Rehoboam: A Divided Kingdom 1 Kings 12:1-24

Rehoboam: A Divided Kingdom 1 Kings 12:1-24 The nightly news this week reveals that Egypt stands in the grip of political and social upheaval. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has presided over the nation since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, is under siege. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to denounce years of oppression, injustice, and a lack of decent paying jobs. Some of the anger spilling into the streets is, no doubt, coming from Muslim disenchantment with ties Egypt has had with the West. Political uprisings in Tunisia have fueled the flames of hope for activists who believe they can demand a regime change. The 82 year old Mubarak gave a nationally televised speech on Wednesday conceding that he will not run for re-election in September, nor will his son. He will not, however, step down immediately and he will not leave Egyptian soil. He adamantly declares he will die and be buried on the Egyptian soil he has defended all his life. Mubarak has to beg no one for advice. It is coming from every place on the face of the earth. Kofi Anan, former Secretary General of the United Nations said the people of Egypt are craving change, yearning for reform. Mohamad ElBaradei, an Egyptian political activist and dissident claimed the people are denied their basic rights and freedom. We don t have Internet. Egypt is going back to a pre-information age. The White House has called on Mubarak to implement real reforms and begin now in providing a clear transition of power. Egypt is at a tipping point. The kingdom is deeply divided. The people have felt the weight of an oppressive leader for decades and they ve had enough. With an aging president approaching another election they are asserting themselves and demanding change. Whatever benefits the president has brought Egypt in terms of political stability and good relations with the rest of the world, he now faces a younger nations more concerned about good jobs than global reputation. They see wealth in pockets of their nation and around the world but believe they little hope to share in it. Their future is only more work, high taxes, low pay, and little dignity. All of this is the recipe for the downfall of a kingdom. Three weeks ago I began a series of sermons on the kings of Israel. Providentially interrupted by stewardship themes, I m now returning to this series. It is also providential that I come today to the life of King Rehoboam, who faced a national crisis of his own, not unlike President Mubarak of Egypt. Not long after taking the crown at the age of 41 Rehoboam faced a crisis that would test and define his legacy. The kingdom was on the edge of division and his actions would determine the future of the nation. Rehoboam s story is about how to lose a kingdom. There is and always will be a debate among scholars as to whether or not the loss was inevitable. We may never know. But we can be certain of this, his actions in his crucial hour of decision led to the division of his nation and weakened the future for his children. Let s look at his story, not so that we can send President Mubarak any biblical counsel -- which would do him no harm -- but to see how Rehoboam s attitudes and actions led to the loss of a kingdom and the blessings of unity. Context When we began our series on the kings of Israel 3 weeks ago we noted that God didn t want Israel to become a monarchy; he only permitted it. Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel, followed by David, the apex among all the kings in the history of Israel. David s son Solomon

followed him on the throne and increased the wealth, status, and power of the kingdom. However, during Solomon s 40 year reign in Israel, things began to slip. Solomon had over 700 wives, many of whom served and worshiped others gods. These wives turned Solomon s heart away from the Lord and he began to worship at these other places. Finally God said to Solomon, Since, you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from the hand of your son (1 Kg 11:11-12). An official in Solomon s administration saw the crack in the wall. This dissident leader by the name of Jeroboam challenged Solomon and instigated an uprising against him, spurred on by the word of a prophet who declared Jeroboam would one day become king. Solomon found out about this and issued a death warrant against Jeroboam. So Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he remained in exile until Solomon died. When Solomon died Rehoboam, one of Solomon s sons succeeded him as king. This is where we enter the story at 1 Kings 12. Rehoboam, the grandson of David and the son of Solomon is about to take over the kingdom of Israel, becoming only its 4 th king in 120 years. Rehoboam becomes king Rehoboam and the people of Israel travel to Shechem, a city in the northern half of Israel, to anoint Rehoboam king. Even though Rehoboam had no doubt grown up in Jerusalem and Jerusalem was the city of David, Shechem was chosen as the holy city of anointing for political purposes. The kingdom was already fragmented between north and south, so this was a means to appease the northern contingent. It s not unlike Charlotte being named the site for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. North Carolina is considered a key swing state in the 2012 presidential election, and this will help secure the state on the democratic side. This is why Shechem is chosen over Jerusalem. It s the same reason Charlotte was chosen over Chicago. While in Shechem, Jeroboam returns from Egyptian exile to challenge the newly anointed king. He has become the voice of the dissidents. He has become the face of the national tea party movement against the Solomon/Rehoboam administration. Jeroboam makes a strategic decision to challenge Rehoboam even before the inauguration parade begins. Speaking on behalf of a disgruntled mob he says, Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you (v 4). The Request I want you to notice what the request is. The heavy yoke is referring to taxes. Solomon had a tremendous spending program going on to pay for all the building he did around the country. He s most famous for building the temple in Jerusalem, but those 700 wives also influenced him to build religious shrines throughout the country, many of them to pagan deities. This required a heavy tax burden on the people. Jeroboam also notes the harsh labor required by Solomon. Not only did the people have to pay high taxes to pay for all the government spending, they had to supply the labor. All those bricks were made by the people of Israel. There hours were long. Time with family was short. Wages were low. Taxes were high. The work was back-breaking. So notice what kind of backlash Rehoboam is facing his first day in office. He s facing a massive Tea Party movement led by Sarah Palin calling for lower taxes. They are mad and they re not going to take it anymore. Big government has taken over their lives and they are in rebellion. But added to this is the largest labor movement in the land, up in arms about harsh labor practices.

