1 Kings 14 (Part 2) Bible Study (Rehoboam Reigns in Judah) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Please meet me in first Kings 14 beginning in verse 21 as we complete this chapter together tonight. And, again, trust that the lord has much to say to us in this very sobering chapter. And what we're going to see in these final 10 verses here is really a deep dive into the eulogy of king Rehoboam. Last week, you and I explored the concluding comments about the life and the reign of king Jeroboam. But for the rest of this chapter, the Holy Spirit is gonna turn our attention to review, an honest review of the rule and the leadership of the king of Judah.

And as we look at these 10 verses, I'm sure you're going to be convinced that us not making this chapter, this one chapter into one session was the right decision. Because you're gonna realize, I hope, that there are deep insights that we could have easily glossed over if we for the sake of saying we completed one chapter in one night. That's not our goal to to see how much we can cover in the shortest amount of time. And there are so many things here that are worthy of our meditation, which we will do together. And with that being said, I believe what will help us make the most out of this study is by having one hand here in first Kings 14 and having another hand in the book of second Chronicles.

And so I'm gonna even tell you from now, open up second Chronicles and place your finger there between chapter 11 and chapter 12 because what the author of Kings summarizes here, the chronicler actually opens up in greater detail. And so the book of Chronicles, second Chronicles specifically, is gonna fill in some gaps here and even give us insights that we would not have gleaned from just this chapter on its own. And if we're prepared to do that, go back and forth, we will be rewarded without a doubt. Lord, we pause to pray to say thank you for your word. Thank you that we don't have portions of it.

Thank you that we don't just have snippets of it. We have the whole counsel of God at our disposal. We do not take that lightly. We rejoice at your word. And we pray, Lord, for anyone here who has lost that sense of joy over your word, that you would rekindle it, that you would bring it back to life, that, Lord, there will be this insatiable thirst and hunger for the truth of God's word.

And so we pray that there would be a supernatural transaction and experience as we come to the supernatural book that you have deposited in our lives. We love your word. We love the God of this word, and may that love only intensify as we continue through this evening in your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Verse 21 of first Kings 14. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed more than all that their fathers had done.

For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherah on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. We'll pause here now and make a few points. Interestingly, here in this general biography of Rehoboam, we have the name of his mother.

And that might be something that we just skip over as unimportant, but what's even more interesting is we didn't read it, but if you look down at verse 31, the final verse of this chapter, you'll notice something again. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite, and Abijam, his son, reigned in his place. So twice at the beginning of this biography, at the end of this eulogy, his mother is mentioned. For what reason are we supposed to learn about her?

I believe the reason because we see her sandwiching these other truths really highlighting the apostasy and the idolatry and the rebellion of this king. We are to be impressed by this insight. Surely, this man's mother played a huge role in influencing Rehoboam and his disobedience. Because not only are we given her name, we are given her origins. She was an Ammonite.

Now here's my question. What is a descendant of David who's from the tribe of Judah doing having a mother who is from the people of Ammon? How is that working? How does that happen? And it's no mystery because you've been here week after week after week that David's son, Rehoboam's father Solomon loved many foreign wives.

And he just had a collection of them from different places, neighboring nations. And they all had one thing in common. They worshiped false gods, and they did not honor the true God. And what we see here is that Solomon not just had this problem at the latter portion of his life when he accumulated hundreds and hundreds of these women, but this was a struggle that he had even from the near beginning of his rule and his reign. How do we know that?

How long did Solomon reign as king? Forty years. How old was Rehoboam when he started to be king? We read 41. So he had Naamah as a wife even before he started his reign or right at the beginning of it.

So this is this was in seed form even from there at the beginning of his leadership over this people. And we can talk more about that, but we've heard over and over how these things that start in seed form become oak trees and deeply rooted in us and become much more difficult to overcome when we don't deal with c the sin of the seed of a sin early on. But there's something else here to mention. We can land in many places, but here's a meditation for us. We cannot underestimate the strong influence that a parent has over their child.

Whether that be a father or, in this case, a mother, it is more profound and far reaching than you might think. Solomon, was he a busy man or was he a man who had time for his children? Never mind his children. How did he have time for his wives? With all the building projects and all the things that he was associated with and had his hands in, very difficult to imagine that Solomon took the time to disciple his son Rehoboam.

But you know who was there? Naamah. You know who was there consulting him, counseling him, interpreting the world for him, speaking to his life, whispering into his ear? This woman. This woman who was from a people group that were birthed out of an incestuous relationship.

You remember how this people group came about. Right? Lot and one of his daughters well, actually, both of his daughters. The daughters intoxicated their father. They slept with his father, and out came this people group and the Moabites.

