THE TALE OF TWO 'BOAMS'

There is an interesting story in the Bible of the days when king Solomon died and left his empire in ruins. His son, Rehoboam was geared to take over his father's throne. When he went to Shechem to be crowned king, he met an influential man, Jeroboam (not related to Rehoboam) who was his father's hated official. Jeroboam told Rehoboam that he would tell all the Israelites to support and serve him as the legitimate king if only Rehoboam could relieve his people of all the hardships of heavy taxes when his father placed on them. Rehoboam asked for three days to think.

In these three days, Rehoboam thought it is the best thing to ask for advice. So he turned first to the old, spiritual wise men of his father's time. They told him to give in to Jeroboam and he would be a king over all. And Rehoboam made the greatest mistake of his life that even affected the whole nation. He went to ask advice from his unspiritual young friends who grew up with him. These bunch had been very playful, couldn't be bothered about the things of God. They told him that he should add extra misery to Jeroboam and the people of Israel which Rehoboam agreed to do.

And the Bible tells us that Jeroboam and the people were angry and they became bitter enemies of king Rehoboam. Thus the kingdom of Israel was divided! (Read 2 Chronicles 10) Later, the Bible recorded thousands of lives lost because of these fightings (Chapter 13).

THINGS TO LEARN:

1. It's good to ask advice when there are difficult decisions.
2. It's bad to ask advice from unspiritual people about important decisions in life.
3. It's ugly to follow advice to suit your own pleasures which you already decided that you want.
4. There are consequences to bad ungodly decisions.