The Difference Between Knowing the Right Decision and Making the Right Decision
1 Kings Chapter 12 describes the details within the fray that existed between Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and God’s chosen leader over Judah, and Jeroboam, the leader whom God chose to rule over the 10 tribes of Israel. The author of 1 Kings provides the following account: Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: ”Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you”…..Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime.
They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people….they will always be your servants”…..But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders. He told the Israelites: “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” The Israelites rebelled against Rehoboam and killed the man in charge of forced laobr, and Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem.
Rehoboam then mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men—to make war against Jeroboam (who had returned from exile in Egypt) and the house of Israel to regain the kingdom.
Then the Lord said to Rehoboam….”Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing”…. So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
You may ask yourself “what point am I trying to make?” I’m glad you asked.
General Norman Schwarzkopf said: “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”
The same goes for us….We always know the right decision, or at least we have a good understanding of the right decision to make. So I will close with these few questions: “Has there ever been a time in your life, through anger or pain, that you almost made a horrible decision?” “Did you make it?” “If so, what were the consequences?” “Or did the Holy Spirit intervene, and you listened to Him carefully, with an obedient heart, and cooled down, then did what God said?”
In Rehoboam’s case…. he just went home.
