For good or bad, leadership matters.
It matters, it matters, it matters. And that's why Satan uses Christians to attack their leaders. And he uses leaders to attack the sheep. Chuck Smith would just remind us all the time, don't beat the sheep.
Why would anybody have to say that? Because the sheep can sometimes really, you know, usually it's just one or two. It's a small percentage that just can really turn the tide in the heart of a servant. Be aware of those things and you're better prepared.
You won't be sucker punched. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Kings.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called the Migraine Committee in 1 Kings Chapter 12. So the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from Yahweh, that he might fulfill his word, which Yahweh had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nabat, the Shilonite Ahijah the prophet, that is.
And what verse 15 is saying in its Hebrew way is that God told you this was going to happen. He's not forcing anybody to do this. He just saw they were going to do this. And he is directing events.
He's still sovereign, still in control. This is what God said would happen, and here it is happening. So his arrogance, exasperated by inexperience, put those two together, made him weak and made a wreck of things. Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. A haughty spirit is arrogance. It's the Bible's word for an arrogant spirit, which is the cause of so much sin in so many people.
No surprise to find totally unfit people get elected and unfit people voting for them to be elected. That's in the Bible too. 1 Samuel 8, 18, Samuel speaking, and you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves and Yahweh will not hear you in that day. Well, verse 16, now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, that's the northern tribes, that's all Israel, the people answered the king saying, what share have we in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel, now see to your own house, O David. So Israel departed to their tents. They voted with their feet.
We're leaving. Solomon's first recorded decision, official decision, was wise with the baby and, you know, cut the baby in half and called the bluff. Rehoboam's first official decision to announce that he was a fool and for centuries, for centuries before the destruction of the Jewish temple by Nebuchadnezzar, the Jews considered the division of the nation the greatest tragedy in their history. This one moment right here when they said we're out and for 120 years from Saul through Solomon, it was the United Kingdom. With its problems but it was united and they measured every calamity by this split. This became, you know, Isaiah talks about it in chapter 7, Ezekiel does in chapter 37 and because Ezekiel, much of his writings, took place before the temple fell.
So this was a big deal. We're not living there to go through it. They were. Verse 17, but Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. So that means there were those who relocated from the northern tribes or settled in Judah's area and they say, ah, what is our family?
That's a political thing. We're staying here and they were free to stay. Verse 18, then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was in charge of the revenue but all Israel stoned him with stones and he died.
Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. Whose bright idea was it to send such a high-level official or such a foolish assignment? You know, hey, they just rebelled. Just send the IRS there. I mean, it's the arrogance. Is he listening to his cronies still? What should we do?
Go get the money from them. I don't know if that happened or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. This is the first death caused by the dumb king. Bad leadership can be deadly. I mean, men have been fragged. I mean, leaders in combat have been killed by their own men.
They were so bad. We'd rather do the enemy's work so we could defeat the enemy when it comes to you. Stupidity.
It is especially not funny when it is mixed with power. Well, it's proven you just give a teen a car, right? You've got power now. What are you going to do? Are you going to be responsible or are you going to be a statistic? What's going to happen?
And if you know, you're driving with another teen, which is like a nightmare to me, but never kidding, if you are and they're going to try to do stupid things, you need to make them stop that car and get out. You'd be better off walking alive than be carried out in a different way. Well, Rehoboam mounted his chariot in a haste to flee Jerusalem. Smug privilege blinded him to his own accountability. Does he get it now? Do you get it now, Rehoboam?
Do you understand how much these people are sick of you? I don't think he ever fully got it because people like that, unless they're born again, it's a tough one. They have to be full-blown repentant. They're just some people that are that far out there that you can't swim to them.
Something miraculous has to happen. Verse 19, so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. The house of David, the house of Messiah, all the prophecies surrounding, does that mean anything? What should they have done? I don't know. Maybe they should have, it would have been nice if they said, well, we're going to temporarily leave until Rehoboam's dead.
I don't know. Verse 20, now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, now the writer, he moves around a little bit, summarizes here and there, because we already met him early apart, they sent for him and called him to the congregation and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only. We'll pause there, because he's going to correct that statement, but this is, you know, what I mean, that the way they would write, they'd make this definitive statement Judah only, but no, we're Simeon.
Simeon's not with the north. His tribal allotment was engulfed by Judah until it was absorbed as a tribe. They still remained a tribe, they just didn't have a voice. And then was Benjamin. Well, verse 21, and when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. So, this split and contempt for Rehoboam is official.
The kingdom is now northern, southern, Israel, and Judah. That's now their identity. He shamelessly calls for the army to help him, hoping that mass bloodshed would undo his loss. There's no repentance, there's no remorse, there's no self-evaluation, accountability, personal, there's none of that. He's just moving right along. You could say, well, I mean, give the guy a break. He was raised in a palace, spoiled all of his life. He's also educated. He had the ability to look at other people and learn.
