00:00 Introduction and Announcements

00:28 Preaching at Compass Bible Church NTX

01:20 Observations on Cicadas

02:26 1 Kings 12-14

03:10 Rehoboam's Folly and the Divided Kingdom

09:13 Jeroboam's New Religion

13:00 Lessons from the Kings

14:43 Conclusion and Encouragement

It's downtown.

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Again.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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I'm glad you joined me.

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If you're wondering where pastor

PJ is, he's still on vacation.

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That he'll be on vacation for

several more days to come.

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So please don't miss him too much.

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But if you do, you're always welcome

to text him, to let him know that

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you're thinking about them and that

you can't wait to have him back.

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I know that I can't.

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Uh, quick announcement

to date is Sunday a demo.

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That's not an announcement.

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You probably know that

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And the announcement is that I

get to preach today at compass

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Bible church, north, Texas.

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And so I do hope that you'll join us.

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I do hope that you'll be there.

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I'd love to have all your

friendly faces smiling back at me.

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Uh, if, of course, compass

north, Texas is your home.

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If it's not, I don't expect you

to be there and that's okay.

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You can go back to your own home church.

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That would be appropriate.

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But if you're here and this is your

church, I would love to see you there.

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Uh, I promise you I've been praying

and studying and working diligently

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all week long, praying for you.

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Uh, that this urban would be especially

helpful for your present Christian walk.

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So please be there.

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I promise you I will

give it my best shots.

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I always swing for the fences and

this is going to be no different.

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So please, please, please be there.

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Bring a friend.

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Bring a neighbor, bring an

uncle, bring whoever you want.

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Just bring somebody.

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If no one else, bring

yourself, bring your family.

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That'd be good.

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Okay.

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I think that's all I have.

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I mean, there's so much

more that's happening.

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I don't know about you.

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I am loving the cicadas outside.

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If you live in this part of the

country or you're in a part of

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the country that has cicadas.

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Uh, I didn't grow up with these guys.

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And so this is kind of a new experience,

although we did have them last year.

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But I've been going outside

and just staring at them.

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I went out the other day

and I just watched him.

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I found a couple that were

near, near one another.

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And they started fighting and then one

kicked off the other, off the tree.

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And next thing you know, he was

all by himself doing his own thing.

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So it seems like they're

a bit territorial.

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Uh, I'd imagine that there noises have

something to do with their mating.

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That's my best guess.

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I don't know.

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Maybe I'm wrong on that.

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But it's really fascinating

to watch these stubby little

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translucent translucent black.

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Oh, wait.

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Their wings are translucent.

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The black translucent wings

interact with the world around them.

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They're very hard to spot unless

you know what they look like.

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And even then, they're

still challenging to see.

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That's incredible gift of creation.

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I enjoy that hope.

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You're enjoying that too.

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Hope you're enjoying the wondrous things.

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God has put around you, especially coming

off of some of the last things you read

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in the Proverbs, maintain that wonder.

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Keep an eye on the world

around you and enjoy it.

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This is the life that God has given us.

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And it's a good thing.

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Okay.

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Speaking of good things, let's jump

into first Kings at chapters 12 through

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14, we're back in the narrative.

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And now we're back in the chronological

sequence of the old Testament.

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So we kind of stopped and we

looked at Ecclesiastes, these

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which is not chronologically,

a book that moves us forward.

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It's a book about Solomon's

reflections on his life.

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The good, the bad and the

ugly and his conclusions.

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Then we finished up the book of Proverbs,

which again is not going to move us

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forward in the chronology, but it's going

to give us some more insight into the

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first century, not the first century,

mind, the ancient near Eastern mind.

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About how they understood wisdom.

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And so we heard from Agur and

then we heard from king Lem,

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mules mom, and of course, some

of his musings on a godly wife.

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And now we're back into the Kings

of Israel and soon to be Kings

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of Judas, we're going to see the.

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Cataclysmic event it's called the divided

kingdom and it begins in chapter 12 of

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first Kings and titled Rhea bones folly.

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Now Rehoboam is Solomon's son.

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So I'd imagine he heard a lot of good

things from his dad as a young man.

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He heard the Proverbs, he heard all of the

wisdom that, that his dad gave him, but

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it does not seem that it landed very far.

