Are people really reliable? If a person exhausts all efforts to please many people in order to climb up in this world, it ultimately amounts to futility. He spent twenty-two years painstakingly planning and managing a kingdom, only to fail in the end. This is because all his thoughts were based on human reasoning, without ever properly seeking to please the greatest God in this world. Our God is the One who stabilizes nations and blesses people!

Questions for Reflection:

• If you were Jeroboam, what would you do upon hearing the Lord's rebuke and judgment?

• What were the ultimate fates of Jeroboam and Rehoboam? What led to their life outcomes?

• What do those living for this life care about? What do those living for eternal life value?

By the time of the Books of Kings, we can see more clearly that even a king is limited. The author of the Books of Kings, writing up to the point of Israel's national demise, highlights a central theme: Those who disobey the Lord God will surely perish.

Those Who Prioritize This Life and Disobey the Commandments of the Lord God Will Surely Perish

We see that Jeroboam's logic is peculiar. His hand withered and then was restored. At this point, he should have thought, I should turn back to God. Did he think about it? Yes! But he also thought, If I turn back to God, my people of Israel will have to return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord God. If my people go to other countries to pilgrimage, how can I manage them? How can I control this situation? I also want to keep and follow God's way! But if my people all go to Jerusalem to worship God, and Jerusalem happens to be in the land of my enemies, will my people listen to me or to my enemies? In this struggle, he succumbed. The key reason for his downfall was that he cared too much about this life.

As a result, regardless of whether he cared about this life or not, Jeroboam reigned for only twenty-two years. During these twenty-two years, he experienced the pain of losing a son. Moreover, when his wife sought the prophet Ahijah for her son, the prophet who had once anointed him as king of Israel declared to his wife:

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'I raised you up from among the people, and made you leader over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. But you have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. Therefore, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel, slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. The members of Jeroboam’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the country will be eaten by vultures. This is what the Lord has spoken.' (1 Kings 14:7-11)

So Jeroboam's wife got up and went home, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold, her son died.

I imagine that at this time, Jeroboam may have had another struggle in his heart: Should I do what is right in the eyes of the Lord? If I do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and allow the people of Israel to worship the Lord God in Jerusalem, how can I manage my kingdom? If I allow them to worship there, I will face management difficulties. If I do not allow them to go to Jerusalem and instead let them worship the golden calves I have set up, the Lord God will pronounce judgment against me. In this struggle, he once again lost the opportunity to repent. His problem was still that he was considering things from the standpoint of this life. As a result, no matter how he considered it, after reigning for twenty-two years, he still died in misery.

This matter is actually a good reminder for us as well: Although we are not kings, when faced with a conflict between this life and God's will, is our response the same as Jeroboam's? If you desperately climb up in this world, exhausting all your efforts to please your superiors, pleasing this person and pleasing that person, but not pleasing our God, then it is vanity of vanities! But what happens to a person who clings tightly to God and strives to please Him? He will be like David! If you imitate David, your experience will be like David's. Therefore, we must always remember the story of Jeroboam: A dignified king of Israel, in the end, not only did he die miserably, but his sons also died miserably. Within three years of his death, his entire family was wiped out by a rebellious official.

Obeying God's Word and Contemplating the End of Man to Receive David's Grace

Why would a man's heart turn astray? Can you comprehend it? I cannot understand Jeroboam's way of thinking; I simply cannot! The Book of Revelation prophesies that some people, having witnessed God's judgment executed in this world, will not turn to God. Instead, they will curse God and blaspheme Him. It is hard to imagine why they would be so hardened. Revelation, Chapter 16, records that God poured out bowls of His wrath upon the earth, and sores broke out on the people, causing them severe pain. Yet, they still did not repent but continued to curse God. We are truly astonished at how people could become like this! The deviation of the human heart is a very strange thing!

Rehoboam was the same. He also valued worldly things more than spiritual matters. What was the result? He followed his mother, an Ammonite woman, built altars to worship idols, and then immorality began in his kingdom. Although the Bible does not say whether he himself was immoral, he allowed these immoral things to exist in his kingdom, and as a result, the land was defiled. What happened later? He was defeated by his enemies, and the gold shields were replaced with bronze. His life of honor was thus lost. So, we must truly consider this: do not abandon a life of dignity and throw yourself into a life of baseness, where you are easily bullied. When others take away your gold and replace it with bronze, you can only compromise. Such a life has no honor.

Therefore, I encourage everyone to carefully contemplate the end of man. The end of a thing is better than its beginning, and so it is with the end of man. Jeroboam and Rehoboam both left the world in such a tragic way. The end of those who do evil in the eyes of the Lord is like this. In fact, God gives us opportunities again and again, but many people do not seize them. This is very sad! Thank God that we, this group of people, immediately turn back to follow God when He disciplines us even slightly. If such a thing happens to us, we would weep and wail in repentance, turning back to God and forsaking all idols.

What is the most crucial foundation in all of this? It is that our eyes must begin to shift from this life to eternal life. If you value eternal life, this life can no longer be your concern, and you will absolutely not fall into Jeroboam's way of thinking. Jeroboam's way of thinking is to value this life, believing that this life is all he has, and he must desperately use his own methods to protect what he possesses. But in the end, he cannot protect it!

Brothers and sisters, we must begin to change our valuing this life way of thinking into a valuing eternal life way of thinking; change the idol-worshipping way of thinking into the way of worshipping the true God. God actually does not want us to perish. If you have a heart that values eternal life, even if you occasionally make a small mistake, I believe God will not let you perish. God will discipline you, and when you are willing to turn back to God, you will receive the grace that David received!