The Assessment of Rehoboam

[0:00] 1 Kings chapter 14. 1 Kings, you need a small sheet and a big sheet, and we'll tell you the big sheet will be self-explanatory, and hopefully it'll help you a little bit in understanding where we're at in the timeline of the kings, as we're going to talk about once we get past Rehoboam and Jeroboam, it gets to flipping through the kings pretty quick sometimes, but if you found, go ahead and turn over there to 1 Kings chapter 12, or excuse me, chapter 14 here tonight, and get into the right place here, all right, because as we saw last time, the northern kingdom had cast aside everything about their heritage to be like the nations that God had commanded them to drive out of the land, and it was off, it's probably a telemarketer too, and that's even worse, how are you voting on the election?

[0:58] Yep, now that we get that out of the way, we can move on, all right, back to where we were here, you know, we just finished up last time talking about Jeroboam, and it says he's had, Lord had taken him, and we know that God had declared that his lineage would be completely removed, including all his male descendants, would not be buried upon their death, I mean, we saw those things in that, and we know that only one son would die and be buried, and that was when his mom returned home that that son would die, and we saw that Jeroboam's reign ended after 22 years when God struck him, the Bible tells us, and that was recorded there in 2 Chronicles chapter 13, and we're going to look tonight, because here in chapter 1 Kings 14, we find that God tells us about Jeroboam's conclusion, and then he gives us an assessment of Rehoboam, and so we're going to look at this tonight, at the assessment of Rehoboam, because Rehoboam's reign was five years shorter, and only 17 years, and we find here the assessment for this, we're going to find here at the end of 1 Kings chapter 14, also 2 Chronicles chapter 12, and you know, as you think through, as God records the kings, and the things that they said, and the things that they did, and both the good and the bad, have you ever asked yourself, if God was to write something about your life, what would be written? You know, that's a question we sometimes need to ask ourselves, if God was giving us an assessment, because we read through these, and you look at it and say, well, I wouldn't be like that person, or maybe I know I would be like that person, you know, but the reality is, is we do need to ask ourselves, where would we be, what would be written about our life, just as these men have their lives written about?

[3:03] You know, because we know how to be concerned, just as they were, about what God would say, you know, what would it say about you, and how would God assess us as an individual, you know? And so I want to always keep that in mind as you read through these, you know, just what can we learn, what can we assess, what can we do that will benefit us to be different, understanding that God is, in fact, keeping tabs on us, as you might say. The Bible tells us that God does pay attention to what we do.

[3:39] It may not be recorded in the scripture where everybody else can read it, but God is keeping account. And so we need to keep that in mind as we move forward here, and we see here as God gives these assessments of what they did, and with all that God had given them, you know, we saw last time that Jeroboam squandered an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with God. You know, we saw the reality of what happened in the destruction, how God had done all the things there with Jeroboam, but now tonight we're going to look at Rehoboam, who was brought up in the king's house under the influence of the wisest man. So if you look here on your sheet here, we're still right up here at the top of the sheet.

[4:26] You got Rehoboam for the kings of Judah, and on the other side you got the kings of Israel. We talked last week about the conclusion of Jeroboam's kingdom, and so we're at Rehoboam, and so we're going to begin next week. We'll begin moving through these a little quicker on a few of the kings as they go through, as you'll notice, some of them didn't have very long reigns, you know. They were very short, and we're going to look at why that was and what took place, but you know, when we think about Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, if you consider all the advantages that he had, I mean, think of all the things that were given to him. He was raised up in the king's house. He had exceeding wealth.

[5:10] He had exceeding training and information. He had the words written for him that his father had written. Solomon, you know, you think about all the things contained in the book of Proverbs, it wasn't a lack of information that he had. It wasn't a lack of resources that he had. You ever notice that some people make excuses because, well, I didn't have all the resources, or I didn't have this, or I didn't have that?

[5:39] I want you to understand whether you have those things or not doesn't matter what you do with God. This is a prime example of what happens when you squander what God has given you.

[5:55] Because, yes, we can squander the things that God has given to us, and Rehoboam is a great example of that, and so he had the advantages, but he neglected those advantages. And so we're going to begin first looking here at the course of Rehoboam, you know, the course that his life took here in our outline there. Number one, the course of Rehoboam. And, you know, Rehoboam grew up in a time of great blessing.