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So Rehoboam ventures to check them and all

Israel meets him there to make him king.

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And all of a sudden, you remember one of

those adversaries that Solomon made back

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in chapter 11 of first Kings for yeah.

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First Kings chapter 11.

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Well, he shows back up.

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Jeroboam the son of me.

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Bet.

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He shows up and now he's wondering,

what's this going to look like

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now that Solomon's off the scene?

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What's his son Rehoboam going to do.

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And so Rehoboam to his credit.

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Seeks to counsel of two separate parties.

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The first party.

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Is the council with the old men

who had stood before Solomon.

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And then he asked him, what

do I do with this people?

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They're asking me to lighten

their burden and their low to

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perhaps decrease the taxes and.

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And decrease the labor demands

in order to satisfy the kingdom.

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So the old men tell him, look, if

you want to win the people, lighten

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their load, do what they say.

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Grant them some reprieve.

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But verse eight says in first Kings

chapter 12, he abandoned their council.

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And instead.

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As he tossed out their counsel.

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He now seeks the counsel of the

young men that he had grown up with.

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Now, imagine this, you have two groups

of people, old wise, godly men, and then

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young men who only know living in Beverly

Hills, all they've ever known was servants

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and an ample supply of money and food.

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And the, you know, the family

cars available to them.

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They're driving the

Lamborghinis here and there.

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They now respond.

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To Rehoboam is quandary.

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And they say something a bit crude.

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You probably won't read this.

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And then in the English language,

But they're making a suggestion

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about the things that you should

say that are very inappropriate.

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I'll just leave it at that.

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And I'll leave you to kind

of figure that out yourself.

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If you want to do some digging.

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But they say, Hey, answered them harshly

and say, you do you think my dad was hard?

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Wait till I get ahold of you.

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And so.

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They respond very harshly and Rehoboam

seems to adopt their, their attitude.

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I don't know if he says

everything that they say.

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But for seeking the counsel of the

elders and adopting the counsel of

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his peers, he responds to the people

after they returned three days later.

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Now I want you to notice here,

there's an absence council request.

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He's got counsel from the old man.

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He's got counsel from the young men, but

there's no evident counsel from the Lord.

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It doesn't seek the Lord in this decision.

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And so it's evident that his decision

is ill-advised from the start.

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Even if the old man did have

some good things to say, and

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perhaps it was the wisdom of God.

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He doesn't ask God to confirm,

nor deny these things.

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He just goes ahead and

moves along with that.

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I think this is a really good

place for us to stop and think,

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am I seeking the counsel of God

in the decisions of my life?

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Or am I presuming upon him

by just making decisions?

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And again, you can't.

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Pray for every single thing in your

life, but you should pray about a lot.

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Uh, most of your life, you have

opportunity to pray, even if

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it's just under your breath.

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A few seconds here, a few seconds there.

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Not neglect to seek the counsel of

the Lord to ask him to lead your life.

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And to give you the wisdom

to take the next step.

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Verse 15 and chapter 12 of first Kings.

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So the king did not listen to

the people, but here's, here's an

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interesting twist for, it was a turn

of affairs brought about by the Lord

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that he might fulfill his word, which

he spoke by a Hijah the Shilah night.

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So God is.

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Operating behind the scenes

here to ensure that there is.

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There is a division of the

kingdom and this kingdom divide.

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Is God's work.

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And sometimes this is interesting.

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Sometimes God is at work.

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To divide.

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This is God operating for

his sovereign purposes.

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Now the sin behind it is not God

that's people, that's us making

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decisions or in this case rehabil, but

the division itself, this is of God.

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And so in 9 31, BC, the kingdom

of Israel and Judah divide.

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Now you need to know here

going forward and the next.

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The next several days that we're

in the Chronicles and Kings.

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Here's the way that you

need to understand this.

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The Northern kingdom is going to be

henceforth referred to as Israel.

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This is not the, this is not

including Judah and Benjamin Israel

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includes the 10 Northern tribes.

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And they'll forever be known as

Israelis for this point forward here.

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Israel just to give you a heads up here.

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Doesn't have any good Kings.

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No good kinks.

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The verdict on all the Kings

in the north is bad news.

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They did evil in the sight of the Lord.

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So anytime you see an Israelite

king again, Northern kingdom, you're

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not going to see a good verdict.

