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For tonight we're going to be Second Chronicles chapter nine. That's where we left off last week in our Wednesday night Bible study. So if you want to take out your Bibles and go to second Chronicles chapter nine, we left off in the middle of the chapter. And so I'll just backtrack a little bit to give us some context. Second Chronicles chapter nine in your Old Testaments and let me pray. Lord, your word said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord and we are glad to be here tonight to sing your praises. How dead things come alive, how you revive dead souls and you make us alive in Christ. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but you made us alive through faith in Jesus Christ. So thank you for new life. Thank you for forgiveness of sins. Thank you Lord, for the blood of Jesus on the cross, that all of our past sins and failures can be under the blood of Jesus. And we look to you now as we open up your word. We're thankful for the truth of your word that nourishes our souls tonight. So be with us Lord, as we share now together out of your word. And it's in Jesus name we pray. And everyone said Amen. Here in chapter nine we are continuing, just very briefly in the reign of King Solomon, who was the second king of Israel. He's going to. Sorry, the third king after his father David. David was second. Saul was first. He's going to die at the end of chapter nine here. So we don't have much time left in his reign. But he has accomplished something very significant which is the building of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. The first permanent structure of worship to the Lord in Jerusalem. It will stay there for about 375 years until the Babylonians destroy it in 560 B.C. sorry, 5586 B.C. and so this is that first permanent place that Solomon builds as a center of worship to the Lord. Under his reign, the nation of Israel will experience peace even in his name. Solomon is the root word in Hebrew Shalom for peace. He is a king of peace. He will not be engaged in war. His father was a warrior, Solomon is not. But he exercises what we've come to commonly say here in the United States, peace through strength. So he understands as long as the nation of Israel is strong, then there will be peace. And the neighboring nations so understood that Solomon was powerful and Israel was a powerful nation, that they brought tribute to him regularly. We're going to see this in a minute. And where we left off in the middle of chapter nine was after the visit of the Queen of Sheba. She comes to Solomon seeking his wisdom. She has heard about his fame and reputation. It tells us that when she actually sees it, it literally takes her breath away. She brings him spices, she brings him gold, she brings him precious jewels. I guess Solomon's love language was gifts. Okay, anybody? Gifts, your love language? It's okay to admit it. Don't be thinking, well, that sounds selfish. If I. No, it's okay. People's love language are gifts, not mine. But if it's yours, praise God for your love language. I think it must have been Solomon's. He gets all these gifts all the time. And she leaves with this sense of having been in the presence of something pretty amazing. And she even gives glory to God back in verse eight, where she says, blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you setting you on his throne to be king for the Lord your God, because your God has loved Israel to establish them forever. Therefore he made you king over them to do justice and righteousness. So she leaves. We left off in the end of verse 12, where it says, now, king Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. And so she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. Verse 13. The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was 666 talents of gold. Well, we never like the number 666, right? But that translates today in dollars. $3.4 billion yearly came to him. Besides verse 14, what the traveling merchants and traders brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. And King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold. 600 shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. He also made 300 shields of hammered gold. 300 shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon. That is a nickname of his own palace. These were shields not used for military purposes because gold is too soft. These were decorative shields that were placed on the inside of his home. Okay? That's how much gold he had. That's how much time he had on his hands. And how about some nice gold shields that just adorn the walls of my house? And so that's what he had done. It says, moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne There were armrests on either side of the place, of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps. Nothing like this has been made for any other kingdom. So here's an artist rendering. There's several out there. This is probably the closest to what we're reading here in the Bible, although I did count the steps and there's eight. So it's not right because the Bible just says six. But it does say 12 lions on each side. And if you include the two large ones that are on each side of his armrest, you know, there you see 12. But this, this throne was ivory, covered in gold. I mean, you talk about ornate. I mean, this is ornate. And so here he is on this throne. And that's why it says, nothing like this has been made for any other kingdom. And verse 20 says, all king Solomon's drinking vessels were gold and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were. Were pure gold. Not one was silver. For this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon, like silver was. Didn't have much value because it was all over the place. Verse 21. For the king's ships went to Tarshish. Now, Tarshish, it's not clear where that is. It is believed that Tarshish is in the region of the Straits of Gibraltar. So when you look at the countries that are along the streets of Gibraltar, you've got Spain to the north, you've got the African coast to the south, like Morocco and Algeria. But notice what they went there for. Ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. And once every three years, the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and monkeys. Ladies and gentlemen, this is like the Jungle Book, you know, just like Solomon is mowgli in the Jungle Book. And he's just like, you know what? I need some apes, I need some monkeys. I need some, you know, ivory and gold and let's just have fun here. And so King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the Earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the Earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses and mules at a set rate, year by year. Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. And so he reigned over all the kings from the river that is the Euphrates we're talking like in Iraq. That's how far the kingdom extended to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. See, that's why it didn't have much value. And he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamore. Sycamores which are in the lowland. And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands. Remember, that was prohibited by God. Do not gather horses from Egypt. You're going to end up relying on the strength of your cavalry and of your military instead of me. But then his life comes to an end here in verse 29, where it says, now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, which, by the way, we don't have that book. Nathan is a prophet. And in the prophecy of Ahijah the Sheila knight, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Naboth. So a few names are thrown out there. Nathan and Ahijah. And Nathan is considered a prophet. Notice it says Ido is a seer. And a seer was someone who received revelations from God by way of visions and dreams. That's why they were called a seer. A prophet did not necessarily get visions and dreams. He got inspiration. He had like a word of knowledge from the Lord. So a prophet would speak what God put in his heart. Seers would say the visions and dreams that God gave them. And so you have prophets and seers in the days of old. In verse 30, it says, and Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel 40 years. And then Solomon rested with his fathers. That's another way of saying he died and was buried in the city of David, his father, and Rehoboam his son, reigned in his place. So Solomon reigns 40 years. It is believed, as we've been saying, that Solomon started as king at a young age, probably 17 to 20. So he dies at the age of 57 to 60. So, you know, relatively speaking, kind of young. His father lived to be 70. He doesn't outlive his father, and it doesn't tell us what he died from. But he reigns for 40 years, and then he is buried in the city of David, his father. And then his son Rehoboam reigns in his place. So his son Rehoboam is going to succeed him as king. What's interesting is, remember Solomon, and the writer of Chronicles is silent about this, but we have the record in, in Kings, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Among all those women, Rehoboam is the only son mentioned that Solomon had. Now, he might have had other sons, but the Bible doesn't list any names and doesn't say that he had any other sons. Rehoboam is the only son mentioned. It's kind of interesting. Out of all these women, he seems to have only fathered one. But maybe there were more. They just aren't named or even referred to. And so we are introduced now to Rehoboam. Now, Rehoboam, his name in Hebrew is a combination of Rechab and am. Rechab means to enlarge or broaden, and am means people. So Rechabam, his name, Rehoboam means to enlarge the people, to expand the people. Kind of a peculiar name. He becomes king at the age of 41, and he's going to reign for 17 years. But Rehoboam is. He's going to be a product of his own sinful choices. He's not a godly guy. He is not going to walk in the ways of his grandfather David. He is going to end up causing the nation of Israel to be divided. And we're going to see that now. It's going to end up being split because of some poor advice that he gets that he takes. And it's going to end up causing a great division in the nation of Israel. So this is now into chapter 10. It says, and Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. Now Shechem is in the northern part of the country, and it was a central place for the ten tribes in the north, the ten tribes of Israel. Shechem was the place where Abraham worshiped. Shechem was the place where Joseph was buried. So it's very central to the nation. And Rehoboam is going to the north. And you're going to see here in a minute that he's going to try to convince the north to make him king. Now, he's from the southern part of the country, Jerusalem, and Judah is really in the southern part of the country. So he's going to go to the north, and he's going to go there to Shechem. The people are going to make him king. But it says in verse two. So it happened that when Jeroboam. This is a different guy, don't get him confused with Rehoboam, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard it heard that Solomon had died and that Rehoboam was asserting himself to the throne. He was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon that Jeroboam returned from Egypt. Now again, the writer of Chronicles doesn't always give us the details, so it's good to, to consult the Book of Kings and to cross reference with kings. And what we find in First Kings, chapter 11 is that Jeroboam had fled to Egypt because he had opposed King Solomon when King Solomon was alive. It appears that what he opposed Solomon over was forced manual labor that Solomon had conscripted in order to build all these different things in the city of Jerusalem. And that Jeroboam kind of rose up against him and said, this isn't right, what you're doing isn't right. And so under penalty of death, Jeroboam had to flee. So he ends up in Egypt and he stays there until he hears that Solomon has died. But what the Bible tells us in First Kings 11, the Chronicles doesn't tell us is that a prophet came to Jeroboam and had a word from the Lord. And the word from the Lord was that he would end up, Jeroboam would end up ruling over a portion of the nation of Israel. Let me just read a little bit of this. This is 1st Kings 11. You don't need to turn. It talks about the prophet whose name was Ahijah. This is first Kings 11, verse 30. Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, that was on Jeroboam, and tore it into 12 pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself 10 pieces. