Today’s passage: 1 Kings 12:1-15
Helpful thoughts:
- When Solomon died, the northern 10 tribes called on Jeroboam to represent them before the new king.
- The elders had seen the rise and the fall of Solomon. Rehoboam rejected their counsel before he even asked his peers. It seems he asked them because he knew they would say what he wanted to hear.
- There is a huge contrast between the wisdom of Solomon and the foolishness of Rehoboam. However, there may have been little difference at all in their appetite for personal gain. Life lessons are taught…and caught.
- Rehoboam was about to experience the vanity and striving after the wind his father had warned about.
Questions to consider:
- When we speak of a “turn of events” or a “turn of affairs” are we usually speaking of an ordered plan or of chance happenings? From whose perspective would these events appear to be chance? What were they from God’s perspective? (Proverbs 16:33)
- What is the irony for the counselors who grew up with Rehoboam? They wanted to prosper with him, what did their counsel result in? What did their greed bring about?
- How can this passage serve to humble us as parents, given the fact that Solomon himself wrote the proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”? When a child grows up and loves Jesus, whose grace ultimately made that happen? What is our role as parents?