When You Abandon God’s Word, Everything Falls Apart | 1 Kings 12–14

Here at PBC, we work our way through books of the Bible a little bit at a time, and today we find ourselves continuing on in our series through Kings. We are in 1 Kings chapter 12 this morning. So if you brought a Bible to church this morning, point your Bible to 1 Kings 12. If you’re not super familiar with the Bible, that’s going to be toward the beginning of the Bible — look for the book called 1 Kings, and big chapter number 12.

Let me go ahead and pray. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, bread for the eater, so your word will go forth from your mouth: it will not return back to you void or empty, but it will accomplish the purpose for which you have given it, and it will succeed in what you have sent it to do. Here we are, O Lord, eaters of your bread, and here I am, sower of your seed. For the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Amen.

Here’s the central claim that I’ll be making this morning: abandoning God’s word brings ruin, but trusting and obeying God’s word through Christ leads to true life and joy and flourishing. I’ll trust that you’ll see that as we work our way through this passage this morning.

The Bible reveals that God is full of love and joy and mercy and grace, and that he created a kingdom in which mankind is meant to glorify him and enjoy him forever. He gave his word, the Scriptures, sort of like the laws of the land, to tell his people how to glorify him, how to enjoy him, how to live life in his kingdom, and to spread infectious joy to the nations of the world. His word protects his people from all of the things that would prevent them from enjoying him and the life that he has made for them to live.

God gave them leaders, kings, who were to keep God’s word and to help God’s people keep God’s word, to glorify him and delight themselves in him, and to spread infectious joy to the nations of the world. These kings were meant to protect God’s people from all that would ruin and all that would spoil their enjoyment of the God who made them. But the kings failed to do this. The kings acted in their own interests and boasted in their own glory. And instead of protecting God’s people from ruining their joy in God, the kings led God’s people into the very thing that ruined their joy in God. And the people were sent into exile in Babylon. Kings is their story.

The first eleven chapters of 1 Kings chronicle the rise and fall of the king who was most likely to succeed — Solomon the wise, the son of David. And as we have seen already in this series, Solomon had it all. He had wisdom like no man before or since. He had riches like no king before or since. Power, political might. But as we saw last Lord’s Day, Solomon, in his old age, abandoned the word of the Lord. We saw last week how he loved many foreign women, and they turned his heart away from the Lord. And before King Solomon died, the Lord came to him and said, “I’m taking the kingdom and giving it to another.” He told him that his kingdom would be divided.

Chapter 12 of 1 Kings is the fulfillment of God’s promise. And we’re introduced to two men with similar enough names that it can get a bit confusing — so by God’s grace I’ll try to help you keep these two men separate. We have a man called Rehoboam, who’s Solomon’s son, grew up in the palace, rightful heir to the throne of Israel. And you have Jeroboam, who is Solomon’s servant — the man that God said would take the kingdom away from Solomon (well, the majority of the kingdom anyway).

This text that we’re considering this morning is going to show us how abandoning God’s word will never lead to human flourishing, human joy, and the glory of God. It will teach us that all who abandon God’s word and tamper with God’s word bring destruction on themselves and on others. And therefore a text like this one sends us forward in time to find the King who did succeed — the King who did keep God’s word, the King who suffered the ruin of his people’s disobedience of God’s word, the King in whom sinners will find their enjoyment and delight and pleasure forevermore.

Three parts as we work our way through these three chapters.

Part One: The Kingdom Is Torn in Two

Let’s pick up reading, chapter 12, verse 1 — remember, we’re going to try to keep these two men apart, Rehoboam and Jeroboam:

“Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.’ Rehoboam said to them, ‘Go away for three days, then come again to me.’ So the people went away.”

Verse 6: “Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, ‘How do you advise me to answer this people?’ And they said to him, ‘If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.’ But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, ‘What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, “Lighten the yoke that your father put on us”?'”

Verse 10: “And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, ‘Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, “Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us” — thus shall you say to them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”‘”

“So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, ‘Come to me again the third day.’ And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, ‘My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord, that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.”

Now remember — we’ve discussed this a number of times in this series. It’s important, when you’re trying to understand what’s happening in this book, to remember to whom it was written. This book was written to a people long after the events happening in this book, after the people of Israel have been kicked out of the land because of their disobedience to God. They’re sitting, languishing in exile in Babylon, wondering, as you might, “How in the world did we get here?” The book of Kings was written to answer that question. This is that story. Solomon set the wedge, and these are the boys who drove the sledgehammer.

