What You Seek Is What You Have

From: May 17 – 23, 2011 Topic: "What You Seek Is What You Have" I Kings 12:1

There are many things that worry us and we think that we can go to any person who is our friend thinking that we will receive the best advice. But, it so happens that there are advises from friends that can lead us to ruin. Nowadays there is a fashion in the new churches who call themselves “restorers,” I can’t understand this. I know that there is repentance for the sinner and a God who forgives you, lifts you and restores you. I heard a few days ago about one of the owners of several TV stations in the United States, who claim to be believers, but walk as they please (of course this is what power and money gives them), who publicly declared that he had committed shameful sins. He said it to avoid giving millions to those who wanted to bribe him. It is very sad to see things like this happen on "Christian TV" today. "Prosperity" has taken so much of the minds of the people that the sound doctrine of true humiliation has been changed and accommodated conveniently for monetary reasons. Everything is done on the basis of millions of dollars and once the money is obtained they walk away from the God who blesses them. 1 Timothy 6:10: "for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves." In the days of King David and King Solomon Israel had been blessed by God in every way. However, when Solomon died, the people complained about the tax money; we can see that people either seek God or seek blessings. Rehoboam was the son and heir of King Solomon and he knew of the threats of the people to break or divide his kingdom. He thought that if he went to the city of Shechem he could prevent it. But, as he went to Shechem he hastened the breakup of his reign. This is what happens when we do not seek God and prefer to follow the will of the flesh. That is why we have to ask ourselves what is the real reason why we say we serve God. A servant of God does not seek his own benefit; he is a slave of the Lord. But, like Rehoboam, we often seem to be the chiefs and not the servants of the living God. We speak as we please, according to our reasoning or to the soul and not according to the word spoken by God in His Word. God’s word is complete; we do not need to add anything from our point of view. It was proper for the king to be crowned in Judah which was the capital of the kingdom. The people were seeking for their own benefit and so was the king. So they all went to Shechem. Who was following who in this game? This is how things are when we work for our own benefit and not for God. I ask myself if we are capable of wanting to find out for sure what lies within us. But, the truth is that we do not want to face ourselves, so we flee and escape. The evil that is hidden inside of us is what will destroy us if we don’t discover it before and take it out of our lives. It was prophesied to Jeroboam that he was to be the next king of ten of the tribes of Israel (1 Kings 11, 29-31). The representatives of the tribes were seeking for the new king, Rehoboam, to lower the tax rates which were established by King Solomon. But, those leaders were not seeking anything spiritual, but rather the economic advantage for themselves. People take advantage of everything in order to obtain material and temporary things. This is how men are, they want everything for themselves. They had sent for Jeroboam who was in Egypt. Most likely everyone knew of the prophecy, that he would be the next king. The leaders of the tribes were always seeking for advantages. It seems as if God was placed in a corner, as if He was small. When we stop seeking God this is what we do. Then, those people gathered in Shechem, made Jeroboam and Rehoboam face each other. This was done by the representatives of the tribes. How audacious can men be when they think only for themselves! There they complained about how Solomon treated them and told Rehoboam, "Your father made our yoke heavy." It was like saying, "Here is Jeroboam, and if you overlook us, be prepared, because Jeroboam then will be our king.”

They used very well what was said in the prophecy, but of course, not according to how God wanted things. They rebelled against King Rehoboam because of their great interest in money; and not because how troubled the nation could be spiritually. They had left God and now they were fighting for their economies. They and the people had left their religion. Now they had raised altars to other gods. That idolatry was the great sin of Solomon, it wasn’t the economy. They were not complaining to their king about Solomon’s idolatry. It seems that they had become accustomed to the sin of idolatry. This is how the owner of the TV station also reacted who I mentioned before. He confessed what he did because they asked him for 7.5 million dollars in bribery, not because he was sorrow for the sin of adultery he had committed, he confessed because of the money. Israel's leaders were indifferent to sin. That's what happens, the indifference to sin. No one is concerned about the sin. Solomon had raised their taxes. It could have been that there was something fair about the petition made to the king, but the fact is that the more people enjoy material comforts, the more they complain about what seems to them as a yoke. But they did not complain of the spiritual evil they were sunk in. Here in Puerto Rico the Federal government helps students pay for their college education with juicy scholarships and loans, but they complain that a fee of $800 is a yoke. For Israel it was a burden to have to pay taxes in the most prosperous kingdom of those times. The nation of Israel was powerful in riches and constructions under the reign of David and Solomon. The magnificence of Solomon's work was costing the town a lot of money, but David's wars had cost them toil and blood, but they did not complain of this. If Rehoboam did not comply with what they asked, they would be divided into two kingdoms! That’s how easy they put things. But, they forgot that their misfortune arrived for neglecting their religion and worshipping idols and because of their ambitions for the money. They turned away from God because of their sin, no longer did they have a powerful nation, or money, only idols for the destruction of all. Let us learn from this and not seek what does not satisfy, but seek what comes from above and not what perishes here on earth. Amen.