Hello Sweet friends,
Today’s Reading … Ecclesiastes 7-12, 1 Kings 10-14, 2 Chronicles 9 and Proverbs 30-31
“When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, ‘What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!’ So Israel departed to their tents. But as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them” (1 Kings 12:16-17).
God has been calling His people to stop running and return to Him. He has been patiently warning of the consequences of a heart and nation divided. Solomon turned from God and upon his death, the division in his heart became the division of the Hebrew nation.
Rehoboam, Solomon’s son took the throne and led with pride and ignorance. “He forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him” (1 Kings 12:8). It is easy to confer with those whom we know will back up what he want to do and say what we want to hear. How brave and wise it is to seek out other opinions from those with a different perspective. We need to pray for an open heart to the direction God is calling, even when it is not what we would chose for ourselves.
After hundreds years of running from God, climaxing with Solomon’s death and the sinful actions of Rehoboam, the kingdom of Israel is divided. The Northern Kingdom, Israel, was set up under the rule of Jeroboam and consisted of 10 tribes. It’s capital was Samaria. The Southern Kingdom, Judah, under the rule of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam had only 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin. It’s capital was Jerusalem. The two parts of the divided kingdom were continuously at war with one another for 80 years after the divide occurred.
How it must have broken the heart of God to see his children attacking one another. How it still must do the same. There will always be persecution from the world, those who do not know God hate him and lash out at his children. However, it is the fighting within the church that is the most detrimental to His kingdom here on earth. When we tear one another down through gossip, slander or a judgmental attitude, we are breaking down the Body of Christ, weakening it’s power to influence the lost. We are called, as the Israelites were, to be set apart. We are called to represent Christ to the world. Denominational differences, church traditions and anything else that causes us to speak against a brother or sister in Christ leads to a divided kingdom. As we will see in the next few days, a kingdom divided leads to defeat.
My prayer today is that we would be able to see our judgmental attitudes, gossip laced conversations and divisive perspectives as just another way that we are running form God. As a result, may we stop, change direction and run back to God. I pray that each of us would be a kingdom builder and encourager to every member of the Body of Christ, in His power, for His glory.
Love you all,
Kinsee
“so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return empty, but accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
