Faith Requires Difficult Decisions: 1 Kings 12:21-30

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

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Good morning, good they go talk good morning, good morning

to you and you and you.

Hey, everybody, it's it's our favorite.

You just made it our I mean, it's only Tuesday

and we've already peaked. Every It's downhill from here.

Everything you say that, I never want to sing it again.

It's great a right man, It's just it is a

good morning. It's such a good morning.

It is, although it's really cold outside.

Although I pulled into, uh, the drive through for McDonald's

this morning, and and it was it was a long line.

And then I got up there and and and and

they took my order and forgot to put I wanted

the egg mcmuffins.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they put my drinks on there, but they didn't

put my sandwich on. And then I said, oh, I

think you forgot to put my sandwich on. I'll do that.

And when I got up there, we waited sixteen minutes.

Oh no, I know, And that's not a good moment.

It was too long. And then she handed me my

drinks and looked at me. Like, what are you still

doing here? So I was waiting for my m muffin,

and so I had to wait three more minutes for

a muffin. I know, three three, count them one two

three more minutes. Yeah. So but once I got past that,

it was great. It was a great sandwich. And then

I walk in here and you sing to me. I thought,

you guys do but I'm shaking it up today.

Shaking it up. It's a new year.

J yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So but and then you

came and sang to us, So, I mean, it doesn't

get any better than this. That's just up from there. Hey. Well,

I always figure if you have a bad start to

the day, everything else is going to be better. That's right,

That's how I feel about it. Okay, there's nowhere to

go but up. Well, Hey, this is a fun segment, Chris.

It's the stump the pasture segment.

It is. And this question comes from Jonathan.

A A Jonathan. But I'm here, I did it.

I did yes, And here's the question. Did Jesus ever

need to be taught anything as a child? It says

that he quote Ruin wisdom in Luke two fifty two.

So I'm led to believe that he did have some

sort of cognitive growth, but I'm having a hard time

reconciling that with the fact that he is God who

is omniscient, that which, by the way, this is a

legitimate and by the way, this is also an impressive

thinking question.

It's great because that means.

That you're giving a lot of thought, uh to what

you're reading and the concept of Jesus becoming man, because

that is that is a hard concept for anybody, I

think to grasp.

Well, and he's he's also referencing one verse, yes, which

means he's been reading the Bible. Yes, good job, Jonathan.

So so it's fantastic.

So let's just start off by saying, there's only that

one incident in the Bible that references Jesus when he

was what twelve years old?

Yes, And so Jesus, we have the story of him

as a baby.

Yeah, so we've told this story. We've done this before

with the Bible, guys, have we Yeah? Yeah, this, remember

we went through all the stories of Jesus.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah in this series. Yeah yeah years ago.

Yeah yeah, well it was last year, but yeah, or

two years ago, whatever it was. But yeah, so they

go to Jerusalem for Passover, and Mary and Joseph lose Jesus.

Right, and he's teaching in the temple, Yes, yeah, yeah,

and then and then it says they go back.

You imagine your only job is to take care of

God and you're losing.

Saint Mary whatever.

Oh no, oh no, so Mary, Mary and Joseph lost

God himself.

Yes, and I'm play obviously.

Yeah, it's it's very astute though that Jonathan picks up

on this.

Yeah, so so.

So it does say that the people who listen to

Jesus's teaching were impressed on how much wisdom that he.

Had back then. And so here's the question.

If he was one hundred percent God, did he have

to learn anything? That's how the question starts. Did he

have to learn anything cognitive? So if he exercises, if

Jesus is born one hundred percent God, which by the way,

he is, he's one hundred percent God and he's one

hundred percent man. At the same time, he wasn't fifty

to fifty. He didn't have fifty percent man fifty percent

God powers. He was one hundred percent both. And so

if God was born that way and he exercised and

lived in his godship. Then why couldn't he have been

a master carpenter at the minute he was born.

This is a confusing thing for people. You understand, God does,

God himself had to learn to be potty trained, right,

He had to learn how to walk, he had to Yeah.

