[0:00] away from the requests and such when I'm leading singing just because I don't have a lot of voice I wasn't blessed like Russ was with a big voice and so I just can't do it another thing I can't do is ever seem to keep this thing from snagging on my trousers my homemade trousers all right I'm on and this is coming off please go to second chronicles tonight chapter 10 second chronicles 10 and coming through your bible here you've you get past this is the second account of course coming through the chronicles you get past the the life of king david and then his son solomon and what a what an incredible state of affairs of the kingdom that solomon enjoyed and the blessings and the gifts of god in his life and then he dies he turns it over to his son rehoboam of course solomon messed up and solomon's a man and he had some issues in his life uh come to the end of time there with the women and turning away his heart from the lord and it's just a great reminder that men at their best state are altogether vanity men at the best are still men at best and then rehoboam comes on the scene rehoboam's his son and i think from studying the proverbs that solomon knew his son was a foolish son that he had tendencies for folly and he really highlighted a lot of things in those proverbs toward rehoboam i believe that but in these in the in the three chapters here 10 11 and 12 is the life of king rehoboam and he is reared by his father to just to know the lord to know the ways of god he was brought up in a tremendous era i mean a tremendous time a time of total peace in the kingdom david fought all those wars david subdued all those kingdoms surrounding and then his son solomon just had it easy like that he just got rich i mean fat pockets extreme prosperity under king solomon not just to say that he was rich that's not it extreme prosperity in the kingdom you can read that through here and pick up those little pieces of the way it describes the amount of treasure he had of what just what they thought of wealth it was so good it was so good in that time now rehoboam when we start reading about him in chapter 10 understand he is 41 years old when he takes the throne and i know we i don't know why maybe it's just me but there is it brings up about some young men and their their council it says young men that were brought up with him and the council they give him that he ends up making some mistakes early on just understand he's not a teenager he's not a young adult he's a grown man 41 years old that takes the throne after the wisest man to ever walk the face of the earth in these days and to reign as king over israel so no small thing for him to do now let's begin looking what i want to do here is probably over that i believe i think the next two wednesdays is kind of outline these chapters and along the way focus on some responses that rehoboam has to situations in his life and they're going to be various there's a variety of things that come up and he responds to them sometimes good sometimes not good at all and i think then we can point out some real life application from his story from his responses especially that we can utilize today this man is far from perfect
[4:05] and there were there's just these certain events and these certain uh actions maybe that that are outlined in his life here that are indicative of i want to say a second or a third generation christian what i mean by that is somebody who was raised in a christian home or brought to church as a child they didn't get saved it late in life and then start raising their family but no rehoboam had a grandfather david who sought the lord who loved the lord a man after god's own heart made mistakes but was a repenter and got right and walked with god the sweet psalmist of israel penned the scriptures the spirit of god spake by his grandfather david and not only that his father solomon just happens to be the wisest man ever apart from jesus christ himself penning the scriptures so rehoboam has a godly heritage a heritage of pure men of wisdom and truth and walking in the ways of god and successful men they weren't just wretches and didn't just get by on the coattails of others they were real deal and this is what his heritage is this is what uh all he's ever known so we're going to start looking at some things here and what i see in him is just he shows me that picture of myself growing up in a church and of a third generation of my kids growing up in church and i've known so many of them you've you some some of you here are that way and some of you here have brought up your kids that way and this guy shows us some signs of of um that christian i think but we're going to look at his reactions here let's start i think in these in these two weeks we're going to read the entirety of the three chapters we're going to begin in chapter 10 verse 1 and let's look at the first four verses here what i'm going to call this first thing is by way of outline this is israel's request for relief notice verse 1 and rehoboam went to shechem for to shechem where all israel come to make him king and it came to pass when jeroboam the son of nebat who was in egypt whether he had fled from the presence of solomon the king heard it that that jeroboam returned out of egypt and they sent and called him so jeroboam and all israel came and spake to rehoboam saying thy father made our yoke grievous now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us and we will serve thee we will serve thee now you got to imagine he took the throne it's his right it's his throne i don't care what you think i don't care if you thought my dad was this good bad or ugly it's my throne that's how he's looking at it that's it's true and they kind of come with an ultimatum they didn't tell him he had to do it but they really did suggest didn't they that if you don't well