Got Wisdom?

Chapter 14 - The Story

I would consider myself a renaissance woman.  Good ol' Merriam-Webster describes that simply as a person who "has wide interests and is an expert in a variety of areas".  I'm no expert, but I know enough to get me reasonably far on a game of couch Jeopardy.

Unfortunately, it's pretty hard when you have enough interests and possible skill levels that they could maybe take up the Grand Canyon.  Everybody, and their mom, and well-meaning uncles, and good friends have seemingly GREAT ideas about what you should be when you grow up.  I have had advocates in the rare book restorer category, all the way to the politician category.  The degree I'm pursuing now is the third Master's program I've been accepted to.  Everyone has a healthy opinion of what I should do next, with the greatest of intentions.  What am I going to be when I grow up?  But do any of these well-intentioned people really know the real me?

Enter into Chapter 14.  Solomon has since went the way of the great kings, after biting it hard by marrying all sorts of women who didn't know God and didn't care to follow God.  His son Rehoboam comes up in his place, not asking God for, or receiving the wisdom his father had.  He was an inexperienced kid with a massive kingdom on his hands.

No great kingdom is free.  Solomon taxed his people big time, because ivory thrones overlain with gold are not free either.  So delegates made their way to Rehoboam to ask for the taxes to be reduced.

Rehoboam starts smart.  He asks his Dad's advisors what he should do.  "Cut the taxes and they'll love you for life."  GREAT wisdom from some seasoned vets.   And 1 Kings 12 said he ignored them and asked his buddies that he grew up with what they thought.  Their advice?  "Show them who's boss.  Increase the taxes so they know you're bigger than your Dad."  Bad move.  Well, horribly catastrophic move.

Not only does Rehoboam, at one point in the story, have to escape a rock party (the mob did manage to kill his Chief of Forced Labor in the midst of the storm of thrown stones), but the writer says that Israel - THE NATION - got up and said, "Go to your own house and look after yourself.  The throne of David is done."  Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal.  A man who had inherited the universe lost it in one bad decision made in the thick of "friends" who had no expertise and no wisdom (and arguably, no common sense). They were people who didn't know how to run a kingdom.  They were friends of Rehoboam the friend, who just happened to be a prince.  Not Rehoboam the King.

When we grow into what God has for us, we inherit so much from him.  I would argue it's a bigger inheritance than Rehoboam's because we get the Holy Spirit.  And even though our past is part of how He has designed us, our future may not make sense to the people we thought knew us best.  They can't always see the things God has shown us.  They don't get to hear the things God has told us.  And sometimes their advice can corrupt what God is asking us to do because they are speaking to who we were - not to who God is asking us to become.

So here I am.  I'm in ministry.  A place I swore I'd never go.  I couldn't take some of those old folks with me simply because they couldn't understand or support a "me, in ministry".  They either didn't know enough or love me enough to say, "Do whatever God is telling you to do, and nothing else."  They're not bad people, but they are also not the people I can have speaking into me as I move closer to the epicenter of the great adventure God has me on.  In some small painful places, they are people that didn't want me to do that because it meant our relationship had to change.  I couldn't take everyone with me.  But the inheritance of the kingdom of God and playing a part in that is worth it all.

Rehoboam's dad once said this, "Get wisdom.  It may cost you everything you have.  The one who gets wisdom loves life" (Proverbs 4:7, 19:8).  If you are unsure of where God is taking you next, call on wise people who will give you good wisdom and will point your right back to God.  Get wisdom.

Eliza Cortes Bast