So here here's what i'd say, the one hundred percent

God thing. That one is usually easy for us. And

we look at Jesus as being like a superhero because

he's God in the flesh, and so he does all

these miracles and everything because he's God or whatever. And

then it's confusing to us when we see the limitations

of Jesus. But you understand, the greatest miracle of this

god man thing is the fact that the limitless creator

of the universe limited himself, the one the cause of time,

limited himself to time and space, right, And so that's

the greatest miracle. The fact then that he becomes.

An exists outside of time.

That's right, he's outside to God today as a thousand years,

a thousand years as a day is what you're referencing, right,

God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So that idea

that God chose to limit himself into a man. Then

it shouldn't be surprising that God also chose to limit

himself into being a baby, and then into being a toddler,

and then into being a child, and then a preteen

and then a teen. It's weird to think that God

went through puberty, right, It's weird that Jesus probably had

people make fun of him as a teenager because his

voice squeaked, and he probably had zits, and he fell

off quort around girls, and right, all the all those things,

it all was a part of his development. God chose

to be a man, and it was in the context

of him being a sinless man that he defeated sin

and death for us. And that's why he was able

to pay the price.

Right, because if he defeated sin as God, then there

would be no reason for him to be born as man.

Right he could have He could have just defeated sin, right, right.

So so he he was Jesus defeated sin and resisted

every temptation as a man.

He was the only perfect man.

That's correct, Yeah, right, And so so he faced life

just like you do. Hebrews tells us.

That, right, Yeah, I was just not saying that.

Hebrew says he experienced the entire what what is it,

the the vast experience of.

Yeah, he was. He was tempted in every way as

you and I are, and yet he sin not. So

the word tempt is really important, right. It wasn't that

he had opportunities to sin and didn't do it. That

it was a legitimate temptation, right, and that that refers

to his humanity. So there there's a lot of doctrines

on this that that we could get into. But the

reality is that Jesus had to learn because Jesus chose

to put himself in the position of limiting himself from

being the unlimited creator of the universe outside of time

and space, and he put limited himself into one body

at a specific time inside of space in a specific

town for crying out loud, right, and and so he

lived a life like you lived.

So him learning to read it wasn't that big of

a deal.

You're right, you know, It's like what you're what I'm

saying is is like that's that wasn't the biggest thing

that he did, right, So those were small things.

Yeah, those were all small miracles compared to the big

one of him limited himself into right.

Yeah, that's yeah.

So so then if that's the case, then understand Jesus

did what he did in the power of the Holy

Spirit as a man, right, you know, he he demonstrated

that he was God, but he did it as a man.

And so I believe that the This is one of

the reasons why Jesus later on says, hey, the things

I do, you'll do even greater things talking about talking

about his followers, that we have access to the Holy

Spirit all the time. Jesus walked with the Spirit, he

communed often with his father. He had the power of

the Holy Spirit in him, and that's why he was

able to do what he did. So, yeah, it's great.

The verse that Jonathan references is Jesus in It's Luke,

chapter two, verse fifty two. Jesus grew in wisdom and

in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

So he grew in wisdom, that's how to live life.

He also grew physically, that's how we knew. No, he

had to learn how to walk and be potty trained

and all those things. And then he also grew in

his relationship with God, with favor with God, not just

his relationship, but in favor with God and then diplomatically socially. Right,

So all the areas that you need to grow and

that your children need to grow in, Jesus also experienced

those things in the same fashion, in the same manner.

Right. Yeah, that's great.

That's a great question, Jonathan.

Yeah, yeah, and so.

Ay, that's why that's why, you know, when we strive

to be great Christians, we need to understand that. You know,

when Jesus says, what did he say? He said, when

I leave, the Holy Spirit's going to come.

He said, it's going to be better for you. Yeah,

it's going to be better for you.

So therefore he's really saying, you now have the opportunity

to commune with the Holy Spirit, live in the power

of the Holy Spirit in the same way that you

just saw me do it, right, Right.

So that's amazing.

It's incredibly important for us what that's available to you.

And I think a lot of times were tempted to believe, Oh,

it was different for him than it is for us.

