Who are you listening to?

First Kings, chapter number 12.First Kings, chapter number 12.

This evening we're going to look at this Old Testament narrative.

So we're going to read just a couple verses to open up with, and

then we'll pray and we'll jump into this story tonight. But first

1 Kings 12 · chapter mention

kings, chapter 12, we're going to start in verse number one. The

Bible says, and Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel were come

to Shechem to make him king. And it came to pass when Jeroboam

the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, for he was

fled from the presence of King Solomon and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt.

We're going to pray and then we're going to jump right into this

passage tonight. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity

to be here tonight. Lord, I pray that you'd be with pastor as

he's with the church in Nakona. Lord, I pray that you would

be with that church. Lord, I pray you'd be with pastors. They

have service tonight. Lord, I pray that you'd be with the service

here. Lord, I pray that you would hide behind the cross. Lord,

I pray that you would allow me to say only the words that you want

me to say. And God, I pray that you would help me to say something

that was of help to someone tonight, Lord. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Men, every decision we make is shaped by the voices that

we allow to speak into our lives. I've seen this over and over

again as a young man myself, the people that I allow to influence

me, change my thoughts and change my opinions because I allow

them to have influence in my life. Tonight I've entitled the message,

who are you listening to? Who are you listening to? You see, everybody

has voices that we allow in our lives, influences that we allow

people that we allow to maybe even sometimes unnecessarily have

influence in our life. You see, godly counsel will build up

our futures, but foolish counsel will break it apart. My grandpa

is an avid. Was an avid gun enthusiast. He had probably the biggest

collection of guns out of anybody that I know. And I know some

of you in here have a lot of guns. So, like, that's a bold claim.

But he had a lot of guns. And he took me out shooting from a very,

very young age. And I was pretty comfortable with guns. By

the time I was six or seven, I was around the shooting range. My

grandpa shot cowboy shooting competitions. And you have two revolvers

and you have a rifle and what you would do is you would shoot six,

shoot the rifle and then shoot six. It was a timed accuracy speed

competition. And so he would go and compete in that, and I would

sit by and watch. And that was one of my favorite pastimes, was

going to the gun range with grandpa, watching him shoot. Right.

But many times he allowed me to shoot and kind of taught me the

basics of how to hold a rifle and how to shoot a handgun. I'm not

a good shot, but it's something that I enjoy doing. Well,

when my grandma died, I was probably 8 or 9 years old, my grandpa

decided to sell everything, buy an rv, buy an atv, buy more guns,

and start snowboarding. Snow. What's called snowbirding. Snowbirding,

not snowboarding. He was a little old for that. Snowbirding.

For the seasons. He would go up north in Utah, way up north for

the summer months where it was nice and cool. And then he would

head south into Arizona, just north of the Grand Canyon, for the

winters where it was still relatively nice and warm. Well, as

you may guess, that happened for, I don't know, maybe three, four

seasons. It wasn't long before the RV broke down. The ATV became

too much to load up. You know, all the usual suspects. So my grandpa

kind of landed there in northern Arizona for the remainder

of his life. And I visited him many times in that area. He had just

had an rv, so it wasn't like the most fun thing in the world.

But some of my favorite memories of my grandpa are in the

last few years of his life, going to visit him, and we would

go out and we would go shooting. And so there's a lot of

BLM land up there, government owned land, and that is all free

game to go and shoot. You just find a spot and shoot. There's Nothing

in like 1,000 miles any direction, so you're just good to

go for it. Well, this one particular time, and the more I thought

about it and I thought about the story for tonight, I. I don't

know exactly how old I was. I think I was a little bit older. I

may have been like 13 or 14, but it's a little embarrassing, so

I'm gonna say I was like 10 or 11. All right. Well, my grandpa decided

I was finally big enough to shoot some of his bigger guns. And

I was excited for this. He had a.44 Dirty Harry edition revolver

that was really cool and I thought that was awesome. He had

some big rifles and stuff like that. And I was like, man, this is

awesome. He's gonna let Me shoot the big dogs today. And so

we got in his truck and we drove out into the BLM land and we

found some like, old bottles and pieces of wood and stuff. We

were gonna shoot, or he was gonna shoot, I was gonna shoot at.

