Following Bad Advice

“So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David.  So Israel departed unto their tents.”  I Kings 12:16

It is quite astounding to read the Old Testament and see how our nation and the ancient nation of Israel parallel one another.  It was at this point in history when Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the southern (Judah) and the northern (Israel).  Because of the idolatry of King Solomon, God promised to remove ten tribes from under the rule of Solomon’s son Rehoboam and place them under the rule of Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s servants.  Upon Solomon’s death, Rehoboam was crowned king, and his first act as king was to consult with the older advisers as to how he should rule the people.  The older men, who were wiser and more knowledgeable about human relations, advised him to lighten the load of the people and be a servant-leader to them, and they would serve him as long as he lived.

Apparently Rehoboam didn’t like that advice so he consulted with the younger men in his own age group, the millennials.  They advised him to make it more burdensome upon the people, that is, more forced labor and higher taxes.  Jeroboam and the Israelites came before Rehoboam to ask for a lighter load, and Rehoboam told them to return in three days.  When they did, he asserted his authority, speaking to them harshly, and informing them that there was no more Mr. Niceguy.  Rehoboam had abandoned the counsel of the older men, and instead chose to follow the advice of the younger men, men who failed to look ahead to the consequences of their unwise counsel.  This is what folks do who have little experience with human nature.  They think that their ideas will work out just as they intended, but they fail to account for all the folks who have no desire to follow their demands, and usually there are a lot more who oppose them than agree with them, particularly when these “new” ideas will affect the people negatively.  The only way that objectionable policies can be implemented is by force.  I would imagine that these young advisers would likely become part of the new administration, and thus they would consider that the “new” rules did not apply to them: the old “do as I say and not as I do” attitude.

All of this that occurred was not by accident.  As stated before, God had promised to remove ten of the twelve tribes from the rule of Solomon’s son, the grandson of King David.  As had happened before and still happens today, God used a wicked man and his associates to fulfill His purpose.  God uses the wickedness of the ungodly to bring repentance upon people.  In doing so, He also gives opportunity to these same ungodly people to repent and turn to Him.  There’s no telling how many opportunities that Judas Iscariot had to repent of the evil that he planned to commit in “selling” out Christ for 30 pieces of silver to the religious leaders (Matthew 26:14-16).  God used Judas’ evil heart to fulfill His purpose in sending Jesus to the cross to die for our sins.  God was not the author of Judas’ sin; that was all on Judas.

As in ancient Israel, I don’t believe that all that is occurring in our country is by accident.  Could it be that those who are trying to destroy our freedom and usher in a godless nation are being allowed to promote their “new” but harmful policies in order to bring repentance upon the people of a nation that was founded on Christian principles, the standards set forth by the Lord which are being trampled upon by those who hate God?  God brought judgment upon Israel, His chosen people, and He certainly has every right to judge a nation in which a large majority claim to be Christians for judgment usually begins at the house of God (I Peter 4:16a).