And so you have a very shady history. And not only that, the Ammonites here grew to hate the people of God and the God of Israel. And this is the kind of woman that you have here raising up a king over the people of Israel, namely, Judah and Benjamin. And what's even more striking is how God gave a specific law to the people of Israel, how they should relate to this people group. So look at Deuteronomy 23 and look here in verse three and four.

In Deuteronomy twenty three and three and four, it says no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever. Why? Verse four. Because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you.

So you read this and you may feel this is a little bit discriminatory. This seems to be very challenging in my view of how God is wanting all people to come to know him even in the old covenant. Yes. But what we see here as a law, as a code, is supposed to cause you to trust in the goodness of God and the all knowing power of God that he understands why he made such a law given to his people concerning another people group. And no matter how challenging this might have been in your study of Deuteronomy, I find it quite funny that when you come to your study of first Kings, you learn of the catastrophes, national catastrophes that came about from one Ammonite woman.

One Ammonite woman who was joined to the royal seed and had influence over a leader who ultimately had influence over the people of God altogether. One. God knows what he's talking about. Trust his word. Trust his standards.

Trust his commands. And you see this and you think to yourself, what a disaster. And what a sobering reminder, especially young men, single young men, that whenever you are considering and as you're considering a candidate for a wife, I want you to be able to remember that that's not just going to be your wife, your partner, your companion, that's also going to be potentially the mother of your children. And here's what you have to ask yourself as you you you logically step away from your emotions and think critically and biblically. Are the qualities that I see in this woman, are the convictions, are are are the consistent expressions of her character something that I wanna see replicated in my offspring?

That's something that you ladies can ask about other men as well. Nobody nobody is perfect, but there are patterns and there are ways of thinking and there are evident marks of what this person really is about that should not be a mystery to you. And some might be hearing this and think, well, I'm not single anymore. I'm not a young man anymore. I made my choice already, and I'm afraid I made the wrong one.

I'm afraid that I did not honor God's standard, his word about what to find in a partner in marriage. Am I doomed? No. You're not doomed. There is hope for you, and there are two things to remember if you're in that place.

One, don't make the same mistake Solomon made in allowing himself to be led by the persuasions or the convictions or the lack of conviction from an unbelieving, unequally yoked spouse. Because in first Corinthians seven, we are reassured and we are comforted by the reality that even one unbelieving person, namely a spouse, who lives in a household with another unbelieving spouse and with children who are susceptible to that same kind of unbelief, you, because of your walk with the Lord, have a power to purify that atmosphere and even win them over to Christ. Just by you being in close proximity. That's why Paul begs such people. Don't leave.

Don't abandon them because your presence there sanctifies them. That's something encouraging for you and I to consider. The second thing to bring hope into your life is that regardless of the unbelieving partner, especially when there are kids in the mix, no influence, even if it's from a mother, even if it's from a father, is automatically guaranteed. It's not automatically guaranteed. Because I'm thinking of another king that we're gonna study eventually who had a very similar mother as Rehoboam, but he responded to that upbringing differently.

He responded to her influence differently. I'm thinking of a king who was one of Israel's greatest reformers, king Asa. Now you're in second I told you, tuck your hand in second Chronicles. Right? So if you're there, go to second Chronicles 15 and look at verse 16.

This is, one point of a series of points of the extent of Asa's reform in the nation, and we even read this. Even Maacah, his mother, king Asa, removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron. What a different outcome. Here's my question.

What motivated Asa to do this? Yes. We can talk about both the positive and the negative influences, impact that a father, a mother can have over their children, but I don't see that here. I don't see it being absolutely certain in this case, and I believe the same chapter gives us the answer because there was somebody else who played a role in his life to encourage him in this radical decision. So you're there.

At verse 16, look at verse one of second Chronicles 15. The spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you're with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. It was a prophet, a man of God with the true word of God on his lips that entered into the life of this king and spoke the truth enough for him to say, I'm not gonna go down this predictable path that others might have because of the lack of influence that I should have.

You know what you take out of this? That there is something more powerful than the deceptions or the weaknesses of a parent, and that is the truth of God's word. And as long as truth is transmitted in some way, then there is always hope for a life to take a different course than that which might have been paved by misguided father or a mother. That's how powerful the truth is. That's how powerful a youth ministry can be for young people who come from broken homes.