That excuse won't fly because there are others that have had it worse than him and have come out of it. Daniel was well educated. I mean, one of the great men of great characters in all the Bible. Anyway, we're told in 1 Chronicles that Judah at this time had 470,000 men for war.
So, this is only, this is probably their standing army, not calling up the militia yet. So, to the south was Judah, Simeon that had been absorbed, Levi, the rest of the Levites, more Levites are coming in when Jeroboam starts his idolatry, but right now there are Levites there, and Benjamin, four tribes. To the north was Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Ishakar, two tribes of Manasseh, Neftali, Reuben, and Zebulun. So, still Judah is very strong though. As I mentioned, some of the citizens from the ten tribes, they settled in Judah.
So, here's a ruler. He didn't care about other people's blood. He just wants his power. Verse 22, But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, verse 23, Now speak to Reboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people saying, Thus says Yahweh, You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me. Therefore, they obeyed the word of Yahweh and turned back according to the word of Yahweh. Well, again, I was looking forward to get to the prophets, and here they are. Ahijah and Shemaiah here, it's relief. God interfered with this war that would have left, incidentally, both kingdoms unprotected from their enemies.
Skirmishes between the two kingdoms would flare up from time to time for a few years. We get that in chapter 14. But what I like about this section now is the anointing in the prophet's voice that held a kingdom and its army in check. He just shows up and says, This isn't God.
And they all say, Okay. I mean, what must have been, what was the deciding factor? What was it about this man that puts an army in place? The anointing. They knew. The anointing is, you know, when someone is anointed, people know it.
Even the enemies, they don't like it, the enemies. They may not call it an anointing, but they know there's a power there. Well, everybody got in place when the prophet showed up there.
This won't always be so. I can't wait till we get to King Asa and, you know, the prophet coming to him, and this is going to be some nice exchanges, good and bad, realistic exchanges. Verse 25, Then Jeroboam built Shechem. Now Jeroboam now is the king in the north. So then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim and dwelt there.
Also he went out from there and built Penuel. So he's establishing his kingdom, development and fortifications, but he's also going to put the kingdom on the path to destruction, and religion is going to be the reason. Verse 26, And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the king, now the kingdom may return to the house of David.
This is important. Verse 27, If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of these people will turn back to their Lord, Jeroboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Jeroboam king of Judah. No care for what God said. He had a Bible, you could say, a verbal Bible. He had a word from the prophet of God. The prophecy was illustrated to him, so he wouldn't forget it. And then it was fulfilled, and he forgets it or dismisses it instead of doubling down on it. He determined to take authority from God.
The law appointed the temple in Jerusalem as the only place of sacrifice. He's going to overrule that so that another migraine committee is evolving here. There's another headache. Why? It's so avoidable. That's why it's so bad.
All of this is so easily avoidable, just looking at it on paper. He deliberately institutes a system to compete against God's system. God says, here are my feast days. And he says, I'm going to come up with one to compete so that our people don't go back to Jerusalem to worship. He is the seeker-sensitive king. He did not want his seekers to find the truth, but to remain under his influence. And of course, he says, well, my life depends on it. Well, then trust the prophet then.
Trust God. Well, Jeroboam was told by the prophet that God would bless him, would make him like David if he would just stick with him. But he chose sin as a tool to protect himself rather than obedience.
And this isn't the kind of stuff where it's like, well, you know, he had an addiction. This was just flat-out disobedience. And God did not give him the ten tribes to do this. I wouldn't be surprised if some prophet, other prophets are going to confront him later.
But he did it nonetheless. Verse 28, therefore, the king asked advice, now here's the other committee. The king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.
Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. They should have stoned him right there. Another committee. He's asking advice too.
Look at the dumb advice he gets. I got a good idea. We've got some leftover gold from the last party. Solomon brought idols into the land for his wives to worship. Jeroboam is bringing idols to the Jews to worship.
There's a big difference there, and they're both bad. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. He didn't tell them, your religion is false. Your religion is inferior. He told them it was an unnecessary burden. You're being burdened all the way down to Jerusalem. There's better ways to do this, and I've got it.
You get the same for less. He's selling it to them. He's not the only guilty one, of course. They were sinful enough to take the broad way to hell. It's a broad road. Why squeeze down to Jerusalem? We know what God said. Jeremiah, he comes along trying the last stand. That would be a good title for the book of Jeremiah. The last stand. He says, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it so. But what are you going to do in the end?
That's what he says. What are you going to do in the end? When you go to hell, what are you going to do?
My people love to have it so. Micah comes along with his sarcasm and says, no, I think even a drunk would be made a prophet by you people. That's how bad it got. So he reduces their faith to a corrupted tradition. We haven't seen that before. That doesn't exist today. That's sarcasm.
