Please stand with me for the reading of the word. Our reading this morning is from 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 9 through 13. And then read as follows. Now Yahweh was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not walk after other gods. But he did not keep what Yahweh had commanded. So Yahweh said to Solomon, Because this thing happened which you have not kept my commandment, my statute, which I have commanded you, So I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. You may be seated. Our message this week is titled King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam. The last two weeks we have prepared to get into the kings of the divided kingdom, and we've looked at the sin that led ultimately demanding a king from God, and that God, through his sovereignty, granted the demand. And in the process, he also set up, through his grace, the lineage that the son of man would come from, that Jesus, his son, would come through. and assuming that he would take then his rightful place as the king of kings. We also looked at the requirements that God laid out for a king, which was 400 years before any king would ever sit on the throne. And then ultimately, the nine principles we're looking at to help us evaluate the kings of the divided kingdom. Now, I didn't mention this last week, but it's important to understand that in scripture interpretation, there is only one correct interpretation, but the application or the principles are infinite. And so although we're looking at nine principles from the last two weeks, and we'll be looking at more principles to come, the principles in each area of scripture are really endless, so long as you have a proper interpretation. But we're identifying the ones that we're looking at to help us as we're moving through to look specifically at leadership. This week, we're gonna start looking at the kings who created the divided kingdom. For all of the kings, but specifically the kings of the divided kingdom, we need to look at essentially the aspects of their rule as they began and how they ended, and then ultimately what lies in between those two points. And so you have some kings that start off well and they end poorly, others start off poorly and end well, and for the very few, they start off well and end well. But we also have some that fall into the category of we're not completely sure. And Solomon would be one of those individuals. Some think that Solomon started well and ended poorly. And that is because we have that clear text that Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, did not follow Yahweh fully as David his father had done. The problem with that theory is how then do you explain all the Proverbs, Psalms, including the Song of Psalms, the Song of Psalms? and Ecclesiastes, and also you have in the New Testament Christ mentioning the wisdom of Solomon. What seems more likely is that at a minimum, the book of Ecclesiastes was written at the end of Solomon's reign, after his confession. However, the consequences of Solomon's sin would lead to the kingdom being divided. Think similar as the sin of Moses losing the ability to enter the promised land, or the sin of David losing the ability to build the house of the Lord. Now, I do want to do a little backstory to help us understand the two kings that arose to the thrones when the nation was divided. And both of these kings, by the way, Rehoboam and Jeroboam are evil rulers. But what makes them evil is very different, and so it's important to be able to identify early what kind of leader you're dealing with. So remember, the first king ever of the nation of Israel was Saul, who ultimately would have the kingdom and his kingship ripped out of his hands and ripped out of his family as well. David would be his successor from the tribe of Judah, and David would reunite the 12 tribes under him. But because of David's sin, he would not be allowed to build the temple of the Lord. That would be assigned to his son, Solomon. Solomon would succeed David as king, and he would build the temple of the Lord. Now, turn with me to 1 Kings 9. We're going to look at this. There. And in chapter nine of first Kings, we would read the beginning of the fall of Solomon that would lead up to Jeroboam. And the chapter begins with the completion of the temple. And then in verse two says that Yahweh appeared to Solomon a second time. The first time was where Solomon had requested Yahweh to give him wisdom. And that was granted. But in verse three, it says, Yahweh said to him, I've heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before me. I have set apart as holy this house which you have built by putting my name there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you will walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, you shall not have a man cut off from the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statues, which I have given before you, and go and serve other gods in worship, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given, and the house which I have set apart is holy, for by my name I will cast out of my presence So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples, and this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone who passes by will feel desolate and hiss and say, why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house? And they will