And I shot a few of the bigger handguns and a few of the bigger

rifles and we were having a fun time. And then my grandpa goes

to his truck. He pulls out something from under the seat that

he didn't let me see, he put in there. And he had an M1 Garand,

standard issue from World War II, big gun. And he's like, do you

want to shoot this? Yeah. So he got up and he loaded it and cleaned

it, made sure it was all good. And he, you know, he shot a few rounds

and hit everything and he's like, your turn. Yes, sir. And at

this point, I'm fairly familiar with how to shoot a rifle.

I'm not a novice in that. So I grab the rifle and I stand up and

I have it right up against my shoulder here and I'm like, alright,

I'm ready to go. And I lean in and I start to get the motion to

pull the trigger. And grandpa leans in and he starts talking to

me about, hey, this is a bigger gun. There's going to be a

significant kick compared to what you're used to. You need to

be aware of it. Here's how to. And I remember. I remember clear

as day. Grandpa, I'm good. I got this. So about as soon as I pulled

the trigger, I'm staring at the sky and he leans over and in

the most grandfatherly way you can, he goes, should have listened,

huh? Yeah. I can't help but think about that passage when I think

about this story here with Rehoboam and think about how often

in our lives we brush off godly counsel, we brush off good

counsel, or even sometimes just plain old good advice in lieu

of. Nah, I got this. You see, Rehoboam here was the grandson of

David, son of Solomon. If you are savvy with your Bible, you're

probably aware that Solomon is known as the wisest man to have ever

lived. You see, Rehoboam had all the wisdom in the world at his

fingertips, didn't he? Just across the hall. Got to go talk to

dad. He's the wisest man who ever lived. And yet here in this

passage, Solomon has died. And this is the first real test of Rehoboam's

leadership and his character in his life. You see, the reality

is this is a Tragic story. And tonight we're going to look at a

four part tragic progression through the life of Rehoboam. How

he failed his first test. I would like you for notice first of

all tonight, the request of the people. Look at verse number

three that they sent and called him and Jeroboam and all the

congregation of Israel came and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,

thy father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore, make thou

the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke which he

put on us lighter, and we will serve thee. And he said unto them,

depart yet for three days and then come again to me. And the people

departed. You see, this people came to him and they came with a

request. And I want you to notice about this request. It was

a reasonable request. This wasn't something that was crazy or

even rebellious, but this was a reasonable request well within

the bounds of people to ask of their new king. They said, hey, Rehoboam,

your dad Solomon was really hard on us. The taxation and the

labor, it really has worn us down. But if you take it and you

ease up on it, if you go lighter on us, we will serve you.

