A Heart... Perfect | Ep. 160

Solomon's reign marks the peak of Israel's golden age—a time of unprecedented wealth, wisdom, and influence. Yet beneath the gleaming surface, seeds of destruction were taking root through his marriages to foreign women and their foreign gods. This spiritual compromise eventually tore the kingdom apart, setting in motion centuries of turmoil and divided loyalty.

The divided kingdom story provides powerful insights into how God relates to His people through covenant. While Solomon, Rehoboam, and their successors repeatedly broke faith with God, He remained steadfast to His promise to David. This tension between human unfaithfulness and divine faithfulness reveals a God who disciplines without destroying, who maintains His covenant promises despite our failures.

The journeys of kings like Asa illustrate timeless spiritual principles that speak directly to our lives today. Asa began by cleansing the land of idols, removing high places, and even deposing his idolatrous mother from her position as queen. For twenty years, his kingdom experienced peace and prosperity as a result of seeking God wholeheartedly. Yet in a moment of crisis, he inexplicably turned to foreign alliances instead of the God who had delivered him from a million-man Ethiopian army.

Perhaps most profound is the revelation of what it means to have a "perfect heart" toward God. Despite serious moral failures, David is repeatedly held up as the standard because he never stopped seeking God. This reminds us that spiritual perfection isn't about sinlessness but about persistent pursuit of relationship with God—especially after failure.

Are there areas in your life where competing loves are compromising your spiritual integrity? What defensive walls have you built that keep you from trusting God fully? The ancient kings' stories reveal that the principle remains unchanged across millennia: "The Lord is with you while you be with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. If you forsake Him, He will forsake you."

"Message Our Father's Heart a Question or Response"

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Episode Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz (00:03):
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much-needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose and fulfill theirpurpose.

(00:27):
I began doing that and I beganrealizing that I've been reading
the lineage of the dividedkingdom of Israel.
It started with David and Davidwas in 2 Samuel, 1 Samuel was
Saul, 2 Samuel was David, andthen it went into Solomon, you
know, went into Solomon.
But if we go to hit the nextarrow and one more time, I

(00:55):
started just seeing some thingsthat were important to me, that
were of significance to me, anda lot of times, gosh, I remember
years ago when I would get intothe Old Testament, I would not
like reading the Old Testament.
I didn't like reading.
Well, I like Genesis, but Ididn't like Leviticus, numbers
in Deuteronomy, you know itstill has that kind of effect.

(01:17):
Oh gosh, the lineages again,and the names and the ordinances
and the ceremonies, and youknow, but you know, after I've
started, I, after I, continuedto walk with the Lord, they,
they are precious to me Now.
There's some nuggets there thatI didn't see when I was too
young, cause I was too young.
But now I see things that umare are very important to me and
I think they're important forthe body of Christ, and I won't

(01:41):
get into all this.
I just this on paper and Istarted messing with the
PowerPoint and I wanted to comeup with who was reigning, when
this person was reigning, andhow they interacted, and blah,
blah, blah.
So this is by far not the wholelist of all the kings.

(02:17):
I may only get to the thirdking in the southern kingdom
today.
I'm not sure.
That's probably well.
But every time I read the OldTestament, now that I'm older,
that I'm a little bit moremature, I always think of these
two verses at the bottom the lawwas our schoolmaster that
brought us to Christ.

(02:38):
There is vital significance tothe law.
It's supposed to, if you haveeyes to see.
It's supposed to reveal Christunto you.
It's supposed to direct you toChrist.
It's supposed to detour youfrom wherever you're at and
cause you to look upon the onewho was prophesied from
centuries and centuries andcenturies past.

(02:58):
And then I remember what Paulsaid, that all of these things
happened to them as examples.
He was talking about Mosespassing through the Red Sea and
how he baptized them in thecloud and in the sea.
But all of these things, whenhe said all of these things, I
don't think he was just talkingabout that Moses account.
I think all of these things tohim was all of the old covenant.

(03:20):
All of these things werewritten to us for as examples
and it was written to warn us,and every time I go into the old
covenant I go in with that idea, I go in with that perspective,
because those things arewritten to warn me, and so I

(03:44):
want to share with you some ofthe things that I see that we
need to highlight.
David reigned for 40 years.
I think we all know his story.
We've seen his ups and downs.
He reigned for 40 years.
Seven years he reigned atHebron and then 33 years he
reigned at Jerusalem and when hedied, his son succeeded him,
solomon.
Solomon was the son ofBathsheba, because David and

(04:05):
Bathsheba's first son actuallydied, paid the penalty for their
sin.
But I want to try to traceSolomon, rehoboam, abijah and
Asa and just look at what arethe lessons that those accounts
have for us today.
What is the relevance?
The relevance that's the wordthat came to my mind as Bishop

(04:27):
was talking about trying toteach kids because they don't
understand the relevance.
I'm in my class and they don'tunderstand the relevance of math
, they don't understand therelevance of learning surface
area or probabilities, you know,and if we can get them to
understand the relevance,they're going to receive more of

(04:48):
it.
If you read the Bible and it'snot relevant to you, then you
get nothing of it but a story.
Yeah, I read that story, like Iread that Stephen King book,
like I read that Shakespearenovel, like I read that other
famous story.
It's just a story until itbecomes relevant to you, and
that relevance usually alwaysnot usually always comes through

(05:10):
revelation.
There's something that the Lordopens your eyes to that it
becomes wow.
That's important for me andthat's also important for the
body.
So, if you'll follow along withme, I want to go over some of
these life stories.
I'm not going to readeverything, because I'll be here
, for I'll keep you here all day, because I could go through all
of these, but I'm going to tryto stick to the southern kingdom

(05:32):
at first.
Maybe another time I'll try togo into the northern kingdom,
things that happened there.
But I want to start withSolomon, because Solomon and the
things that he did caused thisdivided kingdom.
What Solomon did caused thisbreak.
I was speaking to a saintrecently how when you have a

(05:54):
break in a relationship, it'slike a death in the family.
When my relationship was brokenwith the first girlfriend that
I had, it was like a death to me, just like a couple years later
, my mom died, and the painswere similar.
There was a death, there was agaping hole in my life,

(06:14):
something that was missing, andso whenever something is broken,
a relationship is severed, it'slike a death.
At least, that's the way thatI've seen it, that's the way
I've experienced it, and I thinkI've read it in here to be able
to say, yeah, even the wordconfirms it.
So if we all turn to 1 Kings,chapter 9, we're going to look a

(06:38):
little bit into Solomon and thethings that he did and the
things that he went through andsee how he laid a foundation for
what was to happen after that.
And I'm kind of doing itdifferently.
I mean, this is my study, guys.
I usually write down six, seven, eight, ten pages of stuff and
this is all I have.
So I'm going straight from theScriptures, and whatever I wrote

(07:05):
here is what I'm going to kindof share with you.
In 1 Kings 9, yes, 1 Kings,chapter 9, right before that, if
you've ever read the story,solomon dedicated the temple, he
finished completing it and hemade this tremendous prayer of
God to do things when peoplewould turn their eyes toward
this temple and seek his face,rise toward this temple and seek

(07:29):
his face.
And after he prays this longprayer and he has these
sacrifices, hundreds, maybe eventhousands of animals I can't
remember right now the Lordresponds to him.
The Lord comes to him twice inhis life.
The Lord came to him early onin a vision and asked him ask
what you will?
I'll give it to you.
And we know that that waswisdom.
He came to him a second timeafter the dedication of the

(07:50):
temple and the Lord says untohim in verse 3, if we go to 1
Kings 9, verse 3, I'm going toread a few of these, not all of
it, so just bear with me, youcan read it on your own at
another time.
Well, yeah, Jesus said toSolomon I have hollowed this
house which thou hast built toput my name there forever and

(08:12):
mine eyes and my heart shall bethere perpetually.
And in our fellowship.
We really harp on this termcovenant.
It's not about just being saved, it's not about being born,
it's about covenant.
Are you in covenant with God?
And every time the Lord comesto his people, he makes a

(08:35):
covenant with them the covenantof Abraham, the covenant of Noah
, the covenant of Adam, thecovenant with Moses.
He makes a covenant here withSolomon.
He made a covenant with David.
He made a covenant with Saul.
Saul broke the covenant and theline was cut off.
That's why David came in hisplace.
Saul was from Benjamin, Davidwas from Judah.
So right here, we see, rightnow, Jesus is going to make a

(08:59):
covenant with Solomon.
And the covenants always startwith if and if thou wilt walk
before me, as David, thy fatherwalked, in the integrity of
heart and in uprightness to doaccording to all that I have
commanded thee and will keep thestatutes, then I will establish
the throne of thy kingdom uponIsrael forever.