say, because they forsook Yahweh, their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh has brought all calamity on them. Now, the point of all of this is extremely important. But not only the point, the very words themselves that were said for the first time in chapter three, when Solomon asked for wisdom. And they're repeated again here in chapter nine. But they will be repeated again and again and again through all of Kings. But understand the words point to a promise. Do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh, and your kingdom will be blessed forever. Do what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he will tear two things into pieces, the kingdom and your descendants. And that should make any king tremble. But sadly, it did not. And it still doesn't with all leaders that we have today as well. But this is where you see the shift of the story of Solomon in the text. But the shift, understand, takes place before the text actually occurred. Listen to verse 10. Now it happened at the end of the 20 years in which Solomon had built two houses, the house of Yahweh and the king's house. And so the period of the next verses are all regards to the 20 years it took to build the temple of the Lord. Now understand verses 11 through 14 gives a story of the contractor who supplied the timber or the lumber, the wood for building the temple and the payment that Solomon gave him. Now in this text, Solomon gives the contractor, Haram, 20 cities as payment. And Haram's answer is found in verse 12, and they were not right in his eyes, and are called the land of Kabul to this day. Kabul means nothing or sterile, meaning the land was of no value. Now this can seem insignificant, but understand Solomon implied in chapter 5 that he would pay Haram generously for the timber, and instead, He gave him a desert. Listen, the proper heart of Yahweh or Christ in business is twofold. For the worker or supplier or the seller to provide high quality product or high quality service out of the high level of generosity of that individual. And in return, the buyer is to provide a high level of generosity of payment. Therefore, both provide and give generously to one another. Haram did this, Solomon did not. And Solomon essentially used the excuse that it was for the Lord, so he could pay whatever he wanted. And this is a major character red flag. Then look at verse 15. Now this account of the forced labor which King Solomon raised up to build the house of Yahweh, his own house, the Melio, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Medigo, and Gezer, meaning slave labor. Now, using slave labor to build the house of Yahweh after Yahweh had delivered the Israelites out of slavery from the Egyptians that were doing the same thing is bad enough. But notice in the same verse, Solomon didn't just use slave labor for the house of Yahweh, he used it for building his own house as well, and his kingdom, and not under Yahweh's orders. Another red flag. Now in verses 20 through 23, it tells us that the slaves were of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, who were not the sons of Israel. And Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel, for they had dominion over the people doing the work. The sons of Israel, therefore, are the slave masters. But the key to all of these verses has to do with understanding biblical slavery. Now, it's important to understand, overall, When we're talking about slavery or man-stealing, as what it's called in the Bible, it's a capital sin punishable by death. Exodus 21, 16 says, he who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or is found in his hands, shall surely be put to death. Deuteronomy 27, 4 says, if a man is caught kidnapping any of his brothers out of the sons of Israel, and he mistreats him or sells him, then that thief shall die. You shall purge the evil from among you. Now that's the overarching theme of slavery throughout the rest of the Bible. But we also have the description and the permittance of slavery in the Bible as well in Leviticus 25. And let me show you how these go together because it can seem like a contradiction, but hear me out for a minute. There are three main types of slavery described in the Bible. You have voluntary slavery, debt slavery, and chattel slavery. Now, voluntary slavery is exactly what it sounds like. Individuals who would voluntarily choose a master to devote themselves to. Generally, these were extremely poor individuals who lacked an inheritance, might voluntarily give themselves in to servitude to a good master who would then give them an inheritance for their service. And generally, people in extreme poverty might also volunteer to give themselves to slavery and be held as hired servants. Think of this as the draft that we had for Vietnam. If you know you're going to get drafted, better to volunteer into a better position than to be drafted and have no say. That's the idea of voluntary slavery. Now, debt slavery would be the next step. where people sold themselves into slavery to pay off debt or they were forced to do so to pay off their debt, usually, again, due to poverty or famine. But this could also be due to breaking the law and having to pay damages or the stolen items. And instead of being thrown into prison to rot, which honestly is another form of slavery that's not permitted in scripture, Your criminal debt, whatever