Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What We Can Learn From the Past | The Life of Solomon

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. We are currently exploring some of our favorite Bible verses and how they've changed our lives. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, AskT, TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. The world existed long before you, and it's going to exist long after you. And this is a fact, which no one, atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, whatever, can deny. And yet, it's a fact that we give far too little

Starting point is 00:00:49 attention to. You are the beneficiary of everybody who preceded you. Without them, there wouldn't be the technology to make cars, homes, phones, banking systems, all the things that benefit you every single day. You had the cosmic luck of being born today and not 500 years ago. Of course, even 500 years ago, people had the same benefits. Without plows, animal domestication, fiat currency, or letters, well, they wouldn't have been who they were at that time. And of course, we should have just be thankful for all the people who came before us and gave us so much of what we have today. We should also look forward. There's something to be learned from the fact that the late era Romans, they actually lived healthier lives with better technology, more wealth and

Starting point is 00:01:36 opportunity than Europeans did 500 years later. You see, they weren't forward-looking enough. They didn't leave the world ultimately better than we found it. What we gain today can actually be lost over generations. And I don't just want to get fixated on technology, even though that's probably the easiest one to illustrate. Culture, our shared values, family models, words, traditions, practices of justice, views of human dignity, liberty, meaning, and collective purpose, these are all things that we've inherited. They're a cultural trust which has been passed to us from the generations before us and we'll have to pass it on to generations after us. We're lucky enough to live in a society that has been shaped by Genesis 1, which teaches that all humans have

Starting point is 00:02:23 supreme dignity because they are all, every single one of them, made in God's image. There's no language of human rights or justice for all people without that cultural trust. We wouldn't talk that way if it weren't for the people before us who left that cultural trust intact. And yet, there is always a risk of losing it. In fact, we appear to be in the middle stages of a cultural decay. We might end up spending all of the cultural capital that we were given. We might end up spending everything left in our trust and leaving our culture bankrupt. that we can't pass on this cultural prosperity to the next generation. You see, we can't let the prosperity of the current moment deceive us into believing that it's not possible to leave the world

Starting point is 00:03:11 worse than we found it. Why is this happening right now? Well, I think it's because we're losing our history. We've lost our sense of a big story that we're a part of, that we are beneficiaries of, and that we have to pass on to others. We've lost a sense that our own life, our own personal story, is a part of something far bigger. And instead of listening to the wisdom of those who came before us, we've been obsessed with listening to the so-called wisdom of our peers. We're toppling over the wisdom of generations right now on topics like sex, human dignity, gender, freedom, speech,

Starting point is 00:03:45 loving our neighbor, loving the foreigner, far more than that. We're toppling over the wisdom of generations right now. We're losing our sense of what came before us. And so we're at risk of losing that for those who come after us. And this is tragic because this is part of what sets us apart from animals, this awareness of what came before and the ability to pass it on to others. Without an awareness of before and after, we're really no different than summer flies. We're born in a moment and then we're gone in the next. You have a responsibility to those who came before you in the faith and to those who are

Starting point is 00:04:22 going to come after you in the faith. Will you leave the cultural trust that God has given you that God has given our world, our culture, will you leave that cultural trust in better shape than you found it? Or worse? Will you correct the failures of the past without entirely leaving its wisdom behind? You, right now, you are not the only human to face this question. Our society is not the only society to face this question. In our last episode, we assessed Solomon's rule, but it left open a question. What's going to happen next? Will Solomon's son, Rayaboham, will he honor the immense cultural trust that he'd been given? Will he correct where Solomon failed and yet honor the wisdom of what was good and carry it forward? Or will he repeat Solomon's

Starting point is 00:05:11 errors? Worse yet, will he cast off all of the wisdom that had been gained? Will he leave Israel better than he found it for future generations? Or will he leave it worse? Will he leave it impoverished of all the good things that previous generations gave to him? After Rea Boeum's coronation, we read a story which explores all of these questions about our responsibility both to the past and to the future, about this trust that we've been given from the past and must preserve for the future. Let's pick up in 1st Kings 12.3. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam, that's Solomon's son, the king, and this is what they said to him, your father, Solomon, put a heavy yoke on us. But now, widen the harsh labor and the heavy

