A DIVIDED HEART…A DIVIDED NATION
“We Are Never Exempt From Obedience”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
Congratulations, Beloved. I am so proud of you. You have finished Course 1 of this series on Kings and Prophets. You have studied one of the most significant periods of Israel’s history, and in this period of history there are lessons that you and I want to remember. We want to remember everything that we have seen so far; but there is a danger to success, there is a danger to blessing, there is a danger to prosperity, there is a danger, in a sense, when everything is at peace. What can happen to us? At that period of time, because everything is going so well, we can forget God, and we can turn to our own way, or we can turn to our own strength. Or, because everything is going so well, sometimes we can let our time in the word slip by. And God doesn’t want that. I believe, in this last lesson, He wants us to see that never, ever, is a child of God exempt from obedience to God. Never, ever can we neglect God, and get away with it. If anything shows us this, I think the whole study of the Kings and the Prophets, A Divided Heart…A Divided Nation, shows us that.
Let’s go back to Genesis 12, and think for a minute. What do you have there? You have God calling Father Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldeans, promising him that He is going to make of him a great nation. He tells him in v. 15, when He makes this covenant with him, to look up at the heavens and count the stars, if he is able, because his descendants are going to be like the stars in the sky, uncountable, and like the sand on the seashore. You are just not going to be able to count them. That is how great a nation He is going to make from Abraham.
From Genesis 12, all the way up to Solomon, what do we see? We see this kingdom increasing and increasing, until eventually it comes to the pinnacle of greatness, the pinnacle of glory, the pinnacle of peace, the pinnacle of wealth. Solomon’ s fame spreads throughout all the nations, and people come from all over the earth to see this glorious kingdom, to see this glorious, glorious temple that Solomon has built. So we find Israel at its peak. I want us to look at that again, just in way of remembrance.
Go to 1 Kings 4:20, all the way back to our first lesson. (20) “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance;” [The author has divided them into two kingdoms, because he says, “Judah and Israel.” He is dividing them into two kingdoms, because, as you and I know, they become two kingdoms. When did they become two kingdoms? They become two kingdoms in 1 Kings 12. This is the way you can remember it. There are twelve tribes, and in 1 Kings 12 those 12 twelve tribes are divided into two kingdoms, the north and the south. He is talking about these two kingdoms, but it really hasn’t happened yet in the days of Solomon.]
He describes it. (20) “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. (21) Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River (the Euphrates) to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” [Then it goes on and talks about the provision. What do you have here? You have them at the pinnacle. Here is Israel at the pinnacle of its glory, standing on the top of the mountain. They have climbed to the top of that mountain; they have reached the heights. What happened? The king has a heart that becomes divided, so you see his divided heart. You see that his love for his wives, and his worshipping the gods of his wives, and you see his heart turns away from God.]
What do you see after that? This is what we are going to see in Kings. They reach the pinnacle, but it is a downward spiral, all the way down that finally leads to captivity. They are going to end up in captivity. The lesson today tells us that the captivity is going to come. The captivity is pronounced to Jeroboam, who is the king of the north, when the prophet comes to speak to him—the same prophet that promised him in 1 Kings 11 that God would give him the ten tribes of the north, and that He would establish his house forever, even as He had established the house of David. This is what he tells him.
I want us to go to 1 Kings 13, and I want us to see God mentioning prophets, because all this time as Israel is climbing this pinnacle to greatness, from Abraham, who was called a prophet (he was the first one who was called a prophet), to Moses. Then Moses comes along, and you have the giving of the Law. So you have Moses here (with his staff), and Moses is also called a prophet here. You find the prophets coming, and the prophets are the ones who are bringing the message from God to the people. In 1 Kings 13, you and I studied about a man of God (whose name we do not know) who came to Jeroboam, and spoke to Jeroboam, and told him that God was going to judge him. (1) “Now behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.” [What happens? You have Solomon with a divided heart; you have the kingdom split. Jeroboam takes the north; Rehoboam takes the south. Jeroboam has instituted this false worship. He has done this abomination unto God. Moses had made it very, very clear (in the first commandment) that, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make any likeness of any image in the heaven above, on the earth beneath, or under the earth. You shall not make them; you shall not bow down to them; you shall not worship them.”]
We are going to put Jeroboam and Rehoboam up here. Jeroboam’s heart is divided also, and he doesn’t serve the Lord. He does what is evil in the sight of the Lord. So the prophet, this man of God, comes.] (2) “And he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, ‘O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, “Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name;” [This is an awesome prophecy. I am not going to touch it until we get there, but it is an incredible prophecy.] “and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” [The prophet comes; he brings a message from God. You remember how Jeroboam stretches out his hand, and all of a sudden, that hand becomes dried up and withered. He cries to the prophet, this man of God, and he tells the man of God, “Intercede for me.” The man of God intercedes, and then Jeroboam says, “Come home with me.” I want you to see that God is speaking to Jeroboam.]
Has God spoken to you in this course? What has he said to you? What He has said to you, do not neglect. What He has said to you, hang on to it. Do not depart from it. Do not let it go. Hang on, Beloved, and you want to hang on because these are words of life, because God is speaking to you, even as He spoke to Jeroboam through this prophet.
