Sometimes unrelated things fit so perfectly together, you can’t help thinking there’s a purpose to it.
This week’s elections were a thorough shellacking of the Democrats and an emphatic rejection of their whole Far Left Crazy program–ruptured borders, high energy prices, inflation, fomenting racial fear and hatred, insane government spending, and “mandate” after mandate: by and large, America hates what they’re selling.
But how did they respond? Well, they doubled down on it, didn’t they? “We’ll show you deplorables!” They’re going to go right ahead, as far and as fast as they can.
At the same time, my daily Bible reading brought me to 1 Kings, Chapter 12–the story of Rehoboam, son of Solomon.
King Solomon’s famous building program wore out the people of Israel; and when he died and Rehoboam took his place, the people pleaded with the new king to ease up on them.
Rehoboam’s older advisers counseled him to listen to the people, cut their taxes, give them some breathing space–and then the people would be happy to serve him as their king. But the young men in his court advised him to threaten and coerce the people–“My father scourged you with whips, but I will scourge you with scorpions” (v. 15). And that was the end of the kingdom founded by David and Solomon. Ten of the twelve tribes revolted from Rehoboam and never came back. Indeed, when Rehoboam sent out his tax collecter, the people stoned the man to death (v. 18).
To anyone in government the message should be clear: you can only exasperate the people for so long before they turn against you–and only brute force will keep them down. You can govern without the consent of the governed, but it’ll be ugly.
And to those of us who follow history, there is another lesson that’s quite clear–the big shots almost never listen to the people. They always have to be pulled off their thrones before they even notice that their people are angry with them.
Rehoboam will not listen. He will not change his policy. Don’t waste time pleading with him. Just take away his power.
I have found the parallels fascinating. However, there is one thing– God promised David that He would never totally abandon His people Judah no matter what. This is the blood line which produced the Messiah. Too bad they had to go so far afield, but that is the way of “stiff-necked” people like them, and like us.
Years ago, I noticed that the real jerks I had known always seemed to eventually go too far. Think of it, thousands of years ago the same problems existed as we have today. Some leaders forget that they are there to serve others. I’ve been a leader in a much, much smaller way, and I always reminded myself that I should not expect people to do anything I was not willing to do myself. Translated to political leaders, they should never seek to impose upon others something that would not want to have imposed upon themselves … but they do this, all too frequently.
Rehoboam was a study in going too far. He literally destroyed the integrity of the nation he was chosen to lead. People today need to learn from this example.
Good illustration! The Congress & Executive types controlled by the special interests of the Deep State could care less what the people think – they are drunk with power. I couldn’t believe Chris Smith of NJ would be one of the GOP to vote for the Dems Infrastructure bill – he has been a Pro-Life champion for years and years. What happened to him?