it was, would be paid off through slavery. But the point was for debt slaves, they were not permanent slaves. And they were typically released after six or seven years when they had paid off their debt. Now chow slavery, on the other hand, were prisoners of war who had no right to be redeemed. Remember I said that, no right to be redeemed. But therein lies the point of this kind of slavery. when you had a proper master-slave relationship in chattel slavery, it was to create the opportunity for redemption, for conversion. And so, for redemption to come to somebody who was unworthy of being redeemed, like all of us, the idea of chattel slavery is that directly after war, The prisoners would be taken, kept as slaves with the aim of conversion and redemption to worshippers of the one true God, Yahweh. Think of Ruth and Naomi. But Ruth said, do not press me to forsake you in turning back or from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. That is supposed to be the point of chattel slavery. Instead, in verse 16, it gives us how Solomon missed the whole point of this redemptive act. Instead, he chose to operate like Pharaoh and rounded up every non-believer in his country to become slaves that he put to hard labor. And why did Solomon do all this? Because he had married Pharaoh's daughter back in chapter 3 of 1 Kings. And before, by the way, he had asked for wisdom. He had already married Pharaoh's daughter. And all of this building in Israel is mimicking how Egypt operated. Remember our principles, number seven, don't marry more than one wife. That also includes don't marry outside of your people, which is our fourth principle of being enculturated in our ways, customs, laws, morals, and the worldview of the word of the one true holy God. Not only should the king not be from outside the nation, but the queen shouldn't be as well, which would be his wife. And then you have the sixth principle, do not make deals with the devil, the workers of iniquity, which was Egypt. That was who was evaluated off of that whole rule. Now look at what happens next in verse 19. And the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen and all Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and Lebanon and all the land under his rule. And the fifth principle, relying on military might like Egypt. And from there on, all of chapter 10, is Solomon increasing in gold, silver, horses, chariots, wives, and breaking every single requirement of a king that we covered last week except one. And that's thinking of himself as God. And then keep going to chapter 11. In verse four of chapter 11, Now, it happened at the time that Solomon was old. His wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had been. For Solomon went after Asherah, the goddess of Sidians, after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Amorites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David, his father, had done, verse seven. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, also called Molech, on the mountain which was east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon, and then thus he did what was all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed their idols. Now, worshiping other gods is bad enough. But remember, these particular gods generally required human sacrifice and sometimes cannibalism and other just absolute abominations to the sanctity of life. These false gods were demons pushing the worship of the most evil in the most evil ways imaginable. The adultery of David was bad enough. It was awful. This what Solomon's doing is worse. David's punishment was the loss of life of an unborn son. Solomon's going to lose everything. And so God tells Solomon in the same language we talked about a minute ago, verse 11. So Yahweh said to Solomon, because this has happened with you and you have not kept my covenant, my statutes, which I commanded you, so I will surely tear the kingdom from you and I will give it to your servant. And for you Harry Potter fans out there, this is the plot line to the whole series of the Harry Potter books. The evil Lord hears a prophecy about the one who will vanquish it. And so the evil lord sets out to kill the child and his whole family beforehand. And what happens is the idea of this is you're killing him before he can grow strong and destroy the evil lord. And then in the process of trying to commit murder, he creates the necessary steps for the child to rise to power. That's the plot line to Harry Potter. That's the plot line here. That's what happens here. And it's funny, because God's book has been a number one bestseller since, well, always. But this is who Jeroboam is. His family is from the tribe of Ephraim, one of Joseph's sons, and his family served the king's family. And the rest of chapter 11 goes on to describe the prophecy given by a prophet of Yahweh to Jeroboam. and more than likely to Solomon himself afterwards. Now, scripture doesn't record how exactly Solomon found out, but he did nonetheless. Now, the prophecy was demonstrated in which the prophet tore his cloak into 12 pieces. Verse 31 says, and he said to Jeroboam, take for yourselves 10 pieces, for thus Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you 10 tribes. But he will have one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem and a city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel." Now, don't