All it takes is for truth to be heard and understood enough for them to say, I'm not going to head down this path that has been set for me because of a lack of example, because of what I've seen and heard my whole life, thinking this is how my worldview should be. That can be broken in one moment of the truth being declared over that person. And so if you're in that person saying, I'm with somebody that's not really working with me and wanting to see God glorified and my children sanctified. You do you in living wholeheartedly for God and trust that that has the ability to rescue anyone. And you do your part also in being able to, one, exemplify truth and two, convey it because the truth can set anyone free from any kind of shackle, from any kind of closed environment to light.

It can all change like it did for this man. He had a mother, and mothers are powerful. Are they not? He had a mother who worshiped false gods, and all it took was a man of god to step in the scene and say, obey God. And we're we're learning later on that chapter that he was encouraged, and he brought revival.

That wasn't the case for Rehoboam, unfortunately. So let's come back to our main text. We're still in verse 21. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there.

He was king for seventeen years. And left to this text alone, you'd be under the impression that all seventeen years were wasted by unfaithfulness. All seventeen years were just thrown into the trash because of a man who was confused and compromised. And that's something that you might be left with if we don't honor the consistent regular reading of God's word. Because if you were to say, I'm gonna read my Bible as I believe you should from cover to cover, then you would read this in first Kings 14, but then you would journey through second Chronicles, and you would discover something that sheds light on this, that it wasn't all seventeen years of apostasy.

So second Chronicles, and we come here at verse 14 of chapter 11. Now we read the section in a recent study, but we didn't continue on as we are about to. So in second Chronicles eleven fourteen, notice what we read here by the spirit. 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. Remember that.

Right? Remember when Jeroboam became king and he he started a false religion, and because of that, the Levites left. They migrated south, not just the Levites. Verse 15. And he appointed his own priest for the high places and for the goat idols 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. That's where we stopped last time. But notice what's this said here in verse 17. 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. Wow.

So seventeen years according to first Kings 14, he reigned, but the first three years were secured and fruitful and pleasing to the lord to an extent. The added strength that we're read about here is not stemmed from a growing number of people that came to the Southern part of Israel. It's speaking about the empowerment that came to the Southern Kingdom through the piety of the people. It was their fervor. It was their devotion.

It was their sacrificial spirit that brought a strengthening to the kingdom of the South. And when you think about how this godly caliber and quality, this influx contributed to the Southern Kingdom strength, it makes you think about something concerning you and I, something that we often don't think about. Because here's what we see. The nation's spiritual growth and security did not come exclusively from leaders. It came primarily from the common people.

All whose hearts were set on seeking the Lord. It was the general population of common families and fathers and wives, and they made something of a contribution because of their consecration to the Lord. And if it's true that a nation was strengthened in that way at this time in history, Is it any less true today in our context? Look. Leadership in the local church is extremely important.

The strength of that leadership, the seriousness of that leadership, the devotion of that leadership, yes. It's all it's all true. It's all needed. But the maximum potential of the testimony and the glory and the beauty of the local church cannot be known if the people who come to that church apart from the leadership treat the services and ministries as pep rallies. It's not gonna happen.

It's not gonna happen where you're gonna have a handful of people who are in leadership pulling the load while everybody else just watches and applauds and talks about how grateful they are because of how godly their leadership is. Very limiting. Here's how you're supposed to be encouraged that you play no small part as you participate and make your presence known in a body of people who believe in Jesus Christ. In the same way that these people whose hearts were right with God nourish and flourish the people that they join themselves to, you can as well. Yes, you, stay at home mom.

Yes, you, construction worker. Yes, you, engineer. Yes, you, full time student. Your walk with the Lord can have greater blessing. It can be monumental to wherever God in his providence places you, and it could be equally detrimental.

It could be detrimental to the testimony, to the witness, to the potential of a place that wants to glorify God. Here you have just a people nameless who come to the people of the South and join themselves to a questionable leadership. That's the kindest way of saying it, and yet something happened to them. Do not underestimate your membership. Do not underestimate your gifting.

Do not underestimate what your white hot love for Christ can do to another people around you as they stay around you long enough. I'm reminded of one of the laws in Exodus, where when it came to one of the the furnishings in the tabernacle, the lamp, the people were to bring their own oil. It was not the priest who were to fetch out in the vineyards for for olives to crush him and make oil for the lamp to be burning continually. It says that the people were supposed to bring their own oil. That speaks about the communal effort, not just leadership, but the church as a whole, members of the same body working together to say, we're gonna sharpen each other, and we're gonna look brighter and more polished so that people can see Christ in the face of this people group.

That's what I see here. That that's not meant to convict you more than it is to encourage you. You can do something to the overall testimony and experience of this place and whatever place you represent. I think about what just happened recently when we had our recent members meeting concerning our need to transition, and the faith of the people, and the excitement of the people, and the ideas of the people, the people is really was really the catalyst for everything, and we have no problem admitting that. We're excited to know that.

