WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.580 In the mess that is the world that we live in today, will God really bring about His purposes? 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:18.800 ! As we look around, we see that the world is a broken, fallen, and deeply unjust and unrighteous place. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:25.699 And we have in our hearts a longing for a better world. And we wonder, what is God up to? 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:43.100 In the church, where people are broken, fallen, and sinful, will God bring about His redemptive purposes? 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:55.039 The church is not as it ought to be, globally or locally. Some of us, some of you, have experienced 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:06.060 hurt from unrighteous churches and sinful leaders. Some of you have wandered from church because you've 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:15.259 seen the sinful acts of others. Others of you have stayed, but you know that this church is not perfect, 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:26.359 nor will any church be perfect. And you wonder, how can God work in a broken, fallen church? 00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:35.380 Chronicles, surprisingly, has things to say to us about this. If you were not here last week, 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:41.120 we are starting a series in the book of 2 Chronicles, and we are going to focus on the 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:48.560 second part of 2 Chronicles, starting in chapter 10. And so, if you'd like to, and I would recommend 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:54.920 this particularly this morning, pull out your Bibles and turn to 2 Chronicles 10. In the Pew Bibles, 00:01:54.920 --> 00:02:02.320 it's page 340. And if you have not had a chance to hear Pastor Nick's sermon from last week about 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:08.280 2 Chronicles, or the overview of actually 1 and 2 Chronicles, which was written as one book, 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:15.319 I highly recommend it. It will give you lots of fodder and some framework. But remember that the book of 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:26.680 Chronicles was written to remind the people of God that though there was great sin in the nation of Israel 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:32.099 and the consequences of exile because of it, God was faithful. 00:02:32.099 --> 00:02:42.780 God was faithful to His purposes, faithful to His promises, and faithful to His people. As we've titled 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:53.359 this series, it's an old story looking back for a new day. Now, some of us may be unfamiliar with the 00:02:53.359 --> 00:03:00.479 big arc of the Old Testament history. So, here it is in 30 seconds, right? Genesis chapter 12 is Abraham. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:06.399 God calls one man and says, I'm going to make you the father of a great nation, right? So, his descendants 00:03:06.399 --> 00:03:12.419 then become a great nation. They end up in Egypt in slavery, and God raises up Moses in Exodus 00:03:12.419 --> 00:03:17.659 to deliver this people and to bring them to the brink of the promised land, Israel-Palestine, 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:24.139 where they're meant to settle and to be God's people in this world. Now, there's a lot of stuff that happens 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:30.059 between Moses and then this other guy named David. Basically, there's a lot of muddling around, and then 00:03:30.059 --> 00:03:37.259 finally the people ask for a king, and after a false start with a guy named Saul, then God raises up David 00:03:37.259 --> 00:03:46.060 to be the first anointed king of the nation of Israel. And David establishes the kingdom. He establishes worship 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:54.319 of God. David is a flawed man, but God uses him to be the first king, and God makes a covenant with him, 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:00.840 a promise, and he says, David, I'm going to make your throne be a throne that will last forever, 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:07.460 and your descendants will sit on that throne forever. And so, then David gets to the end of his life, 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:15.360 and his son Solomon takes the throne, and he even expands his kingdom. But Solomon, like David, is also flawed. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:24.960 And where we get to at the narrative story in 1 and 2 Chronicles is the end of Solomon's reign, 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:31.259 and what happens next. And so, in 2 Chronicles 9 31, it says, 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:38.480 And Solomon slept with his fathers, was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:47.200 reigned in his place. So, this is where we are in the sweep of history, and we're going to be looking 00:04:47.200 --> 00:04:55.040 at the reign of Rehoboam today. And like his fathers, he is flawed, and he sins spectacularly. 00:04:56.080 --> 00:05:01.780 He is also a good king at times who seeks the Lord and does good and is blessed by him. 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:11.059 What do we think of all of this? How do we read Rehoboam's story for profit for us today? 