May I make a suggestion?
And King Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? I Kings 12:6 KJV
Advice is like a yard sale. Sometimes it is the treasure worth acquiring and other times it is just better to walk away. Sometimes it just gets ignored or overlooked completely. One thing for sure: It’s a lot easier to give than receive.
He had just returned to his state’s capital after a long battle. It was a massacre and his side was on the receiving end of the whipping. He was one of the few who survived. Even the general overseeing the operation was killed. He showed the hat he was wearing during battle to everyone. It was filled with bullet holes. Even the jacket he was wearing during battle had four bullet holes in it. Then he told how two horses had been shot out from beneath him. Yet, here he stood, almost larger than life and even, despite defeat, somewhat a hero to the locals.
He was perhaps the wisest man to ever walk on the face of the earth. King Solomon also amassed great wealth. But wisdom is not one of those traits that you inherit and when King Solomon died, Israel was about to see how true that really was.
In King Solomon’s quest to gain wealth, he had become very hard on his subjects. Taxes were high and the labor demands were intense. This is the gift he left his son upon his death.
Long before freeways, traffic lights, indoor plumbing and skyscrapers, our country looked a lot different. There were no big box stores, only trees. When settlers first stepped off their ships, it was what was lurking behind those trees that will become the focus of our story. Politically correct we called them Native Americans, but back then they called them Indians. The English were followed by the French. Before the Indians knew it, they had the English pushing from one direction and the French pushing from the other. It was the Indians who felt the squeeze.
The Indians had to make a choice for their own survival or they knew they would face extinction. They had to ally with one side or the other. Some joined one side. Some joined the other side. Some just flipped back and forth depending on the latest offer.
In our easiest beginnings, especially since we were a British colony, we relied on the English for protection. See, the French didn’t like the British and vice versa. The French would send the Indians from the woods to attack and kill some of the colonists. The British would come to protect their investment. It is in these situations that the colonists discovered one of their first irritations with the British. Although the colonists would rise up to help the British fight the Indians, the British always looked down on the colonists as inferior. A colonist with a higher rank would still be under a British soldier with a lower rank. It is under these conditions our local hero would emerge.
King Solomon also surrounded himself with some very wise advisors. When King Solomon died the people were very frustrated. His advisor turned to his son, the new king, and advised him to lighten the load on the people. The new king, King Rehoboam, also consulted his inexperienced peers. Their suggestion was that he should tell the people to stop whining and then give them more work. Which advice did he choose?
Our local hero had been involved in another battle before the one listed previously. In fact, it was in that battle that our local hero is credited by some for starting the French and Indian War. Much like the battle he escaped from, this first battle was also a massacre. He was on the short end of that one, too.
General Braddock, the British Commander, chose our local hero because of the bravery he showed during that first battle and for the fact he knew the area very well. Our local hero advised General Braddock not to fight in the regimented manner which was the well-disciplined Europeans style of fighting. He warned of how the Indians didn’t fight in lines and that they would just pop out from behind trees. General Braddock knew he had superior strength and battle wisdom and these savages stood no chance against his mighty army, so he waved off the suggestion.
When the battle started, the Indians popped out from behind the trees and started shouting and firing. They scared the British soldiers and before they could get their arms loaded, the Indians were back behind the trees. The British would let down their guard and out would pop the Indians, again, yelling and shooting. The British started running away and, in their confusion, they just started shooting. Their own shots killed many of their own comrades. Our local hero was very proud of his local soldiers. When the British ran, his soldiers stayed and fought. Nearly 2/3 of the British soldiers were killed, including General Braddock. The French and Indian tally: 23 dead and 16 wounded.
King Rehoboam’s chose to follow his inexperienced peers’ advice. This choice would result in ten of the twelve kingdoms splitting from the other two. He would rule over the two southern kingdoms which would be called Judah. The ten northern kingdoms would be called Israel. They would do battle with each other most of the seventeen years of his reign.
General Braddock didn’t fare so well with the advice he refuse to take, either. What’s more, his nation wouldn’t fare so well when, in the future, it had to stand up to our local hero, either. Our local hero, George Washington, would take his experience and lead us to our freedom from these same British.
Prayer: Father, There is good advice and there is bad advice. Please grant me the wisdom to know and use the good advice. Amen!