get confused by the 10 tribes when there are 12 and he's leaving one. Remember, the tribe of Levi are the tribe of the Lord. They are the priestly tribe and they don't belong to the king but to God. And they're spread out through the nation of Israel and Judah. And then God says he's going to also keep back Judah for the sake of David. That's where you get the 10 tribes. And why? Verse 33. Because they have not walked in my ways and do not do what is right in my sight, and to keep my statutes and my judgments as his father David did. And so again, the same language. Do what is right, keep my statutes and judgments. And this is where it gets crazy. Now, understand who Jeroboam is. He's a servant of the king, and in the context, meaning he's a military leader of some kind, more than likely one of the generals of the army. And God pulls out this servant, this individual who had no claim to the throne, and says in verse 37, and I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. But there's a catch, and here's the same language again, verse 38. Then it will be that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you. And after that, verse 40 tells us Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death, just like Voldemort. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shechak, the king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. And the chapter ends with the death of Solomon, and the total of his reign was 40 years. And so with the death of Solomon, the prophecy of the divided kingdom begins. Now follow me in this because it's easy to get confused. Jeroboam, remember, is a military general of Solomon, non-family member, promised the 10 tribes of Israel minus Judah and Levi. Rehoboam, on the other hand, is the direct son of Solomon, and through him the line of Judah will be fulfilled. Now that's the divide, and that's where we get the two kingdoms that they originate from, these two kings. And so when we speak of the kingdom of Israel, also called the northern kingdom from here on, we're talking about the 10 tribes minus Levi and Judah. And when we're speaking of the kingdom of Judah, or the southern kingdom, We're talking about the line of David, Solomon and Jesus, not only who they descend from, but we're also talking about the southern territory that was actually occupied by Judah. Now, let's start with the evilness of Rehoboam and the kingdom of Judah. Turn to chapter 12, because that's what leads to the divide in the first place. And so understand this is taking place after the death of Solomon. but before the divide, and that's key. I want you to understand that timeline here. So Solomon just died, and the divide hasn't happened yet. And all 12 tribes of Israel came together to make Rehoboam king. And even scripture tells us Jeroboam, who had been in Egypt, came with the assembly of Israel to make Rehoboam king over all 12 tribes. So he's had the prophecy, he knows what's coming, and he still comes up to make Rehoboam king over the 12 tribes. But before they did, the people first spoke to Rehoboam, saying, verse four, your father made our yoke harsh, but you now lighten the harsh service of your father with his heavy yoke, which he put on us, and we will serve you. And understand, this is a direct correlation to the slave labor that Solomon enacted. Now, scripture makes it clear that the sons of Israel were not the slaves. But the text is also pointing to the consequence of having a king that Samuel promised that we talked about a couple of weeks ago in 1 Samuel 8, 11 through 18. See if this sounds familiar. And he said, This will be the custom of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will be before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and fifties and some of his plowing and reap in his harvest to make his weapons of war and his equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your field and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards to give it to his officers, to his servants. He will also take your male slaves, your female slaves and your young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. And he will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves. And then you will cry out in that day because you're king whom you have chosen for yourself. But Yahweh will not answer you that day. And so after they come to Rehoboam, Rehoboam asked for three days to take counsel and come up with a response. Now, it's very important to remember who Rehoboam is. He's Solomon's own son. And remember, Solomon wrote Proverbs to whom? His son, meaning Rehoboam. Now, it's important to notice between verses six through eight, Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had stood before his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, How do you counsel me to respond to this people? And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to these people today and will serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had counseled him and took the counsel with the young men who grew up with him and stood before him. Now understand, this isn't pointing to, he should have listened to old men instead of young men. This isn't about age. However, be cautioned, there is a certain amount of experience that is often gained by just being older. Now, that doesn't always transfer or translate to actual wisdom, but an elder of the Jews