that's that's unstated if he doesn't follow through with their request but they request relief here and it's i think it's a legitimate request i want to show you why look back at first kings chapter four keep your place here king solomon lived large he lived large and because he had it like that somebody had to pay for it and so solomon had a just a great system that worked for him israel footed the bill and what he did was he got 12 officers notice in first kings chapter four in verse number seven and solomon had 12 officers over all israel which provided victuals for the king and his household each man his month in a year made provision and then the list of names of these 12 men are given in several verses following um everybody's good though with what this is verse 20 says judah and israel were many as the sand which is by the sea and multitude eating and drinking and making merry and solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the river unto the land of the philistines and under the
[8:07] border of egypt they brought presents and served solomon all the days of his life now here's the provision that these men brought i don't it doesn't say that they were necessarily over a particular tribe some maybe but just just pretend the kingdom is broken up into 12 pieces and one officer is in charge of that month bringing whatever the king wants here's what he wanted per day verse number 22 and solomon's provision for one day was 30 measures of fine flour and three score measures of meal 10 fat oxen and 20 oxen out of the pastures so you can multiply those by 30 and you've got 300 and 600 and 100 sheep so now you got 3 000 sheep a month that these guys have to come up with for the provision for king solomon and his house no small feat besides hearts and roebucks and fallow deer and fatted fowl later on skip down to verse 27 those officers provided victual for king solomon and for all that came unto the king's table every man in his month they lack nothing barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were every man according to his charge so just give you it doesn't really spell it out for us completely to put it in a monetary figure but you get the idea that these guys they were under some tribute there to the king they really had to work and they had to come up with quite a bit and it's kind of a neat the way he spread it around so that it was just put on each person one month of the year but he was living large and anybody that came by him was taken care of and it was the nation of israel that had to take care of that for him now that's the request right back in second chronicles chapter 10 israel's request for relief so what was his response to this request let's read about that here's here's the response the first response we see from king rehoboam verse 5 and he said unto them come again unto me after three days and the people departed and king rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before solomon his father while he yet lived saying what counsel give ye me to return answer to this people and they spake unto him saying if thou be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them they will be thy servants forever but he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him that stood before him and he said unto them what advice give ye that you that we may return answer to this people which have spoken to me saying ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us and the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him saying thus shalt thou say or answer the people that spake unto thee saying thy father made our yoke heavy but make thou it somewhat lighter for us thus shalt thou say unto them my little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins for whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you i will put more to your yoke your father chastised you with whips but i will chastise you with scorpions continue reading so jeroboam and all the people came to rehoboam on the third day as the king bade saying come again unto me on the third day and the king answered them roughly and king rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men and answered them after the advice of the young men saying my father made your yoke heavy but i will add there too my father chastised you with whips but i will chastise you with scorpions so the king hearkened not unto the people for the cause was of god that the lord might perform his word which he spake by the hand of ahijah the shilonite to jeroboam the son of nebat when all israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them on and on we'll catch that in a little bit now what's his response here what's the response to israel's request for relief he refused the counsel of the old men and you noticed in verse number six these were the old men that stood before solomon his father and the counsel man can you not imagine that these guys standing before solomon as his
[12:08] counselors yet probably receiving more counsel from solomon than they ever gave him these guys i would imagine had to be some wise men old men experienced men they they stood and heard the king's wisdom in these in their day and now they have the privilege to counsel his son in the same place yet he refused the counsel of the old men and chose some other counsel he chose counsel that we read sorry about the mic there that we read my little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins my father chastised you with whips but i would chastise you with scorpions i want to ask the question what kind of counsel is that or rather what kind of response is that to a people that came to him humbly saying will you take it a little bit easier on us and then he says no i'm going to make it that much harder on you what kind of image is he promoting as the king when i hear him