Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: You'd think that Rehoboam would have said, "Maybe if I get my act together with the Lord, maybe somehow I could convince the Lord to give it back to me, if I seek Him and if I repent and serve Him." Even if He doesn't give it back to me, that's just what I should do anyway because that's the right thing to do. Not just because I want to get from Him, but because that's what's right.

We can get carried away sometimes. There's a lot of preaching in the world today: seek the Lord for what you can get from Him. God will bless you with this and He'll bless you with that. If He doesn't bless you with anything, it's still the right thing to do to worship God and to devote your life to Him.

Guest (Male): Greetings. On behalf of Calvary Chapel of Marlton, welcome to today's broadcast. It's great to have you with us as we continue our way through First Kings. Often, God uses difficulties to get our attention and turn to Him. But no matter how many times God throws a trial in our way, some people still refuse to heed His voice. Why is that? On today's edition of Hope From the Word, we'll look to chapter 14 to see if we can answer that. Here is Pastor Bill Luebkemann to get us started with verse 14 of chapter 14.

Bill Luebkemann: "The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day. Yes, even now. And the Lord will strike Israel so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the river because they provoked the Lord to anger by making Asherah poles. And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit."

Look at the first commandment: I am the Lord your God. There are no other gods beside. Have no other gods. Don't worship any other god. Don't make any other god. He doesn't want any other gods in your life. How many other ways do you have to phrase that before it sinks in? There are no others. There's only one, and He's a jealous God. He only wants He and He alone to be worshipped as God. That's His major thing.

Simple enough, but Jeroboam here didn't get it. He still doesn't get it, even when his wife comes back. This guy still doesn't get it. You think he still could repent here, maybe. Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died. They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the Lord had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah. Just like He said, it came to pass.

The other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. He reigned for 22 years and then rested with his fathers, and Nadab his son succeeded him as king. That was the sad conclusion of Jeroboam's reign. Now First Kings switches down to Judah and the southern kingdom for a little bit because we've got Rehoboam down there in Judah.

Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was king in Judah. He was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem. Jeroboam reigned 22 years, so Jeroboam reigned five years longer than Rehoboam. Rehoboam died five years before Jeroboam's kingdom ended or before Jeroboam died. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was king in Judah. He was 41 years old when he was king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put His name.

His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed, they stirred up His jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

Meanwhile, down in Judah, you've got Rehoboam as the king. He's lost 10/12 of the kingdom to Jeroboam. You remember that he started out to go to war against the northern kingdom to bring those 10/12 back into his kingdom, but a prophet came to him and said, "Don't do that; this is of the Lord." So he didn't go to war. He knew this is of the Lord. Now you'd think he would sit down and say, "I lost the kingdom and it's of the Lord. I wonder if it could be because I'm such a fool for the way I foolishly wouldn't lighten the load on the people here."

I wonder if I should do things differently. Maybe I should seek the Lord more. Maybe I should flush the evil out of the land. Maybe I shouldn't let the people do these things. You'd wonder if he would wake up, smell the coffee or something. But no, he doesn't. His country does evil in the eyes of the Lord. The people do what they're led to do by the leader.

Solomon, you remember, in the last 10 years of his life had been doing all kinds of wicked things because he had so many wives and concubines. So many of them were foreigners. They were leading him astray. They led the king astray, and through the king, the whole kingdom got led astray. Now Judah is doing the same nonsense: worshipping all these idols, putting up these Asherah poles, sacred stones. These are all ways of worshipping foreign gods on every high hill and under every spreading tree. Everywhere you went, they were worshipping idols.

They even had male shrine prostitutes. It was detestable to the Lord. They were doing the things that the people of the land had done before they came in there. They were taking on the practices of the pagan nations. You'd think that Rehoboam would have said, "Maybe if I get my act together with the Lord, maybe somehow I could win back the northern part of the kingdom in a righteous way. Maybe somehow I could convince the Lord to give it back to me if I seek Him and if I repent and serve Him."

Even if He doesn't give it back to me, that's just what I should do anyway because that's the right thing to do. Not just because I want to get from Him, but because that's what's right. There's a lot of preaching in the world today: seek the Lord for what you can get from Him. God will bless you with this and He'll bless you with that. If He doesn't bless you with anything, it's still the right thing to do to worship God and to devote your life to Him. If He gives you nothing at all, He's still God and He's still worthy of our praise.

