenant looking to Christ not the covenant with Solomon but the covenant with Solomon because the promises the Lord gave to Solomon were conditional he would have a long reign if he obeyed him he would have security if he obeyed him he did not but the Davidic covenant was unconditional it was based solely upon the promises so the question is where do we find security for the nation of Israel it's on approval of God if God can divide the nation then God can keep the nation but then we go a little bit further and make it a little bit more applicable to our day and time where does security rest for the people of God today where does security rest for you and I where can we say we are confident in a world of tumult and dismay and disarray where does security come when everything around us seems to be falling apart as the book of first Peter says when everything that can be shaken is being shaken what do we hold on to that is not shaken so only that that cannot be shaken remains
[36:54] Peter would say where is that well it's not in the appraisal of others it's not in the acquisition of our goods security is only found in the approval of the Lord God Almighty because he is the rock and the anchor of our soul security rest alone in our standing before him not our standing before others because I can promise you my friend goods and possessions will come and go and people's good appraisal of you will come and go as well and we'll be like waves of the sea tossed to and fro if that's where we're resting but when we say here I am before the
[37:56] Lord God Almighty oh Lord where do I stand with you that's a place of security even when everything else is being shaken the real downfall of the nation was that while Solomon had it all going on with everyone around him he had failed to maintain faithfulness and obedience before the Lord God over him and so it all fell apart what did the nation of Israel need to hear when they were rebuilding it doesn't matter how much we own it doesn't matter how other people see us the only thing that matters is who we are before the Lord God Almighty that's it that's the foundation that is laid that is secure for all people 2nd Chronicles chapters 8 through 10 thank you my brothers voy voy!
[39:27] voy! voy! voy