(09:19):
And if you've read David'sstory, that's the covenant Jesus
made with David.
If you do these things, if youremain faithful to me, I will
establish thy line forever.
And then they came propheciesout that the Messiah would come
out of David's line, and so he'sdoing the same thing with

(09:40):
Solomon.
And these are the positiveaspects of the covenant, but
they're conditioned on if thouwill walk before me as David,
thy father, did.
And some people will think,well, David wasn't perfect.
Well, yeah, he wasn't perfect,or was he?
You need to look at thescriptures for that.
We're going to come to thatagain later.
But then he gives another partof the covenant.

(10:02):
He says but if ye shall at allturn from following me, ye or
your children, see, the covenantis always for the father and
the generations after him.
He says ye and your children,if you will not keep my
commandments or my statutes,which I've set before you, but
go and serve other gods andworship them, then there's the

(10:24):
if.
Then again, it's always acondition I will cut off Israel
out of the land which I havegiven them, and the house which
I've hollowed for my name will Icast out of my sight, and
Israel shall be a proverb and abyword among all the people.
This is the negative aspect.
But look at what he said If youor your children will not walk

(10:47):
in my statutes, I will cut offIsrael out of the land, did it
say I will break covenant withIsrael and Israel's on his own?
No, he kept covenant withIsrael and still does to this
day.
But he says I will remove Israelfrom out of the land, the land
that I've given them.
I'm going to remove them outand this house that was hollowed
by my name, I'm going to castit out of my sight and it's

(11:09):
going to become a proverb, it'sgoing to become a byword, and
even to this day, is that notwhat it has become?
And at this house, which ishigh, everyone that passeth it
shall be astonished and shallsay everyone around is going to
see what the Lord had done inIsrael and to Israel, if they
break covenant with God.

(11:29):
And they're going to say whyhath the Lord done this unto
this land and to this house?
And they shall answer Even thenations around them, which shall
say Because they forsook theLord, their God.
Even what Jesus does with hispeople, even in discipline, is a
testimony to the nations of whoGod is, even in discipline,

(11:51):
they're going to know well, theyforsook the Lord.
That's how he dealt with them.
And they're going to know thatthey forsook the Lord, their God
, who brought them out of Egypt,who brought their fathers out
of Egypt and taken hold of othergods.
They worshiped them and theyserved them, and the Lord upon
them brought upon them all ofthis evil.
So they'll know why thishappened to Israel.

(12:19):
And again, this was about within10 to 20 years.
I forgot the numbers.
I'd have to go back and look.
But Solomon took a lot of yearsto build a house.
He had to build Solomon's, hehad to build his temple, he had
to build his house and he had tobuild another house, which I'm
going to get to later.
But it says and it came to passat the end of 20 years when
Solomon oh, there, it is, 20years it took him.

(12:49):
He walked with God, he kept hiscovenant with God, and these
many things happen.
King Hiram worked with him.
King Hiram sent Solomon 60talents of gold to build his
house, and Solomon built citiesin Gezer and Bethlehem and

(13:10):
Bailiff and Tamor in thewilderness.
And remember the people thatJoshua and the rest of his
generation did not wipe out.
It names them again.
It says in verse 20, and all ofthe people that were left, of
the Amorites, the Hittites, thePerizzites, the Hivites, the
Jebusites, which were not of thechildren of Israel, the

(13:33):
children that were left afterthem in the land, whom the
children of Israel also were notable to utterly destroy.
Upon those did Solomon levy atribute of bond service unto the
Zanahar.
In other words, he taxed them,he left them there, he taxed
them and they basically wereable to fund many of the things
that were being built inSolomon's reign.
All of the children of Israelwere not made bondmen, matter of

(13:59):
fact.
All of them were men of war, itsays in verse 22.
It says there were 550 chiefofficers who ruled over.
That did the work of the Lord.
Solomon even had a navy Thinkabout Israel.
And they even had a navy, andit was with King Hiram that he

(14:20):
teamed up with.
And when they went out theywould bring back from Ophir 420
talents of gold.
So during Solomon's reign, lotsof gold was being brought into
his kingdom, lots of riches wasbeing brought into his kingdom.
So what we see in Solomon'sreign is that there was

(14:44):
tremendous material blessing.
I mean, it's almost as ifSolomon could do no wrong.
He was just blessed, he wasfavored.
If you read anything of hisstory, there was peace in
Solomon's reign Peace.
He was not at war with anyone.
He was always at peace.
But there's somethinginteresting that I told you I
wanted to get to, so I'm goingto turn to 2 Chronicles, 8.

(15:06):
Verse 11.
And this one verse comesimmediately after what we just
read in 1 Kings, chapter 9.
Solomon oh, by the way, if youdidn't know Solomon, early on in

(15:27):
his reign, probably forpolitical purposes, maybe, or
maybe because he just fell inlove with the daughter of
Pharaoh from Egypt, he took herto be his wife early on.
So he built three houses.
I didn't touch this, but hebuilt the Lord's house, he built

(15:47):
his own house and then he builthis wife's house.
And it says here and Solomonbrought up the daughter of
Pharaoh out of the city of Davidunto the house that he had
built for her.
For he said my wife shall notdwell in the house of David,

(16:08):
king of Israel, because theplaces are holy.
Why would he do that, unless heknew there was something wrong
with it?
Because he took unto him a wifefrom the nations that
surrounded them.
Now, the city of David,jerusalem, is where the temple

(16:35):
of God was, it is where hismansion was, but he was not
going to have his wife live inthe city of David, for it was
holy.
And I highlight to you becauseit's important, why would he do
that?
Why wouldn't he have her livein his house, unless there was
something wrong with it?

(16:56):
Solomon didn't believe that hiswife, the daughter of Pharaoh,
should dwell in the house of theDavid.
Because it was holy, he madeher house apart from the city of
David.
So think about that.
Just hold that.
And we're going to go now to 1Kings, chapter 10.

(17:17):
And this talks about how thequeen of Sheba came.
I don't want to get into toomuch detail about it, but she
was thoroughly enthralled withhim.
She basically said that thethings that people told me about
you were not I mean, they werefar less than what I have just
seen now, having been in yourpresence, because your people
are happy, your servants arehappy, your kingdom is a

(17:39):
peaceful and joyful dwellingplace.
And she also brought himpresents.
She gave him 120 talents ofgold and spices and precious
stones.
She said blessed be.
See, she's someone outside.
She's not a part of Israel, shecame from outside.
She came in to see the wisdomof Solomon and she was so

(18:02):
thoroughly impressed with hiswisdom that she then did this
blessed be the Lord, thy God.
She's blessing God.
She's blessing the God ofAbraham, isaac and Jacob, the
God of Israel.
She is now blessing him.
Why?
Because what she sees in themidst of Israel is beyond belief
.
She cannot even help, but giveGod the praise.

