| “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 12:24 |
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 you go out to eat in such a restaurant, things don’t seem to go very well. Maybe you wait a long time for the waiter or waitress to come and take your order. Or, maybe after he or she takes your order, you wait a very long time for your food to arrive, so you can begin to eat. When that happens, maybe you’ve wondered aloud about who’s in charge. It seems when a dining experience doesn’t go well at a restaurant it’s because no one seems to take control of getting things done efficiently—no one seems to be “in charge.”
One of the lessons contained in the Bible text found in 1 Kings 12:22-24 gives us a good illustration:
22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘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.
King Solomon had died. His two sons, Rehoboam and Jeroboam took over. 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. But, 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, form the Southern Kingdom where Rehoboam reigns. In the Scripture passage, 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 dearly loved child—is that we can always be sure that He’s always in charge. We should certainly 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.