That there are people here who sit here, who observe and listen, yes, but also participate saying that they believe in what God is doing here, and they wanna move forward and see God do more. We rejoice and give God glory for that. And that's what you see here. The people came to the kingdom of the South, the Kingdom Of Judah, and they brought something with them. Now you might be wondering why only for three years, and that's a good question.

Why not for all those seventeen years? Well, the answer is in second Chronicles 12. Look at verse one. When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord. Now look at this.

And all Israel with him. He abandoned the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. Here's the idea. It's not that power and prosperity led to his downfall. It's that the enjoyment of these blessings led to his demise because he failed to attribute pay attention now.

He failed to attribute and maintain the spiritual obedience that brought forth these blessings to begin with. Let me make it more plain. What Rehoboam did here is what many people do in life in their spiritual journey. He began to abandon his neediness of God, his observance of God, his worship of God when all was well. When he became strong, he became weak.

And this time, the people who once inspired him now followed him. Did you read that? He abandoned the law of the Lord and all Israel with them. What a sad thing. What a sad reversal.

The same people who came and strengthened the kingdom are now the people who are being weakened by a weak leadership. And what do we to make of this? It's very simple. It shows just how dangerous it is for anyone, anyone, whether you're a leader or not a leader, for anyone to cruise through a season of life where there is little to no turbulence. You got the job that you wanted.

You got the girl that you wanted. You got the guy that you wanted. You got the house that you wanted. Your body is healthy. The bank account is good.

You have a good group of friends, and you do things almost every weekend. You have a nice church that makes you feel good every week, and you're not guarding your heart. You're not vigilant over how quickly you can wander. If anyone thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he falls. And that's what this man did.

Can I can I tell you what the true test of genuine devotion is? Talking about devotion to the lord. It's not when you come close to the lord when your world is falling apart. It's not when you come close to the Lord when your world is falling apart. It's choosing to stay close to the Lord as time goes on without troubles or trials.

That's a true test of devotion. When you can worship with equal strength, if not greater strength, when you still come to the prayer meetings, not because you need something, just because you know you need to be sustained by him in the good times and the bad, when you serve whether you feel like it or not, when everything is going well and the sun is shining and the clouds are cleared and you still have this fervency in your bones, that's true devotion. And these people became strong economically, politically, and that was a result of God's blessing in their lives for their obedience. There was a direct correlation there. But when everything was going well, everything was not really well.

It was the beginning of a decline. And that's what we read, right, in the twenty fifth verse. The twenty second verse actually highlights it. And Judah, verse Kings 14, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed. Now look at this.

More than all that their fathers had done. They they've reached the place of sinfulness and disobedience that has not been known yet. They they broke a new record, so to speak. But then when we come back to verse 25, we haven't read this yet, so let's read it. In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and king Rehoboam made it in their place shields of bronze and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the king's house. So for the first three years, Rehoboam and the king of Judah were faithful. They were strong.

And after those three years, they abandoned the Lord. And at the fifth year so, we can say that a little over a year, close to two years even, they were walking in these abominable practices. Male cult prostitutes, false worship, just things that you can't even think about and imagine were going on before now the king of Egypt invades and surrounds Jerusalem. This is not accidental. This is not merely a surprising military stunt.

It's not again till you go to second Chronicles where you realize that God's hand is behind this invasion. Because in second Chronicles twelve two, and you don't have to go there unless you want to, we're told that because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem. So what do we see here in verse 25 of first Kings 14? God's discipline on full display. You walked away from me.

You chose to liberate yourself from my lordship. Then let me bring another king into your life, and let's see how you like it. So the king of Egypt comes, and he surrounds the people. And surprisingly, out of all the things that he could have done, the thing that is highlighted is that he goes into one of the edifices, and he removes the shields of gold that we studied about how Solomon made and he put on display. And king Rehoboam, in in response to that, makes these shields of brass, and he replaces the shields of gold with that.

What are we to make of this? Very simple. We heard about this many weeks ago, but we need to hear it again sometimes. This is a principle, an illustration of what sin does in your life. Sin always impoverishes you.

Sin always steals from you. Sin always weakens you. And that's what we see here. We see a diminishing beauty and majesty and glory taking place in the kingdom of Judah. What was once gold is now bronze, brass.

It's diluting. Sin diminishes your quality of life. It strips you of the spiritual treasures that the Lord longs to furnish you with and fill your life with always. And you know what Rehoboam does here? What Rehoboam does does here is what people do when they walk away from God and want to try to sustain themselves as much as possible without wanting to admit or maybe because they haven't felt convicted about their abandonment of the Lord just yet.