[6:21] I mean, if you think about it, he was 41 years old when he assumed the throne. That tells us his dad, Solomon, reigned for how many years? 40 years. Okay, somebody's awake.

[6:32] So if he's 41, he was one years old when his dad, Solomon, began to reign. In other words, his whole life grew up under the building of the temple, the building of Solomon's palace. He saw all the people that came from afar to see his father, to hear his wisdom. He saw all those things.

[6:57] He had all these things at his disposal. It was in the greatest influence. He had the wealth and power and influence, and people would travel just to hear his father. And the wisdom of Solomon is said to exceed any other. You know, here Rehoboam even had things that his dad wrote to him. You know, look over the book of Proverbs for a moment. Keep your finger there, our marker in 1 Kings. But just consider, because as you read, as oftentimes as we read Proverbs, we don't think, we kind of think about it generic. But as we read this to start tonight, I want you to think about this as Solomon may have been writing this very directly to Rehoboam. And what he said, look here in Proverbs chapter 2, look at verse 1. It says this, My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to knowledge, or excuse me, to understanding.

[7:56] Yea, if thou criest after knowledge and lifted up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. I mean, you think about this, some of the instruction that Rehoboam grew up with. He had all these things, and he had the education and all the things, but he chose a direction he was going to go. And we're going to look at some of the things that I believe caused some of the problems in his life, because the Bible gives us a dictate into his heart that reflects what part of the problem was and can be our problem today. And so we're going to read through this and look at this, because as we understand here, look at 1 Kings chapter 14, look down at verse 21. It says, In Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of

[9:00] Israel to put his name there. And his mother's name was Namah the Ammonitess. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which they had committed above all that their fathers had done. And they also built them high places and images and groves on the very high hill and under every green tree. And there was also sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. So we see here that as Rehoboam took charge, things didn't improve over the course of time. They began to demoralize, and the morality of the nation turned from God. You know, even though he had maturity and experience that he should have been prepared to lead. I mean, you consider at 41 years old, you should be an adult, you know? You think of all the preparation he had. He wasn't like some of the kings we're going to talk about as we go through this list. I mean, you can cut a lot of slack to somebody, oh, you're king, you're eight years old. You know, I don't know about you, but I can cut him a little more slack on some things than somebody that's 41. Why? Because he grew up, he was mature, he understood even what his responsibilities were going to be, because we knew even here tonight, I want you to know that, if you remember, Rehoboam took over from his father, there wasn't even a contest. Everybody expected him to do it. He was the one that was chosen. He didn't get thrown into it. He was prepared and grown up for it.

[10:36] He was supposed to be prepared for it, and though he had all the wisdom at his disposal, he was not wise in his decisions because he didn't promote the things of God. He didn't listen to the Lord, and we find that the Shema, the prophet, was sent to him. And we're going to see here and understand that he tells him these things, because at the beginning, even though his heart was not totally to God, he wasn't against God. And we're going to look tonight, one of the problems that we're going to find with Rehoboam is he had a lukewarm heart towards God. He wasn't against God, but he wasn't really with God either. He was hanging out in the middle trying to make both sides happy. Because he had a respect for God, because when Shema the prophet came back in 1 Kings chapter 12, and when he got ready to go and was getting his men ready to go, try to take back the kingdom from Jeroboam at the time that it divided, the prophet came and told him, hey, the Lord, thus saith the Lord, you shall not go up nor fight against your brother and the children of Israel.

[11:43] And he listened. It tells you he had a respect, and they hearkened unto the word of the Lord, the Bible tells us. And we find here, even with all this, he allowed the ungodly influence in life to direct his path. You know, look over into 2 Chronicles chapter 12, because remember, as we go through the Kings, the Chronicles and the Kings run parallel to one another.

[12:08] And you have two different views. The Kings, as we read through here in the book of Kings, you're going to find that oftentimes this is man's image of what's happening, and Chronicles gives us oftentimes God's perspective, God's analysis of what's happening at the same time, which gives us kind of an interesting overlay of somebody's life. And so we're going to see here in 2 Chronicles chapter 12, notice what it says, and it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. And so we see the course that he chose was to forsake the very things that God had told him. It's not that he lacked knowledge, because we know he knew what he should do. He had the resources to accomplish what he should do.

