The Strategies of Two Kings

Shechem played a pivotal role in the history of the Jews that is often overlooked by Bible Commentaries.  Shechem was a city where Abraham was living nearby when he received one of God’s promises. Genesis 12:6,7  By the time Jacob came on the scene 200 years later had become a thriving city.  Now the word city in Hebrew means that this settlement was a walled settlement, and Genesis 34:20, 24 report that it had a gate.  

Shechem was home to Abraham, Jacob, it is where Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, Joshua was to read the law from the side of one of the mountains nearby once they had made the conquest into that region Joshua 7,8. and Jesus talked to the woman at the well there.  The city of Shechem was situated between two mountains and had a natural acoustic effect so one could be speaking on the mountain and be heard in the valley.  The source I got this information from also indicated that he had been on top of one of the mountains and could hear the children playing in the city, so the acoustic nature worked both ways.

You remember from our last study that Solomon had started out well as a leader, but then his heart wandered,and he became a self-serving king.  In other words, it was more of a tyranny as he pressed his very own people into slavery to him and his family.  Toward the end of Solomon’s reign the heart of the people had already started to shift, and when he died, Jeroboam, one of his well respected men had fled to Egypt after have to seek asylum there.

Now Rehoboam, who was Solomon’s son that should take on the kingdom, went to Shechem for his coronation.  The story that goes on from here expands yet again the history of the city of Shechem as this event takes on another pivotal role in the history of the Israelites.

We start out our Lesson with one of Israel’s well respected men in exile.

1 Samuel 8:11-18

11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

13 And he will take your daughters to be confectioneries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

We do not know that Solomon knew of the interchange between Ahijah, the prophet of God and Jeroboam, but he certainly must have suspected something. Jeroboam was an industrious individual who was a natural born leader. The Bible calls him a valiant warrior.  As Solomon was losing his grip on his people it seemed natural that someone as powerful militarily as Jeroboam would be a threat to Solomon's throne, and he moved to get him out of the way. Jeroboam sought asylum in Egypt.

1 Timothy 6:6-11

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

The presence of Jeroboam, a returned exile, by the invitation of the people should have been threat enough to this new king, and then to have him as the spokesman for the entire camp of Israel who was offering bargaining chips to the king really should have left no question in Rehoboam’s mind as to the danger of not hearing their request.

Any leader who is self-serving is headed for disaster.  The old men advised Rehoboam to be compassionate to the people of Israel and they would serve him forever.  A good leader would have heard his followers and would have consulted his advisers, not from a selfish standpoint, but one that would seek to serve his own people.  This was the downfall of Solomon and Rehoboam.

When there is a group of people who either won’t hear the advice of the older generation or isn’t surrounded with the wisdom of the older generation, where will that take them.  In Rehoboam’s case, he consulted with his peers, who were self-serving just like himself.  

Today as individuals, families, and the church we do have access to the Holy Spirit speaking directly into our lives so in one sense it is different, but should we be seeking advice for our lives corporately and/or individually?

God had given Jeroboam the greater portion of the kingdom of Israel and protected him from being killed from Solomon.  He had forgotten that God could preserve the kingdom as well as give it to him.

Jeroboam, as well as Solomon and Rehoboam, had proved that their heart cared more for their positions than the people.  You remember in our last study we talked about Israel worshipping God in high places, and it was in such a place that Solomon met God and got the promise of wisdom.  Though these high places were forbidden through the Law that was given by God,  it was something He winked at as they were still giving him lip service.  These same high places caused Israel to compromise their beliefs in God, because they weren’t entirely following His directives.

When Jeroboam lead the revolt against Rehoboam, only Judah remained with Rehoboam.  So now that Jeroboam had eleven tribes with him he didn’t wish to lose that power that all those people gave him.  This why he set up the golden calves in the high places of Dan and Bethel.  

Do we as leaders become so power hungry that we set up some kind of idolatry so we do not lose the power, the authority that we have gotten?  This could be true of us as fathers, or as leaders in the church.

Jeroboam’s quest for power began with hearing the voice of God and being appointed by God to lead the 10 tribes of Israel.  Jeroboam got the lowest of the people to be his new priests at the high places in the worship of the golden calves.  He tried to brainwash the people that these calves that he made were representations of God who led them out of Egypt.  He was playing on their need to worship something physical and trying to keep them out of Jerusalem.  He knew that Jerusalem was the place God had set up through David and Solomon as the place where His presence would be felt and where the voice of God would be heard, but he chose to withhold any real experience of worship from them so he could maintain his own kingdom.