You try to fill the void that sin creates in your life with cheap substitutes. That's what always happens. Can I tell you something? I have never, in my whole walk with the Lord, never, never, never, never. And I've seen, unfortunately, too many.

People who have walked away from the Lord or people who have become lukewarm toward the Lord. I've never seen anybody do that and them ending up better off than they were when they were walking closely with the Lord. Never. Not once. I've never looked at anybody who walked away from the church, walked away from the truth, or walked away from a true total devotion to the Lord and said to myself, they look like they're doing better than ever.

Have you? If you have, please tell me. Let's pull up their social media. I wanna see it for myself because I've never. And that's the case here.

Because part of Solomon's prosperity where silver became like like common stone was because God promised him that he would make him wealthy. Obviously, he went overboard with that because he acquired too much, but a part of it shows that the gold signified his favor, his blessing, and that gold now is reduced to brass for one reason, turning your back on the Lord. And as heartbreaking as this scene might be, when you know the full story, you realize that it's not just divine display that's on display here, divine discipline's on display here, you actually see mercy in motion. You read first Kings 14, and then, you you you skip over to the New Testament because you don't wanna continue the Old Testament. And you would miss this again from second Chronicles because second Chronicles highlights what really is going on here.

So go there with me. In second Chronicles 12. I know your arm might be tired. Second Chronicles 12. Look at verse five.

Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak. We heard of him in first Kings fourteen twenty five. So this prophet comes, and he interrupts this council meeting and said to them, thus says the Lord, you abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak. Look at verse six. Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, the Lord is righteous.

This text excited me so much. I had to gather myself, and I had to tell myself, don't get overly excited when you share that truth because you wanna clearly present at least two important points from this text. So I'm doing that now. Give me a second. First thing to draw from this.

You ready? There's two things I want you to see from this. Here's the first thing. Because we didn't see this in first Kings 14. We're seeing it here in this parallel account.

Here's the first thing. It's never too late to call anyone to repent. It's never too late to call anyone to repentance because Shamaiah the prophet comes on the scene when Shishak and his armies were just underneath the nose the noses of this leadership. They were right at their front door. And this man of God comes with a true word from the Lord, and he gives the biblical and theological explanation for what may seem just as a political move from Egypt.

Hey. Add this to your meeting. The reason why this is happening is because you abandoned God, so God abandoned you. This is confrontation. This is truth colliding with a stubborn people, a callous people.

And maybe you need to revisit first Kings fourteen twenty two to 24 to realize just how hopeless this nation has become. Male cult prostitutes. You know what that means? I don't wanna be too graphic here, but you had men. You had sodomites.

You had homosexual behavior happening in these false places of worship as an expression to these deities of fertility to answer their cry. That's disgusting. That's depraved. That's horrible. And we we read it that they had done more than all their other fathers had done.

So at this point in Israel's history, this is the worst that it ever was. And yet still, a man of God comes on the scene and preaches a brief message to them, and it was enough to melt their hearts. You know, I thought about that when I was reflecting on these truths about our own generation in this nation. The suicide rate, the depression, the confusion, the entertainment, the things that people are allowing and paying money for, the anger, all these different vices that are just piling up, making us feel as we stand in the shadow of this filth. Is there even a point?

So we just celebrate people barely making it to church, and our minds don't even go beyond, hey. It it's possible for this gospel to still save people. This gospel can still save people in America. It can save, yes, this new generation that doesn't know their left from their right. It still can save.

We're still the church is still here for a reason. The Holy Spirit is still in us, working through us for a reason. We're not a bunker that's just hiding from the world hoping not to be contaminated until Christ comes back. We're on the offensive. And so I see from this that no matter how twisted, darkened, confused, and insensitive anybody may be, a leadership, a political leadership maybe, It's never too late nor should we give up calling them to the truth.

But here's the second point. Not just that it's never too late for us to call people to the truth, but it's never too late to repent either. What do we see in verse six? Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, the Lord is righteous. Oh, to be there in that meeting room to see Shammai.

I wonder if he kicked the door down. I wonder if he just surprised them. Hey, princes of Israel and Rehoboam. You've been in God. So this is the outcome of it.

What did it look like for them? I wonder if there was a a pause. I wonder if they held their breath. I wonder who was the first one to break the silence of conviction, and they collectively said, the lord is righteous. You know what that means?

God is right in disciplining us in this way because we are wrong. That's repentance. That's brokenness. That's contrition. And here's the point that moves me.