(18:26):
A pagan woman, come, give Godthe praise For seeing the wisdom
and the favor and the blessingthat God is bestowing on Solomon
.
She said Blessed be the Lord,thy God, which delighted in thee
To set thee on the throne ofIsrael, because the Lord loved
Israel forever.
She's saying this, a pagan.
Therefore made he the king todo judgment and justice.

(18:48):
This is 1 Kings 10, verse 9.
And then she began to justbless him and give him material
wealth, and the navy that he hadwith Hiram also brought him
exquisite trees, almak trees,precious stones.
And then the king Solomon itsays in verse 13, gave unto the

(19:10):
queen of Sheba all of her desire.
Solomon gave of his royalbounty.
It says now, the weight of goldthat came to Solomon in one year
was 603 score and six talentsof gold, 660 talents of gold
came to Solomon.
It says that the kings ofArabia and governors of the

(19:31):
country brought him spices,brought him exquisite things,
brought him gold and silver,according to 2 Chronicles.
And what did he do with thisgold?
This is called the golden ageof the kingdom of Israel because
they had so much gold.
He even had a throne of ivoryoverlaid with gold.

(19:54):
Temples the temple of Solomon'sspecific sections were overlaid
with gold.
They burned it up and theyliquefied it and they just
poured it all over.
It was overlaid with gold, somuch of his reign and kingdom
was of gold.
But anyways, he took the goldand he took 200.

(20:16):
He made 200 targets of gold, inother words shields of gold,
and each of the targets weighedsix shekels of gold.
He made another 300 shields ofgold, but those were three
pounds of gold.
So I just figured they werebigger shields of gold.
But all of it was gold.
He had vessels of gold, hiswalls were gold, his throne was

(20:39):
gold.
All of these things were gold,not silver, not just precious
stones, but gold.
His vessels, his drinkingvessels, were vessels of gold.
It says in verse 21, all thevessels of the house were of
pure gold.
None were of silver.
It says, and once every threeyears, in verse 22, the Navy of

(21:05):
Tharsis brought gold and silver,ivory and apes and peacocks.
I mean, he was just overflowingin abundance of exquisite
things from all over the world.
And so it says in verse 23,.
King Solomon exceeded all thekings of the earth for riches
and wisdom.
King Solomon exceeded all thekings of the earth for riches

(21:28):
and wisdom.
And it says in verse 24, all ofthe earth sought to Solomon to
hear his wisdom, which God hadput in his heart.
And everyone brought presents.
Everyone brought vessels ofsilver, vessels of gold,
garments and armor, spices andhorses and mules.
Year after year after year, hereigned 40 years and this is

(21:54):
what all the people around himdid.
Solomon gathered in his ownkingdom 1,400 chariots, 12,000
horsemen.
It says that the king madesilver to be like stones, and
there were stones all overIsrael.
He made silver to be likestones, and there were stones
all over Israel.
He made silver to be thataffluent.
He had horses brought out ofEgypt, and linen, yarn and the

(22:14):
king's merchants.
There was trade going on.
There was a free market of justtrading, trading this for that
and I mean it was.
It was a golden age.
It really was In almost everyrespect.
And so this is Solomon's reign.
This is the beauty, this is thefavor.
This is all that Solomon hadfor him and Israel.

(22:38):
All people were blessed by whatwas going on.
Which is to say, why did chapter11 come around?
Because if you stop there, youwould say, well, Solomon could
do no wrong.
But yet that one verse he wouldnot put his wife in his own

(23:00):
city because his city was holyblares out at me.
Because that happened early on.
That happened when he becameking early on, and yet him and
his kingdom was blessed withsuper abundance, yet he had this
wife from another nation.

(23:20):
Think about that.
Because it says here in chapter11, but King Solomon loved many
strange women and the Lord saidto him you shall not go in unto
them, neither shall they comein unto you, for surely they

(23:44):
shall turn away your heart.
You will serve other gods.
And it says in verse threeSolomon clave unto these in love
.
I mentioned those names beforebecause it was the Egyptians,
the Moabites, the Ammonites, theEbonites, the Zidonians and the
Hittites that he started,started taking in wives left and

(24:05):
right and by the time he wasdone in his reign he had 700
wives and princesses and 300concubines, and his wives turned
away his heart.
When Solomon was old, his wivesturned away his heart.
It even identifies when ithappened.

(24:27):
You see, he brought in a wifeearly on in his reign, and he
was blessed.
He didn't have her in the city,but he was blessed, and blessed
with gold and silver and favorand wisdom and everybody blessed
him.

(24:49):
And so what happens when you'vedone something you know is
contrary to the Lord and you'reblessed, you don't think much of
it, you don't think you reallydid anything wrong and you think
maybe you got away withsomething and maybe you're just
more highly favored thaneverybody else and God is just
going to treat you differentlythan everybody else.
And so when Solomon was old,his wives turned away his heart.

(25:14):
And then it says and his heartwas not perfect with the Lord,
his God, as was his father,David.
This is one of the reasons whyI've spoken of Solomon before.
He is one man that I would notwant to be in his shoes on the
day of judgment, because Ireally don't know what happened
to him.
Yeah, David sinned.

(25:35):
Yeah, David fell, but he gotback up and he sought the Lord,
he repented.
But it says, in the end of hisdays, his wives turned away his
heart.
It says in verse five.
Solomon went after Ashtoreth,the goddess of the Sidonians.
He went after Milcom, theabomination of the Ammonites.

(25:55):
Solomon did evil in the sightof the Lord and went not fully
after the Lord as David, hisfather.
Solomon built a high place inIsrael for Chemosh, or Chemosh
he's the abomination of Moab,and he built a hill for Molech,

(26:18):
who's the abomination of thechildren of Ammon.
And likewise did he for all ofhis strange wives, which burnt
incense and sacrificed untotheir God.
Now, this is what Solomon didin his reign, at the end of his
reign, and he did it throughoutall of Israel.
Think he had 700 wives ofIsrael.

(26:38):
Think he had 700 wives, maybe700 high places for all the
different wives that he had andall the different gods that they
served, and maybe some of themcame from the same place.
But regardless, the point isthat he seeded in Israel its own
downfall.
He seeded in Israel thisdivided kingdom that would come,
and the Lord obviously was nothappy.

(26:59):
He says in verse 9, the Lord wasangry with Solomon because his
heart was turned from the Lordafter he had already appeared to
him twice, once to give him avision and once to respond to
his prayer about the temple andhad commanded him concerning
this thing, that he should notgo after other gods.
But he kept not that which theLord commanded.

(27:22):
And so the Lord said untoSolomon, you have not kept my
covenant, you have not kept mystatutes.
We made an agreement.
I said if you do this, I willdo this.
If you do this other thing, I'mgonna do this.
Well, now I'm going to keep mypart of the bargain.
You've now broken covenant.

(27:42):
I said what would happen if youbroke the covenant?
This is now what's going tohappen.
I will surely rend the kingdomfrom thee and will give it to
thy servant, notwithstanding inthy days, I will not do it for
David, thy father's sake, I willrend it out of the hand of thy
son.
In other words, I'm not goingto rend the kingdom from you

(28:06):
during the days of your life forthe sake of David.
I'm going to rend it from yourson.
You will already be dead.
He said I will not rend it awayfrom the kingdom, but will give
one tribe to thy son, David.
You see, god is still thinkingabout the, the faithfulness of
David.
He stayed faithful to me andhis son broke covenant with me,
but I'm going to still keep mycovenant with David.

(28:27):
And so I'm going to leave onetribe to you, one tribe, and
that will fulfill my end of thebargain, if you will, with David
, my end of the covenant withDavid.