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give 10 tribes to you. But he talking about Rehoboam, shall have one tribe. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. And why, why is God saying this to Jeroboam, that he's going to actually allow him to be king of ten tribes to the north? Because it goes on to say, they the Israelites have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the God of the Moabites, and Milcom, the God of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my eyes and keep my statutes and my judgments, as did his father David. So there's this prophecy over Jeroboam, hey, you are going to end up being king over 10 of the tribes of Israel out of the 12, 10 to the north. And so when Jeroboam's life is threatened because Solomon doesn't like that he's opposed him, Jeroboam flees to Egypt. Now Jeroboam hears Solomon is dead. Rehoboam has asserted himself to the throne. And Jeroboam says, I'm going back to Israel, and I'm gonna lay claim to this prophetic word that was spoken over my life. So he goes back. He goes back to Israel. And it says back here in second Chronicles 10, verse three. And then they sent for him and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, your father made our yoke heavy, Solomon. I mean, he taxed us heavily. Now, therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke, which he put on us, and we will serve you. So they have, like, a condition. Like, your dad was kind of harsh on us. He had a lot of gold bling in his house, and that was because he taxed us pretty heavily. So how about you go light on us and we'll follow after you? We'll serve you well. He says to them, verse five, come back to me after three days. And the people departed. So Rehoboam's like, I want to chew on this. I want to get some advice. I want to get some counsel. What am I supposed to do? Says in verse six. And then King Rehoboam consulted the elders. Note that the elders who stood before his father Solomon, while he still lived, saying, how do you advise me to answer these people? What do you elders say? You older guys, what do you have to say? And they spoke to him saying, if you were kind to these people and please them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever. It says, but notice he rejected the advice which the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. Okay, you get this. So dad had advisors. They're the older guys, you know, they're the. They're the boomers. But he's got. He's like, I want to consult Gen Z over here, because these are my friends, these are my homies, and I want to get their advice. So he rejects the older guys, and he turns to his friends saying, what do you guys think? Verse 9. And he said to them, what advice do you give? How should we answer this? People who have spoken to me, saying, lighten the yoke, which your Father put on us. And then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, thus you should speak to the people who have spoken to you, saying, you should say this. Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us. Thus you shall say to them, my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist. And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges. So the friends are like, just go tough, Rehoboam, go tough. If you thought your dad was tough, go tougher still. Come on, just double down. Go tough on these people. And so Jeroboam, okay, Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, come back to me the third day. And then the king answered them roughly. And King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, and he's just going to repeat what the guys told him. My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges. And so the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from God that the Lord might fulfill his word, which he had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Sheila knight to Jeroboam the son of Nabot. Okay, get this. So God's providentially orchestrating stuff, by the way, you know, God is sovereign. You know, we are just pieces on a chessboard. God is orchestrating events. That isn't to deny man's responsibility. God's sovereignty works in conjunction with man's responsibility. But he is over all, and he is ultimately in charge of all. And if he's already predetermined that Jeroboam is going to be king of the 10 northern tribes, then he's going to incite some things here in order to tear the kingdom from rehoboam and give 10 tribes to Jeroboam. But Rehoboam ends up consulting his buddies instead of taking the advice of the elders. Now look at what happens as a result. Verse 16. Now, when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, what share have we in David, for we have no inheritance in the Son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel, now see to your own House O David, like they're saying, every man for himself. And so all Israel departed to their tents, but Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. So what it's saying here is Israel didn't like the answer. It's like, you know what? We asked you to go light on us. You've decided to double down. So we're out of here. And the nation is now divided. And the 10 tribes to the north, they go back to their tents, they go back to their homes. They're like, we're out of here. We're not gonna follow you. And Rehoboam ends up settling in Jerusalem, which is the capital city of the southern kingdom. And he's gonna rule from there in the province of Judah. Now, look, as we go through these chapters, I always like to point out different principles. And here's a principle from chapter 10, everybody. Okay? Here. It is better to seek words of wisdom from those who are older than words you want to hear from so called friends. All right, Somebody gets it right down here. Okay? Now look, this is for any of us. This isn't just for the younger generation. There are times in our lives where we really need to seek wise counsel. Instead of just gathering around us people who we know are going to tell us what we want to hear. That is such a dangerous thing. It's. It's comfortable, it's convenient, you like it, but it's usually not that beneficial because you're just gathering around you. People are going to tell you what you want to