WWUTT 634 Bad Counsel for Rehoboam?

God is the one who chose the place where his temple was going to be built, and there was only one place to worship God. So today there is only one way to God, and that is through the Savior, Jesus Christ, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2 Chronicles, today in chapters 10 and 11. We have finished the section of the story that focused on Solomon's reign. Last week when we were in chapter 9, we read about the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit Solomon's empire and marveled at the riches and the wealth that God had blessed them with.

Likewise, she was incredibly impressed with Solomon's wisdom, and news about Solomon spread far and wide. There were kings from all over that came to Israel to hear Solomon share his wisdom and also see the beauty of Jerusalem where silver had become more plentiful than stone as a building material.

We read more about Solomon's wealth in the middle part of chapter 9 and then concluded that chapter with Solomon's death. And if you remember back to last week, and you notice that this week we're moving on to the reign of Rehoboam, you might be thinking to yourself, well, we're missing a pretty significant event there.

What happened to the part of the story where it says that Solomon was married to many hundreds of wives, hundreds of pagan wives, who worshipped false gods? And toward the end of his life, Solomon's heart started going after his wives' gods rather than the one true God.

He built temples to those false gods. And God said to Solomon that he would take his kingdom from him, but it wouldn't be during his lifetime. It would be while his son was on the throne. And then we had the split kingdoms.

You had the northern kingdom, which was Israel and those ten northern tribes, and the southern kingdom was Judah, which was the tribe of Judah and also the tribe of Benjamin that was with them. But in the book of 2 Chronicles, we stay almost exclusively in Judah.

We're not going to go into the whole split kingdom scenario, whereas in 1 and 2 Kings, we're kind of bouncing back and forth between this king in Judah and this king in Israel. But for the rest of 2 Chronicles, we're just tracking what has been happening in Judah and Jerusalem.

First of all, with Rehoboam, since he was the king that assumed the throne of Solomon, Jeroboam was the one who became king over Israel. But he's only mentioned here as kind of a secondary character. He doesn't share page time with Rehoboam like he did in 1 Kings.

He's more of a character that's an antagonist to Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles. And the reason for that is because, remember, 1 and 2 Chronicles is written in a post-exilic period when the Jews have returned from exile by the Babylonians.

They've rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, they've rebuilt the temple, and now they're looking for the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The king who would come from the line of David and sit on the throne of David.

So all of the focus here is on the tribe of David, which is Judah. Israel is not mentioned in the story as central a character as the northern kingdom was in 1 and 2 Kings. Another reason for this is because that northern kingdom doesn't exist anymore.

The people that occupy that land are now the Samaritans. The Jews, or who are primarily the Jews, will also include some members from other tribes who have been assimilated into Judah. But otherwise, our focus is only upon the tribe of Judah here.

So 2 Chronicles 10, Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard of it, for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, then Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and they sent and called him.

And Jeroboam, and all Israel, came and said to Rehoboam, Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you. He said to them, Come to me again in three days.

So the people went away. Now before I keep going here, that's a pretty wise move, all things considered, for Rehoboam to respond to people who have this objection like this, and he says to them, Come back to me in three days.

Okay, so they went away peacefully, and they're going to come back in three days to hear the king's answer. That's not really the way the world works today, is it? At least not in a culture where technology is so prominent, and you have the 24-hour news cycle, and information is now, now, now, and I can't wait, wait, wait.

And if any politician, if we ever demanded something of a politician, and that politician said, Well, come back to me in three days, we would think that guy is dodging. Would we not? There's no way we would be giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, okay, well, he's going to come back with an answer for us in three days. So this was really wise for Rehoboam to say, You know what, I'm going to consult my counselors, and then I'm going to give you my answer in about three days.

Don't feel forced into having to respond to somebody when they're pressing you to give an answer. It would be better for you to say, Look, I'm going to take a step back and think about it. I'm going to pray about it.

I'm going to get counsel from somebody else, and then I'll give you an answer. It would be better to respond that way, even if they think you're a fool for not giving them an answer right away. It would be better for you to respond that way than say something that you have no idea what you're talking about or end up making some sort of commitment to somebody that you're not ready to follow through with.

