History Repeats Itself

I guess some things never change.  I don’t know how many times I have read 1 Kings, but when I read it today, my heart lurched in sad recognition.  I became tearful.  My reading of the wonderful book by Mesu Andrews, Love’s Sacred Song, has made me more aware of this time in history.  Several days of self-induced stress :{ may have even been a factor.  So this morning for the first time I saw how Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, judged his new kingdom harshly, setting up a division between brothers that was the precursor  to the destruction of the Temple and the scattering of the Jewish people across the world.

As I read 1 Kings 12, I thought of the Israelites when they were held captive in Egypt and forced into doing harder and harder labor for the Pharaoh.  Moses was sent by the Lord to ask that his people be freed; the story is a familiar one.  When Moses first came to ask for the people’s freedom to worship away from the cities, Pharaoh became incensed and ordered that the Israelites no longer be given straw for the bricks they had to make; they had to find it themselves.  Not only that – they had the same daily quota of bricks.  The very people God had sent Moses to free became even more heavily burdened.  It certainly didn’t feel like they were being set free!

Fast-forwarding to 1 Kings, the slaves of Egypt had become a mighty nation, blessed by God, esteemed by the world.  King David – the man God called His friend – had ruled well, and when he died the Lord placed the kingdom under the rule of his son, Solomon.  I could say so much about how wonderful, then pitiful, Solomon’s reign was, but my heart engaged so dramatically on the beginning of the reign of his son.  By this time many of the people had followed King Solomon’s example, worshiping the detestable gods of the foreign wives Solomon had married, along with the true God.  Their divided hearts would lead to a divided kingdom.

During King Solomon’s reign the people had worked hard to build the Temple and all his palaces.  They also had to rebuild the cities that had been damaged or destroyed during the many battles led by his father, King David.  By the time Solomon was crowned king, peace had begun in the land, just as God had told his father it would.  In contrast to David’s bloody reign, God had spoken that Solomon’s reign would be peaceful, the time to build the Temple.  Before Solomon’s reign ended at his death, so much had been accomplished.  The people had worked hard and prospered.

At the inauguration of Solomon’s successor, Rehoboam, the people asked for some relief from the burden of hard labor.  They didn’t demand or declare they would no longer work for him, they just asked for a lighter load.  The king asked for three days to think about it.  Rehoboam arrogantly took the counsel of his friends rather than the experienced leaders who had advised his father.  He proclaimed that he would make them work even harder – the same response Pharaoh gave when Moses asked him to let the people go to worship!  The king of Israel was declaring greater bondage over his people.  The lesson from Exodus was lost on him.  Thus began the dissolution of the nation of Israel.

How do we set the hearts or lives of people in bondage today?  Do we judge unjustly; do we look down upon those who don’t know all the church lingo yet?  Do we speak harsh, destructive words rather than speaking words of life?  History does seem to repeat itself, the lessons of the past lost to arrogance or ignorance.  May we learn from the lessons of Exodus and I Kings 12!  When we choose to serve others as Jesus did, no matter what our position in life, we represent the heart of Jehovah God, our Maker.  He created us and knows how we can best live together.

Here is the sad telling of history repeating itself…

1 Kings 12 ^1-2 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam had been in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death he had come back.

^3-4 Rehoboam assembled Jeroboam and all the people. They said to Rehoboam, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”
⁵ “Give me three days to think it over, then come back,” Rehoboam said.
⁶ King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”
⁷ They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”
^8-9 But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”
^10-11 The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”
^12-14 Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over, then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set, “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”…
^16-17 When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,

Get lost, David!
We’ve had it with you, son of Jesse!
Let’s get out of here, Israel, and fast!
From now on, David, mind your own business.

12.19 Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic regime ever since.