There were a total of eleven tribes that went with him, but when the tribe of Levi discovered they weren’t needed for worship, they went back and joined up with Rehoboam and Judah.  

Solomon’s wives lead him astray as they became more important to him than God. 1 Kings 11:3,4

Rehoboam’s friends lead him astray by giving him poor advice.

Jeroboam wanted to keep the hearts of the people, and though there was no immediate threat to losing them, he took counsel and built idols so the Israelites would not go back to Jerusalem to worship. 1 Kings 12:28

Defining Moments of a King!

Defining Moments of A King!
1 Kings 3

King Solomon was a young king over a people group that was without number. The background for this study begins in the first chapter of 1 Kings.

Solomon’s father David has had declining health and will eventually turn the kingdom over to his successor. Meanwhile David’s fourth son, Adonijah, has seized the moment and gained notoriety among David’s former colleagues and has set himself up as king. God had promised before hand that Solomon would be taking on that role and so right from the start Solomon walks right into a conflict that is left over from his father’s mistakes/sins. As David found out that Adonijah had set himself up as his father’s successor, David moved quickly then with the Prophet of God to instate Solomon as a God-ordained King. The reality of this situation is there is two coronation ceremonies going on within the same family to rule over the same people.

As Adonijah understood that he had a rival that was ordained by God and his father, he ran to the tabernacle and grabbed onto the horns of the altar in desperation begging for his life. Solomon left him live under the order that he was to show himself a worthy man. Adonijah bowed himself before his brother indicating his allegiance to him.

Eventually Solomon has Adonijah put to death because he asked a favor of Solomon regarding the woman that had been David’s servant to keep him warm as he aged. That was too much for Solomon and he ordered Adonijah killed.

For the sake of national security Solomon was ordered by David to carry out the judgment for various offenders of David’s that he hadn’t dealt with.

The Quest for Wisdom

To begin with, I would like to look at the Laws that were given by Moses for when Israel would receive a king. Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Now as we come to the text of our study 1 Kings 3, we see Solomon as an established, though young king. From the start of his reign he gets mixed up with foreign women, largely due to the various affinities he made with various kings.

It is here that he begins to go wrong. In order to see what was controlling his heart, let’s dissect this account together and see where Solomon’s heart was.

First of all, what is an affinity? According to the Strong’s Concordance, affinity is to give a daughter away in marriage, to contract affinity by marriage. So then what is an affinity? It is a relationship that is bonded through a marriage. The modern definition of this is forming a treaty through a marriage.

Solomon began his reign by creating a relationship with the king of Egypt through the marriage of Pharaoh’s daughter. What did this affinity mean for the kingdom of Israel? Egypt and Israel were both powerful nations at this point and basically this maneuver was creating an alliance between them similar to the alliance between Great Britain and the U.S.. 2 Corinthians 6:15 This type of alliance between Egypt and Israel was different though in the sense that Israel was designated a nation of God’s People, who were holy. Egypt, however was on a cultural path of destruction, through their idolatry, and ignorance of God. So as this plays out, we have a people set aside to be holy; whose king makes an alliance with a people who is unholy. Can this end anywhere but in a mess? 1 Corinthians 15:33

I see this episode, as a lack of trust on Solomon’s part. As an ally, they were bound to each other to stand in for each other in battle.

What do you have an affinity with? In Genesis 6 this gets played out in the spiritual realm as the sons of God saw the daughters of men and married them and through that alliance, giants were born. Today, if we allow the alliance between ourselves as holy children of God and the spirits of this world, the inevitable will happen and giants will be born within our soul.

The worship experience of Israel in those days was to worship in high places. The tabernacle was the original designated place of worship and at this point it was located in Gibeon. Even though the Tabernacle was in Gibeon, the ark of the Covenant (which represented God’s Presence) was in Jerusalem. For some reason God blessed Solomon’s worship in the high place at Gibeon even though it was still set up as a high place. This worship in high places was more than just building an altar such as Abraham, Samuel, and David had done; but was a complete worship center with groves, and whatever else was common in those types of settings. This was not true worship for it was forbidden by God, and was a form of idolatry.

What are our high places? Can we set up a spiritual high place, where by appearance we are worshipping God, but we are doing so in disobedience, and have set up our place of worship whether physical or spiritual as an idol before the Lord. Isaiah 29:13/Matthew 15:8 Are we following the practices of the heathen around us when we worship the Lord?

