April 8, 2026 - 1 Kings 12-16

The kingdom divided!  Rehoboam heard counsel both wise and foolish.  He took the foolish counsel, and the results are there for everyone to see: a pagan, idolatrous nation in the north and a sharply reduced kingdom in the south.  Both were nothing much more than weak rump kingdoms at that point.  Bad decisions.  Bad results.  For generations, though, the Lord continued to send his prophets and to rescue the people.  It’s certainly not a license to sin and to disobey, but how encouraging is the knowledge that, if we are truly the children of God, he is longsuffering and merciful to us!  As he was to Israel and Judah.

Your mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,

the joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue;

your free grace alone, from the first to the last,

has won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

Your mercy in Jesus has freed me from hell;

its glories I'll sing and its wonders I’ll tell;

this Jesus my friend, when he hung on the tree,

there opened the channel of mercy for me.   -- John Stocker (1776)