talk like that i feel like this guy just doesn't know what he's doing at all and i feel more than just being confused i feel like there's pressure on him and he feels pressure i gotta be somebody david was this solomon was this i'm not even close to those men in character in ability but there's but i'm gonna i'm just gonna do this i'm gonna step out and stick my neck out and i'm gonna be rough i'm gonna show him i'm hard i'm gonna show him i'm tough i'm gonna i think he felt pressure i really do obviously he's taken advice from people that have never been in leadership the young men that stood before him or came up with him they've never been in leadership to come off with such a stupid thing as that i'm gonna be harder than you've ever seen scorpions so rehoboam chose the wrong counsel that's his response refuse the counsel of the old men and by the way these young men that well they're not young anymore but they were called the young men which were brought up with him that stood before him these guys were raised in the same kingdom he was they were raised under solomon as well they knew the word of god they were trained in sacrifice at the temple and they knew how to do those things these guys weren't some wicked heathen that just escaped from the land of the philistines and found their way into the throne now these guys knew where they were and who they were they were brought up in church too they were young men that grew up in church if i could keep the analogy and so rehoboam chose this counsel probably because he liked it i think this counsel spoke to his heart spoke to his pride spoke to his personal ambition to be somebody he also not just refused the counsel of the old man he refused the counsel of his father his father laid out the scriptures and there's plenty of advice and and commands for him as the son to seek wisdom and to seek instruction and and whose advice that he should avoid and whose advice he should attain unto and he refused all of that counsel as well that he would have had from his father solomon so what's the first lesson we can draw out of this very first portion of the passage here the very first lesson first thing i want to say is this is that parents like solomon and even david parents can only take you so far they can only take you so far in their home and in the church but ultimately the individual's walk with god has got to become personal it has to be their walk with god your mom and dad can only take you as far as they can take you they cannot force you to walk with god they can try to force you to do right they can try to train you to do right they can try to be an example of how to do right but they can't force it they can't cram it down your throat and make you swallow it can they
[16:09] parents can only take their children so far it won't the the will of god won't just magically start happening when they get out of the house when they're on their own it won't appear the moment they leave home because they have a free will and their free will shows up and their free will is to exercise their choosing choices and desires according to their heart and what they see decide and the truth is about kids just like it is about rehoboam is they got to seek god with their heart and parents it's our job to train them it's our job to be example to them it's our job to do what's right whatever god says regardless of anybody else but you can only take your kids so far solomon could only take his kids so far and he could even set him up with the truth he could set him up with wise counselors surrounding him but he just can't get him in his departure to do what's right rehoboam has to choose to walk with god himself now move a little bit further into the passage and the second thing i want us to see beyond israel's request for relief and then his response let's notice israel's rebellion against their ruler he's their ruler yet they rebel verse 16 through 19 and when all israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them the people answered the king saying what portion have we in david and we have none inheritance in the son of jesse every man to your tents o israel and now david see to thine own house so all israel went to their tents but as for the children of israel that dwelt in the cities of judah rehoboam reigned over them then king rehoboam sent hedoram that was over the tribute the children of israel stoned him with stones that he died but king rehoboam made speed to get up to get him up to his chariot to flee to jerusalem and israel rebelled against the house of david unto this day so the second thing to close the chapter here is israel's rebellion against their ruler and they got pretty serious pretty fast so that now even the king himself is not safe unless he's back there in judah in his kingdom now what's his response going to be to this what's the response of the king going to be to this blowing up in his face to them rebelling to them stoning a man that he sent to them what's he going to do they're undermining his authority i told you i think he felt pressure i think he's still feeling pressure to be strong he's the king all the eyes of israel are on him all the eyes of judah now for sure are on him and he can see the kingdom that his grandfather and father they built and and ruled over and prosperity and peace and just see it just falling apart crumbling slipping away out of his hand what's a man to do can you sense the pressure that's on his heart right now israel rebels against him what's he going to do well what does he do he responds just like he did chapter 10 he responds roughly he responds tough and aggressive notice verse number one of the next chapter chapter 11 and when rehoboam was come to jerusalem he gathered of the house of judah and benjamin and hundred and four score thousand chosen men which were warriors to fight against israel that he might bring the kingdom again to rehoboam while that kingdom is slipping away he's concerned i've got to make a move i've got to show myself strong i'm going to make them obey me and so i'm going to go out and fight him he assembles an army maybe i don't even know if he was feeling i'm going to make them obey me but he was definitely had his back against the wall pushed into a corner and as king on a throne with all eyes on him had to do something either way he tried to fix the problem that he faced with force he didn't go to prayer he didn't go to counsel he didn't seek for wisdom of the lord he just tried to do it with force they rebelled against me get the army ready draw your swords we're going to war how do you think