(28:47):
And so at this point, after theLord prophesied unto him maybe
he sent him a prophet, maybe hecame to him in a vision, but the
Lord had spoken to Solomon thisis what would happen.
Then, from this point on, fromverse 14 on, you see that the
Lord starts stirring up hisadversaries.
But this is at the end of hisdays, this is at the end of his
life.
So, during the latter time ofSolomon's reign, the Lord stirs
up Hadad the Edomite.
He stirs up a second person,rezon, the son of Eliadah, in

(29:13):
verse 23.
And he stirred up a man no, youdon't have it there Named
Jeroboam.
Now, if you go back, just alttab.
If you go back, no, no, no, notin the scriptures, just alt tab

(29:34):
.
Jeroboam, if you look, is theking of the northern kingdom.
Jeroboam was not.
You look, is the king of thenorthern kingdom.
Jeroboam was not in the line ofDavid, he was the son of Nabot.
And it says here that the Lordstirred up Jeroboam to come
against Solomon.
And then it says this is why.

(29:57):
Now listen to the story.
Jeroboam is the son of Nabot inverse 26.
He's Solomon's servant.
Even he lifted up his handagainst Solomon and says but
here's why.
The man Jeroboam in verse 28was a mighty man of valor, and

(30:18):
Solomon saw the young man, thathe was industrious, he had a
good work ethic and he wasimpressed by it and he made him.
He made Jeroboam ruler over allthe charge of the house of
Joseph.
And then a prophet comes toJeroboam.
His name is Ahijah, and Ahijahtears Jeroboam's garment into 12

(30:42):
pieces.
This is after the Lord alreadyspoke to Solomon about what
would happen to his kingdom,because his heart left him.
He prophesied that 10 tribeswill be given to Jeroboam.
10 tribes have been given toyou, jeroboam and Solomon's
servant, but one tribe willremain with the house of David.

(31:02):
Why it says why in verse 33.
Because that they have forsakenme.
They have worshipped Ashtoreth,the god, the goddess of the
Zidonians, chemosh, the god ofthe Ammonites, milcom, and have
not walked in my ways to do thatwhich is right in my eyes to
keep my statutes and myjudgments, as David, his father
did.
But he even says to Jeroboam Iwill make him prince, all excuse

(31:28):
me.
In verse 34, how be it?
I will not take the wholekingdom out of his hand, but I
will make him prince all thedays of his life, for David, my
servant's sake, whom I chosebecause he kept my commandments
and my statutes.
Again he refers back to David.
He was the one that wasfaithful.
I'm going to still leave withhim a piece of the kingdom
that's called a remnant.

(31:48):
He left with him a remnant sothat the covenant would not be
broken by God to David, but Iwill take the kingdom out of his
son's hand and will give itunto thee, even 10 tribes.
Now God is telling Jeroboam thisduring Solomon's reign.
Solomon is still alive, andunto his son will I give one

(32:14):
tribe that David, my servant,may have a light always before
me in Jerusalem.
And it says in verse 37, and Iwill take thee, Jeroboam, and
thou shalt reign according tothat thy soul desireth, and thou
shalt be king over Israel.
I hate just proclaiming him,but he's gonna be king over
Israel and it shall be nowlisten to this a covenant.

(32:37):
God is gonna make a covenantwith Jeroboam.
He says if thou will hearkenunto all that I command and will
walk in my ways and do that wasright in my sight and you keep
my statutes and my commandments,as David, my servant, did, then
I will be with thee.

(32:58):
I will build thee a sure house,as I built David, and will give
Israel unto thee.
You see how God maneuvers andsort of continues to provide
covenants even though people arebreaking his covenants.
Yet he still kept covenant withDavid and by giving it to

(33:19):
Jeroboam he's not breakingcovenant with David.
That's amazing to me.
He's able to respond and sortof orchestrate around our
rebellion, around the thingsthat we do, as if, oh, that's
going to catch him by surprise.
It's like nothing to him.
Oh, this is what I'm going todo.

(33:40):
And then he tells him this andI will, for this, afflict the
seed of David, but not forever.
Now Solomon heard that Jeroboamgot this prophecy from Ahijah,
the prophet, and we thinkSolomon could have done no wrong
.
Now we've already sung, he'salready gotten into strange

(34:00):
women.
What does he do with Jeroboam?
He seeks to kill him.
Has Jeroboam done anythingwrong?
Did Jeroboam sin againstSolomon at all?
No, he just received theprophet.
It wasn't his fault.
But now Solomon's after him tomurder him, and so he runs.
He runs to Egypt and he getsaway.

(34:22):
Murder him, and so he runs.
He runs to Egypt and he getsaway from him.
Solomon dies.
He reigned in Israel 40 years.
He slept with his father andRehoboam, his son, reigns in his
stead.
So Rehoboam gets on the throne.
Jeroboam comes back.
He's no longer in fear for hislife.
He comes back to Israel and he,with all of Israel, comes to

(34:45):
Rehoboam and says listen, yourfather, in verse four of chapter
12, let me see if I want to gothere, yeah, yeah.
In verse four he says thyfather made our yoke grievous.
Now, therefore, make thou thegrievous service of thy father
and his heavy yoke, which he putupon his lighter, and we will

(35:08):
serve you.
In other words, listen, yourdad, he was hard on us and he
was.
They had to build Solomon'stemple.
That took over 20 years.
They had to build his mansionand they had to build Solomon's
temple.
That took over 20 years.
They had to build his mansionand they had to build his wife's
house.
They had a lot of work to do.
They were the ones doing it andthey said listen, it was hard

(35:31):
work under your father.
If you just lighten the loadfor us, we'll stay faithful to
you.
Okay, maybe he'll go andscratches his head, releases
them.
Just come back to me in threedays and talk with him, okay, so
he goes to his advisors.
Now he's got his advisors fromhis father.
They're elders, they'reancients.
They say, hey, he consultedwith Solomon's wife and they

(35:58):
told him listen, if thou will bea servant unto this people this
day and will serve them andanswer them and speak good words
to them, then they will be thyservant forever.
Listen, if you just listen towhat they're saying, if you just
lighten the load on them andyou just answer their request,
they'll serve you forever.
That's what the elders, that'swhat the angels, that's what
people under Solomon's reign whohelped Solomon.

(36:19):
That's what they said to Rabel.
Anybody know what Rabel does?
Well, yeah, but before that,who did he listen to?
Because he didn't listen to theelders, the ancients under
Solomon.
He went to his peers Brilliant,what a brilliant man.
That was Not of his father'stree, that's right.

(36:42):
Don't listen to daddy, don'tlisten to older people.
No, no, no, no.
So him and the young men?
Oh, listen to what they sayabout him.
Okay, and the young men thatwere grown up with him spake
unto him, saying Thus, thoushalt speak unto this.
People that spake unto theesaying Listen, tell them this
when they get back Thy fathermade our yoke heavy, but make
thou it lighter unto us.

(37:03):
Thou shalt say unto them mylittle finger is thicker than my
father's loins.
Now you go figure that out,because I'm not going to explain
that with the young childrenhere.
All right, that's what he wassupposed to say to them.
And he said and whereas myfather did, laid you with a
heavy yoke, I will add to youryoke.
My father chastised you withwhips, I'm gonna chastise you

(37:23):
with scorpions.
Wisdom, whoa, these, these arewise people.
That's a great way to respond tosome people that said listen,
we'll serve you forever.
Just kind of lighten the load,please.
That's all he said.
That's all they said.
That's not much to ask, beingthat for 40 years they broke
their backs for his father sobrilliantly.

(37:45):
That's what they tell him to do.
They come back to him and theking answered them roughly, just
the way the peers had spoken tohim, that hey, you should
answer them this way.
That's exactly the way heanswered them.
The peers had spoken to himthat, hey, you should answer
them this way.
That's exactly the way heanswered them and it says the
king did not hearken to thepeople in verse 15, but it says

(38:08):
this line, for the cause wasfrom the Lord.
In other words, this is exactlywhat the Lord planned it to
happen, because he had aprophecy to fulfill I'm going to
rend the kingdom not from youbut from your son, and this is
how he was doing it.

