The Break-Up: The Curse of Control
Focus: The blessing of God comes through faith and obedience.
Jeroboam, desiring to control his own destiny, contrived his own version of spirituality and directly short-circuited the blessing God would have brought through faith and obedience. We need to make sure not to do the same.
God’s Initiative
Golden Ticket
God to the Rescue
God’s Initiative
Trying to control your life will forever be at odds with serving Jesus Christ.
1 Kings 11:26-34 ESV
“Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of David his father. The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes.”
The call of God on our lives can begin in the midst of turmoil and tragedy.
How we interpret and respond to those circumstances is of utmost importance to our walk with God.
Jeroboam came to the throne of Israel as a result of non-ideal circumstances.
Because of King Solomon’s sin, God divided the nation of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms.
The northern Kingdom would consist of the ten tribes of Israel and come to be known as Samaria, after its capital city.
The southern kingdom would still be ruled by Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, and King David’s descendants.
The southern kingdom would be known as Judah and Jerusalem would be its capital, found in the territory of Benjamin.
God used Rehoboam’s lack of esteem for the counsel of the older men who had served his father Solomon to tear the kingdom from his hands and turn it over to Jeroboam, who Yahweh chose to lead the northern ten tribes (I Kings 12:1-20).
What Jeroboam should have understood from this is:
God had chosen him, was for him and appointed him for successful rulership, service and blessing.
All Jeroboam had to do was trust God, love him and serve him in his ways.
It is the same for us.
We often try to forge our own way with our own wisdom, but God’s blessings are directly wrapped up in his grace released through faith and obedience to his commands.
Proverbs 3:5-12 ESV
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
This simply means learn to pray about things before you do them.
God has thoughts on how you spend your life - your time, talents, resources and pursuits.
Don’t presume, pray.
Don’t decide for yourself, determine what the Word of God has to say.
Following Jesus always has God’s Kingdom as the centerpiece and our blessings as a benefit of being a part of that kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
However, his kingdom is an eternal one and eternity is the place where God’s rewards will be fully realized.
In the meantime, there is a daily cross to bear as we honor Jesus and participate in his great commission to make disciples of all the nations.
1 Kings 11:38-40 ESV
“And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. And I will afflict the offspring of David because of this, but not forever.’” Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.”
Jesus' life instruction to the disciples was summarized in this statement - FOLLOW ME.
But what does that truly mean?
What is it that causes us to go astray when God has set his people up for nothing but eternal good?
The momentary cost
Fear that God won’t come through on his promises.
Thinking we have a better plan or could get a better result.
*The truth is God is always trying to set us up for what will be best for us and to his glory in the long run - though we often buckle because we are too short-sighted to see it.
This is where Jeroboam would fall short.
Golden Ticket
The things that we fear often try to control us at the expense of choosing to trust Christ whom we serve.
1 Kings 12:26-32 ESV
“And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their Lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.”
When you attempt to maintain control in your life, you erect false gods to replace Christ that will inevitably give you what you think you want rather than what God ordains.
How was Jeroboam responding to his fears?
Jeroboam was creating a spirituality of his own making - one that Yahweh would ultimately reject.
Though the levitical tribes held cities all throughout Israel, they would eventually migrate to the southern Kingdom of Judah after King Jeroboam established golden calf worship to the abhorrence of Yahweh.
2 Chronicles 11:13-15 ESV
“And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all places where they lived. For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord, and he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.”
By placing one golden calf in Bethel and one in Dan, Jeroboam was reinforcing the boundaries of his new northern kingdom.
In essence Jeroboam was saying, “I will worship God as long as it fits into my life plan with the goals and boundaries I have placed in life for myself.”
The problem with making these declarations is that Jesus says unless we deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, we can not be his disciple.
What many people desire is their own version of controlled, sanitized Christianity.
How we know what we are gravitating to such a false faith is how we respond when someone comes near to, threatens or touches what has functionally become our idols.
*Just as in the time of Aaron when he erected a golden calf for the wayward Israelites, so any bull we attempt to substitute for God and his ways will ultimately disappoint and be judged.
This was seen in the fictionalized life of Madame Bovary.
“But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.”
-Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary
The same was dramatized in the Brad Pitt movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
So the question is:
Who or what are you really serving?