It's verse seven. Look at this. When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah. They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

When did the Lord make the decision to diminish the severity of his judgment? When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves. The very moment that they humbled themselves was the very moment, not a second later, God's mercy was activated. Not a blink later, not a breath later, the very moment they humble themselves. God sent a word from heaven to the same prophet, and he says, did you just see what happened?

And he changed the verdict on the spot. We're told that he he would not destroy them by the hand of Shishak. Now here's what you and I should glory in. If God's mercy can be awakened so speedily, so swiftly under an inferior covenant, how much more is it excited when you and I embrace his son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he slower to receive you the moment upon your confession and belief in your heart that he is lord and that God raised him from the dead?

No. In so many ways and in numerous ways and verses rather, are we comforted to know that when we confess our sin with a repentant faith, in that very moment, we are justified and we are secured. Not momentarily, not until you prove yourself, but forever. Forever. I'm saved.

I'm saved because of my faith in Christ. I'm delivered. My verdict has been changed for eternity. And that's important, the sufficiency of what Christ has done, because you will never know true joy, the the joy that God wants you to know in your salvation unless you believe in the permanency of your redemption. Yes.

He's a gracious God in the old covenant. He's a gracious God in the new covenant in giving us his son, and, oh, how he is ready to forgive us when you are ready to humble yourself and erase all that sin and cleanse your record completely, completely, like blank blank. I have a couple illustrations that I would give of my own life of how I was relieved when something was not given to me when I deserved it, but I'll spare you those illustrations. Instead, I want you to see something interesting in verse eight. You're still in second Chronicles 12, are you not?

Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So, yes, I'm not going to allow the king of Egypt to completely swallow up Jerusalem. Yet, because of Judah's historic inconsistencies and because the Lord is a good father, he's gonna allow the king of Egypt to have some mastery over the people of Judah. I'm gonna let the king of Egypt have some kind of control over you. For a season, I'm gonna let you be under his leadership.

Why? So they can compare. Did you read it? That they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. Okay.

So if they thought that living under my rule was so limiting, so joyless, so void of meeting and satisfaction, then they have to learn the hard way. And here's the hard way, they're going to have to experientially know what it means to have a different lord in their lives. And, you know, unfortunately, there are many people who have seen so much, who have heard so much. I mean, the unparalleled testimonies that the people of Israel have experienced, the the manifestations and the miracles. Paul even speaks about how privileged they were as a people group.

And with all of that, all of the witnessing, and all of the experiences, they were still tempted to run after other lovers. And so there are some people even today that no matter how no matter how eloquent this this is, no matter how profound, no matter how much the grace of God is being pounded into your unbelieving heart, your skeptical heart, though you may believe it here, there are some people who are not convinced and won't be convinced until they look for other saviors and realize they can't be saved. And I'm not talking about other gods. I'm talking about things that try to save you from loneliness, try things that try to save you from a a life that is void of pleasure, things that promise you something in this life that you're so longing for. And there are some people, you know them and I know them, that will not bend the knee completely and guaranteed until they discover and get bruised by other idols.

That was true for Rehoboam. Okay. You're obviously not convinced because it doesn't take you much long for you to turn your back on me. So here's another king. See how you like it.

See how you like it. That was true for Rehoboam's day, and listen, that was true in Hosea's day. You turn there with me. Hosea. I want you to see this verse.

Hosea chapter two verse seven. What a this is a heartbreaking book. Prophet Hosea. And early in this book, we get a verse that explains exactly what I'm trying to explain to you. Hosea two seven.

She, being Israel, shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband for it was better for me then than now. You see what god is saying? Yeah.

You know, go do your thing and run after these things, and you're gonna realize that what you're looking for, you'll never find. And only then will you pause and ponder and think to yourself, I think it's time to go back to Jesus because it was far better for me then than it is now. That's the prodigal son. That's not just the prodigal son. That's the worship leader, Asaph, from Psalm 73 in the last verse after he struggled whether or not it was worth it to be righteous.

Because the payoff didn't seem right in this life at least. You see all the wicked enjoying having families and vacations and good health and dying in peace. Is it really worth what's in it for me to follow the lord? And you begin to think and feel. I mean, look.

If you think that this is not true, Asaph was a worship leader in the temple. This worship leader who led people to sing the praises of god felt this way. He felt tempted to think, maybe me being sold out for the Lord is not really worth it. And then he comes to the house of God, and he's reminded of these eternal truths. And the last verse of Psalm 73 verse 28 says this, as for me, it is good to be near God.

