Friday, 11 Sep 2009, 2 Chronicles 10: 1 - 11: 23 NIV
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.
10: 8
Jeroboam the rebel had returned from his Egyptian exile after the death of King Solomon. Along with his supporters in Israel, and as a condition for their loyalty to the new King, he had demanded that King Rehoboam son of Solomon reduce the burden of harsh labour that his father Solomon had imposed on them.
Rehoboam first consulted the elders who had served his late father. They advised him to treat Jeroboam and his supporters kindly and favourably. Jeroboam's faction happened to comprise the majority of "all Israel" apart from those who lived in the towns of Judah (10: 3, 17).
"They will always be your servants", the elders told Rehoboam wisely.
Rehoboam, however, did not like this advice. He did not like the idea of giving in to the demands of a rebel. And he sought "second opinion" from a group of young men who had grown up with him.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Young people go for contemporary ideas. They are tired of outdated ways of doing things. The wisdom of old men is completely irrelevant to them. It appears that this was already an issue among the young men of King Rehoboam's days.
And so, Rehoboam rejected the outdated elders' advice and adopted the more contemporary ideas of his buddy friends. When Jeroboam's delegation returned for his answer three days later, Rehoboam's reply was,
My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions . . . 10: 11, 14
This was a grave mistake. It resulted in a permanent split in the kingdom of God's people. The angry people of Israel stoned Adoniram, a commander under Rehoboam who was in charge of forced labour. And King Rehoboam was forced to flee in his chariot to Jerusalem in the south.
From that day, Israel in the north was described as being "in rebellion against the house of David" comprising Judah and Benjamin in the south (10:19).
King Rehoboam wanted to regain control over the northern kingdom of Israel. Soon after he arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered 180,000 warriors in preparation for his campaign against Jeroboam. But he was told not to proceed with the attack, in a prophecy from Shemaiah, a man of God.
This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing. 11: 4
This time, it appears that King Rehoboam did the right thing. He and all his 180,00 fighting men obeyed the word of the LORD, abandoned their march and returned home.
In doing so, King Rehoboam had mitigated the severity of his initial error of rejecting the elders' advice. Although he would never be able to recover the loss of the northern kingdom of Israel, Rehoboam went on to fortify the cities of Judah and establish a large family by the grace of God. God gave him wisdom to rule over Judah successfully.
He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them. 11:23
The lesson that can be learnt from today's reading is twofold. Firstly, it is costly to ignore the Godly wisdom of elders among the people of God. And secondly, inspite of our mistakes, we can mitigate the severity of the consequences by our subsequent obedience to His word.
May God help us to obey Him, even after we have rejected Him earlier.