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The Southern kingdom has

this mattering of good Kings.

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Now not all of them are good.

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There's a few that are bad.

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Several that are bad, actually.

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But many of them are good.

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And so you have in the Southern kingdom.

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God's preserved king.

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He preserves this kingdom in

view of his servant, David.

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He does this on behalf of David,

the promises that he made to David

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in second, Samuel chapter seven,

he wants to follow through with.

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And so he preserves a lineage

in the Southern kingdom.

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And as of course, you know, the

Southern kingdom is the kingdom

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by which Jesus himself comes.

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Jesus is from the tribe of Judah.

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And he's the one who rules

and reigns ultimately.

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So all of this points forward to Jesus,

but that's how it's going to work.

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The Northern kingdom is Israel.

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The Southern kingdom is called Judah.

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And that includes the tribe of

Benjamin, which you'll soon.

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See.

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Second half of verse, second,

half of first Kings chapter 12,

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starting at verse 16 here, you see

that the division has taken place.

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Uh, at the helm of the

Northern kingdom is Jonah dab.

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Excuse me, not Jonah dab.

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Uh, his name is.

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Joe.

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Leading the Northern kingdom is Jeroboam

the son of ni bet the Southern kingdom,

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of course, at the helm of Rehoboam.

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Rehoboam soon finds that the Northern

kingdom wants nothing to do with them.

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And so he sends his task master named,

uh, Dorham he's, he's got a slightly

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different name in the Chronicles,

but he sends his task master.

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They beat him up, they kill him

and Rehoboam responds with okay.

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Call to arms.

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Let's go.

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And let's rally everybody together.

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Let's fight.

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But God puts the brakes on.

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It says stop.

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Every man returned to his home

for this thing is from me.

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And so to his credit, Rehoboam listens.

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And the final few verses here in

chapter 12 of first Kings, you find that

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Jeroboam starts inventing a new religion.

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He builds golden calf.

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Now it should remind you

of Exodus chapter 32.

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This is a bad situation here.

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He puts two calves in

two different locations.

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In the first calf, he puts up

north in Dan and in the second

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calf, he puts south in Bethel.

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So the most Southern part

of the Northern kingdom.

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And that means now.

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Israel doesn't have to go to Judah in

order to offer sacrifices to Yahweh.

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Why?

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Well, because they have their own new

religion here in, in the Northern kingdom.

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This is a bad thing.

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Obviously, you know, this setting up

your own religions, setting up your

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own priests and Kings are priests and

Levis, a bad situation altogether.

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And this is the kind of sin that's going

to follow Israel for the rest of her days.

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In first Kings 13, you

have two unnamed men.

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One called the man of God and

one called an old prophet.

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The man of God is told to go to Gera

Bowman and tell him behold, here's

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what he says in verse two behold.

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A son shall be born to the

house of David Josiah by name.

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And he shall sacrifice on you.

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The priests of the high places

who make offerings on you.

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And human bones shall be burned on you.

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So he's going to desecrate the altar

in the Northern kingdom, by the

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hand of king Josiah, who's going

to come about 300 years later.

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He does this and he says, this is the

sign that I'm going to give to you.

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And then when Jera bombs like, hold

on a second, here you come back.

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As he sticks out his finger, his

hand, or his finger shrivels up as

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an, as a sign of God's judgment.

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He asks, Hey, please.

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I'm sorry about that.

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Will you please restore my hand?

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And then God restored his hand.

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It seems after this situation here

that Jeroboam changes his approach.

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He doesn't try to bully him anymore.

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Now he tries to.

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, not use force, but perhaps bribery,

look, you come to my place.

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Look, you I'll take care of you.

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I'll bless you.

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Something like that.

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And he says, look, I'm

not allowed to do that.

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Verse nine.

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Uh, it was commanded to me

by the word of the Lord.

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You shall not eat.

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You shall not neither eat bread

nor drink water nor returned

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by the way that you came.

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And so he departs.

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But introducing a new

character, an old prophet.

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Again, someone you don't know.

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His, name's not mentioned here, but

he's an old prophet lived in Bethel.

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His sons tell him that

this man had gone came.

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Here's what he did.

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And this old prophet goes

and finds the man of God.

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And the clear words that should

stand out to you are in verse 18.