Starting point is 00:05:56 yoke put on us and we will serve you. Rehoboam answered, go away for three days and then come back to me. And so the people went away. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father, Solomon, during his lifetime. How would you advise me to answer these people? So here's Rehoboam. He's been confronted with the errors of his father, that he overworked people. And the book of Kings highlights us. He treated some people like slaves. It was terrible. And now he's going to the elders to the people who advised his father and he's saying, hey, I know that everything in the past wasn't bad though. And so what should we do? He's honoring the cultural trust. He's saying, look, you are coming to me with the wisdom of generations. How should I carry things forward? And check out

Starting point is 00:06:39 what they said. 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. You see, the elders, they were able to acknowledge the problems with the past, and yet they bring the wisdom of the past, and they make it to bear on the present. He says, serve them, and they'll serve you too. Of course they're right, but the story doesn't end there. But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders. So much for the cultural trust. And he consulted the young men. Now he's going to talk to his peers. It's time to topple over the wisdom of the ages. So it says he consulted his young man who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, what's your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me,

Starting point is 00:07:26 lighten the yoke your father put on us? The young man who had grown up with him replied, these people have said to you, your father put a heavy yoke on us, make our yoke lighter. Now tell them, my little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father laid a heavy yoke on you? Well, I'll make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips. Well, I'll scourge you with scorpions. Three days later, Jeroboam, and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, come back to me in three days. The king answered the people harshly, rejecting the advice given him by the elders. He followed the advice of the young men and said, my father made your yoke heavy. I'll make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips. I'll scourge you with scorpions. What would you

Starting point is 00:08:11 have done? I mean, any rational person can realize that these young people are giving Rehoboam terrible advice. That's not the point. The point is that Rea Bohem was entrusted with a cultural trust with the wisdom of the ages to preserve it and to hand it off to the next generations better than he found it. But the people around him, they said, no, let's topple over the wisdom of the ages. No, we don't need that cultural trust. We can make our own way. We can redefine liberty, justice, freedom, all of these things. We can define it our own way. And you know how they wanted to define it? Well, of course, it was for their benefit. But every generation faces this exact same question. And the Bible wants you to ask the question, are you thankful for those who came before you?

Starting point is 00:08:50 Are you thankful for the cultural trust that you've been given? That you're the beneficiary of hundreds of years of thought and technology and development. Are you thankful for the cultural trust of wisdom that you've been given? It's not perfect. Remember, the elders were able to correct what was wrong in the past. Solomon did treat people like slaves. Again, the Book of Kings highlights this, and yet they were able to say that was wrong. Rehoboam, you need to correct this error and you do it by treating them like servants.

Starting point is 00:09:20 They're bringing the cultural trust to bear and they're improving it so that they can pass it off better to future generations. Are you thankful for the cultural trust of wisdom that you've been given? It wasn't by your hard work or knowledge that you get to have all of the stuff around you, not just the technology, but the cultural values, the human dignity, the things that we just so easily take for granted. Or are you the kind of person who just trusts the wisdom of the present. Rehoboam's choice was fatal. It led to a civil war that permanently divided his father's kingdom in two. For his part, Rehoboam, he ends up ruling over only a small portion of that kingdom, and that portion was poor in resources and food. Yeah, he got to hold on to Jerusalem, but that was

Starting point is 00:10:01 about it. You can lose what was given to you by previous generations. Societies can lose what came before them. The question is, will you lose it? Will you trust your friends and the wisdom of the present, will you trust their way of being in the world? It will sound wise to you. Just like Rea Boehm's friends, they all sounded wise to him. But the reality is that the wisdom of the present is as foolish as Rehoboam's friends are. Here's the reality. Jesus has graciously entrusted his words and ways of life to a community, the church, to be passed down through generations. Will you see that even your faith is a gift of previous generations who were faithful before you? Will you realize that you know, Jesus because of parents and grandparents who followed him, that you know Jesus because of the prayers

Starting point is 00:10:47 and the books and the communities that people created before you ever existed, will you honor that trust that you've been given? Will you seek out Jesus's wisdom as a part of that cultural trust? Will you seek to make the house, the community, the workplace that you've been gifted with better than you've found it? Be careful whose wisdom you trust. A lot can be lost in a generation. Rehoboam lost a kingdom. He broke Israel in half. He put a major roadblock in God's rescue mission to save the world. But the opposite is true, of course. You can be someone who preserves what's good, who improves what's broken, and passes it along better for those who come later. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, Who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually.

Starting point is 00:11:50 If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What We Can Learn From the Past | The Life of Solomon

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