It was in that he was God, but it was

not in that he chose to walk as a man

twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, right, Right,

That's why the transfiguration moment was so significant. When you know,

the power guid comes on and he begins to glow

on the top of the mountain. That was really out

of the ordinary. That's why that story is included, is

because this so out of the ordinary. All the rest

of the time, Jesus just walked as a man and

paid the price for us. And that's it's really the

fact that God chose to be a man in that moment,

may or in that thirty some odd years, made it

possible for him as a man to pay the price

for all of humanities.

Suh Did I ever mention to you about the transfiguration?

Somebody had we need to move on, But somebody had mentioned, Uh,

what if God? Uh? Because because who are the two

people Moses and Elijah appeared with him? What if God

zapped them and brought them uh, from their own timeline

into the future and then and then and then put

them back?

And you know, so, so what if what if you know,

what if Elijah.

Right before the mount Mount Carmel event, right, what if

what if God in his transfiguration powers zap zapped Elijah

all the way you know to the first century and

then uh, and and then and then uh and then

put them back and it's like, no, wonder why he

had faith on the mountain.

Yeah maybe maybe who knows, or you just send him

from eternity, I know, but which is the which is

probably what happens, right, But but still it's just it.

Was a new thought for me. That was interesting.

Okay, Well, talking about interesting things. I don't know how

to translate transition into this. Now.

I'll tell you the the the prophecy that Jesus was

going to come and be fulfilled as man and God.

We're also talking about prophecy today. Oh okay, Shemaiah's prophecy.

Okay, Yeah, I was having a hard time tracking well,

and that was rough.

Let me tell you something. That's the goal all we got.

That's all. That's the goal we got. The goal is

rough TRANSI Okay.

So Shamaiah has a prophecy. In First Kings, chapter twelve,

verse twenty month says when ray Baoham arrived at Jerusalem,

he mobilized the men of Judah and the tribe of

Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand select troops to fight

against the men of Israel and to restore the kingdom

to himself. So jerreed, Bohm's not putting up with his mutiny. No,

or Raya Boam. I'm sorry. But God said to Ah,

the Man of God, say to Raabaoam, son of Solomon,

King of Judah, and to all the people of Judah

and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, this

is what the Lord says. Do not fight against your

relatives Israelites. Go back home, for what has happened is

my doing. So they obeyed the message of the Lord

and went home as the Lord had commanded. Jeroboam then

built the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim,

and it became his capital. Later he went and built

up the town of Penio. Jeroboam thought to himself, unless

I am careful, the kingdom will returned to the dynasty

of David. And when these people go to Jerusalem to

offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord, they will

again give their allegiance to King Reebaouam of Judah. They

will kill me and make him their king instead. So,

on the advice of his counselors, the king made two

gold calves. He said to the people, it is too

much trouble for you to worship in Jerusalem. Look, Israel,

these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.

He placed these calf idols in Bethel and in Dan,

at either end of his kingdom. But this became a

great sin, for the people worshiped the idols, traveling as

far north as Dan to worship the one there. Jerobom

also erected buildings at the pagan shrines and ordained priests

from the common people those who were not from the

priestly tribe of Levi. Jerobom instituted a religious festival in Bethel,

held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in

imitation of the annual festival Shelters in Judah. There at Bethel,

he himself offered sacrifices to the calves he had made,

and he appointed priests for the pagan shrines he had made.

So on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a

day that he himself had designated, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on

the altar at Bethel. He instituted a religious festival for Israel,

and he went up to the altar to burn incense.

Oh yeah, can you even imagine this statement? These are

the gods who brought you out of Egypt. Right, isn't

that crazy? Yeah, it's it's just crazy.

This guy was clearly chosen by God, Yeah, to take

over Israel. And then he makes a couple of calves

for political expedi and.

Right because yeah, because it's it's too far to go

all the way down to Jerusalem.

Well, because he's afraid that if they go to Jerusalem

they're going to switch their allegiance because j Jerusalem is

pretty great and this temple is really impressive, and so

then that's where the King of Judah lives, So I

don't want him going down there. They're going to fall

in love with Israel or with Judah again, and they're

going to start following Jered Boehm again. And I can't

do that. So let's give him a different religion. It

was just a pragmatic decision to try to keep them

out of going to Jerusalem. It's terrible.

