Text: 1 Kings 12

The year is 940 BC.  Two strangers meet on the road just outside Jerusalem.

One is named Jeroboam.  He is from the northern tribe of Ephraim, and has been down in Jerusalem supervising a building project for king Solomon.

The other man is Ahijah, a prophet.  Ahijah is wearing a band new robe.  Solemnly, he takes off his robe, and tears it into pieces, twelve in all.  “King Solomon has forsaken me, and has set up places of worship of for many foreign gods.  Because of this, the Lord is going to tear the kingdom from him.  But not completely, and not yet.  After Solomon has died you will rule over the ten tribes of the North.  But I have not forgotten my promise to David, and his descendants will rule over David’s tribe, Judah, and David’s city, Jerusalem.”

In due course, Solomon dies.  Ignorant of Ahijah’s prophecy, everyone expects Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, to be crowned as king over all Israel.

[The above attempts to summarise salient points from 1 Kings 11:26-40]

We pick up the story at the beginning of 1 Kings, ch 12.

Read vv1-24

[What is the stupidest thing Rehoboam does here?]

The people complain that Solomon was a hard task-master.  Treat us better than he did, they say, and we will serve you gladly.

Rehoboam consults his older advisers.  “Be a servant leader,” they say, “and the people will serve you willingly.”

But his chums recommend bullying and intimidation.  And that’s the path he takes.

So the kingdom is ripped apart, just as Ahijah had predicted.

One bad decision destroys in an instant what David and Solomon had laboured 80 years to build up, and sets the scene for centuries of conflict.

How did Jeroboam, king of the northern tribes, fare?

[What is the wickedest thing that Jeroboam does here?]

Read v25-32

vv28-30 – ‘The king made two golden calves…and this thing became a sin.’

It opened up the way for the worship of pagan gods: gods who were into violence, cult prostitution, and human sacrifice.

Clearly, Rehoboam and Jeroboam were responsible for their decisions.

But did you notice:

v15 – ‘The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.’

I conclude:

They were responsible.  Yet God was in control.

The same is true today:

We are responsible.  Yet God is in control.

1. It’s inescapable!

Constantly in the background in the Bible; sometimes foregrounded, as in:

Gen 50:20 – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”

Acts 2:23 – “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

Phil 2:12 – ‘My dear friends…continue to work at your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.’

2. It’s Inscrutable!

Someone asks, ‘How do you square God’s sovereignty with human responsibility?’  Answer: ‘I don’t.  But I find each of them taught in God’s word, and on that authority I embrace them both.’

Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other.  ‘They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that we cannot see how they converge.  But they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, the source of all truth.’ (Spurgeon)

From our perspective, the tapestry of life often looks like a tangled mess.  But, one day, we’ll see it from heaven’s perspective.

‘Where reason fails with all her powers, There faith prevails and love adores.’ (Watts)

It’s inscrutable, and far be it from me to unscrew the inscrutable.

3. It’s inspirational!

(a) Be thankful.  We serve ‘a God of purposes and plans, who has not left a blind fate to tyrannize over the world, much less an aimless chance to rock it to and fro!’ (Spurgeon)

(b) Be patient.  Psa 73:17.  Things would get worse for Israel and Judah.  But the Lord had promised that one fragment of the kingdom would survive – the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe.  An unbroken line leads to great David’s greater Son, Jesus.  He will bring hope for the nations and healing to broken lives.  In him, God will put all wrongs to right.  Why not now?  Because God is being patient, not wishing any to perish (2 Pet 3).

(c) Be encouraged.  We are all called to bear witness to the Lord Jesus.  Be encouraged: as we plant the seed and water it, God makes it grow (1 Cor 3).  We are all urged to speak with God regularly in prayer.  ‘Pray without ceasing’.  Be encouraged: ‘he is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask of think.’

And so…

‘Work as is everything depended on you’ (because it does).  ‘Pray as if everything depended on God’ (because it does!).

‘Attempt great things for God.  Expect great things from God.’  (William Carey)

1 Cor 15:57 Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.