was considered over the age 50 for a reason. Again, experience. But what scripture is pointing to here is about wisdom versus foolishness. The elders were advisors for the wisest king who had ever lived. The young men were the men Solomon wrote about in Proverbs. You have Proverbs 12, 18, which reads, there is one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Verse 14, there is a generations whose teeth are like swords and its fangs like knives to devour the earth and all that is needed among them. And Rehoboam failed to follow his father's advice through Proverbs, and then the advice of the elders that had been left with him. And instead, look at the advice of fools. Look at verse 11. So now, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. Now, scorpions, he's not talking about the insect. It's a whip, what we would today commonly call a scourge, the same scourge that Jesus would receive. And a scourge whip is made of leather, and then on the end it has sharp objects attached to the actual leather endings, which is why it's called a scorpion here. If you understand, a whip is bad, but a scourge did not only cause pain and misery, it also generally caused death because of the blood loss that would occur from ripping the flesh off. And so after these large, sharp objects grab the skin, when you would pull it back, it would rip out chunks of flesh and they would bleed. And so this gruesome act was a means to rule by fear. Now understand, criminals and evil should fear the king, should fear the government. And that is because they have been given the sword of God himself to strike down evil. But what Rehoboam is saying here is the regular citizen should fear him. Now I want you to understand the context of this so we can pinpoint our principles for today. 2 Chronicles 13 7 actually tells us the kind of man Rehoboam actually was and it reads Rehoboam the son of Solomon he was young and timid, and could not exert his strength before them. Now, this young, timid description was a warning throughout all of Scripture for all leaders. Woe to you, O land, whose king is a young man and whose princes eat in the morning. Ecclesiastes 10, 16. And I'll make young men to their princes, and capricious children will rule over them. Isaiah 3, 4. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Rather, in evil be infants, letting your thinking mature. 1 Corinthians 14, 20. For through this, by this time, you ought to be teachers. You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you've come to need milk and not solid food, Hebrews 5, 12. And this is the main principle that I want you to take away from Rehoboam. Young men are to be restrained from leadership, meaning they should be tested by fire over and over for decades. until you produce a battle-hardened man of God that can withstand giants, armies, friends, women, money, and every other lust that can lead them astray. And hear me, if testing has either proven them to be unfit, even if it's just at this time, or there has been no time for testing, they are not to be in leadership. Now understand this in my context. My son is 10 years old. And the responsibility of my position is not to be handed over to him today, including upon my death. He's 10. But understand, I give him assignments even to this day, things to test and grow him to be prepared for the position of husband and father in his own family. And so there are times that I sit back, I let him figure out certain aspects of leadership on his own. But I don't dump everything that I'm currently doing on him at once to be the man of the house. And understand the position I'm talking about. In my life, very few men under the age of 40 could handle it. No men under 30 could do it. To be a husband and father of five children. And all five children are in completely different aspects of life. My oldest is married with a wonderful child and husband. My next oldest is early in her career, possibly getting engaged. She's off working and trying to build herself that way. The next daughter is in her senior year of high school, getting ready for college. And then you have twin 10 year olds. That's just the family life. That's not 22 years in my career, nor leading my kids through Christian classical education and homeschooling. And then we haven't even talked about pastoring a church yet. And see, this is what we see in you. Generally what happens, you have a young 20-year-old that's maybe seen his dad raise his family since he was alive and can think, I can do that all right now. We have to remember, generally speaking, no dad had five kids fall out of the sky on him in all different aspects of life. He doesn't start off life to experience this career or know anything else. Each step, is built upon the next, and you can't skip the steps. And those are the different aspects of life that must be tested over and over and over again. And the same thing is true for a king or a leader. David was anointed king when he was probably around 15 years old. But he wasn't crowned king until he was 30. And then he ruled for 40 more years. But understand, the 15 years of shepherding was necessary for ruling. And the 15 years of being in the king's court being the commander of the Lord's army, the assassination attempts that would occur, and on and on and on, were all steps necessary to making him a great king. But sadly, we see the very opposite