[20:17] that would have this didn't happen but how do you think that would have ended because god had already told us in the previous chapter that it was of him what's taking place here now let's learn a lesson by this right away here because this was the wrong response and you'll see that here pretty close quickly um i believe there's a lesson we can pull out of this just as much often our first response our first reaction is the wrong one it may it's definitely not the best one that's for sure uh hasty response to pressure or perceived pressure or even very present pressure hasty response rarely relieves the tension or relieves the strain of the situation it's just it is human nature sinful human nature to respond to just to react first thing gut feeling go don't think about it but how often does that actually react turn out to be right even if it's not terribly wrong how often is it the best choice when you respond quickly now know this this king is ignorantly going against the lord's working we saw that in chapter 10 verse 15 look at it in chapter 11 and verse number four they'll say at the lord you shall not go up nor fight against your brethren return every man to his house for this thing is done of me this thing's done of me earlier it says for the cause was of god that the lord might perform his word which he spake by his prophet so ignorantly this king rehobe is going against the lord's working and he's never going to be successful if he goes against the lord's working his response is against god he doesn't even know it but it's the first response if he would have prayed if he would have sought the lord or sought some counsel said okay here's the situation what should i do i don't know if anybody would have said you better go fight against those 10 tribes and against jeroboam who's a killer they probably would have talked him out of it but he's going against it and think so the best reaction here would have been a slow and patient approach praying seeking god to know how to proceed it's a good lesson we can learn quickly here from this man this king and his reaction is that the the initial reaction the reaction of pride and of arrogance is the wrong one and the slow methodical one of prayer is the one that's going to be successful now moving through chapter 11 let's catch a few more things here the third thing i see in this outline is god's rebuke of his reaction god rebukes the way the king reacted to this rebellion and verse number two notice this but the word of the lord came to shemaiah the man of god saying speak unto rehoboam the son of solomon king of judah and to all israel in judah and benjamin saying thus saith the lord ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren return every man to his house for this thing is done of me and they obeyed the words of the lord returned from going against jeroboam god's rebuke to his reaction saying ye shall not go he shall not go up and then he said return this is probably the best thing that could have happened to him right here is for god to send a preacher to intervene in a thing he was about to do and a reaction that he was making it was the wrong one and he didn't even know it he just felt the pressure i have to do this and he felt pressure perhaps from his peers he probably felt embarrassed he lost a good portion of this kingdom they're rebelling against him i'm going to be the king what's the king supposed to do go out to battle show him who's the boss and it was wrong and thank god he can thank god for the rest of his life the lord god sent a preacher to intervene and stop him and to steer him away from
[24:21] the thing he was about to do which would have been the death of him i wouldn't doubt god intervenes through a preacher this is god's rebuke of his reaction uh possibly i said this would have been the death of him and that verse says but the word of the lord came but the word of the lord and thank god i don't know where you are with this book but i can stand in front of you and honestly say i thank god for the word of the lord and for how it has intervened in my life with crossroads with decisions where i'm going to make and by the grace of god he sent the word of the lord the word of lord came to a preacher and gave me some good advice and some good direction and i didn't go down that road which i didn't realize was going to be to my demise and the word of the lord showed up here in rehoboam's life and he answered he responded right he obeyed the word of the lord and he returned and god today still intervenes he still intervenes with the word of the lord he still intervenes with preachers preaching the words of god and he does it because men are so often to respond to situations in the wrong way they're so often quick to respond to situations in life without seeking god without praying about it without saying lord what's the truth here what what do you want me to do in this situation or with my life and at the crossroads the word of the lord shows up if you want it the word of the lord's there and what a blessing god rebuked his reaction and kept