by Tad Lindley
If you grew up with two parents, then the chances are good that if one parent said, “No”, that you went to the other parent in hopes that they would say, “Yes.” Maybe you also did it in school. Perhaps you still do it at work or in other areas of your life. Once there was even a king who didn’t like the first answer and so he went shopping for a different answer.
The king’s dilemma
When King Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam, took the throne. Solomon and his father, David, had built Israel into a very wealthy and powerful nation. Much of Solomon’s wealth came from heavy taxation. When Solomon died, ten of the tribes of Israel brought a leader to talk to the new king about the tax situation. The leader’s name was Jeroboam. They gave King Rehoboam this simple request: “Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.”
(I Kings 12:4 NLT)
Rehoboam seeks the advice of the elders
Being new at his job, Rehoboam made a wise choice. He asked Jeroboam to give him 3 days to think it over. Immediately he went to the elders, the men who had advised his father. Here is what they had to say: “If you will serve these people today, humble yourself, and speak gently, then they will always be your servants.” (I Kings 12:7 GW) Any way you look at it this is a great deal. In return for honoring their request he gets their loyalty forever, but that isn’t what King Rehoboam wanted to hear.
Does anybody out there have a different answer?
Rehoboam started to shop around. He did not want to humble himself and he did not want to back off on his father’s tax program. So he found someone who was willing to tell him what he wanted to hear, the young men that were his own age. He explained the situation to them and they said, “This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!’”
(I Kings 12:10-11 NLT) That was music to Rehoboam’s ears; an answer that he wanted to hear. And so he blatantly rejected the advice of the elders and listened to those people who gave him the answer he wanted.
How’s that working for you?
Here is the upshot of the whole situation. Up to that point, the nation of Israel was one nation. It comprised 12 tribes. Each tribe had its own land. It was like a nation with 12 states. Because of King Rehoboam’s very foolish decision to reject the counsel of the elders and to go shopping for a better answer, the nation was torn in two. Ten tribes rebelled and broke away from the king. He lost most of his subjects and most of his land. He shopped for answers and thought he had found exactly what he wanted. It’s too bad he didn’t count the cost ahead of time, because he really got burned in the end.
I already knew what they were going to say
How many times have we ourselves been just as foolish. We ask the advice of our pastor, or of a godly elder and it wasn’t what we had hoped to hear, so instead of receiving it, we keep asking and asking until we finally find someone who tells us what we wanted to hear in the first place. In fact, most of the time we won’t even ask our pastor’s advice, because we already know he won’t tell us what we want to hear, and so we go straight to someone who tells us, “Sure, you can live together without being married, doesn’t the Bible say, ‘God is love’?”
Learn from Rehoboam
Unless it disagrees with the Bible (for instance an elder tells you that baptism is not essential, a direct conflict with Jesus in Mark 16:16), it is important to listen to the voice of our elders. Job 12:12 tells us, With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. Proverbs 19:20 teaches, Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Shop around as hard as you want, but you cannot beat the deal that is found in the wisdom of the elders. Or you can find out the hard way like King Rehoboam did, a cheap and easy answer can be a very costly answer in the end.
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