(38:30):
It says so that he mightperform his saying, which he
spoke by Ahijah to Jeroboam.
So in verse 16, when all Israelsaw that the king hearkened not
unto them and the peopleanswered the king saying what
portion have we in David?
Neither have we inheritance inJesse To your tents, israel to
thine own house.
So Israel departed unto theirtents.

(38:53):
In other words, they feltrejected.
They felt well, what part do wehave in this inheritance?
They probably felt like we'renot going to be nothing more
than slaves.
We have no part in theinheritance of David and Jesse
anymore.
Everybody go back home.
They didn't feel a part of thefamily anymore.
Why?
Because the Rehoboam treatedthem.

(39:14):
He basically ostracized them.
So Israel forsook King Rehoboamand it says but as for the
children of Israel, which dweltin the cities of Judah.
Rehoboam reigned over them.
In other words, rehoboamreigned as king over Judah and

(39:35):
all the Israelites that werethere.
And then one day, king Rehoboamsays to a servant of his Adoram
go collect taxes from all ofIsrael.
Brilliant, again, you justrejected them.
You just said you're basicallygoing to make them slaves.

(39:57):
Now let me pay taxes.
What does Adarim do when hegoes over to the cities of the
Jerusalem?
They kill him.
They kill Rehoboam's servant.
What You're going to come nowget taxes from us, are you?
They cut him off.
And so Israel rebelled againstthe house of David in verse 19.

(40:19):
And it came to pass, when allIsrael heard that Jeroboam was
come again, that they sent andcalled him into the congregation
.
They made him king over Israel.
There was none that followedthe house of David, but the
tribe of Judah only and someBenjamites.
I'll get to that later.
So here we have a break.

(40:48):
And I told you before when ourrelationships, when our
relationships are broken andsevered and they're
irretrievably reconcilable, itfeels like a death.
It feels like there's a gapinghole and I can't fill it with
anything that makes it wholeagain.
So I'm gonna turn to 2Chronicles 11.
Again, it's a parallel passage.
You're not missing any of thestory, but I like this part of

(41:09):
the story because it highlightssome things.
So what does Rehoboam do inresponse to this rebellion of
Israel?
He starts gathering an army.
He gathers 180,000 warriors tofight Israel.
There's gonna be fight BecauseIsrael rebelled.

(41:32):
They killed the king's servantwho came to get taxes.
They commissioned another manto be the king of Israel.
Now you got two kings in thesame house.
The divided house shall notstand, and so they were gonna
fight.
And then there's a prophetnamed Shemaiah.

(41:52):
The man of God spoke toRehoboam, the son of Solomon,
the king of Judah, and to allIsrael in Judah and Benjamin,
saying thus sayeth the LordEverybody go back home.
That was the word of the Lord.
Don't go fight your brethren,go back home.

(42:13):
And they obeyed the words ofthe Lord and returned from going
against Jeroboam.
So what does Jeroboam decide todo?
What we do when we have arelationship that is severed,
that is irretrievably broken, westart to fortify our defenses.
I had a relationship.

(42:37):
It was broken, it was torn.
I'm hurt.
I'm going to build a wall ofprotection.
I had a relationship.
It was broken, it was torn.
I'm hurt, I'm going to build awall of protection.
Nobody's going to come in thisplace again.
I'm not letting anybody in here.
When we start building up ourwalls of protection everywhere,
it says Rehoboam dwelt inJerusalem, but he built cities
of defense.
He was going to defend.

(42:58):
I'm not going to go fight, butI'm going to create.
I'm not going to go fight, butI'm going to create some
defenses in my territory.
And this is what we do as men,this is what we do as women.
We break off our relations andwe start building defenses here
and there so that we don't gethurt again, so that if someone
tries to come and attack us orpoke us in that place, we have a
wall of defense.

(43:20):
So he built it in Bethlehem andEdom and Tekoa and Bethsa and
Shekoh and all these cities andBenjamin had fenced cities and
he fortified the strongholds andhe put captains in them and in
several cities he put shieldsand in spears and they were
exceedingly strong, having Judahand Benjamin on his side and
the priests and the Levites thatwere in Israel.

(43:40):
Israel is now the northernkingdom, judah is now the
southern kingdom.
There were Israelites that were, excuse me, there were Levites
that were in Israel that camedown to Judah because they
didn't want to have any partwith Israel.
The ordained Leviticalpriesthood that was scattered

(44:01):
all throughout Israel then leftIsrael and went and centered
around in Judah because Jeroboamdid something.
It says Jeroboam and his sonscast them off from executing the
priest's office unto the Lord.
Jeroboam ordained for himselfpriests that he wanted, and

(44:22):
there were priests for highplaces and for the devils and
for the calves, which he made.
So already Israel is nowfalling away, spiritually
speaking.
They're now setting up theirown priesthood.
They're worshiping other godsin other high places.
But where did those other godsin high places come from?
Solomon?
Solomon seeded that and theycontinued in that and he

(44:47):
ordained for him priests in highplaces and after them, out of
all the tribes of Israel, suchas, set their hearts to seek the
Lord.
The God of Israel came toJerusalem.
So all the Levites that wantedto maintain their integrity
before the Lord and continueserving him they said I'm out of
here.
I'm going to Jerusalem becausethat's where they're still
serving God.
I'm going to go there and serveGod.
So they left, they came down,they strengthened the kingdom of

(45:12):
Judah and made Rehoboam Solomon, rehoboam, the son of Solomon
strong, and for three years hewalked in the way of David and
Solomon.
So for three years, after thekingdom was divided, he started
building up his own defenses,afraid if he was going to get
attacked, afraid that he wasgoing to, you know, be overtaken
.
So he's building up all thesedefenses, but for three years he

(45:33):
walked with the Lord, just likeDavid, just like Solomon did in
their early days, or at leastSolomon in his early days, not
his latter days.
But that's kind of what we dowhen we have our relationships
and then we get hurt.
We build up these defenses andthen we rely more on the
defenses than we do on thedefender, which is our God.
So watch what happens.

(45:58):
It says Rehoboam, son of Solomon, took as his wife Mahalath, his
uncle's daughter, and Abihail,the daughter of his
grandfather's brother.
He also took Absalom's daughter, maka, and in all he had 18
wives, 60 concubines and had 28sons and 60 daughters.
That's a big family.

(46:18):
I don't know how the Hendersonsdo it 28 sons and 60 daughters
that's a big family.
I don't know how the Hendersonsdo it, much less these people.
But I have to tell you that Ihave never seen in the
scriptures a family that hadthis kind of family, multiple

(46:40):
wives that worked out Haven'tseen it.
Mary and Joseph, it was justMary and Joseph.
Abraham and Sarah, it's justAbraham and Sarah.
But when did the problem start?
When Abraham went with Amen.
That's when problems seem tostart for these people.

(47:01):
I bring that up because it'simportant that we realize that
it's not good to have otherloves in your life.
There should be only one Moreproblems, yeah.
And then here it says Rehoboamloved the maka above all his
other wives and concubines.
Where do we see that?
One love more than all theothers?

(47:23):
Jacob, leah, rachel, yeah.
So now again, the first threeyears he walked in the ways of
Solomon and he walked in theways of David and he spread out
his children amongst his region,his territory, his kingdom, and

(47:44):
he dealt wisely.
He dispersed all of hischildren throughout the
countries of Judah and Benjamin.
He had fenced cities.
And then it says and he desiredmany wives.
So we go to chapter 12.
And it came to pass whenRehoboam had established the
kingdom and had strengthenedhimself.
Listen to the way it's written.
He strengthened himself, heforsook the law of the Lord.