00:05:12.419 --> 00:05:21.059 Well, here's the big idea for our sermon today. God's redemptive plan is certain despite the 00:05:21.059 --> 00:05:26.599 wavering hearts of his people. Okay, we're going to look at this in three movements. If you're a musician, 00:05:26.919 --> 00:05:31.500 here are the three movements. The first movement is Rehoboam's wandering heart. We're going to look 00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:37.639 at what Rehoboam actually did. Secondly, we're going to look at God and God's redemptive, that God's 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:43.199 redemption is certain even through the wavering. And then third, we're going to look at how this 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:49.100 points us to Jesus, a sure redeemer king. So, there's your outline if you're an outline taker. 00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:58.899 And here we go. You ready? Buckle your seatbelts. Rehoboam was the king after Solomon in the nation 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:05.859 of Israel. In chapter 10, here's the outline. We're not going to read the whole story. We'd be here till 00:06:05.859 --> 00:06:11.859 noon just reading the whole thing. So, we're going to give you some highlights. I'll read some verses. 00:06:11.859 --> 00:06:18.179 They'll also be on the screens, but you can look through. In chapter 10, Rehoboam rises to the throne 00:06:18.179 --> 00:06:25.139 and the people gather to crown him as king. But what they say is, hey, Rehoboam, your father 00:06:25.139 --> 00:06:31.620 levied really high taxes and forced people into works for the building of the temple. 00:06:32.099 --> 00:06:36.099 Can you lighten the load? Can you make it a little bit easier? 00:06:38.099 --> 00:06:42.979 And Rehoboam takes counsel. First, he takes counsel with Solomon's advisors, the older men. 00:06:43.139 --> 00:06:48.399 And then he takes counsels with the younger men. And he agrees with the younger men on their counsel. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.599 And so, he goes back to the people. And this is what he says, 2 Chronicles 10, 13 and 14. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:07:01.359 And the king answered them harshly. And forsaking the counsel of the old men, King Rehoboam spoke to 00:07:01.359 --> 00:07:07.199 them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:14.879 add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. Now, this does not 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:20.319 mean he had a box of scorpions that he then like let loose on them. A scorpion was more like a flail or 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:26.000 a flog, which would be a more severe whipping. Just so you're wondering why he uses that term. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:34.000 So, Rehoboam, right out of the start, what does he do? He says, I'm going to be a harsher king than my 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:42.639 father to you. And he doesn't listen to wise counsel. And so, you see in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 10, 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:48.159 And the response, when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered 00:07:48.159 --> 00:07:54.800 the king, What portion have we with David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Each of you to 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:02.240 your own tents, Israel. Look now to your own house, David. So, all of Israel went to the tents, but Rehoboam 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.759 reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:18.800 The outcome of this was the divided kingdom, right? The failure of the king to be a wise leader and a 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:25.120 gracious and thoughtful ruler to provide for his people ended up with the kingdom of David and 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:32.319 Solomon divided into two. The northern kingdom, which was ruled by a guy named Jeroboam. And this is not the 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:36.480 focus of Chronicles. So, you'll see his name, but you won't read his story. You can go to Kings, 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:44.240 lots about Jeroboam in the books of Kings. But the northern kingdom was made up of 10 of the 12 tribes 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:52.080 of Israel who were the descendants of, if you remember, their 12 sons of Jacob. And they created, 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:56.640 basically, it's a little tricky, but they created the 12 tribes of Israel. 10 of them were in the 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:03.759 northern kingdom and rebelled against Rehoboam and created their own kingdom with their own worship. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:10.399 And then the southern kingdom just had two tribes, the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of Judah, and the 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:17.279 place Jerusalem where God had made the center of the city. And this is the focus of the book of 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:25.039 Chronicles is that line through the southern kingdom and the line of David. Now, okay, I've got to do this 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:30.000 excursus now. I'm sorry. We're going, we're giving you a lot of background information right up front. