1 Kings 12:25-33 “Compromise & Convenience”

1 Kings 12:25-33 “Compromise & Convenience” Solomon’s son, Rehoboam: 1. Answered his people roughly 2. Rejected Godly advice 3. Accepted his drinking buddy’s advice a. Ignoring his father’s and grandfather’s wisdom and heart for the Lord. 25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. • Jeroboam – unaffected by God’s judgment of Solomon and his idolatry • Shechem – became Jeroboam’s new headquarters, right where he was crowned the new King of Israel. • Penuel – why this? o Other side of the Jordan river – a long way away o Site of Jacob wrestling with the Lord § Jacob becomes “Israel” as God anoints him to become the father of a new nation. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Ummmmmm, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: [Type the document title] 1 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” • Jeroboam was not concerned for the faithful heart of his people • He was concerned for his own kingdom • His own world 28 Therefore the king (Jeroboam) asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. • Jeroboam didn’t tell the people to forget Jehovah – o Just worship him in a different, more familiar form § Because of Solomon the people were used to the old Egyptian idols and forms of gods. § 1000 years later Aaron’s sin – it still affects the people of faith! o Just worship him closer to home o Just worship him with an easier rituals o Just worship him with happier songs about you and your needs The last days will be marked by people doing the more convenient religion: 1 Timothy 4:1–3 1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 2 Timothy 3:1–7 1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 4:2–4 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. The message here isn’t about people who don’t attend church, though there are many The message is turning away from YOUR church for more convenient entertainment Tel Dan: [Type the document title] 3 [Type the document title] 5 Is that why there are so many Christian denominations? • The 2001 edition, successor to his 1982 first edition, which took a decade to compile, identifies 10,000 distinct religions, of which 150 have 1 million or more followers. Within Christianity, he counts 33,820 denominations. 1 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31 He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. 1 http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/a120.htm [Type the document title] 7 33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense. • Walsh: “He celebrates at the wrong time, in the wrong place, on the wrong altar, in honor of the wrong gods.” 2 Hebrews 10:24–25 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. • Electronic church cannot consider or stir up one another to love and good works. o Heb. 10:25 does not merely denote the assembling for corporate worship as a solitary or occasional act, but as customary conduct. The prep. epí (1909), to, must refer to Christ Himself as the one to whom this assembly was attached. Thus it would have the meaning of not betraying one’s attachment to Jesus Christ and other believers, not avoiding one’s own personal responsibility as part of the body of Christ.3 2 Donald Slager, “Preface,” in A Handbook on 1 & 2 Kings, ed. Paul Clarke et al., vol. 1–2, United Bible Societies’ Handbooks (New York: United Bible Societies, 2008), 419. 3 Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000). .

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