him from making a mess in his life he was reacting to pressure and he had foolish decisions that were going to incur some real consequences not just for himself but for so many others and thank god the word of the lord verse two but the word of the lord came right on time right before he made a mess right before he got engaged he had already assembled the army gathered them together he was serious he was about to do something and thank god the word of the lord came to steer him away from it you get a lesson out of that one you can get a lesson um but let's let's see something with this though because he made the response right what's his response to the word of lord he could have rejected this the preacher the word of god he had a choice and at the end of verse four we read it they obeyed the words of the lord and returned from going against jeroboam so rehoboam made the right choice the best choice he could have made he did a 180 and headed back home with the army and decided we're not going now he may have looked like a fool in front of his army he may have looked like a coward to some of the rulers i don't know but one thing he knew was that the word of the lord told me don't do it and he made the best choice he's made up to nothing good in chapter 10 the best choice yet the best reaction response we've seen yet was he obeyed the words of the lord and returned from going against jeroboam this this decision here through the rest of the chapter ends up leading to some more good decisions it it's uh his response to his embarrassment of losing the kingdom and the rebellion his response to the loss he obeyed the word of the lord and it turned out to be probably the best thing he's ever done what he does now going forward is he turns his attention not to what he lost but he turns his attention to what he has and to what god has given him and i kind of see him as kind of owning this now and saying you know what if this is of the lord then i'm not going to fight against god he gave the kingdom to david he gave it to solomon but he's only given this much to me and so what he does is he
[28:27] turns his focus on what god has given him to do and this is the first sign of wisdom of this man there's something in him look at verse 5 rehoboam dwelt in jerusalem and built cities for defense in judah he dwelt in jerusalem exactly where he belongs he built cities for defense what a great idea it lists all the cities that he put his time and effort into his kingdom what god had given him and decided i'm not going to waste my time i'm not going to cry over spilled milk i'm not going to complain and say that i deserve that and try to come up with another plan i'm going to go up and get this and steal it back instead he just turned his heart this is the best response yet and he's showing that there is something inside of him and let's quick let's learn a lesson before we go past this any further about the word of the lord coming to him and keeping him from making a decision god is faithful to send his word to keep you and i from harming ourselves from making mistakes and from consequences from reaping from the things that we don't have to sow and because he'll do this because he's faithful in sending his word one of the best things you can ever do is instill the truth in your children and put it in them as deep as you can because they may disappoint and they may refuse instruction they may like rehoboam choose folly and we've seen it happen all too often but instilling the truth inside of them it could be the very thing that saves them and keeps them from some major trouble or from worse decisions or it can even deliver them later on we'll see this when they fail to do right because rehoboam here understood that he needs to obey the word of the lord when it shows up directly in his face other times it was just writings and scrolls this time it's the preacher saying you son this is of god don't do it he could have either just said some you know how some kings reacted to that get him out of here put him in prison put him in ward some kings some preachers had that or had kings deal like that with them but rehoboam saw him and said this is a man of god this is a message of god to me he had it instilled in him to obey the word of god later in chapter 12 he messes up and he ends up repenting and god sees his remorse and he he humbles himself and says the lord's righteous and the lord sees him humble himself and he says hey i'm not going to destroy him i was going to now i'm going to deliver him give him somewhat of deliverance so what i see is that rehoboam had the truth instilled in him and god's faithful to send his word to that second and third generation christian just be sure that you instill the truth in them so that they can then heed the word of god when the pressure comes on now let's move through this one more point here uh to close out this chapter i would try to anyway uh chapter 11 we have him dwelling in jerusalem in verse 5 and building cities for defense in judah the list of the cities there and then verse 11 he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them and store a victual and oil and wine and in every several city he put shields and spears and made them exceeding strong having judah and benjamin on his side and now i'm going to notice by way the outline of this chapter the results of his right response there's a resurgence in his well realm there's there's repairs there's reform and i think we'll see a little bit later there's even revival there's something that takes place here because he decides to do what's right so he's building cities we saw that for defense he's fortifying the strongholds he may not
