I Kings 14:31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.
We make decisions every day. Sometimes the easiest decision to make is the hardest to live with. For instance, it would easy for me to decide that I am going to sit on the couch, eat chocolate candy, and watch television all day. This would be a hard decision to live with when I am seventy. On the other hand, sometimes the hardest decision to make is the easiest to live with. To get up and take a walk and forgo eating as much chocolate as I would like may be a hard decision to make right now, but it might be easier to live with when I am older.
Today, beyond decisions like I have described, each moral decision you make will ripen to either bite or bless you in the future. King Solomon and the subsequent generations are a vibrant example of this. King Solomon was a wise governor. He was a brilliant leader of the nation, but he was not a wise leader of his own home. One suffered for the benefit of the other. Specifically, Solomon had a large harem. One of the reasons for that is because he made agreements with the kings whose daughters he married. These were politically savvy but personally foolish decisions.
For instance, the King of Egypt was not going to attack Solomon when Solomon was married to Pharaoh’s daughter. That worked for a time, but each of these easy decisions Solomon made were like time bombs that had been planted around his house. When he died, the bombs went off.
Chapter 14 is about Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Verse 31 says, “And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David.” You find here how these time bombs went off. Twice in this account the Bible says, “And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.” God is emphasizing this aspect of Rehoboam’s life. Then the Bible says, “And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.”
Where did this come from? It very well could have come from the king’s own mother. She was a Canaanite, a pagan, an Ammonitess. She was having influence on the king long after the king’s father, Solomon, had died. It was like a time bomb. Solomon’s wives were a short-term gain, but a long-range sorrow.
Another example of a short-term gain at the expense of a long-term loss is found in verse 25. There, the Bible says, “And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.” Egypt took the shields of gold which were replaced with inferior shields of brass. This was a picture of the entire nation, from high dollar to low grade because they were reaping the results of their decisions and their sins. The king of Egypt, after Solomon was gone, came and attacked Solomon’s country. It is interesting to know that King Rehoboam was not the grandchild of Egypt.
Solomon’s polygamy in this case provided safety in his lifetime, but once he was gone, it led to the destruction and idolatry of his people. Making decisions primarily for short term gain is a sure way to lose in the end. May God give us wisdom to make decisions, hard or easy, in the right way so we can have the right results!