Let’s start with Rehoboam. Rehoboam was Solomon’s son. Upon his father’s death he becomes king. Rehoboam is a king’s kid — he grew up in the palace, he wears fancy clothes and drinks from golden scepters. He has soft hands and probably beautiful feathered hair. The other guy, Jeroboam, is not royalty at all — he’s just a guy, a blue-collar project manager with a ball cap. He was in charge of the labor force that Solomon had raised to build the things that Solomon built. Jeroboam, blue-collar, man of the people, hears that Rehoboam is now king, and — we just read — he comes home from Egypt.

What in the world is he doing in Egypt? Well, if you were with us last week, you know God came to Solomon and said, “The kingdom is going to be taken from you and given to another.” Jeroboam is the other. And when Solomon hears that, Solomon goes after him — he’s a threat to the kingdom. So Jeroboam flees from the mad king and finds safety hiding in Egypt. And as soon as Solomon dies, Jeroboam, blue-collar ball-cap guy, comes home. Out of Egypt he comes — a man of the people, a man for the people, a man to deliver the people from the oppressor. And he tells the king in verse 4, “Your father made our yoke heavy — will you lighten the load, and then we’ll serve you?” It’s almost as if you can hear Jeroboam saying, “Let my people go.” Echoes of days gone by.

The king says, “You fellas, go away — give me a few days to think about it and come back.” Rehoboam, palace boy, soft hands, pretty clothes, feathered hair, goes to his father’s advisers, the old men, and says, “What should I tell these people?” And the old men, in their wisdom, say, “Well, you should lighten the load. It is a heavy load. The kingdom is flourishing — let’s lighten the load a little. You serve them, and they’ll serve you.” Well, a king’s kid doesn’t like that word, “serve.” And so he goes to the young men — which, by the way, when the Bible says “young men,” these men are probably in their forties. Rehoboam is in his forties; he’s a “young man” because he’s immature. He goes to the young men and says, “Well, what do you say? The old men said I should serve the people — what do you say?” And the young men say, “Lighten the load? You’re the king — serve them? No — they serve you. Tell them your pinky finger is thicker than your father’s thigh.”

And by the way, your English translation has softened the language here — the phrase for “little finger” is likely referring to a different part of the male anatomy. These men are being childish. They’re being crass. Well, they grew up in the palace. Rehoboam takes their advice, tells the people, “I’m not going to lighten your load — I’m going to increase your load.” Do you remember when Moses went to Pharaoh and told him, “My people have a burden — lighten the burden, let my people go”? Do you remember what Pharaoh did? Increased the load. Rehoboam is the new Pharaoh. Echoes of days gone by, looking for the new Moses. The king hardens his heart, refuses to let the people go.

Verse 15 is a fascinating little verse. It tells us that this turn of affairs was brought about by the Lord, in fulfillment of God’s word. Did Rehoboam act freely in this matter? Yes. Could he have acted otherwise? No — because that’s just how it works when you have a God who is sovereign over all things. He has control of the hearts and desires of men. That is all that blue-collar ball-cap Jeroboam needed. He didn’t even need to start a civil war — he just needed old Rehoboam, Pinky Finger, to do what Pinky Finger does. The people seceded all on their own; he didn’t have to do anything. God’s word was fulfilled exactly as God had foretold.

Ten tribes secede — Israel was made up of twelve tribes, and ten tribes to the north secede, leaving Rehoboam. Two tribes to the south, Judah and Benjamin, remain with Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the son of David. Well, if you’re a king who grew up in the king’s palace, you’re not going to take that — “You don’t secede from my kingship.” And so Rehoboam sends in muscle, sends a man to force the people back in line, and they kill the messenger. And they make Jeroboam, ball-cap, blue-collar guy, king over ten tribes.

Well, again, Pinky Finger doesn’t handle that well. He gathers his father’s army together, and he’s going to invade and bring the people back to himself — he’s the rightful king. So we are on the verge of a civil war. And the Lord spares the country from a civil war — he comes to Rehoboam and says, “This is from me. I did this. Calm down.” Now there’s not much to commend about the man Rehoboam, but here is one thing: he submitted to God’s word and spared God’s people a civil war. At least at this point he did — at least he recognized that if he were to fight Jeroboam, he would be fighting against God’s plan. Nevertheless, the kingdom is divided, all due to the pride of man. As I said, Solomon set the wedge, and these boys drove the sledgehammer that split the log.

Part Two: A Man Invents a New Religion

Now the focus of our text shifts to blue-collar ball-cap Jeroboam. God had instructed him back in chapter 11 that if he were to obey God’s word when God gave him the kingdom, God would settle him and establish him and prosper him, and the people would prosper — “Do obey my commandments and you will be blessed.” Now we get to see how old Jeroboam does. This brings us to our second point: a man invents a new religion.