[32:27] be the ruler over 12 tribes anymore but he sure is making some good moves now he sure is prospering because he put his heart to what god has put him over he's not trying to reach out beyond his realm there's a lesson in that as well but this is a great response of his to turn his heart and to go toward working and and just improving and fortifying and strengthening his kingdom it's the opposite of the way he was early being hard being aggressive making sure that they're all subjection to him now he's trying to build it up this man took rebuke from the preacher which shows humility he obeyed god obedience that's another big thing and then he went and got to work he went and got to work and got focused on what he's supposed to be doing as the king and improving his land and that shows responsibility and that shows wisdom and like i said then about this guy already there's there is starting to squeak through there's something in this guy after all he wasn't a total loser and a total fool he he showed that he's not quite his father or grandfather but i think some truth has gotten put inside of him and it's starting to show up he doesn't have the talent he doesn't have the leadership skills he's prone to sin perhaps but because the truth's in him he can still make some good decisions and god can still bless him and god does bless him as a matter of fact verse 13 says and the priests and the levites that were in all israel resorted to him out of all their coasts now the reason is given in the next few verses up in the northern tribes jeroboam got scared and said hey if the if the people go down to jerusalem to worship then they're going to turn their hearts away from me as their king and they're going to follow rehoboam again and so i'm going to make gods up here and he completely just overlooked what god had set up for not just the place to worship the methods of worship he put golden calves up there and dan and bethel and you can read that back in i think it's first kings it's probably 12 first kings 12 at the end um yeah first kings 12 and so he's he's afraid of that happening so what happens the priest the real men of god leave they say we are not sticking around we'll read it here verse 14 the levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to judah in jerusalem for jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office under the lord and he ordained him priest for the high places and for the devils and for the calves which he had made and after them out of all the tribes of israel such as set their hearts to seek the lord god of israel came to jerusalem that is after the levites after them more than just the levites and the priests verse 13 the priests and the levites after them more than just them anybody that wanted god said we're out of here and they left israel from the north of the reign of jeroboam and traveled south to get underneath the leadership of rehoboam after them out of all the tribes of israel such as set their hearts to seek the lord god of israel came to jerusalem to sacrifice unto the lord god of their fathers notice in verse 17 so they strengthened the kingdom of judah and made rehoboam the son of solomon strong three years so what a difference here now finishing up this point here they attract or he attracted those who feared god godly men that were looking to serve the lord were happy to hear that rehoboam is doing it right rehoboam's living for god he's walking in the ways of david and solomon and that's interesting to me when when the powerful and the popular men are separating from rehoboam and rebelling against him and establishing their own kingdom and bringing everybody together to them the holy and the spiritual men were flocking to him
[36:34] because he chose to do what was right that's interesting to me the powerful man jeroboam they fetched him out of egypt hey solomon's dead get back up here and be our leader and he showed up and said rehoboam what's it going to be and rehoboam told him what it was and he was ready to all right no more of that so they all followed jeroboam but rehoboam made a good choice to obey the word of god and to start doing what was right in his realm and here comes godly men just one after another showing up into jerusalem men that feared the lord what i think is happening here is he's now being surrounded by priests and by holy men and by men that have set their hearts to seek god surely this has impacted the environment surely it's in fact impacted his town his church so to speak because he chose to do what was right now he strengthened the kingdom they made rehoboam strong in addition to his military i believe spiritually speaking they were strengthened and coming to the end of the chapter i'm not going to read the rest of the chapter but uh he's making something out of his reign he's he's growing his family now the lord is blessing him in verse 23 he said he dealt wisely and dispersed all of his children throughout all the countries of judah and benjamin under every every fenced city this guy his his spreading his his spreading his own uh children his own family out around the kingdom and just solidifying everything under his name what a wise move what a king he's really showing something here the results of him responding right is a resurgence in his realm of a lot more than just fortifying some cities but a revival of godliness back into this area where it could have been gone for good all because he responded to the words of god because he didn't give in to the pressure to be somebody and god blessed him greatly now we'll stop here and then next week your lord willow will continue to see how he responded to the blessings how he responded to things going well for him finally for the first time ever and things are good people are coming to him god's blessing him now what's he going to do and then we're going to see he's got a few more steps to his life here and we can believe i believe we can learn a few more lessons by the responses of this man you