Rehoboam rejected the advice of the
elders and…
asked the opinion of the young men…
1 Kings 12:8
Despite his quirky
name, Rehoboam had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Son of King
Solomon and heir to the throne, he had enjoyed a life of luxury with his
buddies. When time came to make him king, he assumed his young party friends
would make good advisors too. What did the gray-hairs know? That poor decision
divided Israel and set them up for centuries of internal wars. Because the new
king was not careful about who influenced him, he brought down a kingdom.
We don’t always
know how our influence is going to affect others. Rehoboam’s buddies probably
never realized how their arrogant, unwise advice would affect their homeland.
Urging the new king to assert his power may have been just another day in
leisure-land for the spoiled rich boys, but they ended up destroying their very
foundations.
“Sure, tell your boss what you think of him!” our friends urge.
“Dump
that husband of yours. He deserves it!”
“Quit your job, that’ll show them!”
Friends may never realize the power of their influence, nor do we.
When we have
earned the trust and respect of another, we owe it to them to offer wise
counsel, even counsel they may not want to hear. Rehoboam’s friends held the
future of Israel in their beer mugs and didn’t even know it. And we, too, may
never know the result of our words, so we must use our influence wisely.
.
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