Yeah, that's really bad.

So have you been did you go to Dan? Have

you been to Dan?

Been to Dan?

Yeah? So Dan is right on the border between Lebanon,

Syria and Israel. Sits right up at the top there.

It's extremely old. There's a gate there that was there

when Abra went to that town. Very likely Abraham would

have walked through that gate. Is that crazy? So that

town had been there forever, for not forever, but for

a very long time. Yeah.

Yeah.

And now there's some fortifications, there's some some walls there,

but the platform to the little temple that he made

is there. You can still go to that space, and

it's really weird to stand there and think, this guy

chosen by God, knowing he was chosen by God, makes

a political decision to remove his people from their religion

in order to keep them from going to Jerusalem and

sacrificed rate there. Right, It's really amazing. So it's one

of the things that really if you ever have an

opportunity to go to Israel, I think it's worth whatever

it costs you to go. You know, you can go

for a few thousand bucks, save up your nickels as

long as you can, and go when it's safe to go. Yeah,

well I think it's safe now. Mostly I don't know

that I would go to Dan right now, up at

the northern border. But what I was going to say

is this, when an opportunity comes, what this does, is

it reminds you that this book and our faith is

rooted in real places, in real times with real people,

and every single claim that we've been able to discover

one side or the other is always reaffirmed through archaeology.

Yes, it's, it's, it's And.

There are people, there are people throughout the decades that

have tried their best to disprove the Bible through archaeology. Right,

but every single thing that gets uncovered, everything they get,

they gets discovered, everything points to evidence of even even

miraculous evidence.

So there's critics would say, you know, there's a couple

of times where between kings and chronicles, the age of

a king might be a little different or or something

like that. But when it comes to the hard facts,

the the places, job, Chris.

No doubt, Ye, my bad.

I don't know what you thought was going to happen.

You set your phone out so you can see it

the whole time.

I never brought my friend like that, but I know.

But but I'm looking at the Bible, guys.

Right now, I'm teasing you, so then you know it.

When it comes to the hard facts, the places, the

names of leaders, the names of communities, that all those

things you can go to those places, and there's something

about that. So for this, you know, it's describing the

top of his kingdom would be Dan. The bottom of

his kingdom is what Shchem. And so you kind of

get a sense of Okay, we understand where he's at.

He's in the northern portion of Israel. This is the

part that Jesus eventually grew up in, by the way,

and he's choosing to sacrifice to false gods in this moment,

and it's just it's a terrible thing. I don't understand

how a guy just recently chosen by God elevated to

the position that he God had promised him to go to.

And so you know what, just because God decides to

give his favor to you doesn't mean that you're a

good person.

Right.

God's going to fulfill his purposes regardless. Yeah, And sometimes

you know, you and I've been around pastors or people

in ministry that they think they're bulletproof and they can

do whatever they want to do because of their position, right,

and then they make bad choices and ruin their lives

and lives of other people. And so you still have

to be walking with God. You still have to lean

into real faith and doing what God says to do,

even if he's done something supernatural or miraculous in your life.

Yeah, yeah, that's definitely a great sermon to take out

of this, for sure, because Jared Boehm is is a

person who seems to you know, want his power more

than the power of God, right, he wants his own power,

and you know, and Rae Bohem, by the way, I

was reading this just a second ago, and it says

although the Kingdom of Israel is united under David and Solomon,

the tensions between the North and the South were never resolved.

The jealousy and animosity behind the civil war didn't begin

with real Baham and Jeribom. It had its roots in

the days of judges, when the people were interested in

tribal loyalty. Then the national unity, right, and it goes

on and it talks about other things. But still it's

just it's just this idea that like, you know, but

I love the fact that at least Ria Boham listened

to God when he said, don't fight, don't fight against

your relatives. The Israelites go back home for this what

happened is my doing. So they obeyed and they went

home this is the Lord commanded.

Yeah, that's jib yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so at least at least you know, so

here we have an example of ray Baeam, you know,

obeying to what God said.

Yeah.

And then and then the very next verse talks about Jerobom,

you know, rebelling against what God says.

