Rehoboam

LIFE LESSONS
REHOBOAM
DR. JIM DIXON
1 KINGS 11:42-12:11
AUGUST 10, 2003

The Latin words, “E Pluribus Unum” are inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson chose those Latin words, “E Pluribus Unum” for the Great Seal. Since 1873, by law, those words must be on one side of every coin minted in the United States of America. Those words, “E Pluribus Unum” mean, “out of many, one out of many.” Those words express the American dream, that we might have unity in the midst of our diversity, that out of many states we would be one nation; that out of many races we would be one people; that we would truly be “one nation under God, indivisible.”

But of course, it is hard sometimes to hold a nation together. That’s what Abraham Lincoln discovered, and of course during the Civil War, this nation virtually split in two. We can look at history and see that there have been many nations that have divided into two. One of those nations historically was Israel. It was in the 10th century before Christ when Israel divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah. Israel divided forever.

How did that happen? It happened because of one man, the man we’re going to focus on this morning, a man named Rehoboam. We have two life lessons this morning and they’re really two teachings concerning Rehoboam. First of all, Rehoboam had a false philosophy of leadership. God doesn’t want you to make the same mistake. He had a false philosophy of leadership.

Throughout history, there have been twelve queens and kings, twelve rulers who have attained the title, “The Great.” Some of these people were given the title while they yet lived. Others were given the title posthumously but all of these twelve were given the title, “The Great.” In the 6th century before Christ there was Cyrus the Great who ruled the Medo-Persian Empire. In the 4th century before Christ, Alexander the Great who ruled the Greek world and expanded its borders. In the 1st century before Christ there was Herod the Great, the Governor of Galilee, the Tetrarch of Judea, the builder of cities and palaces. In the 4th century A.D., there came Constantine the Great. It was Constantine who shifted the epicenter of the Roman world from the city of Rome to the city of Byzantium, which was renamed after him, Constantinople. In the 7th and 8th century A.D., there was Charles the Great or Charlemagne. Of course, he was the greatest ruler of the Middle Ages. He ruled most of Western Europe. He was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in the year 800.

In the 9th century A.D., there came Alfred the Great, King of England and champion of Christian causes. In the 10th century there came Otto the Great who was Otto I, the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire although some historians would trace the Holy Roman Emperor back to Charlemagne. In the 15th century there came Ivan the Great who was Ivan III. It was Ivan who united Russia, united the Russian people and delivered them from the Tartars. In the 17th and 18th centuries there came Louis the Great, the Grand Monarch, the Sun King, Louis XIV. He ruled France for 72 years, longer than any other European monarch. He built the Palace of Versailles, taxing his people into poverty.

In those same centuries, in the 17th and 18th centuries, there came Peter the Great. It was Peter the Great who made Russia a world power. Of course, in the 18th century, there came Frederick the Great who was Frederick II. He was the King of Prussia and he was called by historians, “The Father of the Enlightenment.” For years Voltaire lived at his court. Then finally there was Catherine the Great, a German princess who became the Empress of Russia. She ruled late into the 18th century, and those are the twelve. Those are the twelve that history has called “Great.” Of course, they were called great because they conquered kingdoms or expanded territories or cultivated the arts or ruled for vast periods of time, but they were deemed great in the sight of the world. And yet I think it is safe to say, I believe it is a fair assessment to include that this modern world has been less impacted by those twelve than by the twelve disciples because there are 2 billion Christians on the earth today, one-third of the earth’s population. Judeo-Christian values have infused cultures all over the world. But, you see, the world really doesn’t understand what it means to be great. The world doesn’t get it.

So, we come to Mark, chapter 10, and our Lord Jesus Christ explains greatness to us. We’re told that Jesus and His disciples were on the way to Jerusalem. Two of the disciples, James and John, sons of Zebedee whom Jesus called Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder” or “Sons of Energy.” Perhaps he was referring to their volatile temper. We don’t know, but they came to Him, James and John. They came to Jesus and they said, “Master, we want whatever we ask of You for You to give it to us.” What an interesting way to phrase their request. “We want whatever we ask of You. We want you to give it to us.”

Have you ever had people come up to you and say, “Will you do me a favor?” Don’t you normally say, “Well, what is it?” I mean, do you usually respond by just saying “Yes?” Don’t you usually say, “‘Well, what is it?” That’s how Jesus responded. He says, “What is it you’re asking of Me?” James and John said, “Well, grant that we can sit, one at your right and one at your left when You come into your glory, when You come into your kingdom, when You come into your power. Grant that we might be the next two most powerful people in your kingdom.” They sought greatness. Jesus told them that He could not grant their request, that those positions were reserved for “whom they had been prepared.”