[13:06] He even had the authority to do what he ought to do, but yet he made a choice. The course that he took was counter to the things of God. And we see this play out in the places of worship. Notice what he allowed here in 1 Kings chapter 14. Notice what it tells us here in verse 21. It says this, or excuse me, verse 22. It says, and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which he had committed above all that their fathers had done.

[13:40] And they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. You know, the places of worship when the, you know, we realized as we talked last time about Jeroboam, they blatantly just kicked all the priests and the Levites out of the Northern Kingdom. I mean, they basically said, God, we are done with you. Here's Rehoboam says, oh yeah, you guys come in and, and then we're going to do something. We're going to allow these other things also. Because at the beginning of Rehoboam's reign, we find that Judah kind of had a small revival.

[14:16] And that was from all the priests and the Levites, remember, moved out of Israel, the Northern tribes into Judah and Benjamin. They had kind of a revival of things of God at this point. And at the beginning and, and the worship of the Lord continued in the temple and, but yet they didn't do anything about the influence of the false gods that continued to take hold. The people would worship the Lord in Jerusalem only to go outside of Jerusalem and pay homage to Baal and Ashtoreth on the groves and in, in the places that they would, would rise up. We find here that it says he built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. In other words, they said the people would have an intermix. You know, when our heart is not fixed on God, it allows things to intermix. And our lives begin to intermix with things that they ought not intermix with as a child of God. And here in verse 22, notice what it says, and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. You know, they did evil in the sight of the Lord. And that evil that Judah did was dividing their loyalty to God.

[15:27] Because you'll see the next phrase that says God was jealous. Now this is important to grab a hold of because jealousy is not necessarily a bad thing. Let's do a case in point. There's some things you ought to be jealous about because you've made a commitment. A husband and wife ought to be jealous towards one another in the right sense to say, Hey, your love belongs one direction. There's a jealousy that comes from that. That's a good godly jealousy. And you say, why was God jealous? Well, that's a good question because really when we understand what's happening here, the children of Israel had been commanded to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.

[16:08] They'd been told to do that. Remember, Jesus talked about that, didn't he? But what they had done is tried to mix other beliefs, try to blend things together. They tried to do those things that would provoke the Lord to jealousy. You know, Webster's Dictionary of 1828 says this, it says, Jealousy is suspicious of what we do not enjoy the affections or respect of others, or that other is more loved or respected than ourselves. In other words, there's a problem with the affection causes jealousy. A problem that is there, you know, look back in the Old Testament, go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 24. Who's got that one tonight? We got some yawners. We'll get everybody engaged here. Deuteronomy 4, 24. You got that one, Lou?

[17:09] Yeah. So did they know that God was jealous about these things? That God was serious about it? Because consider what God had commanded them. Who's got Exodus 20 verses 3 through 6 for me? Exodus 20, you got that Ethan for me?

[17:23] Thou shalt not bow down, thou shalt not make unto thee any praise and hummus, for any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in earth and earth, or that is in the water under the earth, the earth. Thou shalt not bow down with the flesh to them, nor a servant, for I am so in the Lord, my God, but jealous of them, and this is in the iniquity of the father of the common children unto the third and fourth generation of God in that kingdom, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep him. Okay, so what had God commanded Israel? That he was to be the only one that they were to worship. But we see here that their places and the dynamic that they were doing caused a perversion of their worship. There's a perversion of the worship happening. It's called syncretism. And what they were doing was taking all these elements of worship and trying to mix them together. Syncretism is still something that happens today because it's simply this, combining different beliefs and schools of thought, merging and assimilating them into one. Judah did something different than the northern tribes of Israel. The northern tribes just blatantly said, God, get out. The tribes of Judah said, God, you can stay, but we're going to add to you. That's a problem. When we understand what's happening here, that Judah, instead of rejecting God, blended the false gods in with their worship. They built the high places. They put out the images.

[18:54] Remember Exodus 20 told us what? Not to do what? Not to make any graven image. It gives a whole list of things that you shouldn't make an image of. It lays all that out. And the groves, and they, verse 24, we find the other perversion, they allowed a practice of the people of the land to continue.

[19:16] It says that there were sodomites in the land. Now this term here, I want you to understand the perversion that's happening here because as they talk about this, that they were, these were males that were available for pagan worship. In other words, they were male prostitutes hanging out around the groves so people that came could have something to do their worship. That's what he's talking about.