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:38.240 When the Bible says the word Israel, what is it talking about? Well, it's confusing, particularly 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:45.279 in this period. Usually Israel broadly will talk about all of the descendants of Abraham, 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:51.839 those who believe in the God Yahweh who revealed himself to Moses and to Abraham and to David, 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:58.160 and all of this. But when you get to these, you see that it actually has, it's used in different times 00:09:58.160 --> 00:10:07.120 in different ways. Sometimes it is used, Israel, to describe only the northern kingdom as opposed to, 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:13.120 and they use the phrase, Judah for the southern kingdom. This is particularly true in Kings where 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:21.040 you see this pattern much more clearly. In Chronicles though, it's not so clear. So if you look in verse 17 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:28.799 of chapter 10, you will see that it says, it refers to Israel as the southern kingdom tribes, 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:34.959 the people under Rehoboam. But if you go to chapter 11, verse 1, you'll see that Israel describes 00:10:34.959 --> 00:10:42.639 only the northern kingdom, those who followed Jeroboam, not Rehoboam. I know it's confusing. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:49.360 Hang with me. You're going to get this over time. And so, and sometimes the writer of Chronicles 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:55.600 will use the term all of Israel because he's, one of the themes that he has is that even though the 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:00.639 kingdom is going to be divided from here on out, there is still a sense where the people of God are 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:09.279 one and that God's purposes are going to be ultimately inclusive of people from all 12 tribes. And when we 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:16.399 get to Jesus, all peoples of the earth. So, when you read Israel, you have to ask yourself, 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:22.159 what Israel is it being talked about here? And usually context will help you. And a study Bible 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:29.199 can be helpful if context doesn't. Okay. That's chapter 10. We still got two chapters to go. Good 00:11:29.199 --> 00:11:34.480 heavens. How are we ever going to get through this? I'm going to keep going. Chapters 11 and 12, we see 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:40.159 Rehoboam as a king. He has good and bad actions. There are times when he listens to the prophets. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:44.719 His first thought after the people rebel is, well, I'm going to go get them back. So, I'm going to make, 00:11:44.719 --> 00:11:50.159 raise an army and conquer them and bring them back in forcibly. And God sends a prophet and says, 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:56.559 don't do this. Don't go to war against your own people. Don't initiate this and try to control this. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:10.879 And so, we see that Rehoboam listens to the prophet and he doesn't go to war and this blesses him. And 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:15.119 so, they have some peace. And during this peace, he does good things. He builds fortified cities. 00:12:15.119 --> 00:12:22.399 The Levites, who were the people who serve in the temple, come to him, not just from the southern 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:27.919 kingdoms where they would normally be expected, but those who were a part of the northern kingdom 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:34.399 tribes, Levites who had lived among them, are coming out of that northern kingdom, forsaking even 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:42.399 their land and their privilege to come to Jerusalem so that they can maintain their role in the proper 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:52.159 worship of God. What a blessing. It's amazing what God does. And so, you see in verse… in chapter 11, 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:59.120 verse 16 and 17, it says this, and those who had set their hearts… these are the Levites… those who 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:05.519 had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:12.159 Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:19.439 and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon. So, there's a cost to this foolishness, 00:13:19.439 --> 00:13:26.480 to this abandonment because they become basically like a vassal state of Egypt for a while. Yet still, 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:34.000 God preserves Jerusalem and he preserves the line of Rehoboam. And so, you get in chapter 12, 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:40.799 verses 12 through 16, this… and when he humbled himself, the wrath of God turned from him, 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:49.120 so as not to make complete destruction. Moreover, conditions were good in Judah. So, King Rehoboam grew 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:56.079 strong in Jerusalem and reigned. And then it goes on and gives some more information. And it says, 00:13:56.079 --> 00:14:00.719 it's not all peachy keen at the end. There was continual warfare between the north and south. 00:14:01.599 --> 00:14:06.959 And it doesn't explain that. It just says, oh, by the way, that continues. And then… and then 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:15.519 Rehoboam dies. And so, what are we to make of this guy? What are we to think about it? One of the 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:22.720 approaches we might want to have is, well, how is Rehoboam an example for us? Right? And so, 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:28.720 we might think that he's an example because he… because in his example, either his good or bad, 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:33.680 we learn some things like it's good to listen to wise counsel, particularly of older people. