For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity. --Proverbs 24:16In life we are taught to learn from our mistakes. Marilyn Monroe said, "I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go; things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right; you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself; and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." I don't know whether she ever trusted Jesus in her life, but I do know she died young of an apparent drug overdose. That one mistake, or series of mistakes leading up to that decision, proved fatal for her. It was a decision she could not learn from. Her words sound good, but they proved shallow.
Don't you sometimes wish that God would give you such wisdom that you could avoid all those costly mistakes you keep making over and over again? Calvin Coolidge said, "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity."
I want us to look today at three examples of people in the Bible who lacked wisdom, or discipline, or both. All three of these people are introduced to us in the book of 1 Kings.
We all know the first one. Solomon is known as the wisest man who ever lived. Just before he took the throne from his father David, he spent a day making sacrifices to God. A thousand burned offerings were made by Solomon that day. That night, God spoke to Solomon, and promised to give him whatever he asked. Solomon said he was a mere child, not knowing how to go out or to come in (1 Kings 3:7). He was about to undertake a huge task, one that he felt ill equipped for. His simple request pleased God: "So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?" (1 Kings 3:9).
Solomon's wisdom was known far and wide. People from all over the world would come to hear him speak, to hear his answers to difficult questions. These foreign visitors would bring with them gifts of gold and silver, which Solomon would put into the Temple treasury. Speaking of the Temple, Solomon spent seven years and billions of dollars (in today's money) to build the Temple. When he was finished, he spent thirteen years--almost twice as long-- building his own palace in Jerusalem. Despite his God-given wisdom, there seemed to be a little skewing of his priorities there. Sure, at the dedication of the Temple, Solomon had made sacrifices to the Lord of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep over 14 days (see 1 Kings 8:63-65). Nevertheless, his heart was set on his own house, and expanding his influence.
He started marrying the daughters of the surrounding kingdoms, in order to form alliances with them. It made perfect sense--the king of Egypt would not make war against Israel if Pharaoh's daughter was wed to Solomon. The same with the kings of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and others.
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love. --1 Kings 11:1-2Solomon was apparently a very loving guy, because he had 700 wives, all of them princesses. This was to show his superiority to other nations. He also had 300 concubines, to show his superiority to the people of Israel. His house was so big, and his family so numerous, can you imagine what it cost to feed and clothe the king's household, including servants each year? Much more, I would think, than the value of what he had sacrificed to God. His heart was turned away from God and toward the foreign gods all of these princesses brought with them.
If only Solomon had been disciplined enough to follow God's laws, then he could have avoided the traps that God had warned him about. God was not pleased, and in 1 Kings 11:9 and following, He let Solomon know about it.
So the Lord said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen." --1 Kings 11:11-13Consequences. Even the wisest man in all the world suffered consequences from disobeying God. I have two other quick stories about men who faced consequences for their actions. But first, a quick side-story.
I met a man last week whose name is Caleb. I immediately recognized it as a Bible name, and told him it was a name he could take pride in. Almost apologetically, he explained that the original meaning of the name was loyal or faithful, but now it refers to a dog (because of the characteristics of a dog, e.g. loyalty and faithfulness). He said that over time, the meaning of the name has changed. So he could be proud of the original meaning, but the contemporary meaning not so much.
I mention this because Solomon had a servant, a mighty warrior in his army, named Jeroboam. His name could mean "whose people are many." Perhaps he was born to a servant of the king and was named in honor of Solomon. However, the name also came to mean "the people will contend." It is this second meaning that has significance later in his life, and will lead to consequences.
Solomon chose his son Rehoboam (meaning "a people has enlarged" or "who enlarges the people") to be the heir to the throne. Rehoboam's first act as king was to ask the people what they wanted. Their answer was simple--they wanted tax relief. Sure, being ruled by Solomon was a great thing, and the treasury of the temple was enlarged by gifts from all the dignitaries who came streaming through. But building the Temple with stones hewn from quarries in Israel, lined with cedars imported from Lebanon, then overlaid with gold--all that was expensive. Not to mention the building of the palace, and the upkeep of the royal family. There were over 30,000 forced laborers serving the king, and it must have been very costly.
Rehoboam sought counsel with the elders in his cabinet. They agreed, and advised him to lower taxes. If he did, they told him that the people would love him and would serve him with all their heart. Not content with that advice, he sought out counsel from his posse, younger men who had little experience and less sense. They told him that acquiescing to the people would be a sign of weakness. Unless he wanted to appear vulnerable, he had to make a stand. "Tell them they ain't seen nothing yet. If they thought Solomon's taxes were too high, just wait." (my loose translation).