[19:42] The term here is one for one that is devoted to idolatry, and that was to be available in the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. You know, Deuteronomy 23 and verse 17, before the children of Israel went into the land, God commanded them this, he says, there shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. God was very clear with them about what was supposed to be.

[20:10] But they made a choice of what they were going to do. The problem was they had not totally forsaken the Lord. Instead, they worshiped and mixed it together. That was a problem in the Old Testament. Go to the New Testament for a moment.

[20:25] You know, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 for a moment. Because today, oftentimes, you have people doing the exact same thing. They'll come to church on Sunday.

[20:36] They might even come on Wednesday, but they want to do their own thing the other days. They set up their own things that they want to do. Notice what it says here in 1 Corinthians 10, down in verse 21.

[20:48] It says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

[21:01] When we mix things together, it causes God to be jealous of those that He's redeemed. Just because you're saved doesn't mean you can't do some things that cause a hindrance in your walk with God.

[21:13] Because we can say with our mouth that we love God and do something different, can't we? We see this being played out before us. You know, their perversion of worship.

[21:24] The course of Rehoboam is the course of many today. We've been given so much by having access to the truth, but we begin to forsake it and not blend it properly.

[21:37] You know, we try to blend righteousness and unrighteousness, the world with the things of God. We've got to always be careful of that process and where that is and where those things come together.

[21:49] Because what it brings is something that God still puts on His children today, and that's called chastisement. And so we're going to look at the chastisement that God did to Rehoboam and the children of Israel.

[22:01] Because that's what's recorded for us here. Look at verse 25 here in our text here tonight. It says, And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shushak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasure of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and he even took away all, and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made, and the king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields and committed them under the hand of the chief of the guard which kept the door of the king's house.

[22:35] And it was so when the king went into the house of the Lord that the guard bare them and brought them back into the guard chamber. You know, we're going to see here the chastisement.

[22:45] God brings the king of Egypt up in through the land. God allows Egypt to come back up. You know, they'd been put down by David.

[22:59] They were in subjection to the kingdom, and now they're coming up and they're going to try to take over. They come marching through the land. The Bible tells us over in 2 Chronicles, or excuse me, 2 Chronicles chapter 12, where we find this, you'll find that he came up with quite an army.

[23:23] It says that Ashishak came with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, along with uncounted foot soldiers.

[23:35] It said there were so many they didn't even have count on them. And he comes up through the land, conquering the cities. You know, take a look over there in 2 Chronicles for a moment, because we're going to look a little bit at this from this other perspective.

[23:50] Because remember, God's given us a different perspective of what's happening. Because have you ever noticed, you can try to judge something from the outside. But God says he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.

[24:05] Chronicles does some of that. You might say the kings is the outside, and Chronicles talks about some things going on on the inside, of what was happening in a kind of different perspective. Notice here in 2 Chronicles chapter 12, look down at verse 2.

[24:19] It says, And it came to pass that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because what? They had transgressed against the Lord. King says they did evil.

[24:33] Chronicles says they transgressed. Now I want you to understand, when you do evil, you transgress against the Lord. Evil is what we see here. Transgression is what we've committed against God.

[24:46] And we see this coming out here, and it tells us that they're on the outskirts of Jerusalem. We find here that God tells us in 1 Kings there that he paid him tribute of things of the temple, and all the golden shields that Solomon had around.

[25:03] And he gave them unto him to go away. Basically tribute, and we're put into subjection. But we need to find out why. Well, 2 Chronicles 12 tells us the why. It tells us what was happening.

[25:15] It tells us why God did what he did here. And we see here, the Lord had stirred him up to chastise them for the sins of Rehoboam and of Judah. And we find the reason for that.

[25:27] Look down in verse 5 of 2 Chronicles 12. Well, it says, And they're here on the outskirts of the city. Then came Shema the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, and they gathered together to Jerusalem unto Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

[25:54] Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. I want you to see what happens here.

[26:05] They've been committing sin against God, doing evil, and God sends the Egyptians up with a great army. They're on the outskirts of the city, and God sends the prophet to come say, God has allowed this to happen because of your sin.

[26:23] Now, something very important happens here. They humbled themselves. But I want you to see how they humbled themselves because that's important. Because they didn't just say, Lord, we're wrong. They said, Lord, you're righteous.

[26:36] In other words, Lord, we're wrong, and you're right. That's a little different. Sometimes it's easy to say, Well, I was wrong, but not really. I'll just say that, you know. When their declaration is, Lord, you're righteous, that was an attitude of the heart that said, Hey, it has impacted us to the very core, and we're serious.