Let’s pick up reading in verse 25. 1 Kings 12:25: “Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.'”

“So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, ‘You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart, and he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.”

A man invents a new religion. The northern kingdom was probably three to four times the size of the southern kingdom, so old blue-collar ball-cap Jeroboam has a pretty big job on his hands. Up to this point, Jeroboam has been presented as a man a bit like Moses — he comes out of Egypt, he comes asking to relieve the burden on the people, he comes with a declaration that the people need to be delivered from a heavy hand. But here we see that he is not a new Moses. Here he goes in another direction. Here we see that this king is riddled with insecurity.

The temple of Yahweh was in the south, in Jerusalem, which is Rehoboam’s territory. And Jeroboam feared that if his people had to keep traveling back to Jerusalem, which they were supposed to do three times a year, their hearts would turn back to their true king, the king of Judah, the son of David — and then Jeroboam would lose everything; they’d kill him. But don’t you remember, from chapter 11, it was God himself who came to Jeroboam and said, “If you listen to my word, I will establish you”? But Jeroboam doesn’t believe God’s word. And so he devises a plan. And by the way, this plan is politically shrewd, practically good, but theologically a disaster.

Two golden calves. He puts one near the northern border, in the city of Dan. He puts one near the southern border, in the city of Bethel. Worship made convenient — if you live toward the north, you go to the north; if you live toward the south, you go to the south. And this way, nobody has to go to Jerusalem and spend their money there. Because when God’s word doesn’t align with your ideas and plans, your own objectives — well, just change God’s word. It’s that simple. He tells the people, “You’ve gone up to Jerusalem long enough. I’ll make it more convenient for you. I’ll put a place of worship closer by, so you don’t have to travel so far.” And then listen to what he says: “Behold your gods, O Israel, who delivered you out of Egypt.”

Where have we heard those words before? About 500 years before Jeroboam is born, Yahweh delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to himself at a mountain called Sinai. And the deliverer, Moses, goes up the mountain to receive instructions from the Lord, and he’s up there a while, and the people get impatient — “Where’s this man Moses?” And so they convince their insecure leader, a man called Aaron, to make them a golden calf. Aaron listens to the people, builds the golden calf, puts it in front of the people, and listen to what the people say: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Echoes — that’s the very same thing Jeroboam said, isn’t it?

And that makes what Jeroboam is doing wrong in so many ways. In the Bible, God told his people how they were to worship him. There is one God, and the first commandment forbade worshiping any other god, all the false gods of the pagan nations. The second commandment forbade the use of images and icons and symbols in worship. And Jeroboam goes next-level — he makes not only new objects of worship, he makes a new place of worship, he makes his own priesthood (the priesthood was supposed to come from the tribe of Levi; he’s like, “I’ll get my own guys”), he makes new holy days, new festivals. He’s making an entirely new religion — a religion of the people, for the people. And Jeroboam replaced the worship of Yahweh with one that verse 33 says he devised “from his own heart.”

Now, politically, this is brilliant, because this is how you retain political and economic control. Give them objects in their worship — people love objects, but we don’t like this God we can’t see; we need something we can see and touch and feel and smell. We like icons and symbols; the pagan nations all have that. Keep the people out of Jerusalem so they won’t spend their money there — they’ll spend it in my kingdom. We’ll make the holy places nearby, make the worship of God easier and more convenient, more appealing to the modern Israelite. It’s brilliant. But as I said, theologically it is a disaster.

Jeroboam abandons God’s word and does things his own way. But do you understand that when God speaks, he’s not making suggestions? We don’t have to wonder how God would be worshiped — the worship of God is regulated by the word of God; Scripture regulates the worship of God. So no man has the right to add something into the corporate worship of God without positive biblical warrant. Doing so is at the very least subtraction by addition, and at worst it’s the manufacturing of a new religion. Jeroboam, having abandoned the word of the Lord, is judged by the word of the Lord.

Part Three: God Will Not Be Mocked

And now we come to chapter 13, where we see that God sends a man to Jeroboam with a word from the Lord. And as we will see in this chapter, the man himself becomes the message. This brings us to our third and final point: God will not be mocked.

Chapter 13, verse 1: “And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, ‘O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: “Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.”‘ And he gave a sign that same day, saying, ‘This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.’ And when the king heard this saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, ‘Seize him!’ And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.”