thing in leadership today. Age is looked at as being a set and a way of doing things. And sometimes it is. But more often, it is someone who understands the history of why that thing is being done. But nowadays, we tend to promote the young, Handsome or beautiful, Ken or Barbie, because they look great and they never disagree with leadership. And how can they disagree when they don't understand the history of why things are done or not done? And understand young individuals can be high functioning. They can be highly successful. Even they can have great ideas. And generally they have lots of energy and enthusiasm. That's why they get chosen on all basis. Now, but I want to push against this to understand not only biblically, but just in experience. A great book on leadership was written by Paul Howell, who was a Delta Force team leader during Black Hawk Down. The entire book of leadership is all biblical principles. That's what the whole book is. One of the things that he mentions is the fact that in the Delta Force, the faster you promote, the faster you promote out of being a warrior. And since they all want to be warriors and be in on the action, the faster you promote, it gets you out of the action. And so they do everything in their power not to get promoted. That's their goal. They switch teams at the last minute. They sign up for training that postpones their promotions. They fail to re-enlist early with the promise of a promotion, and so they miss out on promotions that way. But what it produces is by the time you have a position of team leader that opens, they force A 20 to 25 year battle-tested veteran who is respected by everyone, who has had 20 years of combat experience, and they pull him aside and they say, no more running, you're the guy. They do that on purpose because they understand when you promote someone young and inexperienced, you're going to see what happens is the case of Ray Haboa. And this is where you have this need or this demand for respect. because you're young and you haven't earned it. And they will do it by any means necessary. And this demand for respect, this character of immaturity caused the split. And commonly with kings and governments who are like Rehoboam, young, inexperienced, and no respect, watch what happens next. They send someone else to flex the muscles for them. And so Rehoboam does that. He sends one of his slave masters out to force the labor of the nation of Israel. And Israel stones that slave master to death. And so the one cent pays the price of Rehoboam's foolishness, which was predicted by Samuel when you demand a king. And in verse 9 of chapter 12, it tells us, so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. And so the 10 tribes, after this action, make Jeroboam king over them. And Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem because they sought to strike him down. And Rehoboam throughout the rest of Scripture would go from listening to God and Judah, would be strengthened and grow in wealth, to abandon God and God would raise up an enemy against Judah and strike them down. And the last mention of Rehoboam is this, and he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek Yahweh, 2 Chronicles 12, 14. And this is important. Young men who have not been tested or who have been poorly tested, which is another common thing, will in the end do what is evil, because they failed their testing, and it did not produce a heart that seeks after God. And so we come to Jeroboam at the end of the chapter 12, and in verse 26 and following, other than understanding the foolishness and wickedness of men, these verses blow me away. Remember, Jeroboam was given a prophecy from a prophet of God. a promise to make him king over the nation of Israel, but not Judah. And secondly, that if Jeroboam would follow his laws and statutes, God would bless him and all his descendants. And so Rehoboam threatens, Israel stones the threat to death, and crowns Jeroboam. And Jeroboam in verse 27 says this, if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their Lord, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam of Judah." Meaning, if I let them worship the one true God who has kept his word so far, then his people will kill me, which means he thinks God is a liar. That's what he's saying. And so instead, Jeroboam made two golden calves And listen to the end of verse 28. Behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt, verse 29. And he set one in Bethel and put one in Dan. Now listen, do not miss how bad this is. Not only did Jeroboam worship other gods, not only does he lead the nation of Israel to worship other gods, he's perverting history. He's rewriting history. and then taking that false history and presenting it as true. He's not saying, here are some newly created gods that would be better. No, he's saying these gods always existed, and they are the ones that set your ancestors free. They are the ones that your ancestors followed out of the wilderness. And this is the first principle of Jeroboam, avoiding evil leaders who use false narratives for past, present, and future events. or they redefine words, laws, and culture to suit their agenda. And if you're thinking, how can this be done? Why were the people so foolish to believe this nonsense? Look at the entire modern Democratic Party agenda in our own nation. Abortion is good. Stay-at-home moms