[26:55] Lord, you're right. We haven't been doing what we ought to do. We've done evil in your sight. You know, the interesting thing you find, whenever somebody is truly humble before the Lord and honest with God, God has mercy.

[27:07] That's the one thing God, if you want to get God's attention, that's how you get God's attention. A humble and contrite spirit before God will matter more than anything else.

[27:22] Read Psalm 51. As David repents of his sin, it reveals to us that very same factor. That attitude, and God says that God was merciful.

[27:36] Notice in verse 7, it says this, And the Lord saw that they humbled themselves. The word of the Lord came to Shema, saying, They have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

[27:58] Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house.

[28:15] And he took all and carried also away the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Now we see here as God is declaring that God saw that they what? They humbled themselves.

[28:27] How do they do that? By saying, God, we're wrong. And you're definitely right. We need to have a change of direction. You know, we have another term for that. That's called repentance. Recognizing what God, that God is right in his assessment.

[28:42] Nevertheless, there was still a result of the evil they had done before the Lord. You know, some people get an idea today that, well, if I just confess to God, God will just erase everything down here on earth.

[28:57] I want you to understand this establishes a very important biblical principle. You can be forgiven before God and will not hold account in eternity because you've trusted him.

[29:09] But down here on earth, God doesn't remove the penalties of our sin that come out physically. He may help you walk through it mercifully, but he doesn't just take them away. Have you ever noticed people sometimes come to God, well, why didn't God just take it all away?

[29:23] Well, no, you messed up. You know, there's some accountability that has to take place. Just because God has forgiven you doesn't remove the accountability. It's good to be right with God, but it doesn't remove the accountability here.

[29:38] You know, because you think about this for a moment, you know, I know none of you would ever speed, but imagine getting a big speeding ticket and they call you into court and you stand before the judge and you tell the judge, I was wrong for speeding.

[29:55] I've even asked God to forgive me and God has forgiven me for doing that. What's the judge going to do? He said, that's very good, but for right now you're still getting what? You're still getting a fine. Why?

[30:05] Because the choices we make carry consequences in the present. Those consequences will play out. Now God may negate some of the consequences. What did they deserve?

[30:16] They deserved to be conquered and God had mercy and said, hey, we're just going to have them under servitude to the Egyptians that they would remember those things and we find here that God takes and says, you're going to give them tribute.

[30:32] One of the things we see here that's interesting is you'll find that he took 300 shields that Solomon had made and if you go back and read about these shields, these 300 shields that Solomon had made were each pounded out of three pounds of gold.

[30:49] They were gold shields that Solomon had displayed around. Now you consider this is where Rehoboam grew up. People would enter into around Solomon they had 300 gold shields hanging on the walls.

[31:06] I mean, I don't even imagine the look of what that would look like to see all that but it was a sign of power and authority that Solomon his father had and God takes that all away.

[31:18] Takes the things from the house of God and we could think through some of that. Why did God allow the things to be removed from his house? Because one of the things that was happening is the priests weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing either.

[31:30] They lived on the giving into the temple. God was getting their attention too. You say, well why would God allow those things to be taken? You know what? The things we give to God, God's not worried about. I'll just put it this way.

[31:42] God doesn't need your money. You ought to give to God because you love him. Ought to be because of who he is and what he's done for you. But of itself, God's going to accomplish his task without your money.

[31:54] Because you remember Jesus said one thing about our money. Where our treasure is there, our heart is also. Now remember, what are we dealing with here? We're dealing with Rehoboam's heart.

[32:05] There's a connection between your pocketbook and your heart. There's not a doubt upon it. And we find that these shields were replaced with brass shields that were polished to shine like the gold ones.

[32:16] You know, it's kind of, that's a whole different study to get into there of what was going on. Rehoboam was trying to still put on a show but there wasn't near the glory had departed. But notice here, look down at verse 12 of chapter 12 there, 2 Chronicles.

[32:31] And it says, when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord was turned from him and he would not destroy him altogether. And also in Judah things went well. You know?

[32:43] But I want you to understand as we talk about this that turning to or back to the Lord not only affects your life but it affects the lives of others also.

[32:56] It'll impact others around you. You know? Today, if you're his child, you can expect the Lord to do the same. The Bible says that we call upon him as Savior that we became a child of God.