Now, after all this, Solomon goes to worship the Lord in Gibeon where the tabernacle is residing. This is the official place to meet the Lord for the Israelites. It is here in Gibeon, that God meets Solomon and offers him; no strings attached, whatever he wants.

Note that though Solomon loved the Lord, his devotion to the Lord was not his full devotion. He was distracted from giving the Lord his full devotion.

Solomon’s heart is toward the Lord at this point, and he knew that the job he had been called to do was bigger than he was. He was young, and inexperienced needing God’s wisdom for this undaunting task of leading God’s people on the right way. James 1:5

What is the difference between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God? The wisdom of this world is often viewed as philosophy including a wide spectrum of circumstances, and scientific theories; while the wisdom of God is having the understanding of life from God’s perspective. The only true way to understand life is through the wisdom of God, for God gives life, and He gives life meaning. If you try to understand life with a worldly wisdom, there are many areas in life when answers will fail you and life will cease to have meaning, judgments will be narrow sighted, and the future will be bleak.

Proverbs 3:7-26

John 15:16 We do have the same opportunity to ask God for whatever we will, but with one stipulation though. We need to ask in Jesus name. What does that mean? When Jesus abides in us, and the spirit of God moves through us, our request is not selfish, but for the good of the Kingdom of God. As a child of God, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, our greatest goal is to want God’s for ourselves and others what God has designed for us.

Solomon’s heart was distracted from giving God his full devotion. What about us? Are we distracted in our devotion to the Lord. Is our Faith radical? Have we given our complete trust to the Lord?

We have been given the position to lead in one way or another. Are we asking humbly God for wisdom to lead in the area we have been called?

Solomon’s request to God was also for an understanding heart. An understanding heart is one that hears, not just in passing or as one who is distracted when someone else is talking but one who really hears. Solomon wanted a heart that would really hear God when He was talking. A comparison to this spiritually would be in Ephesians 1:18.

The Gift of Wisdom

The speech pleased the Lord! What about Solomon’s speech pleased the Lord? Solomon had humbled his heart before the Lord, and a broken or humble spirit God will not turn away. God promised Solomon that he would be given wisdom and an understanding heart. 1 Corinthians 13:2 says that if a man understand all mysteries and doesn’t have love, he is nothing.

While on one hand Solomon had humbled himself and God had promised him wisdom and an understanding heart, Solomon was still living in disobedience to the Lord through his allegiance to Egypt through his marriage, and his continued worship in the various high places. The wisdom and understanding had proved to be disregarded in his personal life while at the same time he enabled others to benefit from it.

As part of Solomon’s blessing for choosing wisdom and understanding, God also blessed him with riches and honor. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant in which many times the faithful were rewarded physically as well. Many of the faithful under the Old Covenant received riches and honor as a blessing from God for their faithfulness. Under the New Covenant, however, which is spiritual, the blessing may not necessarily be physical. The faithful under the New Covenant will be rewarded with spiritual riches and when the day arrives when God calls his servants home, their reward will be so much greater than anything physical could possibly be.

After Solomon awake from his vision, and realized all that God had promised him, he went and stood before the Ark of the Covenant and offered up burnt offerings, worshiping God, and offering Peace offerings. Solomon was, as it were, standing in the throneroom of God before the mercy seat of the Almighty in humble submission.

The Results of Wisdom

I have often wondered what woman would be so hard as to say to cut a child to pieces. I mean you could see the child, yet that is what happened in this account. Solomon was able to see through her pretentious fascade and chose to use the method of threatening to do this as a means of determining who the real mother was. I can’t go on from here without saying that many of today’s mothers are doing exactly that. They are taking the place of that second woman and are having their unborn child torn apart or drugged so they die. Many real mothers and fathers are MIA (missing in action) when it comes to being there for their children.

In this case, though, the real mother’s heart yearned for her child and she couldn’t bear to see it destroyed. Isaiah 49:15.

Solomon’s wisdom that he showed in this case further solidified his place as a worthy ruler and his subjects were slow to disobey him because of his discernment. In the same way, when we trust the Lord, and do righteously, many people will respect us for it.

The contrast that came before Solomon was selfishness and compassion. This is what Solomon was choosing between.