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:41.599 There it is. The Bible said so. Proverbs will confirm that. So, think about that. Be careful 00:14:41.599 --> 00:14:48.959 when you prosper not to abandon God. Make God's words through the prophets in his day, through the 00:14:48.959 --> 00:14:57.439 Bible in ours, the defining rule for how we act and how we live. We should prioritize the right worship 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:03.840 of God to make central in our lives. These are good biblical principles. And we can look at the story 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:10.080 of Rehoboam and say, oh, well, we should be more like that. We see these patterns of blessing for 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:17.200 obedience and consequences for sin that, again, continue throughout. And at the heart of it, we think, 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:23.120 when Rehoboam sought God with all of his heart, things went well. And when he abandoned God, 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:34.159 things didn't. But is this really the point? I think it's part of it. I think these are worthwhile 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:38.879 lessons. And because they're corroborated from other parts of Scripture, it's worthwhile. But I think 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:46.159 that because of his mixed record, we're not meant to see him as a hero or a villain. The outworking of 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:53.759 God's people and God's purposes is messy. It's in the mix of this king who does bad and good that God is 00:15:53.759 --> 00:16:01.279 doing his things. And remember that the audience of the book of 1 and 2 Chronicles are people after 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:06.959 the exile where they've seen the worst of the consequences for sin. And they're wondering, 00:16:06.959 --> 00:16:12.639 how could God… what is God doing now? As they've come back to Jerusalem, they built this puny little 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:18.960 temple that had nothing to look like Solomon's. And they're wondering, is God still at work here? 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:28.960 And that's the message that I think is here, is that God is doing this through flawed people. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:37.279 Just like David was a flawed man who sinned recklessly and heinously, and yet God used him to 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:46.240 establish the kingdom. The same thing is true of Rehoboam. And friends, today in our era, we need to see 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:56.799 God is still working through his church, even when it still sometimes sins recklessly and heinously. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:04.799 Now, let me… hear me right. The church should never ever excuse its sin. We should never say, 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:10.639 well, God can use anybody, so I can do whatever I want and it doesn't matter. As church leaders, 00:17:10.639 --> 00:17:17.519 we are accountable to God. And we were meant… called to display him rightly by the way that we 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:24.639 as leaders. And then by way… we as a church, how we represent God to the world. And we are always 00:17:24.639 --> 00:17:30.960 called to, as we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. But we 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:37.200 also need to recognize that the Bible tells us that we will never achieve that perfection, and that though 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:43.360 we should strive for it and hold one another to it, there is also a principle of grace at work, 00:17:43.360 --> 00:17:53.519 that God works through imperfect people. Think about this. He raised up David. Jesus called 12 disciples, 00:17:53.519 --> 00:18:02.559 one of whom abandoned him before the end of his life, right? In the church, should we be surprised by this? 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:14.480 No. We must be careful that we don't demand a kind of perfection that God doesn't in the church. While 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:23.599 he still calls us to be a light of the world, those who represent truth and love and justice and righteousness 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:33.039 in the world. God is at work through the messiness of the church. And our job is to keep seeking God 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:42.319 and to set a heart on him and trust that he will continue to refine and use even imperfect people through us. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:50.559 Now, I have said this, but it's very clear in the text that this is what the chronicler wanted us to see as well. 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:57.359 There are a few key verses that show us that God's redemptive plan is still certain despite Rehoboam's 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:04.879 ups and downs. So, for instance, 2 Chronicles chapter 10 verse 15 says this, 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:15.840 So, the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the 00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:24.320 Lord might fulfill his word which he spoke by Abijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:32.720 Now, there's history here. If you went back to 1 Kings chapter 11, you would see that this guy, 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:38.799 Ahijah, is called by God and he goes to this man Jeroboam before he's anything and he says, 00:19:39.600 --> 00:19:44.799 and he takes a piece of cloth and he tears it up into 12 pieces. And he says, this is what God is 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:52.400 going to do to the kingdom of Solomon, the kingdom of David. And he said, and to you will be given 10 of 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:59.360 these and to the other guy he'll get 2. And so, this is something that God predicted would happen 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:05.599 through his prophets. He said it would happen. And when it does happen, it is in the phrase, 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:18.719 a turn of affairs brought about by God. Now, Rehoboam acted foolishly and he reaped consequences for it. