Original Broadcast: November 2009
Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings
[Shishak] took away everything.
(1 Kings 14:26)
Four years after tearing the kingdom apart by taking the bad advice, Rehoboam faces an outside threat. Pharaoh Shishak attacked Jerusalem and took EVERYTHING from the Temple--the Temple Solomon built. Rehoboam replaced the stolen golden shields his father made with bronze shields of his own making. Rehoboam would cover and handle the error he had made.
Sound familiar? Goes all the way back to the Garden. Adam and Eve sinned, saw that they were naked and were ashamed. They sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. That didn't last long. Same with Rehoboam. The replacements weren't as good in quality or workmanship. It wasn't the same as the original.
Same with us. We do something wrong and instantly try to find a way to cover it up. A child climbs onto the kitchen counter and reaches for a cup in the cupboard. While trying to get the cup, his mother's favorite hot chocolate mug falls to the floor and shatters into a dozen pieces. The son wants to make it better so he grabs a pack of chewing gum, chews it up and sticks the pieces back together with the chewed gum.
Is the mug the same as it was? No. It's worse. Is our lives the same when we try to cover our sins with our own works? No. It's worse. We can't fix ourselves. We are beyond human repair. We require the divine repair shop of Confession and Absolution. There's the only place we can find the fix for our problem. Only through Jesus' words of forgiveness are our sins covered. Don't try to fix yourself. Go where the problem can be fixed. Go to Jesus and His forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.