The original plan for Israel was to be a nation of priests which would draw the world to God. Israel was located strategically between two major civilizations and would be right on the trade route. If Israel could maintain their spirituality, God would continue to bless them physically and nations would be in awe of them. Today as people of the New Covenant, God has blessed us not necessarily with physical things, but spiritual; and if we continue to live in faith the people of the world will be drawn to God through us. This will not be an automatic wave of people coming to God, but nevertheless, people will come.

Solomon used God’s wisdom well when applying it to the lives and needs of others, but when it came to applying it to his personal life, he was severely lacking. Truly applying wisdom will affect your personal life. Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10

Wisdom:
Delivers us from the ways of evil men Proverbs 2:10-13
Delivers us from immorality 5:1-3
It gives us the right words to say 10:31,32; Luke 21:15

Delivers us from evil and brings us to humility 16:16-18
It builds up and brings us strength and safety 24:3-6
Disciplining brings wisdom to children and to all whom God disciplines 29:15
Prepares men for Leadership Acts 6:3
Enables us to determine God’s will Colossians 1:9
True wisdom is gentle, pure, and merciful James 3:1

‪#‎askforwisdom‬ ‪#‎wisdom‬ ‪#‎questforwisdom‬ ‪#‎giftofwisdom‬ ‪#‎resultsofwisdom‬‪#‎walkinrighteousness‬

What is Mercy?

What is Mercy?

Mercy is the reversal of punishment for a crime committed.  Mercy is an unnatural expression found only in people who are willing to lay down their pride for the sake of God and the restoration of that relationship.  It is the antithesis of the modern expression “Don’t get mad...Get even!”  Mercy is enacted when someone has done a punishable offense against an authority or an individual, who because of their goodness and compassion is willing to extend forgiveness or pardon for the said offense.  Mercy is an act that has had the proverbial door opened though the spirit of grace and is extended to the individual who has wronged them.  

Where does Mercy come from?

Mercy, in its full experience comes from the throne of God. He willingly extends his mercy to mankind daily.  Lamentations 3:22 “It is of the Lord’s Mercy that we are not consumed”.  Though mankind has chosen to follow the selfishness of their hearts, God in His goodness reaches down to us to draw all of mankind to the place they recognize their sins and then will want God’s Mercy.  

Too many of us choose to ignore our sins or find our own way to pay for our sins.  God will never accept our righteousness as payment for sin, but if we recognize His Mercy and choose to accept it; God will be merciful and pardon our sins.

How does the Mercy of God play out in our lives?

Ephesians 2:1-10

• And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

When we, who were enemies of God by inheritance first and then by our own choice, recognize the helplessness/hopelessness of our position to gain any favor with God by our actions in deference to the many works of goodness we could choose to do; our inordinate affections having blotted out any righteousness we had hope to gain, producing in us a desperation for reconciliation yet having no means within ourselves to restore that which was lost in the beginning of time and then further squandered as time moved along.

God, on the other hand, not willing that any should die in their sins; broke that barrier of eternal death and separation.  He has offered us hope when we had none, life where mortality had reigned; and now instead of being doomed to an eternal separation from the author of life, He is willing to pardon or extend mercy to anyone who chooses to accept His righteousness and live on His terms.  God’s Mercy is an extension of His Grace which is an unmerited blessing.

Having offered us the reversal of judgment (or extended His Mercy) for our part in the sin of mankind, through the goodness of His Grace, we cannot expect to continue living in the very sins that alienated us from the presence of God.  God has offered us His Mercy, because He assumed the punishment that was ours, and now it is up to us to live in His Righteousness through His Grace.

Showing the mercy of God to our peers

Having established that mercy comes from God, we now take a look at showing mercy to our peers.  First of all, should we be nonchalant about those who have wronged us because after all “Vengeance is mine, I will repay; saith the Lord”?  No! No! No!  That would be gloating over the demise of your fellow man and would indicate the unfettered pride you have in your heart.

Why should we experience God’s Mercy when we are willing that our fellow man, who has wronged us undergo the wrath of God?

We, as Christians, having experienced the mercy of God in our own lives; are called to be God’s Ambassadors of His Mercy, Grace, Love, Peace and Truth.  When we recognize our embassage and live in it, those around us will hear the message of God clear and strong, because they will see that though there may be differences in thought processes and practices, we are willing to extend Mercy to others.

Christians will be known by their love for each other, and for mankind.

The Bible says “The merciful shall obtain mercy”.  It is impossible to show mercy to one who has wronged us if we first do not have a meek spirit.

So, go forth, Live in the Grace of God, and extend His Mercy to those around you!