“We may fool people with a pretense of piety for awhile. We can assure them of our prayers for them–without really praying. We can attend worship services–without really worshiping. We can give and work–without intending to serve Christ. But going through the motions doesn’t fool God.”
— Jane L. Friar, “Today’s Light Bible,”
— “Sharpen the Focus,” 1Kings 14
Rehoboam, King of Judah (grandson of King David), was trying to fool God while ruling, but God made it very clear that he could not get away with it. God was angry at Rehoboam for breaking God’s #1 law. While Rehoboam was pretending to worship God in the Temple, he was also setting up Asherah poles on all the high hills. Rehoboam was, in fact, serving other gods–even going so far as to install male shrine prostitutes; all of which was detestable in God’s eyes. God had Egypt attack Judah because of this, and the Egyptian army took all the wealth from the Temple and the palace that David and Solomon had built-up.
If we go back a few chapters, we find out that Solomon had so much gold that he had 500 gold shields made for his army so all the gold wouldn’t be in one place. The Egyptians carried these off in addition to all the other gold stuff. Rehoboam decided to make new shields of bronze so the people wouldn’t realize that all the wealth of Judah was gone. It was all pretence.
The thing is… while new bronze looks like gold, it requires constant attention to keep it looking like gold. Without polishing, bronze quickly turns a dark greenish black. Rehoboam wasn’t fooling anyone. The shields were just another indicator of how he was living his life.
To quote Abe Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” I might add to that, that you can’t fool God at all. The best way to “keep up appearances” is to have a close relationship to Christ through prayer and Word. When you are truly living your life for Christ, then what appears to be reality is in fact reality. We become the genuine article and we gain integrity. Being “real” is best! It sure beats a lot of polishing.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.