January 3, 2010 we begin a study of II Chronicles 10-36 as we look at chapters 10-12. The parallel passage in I Kings is chapters 12-14. Discussion questions are:
- The 2 books of Kings and the 2 books of Chronicles are very similar in content. Why are they both in the Bible?
- What do you think God intended for us to glean from the history of the kings of Judah in II Chronicles 10-36?
- Why did Rehoboam choose to have multiple wives and concubines?
- Agree/disagree: “When children see their parents sin, they go them ‘one better’ when they are tempted with similar sins.”
- If the above statement is true, what does the wise parent do when he or she sins in the presence of their children?
- Why did Rehoboam listen to the younger advisors rather than the older advisors?
- What causes a person to shop around for advice until he hears what he wants to hear?
- What difference does it make whether one prays before or after making plans?
- Why did Deuteronomy 17:17 not deter Rehoboam from having multiple wives?
- What pressures are there on the church to modify what we believe based on “everybody is doing it”?
- What is the “cause and effect” between II Chronicles 12:1 and I Kings 14:22-24?
- Why was God so generous in II Chronicles 12:12?
- How do you understand the concept of a person “setting their heart” on seeking the Lord?
Sermon:The Peril of Partial Obedience
One day in Heaven, God decided to select a very few moments from the history of the world to help you understand how to navigate your way through life successfully. He put those few moments in a small book just 24 pages long called II Chronicles 10-36. This little book cautions us of the peril of partial obedience, the folly of forsaking the Lord, the catastrophe of compromise, and the seduction of success. It informs us about how God’s work gets done, how spiritual renewal comes, and the joy of an obedient life. It even tells us about how powerful an influence a teenager can have if he or she is on God’s wavelength.
The 2 books of Chronicles were written about 400 years before the birth of Christ to the rag tag nation of Jewish people who had endured the humiliation of captivity in Babylon. Chronologically the Chronicles tell the story of the end of Old Testament history. The 2 books of Chronicles in many ways parallel the 2 books of Kings, often covering the same historical events but their purposes are vastly different. The books of Kings show how the fall of Israel and Judah occurred because of God’s judgment on the two nations when they became idolatrous. The books of Chronicles were written to encourage the remnant of the nation of Judah who have returned to a destroyed Jerusalem and to bring them back to the true worship of God by showing that His covenant with David still stands, and if they will obey Him, they will experience His blessing.
Our brief study of II Chronicles 10-36 will focus on the kings of Judah. For some reason God chose this very narrow slice of history for us to read and learn from. Wise is the man or woman who puts his or her mind to the task of understanding why God wants us to remember the history recorded in this little 24-page book.
As the story begins in II Chronicles 10, Solomon has died and his son Rehoboam has succeeded him. What we will quickly learn from Rehoboam’s tragic life is the peril of partial obedience to God. Rehoboam “sort of” obeyed the Lord. He “sort of” experienced God’s blessing. As a parent you know the disappointment you feel when you children “sort of” obey you. You know there is a big difference in your child “sort of” being home by 10 o’clock and their being home by 10 o’clock.
When Rehoboam became King he inherited a number of problems beyond his control. His grandfather, David, while a great king and in many ways a godly man, never dealt with his weakness for women. In blatant disobedience to the Law of Moses, David had multiple wives. David’s sexual sins wreaked havoc in the lives of his adult children. His son, Solomon, repeated his father’s sin in spades when he got for himself 300 wives and 700 concubines. One of Solomon’s many wives was a foreigner and idolatress named Naamah. She, along with other idolatrous wives of Solomon, led the King himself into idolatry. As a result, God told Solomon He would tear the Kingdom from him and give it to Solomon’s servant. That promise came true during the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
Early on in his reign, the people of Israel ask Rehoboam to lighten the burden Solomon has placed on them. Rehoboam “sort of” obeys the Lord when he seeks advice from both his older and younger advisors. The older men advise, “Kindness will result in the loyalty of the people.” The younger men advise, “Let the people know you are even more demanding than your father and they will be intimidated into submission.” Rehoboam foolishly follows the advise of the younger men and sets in motion the wheels of a divided kingdom. Israel will never rebound from the division that resulted from Rehoboam’s foolish decision. As time goes by Rehoboam follows in the footsteps of his father and gets for himself 18 wives and 60 concubines. When his Kingdom seems secure, the author of Chronicles says, “…he abandoned the law of the Lord, he and all Israel with him.” – II Chronicles 12:1.
So what do we learn from this little slice of history?
- Partial obedience means hearing what we want to hear, not what God says.
When Israel asks Rehoboam to lighten their load he chooses to listen to the younger advisors who choose power over compassion, greed over justice. In listening to his youngest advisors Rehoboam is rejecting the advice Solomon wrote especially for him in Proverbs. One of the major themes of Proverbs is for young kings to heed the advise of the older men of the nation.
19:20 – “Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.”
22:17 – “Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise.”
23:4 – “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.”
23:22 – “Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.”
24:5 – “A wise man has great power.”
29:4 – “A king brings stabilityto a landby justice, but one who exacts tribute tears it down.”
29:14 – “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.”
29:23 – “A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.”
31:3 – “Do not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings.”
