QT 20 Dec 10

1 Kings 12:6-11 (NIV) 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.

7 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."

8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 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'?"

10 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. 11 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.'"

NOTE: I don't think the issue is that Rehoboam listened to younger, less wise advice than older, mature wisdom. I think Rehoboam knew what he wanted and he rejected those who did not give him the answer he wanted. He went to the elders first, and would have probably taken their advice if it had been advice he wanted. To loosen the load on the people would have meant a change in income level for Rehoboam. He was not willing to reduce his standard of living. He wasn't interested in serving people but in being served. And finally, he was young and foolish. Quite a contrast for having the wisest father the world would ever know. Your family does not determine your direction. Your desires, your sin, your choices make you into the person you are. We like to blame others for faulty counsel or a bad environment, but really we are covering up our own choices that are to blame.