are bad. God is not real. He does not belong in schools or government buildings. And to even think about disagreeing them is then racist or some other form of bigotry. And these people don't know the difference between a man and a woman. How do they know anything? And over half of our nation believes all of that nonsense. Listen, there are six things which Yahweh hates, even seven which are an abomination to him, and a lying tongue is one of them, Proverbs 6, 16 through 17. And the lying tongue that is in scripture is pointing to it's not a little white lie. It's an abominable lie, which is what Jeroboam is doing here. But for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars. Their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Now, Jeroboam doesn't stop there. He changes the feasts around to match up to his false gods. Now, that can seem insignificant, but let me give you the context. The Romans use the phrase, panem et circonsensis, which translates to bread and circuses. which we would understand to mean give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt. And so both the Romans and Jeroboam understood free food, entertainment, keep the populace content. This is a political strategy of gaining public approval through distraction or by satisfying basic needs. rather than following the laws, statutes, and feasts of God. Now listen, much of this has happened in our own day. Think of all the holidays that have been created over the last 50 years. And I'll give you one example, Father's Day. Understand the creation of Father's Day. A lady by the name of Sonora Dodd is credited with creating Father's Day in the United States around 1910. And she was inspired to create the holiday after hearing a sermon on a Sunday about Mother's Day. So she felt fathers needed to be honored in the same way that mothers got to be honored. And so to appease her petition, the church leaders chose the third Sunday in June. But understand what they're doing. That's humanism. That's consumerism. Sunday is to be reserved for the Lord. Keep holy the Sabbath for the day is the Lord's. And although not a biblical reference, The concept of this next quote is biblical. It's from the book Dune. When is a gift not a gift? And this is the second principle for Jeroboam. Evil rulers will give you or promise you gifts that really are not gifts. They're traps to ensnare not only you, but every generation after you. See Planned Parenthood, welfare, social security, affirmative action, and it goes on and on. But Jeroboam didn't stop there. He made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. Understand this. Jeroboam had accomplished such an effective job at putting false gods forward in the nation. He was not only able to lead the nation astray, he was able to lead the church astray as well. And the rest of the chapter is doing that very thing. Now again, this can seem meaningless to us. We no longer, in our day, have the tribe of Levi, but there are still requirements for pastors. And elders and evil leaders that have led are currently disobeying God and this requirement's for them. The best example is lesbian women are the greatest example of this very thing in becoming so-called church leaders or pastors, which they're not. And listen, this can be hard to hear, but women in any capacity of church leadership any capacity, they lead to lesbian pastors, who then ultimately reject the commandments and statutes of God. Women in leadership is not the first step to apostasy, but hearing it is the point of no return. Once you place a woman in leadership, that church is on death row headed for the gallows. Maybe years from that day, but it will lead to the death of the church. And listen, The church building can have people in it, it can look like it's a church, it can look like it's a party, it can have tons of money, but Jesus is not in that church. He's on the outside. While everyone else is worshiping a lesbian, I mean, a golden calf. Now, I picked on women, but I don't want to let the men feel left out in that. So, as I said before, women in leadership is not the first step, but they are the point of no return. Men, on the other hand, are the first step And God tells us in 2 Chronicles 13, six through seven, exactly who those men are that Jeroboam chose. Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebeth, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master. And worthless men gathered about him, vile men who proved too strong for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. He was young, timid, and could not exert his strength before them. And understand these two types of men who will lead nations and churches astray. The first type is worthless, okay? Remember what worthless is. Jesus described what worthless men are. