Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1910 — OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE-STUDIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE-STUDIES

THE YOUNG MAN'S ERROR WHICH LOBT HIM A KINGDOM

I Kings 12:6-16—January 1 “He that tcalketk Kith seise men shall be Kite; a companion of foot* shall be destroyed."— (Pros. 13:20.) “Wherewithal shall a young man eleanxt his tcayf By taking heed thereto according to thy KOrd."— Psalm U 9.-9. CHE opening of the New Year with all the possibilities thereof for good or for evil strongly resembles the opening of life’s maturity to a young man or a young woman. To the thoughtful and experienced there Is something very pathetic in the life start of bright boys and girls. Their hopes and anticipations run so high, their ideals are so grand, they have so many air castles. Esperi- , ence shows that. alas, the great majority of these result disastrously and usually from unwisdom. How often would loving counsels from their seniors assist them and save them from wrecks and calamities! We may well thank God that in his Providence the mistakes of youth, while serious, do not necessarily spell eternal disaster. .7- ■■ Kihg Rehcboam's Unwisdom When the great king, Solomon, died he left the kingdom to his son Rehoboam —a kingdom extending from the wilderness

on the South to the Euphrates on the North, in all nearly as large as -England and Wales. It Was God’s Kingdom; as we read. “Solomon sat upon the throne of the Kingdom of the Lord." Rehoboam was about twenty-one years of age when he came to the throne at the death of .his father Solomon, King Solomon. a It ho ugh reverent toward God, was evidently much less zealous, much less religious than his father David. His heathen wives, the riches of the kingdom' and his political intercourse with the surrounding nations made him what

might be termed a bright-minded man rather than a religious one. This was reflected upon his sou and successor and also upon the people he governed. The Crisis and the Error Besides this. Solomon's great enterprises, palatial buildings, etc., brought the revenue and glory to his capital, city, Jerusalem. and did not evenly distribute It throughout the nation. Indeed, following the custom of other kings, wealth was gathered largely from the enforced labor of his subjects, who were coibpelled to labor at his capital for the common weal without pay. They were drafted and put under task-masters. In Solomon’s day this was borne, though sometimes resentfully. but when his son came to the throne the northern tribes determined that, they would not acknowledge him as king unless he gave them what might be termed a bill of rights—a Magna Charta. They sent to Egypt for one of their leaders, whom Solomon had exiled for his outspoken criticisms. Through him the ten tribes had a general conference of tribe leaders and informed Rehoboam that they were not satisfied with the way they had been treated by King Solomon. Rehoboam and all realized that a crisis In the affairs of the kingdom had come. The matter was too weighty to be decided hastily. He called for the secretaries of the kingdom, his father’s counsellors, elderly men, to know their advice. Their recommendations were good. They recommended that he be a servant of the people; that instead of accumulating wealth at the capital and being-personally great, he should serve the entire nation, looking out for all of Its interests and forwarding the same—exactly what the ten tribes desired. The Grievous Decision Next, Rehoboam called the young men, his friends and acquaintances, his schoolmates, whom he was disposed more and more to bring into power with himself. Their advice was that the one way for a monarch to be successful is to intimidate his subjects and rule them with a heavy

hand. The young king Jmd not been 'Ttehtb the principles oi justice in human affairs. Wise as his father was, he had neglected to prepare Tils son” for a proper decision in the crisis upon him. The king followed the advice of the young men and, in figurative language, said, “You claim that my father made your load heavy, and you ask me to make it light. Instead, I will add to your load; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with whip with metal pricks at the ends , of the thongs.” The unwise decision lost the king

the greater part of the kingdom. The ten tribes revolted! and the adjacent kingdom, which had been under Solomon’s sovereignty also, deflected, and left the king but a small minority of his empire, although it was the richest, most influential portion.

The Point of This Study : There is a lesson in this study for all, namely, the importance of wisdom in our decisions, especially at the start of life and at" various partings of the ways, as we come to them in life’s journey. To all there is a lesson 'worth learning in the matter of pride and ambition, threats and attempted coercions and the unwisdom of such courses, as well as their injustice. Wealth, power, influence, gained through oppression and injustice, are unworthy of noble minds, and this principle can be applied on the smaller scale as well as on the larger. In homes the principle operates between parents and children, between husbands and wives. Alas! too often in the .home control is held by force rather than by love and esteem and the appreciation of justice and the genera) welfare. Another lesson is that in every enterprise of life we should seek counsel. In this connection let us remember the words of the Apostle that we seek the wisdom that cometh’ from above, 1 that is “flrslt pure, then peaceable, easy of entreatment and full of mercy and good fruits.”

Rehoboam Conferring With Solomon's Secretaries.

Afflicting with scorpions under Rehoboam.