The AFL-CIO has rallied the people and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is organizing them. So what we have is a political alliance between the Tea Party calling for lower taxes and smaller government, and the People s Labor Unions calling for shorter work weeks and higher wages. Jeroboam is the person who is face of this movement. The Counsel Rehoboam hears this request and asks for 3 days to consider it. He s buying time. During this time he convenes the remnant of his father s administration. The elders of Israel gather around Rehoboam and are asked, What should I do? These men have been around a long time. They have had the luxury of seeing Solomon make good and bad decisions. They have the advantage of years and experience. They understand the human condition and have their finger on the pulse of the nation. They offer wise counsel summed up in the proverb, If you serve the people today, they will serve you forever (v 7). In other words, listen to their demands. Change your tax and labor policy to accommodate the needs of the people. Take care of the people today and they will serve you and the nation all your days to come. If you do this you will win the kingdom in the long run. If you don t, you ll lose the kingdom tomorrow. This was good advice. One of the lessons of Rehoboam s life is exercising wisdom by making good choices about who you listen to. Whether you re a king, president, business owner, parent, or student. life is about making decisions. We are constantly confronted with important decisions. Where are we going to school? Who am I going to marry? What kind of job will I seek? Should I take this promotion and move my family or stick tight here? What should I do about this person who is making my life and my job more difficult? The decisions we have to make in life are endless. They don t stop at adulthood. They remain integral to our lives to the very end. And so the question becomes how do we make decisions? Who do we go to for advice? Rehoboam received good counsel, but he rejected it. Instead he sought the advice from some guys he grew up with. The text says 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? (v 9). Now think about who these men are. They are men who have grown up with Rehoboam. And where did Rehoboam grow up? In the White House! In the King s Palace! These are privileged young men. They haven t lived with the brick layers and the people who carry the bricks on their back from place to place. They don t know about the hardships the common man has faced. All they know about are their private schools, country clubs, and the privilege of being close to royalty. They naturally are going to give advice that will keep them close to power and the nation s wealth. They are probably thinking if Rehoboam lowers taxes, that s less money for us. We re the ones who will decide how to spend that money. If Rehoboam reduces the number of hours people have to work we won t have a sprawling building program to benefit us and keep us in jobs. If Rehoboam reduces government spending, that means our jobs, might be threatened. Some have also speculated that these young hot heads wanted to show the people who s boss. If Rehoboam gave into their demands on the first day of his administration he d look like a wimp. If they want a 60 hour work week instead of an 80 hour work week and we give in on the first day, the next thing you know they ll be wanting something ridiculous like a 40 hour work week with worker s compensation, health care, and paid vacations. Say No, Rehohoam. So they give their answer, Tell these 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. 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 (v 10-11). It s a harsh answer. It s given by those who those who have no concern and no knowledge of what people had to go through. It s callous, harsh, and in the end,. it s foolish. By taking their advice rather than the advice of the elders, Rehoboam waters the young plant of division and fertilizes it with foolishness. The Response As it turned out this was the most important decision Rehoboam would ever make. He listened to the wrong people and made the wrong decision. The result was a kingdom divided in two. When Jeroboam and the people heard Rehoboam s harsh answer they said, What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David? (v 16). When they said, What share do we have in David they meant Why should we continue to support this king? He doesn t support us. And when they said To your tents, O Israel they were making a political and militaristic decree. To your tents was a way to say Get ready for war! Pack your tents and prepare to set them up on the battlefield! Jeroboam took with him the 10 northern tribes of Israel. The only two that remained were the two southern tribes located geographically around Jerusalem Benjamin and Judah. From this point on Israel was divided between the northern kingdom and southern kingdom. The northern kingdom came to be known as Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. It was a division created by the foolishness of a king on his 4 th day on the job. Some people might be thinking, what relevance does this have for my life? What does a little know king of Israel have to do with me? Well, I want you to see there are some important lessons for us in Rehoboam s life. He taught a negative lesson: How to lose a kingdom. I want to take the converse of that and show how we can win a kingdom. How can we make good decisions that will result in a more blessed future for ourselves and others? 1. Pray There is one very simple thing that shouts out from this story by its glaring absence: Rehoboam never prays. What you won t find in the Rehoboam narrative is a man after God s own heart. There is no evidence that he went into his closet to pray. He didn t go to the Temple and seek the face of God. In this, he is very unlike his grandfather David who wrote during his reign: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:23) This was the prayer of David revealing he was a man after God s heart. God responded with blessings on David and his kingdom which last until this day. Despite his sin and disgraceful actions in regards to Bathsheba and Uriah, God overshadowed David with protection and blessings. Rehoboam didn t take the time to pray, seek the face of God, or worship the Lord. He disregarded God s direction and lost a kingdom as a result. When we are faced with a big decision we need to go to the closet and pray. God may not answer while we re in the closet. He may not answer in that moment. But those moments when we are seeking the guidance and direction of God are the times when God is nurturing our spirits,