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it make salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown on the ground and trampled underfoot, Matthew 5, 13. Worthless men, hear me, worthless men always, always are weak and or effeminate. That's why they're worthless. They are good for nothing. No one ever says, man, I wish we had a weak man here. That would make everything better. Nor do they say an effeminate man would sure make this situation more tenable. Never happens. And the second type, so the first type is worthless. The second type is vile men. And the idea, the difference between those two is worthless men make mistakes out of their incompetence, out of their fear. Vile men do it intentionally. They know what they are doing, and they do it anyway. These same type of men are described in Deuteronomy. Some vile men have gone out among you and have driven the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, Let us go and serve other gods whom you have not known. Deuteronomy 13, 13. This is the third principle I want you to take away from Jeroboam. When it comes to kings and leaders, pay attention to who they surround themselves with. who they appoint, who they promote. Kings and leaders like Jeroboam will surround themselves with worthless and or vile men. And because of it, they will appoint and promote the same worthless and vile men. And listen, this is actually very easy to see. An individual that you are hiring or you're getting ready to promote, they can keep up a facade for a period of time, but their friends, The people they surround themselves with can't keep up the same facade as easy, especially the more of them that are in a certain area. And think of it this way. If you have a mafia member who's trying to conceal their true nature, by themselves, they can put up a facade. But if you put them with their other mafia friends, other mafia relatives, you will be able to see the type of person they are. Because you'll be able to look at the friends, see how they dress, see how they move, see how they talk, the kind of vehicles they drive, the homes that they own, down to the businesses that they're involved in. And again, a person by themselves can hide who they truly are. but the people they surround themselves with will clue you in to who they are. And so the more of them that are around, you'll be able to see, are they worthless and vile? And that's who they tend to put themselves around. Like-minded people always find each other. They're drawn to one another. And the more of them you have in a given space, the more identifiable their true nature is. Now, the last principle I want to leave you with today will be our conclusion. and will come with the totality of Jeroboam. And it's seen, honestly, literally in every aspect of his story from beginning to end. But at the end, or excuse me, in 1 Kings 14, it gives us a new perspective to this thing that has gone off the entire time. And so understand in this narrative, in this story, this is just another story of Jeroboam, his son becomes sick. And he knows that a prophet of Yahweh can heal him. Now think about that for a moment. Jeroboam, who created two false gods, knows that Yahweh is the true God. He knows that Yahweh's prophet can heal his son because he's the true God. So he creates these false idols and festivals and he let literally anyone become a priest of his false gods, and knowing all of that, he convinces his wife to disguise herself and go to the prophet of God to heal his son. And this is the final principle. Jeroboam is so prideful, so sinful, that even when his son's life is on the line, he will choose sin over repentance. And so the Lord says to Jeroboam through his prophet in verse 9, you have done more evil than all who were before you. Think about that for a minute. More evil than the people that tried to assemble a tower of Babel? More evil than Sodom and Gomorrah? More evil than Pharaoh enslaving God's people? More evil than the nations they drove out to inherit the promised land? And if God had made for yourself other gods and multiple images to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back, therefore, behold, I am bringing evil on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off Jeroboam, every male person, both bond and free in Israel. I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam as one sweeps away dung until it is gone. Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and he who dies in the fields, the birds of the sky will eat, for Yahweh has spoken it. Listen, what God is speaking about here is unforgivable sin. the unrepentant, faithless, unbeliever. That's who Jeroboam is. And that's the principle of the kind of king that he is. Caught in sin, and the only way out is through repentance. And a leader like Jeroboam will use any means necessary to avoid repentance. Avoid taking ownership of their sins, and they will keep plugging along until God destroys them. And in Jeroboam's case, that's exactly what would happen. He goes to war. He actually has double the amount of men in his army against Judah. The problem he's facing is Judah at that point with being faithful to the Lord. And he even, which is hilarious, he gets the drop on the Lord's army. He actually ambushes them and encircles them to completely destroy them. And 2 Chronicles 13, 15 says, then it was God who smoked Jeroboam and all of Israel before Judah. So the sons of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. And he struck the people down with great slaughter, and 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain. And that is what happens to unrepentant leaders and those that follow him. God will eventually strike them down. Now, never forget, as Jeroboam forgot, never forget there is only one king, who has defeated death. One. There's only been one King who was not in need of repentance. One. And through that one King, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, salvation is found. Amen.