Ep 378 | 1 Kings 12-22, Come Follow Me 2026 (June 29-July 5)

**Bryce** (0:03)
Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of the scriptures in Come Follow Me.

**Mike** (0:10)
We also dive into the history and cultures of the text.

**Bryce** (0:13)
Thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast.

**Mike** (0:16)
For show notes, head over to our website, talkingscripture.org. Welcome to Talking Scripture, I'm Mike.

**Bryce** (0:26)
And I'm Bryce.

**Mike** (0:27)
And today, we're going to be in 1 Kings 12 to the end of 1 Kings. That's what we're going to be covering today.

**Bryce** (0:33)
If ever there was a prophet that symbolized power and might and majesty and God moving in miraculous ways, it's the prophet Elijah. And so we're going to focus a lot on Elijah and on his life. But before we do that, at the beginning of this year, we broke the Old Testament into nine time periods. And so they were number one, the beginning, the creation and the aftermath, number two was Abraham and his family. So we saw the Covenant in a family. Number three was Egypt. And that was looking at the Covenant in bondage. Number four, they go into the desert. And then they come out of the desert and they establish the promised land. So Israel in Canaan is number five. And that was the judges. And we saw Ruth in that time period. And then they establish a kingdom. And for three kings, they're united. These kings rule over all of Israel. And then we go into a divided kingdom period. And chapter 12 is the division. It's the reason the kingdom split.
And it also sets up the problem as to why the northern kingdom turns away from God and is destroyed much quicker than the southern kingdom. So let's go back and tackle chapter 12 because there's some really important application in both of those stories. So first of all, we remind you that Solomon is king of Israel. When Solomon dies, like is natural, his son is going to reign in his stead. His son is Rehoboam. Now Solomon taxed the people heavily. And I for one am willing to pay high taxes if something really good comes of it, like a temple. I would be happy to pay a high tax if we established a temple. And they have. They've built a temple. But now that the temple is built, the people are saying, this grievous tax needs to go away. So in verse 4 of chapter 12, kind of the representative group, the elders of Israel, come to Rehoboam and they say, thy father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke, which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee. That's their request. Lower the taxes and we'll all be united and you'll be our king and we'll be one big happy kingdom. He says, let me have three days to think about it.
Verse 6, Rehoboam consults with what he calls the old man, which I think we're talking about the wise, the experienced, your parents, your bishop, your stake president, maybe an older sibling, someone who has really good council for you. And these men say to Rehoboam, verse 7, if thou wilt be a servant unto this people, I love that phrase. It's kind of an oxymoron, right? A servant king. If thou wilt be a servant as their king unto this people, a la King Benjamin, and wilt serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever. In other words, lower the taxes, Rehoboam.
Think of them. Focus on their needs. Lower the taxes and we will be a United Kingdom. The very next word in verse 8 is, But he forsook the council of the old men. And then he turned to his buddies. He consulted with the young men that were grown up with him. This is where we go to the people who tell us what we want to hear. We all have people like the young men who are going to tell us something that isn't in our best interest but might be in their best interest. And so the young men say, verse 10 through 11, Don't lower the taxes. Be more man than your dad was. Raise the taxes, because obviously they're going to live it up with him in the palace, right? It's in their best interest if the king has more money.
So I think there is a great application here. Unfortunately, Jeroboam listens to his buddies. Verse 13, He forsook the old men's council. And verse 14, He spake unto them after the council of the young men.