shaping our wills, transforming our minds. Seldom do we get a big, bold answer in unmistakable English. But as we submit our wills to God, God will shape our wills to do his will. So when you are facing a major decision go to a private place and pray. Don t worry if you don t get an immediate answer. Just pray and God will begin to move. 2. Seek wise counsel A second lesson that is evident in the story of Rehoboam is the need for wise counsel from wise people. Rehoboam received good counsel from the elders of Israel, but then blew it off and listened only to his friends. They were blinded by their inexperience and self-interest. They only knew privilege and one generational view. The elders had the benefit of experience and seeing things at multi-generational levels. I once was talking to a young person who was struggling with God s direction for his life. He had recently graduated from college and was trying to decide what to do with his life. I asked him who his counselors were. Who were his advisors? He told me he mostly talked to his friends, people his age. I told him If you want to gain wisdom, listen to people who have gone through life, not those about to enter it. I strongly urged him to seek the counsel of older people, someone in his church, a boss with whom he works, an older adult that he trusts. His friends were swimming around in the same murky waters as he was. He needed the wisdom of experience. Mark Twain once said, When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he d learned in seven years. The Proverbs say, Listen, my son, to your father s instruction, and do not forsake your mother s teaching (Prov 1:8). Our elders have important words for us to hear. We may not take all their advice, but we need to make sure we hear their advice. I have always valued mentors. I think everyone needs a coach, someone they can call when big decisions are necessary. I will soon turn 50 and I haven t outgrown the need for mentors. I didn t discuss every detail of my life with mentors, but when a major life decision needed to be made, I would speak to my mentors. My pastor of the church in which I grew up, Tom Womble, was a mentor for me. Jerry Niswonger, a VP at Southeastern Seminary, later became a mentor for me. When he died 16 years ago, I felt lost, like Joshua felt when Moses died and gave him the mantel of leadership. But, there are other older men I continue to consult on matters great and small. We all need wise counselors who are older than us. Yes, sometimes the older counselors may be stuck in their ways or miss an important change in the culture that limits their wisdom. But overall, it s better to have older mentors than simply depend on your own judgment or the judgment of your peers. Seek the counsel or older people. 3. Choose the path of service Finally, choose the path of service. The elders of Israel gave Rehoboam good counsel. They said, Serve the people today and they will serve you forever. These wise counselors understood the burden Solomon s policies had placed on the people. Rehoboam was being given a chance to right the ship, to demonstrate he was on the side of the people, and not just concerned about himself. If he had lowered taxes and created a more humane labor system the people

would ve trusted him, served him, and the nation would have remained strong. Instead he chose to build up his government on the backs of his people in a more egregious way than ever. Albert Schweitzer, was a medical missionary to Africa who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. He was an accomplished organist who was influential in a reform movement centered on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded and sustained an important hospital in West Africa that continues to provide medical training for doctors and care for patients. This man of many talents said, Whatever you have received more than others in health, in talents, in ability, in success all this you must not take to yourself as a matter of course. In gratitude for good fortune, you must render some sacrifice of your own life for another life. It s too bad Rehoboam and his friends didn t heed this advice. They took their privilege for granted and thought only of themselves. They made no sacrifices, they offered no service to people who were reeling under the burden of an oppressive government. And as a result, a kingdom was lost. This is where Jesus offers the best model. He came to serve, not to be served. Although he was a king by birth and right, he didn t use that royal pedigree for his own privilege. I don t know that this servant mindset is described any more beautifully than in the hymn recorded in Philippians: In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:5-11) Conclusion Rehoboam shows us how to lose a kingdom by selfish, foolish actions, stepping on the throat of his people. Jesus shows us how to win a kingdom by living as a servant and dying to self. And that same pathway is available to us. The pathway of servanthood is the key to winning all kingdoms. It s the key to successful relationships in the home and respect in the workplace. When other people see that we seek their best interest over our own, then we will win their hearts. We will unite and not divide. We will wins kingdoms rather than lose them. We will raise people to a higher level and they will walk and not grow weary, they will run and not faint, and they will be our partners in fashioning a new and better world. That s why we follow Jesus and not Rehoboam. Amen.