19-0901M: YE WORSHIP YE KNOW NOT WHAT [PART 4]: JEROBOAM THE EPHRATHITE, THE SON OF NEBAT AND ZERUAH.

Preacher: Pastor L.T. Mutasa

Scriptures: 1 Kings 11:26>>, 12:1>>; John 4:7>>; 2 Kings 17:1>>; Ezra 4:1>>; Psalm 78:67-68; Deuteronomy 11:28-29

SERMON NOTES

In this series of The Canonicity Of The Silent Ages, we have been looking at those dispensations bringing them down to this era and to our local Assembly.

The reason why I am taking Ye Worship Ye Know Not What is because we have been tracing the roots of the Samaritans, taking it from John 4 whereby the woman at the well spoke some remarkable statements that we can trace to the Old Testament.

There comes a time in life where God seems like He wants something from you yet He will be looking for an opportunity to give you what you need. The Samaritan woman is the one that needed water, not the Lord Jesus.

We must therefore understand why God asks us to do certain things, are we worthy to be asked by God to serve Him? That is what we should ask ourselves. If you knew Him who is asking, you will know that you are the one who is supposed to be asking.

God is not the one who benefits from your gift but the gift protects you.

The Samaritans claim to be the descendants of Joseph through Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph born to him in Egypt. They were part of the ten tribes forming the northern kingdom of Israel.

Some of them remained in the land when Israel went into Assyrian captivity and together with some Babylonians who came after the captivity, they were called Samaritans. Of course, the Babylonians were not Israelites for they were not born in the land. They intermarried and their children also became Samaritans.

Christ was able to identify the Samaritans; Joshua and Zerubbabel were also able to identify the Samaritans that were not real Jews and unfit to take part in the rebuilding of the temple of God. The believer today must be able to identify the Samaritans of today.

We must have discernment to identify the Samaritans of today. We must not accept every helping hand or every gift that is offered to us.  Young men and women must be able to discern whether or not the one they intend to marry is a Samaritan, a believer without the Holy Ghost.

The name Jeroboam has different meanings: the people contend; he pleads for the people’s cause; his people are many, or he increases the people. His mother’s name Zeruah means leprosy which means sin and she is mentioned only ones in the Bible.

Jeroboam had a relationship with king Solomon who made some mistakes which God permitted and they exposed the peoples character and wrong desires.

When you look for something in the Bible to qualify your actions, you are wrong to begin with. You cannot look for Scriptures to justify your wrong actions. Your actions must be clearly seen in the Word.

Women that take others husbands study the weaknesses of the married women and they perfect those weaknesses. They give attention, respect, and love to steal these husbands from their wives.

Women are powerful, that is why Solomon ended up being lured by strange women and he married them, built palaces and altars for them, and he also ended up worshipping their gods.

1 Kings 11:27 – There was a lot of forced labour during the reign of Solomon, he built cities using forced labour and Jeroboam was promoted during such a time.

There are things which a believer must never listen to, like sitting with brethren to discuss a fallen Pastor somewhere, let alone backbite their own Pastor and elders. When you come for service after such communications, you will not have appetite for the Word.

I enjoy a man who allows his wife to speak against authority for she will do the same against him. A woman must know that your home is not a place for backbiting.

Jeroboam was not a believer, he was not an honest man. He went into exile in Egypt because of an apostate king but he himself became more apostate. He listened to murmurings and complaints of the people against king Solomon and he ended up becoming rebellious.

He was hungry for power and he never corrected the wrongs of Solomon but rather did worse than what Solomon had done, becoming God’s enemy and a standard for sin.

He was promoted and this gave him access to information which he was not supposed to get and he ended up a rebel against his elder, the king.

He even got a positive prophecy which pointed to king Solomon’s weaknesses. You can get a positive prophecy but still go to hell because you would have mishandled it.

There are people that mishandle prophecy. They mishandle the Voice of God to their destruction.

Jeroboam is in contrast to Samuel who had a call from God but he remained loyal and never opened his mouth or rise against his elder Eli.

Power is not identifying the weaknesses of your neighbour but power is in prayer; power is in advancing in the Word. Jeroboam ran to Egypt as if he needed a better place with better things than they were under Solomon.

When they want to take over they first go into exile and then return to seize power. God also uses the same strategy as He did with Paul who went to Arabia before he returned to be the messenger of his age.

We have a responsibility as the Bride serve God, to walk in humility and avoid looking at the weaknesses of the denominations while ignoring our own weaknesses.

There are also certain things which are not supposed to be told to spiritual babes. True wisdom is to separate a demon from the person and then attacking the demon and embrace the brother or sister.

God cannot give the power of the Third Pull to a person full of fear because they will not be able to handle the power right and speak people out of existence because of fear.

We must know how to handle the Spoken Word, It is for the rainbow trout, it is for the mature believer.

After the death of Solomon, Jeroboam was sent for to come back and together with the elders asked Rehoboam to lighten the burden, not because Jeroboam wanted to be under Rehoboam.

There are people who will come and request you to compromise yet whether you do or not, they will never change to become better. Such people blame everything and can never be satisfied.

Elder means longstanding in the Word; having a long record of standing in the principles of God.

God may allow certain things which are hard to happen in order to expose a person’s folly.

Jeroboam got an excuse to execute his mandate by finding an error against Rehoboam.

We have two Jeroboams in the Bible, the first king of Israel who we are looking at in this subject, and the thirteenth king was Jeroboam II.

1 Kings 12:26- When Jeroboam became king, that is when he started to display his true colours.

Suspicion and insecurity are signs of a man that is walking in error. You do not die because you leave this assembly, you die when you leave the Message of the Hour.

A person that distracts you from reading the Spoken Word is a person you must be careful of. The Spoken Word is what judges and corrects the five-fold ministry.

There is a complex that we must always see that the Ephramites or Ephrathites were having. They were always complaining and were not content with the leadership of God through the house of David.

Psalm 78:67-68 ~ God did not choose the house of Joseph or the Ephrathites to establish His tabernacle but he chose the tribe of Judah; Deuteronomy 11:28-29 ~ The Samaritans always held to Mount Gerizim because of this Scripture in Deuteronomy.

1 Kings 12:27-30 ~ When Jeroboam came into power, he changed the law of Moses and established his own religion which brought the wrath of God upon the people. This took place in the absence of the prophet like what happened when Moses went up the mountain and descended to find the people worshipping a golden calf. Jeroboam even made them two.

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages (7 – The Sardisean Church Age)

The question now arises, why are these two tribes deleted? The answer lies in Deuteronomy 29:16-20, “(For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.” Herein is pronounced the curse against idolatry, or spiritual fornication. The tribe that turned to idolatry was to have its name blotted out. And the history of the two tribes whose names were blotted out because of idolatry is found in I Kings 12:25-30, “Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up and do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.” Hosea 4:17, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.”

Ephraim was not happy to see Jerusalem prosper because of pride. The Ephramites always wanted to be the first, which is why Jeroboam established an alternative place of worship and everybody was going there.

God remembers even the small things and so we must be able to see the minute and wrong things and the spirit which causes them and pluck them up with their roots lest we become like the Samaritans, worshiping what we know not. It is never too long to go the Spoken Word way.

Download Now