MEDITATIONS FROM PROVERBS

 

July 5, 2006

Reading: Proverbs 1:8-19

 

“My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent” Proverbs 1:10

 

My soul, take heed to the advice of a famous father to his son. One of the roles and responsibilities of a father is to teach his sons and daughters to do those things that will guide them later on in life as they have to make decisions for themselves.

Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was probably the son he is speaking to as he writes the Proverbs, and one of the first pieces of advice he gives him is not to consent with sinners if they entice you. If they say, ‘Come with us, … do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil” (Proverbs 1:10,11,15,16).

When Rehoboam succeeded his father to the throne of Israel he was confronted with a problem where he would have done well to have remembered the advice of his father.

 

“Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.’" So he said to them, "Depart for three days, then come back to me." 1 Kings 12:1-15.

 

King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had stood before his father Solomon, and he said, "How do you advise me to answer these people?" And they spoke to him, saying, ‘If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.’ But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. And he said to them, ‘What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?’ Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, ‘Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’--thus you shall say to them: 'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist! And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!'"

Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!" So the king did not listen to the people.”

If Rehoboam had followed the advice of his father and not gone the way of sinners, his reign as Israel’s king would have gone a lot smoother. As it was, Jeroboam led a revolt and the kingdom was divided into two sections. The sad commentary on the reign of Rehoboam is, “Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.”

Because Rehoboam chose to ignore his father’s advice, “there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days” (1 Kings 14:30).

The Bible teaches, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” 2 Corinthians: 6:14. Whether in recreation, business or friends, this is good advice for us to follow, “for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14-16.