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| But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the word of the Lord and went home again, as the Lord had ordered. |
| —1 Kings 12:22-24 |
Do you like to go out to eat? Maybe you’re like me and most of your away-from-home eating experiences take place at McDonald’s or one of the other fast food restaurants. But perhaps, on some special occasion, you’ve gone to a real sit down restaurant where a waiter or waitress comes to your table and takes your order.
Once in a while, when we go out to eat in such a restaurant, things don’t seem to go very well. Maybe we wait for a long time for the waiter or waitress to come and take our order. Or, maybe after he or she takes our order, we wait a very long time for our food to arrive so we can begin eating. When that happens, we may wonder aloud about who’s in charge. It seems when things don’t go well at a restaurant it’s because no one seems to take control of things—no one seems to be “in charge.”
One of the lessons contained in today’s Bible text at the beginning of this blog post centers on the fact that when things happen around us, we don’t ever have to wonder whether or not God remains in charge of things. God’s always in charge. Whatever happens, and whenever things happen, we can be quite certain that God is at work to bring the outcome that He wants.
At the end of the chapter preceding today’s Scripture passage, King Solomon had died. Of his two sons, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, the first son had remained faithful to his father. The second son had rebelled against his father and fled to Egypt.
Upon Solomon’s death, Jeroboam returns to the Promised Land. And, Rehoboam acts on some bad advice from his peers, rejecting the recommendations of his older advisors. As a result, the people rebel, and the Kingdom becomes divided. Ten tribes form the Northern Kingdom and invite Jeroboam to become their king. Two tribes, Judah and Benjamin—along with most of the Levites who had no land holdings—form the Southern Kingdom where Rehoboam reigns.
In the verses at the beginning of this blog post, Rehoboam has assembled an army of 180,000 fighting men to attack the Northern Kingdom. But, God intervenes. He orders Rehoboam and his army to stand down. God reminds them that He remains in control and He has brought about the division of the kingdoms.
God always remains in control. In fact, one of the wonderful things about belonging to God—about being His child—is that we can always be sure that He’s in charge. I hope you will remember this fact. No matter what seems to happen in or around our lives, we can always remain certain that God’s the one in charge. He graciously and lovingly controls what goes on in our lives.