The disciples began to grumble amongst themselves. The positions had been prepared for somebody, maybe for one of them. Or who were those positions reserved for? Who were they reserved for? They began to have this big debate about who was the greatest. That’s when Jesus took the disciples aside, so disappointed in them. He said, “You know how the rulers of the gentiles, the rulers of the nations, love to lord it over their people. You know how their great men loved to exercise authority over their people. It shall not be this way with you. He who would be the greatest amongst you must be the servant of all. He who would be the first must be the slave of all. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but rather to serve and to give His life, a ransom for many.” The message is pretty clear, isn’t it? In the sight of Christ, in the sight of God, what’s greatness? Service. Pretty simple. If you want to be great, serve. Be the servant of all. If you would be great in the sight of God, be the servant of all.

Now, we come to King Rehoboam, King of Israel. He was living in a very dangerous time, reigning in a very dangerous time. His father Solomon had died, and the people were disgruntled because Solomon had taxed the people. He had imposed forced labor upon many of the people. The people were dissatisfied. They come with their champion, Jeroboam who had fled from Solomon, and they come to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. They say, “Listen, your father made our yoke heavy. If you’ll lighten the hard service and the heavy yoke, we will serve you.” He should have just said, “Yes,” but he said, “Depart for three days and come again to me. I need to think about this.”

Then he takes counsel and he takes counsel with the old men who stood before Solomon, his father. He said to them, “What should I do? What do you advise me?” The old men said, “If you will be a servant to your people, to this people this day, and serve them, they will be your servants forever.” What an incredible principal of wisdom. “If you will serve this people, if you will be a servant leader, if you will have a servant’s heart, they will serve you.”

But we’re told that Rehoboam forsook the counsel the old men gave him. He had a false understanding of leadership. He really thought the people existed to serve him. That’s what Rehoboam thought. He thought the people existed to serve him, not realizing that in the sight of God he existed to serve the people. Whatever you do… This is the life lesson… Whatever you do, you’re called to serve. All of you are leaders in some sense. It may be in the business world. It might just be at home with your children. But you all have leadership roles. People don’t exist to serve you. People don’t exist to serve me. We exist to serve others. This is what Jesus has so clearly taught us. We exist to serve others.

You look in the Bible and you see that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all called servants. You see that Moses and Joshua were called servants. All the prophets were called servants. You come to the New Testament and you see how the disciples were called servants. Paul took the title servant. James, the brother of Christ, took the title servant. Jude took the title servant. In fact, they took the title Doulos which means, “slave.” There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. The whole Roman economic system was predicated upon the reality of slavery. It was a despicable word and yet Christians took this word and they embraced it because they understood that greatness is service. So, they all took the title servant.

You see the Greek words for servant the word “Doulos” which means, “slave,” and you see the word “huperete” which means, “under rower, the slaves who pull the oars in the Roman galleys.” Then there’s the word, “latria” which referred to the “servants in the temple and the tabernacle.” Then the word, “diakonos” which is the word from which we get the word “deacon,” but it refers to any kind of service, table servants, any kind of servants. All four of these Greek words are used again and again and again in the Bible to describe the call of Christians because we’re called to be servants. “Have this mind in you,” it says in Philippians 2, “which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched but He emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant.”

We’re told in John that Jesus girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. When He was done washing their feet, He said, “Do you realize what I’ve done for you? You call Me ‘Master and Lord’ and so, I am. If I, then, your Master and Lord have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another’s feet? I’ve given you an example that you should follow in My steps.” Servants. Servant heartedness. We’re called to be servants. That’s what it means to be great. We need to wake up every morning and remember that, that we’re called to be servants.

Secondly and finally, Rehoboam not only had a false philosophy of leadership, but Rehoboam took false counsel. This was huge. After he rejected the counsel the old men gave him, he sought counsel, the Bible tells us, with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. In every royal court in the ancient world, there were counselors. For instance, in Babylon at the time of the Babylonian Empire, they brought the best and the finest from all over the world to be trained as counselors in the court. King Nebuchadnezzar brought the finest youth from all of the conquered countries to his court to be trained as counselors. They were trained in the wisdom of the time. This was true in all the royal courts. The court in Israel was no different.

As Rehoboam grew up in the house of Solomon, the heir apparent, there were all these young men who grew up with him. They probably just “kissed up” to him: They just said whatever they thought he wanted to hear. He rejects the counsel of the old men and goes to these young men. He asks what they advise to answer these people who have said to us, “Lighten the yoke your father put upon us.” The young men who grew up with him said, “Thus, you shall speak to these people. My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.” What a macho statement. “Inasmuch as my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips and I will chastise you with scorpions.”

