Pastor Bob talks about the path of Israel. It was a time of peace and joy, but that gave way to conflict for hundreds of years. |
Chapter 14 “United We Stand, Divided We Fall ”
1 Kings 11-12
Intro – welcome back to chapter 14 of The Story. If you were with me last week, you’ll remember we looked at the story of King Solomon…the wisest King that ever was…whose kingdom had no equal…wealth, prosperity, wide spread fame…I mean this guy had it all and then some…he was wise with a unique wisdom from God…he wrote books of wisdom which became part of our Bible…a rich and powerful and influential King…
And it was a good period of history for the nation of Israel…it was at time of peace and prosperity under his reign…1 Kings tells us, for example, that “The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones…” (1 Kg 10:27).
You could almost call this the Golden Age of Israel…
But, as we learned last week, as Solomon got older things began to crumble from within…his heart turned away from the one, true God and influenced by his many foreign wives, he started to worship the pagan gods of other nations. And because of this here is what we read in 1 Kings 11:9-13…
What God is doing here is ushering the nation of Israel into the period of the Divided Kingdom…Israel is about to be divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom…the northern consisting of 10 tribes called Israel and the southern consisting of 2 called Judah. Each kingdom will have it’s own King and will be in a state of constant tension and warfare with each other…and this will last for hundreds of years…
And the reason this is happening is because God is judging Solomon for his sin. But even in His judgment God shows mercy to Solomon by not tearing the kingdom apart until he dies…God says in 1 Kg 11:34 “I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees.”
So, that’s where we pick up the story, with the death of Solomon and the sad events that follow…
-open Bibles to 1 Kings 12…prayer…
Jeroboam and Rehoboam
-before we get into this, I need to introduce the two main characters of chapters 11 and 12, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Their names sound so much alike, that this can get confusing.
But here is who they were: Jeroboam: one of Solomon’s outstanding officials whom God chose to be the next King of the northern 10 tribes. We find that story in 1 Kings 11:26-40.
Rehoboam was one of Solomon’s sons who thought he would become the next King of all Israel, only to discover that he is going to be challenged by Jeroboam and eventually end up the King of only the southern 2 tribes.
Make sense? Let’s pick up the story in 1 Kg 12:1-15…
Notes on v.4. We learn from v.4 that there was a dark side to Solomon’s vast wealth and prosperity. It was accumulated not only through trade and commerce with other nations, it was built largely on the back of forced labor and taxes among the people of Israel themselves. So you’ve got a bunch of angry people who are looking for some relief from their new King.
…keep reading…v.5…
So what happened as a result of Rehoboam’s harsh response, was all the people retreated to their tribal regions in the north and south and made Jeroboam King of the 10 northern tribes and Rehoboam King of the 2 southern tribes. What was once a proud and prosperous and united nation became a divided kingdom.
Upper and Lower Stories
What we have here is a great biblical example of how God’s upper story works with our lower story.
When it appears that our lower story is a complete mess…when things on earth are confusing and difficult and falling apart before our very eyes…
…still God is at work in His upper story to accomplish His plans and purposes. In other words, God orchestrates our lower story to accomplish His upper story, sovereign purposes.
How do we know this? look at 12:15: “for this turn of events was from the Lord…”
God was actually at work in this lower story mess, sovereignly moving things into place to accomplish His upper story purposes for His people…
It’s easy for us to see how this whole divided kingdom mess could have been avoided. All Rehoboam would have to have done was to listen to his people and be kind to them and serve them and lighten the load of heavy labor.
But God had other plans in mind…”this turn of events was from the Lord…”
Can you say that in your life?…
Later in the chapter when Rehoboam is gathering his troops from the southern tribes for battle against Jeroboam and the northern tribes to try to regain the whole nation for himself, God stops him and says through a prophet, “Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.” 1 Kg 12:24. God says it again…”this is my doing…”
So this is one of the great lessons of this story. When things are messy and confusing in our lower story…when things don’t make sense…instead of trying to make sense out of it ourselves…
…the best sense we can make is to acknowledge that God is up to something…that He is at work even in the mess to fulfill His purposes, that are always good and loving and good for us as the people He loves…
And as we get a bird’s eye view of the whole upper story message through this series, we can catch a glimpse of what God was up to for this time in Israel’s history…God is clearly preserving the tribe of Judah for the future arrival of Jesus Christ…God is working out His redemptive plan…even in division and disunity, God is faithfully committed to His rescue mission for humanity by sending a Savior who will come through the tribe of Judah…the line of David…
Remember that the over-all message of the Bible is this: God created you and loves you…but He lost you because of sin…so now He is on a rescue mission to bring you back to Himself through Jesus Christ…
-and nothing will stop this mission…not even disunity and division and poor choices by kings or messes we create here on earth…
We can trust Him in this, obey and follow Him with confidence and security…
The Church Today
Even in the NT part of The Story God also promises to build His church. He says in Mt. 16:18, “I will build My church…and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”
(Mt 16:18). That’s an upper story truth…
God’s desire is clear for His church today: He wants unity and the building up of His body…not division, disunity or tearing down. He wants His people to be united by love, serving, helping, the gospel, reaching the lost…
Jesus said “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” Luke 11:17
Division destroys, unity builds. We see it in Israel’s history and we see it today in the church. United we stand, divided we fall.