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:28.079 And yet, God was at work in the middle of it. The divided kingdom was a part of God's sovereign plan 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:33.759 and mercy. Now, Rehoboam should never pat himself on the back and say, oh, do you see how God used my 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:42.799 sin? How wonderful is that? But we should see God at work in the middle of it. Why do we think God did 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:48.319 this? I don't know. We'll keep wrestling through this as we wrestle with 2 Chronicles. But I think 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:54.559 maybe part of it is that it's presenting from the very start that the king and the kingdom that we 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:00.559 really wanted was never going to come fully through David. It was never going to come through Solomon. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:06.720 But it might come through a son of David. And we'll get to that in just a minute. Right? 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:14.640 Now, we see in other places, in 2 Chronicles chapter 11, verses 3 and 4, we see a similar thing 00:21:15.360 --> 00:21:19.920 where, again, this is where Rehoboam wanted to take his army up to invade the northern kingdom. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:25.600 And God sends another prophet, a different guy, who says, say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, 00:21:25.600 --> 00:21:31.680 king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, thus says the Lord, you shall not go up 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:38.400 or fight against your relatives. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:45.840 So they listened to the word of the Lord and returned and did not go up, did not go against 00:21:45.840 --> 00:21:55.920 Jeroboam. Again, we see that God intervenes and says, this division is of me. Right? And how unlikely 00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:01.600 would it be? Because we think this is David's kingdom. This is the pinnacle. This is the high point of the 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:06.559 the whole Old Testament is the establishment of the glory of the kingdom of David and Solomon. 00:22:07.919 --> 00:22:15.439 And yet, now God is rending it apart. Why would that be? It doesn't make any sense to us. How could 00:22:15.439 --> 00:22:21.439 God's glory be seen in a divided kingdom? How could his people worship rightly when they're divided? 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:30.480 Now, remember that the writer of 2 Chronicles was writing to a post-exilic. They weren't writing at the 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:37.599 time of Rehoboam's sin and thinking, how do we get this back together? They had seen the whole history 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:43.920 that we'll look at in the next couple of months. They will see the whole sordid decline of God's 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:50.720 people and their faithfulness to the point where God says, I'm going to send you into exile and tear 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:58.000 down the temple and destroy Jerusalem. The people who are hearing this word are coming back from that. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:08.960 And God is reminding them, even in the sin, even in the division, I still have my plans. And he's saying 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:15.200 to the people in the post-exilic time, I have my plans for you. I am not done with you. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:26.400 So we see this in a number of places in this text where it's very explicit where God says, 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:32.240 I am in this, even though it doesn't make sense. And the final place where we see God saying, 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:39.519 I am in this, is in the final summary explanation of what are we to think of Rehoboam, right? Because 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:46.960 you get to the end and it says, Rehoboam did not seek after the Lord. He did evil in the sight of God. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:53.920 So in the good king, bad king's channel that we have sometimes, he lands in the bad king channel, 00:23:53.920 --> 00:24:04.720 right? That's the ultimate. And yet, when you look at verse 17, I lost it in my notes. I'm just going to 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:12.079 look at it. It says, and Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Abijah, 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:17.680 his son, reigned in his place. And we might think about that, okay, so they just buried him in Jerusalem, 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:27.759 big deal. But no, this is a reminder. The promise to David is the key to understanding this. And the line of David 00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:35.039 is the key to understanding this. And Rehoboam, though he failed spectacularly, God preserved his line. