Matt Hagee - Don't Settle for Less Than God's Best

Hello and welcome to this Sunday conversation. We’ve now transitioned from the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, which record the history of Israel and the work of the prophet, into 1 and 2 Kings, two different books that give us a glimpse of what happened in Israel’s history under the reign of kings, beginning primarily with Solomon. In 1 Kings chapter 1, we come to a time in David’s life when he is old and about to pass away, and we see an immediate struggle that begins with Absalom’s younger brother and Solomon over who will succeed David, who will sit on the throne, and who has the right to be king.

This all begins in the first two or three chapters of 1 Kings. What we recognize is that without strong and clear leadership, chaos ensues. The reason that this is an important principle to point out is that it continues throughout the rest of these two books. Without strong and decisive, God-fearing leadership, chaos ensues. We all know that Solomon eventually becomes king, and in many records, he is considered one of the wisest kings that ever sat on the throne of any kingdom at any time. And yet, so much of the work that Solomon did is in vain because he forgot one of the most important principles that was given to him by his father, David.

If you go and read the final words that David gave to Solomon on his deathbed, he tells him very clearly, «Do not forget the Lord your God.» He reminds him of the same principles that God gave to Joshua and to the children of Israel from generation to generation, from the time they came out of Egypt until they inherited the Promised Land. If you walk in obedience to His word, He will bless you. If you disobey, it will be a burden to you. Solomon forgot this very valuable principle, and it didn’t matter how wise he was, or how wealthy he was; eventually, it cost him his kingdom.

God told Solomon that for the sake of his father David, He would not divide the kingdom while Solomon was alive. But soon after Solomon’s death, a civil war ensues, and two separate kingdoms are now divided. You have, for the rest of the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings, the kingdom of Judah, which is primarily the city of Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel, which includes all of the surrounding areas that separated and decided to go their own way. The two sons of Solomon, Jeroboam and Rehoboam, are where the divide begins, and it’s truly a tragic legacy.

Think about it: the grandsons of David, David who was the uniter of the kingdom, David who brought all of the twelve tribes together, David who made God’s city, Jerusalem, the capital where they could all gather and worship. Just two generations later, Solomon, and now David’s grandsons, Jeroboam and Rehoboam, find the kingdom divided again. Why? Because the Bible is true: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. If the foundations be destroyed, what then can the righteous do? These are all words that we read in the Bible, and some of those are even penned by Solomon himself. But what you find in the life of Solomon is that it’s much more difficult to practice what you preach than to just preach it.

Let’s read 1 Kings 14:21–28 together. This gives us an understanding of which direction Jerusalem and Israel are going at this time. «And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king. He reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel and put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.»

Now let’s consider what’s happening here. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, is the king over the city of Jerusalem. These verses very clearly tell us this is the city that the Lord has chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, according to 1 Kings 14: 21. Rehoboam didn’t choose the city; God chose the city. And then it says, «And He put His name there.» Now, if I had the opportunity to show you a satellite map, you would actually see where certain regions of the mountains around Jerusalem literally spell the name Jehovah. It’s an amazing sight to behold. But whenever the Bible says that God put His name there, it’s not just metaphorical; in some cases, it’s literal. Regardless, the point is this is God’s house. This is His city, and Rehoboam is allowing it to be desecrated.

It tells us one of the reasons why: His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Now, without shocking anyone, we all know that Solomon had a multitude of wives -some say 900 plus. Often, it’s dismissed that the reason for all of these weddings and different relationships was political power and leverage. That as he entered into a treaty with another nation, he would take a wife so that there would be an opportunity for each country to benefit. And you know, it was all politics; it wasn’t really love. Regardless of the reason, every time he brought in individuals from other nations, he never gave them the direction or the instruction to follow the Lord. He allowed them to practice their own faith; there was no assimilation to the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So when it says that Rehoboam’s mother Naamah was an Ammonitess, it’s saying that everything she practiced in her past she was able to bring into Israel.

Now, if Rehoboam is Solomon’s son with this woman, and Solomon is busy being king and has 900 wives and is doing all the things that he has to do, who do you think was the most influential person in this young man’s formative years while he’s growing up? He’s with mom. And mom is not worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mom is doing what an Ammonitess does. She’s building altars to pagan gods. She goes up on the high hills and prays to the god who brings rain, and she prays to the god who brings water, and she prays to the god who brings the harvest. She does all of the traditional practices of whatever pagan faith she brought with her.

And now, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Judah, the son of Solomon, the grandson of David, who was a man after God’s own heart, is under the influence of his pagan mother, and he is perfectly willing to allow these same practices to be done. Now, Rehoboam doesn’t outlaw his faith, but he makes equal space for all faiths. And what happens is, the Bible says that Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Verse 22 says, «and provoked God to jealousy with their sins which they committed.» Anytime you read about God being a jealous God, it is because His people are pursuing other gods. Anytime you read, «I am a jealous God,» what He’s saying is, «You belong to Me. You are My bride. You are the one that I am betrothed to, and you belong to Me. And when you pursue another god and engage in pagan worship, you are giving away what belongs only to Me.» His jealousy is provoked and His wrath is engaged because Jerusalem, His city, is now pursuing worship with false gods. It says, «They built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.»