It's a reasonable request. When you start thinking about all

that Solomon did in his kingdom, in his time as king, of

course, we think of King David as the war maker, right? He's the

one. He kind of drove out the remainder and he kind of solidified

the kingdom and the borders. Well, Solomon built on that. He expanded

it. In fact, under Solomon, you have the greatest extent of the

Hebrew nation. I almost called it an empire. It's certainly not

an empire, but you have the greatest extent of the Hebrew nation

there under King Solomon. And at the same time, Solomon's building

the temple, Solomon's Temple was known as one of the ancient wonders

of the world. If you do some research into the temple, people

over in Israel, forget what they're called, but if you get, if

you do some research into them, they think they can build the

temple in about three and a half or four years using modern methods

and modern tools and modern workers. So think about how much

manual labor it must have been without excavators and cranes and

everything else. You know, sometimes I think we forget about

all the labor that goes into a building. And then like you look

at this giant pad of dirt out front and you're like, can you imagine

doing that with shovels? That's actually not all that far

off from the size of the temple. I mean, it's a little Bit

over, but like, it's a lot of work. And all these demands were

on the people of Israel under King Solomon. And so when King Solomon

dies, they come to Rehoboam and they say, hey, this was really

heavy. If you go lighter on us, we will serve you. We're going

to give our hearts to you. This was a reasonable plea, but secondly,

it was a revealing test. You see, this was a test placed early

on the leadership of King Rehoboam to see how are you going

to react and how are you going to respond to your people. Are you

going to be a servant leader or are you going to just be a prideful

leader? I find it interesting that many times in the Bible, when

you see these stories, when you see these people rise to power,

it seems like there's almost defining moments or defining stories

or decisions to be made almost immediately in the rain, right? It's

like Rehoboam took the throne. And the very next verse, he had the

defining decision of his entire reign immediately. It's a

revealing test of his character. As I was thinking about

character, I was reminded of a time in Bible college when a very

irresponsible dorm soup left us alone for Thanksgiving break.

And I was sleeping at Friday night at 9 o' clock, because that's

what happens if you leave Bible college students alone. I went

to bed at 9 o' clock. There was no lights out. That doesn't mean

I stay up. That means I go to bed early. And this kid comes up

to me, he worked in solar. And he woke me up one by turning off

my fan. I had a little clip on fan. He turned it off, very rude.

And he turned off and he woke me up at 9:00 at night. And at that

time it was called the solar boom there in Southern California.

And these kids had way too much money. Like, there was Bible

college kids who worked four and five hours a day making six figures.

And he had a gas card that was given to him by his company that

they didn't check. And he had $500 put on it every single month,

every single month. If he didn't use it, he lost it. Just refreshed

every month. And so he comes and wakes me up, it's like November

28th, and he's like, Hey, I still have $400 on this. You want

to go to Vegas, huh? You know what? He's like, yeah, I'll pay for

everything. He's like, we'll go to the buffets. He's like, it's

going to be awesome. He's like, we'll just go. We'll go right?

No, turn my fan back on. Right in the moment. I was thinking with

my head. But little moments like that test your character throughout

your life. What kind of decisions are you going to make?

You see this plea that the people had for Rehoboam. It was reasonable.

Proverbs 15:1 says, A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous

Proverbs 15:1

words stir up anger. And then we see this revealing test. Proverbs

Proverbs 29:2

29:2 says, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. You see,

there is these revealing tests given to King Rehoboam. And so we

see the first part of this progression was the request of the

people. But the second part here is the response of the counselors.

Look at verse number six. And King Rehoboam consulted with the

old men that stood before Solomon his father, while he yet

lived, and said, how do ye advise that I may answer the people?

And they spake unto him, saying, if thou wilt be a servant

unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them,

and speak good words unto them, they will be thy servants forever.

But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given

him, and consulted with the young men which were grown up with

him, and which stood before him. And he said unto them, what

counsel give ye that we may answer this? The people who have

spoken to me saying, make the yoke which thy father did put upon

his lighter. And the young men which were grown up with him spake

unto him, saying, thou shalt speak unto this people that spake

unto thee, saying, thy father made our yoke heavy, but make it

thou lighter unto us. Thus shalt thou say unto them, my little

finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And now, whereas

my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke.

My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you

with scorpions. Time out. This is one of those, like, times in the

Bible where you're like. You're reading it and you're like,

wait, what? Like, there's no way this guy actually said this out

loud and thought this was a good idea. Right? Is that just me?

Yeah, you know, he chastised you with whips. But, buddy, you better

watch out, because the scorpions are coming. What do you

mean? What do you mean the scorpions are coming? Is that actually

a thing like Is that actually a thing that we do to people? It's

crazy. So we see the response of the counselors. I want you to

notice the wisdom of the old men. The wisdom of the old men. You

see these old men here in this passage, they had served Solomon.

They were alive. They had seen the transition. They knew the yoke

of the people under King Solomon, and they were aware of the

situations of the people and how they had lived. And yet they

had seen the cost of harsh leadership. And their advice that

they gave King Rehoboam was stabilizing, balanced, if you would.

