Pastor Chris Enoch - January 15, 2017
Scriptures:
2 Kings 15:1-12
In the
twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of
Judah began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he
reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was
from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his
father Amaziah had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people
continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
The Lord afflicted the king with
leprosy until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house. Jotham the king’s son had charge of the palace
and governed the people of the land.
As for the other events of Azariah’s
reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the
kings of Judah? Azariah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in the
City of David. And Jotham his son succeeded him as king.
In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah
king of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in Samaria, and
he reigned six months. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had
done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had
caused Israel to commit.
Shallum son of Jabesh conspired
against Zechariah. He attacked him in front of the people, assassinated him and
succeeded him as king. The other events
of Zechariah’s reign are written in the book of the annals of the kings of
Israel. So the word of the Lord spoken to Jehu was fulfilled: “Your descendants
will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
1 Kings 12:1-11
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the
Israelites had gone there to make him king. When
Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from
King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for
Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to
him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now
lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve
you.”
Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three
days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.
Then King Rehoboam consulted the
elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you
advise me to answer these people?” he asked.
They replied, “If today you will be a
servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they
will always be your servants.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the
elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were
serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How
should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put
on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with
him replied, “Tell these people who have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy
yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter’—tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker
than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy
yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will
scourge you with scorpions.’”
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