August 25, 2023
King Solomon died, and his son, Rehoboam, reigned in his stead. It seemed that all Rehoboam had to do to secure the entire kingdom of Israel under his leadership was to lighten the load. Solomon, his father, “made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we will serve thee.” 2 Chronicles 10:4. That sounded like a no-brainer, right? The people told Rehoboam to lighten up. If he did, they would serve him as their King.
Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who encouraged him to listen to the people and lighten their load. “But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.” 2 Chronicles 10:8. These young evil geniuses told Rehoboam to tell the people the following, “For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” 2 Chronicles 10:11.
King Rehoboam refused to heed the wisdom of the elders and the evident inclinations of his reason and common sense. How do we explain the insanity or the folly of his decision? This was a clear and easy decision to make. Any fool could have made the right decision; it was so obvious. What are we missing? How could he make such a stupid decision that defied logic and reason?
“So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the LORD might perform his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” 2 Chronicles 10:15, emphasis added. The story in 2 Chronicles omits some vital information. Elsewhere in scripture, we are told that in his old age, Solomon sinned exceedingly against God because of his many foreign wives, who turned him into an idolater. God then informed Solomon that the Kingdom of Israel would be divided. 10 tribes would be given to Jeroboam (not a son of Solomon), and one tribe, that of Judah, would go to his son, Rehoboam. Now the story starts to make more sense.
God told Solomon that because of his great apostasy, which led the nation into rebellion, the unified kingdom that his father, David, had bequeathed to him would be divided into two parts. Two kings would rule over the divided nation of Israel. To make that promise a reality, God worked behind the scenes, ensuring that Rehoboam followed the foolish advice of the young men rather than the wise counsel of the old men. What appears to us as insanity is really the judgment of God on Solomon’s descendants and the people of Israel. This is how God chose to fulfill His promise to Solomon. God told Solomon that if he obeyed Him, he and his posterity would always be blessed and Solomon’s line would sit on the throne indefinitely. But if he disobeyed God, he and his disobedient posterity would be condemned and the kingdom given to someone else, Jeroboam. For David’s sake, God left Rehoboam one tribe.
This glimpse behind the heavenly curtain is very enlightening. God, not Satan, had become the avenging angel. God is the person who moved on and enticed Rehoboam to believe the foolish advice of the young men. “The cause was of God”, whether He did it Himself or sent another agent to do the work.
There is one other passage of scripture for us to consider. “And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him and will prevail also, go forth and do so. Now therefore behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.” 1 Kings 22:2-23.
Micaiah the prophet uttered these words to Ahab, the King of Israel, “The cause was of God”. God had pronounced judgment on the house of Ahab and Jezebel for their great wickedness. The time had come for it to be executed, and this is how God did it. He used a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets to tell Ahab what he wanted to hear. The prophet of God told Ahab the truth and what he needed to hear. Ahab hated the prophet of God. All those who love not the truth hate God and his prophets.
Isn’t it amazing that leaders and followers alike accumulate false prophets or teachers to themselves, who will proclaim good things over them instead of rebuking their sin. People in the past and today often prefer lies to the truth. The end is the same for all those who love lying spirits more than the truth. According to this passage, these lying spirits in the mouth of the false prophets came from God. God is now their enemy. It is a fearful thing to have God remove His presence and hand of protection from us. But it is a much greater calamity to have God become our enemy and fight against us. It is a battle we can’t win.
What might this mean for the USA, its leaders, and its citizens?
Don’t these two stories make you think about what is going on today under the Biden administration, the entire Democrat party, and many Republicans? The inexplicable insanity of our political, media, church, and business leaders is hard to comprehend if we do not consider “the cause was of God”. It is expedient, but incorrect, to think of this as the work of the devil. Could it be that this collective insanity in our nation is the judgment of a holy God on our godless leadership and our godless nation? Has God now become our enemy, like He promised would happen in times past? I believe this is precisely what we are witnessing. Our leadership is being led by lying spirits, in the mouths of the ’prophets’ of today. I believe we are seeing the hand of God in judgment.
Is God telling us that the “kingdom” of the United States, like the Kingdom of Israel, is found wanting and will be divided? And are we not becoming more divided as a people each week? The current administration, similar to other administrations, has divided our nation along racial, economic, political, and religious lines. Passions and anger are boiling over. Past wars have been fought for reasons less substantial than those we discuss today.
The entire globe is dividing, as I write. Many nations are moving away from the liberal hegemony of the West (Europe, Canada, USA). Also, much of the world appears to be moving away from the US dollar (the world reserve currency) as more nations seek admittance into BRICS. More nations have been added, and there is a growing desire to be admitted. We are witnessing the decline of our nation’s status as the world leader. God is dividing that leadership among the nations because of our progressive apostasy. We have rejected God who birthed this nation, and He is rejecting us. He is taking our leadership role and dividing it. The consequences will be severe if no improvement is made.