It was, hey, yeah, you know what? Solomon was awfully harsh.

Hey, you know what? If you do what, what the people are requesting,

they're going to give you their hearts and they're going to

serve you forever. Good advice. Proverbs 11:1 says, where

Proverbs 11:1

no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors,

there is safety. What I find so interesting about this passage

is when you read it down narrative style, like we have here,

King Rehoboam goes to the old men for advice, and he goes, hey,

what do you think I should do? And they say, oh, thanks for asking.

I think you should do this. And he literally goes, cool. Hey,

young men, so what do you think I should do? Like, and there's

no doubt in my mind. He probably in his mind was like, well,

there's safety in a multitude of counselors, so I should go to

everybody, right? But he didn't even wait to hear both opinions.

The Bible says he completely disregarded the old men before he

even heard the opinion of the young men. It's funny, because he

had already made his decision before he even sought out advice.

He wasn't looking for advice. He was looking for validation. And

many times when we seek out advice, we're not really looking

for advice, are we? We're looking for validation. We're looking

for someone to look at me and tell me that I'm right, because I

like being right. I don't know about you. When me and my wife, we

do have arguments, by the way, but when we, me and my wife argue,

I like being the one that's right. Right is right. All right,

we'll stop there. So we see the wisdom of the old men, but then

we see the arrogance of the young men. The arrogance of the young

men. Rehoboam's peers appealed to his ego, not wisdom. They encouraged

him to prove his power, not capture the people's hearts. And

what I find so interesting about this is in a moment of transparency,

with you guys. You know what? Men like power. I like to be in charge.

The best conversation about a decision is one where I say what

the decision is and then we're done. Unless it's where we're going

to eat, which case, I don't want anything to do with it. You

tell me where we're going, right? But men like to be in charge.

It's an ego thing, right? We like to be the rah, rah, rah. We're

the men, we're in charge. We're the rulers. And I can only

imagine how many times King Rehoboam sat there, maybe in the

courtroom of his father Solomon. And Solomon would make a

decision. Wisest man on earth, by the way, gifted knowledge from

God. And Rehoboam would sit there and be like, well, when I'm

king, let me tell you what, right? And then I just can't wait

to be keen from Lion King started playing and it was like a

whole thing. We laugh, but I think that's probably the attitude

he had, right? No one's saying, do this. No one's saying,

see here? No one's saying, stop that. I know the whole song,

but we won't go the whole thing. You see, the arrogance of

the young man. Proverbs 13:10 says, Only by pride cometh contention,

Proverbs 13:10

but with the well advised is wisdom. Who are you listening to?

Who are the voices that you allow to speak into your life? Young

people, not so, younger people. Who are you allowing to speak

into your life? In what ways do you allow them to have influence

over you? You see, the first part of this progression was a reasonable

request, really reasonable. And then we see a response from the

counselors. But I want you to notice thirdly tonight, the results

of his pride. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says, so Jeroboam.

This is an important little side note. Just mark that name. Jeroboam.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day as

the king had appointed, saying, come to me again the third

day. And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the old

men's counsel that they gave him, and spake to them after the

counsel of the young men, saying, my father hath made your

yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father also chastise

you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. There

it is. The guy thought about it and then actually said it to people.

Wherefore the king hearkened unto me in verse 15 unto the people.

For the cause was from the Lord that he might perform his saying,

which the Lord spake by Ahagi the Shilonite, unto Jeroboam, the

son of Nebat. You see, the result of his pride was letter A

that Rehoboam rejected their counsel. He just completely rejected

the wise, godly counsel that he had been given. He didn't even

weigh both options. He just completely disregarded the elder's

advice, and his pride made the decision before his mind did, before

he ever had a chance to sit down and think about it. His pride

and his ego made the decision for him. Proverbs 1:7 says that the

Proverbs 1:7

fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools

despise wisdom and instruction. Do you ever make quick

decisions just to prove a point? Instead of seeking God first?