Remember the original audience — we are hundreds of years later, in the sixth century BC, sitting beside a river in Babylon, reading for the first time, “How in the world did we get here, in this exile?” And the author of Kings, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us this story about this man of God to explain how we got here, in this place, in exile.

An unnamed man of God comes out of Judah, comes to Bethel, where King Jeroboam is participating in false worship. And he confronts this false worshiper with the word of the Lord, pronouncing God’s judgment against this unsanctioned altar, in this unsanctioned place, under this unsanctioned king, in this unsanctioned manner. Jeroboam stretches out his hand against the man, and his hand is dried up, and he can’t even move it — the hand that made so many things is lifeless.

Verse 6: Jeroboam, seeing his hand tied up like that, asks the man of God, “Pray for me, that I may get my hand back.” And he does, and God is merciful, and gives him his hand back. So the king is happy about this — probably happy that he has his hand back, but also happy that this guy could be useful in his kingdom. So he invites him to his home. Look at verse 9: the man of God refuses, saying that it came to him by the command of the Lord: “You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.” So the man of God tells the king, “I can’t come back to your house — God told me I can’t eat food here, I can’t drink water here, and I’m not to go home the same way I came; I’m going to go a different way.” And so the man of God refuses the king and returns home by a different way.

Now, if you read this passage before you came to church today, which I hope you did, you probably noticed there’s some strange stuff about to happen in this story. An old prophet from Bethel, which is where Jeroboam is worshiping, hears about this unnamed man of God, and he saddles his donkey and invites this man of God to come to his house. So the king invited him — he said no, because God said he couldn’t. But this prophet comes and says, “Will you come to my house?” And the man of God says, “I can’t — God told me I don’t eat, I don’t drink here, I go home by a different way.” Look at verse 18: the old prophet lies to him. He says, “I also am a prophet, just like you, and an angel of the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘Bring that guy back to your house so that he can eat bread and drink water.'”

Well, the unnamed man of God concedes. They sit down at the table, eating their food, drinking their water, and the Lord speaks through that prophet and tells him that because the unnamed man of God did not listen to God’s word, he will die, and he will be buried away from his father’s tombs. So the man of God saddles his donkey and heads home for Judah, and on the way he is attacked by a lion and killed. And the old prophet from Bethel finds the man — his body dead but uneaten, the donkey unharmed, the lion just sitting there. And he takes the man’s body and brings it back to Bethel and buries it.

If that story wasn’t strange enough, the old prophet then calls his sons to him and says, “When I finally die and you’re preparing for my funeral arrangements, I want to be buried with that man of God — I want to be buried in the same tomb.” In fact he says, “Lay my bones by his bones.” So you’re reading this thinking, “What in the world?”

Skip down to verse 33. Chapter 13:33: “After this thing, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among the people; any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places.” Verse 34: “And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.”

Let me help you be a better Bible reader, especially of the Old Testament. Did you catch the repetition of the phrases about Jeroboam making high places, making priests, and then the strangely worded phrase, “this thing became sin”? If you look closely, you’ll notice we just read those same three things back in chapter 12, verses 30 and 31, in reverse order — they appeared in chapter 12:30–31, and then again in chapter 13:33–34. What the author of Kings is doing is bracketing this story for you as a reader, telling you: look here, in between. And remember, this book is written to explain how we got to the place we are, in Babylon, in exile — and the author is bracketing this story because there’s something about it he wants us, the readers, specifically those in exile, to see.

The first thing should be the most obvious: when you look through chapter 13, you see the phrase “the word of the Lord” appears eleven times in that one chapter. The phrase “the way” appears eight times. The word that gets translated in your Bible as “return” or “turn back” appears sixteen times. And then the section ends with what we just read: Jeroboam disobeying the word of the Lord by not turning back from the way.

This is brilliant writing from the divine author of Kings. This story is telling the original audience: you are the man of God from Judah. This is why he is unnamed. You, Judah, were sent with the word of the Lord to confront the false worship of the pagan nations. You were told not to eat and drink like the pagan nations. You were told not to go back to Egypt the way you came, but to go by another way, God’s way. But like this man, you abandoned the word of God and were led astray by false prophets — angels preaching another gospel, if you will. You therefore have been judged, and you therefore will be buried away from your fathers’ tombs.

This is brilliant writing. The word of the Lord stands forever. God will not be mocked. This passage teaches us that no matter who you are — a man of God, a prophet of God, a king of God — God’s word stands above you, and God’s word must be obeyed. If you are to have life and flourish in life, and have peace and joy in life, the word of God must be obeyed.

