Lessons from 930 BC

Last Sunday we began a new sermon series at church. The title of the series is 'From Empire to Exile' and looks at the period of Old Testament history that starts with the death of king Solomon in 930 BC and ends with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Each week we are going to look at a different character, either a king or a prophet, and see what these ancient stories have to say to us as we seek to live a followers of Jesus in 2010.


We started with king Rehoboam and focused on 2 Chronicles 12 and drew out three short points for reflection.

First we saw the danger of blessings. After a time of struggle Rehoboam became established and strong. It was at this point that he and the people deserted God's way. Many of us turn to God in times of hardship, distress and turmoil, but when things settle down, when things are going well, the danger is that we drift away from God and start to rely on ourselves and on our own strengths, abilities and resources.

This morning I came across a quote from C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us

The second thing we saw was the God was in control. Humanly speaking - at this time in history Egypt was a world superpower, and could flex her muscles as she wished. But verse 2 makes it clear that it was because the people had abandoned God that the king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. God was working out his purposes. God allowed this to happen. The people may have wondered 'where is God in all of this?' The answer is that he is closer than you think.

And our final point was that because Rehoboam did not seek God, because often he did his own thing, his life was not all it could have been. God promises us life to the full. Rehoboam settled for a life of bronze imitations rather than the genuine gold. How much do we miss out on because we do things our way rather than God's?

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