I Kings 12:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
Follow One Who Follows God
I Kings 12 is the story of evil twins, entitlement and ambition. These two traits are personified in two kings, Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Entitlement and ambition can either be opposites, or you may think of them as almost the same things, depending on the perspective you come from. In any event, neither one of them is what should characterize a leader who is following God.
I Kings 11:43 says, “And Solomon slept with his fathers… and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.” I Kings 12:1 tells of Rehoboam becoming king of all Israel, yet when you get to verse 23, the Bible speaks of him as the king of Judah, not of the whole of Israel.
How is it that a man who had been king over all Israel is a chapter later called the king of only Judah? The answer is a story of two kings, neither of whom followed God as they should have. They were expecting people to follow them when they were not following God.
Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, illustrates an entitlement mentality. He was the son of Solomon, a king. He was born to wealth and success. He was the chosen of God, and yet when the people of Israel appealed to him to lighten their load of taxes, he responded harshly. He was a man who knew nothing of the needs of the people whom he was leading.
A servant of God should not feel as if he is above everyone else. I don’t care if you’re a first generation Christian or if you come from a long string of wonderful people, entitlement should not characterize anyone wishing to serve God and lead others.
Selfish ambition is demonstrated by Jeroboam. He was from a completely different background from that of Rehoboam. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, a man nobody knew. He was the son of a widow, but was also a man of valor, industry, and a man who was rising above obscurity to prominence. God eventually told Jeroboam that he would become the king of ten of the twelve tribes. But because of his selfish ambition, this man changed the worship of God because it was beneficial to him. He muscled his way through life instead of trusting in God Who had given him his leadership in the first place.
The point of this story of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, entitlement and ambition, is that we love to serve leaders who do not serve themselves. We love to follow leaders who are following God and have a sense of vision, not because of what they want, but because of Who they are following. They listen and lead by following God. Follow those who follow God, and if God gives you opportunity to lead, you lead others best by following God the most.