The Fate of All Three

Jeroboam does not end well. I wish we had time to go through all of this, but his son gets sick, which is very sad, and he attempts to trick an old prophet — the same prophet who told him he would get ten of the tribes of Israel. He tries to bribe him to give a favorable word about his son. But the prophet is a good prophet and speaks a true word to the king, telling him the bad news that’s coming: his son is going to die, and because he cast the Lord behind his back, all the men of the house of Jeroboam will be cut off, and Jeroboam will become a poster child for the type of king who abandons the word of the Lord and goes his own way. In the weeks ahead, as we work our way through the book of Kings, you’re going to see there’s going to be plenty of those guys.

Then we come back to old prideful Pinky Finger, Rehoboam. He does not fare well either, because under Rehoboam’s leadership Judah does what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provokes the Lord to jealousy with idolatry, with male cult prostitution — which, just for a point of clarity, because of the day in which we live, is a bad thing.

We’ll end our reading today in chapter 14, verses 25–28: “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house — he took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made. And King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard carried them and brought them back to the guard room.”

Remember last week, all the gold that kept pouring into Israel under Solomon’s reign — one year he got 666 talents of gold, some 50,000 pounds of gold, something like three and a half billion dollars’ worth of gold in a single year. He had all his stuff plated with gold. And now it’s gone. The glory of Solomon is fading, and quick — the body of Solomon is barely cold, and these people who once plundered the Egyptians are now being plundered by the Egyptians, and all the gold is gone. That invasion must have rattled Rehoboam — you see how he spent the rest of his days shielded by soldiers wherever he went. This is the fate of all who disobey the word of the Lord.

Three men in our passage today — two kings and a man of God — and all three suffer the same condition. All three placed themselves above God’s word. All three, hearts swollen with pride. Three hearts that did not tremble at God’s word.

Rehoboam, king, son of David, swollen with pride, surrounding himself with people who could never tell him no, abandoned the word of the Lord. He was a fool — he couldn’t see it, and nobody around him would tell him he’s a fool, but everyone else knew it. They always do. And as soon as Pharaoh in Egypt saw weakness, he pounced, and Rehoboam spent the rest of his life in fear.

Jeroboam, blue-collar man of the people with a ball cap, insecure, rather than believing God’s word, makes power grabs, invents a new religion more suitable to himself and others to consolidate power and control, and turns away from God — becomes a byword for all who rebel against God and are judged.

The third man, the man of God, is obedient at first, but he’s undiscerning and careless, and his own life becomes a parable of hypocrisy. He came to Bethel and said, “Thou shalt” — but then thou didn’t. He became a parable for the kind of person who speaks God’s word but then doesn’t keep God’s word.

The Greater King

So for those of us who are here who are like Rehoboam, swollen with our own sense of self-importance, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought — for those who are here who are like Jeroboam, who’ve tampered with God’s word, trying to make it more palatable, more appealing to yourself and to modern sensibilities — for those here who are like the man of God, who pronounce judgment on others and then practice the very same things — and for those here who are more like me, an unholy combination of all three — let me introduce you to another King, another man of God.

Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven to serve, not to be served. Jesus Christ did not invent new worship; he restored right worship. Jesus Christ spoke the word of God, kept the word of God, is the word of God. Jesus Christ laid down his life on a cross to suffer the judgment of sin for all the Rehoboams and Jeroboams and hypocrites of every kind who turn to him in faith. Jesus’s death and resurrection and ascension to the Father mean you don’t need to suffer the fate of the men in this passage. Instead, PBC, you can be restored to right relationship with God. You can receive your true purpose in life. You can glorify God and enjoy him forever.

In Christ, friends, insecurities melt away. There’s no more fear when you see how fully you have been accepted and loved by your Father in Christ. You can do what Rehoboam wouldn’t do — you can serve those the Lord has entrusted to you without fear of being misused or seen as weak. In Christ, you can do what Jeroboam wouldn’t do — you can worship God rightly and lead others to do the same. All that you have is from the Lord, and you need not fear anyone taking it away — the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. In Christ, you can do what the man of God from Judah wouldn’t do — you can lean your life fully upon God’s inherent word. You can put the full weight of your problems and your fears and your anxieties and your concerns on God’s word, without ever being blown about by every wind of doctrine, unsettled when you come across a podcast or a YouTube channel or a TikToker who says, “I’m a prophet of God too.”

PBC, seek out the good life that God has made you to live — the life of joy and delight in bringing glory to God the Father, and allowing your joy in God to become infectious to those around you. And you’ll find this life prescribed for you and protected for you in the words of this book. Because the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

Let’s pray. Father, receive our thanks for speaking to us. Give us ears to hear, eyes to see. Amen.