Verse 25 says, «And now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.» Verse 27 says, «Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guards who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. And so it was, whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, that the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guard’s chambers.»

Here’s the thing that we see in this passage of Scripture: the grandsons of David are settling for a lesser standard than what they had received. It’s a truly tragic legacy. Rather than live up to the expectations of being David’s grandson-a giant killer-and the son of Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest king on the face of the earth, think about it: in his veins flows the blood of some of the most dynamic leaders that have ever drawn a breath. King David, who was a warrior and a statesman; Solomon, who drew people from all over the world to come and listen to his wisdom and was considered the wealthiest king that ever sat on a throne. David had a covenant with God, a covenant that established his throne forever. Rehoboam is not just another figurehead; he is in the lineage that God is going to use to bring Jesus Christ into the world. He is part of God’s divine plan, and yet rather than live up to the standard he was given, he willingly accepts less.

He willingly makes it look good, but it doesn’t have to be good. He willingly exchanges shields of gold for bronze. Whenever you read this one passage, where it says that Shishak took away everything-all of the Lord’s treasures in the king’s house and all of the gold shields which Solomon had made-what does the Bible say about everything that was in the king’s house? The Bible talks about a throne of ivory. The Bible talks about gold statues of lions because the animal that symbolizes the tribe of Judah that David came from was a lion.

And the Bible talks about shields that were pure gold so that whenever Solomon would walk from his palace up to the temple, his guard would line the path holding these golden shields, establishing that even the highest on earth, the king, had to ascend to walk into the presence of God. Whenever it says Shishak took everything, it did not just mean walking in and taking a wallet out of someone’s back pocket. He walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of things. And rather than take a moment to reflect and ask himself how this happened and what they could do to change it, he just says, «Fair enough. Instead of gold, we’ll use brass.»

And maybe if we polish it enough and the sun hits it just right, it’ll look close enough to what we used to have that we’ll pretend like it’s as good as it used to be. This is a pathetic statement for someone with Rehoboam’s pedigree. But how often do we see this same thing transpire in the world around us-one generation willingly accepting less than the quality standard?

You know many times we’ve heard this statement that this generation of Americans will be the first generation to have less than what their parents had. You can get into all of the different discussions regarding economics, politics, or the different things that have created that challenge. But I believe that the reason that’s true is that for more than 50 years this nation has been walking away from our source of blessing. Just as the children of Israel, for a period of time, walked away from their source of blessing. From the time of David to now, the divided kingdom of his grandsons, throughout the tenure of Solomon, they drifted further and further away to the point that they could build pagan altars in the city of God, and nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. It was perfectly acceptable. And in the drift, their standards fell.

For more than 50 years, the United States has been drifting further and further away from the Lord. And oftentimes, the righteous remain silent; nobody says anything. It just becomes the accepted norm of the day. I remember when I was a child, the things that we used to consider to be on the edge or over the line are now so common that we don’t even pay attention to them when we see them. I remember television programs that would put up warnings about things that you were about to see that might be considered controversial. So, if there were parents in the room, they should consider whether or not their children should stay in the room. Now, those warnings are few and far between because society has just drifted to a moral standard that’s far less than what it should be.

What is considered acceptable today would have never even been thought of a generation ago. Why? Not because we’ve evolved. Not because we’ve enlightened ourselves into the way the world really works, but because we’ve drifted away from the source of all standards and the source of real value and the source and foundation of living a great life, which is the word of God. The word of God is like a gold shield. As a matter of fact, there are places in the Bible where God Himself says, «My word is as pure as gold; it’s tried by fire.» And whenever you get away from God’s word, it doesn’t matter which direction you’re going; you are accepting less than the best. God’s word is not only pure as gold; God’s word endures forever. We read this in Isaiah, and it’s repeated in the New Testament with Peter: «The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.»

That doesn’t mean that there’s an expiration date on His promises, and that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s going to be outdated and inappropriate at some point in the future. That means if it was good in one generation, it will be good in every generation from this point forward. God’s word not only endures forever, but according to Isaiah chapter 55, it never returns void. God Himself said, «My word that proceeds from My mouth shall not return to Me void; it shall accomplish the purpose for which I sent it.» How could you ever want less than that? Rehoboam didn’t go get the shields of gold that were stolen. Rehoboam didn’t fall on his face and repent and ask for God to heal and restore. Rehoboam just lowered the standard.

Don’t do that in your life. Make sure that you remain in a relationship with the source that gives you the best of all things, and understand where your blessings come from. They’re not inherited from one generation to the next; they’re given to you by the God who is the same in every generation. First Kings is a book where we see a generation willingly accept a lower standard. Let it be a reminder to you that you don’t have to do that in your life. I look forward to sharing more with you in our next Sunday conversation.