Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20030518.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part IX: Resting In God's Limit Of The Harm Leaders Can Do To His People
(1 Kings 11:29-43; 12:1-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. God calls us to respect overseers in our families, marriages, businesses, churches and governments.
    2. However, heeding that command can seem perilous, for leaders in these institutions can be sinful, and seem to do much harm to innocent subordinates by way of the decisions they make. Accordingly, we as subordinates may feel tempted to resist such leaders even in unbiblical ways just to protect ourselves.
    3. In 1 Kings 11-12, we see God limits the damage even carnal leaders can do to His people as follows:
  2. Resting In God's Limit Of The Harm Leaders Can Do To His People, 1 Kings 11:29-43; 12:1-24.
    1. God prophetically laid out the bounds of events on the division of Solomon's kingdom, 1 Kings 11:29-39:
    2. Then, when these events began to occur, He let things run their course or checked them to meet these bounds so leaders of His people could not be unnecessarily harmed by their carnal views and actions:
      1. God protected Jeroboam from harm by checking Solomon's effort to kill him for his future role in leading the ten northern tribes to break away from the rule of his son, Rehoboam, 1 Kings 11:40-43:
        1. In judgment for Solomon's departure from God, the Lord sent the prophet, Ahijah to tell Solomon's servant, Jeroboam, that God would give ten of Israel's tribes to Jeroboam to rule, 1 Kings 11:29-39.
        2. When Solomon heard of this prophecy, he tried to kill Jeroboam, 1 Kings 11:40a.
        3. However, God kept Solomon from being able to kill Jeroboam so he could flee to Egypt where he gained asylum under Pharaoh, 1 Kings 11:40b-43, cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 1 Kings 11:40.
      2. Then, the Lord let events run their course so the tribes would be broken up in accord with the initial words of the prophet Ahijah to Jeroboam on the matter, 1 Kings 12:1-15:
        1. When Solomon's son, Rehoboam, came to Shechem to be crowned king, Jeroboam returned from hiding in Egypt to represent the oppressed people of Ephraem, and to ask Jeroboam for a lessening of the burdensome rule Solomon had levied on his forced laborers. Jeroboam promised Rehoboam that his followers would serve Rehoboam were Rehoboam to heed this request, 1 Kings 12:1-4.
        2. Rehoboam asked for time to get counsel, but he did not seek the Lord's advice. Instead, he weighed the advice of his father's elderly advisers who urged Rehoboam to heed Jeroboam's advice versus Rehoboam's colleagues who urged he intimidate Jeroboam's people by threatening them with an even harsher reign than Solomon's, 1 Kings 12:5, 6-11.
        3. Rehoboam carnally chose the advice of his own generation's colleagues, a matter God allowed so that the tribes would divide in accord with Ahijah's prophecy, 1 Kings 12:12-15.
      3. However, when the godless Rehoboam decided to start a destructive civil war to reclaim the lost ten tribes, God checked him to avoid a civil war and save many lives in Israel, 1 Kings 12:16-24:
        1. Not realizing the seriousness of the break of the ten tribes, Rehoboam sent his leader of forced labor in Adoram, the worst man possible under the circumstance, to order the tribes to submit, 12:16-18a.
        2. When the men of the ten insubordinate tribes despised this move and stoned Adoram to death, causing the nearby king Rehoboam to flee for his own life, the ten northern tribes made Jeroboam their king, escalating the division between the kingdom parties, 1 Kings 12:18b-20.
        3. Rehoboam reacted by mustering Judah and Benjamin to start a civil war with Jeroboam, 12:21.
        4. However, God checked this disastrous turn of events, sending the prophet, Shemaiah to tell Rehoboam not to fight, but to accept this division as a divinely permitted event, 1 Kings 12:22-24a.
        5. This being the first bit of divine advice he had heard, Rehoboam hearkened, and chose not to fight to the saving of many innocent lives in Israel, 1 Kings 12:24b.
Lesson: God PLANNED for the kingdom to divide but He LIMITED the harm Israel's kings would produce for the people of Israel due to their carnal REACTION to His plan.

Application: If we as SUBORDINATES in a marriage, family, church, business or government institution realize our OVERSEER is UNGODLY and can make moves that UNJUSTLY DAMAGE us, we STILL must not sinfully REBEL against them, but TRUST GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY over what damage they can do to us and BIBLICALLY heed them anyway, cf. Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:18-23.