That's what this guy here should have been doing, but he didn't. In the fifth year, it only took five years after Solomon died. The guy was only dead five years, and his son has run the kingdom into the ground. Five years. He lost 10/12 of the kingdom almost immediately. Then within five years here, look what happens. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace.

He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom. Five years later after King Rehoboam takes office, the guy from Egypt attacked. That's documented in secular records of Egypt.

He carried away all the treasure that Solomon had built up. The poor guy's only dead five years, and his son has lost all this treasure. These gold shields, which were more ornamental than anything else. You remember how many gold shields Solomon made. They were heavy, made out of lots of gold. They were in the palace. Now they're all carried away, and Rehoboam makes new ones made with bronze. The kingdom, David's kingdom, basically went from a gold kingdom to a bronze kingdom in five years.

That happened in five years because God's blessing was off of it. Take the hand of God off of it, right down in the toilet. But the United States has God's hand of blessing on it because it was founded by, in large part, people who were committed to seeking God and God's will for this place. But you don't see a lot of that going on today. I am fearful for the day that God's hand would be removed from the United States in the same way that it was removed from Israel.

Not that we're God's chosen people here in the United States in any way like Israel was, but clearly God's blessing is upon this land in a way beyond what His hand has been upon many other countries. Clearly we've enjoyed His hand of blessing in so many ways. Yet you see so many people have turned away from Him and are worshipping all the sacred stones and all the high places.

This Egyptian king carried everything away, and in just five years, this great kingdom of David went from being a gold kingdom to a bronze kingdom. Now Rehoboam makes the bronze shields. The gold shields used to be proud shields that hung in the palace of the Cedars of Lebanon, and now they're reduced to bronze shields. Where do they keep them? In the guardroom. They just get them out when they need shields. They're nothing to look at, nothing special anymore. The guards keep them. They're not worth looking at.

As for the other events of Rehoboam's reign and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. Abijah his son succeeded him as king. There was continued warfare between him and Jeroboam. Didn't God tell them, "Don't fight the war because this division is of me"?

He didn't fight the war we saw back at the beginning, but apparently somewhere along the way, they ignored that command also and the warfare continued. They're just ignoring the Lord God at every chance they can get. At every opportunity, they say, "How can we ignore God in some other way?" In the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah. Remember Jeroboam reigned longer than Rehoboam, so Jeroboam has been reigning now quite a while. In the 18th year, though, Rehoboam died.

So in the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maakah, daughter of Abishalom. She liked salami sandwiches for lunch. He committed all the sins his father had done before him. His heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been. Nevertheless, for David's sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong.

David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord's commands all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. This guy here succeeds his father. Abijah takes over, and he is the king now for three years. He is not fully committed to the Lord, which allows me to believe at least he's a little bit committed to the Lord, which is better than zero. God still allows him to reign and allows him to have some kind of a lamp there.

There's some hand upon his kingdom, some kind of a blessing, not because of anything he's done but because of what David his father has done, his great-grandfather really. There was a war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout Abijah's lifetime. As for the other events of Abijah's reign and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam, and Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Asa his son succeeded him as king.

In the 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah. Jeroboam is still king of Israel. But over down in Judah here, Rehoboam died, Rehoboam's son died, and now we're on Rehoboam's grandson. We still have Jeroboam getting older, reigning in the north, but down in the south now, his competitor is actually Rehoboam's grandson, Asa. In the 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem 41 years.

His grandmother's name was Maakah, daughter of Abishalom. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his father had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. He brought into the temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated. Here's a guy that's cleaning up house. Here's a guy that's fully committed, and I have no idea why, but he is. He's doing way better than his father or his grandmother or his grandfather. He even takes on his grandmother.

That says something because it's one thing to be committed to the Lord and take on your people that you don't know, but it's even harder to take on the people that you do know. It's even harder still to be committed to the Lord and face oppression from family members, maybe from your grandmother. His grandmother was into idol worship in a big way. She had made this Asherah pole and she was worshipping it in some fashion. He deposed her, took away her position.

She was the queen mother, and he kicked her out because of what she was doing. He cut her pole down and burned it. He really cleaned the place up. His heart was fully committed to the Lord. He did not abolish the high places. In other words, he allowed the people to worship God on the various high places. They were supposed to go down to Jerusalem to worship God. He allowed them to go to their various altars they had made and worship God. God wanted all the worship done in Jerusalem.