This is where the ten tribes of Israel split from the two tribes of Judah. Just like God had promised, Jerusalem and Judah had a king in David's family to rule over them. But the bulk of the Israelites rebelled against Rehoboam, and set Jereboam as king over them. But Jereboam knows that Jerusalem was not only the civic capitol of Judah, but also a religious center. So he set about building civic and religious centers in the Northern Kingdom that were cheap copies of what God had set up in Jerusalem. He told the people it was not necessary to go all the way down to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God--they could do it locally. He set up a temple in Bethel, at one end of the country, and one in Dan, at the other end. Unfortunately, he set up idols, golden calves, for the people to worship and to offer sacrifices. Jereboam also knew that the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe, was loyal to Jerusalem and to the temple there, so he appointed his own priests who were not of the tribe of Levi. Finally, since the people were used to holy days, he set up similar holidays to coincide with the days of feasting in Jerusalem.
Whenever agnostic or atheist people talk bad about religions and holidays, they say that there is no difference between the Christian holy days and the pagan holidays. They create a false equivalency. God will deal with them the same way he dealt with Jeroboam. Here is the consequence of Jeroboam's sin. An unnamed prophet, a man of God from Judah, who showed up at Bethel during this ersatz feast. This man of God spoke out publicly against Jeroboam and the altar that he had built. Jeroboam extended his hand to point to the prophet, and gave a command: Seize him! No one moved, because the king's hand was shriveled up and useless. I can imagine an audible gasp going on throughout the crowd. As this was happening, the altar split open and the ashes from the sacrifices spilled onto the ground, just as the man of God had warned.
Jeroboam immediately sought God's help, asking the prophet to pray for him to restore his hand. How many people cry out to God when tragedy strikes, only to forget about Him once things return to normal? The prophet did pray, the king's hand was healed, but he did not change his heart. He continued to worship the golden calf and to lead the people away from the Lord their God.
The last story of consequences has to do with the prophet, the man of God who had traveled to Bethel (which, by the way, means "house of God") to confront the king of Israel. Once Jeroboam saw that he had been healed, he invited the prophet to his palace for a meal. "Come, eat with me," he said. The prophet declined, saying that he had received strict instructions not to eat or drink anything until he had returned to Judah. His message had been delivered, so he left Bethel to go back home.
Now an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they related to their father. Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it. --1 Kings 13:11-13This old man, who may have once been a prophet of God, chased down the man of God from Judah, and asked him to break his fast. The younger man declined, saying that God had told him not to eat or drink until he had arrived back in Jerusalem. The old man said that God had given him a vision earlier that day, that the young man should come to his house and eat bread and drink water. Although it was a lie (1 Kings 13:18), the older man persisted. He said he was a prophet, too. He could be trusted. God had given him a message, too, and it would be an affront not only to the old man, but to God Himself to decline the invitation.
No sooner had the young man eaten and drunk that the old man received a word from the Lord. The young man of God had been disobedient, and he would die for his sin. Chagrined, the young man got on his donkey and left, riding back toward Judah. On his journey, a lion attacked him and killed him, leaving the donkey standing there. Some men passed by, and reported to those in the city that they had found a man's body lying on the road, and a donkey standing beside him, with a lion standing over the dead body. The older man, the false prophet, went to get the young man and bury him. The old man told his sons that when he died, he wanted to be buried in the same tomb that they buried the young prophet in, because the word of the Lord had been with him, and the old man realized that all he had said would come true--Jereboam's places of worship would be torn down, his altars dismantled, and the idols would be destroyed.
Okay, so to sum it all up, the wise make mistakes; the foolish make mistakes; and even the holy make mistakes. All of those mistakes come with consequences. God will deal with each man according to his works. However, because of the grace of God, the blood of His holy sacrifice covers those who seek Him, and who are faithful to Him. At the time 1 Kings was written, it was the blood of bulls and goats that justified men, and covered their sins. Today, it is the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the whole world.
In a sense, we are all Calebs--dogs who do not deserve to be in the presence of a Holy God. By His grace and mercy, though, He offers forgiveness to those who are loyal to Him. It all depends on where your loyalties lie. If you are given a word from God, do not be deceived by those who claim to have received a contradictory word, because God will not contradict His Word. If you are given responsibility over the lives and livelihoods of other people, like King Jereboam, stay faithful to the God of your fathers. Do not try to make cheap copies of the true way that God has shown you--do not fall for the false equivalency of the world. Finally, after amassing all the wisdom the world has to offer, do not abandon His guiding principles outlined in Scripture. If He said it, He will bless you for following it. If not, you will be like the vicious dog guarding the house, chasing away the mailman--you might just drive away someone who is bringing you a blessing from God.
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