Warning shots have been fired, but the lying false prophets of today preach a false gospel of peace and prosperity using fear. The West hopes to bring the entire world under its progressive control. There is growing resistance. More and more nations want their culture, not liberal Western politics, to govern their affairs. Who can blame them? God is trying to get our attention. If only we would listen and wake up.
At one time, we could have rational conversations about complex matters, but that is no longer the case. At one time, the left was a champion of free speech, a free press, freedom of religion, and liberty; however, that is no longer the case. The left is, by nature, totalitarian. The progressives cancel free speech unless it agrees with their stupidity and insanity. The left hates everything that reminds them of the transcendent Christian principles upon which this nation was founded. They not only hate our Christian heritage, but they will not rest until they have eliminated it from our culture, even if that must be done by force. Can this division be healed? It doesn’t look promising. But with God, nothing is impossible.
Even if Rehoboam listened to the counsel of the old men and lightened the load that Solomon had placed on them, God had already pronounced judgment on Solomon, and the nation was to be divided. It made no difference what Rehoboam might have done. He was, apparently, easy to entice.
Every week, we sink to a new moral low and embrace some new nonsense and insanity. We have leaders who can’t tell us what a woman is and who think that a person’s gender can be chosen at will. We have Democrat run cities that are lawless intentionally. One Democrat Governor is proposing a law making it a crime to stop people from stealing from their business. How do we explain such insanity? “The cause is from God”, is the only explanation that makes sense to me. The false prophets of yesterday are today, the many supposedly science-based “experts and leaders.” We have many “thought” leaders today, who are advocating for the permanent mutilation of children using surgery and or drugs to attempt to alter the gender of a child. And this is just the latest in a long line of evil, stupid, insane, and ridiculous policies that our depraved leadership is promoting with the zeal of a drug-crazed lunatic.
Consider, for a moment, the insanity of the agenda of the climate alarmists. To attack a problem that is basically non-existent, they would destroy the economic engines of the industrialized world and thrust societies back to the Stone Age. Godless leaders will never consider that climate disasters might be the finger of God and not the hand of man. It would be easy to write all this off as cases of demon possession. But what if all this is God’s judgment on our nation? What if all this portends future divine chastisements of much greater severity? What is the next level of depravity that we will sink into? One is the attempt to normalize pedophilia and reduce the age of consent; after all, these folks are only minor-attracted-people, not wicked criminals.
God threatened Solomon, and He did exactly as He threatened because of Solomon’s and the nation’s apostasy. Our apostasy is as great, if not greater, than Solomon’s. Our country has spilled the blood of well over 60 million babies with no end in sight because we have some states that are the champions of this evil practice. Is not this sin alone a reason to divide us as a nation? Is a civil war what it will take for the shedding of innocent blood to stop? We have two sides entrenched in their respective positions. Those, like me, will never rest until our nation no longer murders babies for the convenience of the mother or father. The other side demands to be able to kill their babies up to the moment of birth. Who is to say that they will not want to extend that until the baby is a few months old? I know of one university professor who is advocating just that. He thinks parents should be able to kill their baby up to the first 29 or 30 days or something like that. There is no compromise on this and many other issues. We are already divided in many important ways.
Our godless Supreme Court approved same sex marriage in 2015, overturning an institution ordained by God Himself. That has and will continue to divide our nation. No Bible believing follower of Christ will ever embrace this evil agenda. And the progressives will never let the country return to marriage, which is only between a man and a woman. Again, there is no compromise possible. Many other examples could be mentioned (such as vaccines and masks).
We are awash in every kind of evil imaginable, from drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, and blatant idolatry. There is no end in sight. Or is there an end in sight?
How will God humble this proud nation of evil leaders and doers? Will he break the kingdom of the USA apart between red states and blue states? Or will all of us be speaking a different language in the future? Make no mistake, we are under the judgment of God because of the shedding of innocent blood around the world (wars, proxy wars, and abortion) and our rejection of the God who created us. We are under divine judgment because we promote gender confusion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and other sexual perversions, and many other evil practices. God has not only removed His hand of protection from us, but He has become our enemy. He has given us over to lying spirits in the mouths of the prophets of today (many of our scientists, politicians, media, church, and business leaders are the false prophets of today). “The cause is from God”, not from the devil.
Most Christians know this promise: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” When we walk humbly with God, no power in heaven or on earth can touch us without God’s approval. Unfortunately, the opposite promise is also true, but it is rarely acknowledged. If God is against us, because of our unrepentant rebellion, who can be for us? All the military and intellectual might of every nation is no threat whatsoever to God. When God is forced into being our enemy, we lose.
Our only hope to avert or survive the coming national catastrophe is our repentance from all of our evil. Let us pray for our beloved nation and its citizens. Judgment is knocking at the door. God has opened the door and let it in. Only a few have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us. Are you one of those precious souls? Now is the time to seek God as you have never done before.