Of course it does. There are those who overrule what God has said and have put in its place corrupt tradition. He'd do this. Well, the birth of the nation, Israel, in Exodus 32 with Moses, there was the descent to calf worship. And here, at the division of the kingdom, a descent to calf worship began. Satan says, I don't need any new tricks. These guys are dumb enough to go for the old ones. Why should I work all night at the drawing board, like Wile E. Coyote, you know?
Why don't I just give them the old stuff? Just regurgitated satanic influence. And it works. Verse 28. Before we move to verse 29, 2 Kings, still, a few hundred years later, is still in the minds of the righteous. The historian then writes, Jeroboam drove Israel from following Yahweh and made them commit a great sin. Now verse 29, and he set up one in Bethel, which means the house of God in that language, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before one as far as Dan.
He made shrines on the high places and made priests for every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi. So he took an unanointed people, people that God forbade from serving before him. Well, that fits because they're not serving Yahweh. They're using his name.
That's forgery. No matter what and how the devil influences people, still, the people who are under that influence are accountable. 1 John 5.19. We know the world. World as used in the scripture means society, mankind, and rejection of Jesus Christ. And John writes, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Ezekiel, you know, Ezekiel, God speaking through him, then it was so, after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, says the Lord Yahweh.
It's just this outburst. So, you know, then it was so after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, says Yahweh. An interesting study is to go through the woes in the Bible.
It'll take you a long time. Woe is you if you start that. Again, Ezekiel 16. You built your high places at the head of every road and made your beauty to be abhorred.
The beauty of the bride of Israel was supposed to be attractive and she became something hideous and grotesque to God. You know, you can go to a place, look at it, there's a church on every corner. None of them fit to go to because they don't honor the word of God. That has happened, has it not?
There are whole countries where it's that way. How hard would it be to find a good Bible study in the Vatican City? Anyway, the plunge into idolatry.
The only thing that stabilized it would be the captivity. But here's Jeroboam. He would rather offend God than seek God.
There's a basic formula and somehow the people managed to find this acceptable and supported this. So he wasn't acting alone. He had a whole kingdom in back of him, a split kingdom, appointing the non-Levitical priest.
Serious, blatant violation. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows, that will he reap. The question is, for bringing in this counterfeit and this convenience and this corruption, where's Jeroboam now?
Was it worth it? Verse 32, Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah. That's the God-ordained one in Judah. And offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel sacrificing to calves that he made, and at Bethel he installed the priest of the high places which he had made. He made, he made, man-made religion.
It's idolatry, it's total rejection of God. Then I say often from time to time, there's speculation, there's revelation. Is God revealing what he wants to mankind?
A man making up things, speculating, I think it's this. And Jeroboam has now sunk to that. And whatever sort of man and king he turned out to be, the people followed him. And this is the story of all the book of Kings. Whatever sort of man the king turned out to be, the people soon followed them.
Leadership is important. They followed David when he worshiped Yahweh, and he brought the ark to Jerusalem. And when he stopped, when Uzzah was struck dead and he stopped, the nation stopped with him. When Solomon built the temple, the people were with him.
When Jeroboam made the golden calves, or whatever other stuff he was doing, the people followed. When Hezekiah seeks to reform, bring restoration of worship, the people go with him. Josiah, the same thing, Josiah comes along and he does this revival, incidentally. Revival means something was dead and you're bringing it back to life. When we talk about a revival, how do we mean that? Are we saying the church is dead and we're bringing it back to life? Because lost sinners, you know, they're not being revived, they're being saved, born again. Just a thing that just kind of irritates me.
It's not a revival. Anyway, for good or bad, leadership matters. It matters, it matters, it matters. And that's why Satan uses Christians to attack their leaders. And he uses leaders to attack the sheep. Chuck Smith would just remind us all the time, don't beat the sheep.
Why would anybody have to say that? Because the sheep can sometimes really, you know, usually it's just one or two. It's a small percentage that just can really turn the tide in the heart of a servant. Be aware of those things and you're better prepared.
You won't be sucker punched. Well, verse 33, so he made offerings on the altar, which he made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. The historian is saying, this guy is a creep. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense. In vain they worshiped me. In vain they worshiped me, teaching as commandments the doctrines of men.
And there it is. So to compete with the feast of trumpets, he comes up exactly one month later, oh we got a better one coming up. And, you know, the heresy of picking out what we like to worship while rejecting what we do not like is widespread to this day. And I think that I would rather be silent sometimes in the presence of a unbeliever who's got kooky ideas than I would in the presence of a Christian who's got kooky ideas.
Because one is just he's a non-believer. But the other one is spreading it in the church, promoting it. And that the world is looking at. Influencing the world to reject Christ.
Yeah, it's a big deal. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you. These lessons, they're sort of exciting being one of your children, but they're pretty sad knowing that it's so easy to come up with a way, to come up with a reason to turn against you.
It's heartbreaking. We pray that we would be part of that camp that you use to further your glory among souls to get them saved. We ask you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit CrossReferenceRadio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's CrossReferenceRadio.com. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the Word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings on Cross Reference Radio.
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