An article from the Gospel Coalition reminds us of an historic parallel:
In 1534, Henry VIII—whom the Pope dubbed “Defender of the Faith” because of his work opposing Luther’s teaching—broke from Rome and established himself as the head of the newly formed Church of England. What caused the change? Henry wanted to retain his grip on power, and to do that, he needed the male heir his wife couldn’t provide him—yet the Vatican wouldn’t grant his divorce.
Henry didn’t break from Rome because he held to the doctrine of justification by faith alone but because he held political power as his ultimate good. Politics, not religion, motivated his nefarious deeds. That’s why he put to death both Catholics like Thomas More and Protestants like Thomas Cromwell.
Esteem power and control above personal piety, and you’ll invariably follow a similar course. That’s exactly what happens in 1 Kings 12 to the first king of Samaria.
*What happens when God tells you to do something that cuts against your comfort, will or plans?
*Many of us can’t think of such an instance because we don’t acknowledge him to ask how we are making decisions in our lives - whether we are on his trajectory for us or our own.
How are you strategizing and building your life without God, his Word or his counsel?
1 Kings 12:33 ESV
“He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.”
*Where do you try to control the outcomes of your life and make decisions that put you at odds with God’s commands?
1 Kings 13:1-6 ESV
“And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried 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, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.”
*Why do we opt to try to maintain control in our lives, even when God’s ways are different and better?
*Possibly because of his need to escape to Egypt until the death of Solomon, Jeroboam had developed a survival mentality rather than a sanctified mentality (understanding that he was called to live in faith, set apart to Yahweh).
We often do the same because of:
Past disappointments
Trauma
Fear of the future
Etc.
*We all have choices to make when we are hurt, disillusioned or disappointed in life - with our relational status, with our careers, our health, with our marriages, with our children, with our station in life.
*Will we trust God and continue to sow the seeds of faith and obedience to his Word or will we get disgruntled, bitter and take life into our own hands to our own detriment.
It was ironic that Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam as Jeroboam was a threat to Solomon’s kingdom, just as Saul had tried to kill Solomon’s father, David, when God anointed David to be Saul’s successor.
When Solomon’s heart drifted from the Lord, so did his ability to see similar destructive patterns.
*Unlike King David, in his hurt, Jeroboam did not trust the Lord, but attempted to take his fate into his own hands and ended up rejecting the God who had called him to the good things Jeroboam desired.
The truth is that people are often forgotten by others in suffering, but God does not forget you.
The prophet Isaiah would later write around 559-539 BC, during Israel’s Babylonian exile:
Isaiah 49:14-23 ESV
“But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you. Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the Lord, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does. “Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land— surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’” Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.””
Jeroboam wanted to seize the man of God that confronted him so that the man of God would not interrupt his plans or his vision of how his world should function.
However, God was not having it.
When we resist God’s instructions to try to maintain control, it always comes back to bite us - but as with Jeroboam’s dried up hand, in turning back to God, there is restoration.
*Even in the discipline, God was giving Jeroboam a chance to turn by restoring his hand to health.
This is always the heart of God, but it’s like the modern news cycle - our proclivity is that if it isn’t directly in our face, we forget about it.
The problem with Jeroboam, much like Pharaoh of Egypt, is that when his hand was restored, he returned to his hardness of heart and sin.
1 Kings 13:33 ESV
“After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places.”
*Where have you been hard-hearted, refusing to turn to the commands of God despite repeated warnings from those who would share the word of God with you?
God to the Rescue
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the commands of God and therefore became both our perfect king and perfect savior.
How was Jesus different?
Jesus didn’t look to sidestep the commands of God - he looked to fulfill them.
Matthew 5:17-20 ESV
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus understood that life and peace were found in following the ways of God and did so as a perfect example for us.
Romans 8:1-6 ESV
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Because Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law of God, he could be a perfect substitute, taking our punishment for sin on the cross.
Because he was perfectly innocent, Jesus rose from the dead to give forgiveness and eternal life to all who would turn from their sin, choosing to follow him in faith and obedience.
Let’s turn back to the God of grace today who, through Jesus, gives us the hope of a good inheritance as we turn from our own ways to his benevolent future as we trust and obey him.