[33:10] Contrary to the popular belief that everybody's a child of God, that's not what God's Word says. It says you're born into his family and that happens at the moment that you trust Christ as your Savior.

[33:26] It's a new birth. Born into his family, you become his child. You become joint heirs with Christ. We could cover a lot of territory with that.

[33:38] But I want you to understand as his child. And remember, Judah was the place that God had chosen. He had called Israel out as his people.

[33:50] They were supposed to be his children so what does God do? He chastises them. He corrects them. As a child of God, you can expect the same thing from God. Look over into Hebrews chapter 12 for a moment.

[34:01] Hebrews chapter 12, look down at verse 5. It tells us this, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise thou not the chastening of the Lord and thou faint when thou art rebuked of him.

[34:16] For whom the Lord loveth, he what? Chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons.

[34:27] For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? That verse carries a lot of implications too. If you're openly sinning and you're not feeling any problem and God's not chasing you, you need to do some checking because there's some problem here.

[34:41] But notice what Job says. Job 5, verse 17, tells us this, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise thou not the chastening of the Almighty.

[34:52] For he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth and his hands make whole. You know? When we understand what's taking upon and what God is doing, and this all took place here in Rehoboam's fifth year.

[35:08] Now remember, he reigned 17, so from this point we have 12 years that are going to get covered very quietly, you might say. Very little said about it. We have very little information about the remaining 12 years, but we do know that while things went well, because that's what it says, that in Israel things went well.

[35:24] In other words, life was decent. Things were prosperous and beneficial. And we know that there was still this constant conflict that continued between the throne of Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

[35:41] And so we find here the conclusion of Rehoboam. You know? We look back here in 1 Kings chapter 14 here. Look down in verse 29.

[35:52] It says, Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.

[36:02] And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name was Namah and Abinaitis. And Abijah, his son, reigned in his stead.

[36:15] You know? We find here that the conclusion of Rehoboam's life and his reign can also be summed up in a statement that we find over in 2 Chronicles again.

[36:26] Look over at 2 Chronicles chapter 12. I encourage you to think on this verse the rest of the week. Pretty simple verse. But it's a good verse for us to think about. Look here down at chapter 12, verse 14.

[36:39] If you want something to meditate on, this is a statement about Rehoboam. It says, And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. That's something to think about, isn't it? He did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

[36:55] By default, if you're not seeking God, you're going away from God. Rehoboam, I want you to understand, did not cast the Lord off, but we could say that Rehoboam was like this. He was a religious man that didn't apply the truth of God's word to his life nor seek the Lord's guidance.

[37:12] He was religious in action but not in heart. Look over to Matthew chapter 15 for a moment. Matthew chapter 15. Look down at verse 8. Jesus here is dealing with some individuals with the same problem in the New Testament.

[37:27] It says this, And this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips. But notice that last statement, their heart is what? Far from me.

[37:40] That's another way of saying exactly what the description of Rehoboam was. He did evil because he did not prepare to seek the Lord. His heart was turned, you know, Proverbs chapter 4.

[37:54] Look at Proverbs chapter 4 in verse 23. It tells us this. It says, Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. How you prepare your heart to seek the Lord will affect what you do.

[38:07] You cannot disconnect. We find here that Rehoboam died at 58 years old and was buried in Jerusalem alongside his father and grandfather. It's interesting here as we go through the kings that oftentimes their mothers are mentioned.

[38:23] It says his mother was Namah the Ammonist. I want you to understand and we're going to see this play out a little later that as an Ammonite woman she would have worshipped Baal.

[38:33] Where did Rehoboam get influenced? What happened to his dad Solomon? His wives turned his heart away from God. Rehoboam had all the right upbringing and all the things and benefits to his account but his heart didn't seek to follow God.

[38:50] We'll see that even the influence of moms and parents are going to be important as we look at the kings as it goes up through. Because remember we have a responsibility not only to ourselves but those that come after.

[39:03] We'll end on this verse. We'll go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 9 says this only take heed to who?

[39:16] Thyself. And keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen unless they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life but teach thy sons and thy sons sons.

[39:32] You know we don't want to forget the things in our heart that God has done for us. That's the reason that we need to always know that we need to prepare our heart to seek the Lord.

[39:44] Important thoughts as we consider lessons we can learn from the kings.