(48:08):
After three years he built uphis own defenses.
He relied on his own strengthto do this, to do that, to
protect himself.
All that was about protectinghimself, protecting his kingdom,
his territory.
And then he forsook the law ofthe Lord.
So, and it came to pass in thefifth year.

(48:32):
See, he walked with God forthree years, it says.
Then he forsook the law of theLord.
And two years later becausefrom three to five is two years,
it says then he forsook the lawof the Lord, and two years
later, because from three tofive is two years, that's when
the Lord decided to dealdiscipline-wise with him.
And all the while he's thinkingeverything is all right, I'm

(48:52):
doing okay, I'm blessed, I'mfavored, no one's attacking me.
But now, two years after heforsooks the law of the Lord.
So in those two years he'sprobably thinking oh, he started
forsaking the law of the Lordand then he's not walking with
the Lord, but everything is okay, so nothing's a problem.
Shishak, king of Egypt, comesagainst Jerusalem because they
transgressed the law of the Lord.

(49:13):
So with 1,200 chariots andthree score thousand horsemen,
he came up with the Lubims ofthe Succums and the Ethiopians
and he took fenced cities whichpertain to Judah.
And then Shemaiah the prophetspoke to Rehoboam and the
princes of Judah.
He said thus say the Lord, youhave forsaken me.

(49:34):
Therefore, have I also left youin the hand of Shishak?
Whereupon the princes of Israeland the king humbled themselves
and they said the Lord isrighteous.
This is the kind of responsethat David had when he was found

(49:55):
to be wrong.
He humbled himself andacknowledged that he was in sin.
And now we see that Rehoboamand the rest of the elders also
responded in the same manner,because they all humbled
themselves before him, sayingthe Lord is righteous.
And when the Lord saw this thatthey humbled themselves.
Shemaiah then said because youhave humbled yourselves, I will
not destroy them, I will grantthem deliverance and my wrath
shall not be poured out uponIsrael by the hand of Shishak.

(50:17):
Nevertheless, they shall be hisservants.
So, yes, they paid the penaltyfor forsaking the law of the
Lord.
But this is a pattern you startseeing if you read 1 and 2 Kings
and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
He always brings about somekind of discipline for the
purposes of getting them torepent, getting them to return.
It's not his will that he pourout his wrath.

(50:41):
If you poured out his wrathupon you, that's it.
At least he's pouring out somemerciful kind of discipline, and
even if it does make youservants.
So Shishak then took away thetreasures of the house of the
Lord and the treasures of theking's house.
He carried away all the goldthat Solomon had, and so what we

(51:02):
see now is that Shishakplundered Jerusalem from its
most valuable possession, if youwill gold From the golden age
of Solomon.
And look at what it says.
Instead of which, rehoboam madeshields of brass, from gold to

(51:24):
brass.
And already you're starting tosee the glory of the Lord
departing.
You are starting to see thatthe glory that once was is gonna
slowly depart and it's gonna bereplaced with something much
less glorious.
And that's the pattern of alife of anyone who decides to
place their hearts on somethingother than the Lord.

(51:47):
All the things that he hasblessed you with, all the things
that he has given youmaterially, spiritually,
emotionally they begin to betaken away slowly and surely.
But Rehoboam went into thetemple and humbled himself again
, and the wrath of the Lord wasturned from him that he would

(52:10):
not destroy him altogether.
And then Judah, things wentwell.
So King Rehoboam strengthenedhimself in Jerusalem.
I can't believe this, verse 13.
He strengthened himself inJerusalem after he humbled
himself so that Shishat wouldn'thave his way with him.

(52:32):
If there's a reason why it sayshe strengthened himself, he's
strengthening himself, whichmeans he's going to rely on
himself again.
And what would happen the firsttime he did that?
After three years he forsookthe law of the Lord.
So here we see again.
The King Rehoboam strengthenedhimself in Jerusalem and reigned
, for Rehoboam was one in 40years old when he began to reign

(52:55):
.
He reigned 17 years.
It began to rain.
He reigned 17 years and 14, itsays.
And he did evil because heprepared, not his heart to seek
the Lord.
Recently, when I read that, Iwas so glad.
I read that because I've beentelling my kids you need to
prepare your heart to receivethe gift of the Holy Ghost.

(53:17):
You need to prepare your heartto receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost.
You need to prepare your heartso that he can bless you with
the greatest promise that he'sgiven all of mankind, the one
that even the prophets desire tolook into, to understand.
What is this grace he's goingto do?
The indwelling gift of the HolyGhost.

(53:38):
The indwelling gift of the HolyGhost.
And so it continues how theacts of Rehoboam are recorded in
certain books which we don'thave right now, but the lineage
stays in the line of David, fromDavid to Rehoboam.
Rehoboam dies and Abijah, hisson, takes hold of the kingdom.

(53:58):
And by this time, well, if yougo back to that slide, Jeroboam
he's been reigning 18 years.
He doesn't last.
I mean, Jeroboam lasts longerthan Rehoboam did.
Rehoboam only lasted 17 years,but his son comes into the
picture during the 18th year ofJeroboam and there's war between

(54:21):
the house of Rehoboam, or inthis case now, Ahijah and
Jeroboam, and they're about tofight.
And Abijah stands up.
And I gotta, I gotta read whathe says.
Abijah stood up upon MountZemarim, which is in the Mount
Ephraim.
Hear me, thou, Jeroboam and allIsrael, in 2 Chronicles 13.5.

(54:42):
Ought ye not to know that theLord, god of Israel, gave the
kingdom over Israel to David?
Forever he's reminding themthat.
Didn't God give all of Israelto David?
Don't you remember that?
Don't you remember that, evento him and his sons, by a

(55:06):
covenant of salt?
Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nabat,the servant of Solomon, the son
of David, is risen up andrebelled against the Lord, not
against David, not against Judah.
He's rebelling against the Lord, and there are gathered unto
him vain men, the children ofBelial, and have strengthened
themselves against Rehoboam, theson of Solomon.

(55:27):
So he's pointing out toJeroboam and the children of
Israel that you're in rebellion.
You've forsaken the ways of theLord.
Why are you coming against thehouse of David?
The house of David wasprophesied of the Lord that they
were to reign over all Israel,not just Judah, not just
Benjamin, but all the tribes.

(55:48):
Have ye not cast out the priestsof the Lord, the sons of Aaron
and the Levites, and haven't youmade for yourselves priests
after the manner of othernations?
He says in verse 9.
But he reminds them there'sstill a faithful house.
But as for us, the Lord is ourGod, not Baal, not Chemosh, not

(56:12):
Ashtoreth.
We have not forsaken him.
And the priests which ministerunto the Lord are the sons of
Aaron and the Levites.
Wait upon their business.
They're burning unto the Lordevery morning and every evening.
They're doing their duty.
They're doing that which isright, that which is holy.
We're still here, for we keepthe charge of the Lord, our God.

(56:34):
We have not forsaken Him.
God Himself is with us.
God Himself is our captain, hispriests, with sounding trumpets
to cry alarm against you, ochildren of Israel.
Fight ye, not against the Lord,god of your fathers, for you
shall not prosper.
I see the heart of God callingunto his rebellious house Come

(56:56):
back, I still have a holy peoplehere serving me.
Come back, don't walk in hisrebellious ways.
Don't walk in his rebelliousways.
And as he's saying this toJeroboam, secretly, connivingly,
Jeroboam sets up an ambush.
While he's speaking these words, he caused an ambush to come

(57:24):
about him, behind him, so thatthey were not only in front of
Judah, but they were ambushinghim behind.
And when Judah looked back,behold, the battle was before
and behind.
And they cried.
I mean, we were speaking to you, we're surrounded.
They cried unto the Lord.
Lord, what are we going to donow?