Can I ask you a question on this Friday night? I love seeing you every single week, but it's amazing what can happen from last Friday to this Friday. So let me ask this as a brother who cares for you, and I hope you feel the love throbbing in my heart for you. Are you near God tonight? I'm not asking if you believe God.

I'm asking if you are near God. How do I know if I'm near God? You know. You know. Not to give you a theological masterpiece to figure that out.

You know where your affections are. You know where your meditations are. You know when you voluntarily worship the Lord when nobody's around. You know what it's like to be near God. So here's my question.

Are you near God? Near him? Are you walking closely with him in fellowship and love? Or do you feel yourself getting further and further away from him? If you are, let this bible study remind you that the best place to be is not just around people who are near God, but you being near God.

Not having pastors who are near God, you being near God. It's good for me to be near God. And no matter where I am in this world, put me in a palace, put me in an island with all access to all foods and services, There is nothing that can compare to the satisfaction of being near God. Stuff me in an igloo. If I'm near God, I'm the happiest.

Put me anywhere else where any amount of money can buy anything. I don't care. If as long as I'm far from him, I'm miserable. But as for me, it is good to be near God. Let's conclude this Bible study with the last couple verses of first Kings 14.

You say, remind me why you brought me to second Chronicles 12 with Shishak. Shishak robbing the people of the gold shields was god limiting his destructive power. In other words, when you read first Kings 14 and compare it to second Chronicles 12, what you're seeing is it could have been a lot worse if Rehoboam did not repent. But because Rehoboam repented, then god only allowed him to take some things. It makes you wonder what if Jeroboam had repented at any point.

What could he have been spared from? What could he have been rescued from, but he never repented like this man did? Now we come to the concluding remarks of Rehoboam's life. Before the rest of our study in this book, we will evaluate different kings, succeeding kings of both the Northern and the Southern kingdoms. Look at verse 29.

Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite, and Abijam his son reigned in his place. Here's the final testimony of the first king of the northern tribes and the third king of the southern tribes.

It's verse 30. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. What a regretful thing to be put on your obituary. The last thing that you read about these two men is that they were at war with each other always. And the keyword here is continually.

And what's fascinating here is that these two men who should have been working together, who should have united the kingdom, divided the kingdom, and they were not one in faith, they were not one in mind, they were not one in purpose, they were not one in love. What should have been one thing became two things and not just two things, what should have been a family became a civil war. Do you think that's just true for Israel, or can it happen in the church of Jesus Christ? Is it possible for people's experience of the church and Christian relationships to just be war continually? Yeah.

Unfortunately. And perhaps we don't know just how damaging persistent strife and discord can have on the people of God. But Paul tells us at least one one way it is so harmful, and this is our final verses in the New Testament before we close. Look what he says in Galatians five, and I'll I'll pause and wait here. I won't say anything till you get there.

In Galatians five thirteen, let this discourage you from justifying unnecessary discord or fighting in the family of God. And listen, as you're turning there, know this. Within a community, there will be moments of disagreement and conflict. That that's that's a given. That's true of your natural family, and that's true in your spiritual family.

But every single problem, every single issue should be resolved with the truth and with humility and love. And, again, as I said earlier, the problem with these two is that it was continual. It just marked the relationship. And here's what Paul speaks about concerning Christian community and the dangers of this kind of attitude. For you were called to freedom, brothers.

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Through love, serve not just serve one another. Through love. Get the love thing right first. Get that impartation of god's love first, and watch serving one another come naturally as an outcome.

Through love, serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he gives the alternative in this next verse. What happens within a community of believers when they are not lovingly serving one another? When they don't see it to be a happy thing, to invest in your happiness as I would want to have my happiness invested in? Here here's the potential.

Verse 15. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. That's the alternative. Suck the love out of this place. Have a bunch of people who are not regulated by a holy spirit driven service to one another.

And you know what you open that place up to? Animalistic kind of contention. Have you ever have you ever heard the term, he he's like an animal, he acts like an animal, she acts like an animal. That's what Paul is getting at. He's using very graphic imagery where you put two beasts in a place, and they're ferociously unconcerned about the other, and they are willing to devour.

Look at the language, bite and devour. What does it mean for Christians to bite and devour? I'm sure it means many things, but I know it includes mainly the mouth. When you bite something and devour, it requires this. And he goes, you Christians, you be careful.

Because here's the thing, Christians can reach a place of Holy Spirit inspired love that these meetings and these relationships can be a piece of heaven on earth. We can reach such heights by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and yet we can be so disconnected to the heart of God that we can reach lows where Christians who should reflect Christ are actually acting like dogs. Do not bite or devour one another. And he says, watch out. And he's saying, like, be careful.