31:9 – “Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Rehoboam ignores all the wisdom recorded for him in Proverbs. You do the same thing today if you shop around for someone to tell you what you want to hear and ignore the wisdom of those who tell you the truth. Years ago on a Sunday night I let some negative feelings overpower me and shape the message I preached that night. It so happened my parents had chosen to visit here that evening. After church they were at my house for supper. When it came to preaching, my dad was always my greatest encourager. He always made me feel like I was gifted at this thing called preaching. He never once criticized my preaching, even when he disagreed with the message. But on this Sunday night he was strangely silent. After a while I asked, “What did you think of the sermon, dad?” He said, “Do you really want to know?” Hesitantly I replied, “Yes.” He said, “If I were a visitor looking for a church home and heard that sermon I would think there is something seriously wrong in that church and I don’t want to be a part of it.” Immediately I was confronted with 2 choices: accept with humility the truth of what my dad observed or reject his words and go find someone who would tell me what I wanted to hear. I chose to accept his observation and resolved to never again let negative feelings and personal frustrations dominate the message I preach. Isn’t that the message of these proverbs:
Proverbs 15:5 – “A foolish man puts no value on his father's training; but he who has respect for teaching has good sense.”
Proverbs 19:20 – “Let your ear be open to suggestion and take teaching, so that at the end you may be wise.”
So the first thing we learn from this little slice of history is partial obedience meanshearing what we want to hear, not what God says.The second thing we learn from this little episode in history is…
2.Partial obedience mean acting before you seek the Lord’s mind, not after.
When Rehoboam decides to reject the people’s request for lighter burdens, he sends Hadoram, the taskmaster over the forced labor, to enforce his increased labor requirements. In turn the people stone Hadoram. With no thought about God’s will in the matter, Rehoboam gathers an army and plans to go to war against his own people. God directly intervenes and orders both sides to stand down.
Does that sound like any of your worst laid plans? You know, the kind where you plan first and pray second? The most fundamental faith issue all of us face every day is whether we are going to face this day assuming that God is in charge or assuming that we are in charge. If you are in charge, you plan first and pray second. If God is in charge, you pray first and plan second.
The third thing we learn from this brief moment in history is…
3.Partial obedience means never evaluating our traditions by the word of God.
Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines. His grandfather had multiple wives. His father had 300 wives and 700 concubines. Polygamy and adultery were an old family tradition. By Rehoboam’s time sexual sin was seen an entitlement of the king. While the “old family tradition” raged on the word of God never changed. The king “…must not acquire many wives for himself….” (Deuteronomy 17:17). All the neighboring kings had harems. It was a sign of a king’s wealth and power. In other words, “Everybody was doing it.”, so why shouldn’t Rehoboam?
As a church and as individual Christians we cannot afford to slip into the partial disobedience trap just because “everybody else is doing it.” Other may decide homosexual behavior must be tolerated because so many are practicing it. Others may decide drugs and alcohol are fine if done in moderation because “everybody else believes that way.” Others may decide gambling is an acceptable form of recreation and has nothing to do with Christian stewardship because “everybody is doing it”. But people who seriously seek first the kingdom of God don’t evaluate the rightness or wrongness of a thing by how many people do it. They evaluate rightness and wrongness by the word of God.
What started as Rehoboam disregarding the word of God in one area of his life quickly grew into total disregard for the word of God.
4.Partial disobedience led to total disregard for the word of God.
Deuteronomy 12:1 – “…Rehoboam…abandoned the law of the Lord, he and all Israel with him.”You would be hard pressed to find a more inconsistent follower of God than Rehoboam. When you abandon the law of the Lord, it has an immediate negative effect on your worship.I Kings 14:22-24 fleshes out the specifics of what happened when Rehoboam abandoned the word of God,“During Rehoboam’s reign, the people of Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking his anger with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors. For they also built for themselves pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. There were even male and female shrine prostitutes throughout the land. The people imitated the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.” Because of Rehoboam’s disregard for the word of God in his personal life he soon abandons the word of God almost completely. He still goes to worship and amazingly the grace of God is extended. When he enters the house of the Lord the text says, “Because he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy them completely….” (Deuteronomy 12:12).
You really get a picture of how anxious God is to be gracious to us not only when you see Him turning from his wrath when Rehoboam shows an inkling of humility but also when the nation demonstrates their humility.“When the Lord saw their change of heart, he gave this message to Shemaiah: “Since the people have humbled themselves, I will not completely destroy them and will soon give them some relief.” – II Chronicles 12:7
Because Judah continued to live in partial obedience to God their nation would remain divided never to regain the prominence they had in the days of David and Solomon. The glory days of Solomon’s temple were gone forever. The text reads, “When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made.” – II Chronicles 12:9God punishes Judah for their partial obedience by delivering them to the hands of the invading Egyptian army. While Judah struggles with the domination of Egypt with one hand, with the other hand they fight continual wars with the northern 10 tribes under the leadership of Jeroboam. (12:8, 15) While Rehoboam seems to have ignored many of the Proverbs of his father Solomon, he for sure understood one of them:“The way of the transgressor is hard.” – Proverbs 13:15
I want you to notice the contrast in King Rehoboam’s attitude toward God and that of the priests who refused to follow the idolatrous ways of Jeroboam:
“Rehoboam did evil because he had not set his hearton seeking the LORD.” – II Chronicles 12:14
“Those from every tribe of Israel who set their heartson seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their fathers.” – II Chronicles 11:16
To set your heart on something is to make a conscious, deliberate choice to do something. Those of you who coach have seen an athlete who wants to excel do that very thing. That athlete makes a conscious, deliberate choice. They put in the time. They make the sacrifices. And they eventually excel far beyond their peers because they “set their hearts” on athletic achievement. Isn’t it about time you quit just showing up for church and practicing partial obedience to the Lord? Isn’t it about time you set your heart on seeking the Lord?