(57:46):
I'm here declaring yourwonderful words, telling them to
come back.
What are we going to do?
Then the men of Judah gave ashout.
And as the men of Judah shoutedand it came to pass that God
smote Jeroboam and all Israelbefore Abijah and Judah.
Yeah, they cried, but theycried unto the Lord and he

(58:09):
delivered them.
He smote all of them, all ofIsrael, 10 tribes against two.
He smote them all and Goddelivered them into their hand.
It says 500,000, a half amillion Israelites were slain
Half a million.
Why?
Because Judah placed theirtrust in the Lord, their God,

(58:32):
and they prevailed.
That's in verse 18.
And Abijah pursued them, tookBethel, took cities left and
right, and Jeroboam never wasable to strengthen himself again
against Abijah and the Lordstruck him and he died.
So Jeroboam actually eventuallydied.

(58:58):
And then I read verse 21.
I'm like Abijah waxed mighty,married 14 wives, he begat 22
sons and 16 daughters, and therest of the acts of Abijah and
his ways and sayings are writtenin the story of the prophet Edo
, which is a book we don't have.

(59:18):
But if we go back to that otherquick slide, abijah only
reigned 3 years short reign.
So I want to go to 1 Kings,real quick, 15.
Oh good, 1 Kings 15.
Now Chronicles didn't mentionwhat I'm about to read to you.

(59:44):
According to what I just read,you would think, wow, abbie just
stood up for the Lord.
Woo, look at him and look athow the Lord just delivered
Israel into his hand.
And then I read 1 Kings.
This is why it was important tome to read the parables Like oh
, I get the whole story Now.
In the 18th year of KingJeroboam, reigned Abijam over
Judah.
Abijam over Judah.

(01:00:04):
Three years reigned he inJerusalem.
Number three, he walked in thesins of his father.
His heart was not perfect.
With the Lord, his God, as theheart of David, his father was.
Nevertheless, for David's sake,did the Lord, his God, give him
a lamp in Jerusalem to set uphis son after him, to establish

(01:00:26):
Jerusalem.
God's eyes are always onkeeping covenant, even when the
people that he's trying to keepthe covenant with don't keep
their covenant.
He's thinking of David.
I'm keeping my covenant withDavid.
And even though Abijam or Abijah, was walking in the sins of his

(01:00:47):
father, rehoboam, not perfecttoward the Lord, not constantly
seeking after him, it says herethat, for the sake of David, I'm
going to keep the line withthis family.
Otherwise he would have brokencovenant with David.
You realize that If he wouldhave said, oh, forget this,

(01:01:07):
these people, he would havebroken covenant with David
because he said to David, to youand your family and your
children and your children, I'mkeeping covenant and through
your line will the Messiah comeand that Messiah will reign
forever and ever and that's yourkingdom that will be
established forever and ever.
He couldn't.
He was going to keep covenantwith David.

(01:01:27):
So which is to say that even ifyou're in the line of the
promise and you do wrong, itdoesn't mean because the Lord
hasn't dealt with you that he'snever going to deal with you,
just because he's keepingcovenant with David.
Not because of what you've doneor didn't do.
He's keeping his covenant withDavid.
So sometimes our children areinvolved in things that they

(01:01:48):
shouldn't be doing and yet theyseem to be okay.
Yet it's because they'rekeeping covenant with their
fathers and their mothers.
So David did that which wasright in the eyes of the Lord
and he turned not aside fromanything that he commanded him
all his day of his life, saveonly in the matter of Uriah, the
Hittite, see.
So there's a recognition of Godthat, yeah, he did wrong.

(01:02:09):
He did do wrong, he did sin,and there was war between
Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
And then it finishes, abijah.
And then I just want to endwith Asa.
Yeah, I knew I wasn't going toget that far.
All right, asa, 2 ChroniclesSomething very important about

(01:02:31):
Asa that's going to come abouthere, that hopefully, maybe you
have seen it already, but in 2Chronicles 14.
Yeah, 2 Chronicles 14.
When Asa began his reign, theland was quiet for 10 years.
That means there was no war.
That means there was peaceBecause Asa did something, that

(01:02:59):
powerful, beautiful example thatwe need to see.
Asa not only did that which wasgood and right in the eyes of
the Lord, because he took awaythe altars.
See, this is the starting ofthe cleansing of the house.
I haven't seen this yet.
Asa seemed to be the first kingthat started cleansing the house
of what Solomon had done andseeded, because, it says, he was

(01:03:23):
taking away the altars of thestrange gods.
He was taking away the highplaces.
He broke down images, he cutdown the groves and then he did
this he commanded Judah to seekthe Lord.
He commanded Judah to do thelaw and the commandment.
He took away out of all thecities the high places and the

(01:03:44):
images, and the kingdom wasquiet before him.
You see, when you start gettingrid of the idols in your heart,
even though they may be painfulbecause you've gotten used to
them, he begins to bring a peaceinto your life that you didn't
have before.
But you've got to start gettingrid of those idols.
You've got to start getting ridof those other loves.

(01:04:05):
You will not have peace unlessyou get rid of those other loves
.
And you have one love.
It says he built fenced citiesin Judas, for the land had rest
and he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him
rest.
It says because he sought theLord.

(01:04:26):
Because we have sought the Lord, our God, we have sought him
and he has given us rest onevery side.
So they built and theyprospered, and then Asa was able
to build up, I guess, his army.
He had shields.
He had 300,000 men with shieldsof Judah, he had 280,000 men

(01:04:48):
with shields and bows.
And then there came out againstthem Zerah the Ethiopian.
Now, I wish I could look upZerah in his history, because he
seemed to be a mighty man ofsome kind.
Because Zerah the Ethiopian hada host of 1,000,000 men.
Anybody can figure out that?
What's 1,000,000?

(01:05:08):
A thousand men?
Anybody can figure out that?
What's a thousand thousand?
A million men, a million men,army, and he had 300 chariots
and Asa went to battle againsthim and they set out to battle
in a ray, in the valley ofZephah, of Mareshah, and Asa did

(01:05:29):
what his father did, abijam Ah.
But he cried unto the Lord.
He cried unto the Lord.
He said Lord, it's nothing foryou to help us, whether there
are many or whether then thereare people with no power.
Oh Lord, god, for we rest onthee.
Oh, we rest on thee, lord, god,ain't nothing for you to help

(01:05:53):
us.
I see a million men, army, butLord, ain't none for you to help
us.
Oh Lord, our God, we rest onthee and thy name.
We go against the multitudethat sounds like David, their
father.
I come against you in the nameof the Lord, when he went
against Goliath.
Oh Lord, thou are God.
Let no man prevail against thee, because, you see, the people

(01:06:17):
of God were representing God inthe earth.
It wasn't that they were justcoming against another nation,
they were coming against God ofIsrael.
So the Lord smote the Ethiopiansbefore Asa and before Judah,
and the Ethiopians fled amillion men and they were
overthrown.

(01:06:37):
They could not recoverthemselves.
They were destroyed before theLord and they carried away a lot
of spoil from the Ethiopians.
They spoiled all of theircities in abundance, it says,
with exceeding much spoil inthem.
They carried away sheeps andcamels in abundance and returned
to Israel.
And then the Lord responds tothem with this message, which is

(01:07:00):
critical right now for us thespirit of God came upon Azariah,
the son of Oded, in chapter 15.
The Spirit of God came uponAzariah, the son of Oded, in
chapter 15.
And he spoke to Asa.
He spoke to all of Judah andBenjamin.

(01:07:21):
And this was the principle theLord is with you while you be
with him.
If you seek him, he will befound of you.
If you forsake him, he willforsake you.
What a marvelous, mightykingdom principle that is
Relevance.
It's got to be relevant to you.
You've got to realize we livethis biblical kingdom principle.

