sermon outline on king Rehoboam

Taxmaggedon is coming January 1st. Families will see an average
tax increase of $4,138. Baby boomers' average will be $4,223 and low-income
taxpayers can expect a $1,207 increase. Millennial will take an average hike
of $1,099 and retirees $857, according to the Heritage Foundation.

Will Rogers said, "The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't
get worse every time Congress meets."

SURGERY FOR CANCER
God began His human creation with Adam and Eve and they quickly
multiplied and replenished the earth. But just as quickly as they
multiplied, they paganized. They turned violent and corrupt. So, in a sense,
God surgically removed the majority of the human race from His plan and
eventually focused on Abraham.

The story of King Rehoboam is the story of God removing the
majority of Israel because of idolatry so that He might focus on one
family - the family of David, or in the words of the prophets - the remnant.
King Rehoboam was ideal for this purpose because of his nature. He was what
we might call today a "tax and spend liberal."

KING SOLOMON
King Solomon had a strong and successful foreign policy. Part of
that was due to the fact that his father was a defense hawk. Another reason
King Solomon had a successful foreign policy was because he developed his
own "dollar-diplomacy". This made Solomon the wealthiest man in the annals
of human history.

The problem was that King Solomon, despite his wisdom that
superseded all the wisdom of all the men who had ever lived before him, did
not follow God's law like he should. The Bible says that King Solomon's
wives led his heart away from God. To punish King Solomon for his reckless
abandon of God's laws, the Lord raised up three adversaries - Hadad the
Edomite, then Rezon king of Aram and Jeroboam who was King Solomon's
Secretary of Labor.

KING REHOBOAM
That brings us to Solomon's successor - King Rehoboam. King
Rehoboam did not have the diplomatic success that his father had. It was
difficult for him to keep the alliances which his father had formed. He
wanted to maintain the same appearances of success and prosperity that was
evident during the reign of King Solomon. But he could not do it based
solely on his foreign trade.

When the people hear that King Rehoboam is going to increase
taxes - make them even heavier and higher than his father, the people break
off and create their own nation - the nation of Israel with its capital
eventually at Samaria.

In the ensuing years, King Rehoboam was faithful to God. The
priests left the northern tribes of Israel as Jeroboam built golden calves
to worship in Dan and Bethel - and these priests came down and joined
themselves to King Rehoboam and the nation of Judah. These were fairly good
days for the southern tribes of Judah.

In 2 Chronicles 11:17 tells us that King Rehoboam walked in the
way of David and Solomon - in the sense that he pretty-much followed God's
law - the law of Moses - for three years. But as with so many people - with
King Saul and King Solomon and the United States of America in the 21st
century, in the midst of prosperity comes an intense secularism and
religious matters, spiritual focus gets pushed to the side - 2 Chronicles
12. Observe verse 1.

Because God had forsaken the prosperity of Israel, the leaders
of Israel humbled themselves before God. Notice that the word "humble"
occurs four times between verses 6 and 12. But ultimately, observe verse 14
of chapter 12: "He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the
Lord."

What we learn from this lesson:
High and exorbitant taxes have a way of destroying nations and, ironically,
creating new nations.
God can use evil men to accomplish his work - Rehoboam, Nebuchadnezzar,
Pontius Pilate.
God expects faithful obedience then and He expects faithful obedience now.
Even if the nation divides because of high taxes, God is still at work and
He'll be faithful to the remnant who remains faithful to Him.

--Paul Holland