I could literally fill the rest of our time, every Sunday night,

forever, with times I've made quick decisions just to move, just

to prove a point, just because I'm right. And that's all there is

to say about it, only to find out later on that I was very much

so. Certainly not right. But Rehoboam rejected the counsel, and

as a result, rebellion was the consequence. Look at verse. Look

at verse number 16. So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened

not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, what portion

have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse.

To your tents, O Israel. Now see to thine own house, David. So

Israel departed unto their tents. But as for the children of

Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned

over them. I think often when we look at these stories, the period

of the Israelite kings is not super well known after, like, Saul,

Keenan or Saul, David and Solomon, because that's really easy

to remember. And then once it splits up, it's like a bunch of really

difficult names that no one really bothers to learn. And it all

kind of overlaps. And for some reason, Jeroboam was so popular that

they named every king ever after him pretty much. But I think

whenever we hear this story in Sunday school, or sometimes when

we at least think back on it, at least me, we think of King Jeroboam

as the bad guy, a relatively young guy. We think of him as the

bad guy in the story. But if there is a bad guy in the story,

it's King Rehoboam. You see, King Rehoboam, he forsook the godly

counsel he was given. He spoke after his pride instead of seeking

the people's hearts. And all while throughout the story, you see

that King Jeroboam had the hearts of the people. I marked it

out in verse number, verse number 12, but it says it a few more

times in the passage before we even get there. It says, Jeroboam

and all the people. Jeroboam and all the people. Jeroboam and

all the people. He already had the hearts of the people. We're talking

about two men who are similarly aged. But one of them hearkened

unto counsel, one of them understood, it's more important that

the people are behind me. Then I be right. It's more important.

It's more important. Matthew. Henry says pride is the armor of

the wicked. It protects him from repentance. He said, we build

up these walls and we use pride as a shelter from all of it.

And King Rehoboam's pride was his downfall. Proverbs 16:18 says,

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.

You see, we see a reasonable request. We see the counselor's response.

We see the results of the pride. But I want you to notice lastly

tonight, the ripple of Rehoboam's reign. This one decision

is not something that just affected the next five, ten years

in Israel. It's something that they never recovered from, ever.

But not just the nation. Turn over a few pages to 1st Kings 15.

This is another really interesting passage. 1st Kings 15.

Look at verse number one. Now. In the 18th year of King Jeroboam,

the son of Nebat, Jeroboam's been ruling up north without any

problems. For 18 years reigned Abijim over Judah. Three years reigned

he in Jerusalem, and his mother name was, and the daughter.

And he walked in all the sins of his father, Verse three, which

he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect. With the

Lord his God, as the heart of David, as the father heart, as the

heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for David's sake, did

the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his

son after him and to establish in Jerusalem? Because David did that

which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from

anything which he had commanded all the days of his life,

save only the matter of Uriah the Hittite. And there was war between

Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. Now the acts of

Abijim and all that he did, are they not written in the book

of the chronicles of the king in Judah? And Abijim verse 8 slept

with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.

And Asa, his son, ruled in Hesed. Verse 9. And in the 20th year

of Jeroboam, king of Israel, reigned Asa over Judah. And 40 and

1 years he reigned he in Jerusalem. Verse 11. And Asa did

that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David, his

father. You see, the ripple of King Rehoboam's rule was not just

him. It wasn't just his kingdom split forever, never to be

rejoined, never to be reconnected. But his sin moved on

to the next generation. His son was a mess. His son allowed all

sorts of sin and everything in his life. His son followed his compromise.

Now, in 2 Chronicles 13, he did have one high point in his life.

But he learned real quickly that one battle doesn't fix a broken

pattern. This pattern of pride and arrogance continued on in the

kings of Judah. Compromised legacy reproduces itself over and

over and over again. See, now nowadays they call it generational

curses, right? The things that fathers do, the things that mothers

and fathers do that the kids tend to pick up on and go for it.