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:40.799 If you look at the history of the northern kingdom, the kingdoms don't, their lines don't last more than 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.759 three or four generations. They're broken over and over again. But in the southern kingdom, the line of 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:57.200 David continues all the way down to the exile and beyond. The line of David continues. And the writer of 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:05.440 Chronicles wanted us to see that because Rehoboam was buried in the city of David, and his son reigned on the throne. 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:13.599 God had not abandoned his people. God was still at work. He was still faithful to his promises. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:20.159 You know, it's fascinating to think, if you read a Hebrew Bible, Chronicles is the last book of the Bible. 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:26.799 It is actually, the way they arrange it is different than we do it in our English Bibles, because we put 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:32.319 this at the end of the historical books. But it actually is put typically at the end of the Hebrew 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:40.480 Bible, because it sets up how is God going to go forward from the post-exilic area? What is God up to 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:46.160 from there? And friends, if you read our English Bibles, and you turn to the next page, 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:54.559 you know what it would be? It would be the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. And it would be a 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:59.599 genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:10.480 And God put this together for us so that we could see how faithful He is, that God is our Redeemer King, 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:18.240 in that Jesus is our Redeemer King, the Sure One, the One who would never fail, the One who never wavered. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:26.880 In Jesus, God made a way for sinful, wavering people like us to be His people forever. 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:35.759 We who have hearts like Jeroboam, who don't always seek the Lord, we who bear the heavy yoke of slavery, 00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:44.480 not just of human oppression, but of our own sinfulness. We who have abandoned God so easily when 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:54.960 things are good. Jesus comes to redeem us. He is the King who always set His heart to seek the Lord, 00:26:54.960 --> 00:27:01.519 who said, I have come to do your will, O God, according to the book of Hebrews, and who said in 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:11.519 the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will, but your will be done. He is a King who takes on the yoke of 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:18.879 oppression of our sin when He goes to the cross. He bears the punishment and the wrath of God against 00:27:18.879 --> 00:27:30.000 our sin in His own body when He dies. He is the King who was abandoned by God and who cried out from 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.480 the cross, my God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:47.039 He was abandoned so that we who abandoned God so easily could be brought back, that we could be forgiven. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:50.160 Friend, this is the King. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:28:01.200 This is the one that 2 Chronicles 10 through 12 points us to when we ask the question, what is God up to? 00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:09.519 And just like Chronicles looked back to the earlier history to say, what is God up to to help us now? 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:17.519 So we as the church do the same thing. We look back to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:25.920 so that we know who are we and what are we supposed to be doing now? And where is this going? Because we do 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:36.720 live in a fallen world. And Lord have mercy on us. The church needs His refining work. And yet God is still 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:47.360 at work redeeming people for His praise through His King, the perfect King, Jesus. Let's pray together. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:58.160 Lord, we do as we look at this passage, we recognize, 00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:05.680 Lord, how confusing it can be to understand Your will and Your ways. 00:29:07.840 --> 00:29:16.240 But things become clear as well. Lord, have mercy on us because we are a wandering, a wayward, 00:29:17.040 --> 00:29:27.040 a sinful, rebellious people. And Lord, we need Your grace and Your power and Your redemption and Your Spirit 00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:35.360 Lord, to turn our hearts from all the selfish things that we do to set our heart on You. 00:29:37.360 --> 00:29:45.440 Oh, Lord, will You help us today to do that, to repent of our sin and to turn to You 00:29:46.560 --> 00:29:54.400 and to find in Jesus the great King and Savior, the redemption beyond all redemptions that we most long 00:29:54.400 --> 00:30:00.480 for and most need. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.