Category: 1 Kings

Reading

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SAA Notes

Jereboam’s desire to control the worship of his kingdom led to syncretism and open idolatry. Jereboam was given the northern tribes to rule by God. God warned Jereboam about where idolatry would lead. (1 Kings 11:33) The incident with the prophet God sent to Bethel brought no lasting repentance in Jereboam.

SJA Notes

* Lord God, we give thanks to You, we call upon Your Name, we would make known Your deeds amongst the peoples!

“So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold.”

Here is the sin of Jeroboam, son of Nebat.

He led the people to idolatry, false gods, corrupting holy and true worship with that of man-made idols, rejecting the 3eternal sovereign Almighty God.

It is quite easy to see Jeroboam’s sin.

It can be harder to see our own.

Today’s passage is a good encouragement to make sure our lives, any area of our lives, is free from idols.

Bits and pieces of our hidden corners and sections that we might consciously shy away from spiritually.

Jeroboam “took counsel”.

Psalm 1 is the pattern for us,

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;”

Rehoboam and Jeroboam both listened and acted on bad counsel.

Let us not be like Jeroboam.

May we embrace God’s wisdom, His word, meeting with His people.

* Dear God,

Please help us to take counsel from You and Your word, which You have given to us.

Please help our own counsel to be filled with Your wisdom.

Please keep us from idols.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Rehoboam is not some twenty-year old. He is forty years of age! Yet he acts like a spoilt child. He loses control of nine of the eleven tribes with land. Remember the Lord’s word to Solomon: if you walk before Me in integrity of heart and uprightness.

SJA Notes

* Heavenly Father, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.

“What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.”

Barely a generation from great king David and we see Israel walking away, we see how quickly they fled the house of David.

Each king has had great trouble, so far. Saul, David and even Solomon. The divisions were there, ebbing and flowing.

As we today continue to go through tumultuous periods in our own lives, as the world beckons loud and strong – What portion do we have, what inheritance?

It is only in Jesus that any of us have an inheritance. In the great Son of the son of Jesse. His kingdom can never be split asunder or taken from Him!

What portion do we have in David?

The better question is, what portion do we have in Christ, David’s Lord?

In Him we have an inheritance not made by human hand, made of heavenly truths, realities only found in God.

Praise God, Hallelujah – What a Saviour!

* Lord God,

Thank You for the inheritance we have in You.

Thank You for promising us such a weight of heavenly hope that nothing else can compare.

Thank You for building the new heavens and new earth, a place where You and we will dwell together. You our God. We Your people.

Lord hasten that day!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The opening sentence begins with a however. Having dealt with the glories of Solomon’s reign, the narrative turns now to two of the destructive forces at work in the people of God – Solomon’s love of many women with his consequent idolatry and the emergence of potent and protected enemies (protected by Egypt under a new Pharaoh).

SJA Notes

* God Above, may all that is within me bless Your holy Name! You are to be blessed, there is no other.

“And his wives turned away his heart.”

Here we see the truth of the third warning given by God through Moses, warnings to kings.

That they not have many wives.

Solomon clung to his wives in love.

LOVE. But what kind?

He shifted foundations, building on the sand of romance, built on the fleeting pleasure.

Solomon for his FIRST LOVE – Why try and cling to sand when you can stand on the rock?

This is a sad end to the son of David, a man with breadth of mind like no other, the king who built God’s earthly temple in Jerusalem, someone God specifically appeared to twice.

Look at the evil Solomon did in the sight of the Lord!

He built abominations, idols, again and again he went after them (led by his wives and their idol worship).

We humans can never be made righteous by our own deeds, in our own standing, through our own wisdom.

We need a better way, else who could stand?

What else can be said but _more_ of Jesus, _less_ of us!

* Father God,

Please help us to flee from idolatry, to run to You, always to You.

Please write Your word upon our hearts today.

Amen.