Yep. So there's a really great note along the lines

of what we talked about a second ago. For verse

twenty eight in the Life Application Study Bible, it says

all Jewish men were required to travel to Temple three

times each year, but Jeroboam set up his own worships

and told his people it was too much trouble to

travel all the way to Jerusalem. Those who obeyed Jeroboam

were disobeying God, which is really something. Yeah. Some ideas, though,

though practical, may include suggestions that lead you away from God.

Don't let anyone talk you out of doing what is

right by telling you that moral actions are not worth

the effort. Do what God wants, no matter what the

cost and time, energy, reputation, or resources. You know. I

think a lot of times people get tempted and then

justify why they can't do the right thing. Yeah, at work, whatever, well,

if you just knew my industry, there's no way that

I can succeed if I don't do these things or whatever.

You know, there's no hope for my marriage, So I

had to go get a side piece or whatever. You

hear people justify their sin all the time and then

sometimes get advice from their friends who also justify it

and accept it. Right, And this is saying, hey, be

careful because a lot of times you can get talked

out of doing what's right by telling yourself that these

moral actions aren't worth aren't worth the price you're gonna

have to pay. But God always blesses people who do

the right thing, and there's always consequences to the people

who choose to walk away from God. And man, it's

going to be a mess for the next several hundred years.

Yeah, have you ever met somebody. I'm sure you've probably

cataloged in your brain and storted away the incidences where

people they did the right thing when it was most difficult,

and they said, you know, they had to sacrifice because

of it. Like in other words, like I remember one

guy in my college. All you had to do was

sign the thing that said on my honor as a

Christian I have read the book in its entirety, and

that was the final exam.

It's all you have to do is sign it.

And so we all got there and there was most

of us didn't read it in its entirety, and so

we just signed it, you know. And my friend all

I had to do was sign it. That's it, and

he would have passed his class. And he got there

and he grabbed his and we were like, hur yeah,

let's go sign it now. I thank goodness, I read

the book right good. But the other people around me didn't.

And anyway, he couldn't sign it. He didn't sign it.

Turns out that I graduated. He didn't walk. He didn't

walk the line with me. So his family was already

coming in, and so when it was time for graduation,

he had to stay back another semester and had to

get his diploma in the mail, and so his parents

came in and didn't see him walk the line because

he didn't sign his name.

Isn't hey, there's consequences. Did you guys know at the

beginning of the semester that you had to read the

whole book in order to finish the class? Yes, so

free to make your choices. You're not free to choose

the consequences.

I would argue and.

Say that my friend was blessed in his ministry and

everything that followed after that, he experienced blessing after blessing,

because God will reward you for your character.

Yeah, yeah, so what was it? Bob Jones used to say.

Bob Jones Senior used to say, the test your character

is what it takes to stop you. Yeah, right, and

so in that moment it would have been easy to

throw it in get mad. Right, I did the right thing,

you know, the professor should have made an exception for me, right, right, right,

And a lot of times people will then become choose

to be victims. They make they make the hard choice,

then there's not an exception made for them, and then

they want to be a victim and want to blame

somebody else. But hey, the fact that he paid the

price one he found out what kind of man he is,

at least in that moment, what kind of man he is,

and then he was willing to pay the price. And

then he goes on.

Yeah.

Absolutely, I think that God over the top blesses people

like that in ways that we can't even understand. In

the years to follow. That's right. So yeah, always choose

for for Jerobaum, he chose the easier way politically. I

don't want to have to mess with this. I'm going

to keep everybody up here, give him new gods. But

your friend made the right choice in a difficult situation,

paid the price for it, but ultimately, long term over

the sco what's what's another six months right, scope of

his entire life. Right, it wasn't the end of the world.

So and you learn a good lesson. Hey, I should

do what I should pay closer attention at the beginning

when they tell me these are the requirements, right. You know,

when you're getting a degree, you have to earn that degree,

and that professor told you, guys, what it took to

earn the grade in order to be able to get

that degree.

That's right.

So wow, that's something.

Yeah, well, hey listen, that's our time, so hopefully we

will see you next time on the Bible Gus