Kingdom Divided Transcript

Division and Wise Counsel in Rule

So we did jump forward. We skipped over most of David's and all of Solomon's reign, and now we are looking at the son of Solomon, who is about ready to take up rule. We're not looking at anything more than about. No more than 80 years at this point From when we talked last week, where David had brought the kingdoms, the northern and southern kingdoms, back together, where they had come to David and said, we are of one flesh, we are together, we are one people, and you are our king. It does not take long to get to where we are today, where the kingdom becomes divided again. But it didn't have to be. That way is what we see. 

How many times have you had to decide your life, and you could have gone either way, and you sought counsel from people that you knew? There were those trusted people that maybe you knew, who guided you when you were younger, who guided you and gave you good advice. Then some people told you, perhaps, what you wanted to hear, who wanted to fluff you up, and so that made you feel better about yourself, and you had to choose between which group you were going to listen to. Do you go with the people who offered you wise counsel in the past, the people who have been around for a while, the people you know you can trust, or do you go with the people like you? I mean, that's ultimately what Rehoboam's decision was the people he grew up with, the people who were like him, the people who he associated with and had similar ideas and similar ways of thinking, or he could have listened to the wise elders that helped Solomon in his reign. At that moment, in that choice, the kingdom's fate was wrapped. If he had gone the other way, the kingdom would have remained united, and everything that followed would have gone a heck of a lot better. 

Just this past Wednesday, in our lunch and learn, I brought a board game called Kings of Israel. It's one where you work together, and you're trying to keep sin out of the land of Israel, but on the left-hand side, there's a list of all of the kings of Israel. The gold-colored bars were relatively good kings, David Solomon, and then all of the red bars were the ones that messed up, and anyone that saw that map, that saw that game, get a quick overview of the history of the kings does not go well for Israel and it doesn't take long. All because of this division. The people had come to Rehoboam and said lighten our yoke, take away the oppression that your father put on us, all of the hard work that they demanded, and the discipline of whips. Do that, and we will serve you, and you will be our king. It's a reasonable ask. It's not that hard of a thing to imagine that a person suffering oppression would want to be free of that oppression. And the advice that the elders give him is pretty sound. And we wonder why he would choose the other. Lighten their yoke, and they will serve you forever. But he had to lower himself. The advice of the elders was if you serve them and lighten their yoke, they will serve you forever. 

Self vs God in Decision-Making

And there's the problem that we run into over and over again when having to choose between two things and choose between two directions. It's sometimes, more often than not. One direction requires us to lessen ourselves, to lower ourselves in our eyes and the eyes of others, and to lift someone or something else. And sometimes the other option. We don't have to do that. How many times do we regret not choosing because we didn't want to look bad, we didn't want to come across as less, we didn't want to have to lower ourselves because we like looking good in people's eyes, we like the stature that it brings, we like to be king of whatever situation we happen to find ourselves. And because we don't want to lower ourselves, because we don't want to do what Jesus, in the first reading, said today of becoming a servant, lowering ourselves for the sake of serving others, because we refuse to allow ourselves to be seen as less, we make the wrong choices. We make the choices that lift us, elevate us, and lift our names when God is asking every one of us to lay our lives down for the sake of His glory. Christ seeks to live out of our lives and live through us, in how we live, how we function, and how we treat one another, to shape our lives by what Christ wants to do through us and in us rather than what we want to do. 

How many times have we asked God to bless what we are doing instead of asking God to show us what he's doing so that we can be a part of it? It's the same idea. I know it's not as extreme as subjugating an entire group of people and causing a kingdom to divide, but the task, the question, is the same. Will you allow yourself to decrease so that God might increase, or will you remain steadfast, saying I am what's important? My desires, my will, my opinions, and my future are what are most important, and I hope that God will bless that. 

What happens more often than not is we head down that path where we are glorified so far that we don't know how to return. We've put so much energy and time into doing what we want to do that turning back and trying again feels like failure. We've given something up, we've lost something, and, in reality, giving up something that is not working is not a sign of failure. Giving up something that used to work well but doesn't seem to be anymore is not a sign of failure. Now, as a church, we have done some peeling backs of ministries and various things that we have done in the past. Things that used to work, that used to draw people in that used to move people into a deeper relationship with God and worked well, and we felt good about those things working well. They made us feel good. They made us feel successful as a church. They made us live out a glory day. And now we have gone down that path for so long, trying to maintain those things, maintain those ministries that perhaps aren't doing what they once did, running ourselves ragged trying to figure out how to make those things that used to work again. 