Jeroboam knows that this prophet has been told by God, “Don’t you eat; don’t you drink. Go home by another way, and don’t you eat or drink anything until you get home.” That’s why he won’t go with Jeroboam. But then another prophet, an old prophet comes along, and that old prophet lies to him. He believes the lie, and he thinks it nullifies what God has said. (Remember this; no word of any prophet ever nullifies the word of God. It only supports it.) So he listens to that old prophet, and consequently, he is killed. He is put to death. If the sons of the old prophet knew what had happened to the man of God, and how he had spoken to Jeroboam, and what Jeroboam had said (and we know that because the text tells us that), and they go and tell their dad, the old prophet, and the old prophet goes and finds the man, then you and I have to know, “This community knows what is going on,” And they also know this—they know that a man of God who spoke the word of God, who was used by God, even to heal Jeroboam, broke what God said, and suffered the consequences. Listen to me again, and Kay, listen—you cannot walk away and disobey, and be exempt from obedience. We are never exempt from obedience. So he dies.]
Here you have a prophet who is talking to Jeroboam, and you also have a prophet…Go to 2 Chronicles 12, and look at Rehoboam. Remember that Jeroboam and Rehoboam are ruling over Israel, Jeroboam over the ten, and Rehoboam over the two tribes. When does all this happen? When does the kingdom split? You will want to remember this date, because it is so crucial. It is 931 B.C. This is one date you want to remember. In 971 B.C. Solomon starts his reign. His reign lasts for 40 years. (The calendar goes down.) In 1 Kings 12, the kingdom splits. What year is it? 931 B.C., got it? The kingdom splits in 931 B.C. What chapter in Kings? Chapter 12—the twelve tribes divided, 10 and 2.
In 2 Chronicles 12, you find the account of Rehoboam and his kingdom. I want to go back to Chapter 11, and see what is happening. In 11:17, you find that they strengthen the kingdom of Judah, this remnant who came from all these Levitical cities, these people who say, “I am not going to go after those idols. No, I am only going to worship in Jerusalem. No, I am only going to sacrifice in Jerusalem.” (17) “And they strengthen the kingdom of Judah and they supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years,” [That is very important.] “for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.” [This is Solomon apart from his divided heart.] (18) “Then Rehoboam took as a wife…” [It names his wife, and it names his kids. Then you come down to Chapter 12:1.]
12:1, “It took place when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong that he and all Israel with him…” [And this is the word that you were to mark—it was kind of the theme of the lesson. The theme of the lesson was pride, and pride is not mentioned, but “humility” is mentioned. There comes a humbling when there is pride, and pride manifests itself in this way.] “he and all Israel with him forsook the law of the Lord.” [This is the law that had been reaffirmed to them in Deuteronomy. This was the law that they were supposed to listen to every seven years at the Feast of Booths. In the year of the remission of debts, every Jewish man, every Jewish woman, every Jewish child was to come to the Feast of Booths (Deut. 31). When they came up to the Feast of Booths, they would open the book of Deuteronomy, and they would read that whole book in the presence of the people, so that they could hear, and that they could learn, and they, in turn, would fear God. So every seven years this was supposed to be happening. Here he is—forsaking the law of the Lord.]
(2) “And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.” [Here they are—Jeroboam has gone downhill. Now Rehoboam is going downhill. We know that at least for three years that he was walking with God, but then things change. Then things got easy; then his kingdom was established, and he was established in his rule. He was strong, and in his strength, and in the goodness of the times, then he began to turn away from the Lord. At the end of the fifth year, because they had been unfaithful (it was year five that they began being unfaithful) it seems like, from the text, that these people could support Rehoboam for three years, but after that, that was about the end of it, because Rehoboam the king’s heart was divided.]
(2) “And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, that…” [I want you to see the cause and the effect. Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, this is what happened.] “that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem…” (4) “He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. (5) Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.”’” [In other words, “Listen to me carefully,” is what he is saying. “You can not neglect God, and have it go unpunished. You are not exempt from obedience from the word of God. Because you have forsaken Me, then I am forsaking you to Shishak. I am going to let him come.” This is the word of the prophet.]
I want to stop here for a minute, and I want us to look at this word “prophet”. This is a word that you need to mark throughout this course, and you need to mark it because of the importance of the prophet. The Hebrew word for “prophet” is nabi. There are four views of the derivation of this word. They want to know: where did this word come from, and what does it really mean? And we want to look at it, because, in these derivations, I think we get a picture of it. #1. If it came from an Arabic root, it would be neba’a, and that means “to announce,” henceforth, if that is the root, what is a prophet? A prophet is a person that announces something. And that is what you see the man of God doing in 1 Kings 3 with Jeroboam. That is what you see this prophet, Shemaiah, doing in 2 Chronicles 12 with Rehoboam. In other words, Jeroboam is hearing the word of the Lord; Rehoboam is hearing the word of the Lord.
#2. The second possible derivation of this word would come from the Hebrew word naba. You can see that these are all very similar. Naba means “to bubble up.” In other words, it is like the messages is in here, and it has got to come forth. It has got to come forth. You have God’s word for these people, for this time, and it is bubbling up, and it is going to pour forth. #3. The third possible derivation of this word is an Akkadian root, naba, and it means “to call.” Therefore, a prophet would be one who was called by God.
#4. The fourth thing, and this one is real easy. It is from an unknown Semitic root, and they do not know what it is.