So we need to be a little bit more patient, even in the answers that we give, and then likewise extend that same grace to somebody else whenever they say to us, Well, I can't give you an answer about that right now.

Would you give me some time? And then I'll come back and I'll talk with you about it later. So at first, Rehoboam appears wise, but he's not going to keep with that theme. So verse six here, King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before Solomon, his father, while he was yet alive, saying, How do you advise me to answer this people?

And they said to him, If you will be good to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.

And he said to them, What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, Lighten the yoke that your father put on us. And the young men who had grown up with him said, Thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us.

Thus shall you say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.

That was a ridiculous answer. That was definitely provoking an angry response out of Jeroboam and company for Rehoboam to respond. According to the bad counsel that he got from the young men. Now, it's not always the case where the answer that you get from an older, more experienced person is always going to be better than the answer that you get from a younger, not as experienced person.

But more often than not, it's going to be the case that you want to take the counsel of the person who is more experienced. In Isaiah 3, verse 12, it says, My people, infants are their oppressors and women rule over them.

Oh, my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. And so this is kind of the beginning of that here, where Rehoboam is listening to the counsel of youths rather than listening to the counsel of those who are wise and experienced in these kinds of matters.

And this is a problem even in our culture today, where you will have any kind of justice issue that is painting the headlines. And somewhere within that justice issue, there will be some kind of a rally or a town hall in which high school students will be given a voice and we have to listen to their advice and what they have to say.

But there's a reason why teenagers, at least in the United States of America, can't vote until they're 18 years old. And whenever I speak about this kind of a thing where a youth or a teenager is just not mature enough to lead in these particular justice causes, somebody will bring up to me 1 Timothy 4 .12, where it says, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Now, I do think that even a teenager can have good Christian character and be an example to adults. I think that a teenager can be that kind of an influence. But this passage, 1 Timothy 4 .12, is not talking to a teenager.

Timothy was not a teen when he was being sent to Ephesus to pastor the church there. He was probably about 30 or in his young 30s. So he was young by comparison with the other elders who would have been in their 50s and 60s, but Timothy himself was not a teenager.

So yeah, that verse gets used to tell youths that they can be a prominent and active voice in their community. That's not really the context of the verse. Although I don't think that it should be understated that even teenagers have a responsibility to pursue godliness.

It's just that right now, they are not mature enough to be put in the position in leadership over adults. They must learn to take instruction from others. Be humble. Your time will come. There's plenty of life that is ahead of you in which you will have great opportunities to lead others or even serve as the kind of example that you think that you can be if it is the Lord's will for you to be put in those kinds of positions where you can be an influence on other people.

But in the meantime, be humble and learn and turn from sin and be godly, be holy in all your conduct. Even a teenager has a responsibility to respond to that command. So let's see how Jeroboam and company responds to Rehoboam's bad advice that he's taken from his young counselors.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, come to me again the third day. And the king answered them harshly and forsaking the counsel of the old men, King Rehoboam spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it.

My father disciplined 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 affairs brought about by God that the Lord might fulfill his word which he spoke by Ahijah the Shillanite and Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, what portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse, each of you to your tents, O Israel.

Now look to your own house, David. So all Israel went to their tents, but Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoboam sent Hadarim, who was the taskmaster over the forced labor, and the people of Israel stoned him to death with stones.

And King Rehoboam quickly mounted his chariot to flee Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. And remember, 2 Chronicles was written in a post-exilic period.

So this is after Judah has returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt it. And yet it's still being said here at the end of chapter 10 that Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day, which again is why our focus is on Judah in 2 Chronicles, and Israel does not have as prominent a face in this story as they did in 1 and 2 Kings.

What was once Israel or the northern kingdom is now occupied with Samaritans at this particular time. So chapter 11, when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180 ,000 chosen warriors, to fight against Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God. Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your relatives.

Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me. So they listened to the word of the Lord and returned and did not go against Jeroboam. And that's exactly the way we read the story in 1 Kings as well.

After Jeroboam has gone his own way and Israel has split from Judah, Rehoboam mounts up his troops and readies an attack against the northern kingdom in an effort to unite them, because that's a good strategy, right?