Or how do we resurrect what we once had, even though it may not do what we want it to do anymore because it made us feel good, it made us feel like we were making a difference when we did them, and we longed for that desire to be a part of what God is doing. It's borne out of that, I believe, and I think it is good and proper to be a part of what God is doing so that we can see transformation in our midst and celebrate what God is doing in it. But that comes from choosing and seeking after God, lowering ourselves, removing our expectations of what God will do for us, and focusing instead on what God is already doing in our midst. When we do that, when we transform our thinking, when we realize that it's not about what we want and it's not about our desires for what God will do, but it's about what God desires that we will do. We realize that peeling away those things that don't work, that giving up those things that used to work well but don't anymore frees us up to seek what God wants for us. Now, you may be wondering what that has to do with my life. Now, this is the same for our individual lives. 

The more we focus on what makes us feel good, the more we focus on what used to work in our lives, the more that we try to recapture those things that used to lift us and make us feel important, the less time that we have to move into those things that God wants us to do now. And when we refuse to move into those things, when we cling on to the things of the past, we refuse to let them go. We're stuck, we're lost, and sometimes we hurt other people in the process. When we cling on to regrets, we cling on to pain. We cling to those things that we are not yet ready to forgive. We cling to those things that challenge us, hurt us, and hold us captive. We don't experience the freedom that Christ offers and the fullness of life that he brings. Sometimes, we need to step back and let go. Sometimes, we need to seek that counsel and recognize what is coming from God and is not. 

Jeroboam becomes king of the north in today's passage. He sees some political machinations that if people always have to go back to Jerusalem to offer their worship, to offer their sacrifices, if people are constantly going back to the southern kingdom of Judah where Rehoboam is king, then eventually they're going to turn their hearts and their minds away from Israel, the northern kingdom, and focus exclusively on claim allegiance to the southern king and Judah. And he sees these political machinations in his mind, saying, if the people keep doing this, then they're going to kill me, and it will all be for naught. And so he seeks counsel. Again. We don't hear the two stages of counsel, the two types of counsel that we heard for Rehoboam, but we hear in the Scripture that he sought counsel before moving forward with what he did. And then he decided to build two golden calves, forgetting everything that happened with Aaron when he fashioned a golden calf that would cause, when the people had worshiped it as the God of Israel, to make them wander in the wilderness until that generation was gone. 

So we see in these two passages a choice to be made. Do we lighten the people's burden, or do we make it harder? Do I lessen myself as a servant so they might serve me, or do I lift myself to say I am better than my father? And then we look at the other king simultaneously, saying, what do I do when these people keep returning to a foreign kingdom to worship, and they turn against me? They both seek counsel, but they both choose the wrong option. Rehoboam lifts himself and says I am greater than my father was, and I show that by being harsher to you than he ever was. And Rehoboam says I will make two golden calves. This is the God that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Both fail spectacularly because even when they sought counsel, they didn't listen wisely. 

And so, who do we turn to? If we're talking about peeling things back, lowering ourselves so that God might do more? Who are we talking to? Who are we checking our assumptions with? Who are we going to say which is the path that I should go, what is good, and which one should I avoid? 

Right Choices, Right People

As teens, we tell our kids to surround themselves with good friends who will propel them to live good lives and make good choices. We hope that for our children and our grandchildren, even if our kids are adults, we still hope that they will surround themselves with the right people to make the right choices. But who are you surrounding yourself with? Who do you go to, and how do you check their advice? In a few moments, we'll be singing our hymn of response, which is how firm a foundation about God's Word is a strong foundation. We are going to sing Siki first, the kingdom of God. How do we test what people are telling us we should do, and are we sure that we are making the right choices? Are we sure that we are following the right people? Because there are a lot of people in our world today telling you you need to do this, you need to do that, this is the right path, that is the right path, and ultimately, we need to decide for ourselves. We do that well by making sure we surround ourselves with other people who place Christ first, who seek out the good, who have lowered themselves for the sake of God's glory, and that we can do better. This is our prayer for this day when we go out from this place, and eventually, there are hot dogs and chips and things like that, coffee and drinks, and various other things. 

When you gather around those tables, these are the questions that you should think of. What might God be asking you to do? What might God be asking you to give up? What might God be asking you to make room for? What might God be asking you to do? What might God be asking you to do? What might God be asking you to do? What might God be asking you to do? Who do you go to for advice? Where do you turn for guidance? Where do you turn for guidance, Even in reading the Scripture? Who do you turn to to help you understand what God might be saying to it? And since we all make the wrong choice eventually, how far down that path do you go before you return before you turn around? These are the conversations that I hope you'll have throughout the week, around these tables, with one another as you grow together. This is my prayer that will guide us in that.