This week we are looking at the life of a king of
the Jewish people named Rehoboam. Yesterday, we looked on as King Rehoboam, was
asked by the Jewish people that the heavy taxes and forced labor placed on them
by his father King Solomon be eased by him. Upon hearing the northern tribes
request from their spokesman Jeroboam, king Rehoboam requested three days to
consider and respond to their request. The northern tribes, encouraged by the
new kings’ willingness to consider their request, agreed to return in three
days to hear his response. We see what King Rehoboam did next in 1 Kings 12:6:
King Rehoboam consulted with the
elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying,
"How do you counsel me to
answer this people?" Then they spoke to him, saying, "If you will be
a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their
petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants
forever."
Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves
in this event from history as king Rehoboam. Place yourself in his shoes. You
are now the new king and have been given the incredible responsibility to lead
a very prosperous nation into the future. You have watched as your father, who
by the way was the smartest man who ever lived, led the Jewish people to engage
in several major building projects that enhanced the protection and reputation
of the Jewish nation.
However, those projects were costly monetarily and
in labor to the Jewish people. And now a major portion of the Jewish nation has
come to you to ask for relief from the high taxes and drafted workforce that
your father implemented to complete those projects. This is your first major
decision as king. So, what would be your decision? Who would you turn to for
advice? I mean, wouldn’t you turn to the advisors that advised the smartest man
on the planet?
After all, these advisors would have been older than
Rehoboam and would have gleaned a great deal of wisdom from being around King Solomon.
I mean, imagine what you could learn if you consistently were around the smartest
man on the planet? These advisors, as a result of their experience with King
Solomon and the wisdom that they had gleaned from King Solomon, would be a
valuable asset.
In addition, these advisors, because of their
experience and wisdom, would not be intimidated by the king’s position and
instead would be in a position to tell King Rehoboam what he needed to hear,
not simply what he wanted to hear. These advisors also knew the history that
led to the feelings of those tribes that were from the northern part of the
nation. These advisors would have had a full picture and more information to
inform their decision.
And because of that reality, King Rehoboam sought
their advice. Upon asking their advice, these older and trusted advisors of King Solomon recommended
that King Rehoboam grant their request, because they believed that such a
response would result in the allegiance of these tribes and would solidify his
rule as King of the Jewish people. Now you would think that King Rehoboam would
have responded to who these advisors were and their advice by embracing their
advice. And you would be wrong, as we see in verse 8:
But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and
consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. So he said to
them, "What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have
spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?" The
young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say
to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, now
you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, 'My little finger is
thicker than my father's loins! 'Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy
yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will
discipline you with scorpions.'"
Instead of embracing the advice of the wiser and
older advisors of his father, King Rehoboam rejected their advice. King
Rehoboam chose to take the advice of younger advisors who grew up with him.
Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger advisors were the same age as the
new king. Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger advisors would not have
been around King Solomon to glean wisdom from the smartest man on the planet.
Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger advisors
did not know the history that led to the feelings of those who were from the
northern part of the nation. Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger
advisors would not have had a full picture and all the information to inform
their decision. Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger advisors, because
of their lack of experience, were just happy to be in the same room with the
new king.
Unlike his father’s advisors, these younger advisors
grew up with King Rehoboam and desired to maintain the relationship that they
had while growing up together. And as a result, unlike his father’s advisors,
these younger advisors would only tell King Rehoboam what he wanted to hear,
not what he needed to hear.
And unlike his father’s advisors, these younger
advisors viewed themselves as positional leaders instead of servant leaders. We
see this reality reveal itself in two specific ways. First, did you notice how
these younger advisors referred to the Jewish people as “this people” in v. 9?
Second, did you notice the advice that these younger advisors gave King
Rehoboam when it came to what he was to say: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!’
Now this phrase was a well
known proverb of that day that basically said “my power will be greater than my
father’s power”. When these advisors refer to scorpions here, they were
referring to a particularly cruel kind of whip
that was used in that day, which had sharp pieces of metal attached to the ends
of the whip.
You see, these younger leaders believed that the new
king needed to exert his positional power in a way that bullied the nation to
fall under his leadership. Instead of serving the people for the nations good and
growth, King Rehoboam was more concerned with intimidating the nation through
the positional power that he held.
Friday, we will see the consequences of the King
Rehoboam’s decision...
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