hear. By the way, didn't Paul say this about the end times to Timothy? He said, in the latter days, men will not put up with sound doctrine, but will gather around them a great number of teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear. We're seeing this very thing happening in the church today, unfortunately, where sound doctrine is not often taught in some churches. And people are just wanting, you know, pastors or teachers to tell them what they want to hear. They don't really want to be convicted about much of anything. They don't really want to be challenged about much of anything. It's all love, love, love. God is love. And, you know, and therefore, because God is love, we can just celebrate anything and everything and tolerate anything and everything. And that's just such a disservice to the truth of Scripture. And so we're doing a parallel of that even in our own day. But, but this is going to be costly to the nation of Israel. When Rehoboam just takes the advice of his friends who are going to tell him what he wants to hear. And so he's on this power trip, and it's going to backfire. And the kingdom of Israel now, what his father worked so hard for, in an instant, is going to now be divided. You know, I heard somebody once say, and I think this is true, in life, all of us are only one bad decision away from losing everything. We are only one bad decision away from losing everything. We have to be careful about decisions that we make. And that's why it's important to seek wise counsel, especially when we have big decisions that could end up being costly. This is a costly one. Well, this is tragic, but funny, the way the chapter ends, verse 18, it says, then Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of revenue. Okay? So he's, like, over the Treasury Department. But the children of Israel stoned him with stones and he died. Okay, sorry, I have a sick sense of humor. I'm seeing this guy coming around like an IRS agent ready to gather everybody's revenue, and they're like, we ain't paying you. You know, and anyway, comes to a tragic end there. I'm not advocating violence against IRS agents, All right? Anybody? Don't ever take that out of context. Now, AI is going to twist that for sure. It says, and therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. So talking about the north versus the south. And chapter 11 says, now when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled from the house of Judah and Benjamin 180,000 chosen men who were warriors. So now he's got to build up a southern army here of the south, because the kingdom is divided. He's got 180,000 warriors to fight against Israel. His brother's in the north, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. So he's thinking, I'll amass a large army will go far, fight our brothers to the north. They'll lose. It's like a civil war. And then once we win, we'll reunite the kingdom again under one big happy family. But notice what happens. It says, but the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God. This is a prophet saying, speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel and Judah and Benjamin, saying, thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your brethren. Let every man Return to his house, for this thing is from me, capital M, that's the Lord. And therefore they obeyed the words of the Lord and turned back from attacking Jeroboam. So there's not going to be war here, but it's only because the Lord intervened here through this prophet. But the kingdom is still divided. Ten tribes to the north, two tribes to the south. Judah and Benjamin, verse seven says, and so Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem in the south and built cities for defense in Judah. And he built Bethlehem and Etam and Tekoa and Beth Zur and Socah and Adullam and Gath and Maresha and Ziph and Aduraim and Lachish and Azekah and Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron, which are in Judah. And Benjamin fortified cities, and he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them and stores of food, oil and wine. And also in every city he put shields and spears and made them very strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side. And so he is, you know, solidifying the southern kingdom. He's ruling from Jerusalem, he's fortifying every city. He's getting the military all up to speed. And it says in verse 13, and from all their territories, the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel, meaning they're throughout the country, they're also in the north. They took their stand with him with Rehoboam, for the Levites left their common lands and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem there in the south. For Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to the Lord. And then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons. Notice this. And the calf idols which he had made, please note. It's not like Rehoboam was the bad guy and Jeroboam was the good guy. They were both bad guys. You know, look, even though God can select Jeroboam as he did, just like, you know, God had providentially selected the other kings, even though it was not ideally his will, the will of God was a theocracy. The nation of Israel wanted a king like other nations around them, but he gave them basically what they wanted. And even though Jeroboam was God's providential pick, because he spoke through the prophet Ahijah, saying, you're going to rule the ten tribes of the north, yet mankind can still deliberately walk away from the Lord and violate God's ultimate desire for this man. And he ends up kicking the priests out of the country because the priests are like, well, we're going to go worship in Jerusalem. That's where the temple is. And Jeroboam was like, you're going to go down to the south. Fine, go down to the south, but don't come back here. We're gonna appoint other priests who weren't priests. And Jeroboam ends up fashioning idols, calf idols. And he puts some of the calf. He puts one of the calf idols in the far north of the northern part of the country in Dan. And he puts another calf idol in the southern part of the northern kingdom, Bethel. And he says, if you all want to go worship, don't go back to Jerusalem. That's Rehoboam's territory. You just go to either Bethel or Dan. You worship the