So, you see, the old men had counseled Rehoboam to show a little heart; it’s time to show some heart. The young men come in and say, “It’s time to flex some muscle.” It couldn’t have been a worse time to flex your muscles. It couldn’t have been a worse time to show some muscle. It couldn’t have been a worse time to flex your muscles. It couldn’t have been a worse time to show some muscle because the people were already on the very brink of rebellion, and then Rehoboam makes the yoke harder and heavier, and so, it splits Israel. The ten northern tribes rebel and they form their own Kingdom of the North and they call is Israel. Rehoboam is left only with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the capital city of Jerusalem, and he rules only the Southern Kingdom, all because he took bad counsel.

There are good counselors in this world and there are bad counselors. Good advisors and bad advisors. I don’t know where you get your advice. You might go to a friend. You might seek advice from the old or the young. You might read books for advice. You might read advice columnists. You might go to a counselor or a therapist. Even if you go to a counselor or a therapist, there are good counselors and there are bad.

In the year 1886, the American people were introduced to Coca Cola. They were introduced to Coca Cola. Initially Coca Cola was marketed as a headache remedy but after a period of time it became a soft drink and it was marketed as the “pause that refreshes.” The cola was called Coca because it contained cocaine. By the year 1909, I know this is hard to believe, there were 69 different companies in the United States of America producing products similar to Coca Cola. There were 69 different soft drink producers, and they all contained cocaine. All of them contained cocaine. Medical doctors across the nation began to notice that they had a problem. They began to notice massive addiction to cocaine across America. People were beginning to experience hallucinations. Some people were imagining that spiders and snakes were crawling on their skin. Some people were having full-blown cocaine psychosis, experiencing massive breaks with reality.

In the year 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed and cocaine became illegal in the United States of America. We can ask ourselves, “Well, how could it have happened that cocaine was marketed all across America?” Most historians trace it back to 1884. In 1884, a very influential paper was published by a respected medical doctor in Europe. That paper ultimately influenced America. The paper was called “Uber Coca.” It was written by this respected medical doctor, and this doctor claimed that cocaine was kind of a miracle drug, that it could cure you of arthritis, it could cure you of allergies, and it could cure you of asthma. It was such a miracle drug that it could even cure you of alcohol addiction and all other drug addictions. It had the ability to give health to those who take it and to make you robust. It could even enhance your personality. It could ward off clinical depression. It was good for stomach disorders. If you were cowardly, it could make your courageous. If you were shy and withdrawn, it could make you more extroverted and even eloquent. That’s what this report published in Europe in 1884 said.

The medical doctor who wrote the report used cocaine. He took it orally and he took it intravenously. He gave cocaine to his patients. Of course, I think many of you know that medical doctor’s name was Sigmund Freud. I don’t know what you think of psychoanalysis. I don’t know what you think of Freud’s theories of the id and the ego and the super ego. Or what you think of his view of human sexuality or repressed memories. Or what you think of his view of the unconscious. I do know this. Sigmund Freud had a lot of problems. Remember this. Every counselor has problems. Every therapist you go to has problems because they’re people, and the human race is fallen.

I love the words of Vernon Grounds who’s President Emeritus at Denver Seminary and a great friend of our church. Vernon said that “counselors are at best unhealed healers.” At worst, they’re probably wounded wounders. There are those who wound people while being wounded themselves. Certainly, all counselors, even the best are unhealed, and yet they offer some healing.

Of course, it’s not easy to be a counselor. It’s a hard calling. I think it’s not easy to be a counselee.
It’s not easy being a counselor. It’s not easy being a counselee, right? I think most counselors, if they were honest with you, and I’m not sure they all would be, every once in a while kind of zone out. This is true of Christian counselors as well as secular counselors. It’s true of pastoral counselors.

Through the years I’ve done a lot of counseling, particularly in the early days of our church when I did all of our counseling. Sometimes I would have a long day with just counseling appointments stacked one after another after another. I will confess to you that just for brief moments, I would just kind of like zone out. I can remember a couple of occasions where the person would say to me, “So, what do you think I should do?” It would just kind of wake me up, and I would just realize that for maybe just a minute or two I was just zoned out. I would try to recover. I’d say, “What do you think you should do?” I would see if I could figure it out a little bit, but every counselor will admit to you, if they’re honest, they’ve had some moments like that. Don’t you, when you go to somebody for counselor advice, don’t you want to know they’re listening? You want to know they’re listening, and you want to know they care. Right? They’re listening, they care, and they have some storehouse of wisdom.

I want us as we conclude this morning to remember that the Wonderful Counselor is Jesus Christ. That’s what He’s called is Isaiah, chapter 9, “Pele Yoez.” “The Wonderful Counselor.” He is, indeed, the Wonderful Counselor. He listens to every word you say, and He cares more than anyone in this world. His storehouse of wisdom is perfect. He’s not an unhealed healer. He is a healer but He’s not unhealed. He’s the Holy One. He’s the Son of God and He is the Counselor who is wondrous. You can go to His counsel in the Word. I get counseling every day because every afternoon I spend time, usually in my study, in the Word and in prayer. I go to The Wonderful Counselor, Jesus Christ. I get that counseling every single day. You need it no less than me, the wondrous counsel of Christ. We get that counsel, the counsel of Christ in prayer as well, although nothing we hear in prayer should ever contradict what is said in the Word.