When I read the OT story of the divided kingdom, I see at least four unity killers that have a direct parallel to the church today.
Let’s discover those and learn from them…
Unity Killers
1. lack of a servant’s heart 12:7
Rehoboam, had an opportunity to build/strengthen his people, but he chose to exert his power instead. He chose to be served rather than to serve, and it caused a national rebellion that resulted in two kingdoms instead of one.
Jesus would say, instead of asking how others, or the church, can serve you, you should be asking how you can serve others and the church. This is totally backwards to our culture, but imagine the results if Christians really lived this out. People would have an “any way I can serve” attitude instead of a “what is the church doing for me” attitude…
-lack of a servant’s heart is a unity killer; a genuine servant’s heart is a unity builder.
2. manipulation for selfish goals 12:26-30
Jeroboam realized that if the people went to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, which is in the southern kingdom, then they might shift their allegience back to Rehoboam.
So out of his fear he manipulated the people by setting up his own worship sites in the northern kingdom, telling them to worship close by instead of in the Jerusalem temple. All because of fear, selfish goals, Jeroboam led the people into disobedience and idolatry.
Crass manipulation for selfish goals.
When we have to resort to manipulation to get our way in a church, we are involved in a unity killer. Beware of those who lobby for things, try to sway you to their side on issues, bend your ear about certain “concerns” they have…don’t get pulled into spiritual manipulation…and don’t initiate it…
-we’re a unity builder when we let God guide and direct…and we trust in Him enough to let Him work in people instead of take matters into our own hands…force things through manipulation or clever persuasiveness…
3. individualism and self-protection 12:16
“What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!”
“every man for himself…”
-one of the great unity killers is to isolate ourselves into our private, hidden world and withdraw from contributing to the church community…
-it’s easy to give in to self-protection…taking care of ourselves when something is threatening us…
-but that’s guaranteed to hurt the church as it did the nation of Israel…
* we’re hearing renewed political talk from our friends in the US about self-protection…”put America first”…and I think we understand what’s driving that…concern for economic strength…but being inwardly focused can also backfire and weaken the strength of a nation…
-but in God’s kingdom, in His church the opposite is the better way…to give ourselves away, to lay down our life, embrace others, trust others, depend on others…be connected to others in a vital relationship…
-unity is built when rather than retreating from each other we move toward each other, especially when times are hard…
4. half-hearted devotion, sin and compromise 11:9-11
-we see that in Solomon’s life as we read earlier…his heart turned away from the Lord…he drifted and slowly gave in to compromise and sin affecting his love and devotion to God…
- When a heart is only half full of God that leaves room for other things to come in and take hold, which are often destructive things: secret sin…addictive behavior…hurtful treatment of others…etc…
That’s why it’s imperative that we keep our heart fully devoted to God…full of Him…through constant communication and obedience…
I’ve been warning you of a drifting heart for the past few weeks I think…God keeps putting it on my heart for all of us…be careful…watch out…if you’re letting God’s presence leak out of your heart…if you’re dabbling in sinful behavior…then God is trying to get your attention before you become a unity killer…
So are you a unity killer or a unity builder here at Northgate? Unity doesn’t just happen; it has to be intentionally pursued and maintained…
Eph 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
How about thinking of ways we can be more intentional about building unity here at our church…how about we repent of any ways we have been divisive in our actions or words…make things right…
Two Unity Builders
I want to close by giving you two major unity builders for the church…if we embrace these two things then we can be certain that we are pursuing unity:
1. The Cross of Jesus Christ
Eph 2:14-16 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one (Jews and Gentiles) and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross…
The cross of Jesus Christ is the great unifier…all of us come as sinners in need of God’s grace…and as we receive God’s love, mercy and forgiveness, we then offer love, mercy and forgiveness to others…
2. The Mission of the Gospel
Eph 3:7-9 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power… this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery…
There’s nothing like being on the same page when it comes to the reason we are part of a church…and there’s no other reason given in the Bible other than to gather to worship God, be taught and built up, and then go into all the world and make the gospel known through our words and deeds…
Conclusion
Two great unifiers. You can’t get anything better than that.
How shall we respond this morning?