The person that you want to be united with, you fight them. But the Lord, through the prophet Shemaiah, said to Rehoboam not to do this thing because the kingdoms were split as God wanted them to be, as the judgment of God had come upon Israel and Judah for the sin of Solomon.

And that wasn't mentioned in 2 Chronicles how Solomon had gone after false gods, but again, as this is being written in a post-exilic period, the people of Judah were certainly very familiar with that.

We also do not have the account here in 2 Chronicles of the words that Ahijah the Shillonite said to Jeroboam the son of Nebat, but it's mentioned here, and that story certainly can be found in 1 Kings.

God is going to use the split kingdoms to show that those who are genuinely after the Lord will come to Jerusalem to worship God because that is where God has said He is to be worshipped. At the house of the Lord, the temple there in Jerusalem, the place where God has chosen to put His name.

But those who are rebellious against the Lord and instead want to go after the false gods, the pagans, they will go to Israel, and they will worship the idols that Jeroboam has set up there. So let's continue on, verse 5.

Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah. He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, and then we have other cities that are mentioned there, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin.

He made the fortresses strong and put commanders in them and stores of food, oil, and wine. And he put shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin. Those are the two tribes that belonged to Rehoboam or whoever was sitting on the throne of Judah, and then the other ten tribes were in the north.

Verse 13. And the priests and the Levites, who were in all Israel, presented themselves to him from all the places where they lived. So once again, those who were genuinely after the Lord came to Jerusalem and presented themselves to the king of Judah, which is what's being talked about here.

For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord. And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.

And those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

Now the interesting contrast here between Israel and Judah is that in Judah there's one place to worship God. That's the temple mount, Mount Moriah, the temple that Solomon had built for the name of the Lord.

In Israel there were many places to worship their false gods, but two that were most prominent. And that was the places where Jeroboam erected the golden calves. One was in Bethel, and the other was in Dan, which is on opposite sides of the kingdom.

So Bethel was in eyesight of Jerusalem. You could stand on the temple mount and look and see where Bethel was. So this was kind of mocking the fact that, hey, we've got our own god, our own place of worship, that we do here, this golden calf that has been erected within eyesight, within eyeline of Jerusalem.

And then the other place where a golden calf was erected was Dan, which was on the far northern end of the kingdom, so the complete other side of the kingdom. There's one place to worship God in Judah.

There's two places to worship in Israel, and then plus all the other high places. So this is kind of signifying the rebellion of Israel against the law of God. So now we finish up here with Rehoboam's family at the end of chapter 11.

Rehoboam took as wife Mahaloth, the daughter of Jeremoth, the son of David, and of Abahel, the son of Eliab, the son of Jesse. And she bore him sons. And so then we have the list of those children there.

Verse 21, Rehoboam loved Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, above all of his wives and concubines. He took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.

And he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and procured wives for them. And that's as far as we're going to go in our reading of 2 Chronicles today.

Judah’s One Place of Worship and the Rehoboam-Jeroboam Split

So just as there was only one place to worship God in Judah, and well, in all the kingdom of Israel, but of course, Israel rebelled and had multiple places to worship their gods, and Judah had only one place to worship God, in obedience to the command of the Lord.

So there is also only one way to God, even now, and that is through his son, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father, but by me.

And so what we're reading about here, happening in Israel hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, all of this is a type and a shadow of what Christ is going to fulfill. Just as God demanded that there was only to be one place where he was to be worshipped, so Christ is our one mediator between God and man.

We have access to the Lord through the man, Jesus Christ, just as Paul talked about in 1 Timothy 2, 5. Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for adopting us into your family through Jesus Christ the Lord.

And I pray that we would remember him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and honor him with our whole lives. Who are we that you would choose us as your dwelling place, the Spirit of God within all of your children.

What a blessing and what a privilege this is to be included into God's family. And so may we be convicted of sin and live as holy kingdom people while we dwell here on this earth, anxiously awaiting the coming of the perfect kingdom of Christ in the new heavens and the new earth.

Deliver us and come quickly Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with the church family.

Find a good gospel teaching Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.