Meaning, it's it's possible for Christians to act this way. So don't be surprised if you've seen it. Don't be surprised if you have a history of church hurt. It's possible apparently. But notice the extent of the warning.

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. In other words, when this aggression and when this division is is so prevalent and unresolved, it can lead to a point where there is a consuming. You know what that word consumed is? It's the same word used in Luke nine fifty four when James and John, the sons of thunder, asked Jesus because they were rejected by that village in Samaria. And they said, lord, shall we call down fire from heaven and let them be consumed?

Let them be consumed. What does that mean to be consumed? When fire consumes something, it it becomes nothing. It's turned to ash. And here's what one person said, and here's how he put it.

That ongoing strife within a Christian community can have the potential of bringing that community to extinction. Consuming one another where in essence, everything becomes nonexistent. It's gone. It disappears. You're saying, what what does that mean?

I don't know. Have you ever seen churches no longer become churches because of biting and devouring? That's at least one way that can manifest. Consuming and biting each other's flesh with your mouth to the point where what once was alive is now no more. And that can happen to our testimony before the world.

That can happen to the fruitfulness within this place, the ministries that God breathed on at one point and used. So many things can become extinct when you have a party against another party in one place, void of love, void of being stimulated to serve one another, and left to the flesh. It can be avoided. We can be saved from such a thing. So maybe said of this ministry and the ministry that you're a part of and the relationships that you have in Christ, not that you go to war continually, but that with those people, you go to war with the enemy.

You go to war against unbelief. You go to war against sin. You go to war against selfishness. You go to war against pettiness. You go to war against your personal preference being the priority of the church that you're a part of.

You go to war with those things. There are too many people professing Christ going to war with the church instead of with the church against darkness and evil. I don't get it. So many people are so invested and so, caught up in church drama and problems. And I think to myself, if you just use that energy for what really matters, you are at war.

Just turn the gun away from your your fellow soldier and turn it and face it towards the one who is actually causing you to do this. So what a testimony here. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. May it not be so of us. Instead, may it be said according to Galatians that there is loving service toward one another continually only by the grace of God, only by the help of the Holy Spirit, only when the fear of the Lord reigns in our hearts.

And so what a way to end this as we close as a church to say, Lord, we're gonna ask you now that as we've read this and studied this together that the opposite testimony would be true of us. Lord, give us greater love so that we can serve each other with greater strength. Let's pray and do that together. Shall we? Lord, you are holy.

Your word is incredible. We're humbled by how loud it is, how accurate it is, how surgically precise it is, how applicable it is. And all in all, how life giving it is. We thank you, Lord, that we are recipients of the truth that you've made our hearts ready and hungry for such things. We thank you, Lord, that you have indeed fed our fire for fellowship with you and fellowship with one another the way you designed it.

Lord, there's a reason why you mentioned that these two were at war with one another continually. It's to remind us what is possible in the negative for the people of God who have the word of God, who have seen the miracles of God, who have the warnings of God. Lord, may our hearts remain soft and learn from the mistakes of the past. May we instead walk and run-in the opposite direction. Lord, we don't want to ever entertain or explore the depths of darkness or the flesh that we can attain.

Instead, we wanna soar high. Lord, bring us higher here at MBC, higher in love, higher in honor, higher in holiness. And for every other church represented here, the same, oh god. And for those who are discouraged maybe of the the ministry that they are a part of to know that their saltiness and their light in that place can have the potential power to influence others. Lord, there's so many things we heard.

We will not rehearse them in this prayer time. All we wanna do is ask that whatever we need to hear for our lives, that you would you would make it so obvious and that we would be soft enough, even like Rehoboam and those leaders, to admit that we're wrong and that you're right. And to trust that in that admission, you see from heaven and you're willing to do something about our future right there and then. Right there and then where we believe that as we're humbling ourselves before you and as we confess or as we rejoice, you hear us. You hear us.

So even, lord, if there's anyone here who is not near you, as the psalmist said he was, we pray that, lord, in our mission of that, we would feel closer to you than ever. Because you promised when we draw near to you, you draw near to us. That's your promise. So even in this time, let this not just be a a mindless sign off of this bible study. May this be a time where we draw close to you.

Where in our faith and in our in our thoughts and our words, we we take a step forward and we say, God, keep me close to you, please. Bind my wandering heart to thee. And so, Lord, tonight, as one body, as one church, as one kingdom, we say thank you. May the glue of this community be love. May the truth always reign over our ideas or opinions.

May you dominate every aspect of who we are for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Let's stay in church. Worship the Lord. Thank him. Honor him.

Spill your heart to him. He hears us tonight.