The Bible says that the sins of the father go to the third and

to the fourth generation. And here we see Rehoboam completely wrecking

his family's legacy over pride. Over pride. The choices that

we make, they don't just affect our life. They affect everyone's

life around us. According to 2 Chronicles 12:14, Rehoboam prepared

2 Chronicles 12:14

not his heart to seek the Lord. His son saw that and decided,

I'm going to be just like dad. I'm going to do the same thing he

did. It's been said that what one generation allows, the next generation

embraces. You see, David had his low point with Uriah the Hittite

in that whole situation. So much so it even got a shout out here

in this, this passage. And what he allowed there with that whole

situation with Bathsheba and Uriah, Solomon took it a way step

further, didn't he, Mr. A Thousand Wives. He took it way beyond

further. And Solomon in all of his wisdom, was a prideful man. And

what he had kin. Rehoboam was like, cool, I'm gonna go all in on

this pride and ego thing. Bring out the scorpions. And all

of a sudden, Abidjin was looking at this. I don't know how

you say his name. Just gotta say it confidently. Abidjin was watching

dad and Grandpa and going, hmm, well, it's working out pretty

well for them. Solomon was the rich grandpa. Solomon was the Richest

man who ever lived works well for me. So what I'm going to do.

And then all the way down, then you have Kinesa. Kinesa wasn't

perfect, by the way. But the nation did see revival under him.

And he was the start of seeing some good kings in Judah again. But

he allowed the Lord to use him because of it. You may have noticed

something I've done on purpose here is that all the passages I've

read tonight are from the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs

is written from Solomon to Rehoboam. Rehoboam had all of this

wisdom at his fingertips and he chose to ignore it. Some commentators

think he even memorized it. But it's interesting when we think

about this, because when we see the request of the people, we

see that it was a reasonable plea. And we see in Proverbs 15 that

soft answer turneth away wrath. If only he had hearkened,

we see the test of his character. He could have known from

Proverbs 29 that when the righteous are in authority, the people

rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. When

he saw the wisdom of the old men, he could have looked at Proverbs

Proverbs 11:14

11:14 and said, in the multitude of counselors there is

safety. When he saw the arrogance of the young men, he could

have looked at Proverbs 13 and said, Only pride cometh by pretension,

but with the well advised is wisdom. When he rejected their counsel

and gave into the pride, he could have known from Proverbs 1:7

Proverbs 1:7

that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools

despise wisdom and instruction. When he saw the rebellion

and all the consequences of his sin, he could have known that

pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

All of this wisdom at his fingertips, the instructions on how

to live life, how to rule the kingdom. Some people think he memorized

it. Had the book of Proverbs memorized yet. Zero application,

zero thought about it. The problem isn't access, it's attitude.

You see, we have access as modern day Christians. We have access

to every word of God recorded for us. The problem isn't that we

can't know the answer to our problems. The problem isn't that

it's a giant mystery that's unfigureoutable to us. It's that

we don't care to look. So I ask you again, who are you listening

to? What voices do you allow in your life? Are you disregarding

the old men? Are you listening to the young arrogant egomaniacs

telling you to give into your pride and your ego? Are you looking

in the book, the book of wisdom that our heavenly Father hath

given us with every head bow and every eye closed. As musicians

make their way to the front. I have just a couple questions for

you after we pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. And Lord,

thank you for this passage. Lord, thank you for this story. Lord,

thank you for this lesson from King Rehoboam. Lord, I can't imagine

that this was something that he enjoyed living through, but I'm

thankful that we have this lesson, this warning for us today.

Lord, I pray that you would help me curb my own pride. Lord,

I pray that you would help me to hearken to the wisdom that you

have given us in this book. Lord, I pray that if there's someone

here tonight, Lord, who is hiding behind the armor of their

pride, Lord, I pray that they would give it up today. Lord, I pray

that they would repent. Lord, I pray that we would begin to seek

the wisdom that you've given us in the book. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. As the musicians begin playing.