(01:07:45):
If you be with the Lord, he'swith you.
You seek the Lord, you willfind him.
You forsake him and he'llforsake you.
Everybody lives that life out,whether you acknowledge the
existence of God himself or not.

(01:08:10):
Now, Israel had been without atrue God, without teaching
priests and without a law for along time.
It says in verse 4 of 3.
But when they, in their trouble, did turn unto the Lord, their
God of Israel, and sought him,he was found of him.
They did something veryinteresting when Asa heard that

(01:08:39):
word of the Lord, of the prophet.
He received it from Azariah andhe responded by removing the
idols from the land and renewingthe altar of the Lord.
He put away all the abominableidols out of the land of Judah
and Benjamin.

(01:08:59):
He had taken them out of MountEphraim.
He renewed the altar of theLord that was before the porch
of the Lord, and great reverencewas given to King Asa for doing
this.
The people recognized the Lordwas with him when they defeated

(01:09:22):
the Egyptians.
They defeated him in Asa's 15thyear of his reign.
It says in verse 10, in the15th year of the reign of Asa,
they offered unto the Lord, thesame time of the spoil which
they had brought 700 oxen, 7,000sheep, in other words, all the
spoil that they took from theEthiopian in the 15th year.
They offered them up to theLord God, and whosoever would

(01:09:43):
not seek the Lord, god of Israel, would be put to death, whether
small or great, whether man orwoman.
There was a recommitment by thepeople of Judah to seek the
Lord, to go after him, and theyswore to the Lord with a loud
voice, with shouting and withtrumpet, and all of Judah

(01:10:03):
rejoiced at this oath, for theyhad sworn with all their heart
and sought him with all theirdesire.
And he was found in them andthe Lord gave them rest round
about.
They realized the connection,how the Lord would respond if
you would respond to him andseek him with all your heart.
Asa was so convicted at thismessage that he even removed his

(01:10:26):
mother from the kingdom.
If you read verse 16, and alsoconcerning Maka, the mother of
Asa the king.
He removed her from being queenbecause she had made an idol in
a grove, and Asa cut down heridol and stamped it and burned
it at the brook of Kidron.
He didn't care about her mother.
I'm going to cleanse this house.

(01:10:46):
We are going to seek the Lord.
I don't care whether I offendyou.
And there was one thing that wasnot done the high places were
not taken away out of Israel.
Nevertheless, the heart of Asawas perfect all of his days.
I planted a little seed earlieron.

(01:11:06):
What does it mean to be perfect?
We think it's got to be.
You can't make a mistake,period.
But it says that Asa's heartwas perfect All of his days, but
he didn't remove all the highplaces.
How's that possible?
Figure out the paradox.
And I'm going to end with 16.

(01:11:29):
There was 20 years of peace inJudah because of what Asa did
and what he taught the people todo.
Because of Asa and the people'sresponse to the word of the
Lord, from the 15th year ofdefeating the Ethiopians to the
35th year.
That was 20 years that passed.
There was peace in the land ofJudah.

(01:11:49):
I don't know why he did this.
It's one of those.
I really don't know why he didthis.
In the sixth and 30th year ofthe reign of Asa, baja, king of
Israel, came up against Judahand built Ramah so that people

(01:12:09):
would not go in and out.
So the king of Israel comesback and if you go back to the
other thing, you'll see Baja'sway down the list.
So they had a lot of trouble onthe northern side, but anyways,
baja came in to put Israel out.
He's way over here, he's righthere.
So there's two people thatreigned.

(01:12:30):
Baja came to just set up a fortso that nobody will go in and
out of Israel between Judah andIsrael.
And then it says Asa brought outsilver and gold out of the
treasures of the house of theLord and out of the king's house
and gave them to the king ofSyria.
Those weren't his treasures,those were the Lord's.

(01:12:54):
What is he doing?
And he said to the king ofSyria who dwelled in Damascus
you know, you got an agreementwith the king of Baja here.
Take this, break it and help us.
The king of Baja here.
Take this, break it and help usget rid of these people.
What happened in those 20 years?

(01:13:16):
That he wouldn't cry out to theLord, but he'd now take the
treasures of the Lord and payoff someone else to do what he
needed, which was a deliverance.
I don't understand why he didthat.
And Ben-Hadad hearkened.
He listened to the king of Asaand he took out Baja.
He made his work to stop.

(01:13:45):
And then verse seven comes,because the Lord always responds
.
He sends a prophet.
Hanani the seer came to Asa,king of Judah, and said to him
Because thou hast relied on theking of Syria and not relied on
the Lord.
Thy God, therefore, is the hostof the king of Syria, escaped
out of thine hand.
Now you are not going to defeathim.

(01:14:06):
I was going to give him to you,but because you wanted to
depend upon him to deliver youfrom him.
Now he's not in your handanymore.
We're not the Ethiopians andthe Lubans.
A huge host.
Didn't the Lord deliver you outof a million people With a lot

(01:14:28):
of chariots and a lot ofhorsemen?
Yeah, because you did rely onthe Lord, he delivered them out
of your hand.
What happened?
You've forgotten 20 years.
For the eyes of the Lord run toand fro throughout the earth to
show himself strong on behalf ofthose whose heart is perfect

(01:14:50):
toward him.
So what does that mean?
What was the first message toAsa?
If you be with the Lord andseek him, he will be with you.
If you seek him, you will findhim.

(01:15:11):
That's a heart that's perfecttoward him.
David messed up, but he keptseeking him.
He kept after him.
He longed and yearned for himLike a deer panting for the
water.
His soul thirsted for him anddid not cease thirsting for him.

(01:15:35):
Even though he counted his ownpeople in rebellion against God,
even though he committedadultery, even though he
committed murder, he always wentback to seek the Lord.
And that's a heart that'sperfect toward God.
And only God can determine that.
And it's because it's in thescriptures that I can only say

(01:15:55):
that Asa's heart was perfect allof his days, because I'm only
repeating what God said.
But if you look at his life, whydid you do that, Asa?
What did ya'what did you dothat for?
So he's looking around the earthto and fro for those whose
hearts are perfect for him, forthose whose hearts are seeking

(01:16:16):
after him here.
And thou has done foolishly,Asa.
Therefore, from henceforth,thou shall have wars.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
The trouble comes in the life ofa person when he stops seeking
after the Lord.
Asa was wroth with the seer.

(01:16:38):
Asa was wroth with themessenger.
Put him in prison.
He was in a rage with himbecause of this thing, and Asa
oppressed some of the people.
At the same time, Asa took itout on the prophet and the
people.
Asa didn't want to deal withwhat he did, but the Lord
specifically said you didfoolishly, and so this is the

(01:17:05):
end of Asa's life.
And so this is the end of Asa'slife.
Asa, in the 39th year of hisreign, was diseased in his feet.
Until his disease wasexceedingly great, and this is
the heartbreaking part Aftereverything, after the Lord
speaking to the prophet don'tyou remember?

(01:17:25):
I delivered you out of the handbecause you cried unto me?
I delivered them, it says.
Yet in his disease he soughtnot to the Lord but to the
physicians.
He reigned 41 years.
That was in his 39th year.
He was diseased in his feet.

(01:17:45):
Great, I don't know whatdisease, exceeding disease in
his feet for two years.
That was in his 39th year, hewas diseased in his feet Great,
I don't know what disease,exceeding disease in his feet
for two years, having not soughtthe Lord, going to doctors,
having not get a fix, and hedied.
There's a lot to learn.
There's a lot that's relevantto us.

(01:18:08):
If we seek the Lord, if we seekthe Lord, we will find him.
If we be with him, he will bewith us.
But don't mistake the favor ofGod in your life when you're in
sin and think that everything'sjust going to work out all right
.
A man always sows or reaps whathe sows, good or bad, amen.

(01:18:36):
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