Don’t Follow Bad Advice

“And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?  And they spake unto him, saying, if thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.  But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him.” I Kings 12:6-8

After the death of Israel’s King Solomon, God vowed to divide Israel into two kingdoms with ten tribes to be ruled by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, one of Solomon’s servants, and the other two tribes would be ruled by Rehoboam, Solomon’s son.  God determined to do this because Solomon had become idolatrous in his later years, and there was no doubt that Rehoboam would follow in his footsteps.  Because of God’s promise to David that one of his heirs would rule over Jerusalem, God allowed Rehoboam to have reign over Judah and Benjamin.

Rehoboam first met with the older men who had served in Solomon’s court.  He asked for their advice likely only as a formality.  I think Solomon’s son had no intention of following the advice of a group of old men, advice which would have made Rehoboam a benevolent and gracious ruler over all Israel for the nation had not yet been divided.  They advised Rehoboam to be a servant-leader, to do what was right for the people, and to listen to them.  If he did, then the people would serve him as long as he was living.  These old men gave Rehoboam solid advice, but would he follow it?

It turns out that Rehoboam did not like their advice, thus he sought out others who would offer advice that was more favorable to him.  I don’t think he liked being told that he had to “serve” the people.  He probably considered himself royalty, one of the elite, and one to be served, not to serve all of those common people.  He turned to those of his own age group, who, many times, will abandon the advice of the older, more mature, and experienced generation in favor of new ideas and selfish desires.  They remind me of the teenager who tells his parents that they are living in the dark ages, that times have changed, that everybody is doing it, blah, blah, blah.  When Rehoboam shared the advice that had been offered to him by the older generation, these younger men were quick to offer their advice which was just the opposite of that of the older men.  Rather than making it less burdensome upon the people of Israel, they told Rehoboam to make it much harder upon the people which meant longer hours of backbreaking work and heavy taxation which would nearly crush them.

When the people of Israel met with their new king, Rehoboam spoke to them very harshly offering up the words of the younger men, the “whippersnappers”, those who think they know it all, but really know very little.  Folks like them fail to look ahead to the consequences of their unwise counsel.  This is what people do who have not lived in the real world, working at a job, raising a family, trying to make ends meet, and having to pay taxes to a government that doesn’t have their best interest at heart.  These folks do not understand human nature.  They think their ideas will work out just as they intended, but they fail to take into account 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 ideas can be implemented is by force.  Just ask anyone who grew up under socialism or communism.

What did the people do after hearing how their lives were going to be adversely affected by Rehoboam and his harsh rule?  They refused to follow him, and, instead, make Jeroboam the king over them.  This division of Israel was brought about by the will of the people.  God had panned it as punishment for the idolatry ushered in by King Solomon, and the people carried it out.  However, neither kingdom prospered under these two rulers, and this event set up a long line of some good and many evil kings of both kingdoms for hundreds of years.  The citizens of both kingdoms eventually were taken captive, the northern kingdom of Israel taken by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom of Judah taken by the Babylonians.  Jeroboam was also an ungodly leader who made idols for the people so that they didn’t have to return to Jerusalem, Rehoboam’s domain, in order to worship in the temple.  Rehoboam even planned to take his army of Judah and attack fellow Israelites in the northern kingdom, but God would not allow war between the two kingdoms, informing Rehoboam that all that had taken place was part of His plan.  Sometimes God has to allow people to suffer the consequences of their own actions in order to bring His people to repentance.  Accountability may be a long time in coming, but it will come.