As Marcia said earlier, we can receive that counsel through other Christians as well. That’s why we normally recommend Christian counseling to people here because we want you to receive the advice and counsel of those who have been trained by The Wonderful Counselor. We want you to receive the advice and the counsel of those who have been trained by Christ Himself. There’s this great passage in Matthew, chapter 12, verse 42. You’ll also find it in Luke’s Gospel, the 11th chapter, the 31st verse. In these passages, we have these incredible passages where Jesus is speaking to the people of His generation and He tells them at the last judgement, there are going to be condemned. He says, “The Queen of the South,” and He’s referring to the Queen of Sheba who we took a look at last week, “will rise up on Judgement Day and condemn you. She’ll rise up. The Queen of Sheba will rise up at the last judgement and condemn you because she traveled a vast distance, we know it to be 1300 miles, to hear the wisdom of Solomon.” She traveled this vast distance seeking the wisdom of Solomon.

Then Jesus said, “And truly I say to you, One far greater than Solomon stands in your midst.” What an amazing statement. They wouldn’t walk a block to hear from Jesus, and the Queen of Sheba would go 1300 miles to seek the wisdom of Solomon. She’s going to condemn them at the last judgement. How about you? How important is it to you to hear the wisdom of Jesus? We saw last week that He’s the Lagos. He’s the mind of God. Do you want His counsel? Do you want it every day?

Jesus said, and with this we’ll close. Jesus said He would send another counselor. The Greek word is “paraclete.” It’s one of the titles in the Bible given to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the paraclete, but Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit is also the paraclete. The word paraclete is just a transliteration of the Greek, but the word means, “to call to the side.” Jesus wants you to call Him to your side. He wants you to use Him as a paraclete. This word is sometimes translated as “counselor.” Sometimes it’s “comforter.” We, of course think of counselors as those people who comfort us. I know most of us are looking for a little comfort. We want our counselors, our advisors, to comfort us. Jesus speaks of Himself as a comforter. He speaks of the Holy Spirit as a comforter. But we need to understand what is meant by this word.

In the Greek it is strong, and even in the English it used to be strong because the word comfort comes from the Latin “fortis” which is the same. root as “fortify or fortress.” Comfort meant, “to make safe,” but it also meant, “to strengthen.” That’s what a good counselor does. A good counselor strengthens you and does not weaken you. A good counselor strengthens you, fortifies you and gives you comfort in the sense that you are made safe through this strengthening counsel.

Rehoboam blew it. He absolutely blew it. He took bad counsel, and the results were unbelievable. At the same time that he lived, there was a Pharaoh in Egypt whose names was Shishak. Shishak was the Pharaoh of Egypt, the founder of the 22nd Dynasty. He had given asylum to Jeroboam when Jeroboam fled King Solomon. Shishak was afraid. This Egyptian Pharaoh was afraid to attack Israel. But then when Rehoboam took bad counsel and bad advice and divided the kingdom and Israel split between North and South, Israel was weakened. The Pharaoh of Egypt came in the 5th year of Rehoboam and attacked Judah and Israel, the North and the South.

You can go to Luxor today as some of us from the church did a couple of years ago. You can go to the Temple at Amun-Re, also called Amun-Ra. You can go to that temple at Karnak. There on the wall, at the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, is a listing of Shishak’s conquests that he put on the wall of that temple in the time of Rehoboam. It’s still there. It’s badly eroded, but it’s still there. He lists 150 cities in Palestine that he conquered in the days of Rehoboam—150 cities. Jerusalem is not on the list because when the Egyptian Pharaoh came to Jerusalem, King Rehoboam paid tribute in order to spare the city. He gave the Pharaoh of Egypt a vast amount of his treasure.

So, look what happened because he took bad counsel. He was not strengthened. He was weakened. He had no genuine comfort because he was weakened. It divided the kingdom into two. He had 150 cities conquered, and he lost a great portion of his wealth, all because he took bad counsel. So, we want to encourage you this morning. I know God wants to encourage us to have a proper philosophy of leadership. People don’t exist to serve us. We exist to serve others. The amazing reciprocity of it us that when we serve others, they tend to want to serve us back.

We have that life lesson, and then the second one, that we must seek good counsel. We must seek good advice. It’s Jesus who’s the Wonderful Counselor, supremely, and those who are trained by Him, so we want to come to His Word every single day. Please do that. Let’s close with a word of prayer.