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The old prophet lied to the man of God.

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He says, look, you need

to come back with me.

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God said that you need to come with me.

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And so the old prophet successively

deceives the man of God.

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And the man of God is

now sitting with him.

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And then the word of the Lord

in verse 20 came to the prophet

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who had brought him back.

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Now, get this, the prophet

just lied to the man of God.

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But now God is actually speaking to

this prophet and here's what he says.

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Thus says the Lord.

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Because you have disobeyed the word of

the Lord and have not kept the command

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that the Lord, your God commanded you.

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But you came back and

you did all this things.

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He says your body shall not come

to the tomb of your fathers.

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You're going to die.

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And you're not going to

die in an ignoble way.

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You're not going to be buried.

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With your father's, which

is a great big deal.

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It's a big deal for them in an honor shame

culture to be buried with their family.

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And this case, God says you have forfeited

that because you've disobeyed my word.

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And of course that's exactly what

happens In verse 24, it says here,

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and as he went away, a lion met

him on the road and killed him.

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Note here, the importance of

following the word of God, as you

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know, it don't let someone tell

you it says something different.

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In fact, if someone says they have a

word for you, men, I hope it starts with

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the chapter in verse from the Bible.

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Let us be the kind of people who

take God's word at face value

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and understand it to be the

authoritative truth for our lives.

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So many competing voices

in our lives will tell us.

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And perhaps.

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With good intentions.

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. Make sure.

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You know the word and make

sure you follow the word.

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To do anything different is to

invite devastating consequences.

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In first Kings 14, we finished

the reigns of both Jeroboam

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and Rehoboam Rehoboam son.

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Abijah get sick.

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And so he sends his wife in disguise to

a hijab, the prophet who is in Shiloh.

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God tells a hijab ahead of time.

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This is going to happen.

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And so as his wife makes

his way into his place.

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He says, I know who you are.

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Come on in.

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Let me tell you what's going to happen.

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Interestingly God says.

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I'm going to spare the child because

there's something in him that's favorable,

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not spare him in an ultimate sense.

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He's going to let the child die.

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But he's going to be buried and

that's not going to be true for

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everybody else in Jura boom's family.

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And so the end of his reign

results in the death of his child.

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And the dishonorable death of

everyone else in his family.

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So this is going to be the future

for Jeroboam the last few verses

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here verses 19 and 20 tells us

that he rained for 22 years.

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So he hit a pretty long reign.

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But it was a devastating rate, a

negative impact on the people of Israel.

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And again, it's going to color

the rest of their future.

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Uh, rebel I'm in the Southern kingdom.

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As a few final words about

his reign in his life.

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Uh, he doesn't do well.

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And that's kind of the extent of it.

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Um, in the fifth year

of king Rehoboam shack.

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The king of Egypt comes

up against Jerusalem.

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We're going to find out a little

bit more about that tomorrow.

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And we also find out that

the king of Egypt plunders.

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Uh, Judah and makes Judah a vassal

to them, which now means that they're

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subject to now, this is actually

kind of a good turn of events because

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this was not the original plan.

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Again, we'll see this tomorrow

in the reading and Chronicles.

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But it ends, uh, unceremoniously.

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He slept with his father and was buried

with his fathers in the city of David.

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Um, and his son Abijah or Abijah

depending on which book of the Bible

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you're looking at, Chronicles calls

him Abijah, but a by jum here in

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first Kings, it rains in his place.

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Lots of things we can take

from these leaders here.

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Uh, both of these men, both

Rehoboam and Jeroboam suffered.

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Uh, this disease of not.

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Counting on the word of God, not

knowing the word, not responding to the

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word, not seeking the Lord's counsel.

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And you can see all the devastating

effects of their life in their lineage.

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This is bad for them, but it's good

for us because it should instruct

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us to be a people of the book.

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Now, I know we sound this alarm

pretty regularly, but it's such

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an urgent and necessary reminder.

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I'm glad you're reading the Bible

with us so good that you're doing

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this because it is protective.

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And it's also good for you and

for your family and everyone else

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around you that, you know, the word.

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So keep doing that proud

of you for doing this.

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Thanks for joining me today.

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And it really helped.

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I'll see you again tomorrow for another

edition of the daily Bible podcast