When it says he did not get rid of the high places, it doesn't say why he didn't do that. He might not have known that. He may not have been familiar with all the law of God. He might not have been familiar with it, might not have followed that, might not have known about it, maybe didn't care about it. I'm not really certain. I would tend to think he just didn't understand that or know about it. So take it for what it's worth. He did, though, all the other stuff. His heart was committed to the Lord, and the Lord honored that accordingly.

There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, throughout their reigns. Baasha was the one who was going to take over after Jeroboam passed off the scene in the northern kingdom. There was another guy that was king for a real short time and then Baasha takes over and we'll see that. Between the two of them, Asa is the new guy on the scene in the south, and Baasha is going to become the new guy on the scene in the north shortly.

Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa, king of Judah. This guy in the north, Baasha, fortified the town of Ramah. The purpose of it was to act like an outpost so that no one from Judah could leave or enter and go that way. It was like he had fortified this town and anyone from the southern kingdom who tried to get by, he could attack them, block them, or whatever. He could block off their path there or their way north.

Asa here did something foolish here. This was the guy that was fully committed to the Lord. Fully committed to God, but he still made a foolish decision. Asa then took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord's temple and of his own palace. He entrusted it to his officials and sent them to Ben-Hadad, son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. "Let there be a treaty between me and you," he said, "as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so he will withdraw from me."

Apparently, the king of Israel, Baasha, needed the help from Damascus to help him keep this city fortified. You remember how David was friends with the king of Damascus, and Solomon got all that lumber from the king of Damascus. This guy takes all the silver and gold and sends it up to the king of Damascus and says, "Hey, my father and your father were friends. So why don't we be friends? Here's all my silver and gold. I want you to break your treaty with this guy and be friends with me."

Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maakah, and all Kinnereth in addition to Naphtali. When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. Then King Asa issued an order to all Judah—no one was exempt—and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using there. With them, King Asa built up Geba in Benjamin and also Mizpah.

What he did was he made this deal with the king of Damascus and said, "Why don't you get on my side? And then if you're on my side, I'll be able to withstand against this other guy." That's what the king of Damascus did. The king of Damascus switched sides and came to his aid. There's a few problems with that. Second Chronicles covered it in more details. The bottom line is God was unhappy with what he did for a couple of reasons.

Number one, he didn't seek God. He didn't seek the Lord. He didn't ask the Lord to protect him from his enemy. He went to Damascus and asked that king. He took all the gold and the silver that he had—God's gold and silver—and he sent it up to Damascus and tried to purchase protection from Damascus instead of simply getting on his knees before God. He could have called in the local prophet and said, "I want you to ask God to protect me from this guy." But he didn't do it.

He bypassed the Lord and went around to Damascus to ask for help, which the guy in Damascus was more than happy to give him for the price he paid. Then what happened? The guy in Damascus attacked the towns in Israel. This was part of the promised land. Even though Israel and Judah were enemies, it was still Israel and Judah, all part of the promised land. God's chosen people, all part of Israel. And now you have Damascus coming in to take land away from Israel that God had given them.

He is paying some outsider to come in and take away the land from God's chosen people. The Lord was not happy with that, and it's going to cost him towards the end of his life. King Asa issued an order to all Judah; no one was exempt. They carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using there. With them, King Asa built up Geba in Benjamin and also Mizpah. They disassembled what Baasha had been building there.

As for all the other events of Asa's reign, all his achievements, all he did, and the cities he built, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? In his old age, however, his feet became diseased. If you look in Second Chronicles, you'll find he was quite disabled for a while towards the end of his life. Then Asa rested with his fathers, and he was buried with them in the city of his father David, and Jehoshaphat his son succeeded him as king.

Towards the end of his life, he became quite disabled, and you have to wonder if he went out on that kind of a low note because of his failure to truly follow God. Asa was a guy that for 41 years was truly devoted to God with all his heart. Yet this major blunder—taking all the silver and all the gold—this major error, mix-up, confusion. When your heart is fully devoted to God, then you need to go to the Lord in all things. In all trials and tribulations, no matter what happens around you, no matter how bad things are, the Lord needs to be the first one that you go to.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in the study of First Kings. You can hear this message or more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope From the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m., and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link: ccmarlton.org. And if you would, take a moment to write to Pastor Bill. It would be such a blessing to us.

We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study of First Kings next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.