golden calves there. And Jeroboam sets up these false teachers and these false priests who aren't even legitimate. And part of their illegitimacy is the fact that they're even conjuring up demons in all of this. So this is a very sad state that Israel is in. Now, not only are they divided as a nation, but they've got two kings who are not ruling and reigning in righteousness. They're engaging in idolatry themselves and in disobedience to the Lord. So the priests are leaving. They're going to Jerusalem. They're getting behind Rehoboam, at least for now. And it says in verse 15. No, no, no, verse 16. And after the Levites left, those from all of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. And so they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon Strong for three years. He's going to end up ruling for 17 years, but only for the first three are things going to go well. Because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years. Okay, so they temporarily. But the last 14 years of his reign are going to unravel. And here it starts verse 18. And then Rehoboam took for himself as wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jeremoth, the son of David. Okay, Now, I had to actually start writing out the family tree here to find out who's marrying who here. Okay, now notice, Rehoboam took for himself his wife, Mahaleth, the daughter of Jeremoth, the son of David. So that makes Mhalath. What, in relation to David? Come on, you're smart. She's the daughter of David's son, so that makes her the granddaughter of David. Who's Rehoboam? He's the Grandson of David from different sons, Jeremoth. And Rehoboam is the grandson of David through Solomon. So you have. You have grandchildren marrying here, everybody, okay? Now, the only way that grandchildren can marry is if they are siblings or if they're cousins. Am I right? That's the only way. If you share a grandfather, it's because you're siblings or your cousins. So he ends up marrying his cousin here, all right? So he's keeping it all in the family. We're gonna go Kentucky style. And. And here he is marrying another grandchild of David. And she's also the daughter of Abihail, the daughter of Elia, the son of Jesse. And she bore him. She bore Rehoboam children Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. And after her, Rehoboam took Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom. Now, Absalom was a son of David. So Absalom's grandchild is the great granddaughter of David. So Rehoboam's like, I'm just gonna marry the whole family tree. That's what I'm gonna do here. I'm just gonna marry the whole family tree. And she bore him Abijah, okay? Circle that name, because Abijah is going to end up becoming king of Israel after Rehoboam dies. Abijah, attai, Zizah and Shellymith. And it says in verse 21. Now, Rehoboam loved Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom, or the great granddaughter of David, more than all his wives and his concubines. How many wives and concubines did he have? For he took 18 wives and 7, 60 concubines and begot 28 sons and 60 daughters. That's a lot of food right there, ladies and gentlemen. That's a lot of food to feed those kids. And Rehoboam appointed Abijah, okay, here's his favorite son. He appointed Abijah, the son of Maacah, as chief, to be leader among his brothers. For he intended to make him king. So that was his plan, and he will end up succeeding his father. He dealt wisely and dispersed some of his sons throughout all the territories of Judah and Benjamin, to every fortified city. And he gave them provisions in abundance. He also sought many wives for them. Remember, look, some people read the Old Testament. They think God must be okay with polygamy. He was never okay with polygamy in the Genesis account. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. God's design has only and Always been one man and one woman. Whenever you see in the Bible that they took on multiple wives, it was in direct disobedience to the will of God. But look, sometimes reading the Bible is like reading a newspaper, even though they, you know, who reads newspapers anymore? Reading your, your. The feed on your phone because it's going to give you the good news and the bad news. And so every time you read stuff in the Bible, don't think, oh, well, he had many wives. I guess that's okay with God. No, that's part of the bad news. It's like reading a newspaper. You're going to get the good news, you're going to get the bad news. But this was never God's will for them to have multiple wives like this. And of course, in Solomon's case, it will be his downfall because he marries idolatrous women who aren't even of the nation of Israel. And thus the nation of Israel ends up steeped in idolatry. And Rehoboam and Jeroboam are just going to continue this. So we'll pick it up there with chapter 12 next week. Let's pause there for tonight and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word tonight. And we do pray, Lord, that whenever counsel is needed, we would seek out wise counselors, not just people who will tell us what we want to hear. And that is oftentimes more difficult to hear than what our friends might tell us, but usually more necessary. I pray for those right now, tonight who are at a place where they are really needing to make a wise decision about something. Lord, you know who they are and you know what the decision is. And we pray for wisdom from above that you would give the counsel of your Holy Spirit to those who just need it, Lord, tonight. And that you would gather around them wise people who will be able to give them wise counsel. Because, Lord, we are so frail in our humanness that it is true we are all only one bad decision away from losing it all. And Father, we want to walk in wisdom. We want to walk in discernment. We want to have the mind of Christ. We do not want to rely on our flesh. We do not want to give in to our own frailties. We want to seek you, Lord, and we want to walk in the ways of the Lord, so strengthen our hearts. Father, thank you for your word tonight. Be with those who have to leave now. And as we continue in our communion service, we just want to give you praise and thanks for who you are in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We love you together and praise you in Jesus name. Amen and amen.