2 Chronicles 12:14

He prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

Rehoboam the unready

I. He did not begin life with seeking the Lord.

II. He showed no heart in seeking the Lord afterwards.

III. He was not fixed and persevering seeking the Lord.

IV. He had no care to seek the Lord thoroughly. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Rehoboam

I. Implied obligation. To seek the Lord is the obligation of all This is suggestive--

1. Of the loss sustained. How is God lost to man? He has lost--

(1) The true knowledge of His character.

(2) The conscious enjoyment of His favour.

(3) The blessedness of communion with Him.

2. Of its retrievableness. For this purpose--

(1) God has revealed Himself to man in His own nature.

(2) The redemptive work of Christ is made known.

(3) The Holy Spirit performs His beneficent functions.

3. Of the importance of its recovery.

II. Mental conviction. In Rehoboam we see mental conviction arising from knowledge of duty, promptings of conscience, consciousness of guilt. This is a mental state of frequent occurrence. It may be observed--

1. As the effect of truth. The Word of God is “a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Felix. There are many Felixes.

2. As intensified by circumstances.

3. As critical in its results. How much depends on moments of conviction! They are often the turning-points of destiny. It does not seem that Rehoboam ever paused in his downward career from this time forward.

III. Moral infirmity. There was want of decision in Rehoboam. He did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. This may be traced--

1. To sensual habits (2 Chronicles 11:18; 1 Kings 14:21).

2. To evil companionship.

3. To Satanic temptation.

IV. Accumulated guilt. “He did evil because,” etc. This sin was parent of a host. He sinned in this neglect of known duty, and in what resulted from it. So do all who pursue a like course. They sin--

1. In resisting their convictions.

2. In self-depravation. “Beware lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

3. The depravation of others. Through his guilty conduct the people were corrupted. “One sinner destroyeth much good.” (S. A. Browning.)

A heart not fixed

The marginal reading is, “He fixed not his heart upon the Lord.” This was a favourite expression of David’s. “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” “His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” Perhaps it was intended to draw a contrast between the character of Rehoboam and his far worthier ancestor. Religion is not a thing that can be taken up in a loose, careless manner. It claims the whole purpose and energy of the heart. In the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Prudence wished to know from Christian how he was enabled to overcome his temptations and to persevere in the good and holy way. Christian’s reply was, “When I think of what I saw at the Cross, that will do it; when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it.” I cannot do better than follow in the line of the great dreamer’s allegory.

I. The first condition of a fixed heart is a sight of the Cross. The world’s religion ends with forgiveness; God’s religion begins with it. There is nothing that imparts such solidity to character, and such strength and dignity to life, as conscious peace with Heaven.

II. The next thing is to look upon your “broidered coat”--the righteousness that is “unto all and upon all them that believe.”

III. Bunyan’s pilgrim looked also oftentimes into the roll which he carried in his bosom. Habitual study of the Bible is indispensable to a healthy condition of the soul. McCheyne would not speak to any one in the morning till he had first of all heard the voice of God. It gives a tone to the whole day, when we begin the day with Him.

IV. “when his thoughts waxed warm about whither he was going,” that gave fixedness to Christian’s heart. You may be none the less shrewd as to the interests of time because you are wise as to the concerns of eternity; like a trusty pilot, who, though his eyes are on the stars, keeps his hand upon the helm. (J. T. Davidson, D.D.)

True and false seeking

I. There is what one may call natural seeking. Seeking is the language of human want. The cravings of life will always demand attention. All the industries of the world, with their ten thousand beneficent developments, are the products of human wisdom to supply human wants. Human life is but a seeking in so many ways, from the cradle to the grave.

II. Seeking the Lord. This is not born of nature, but of grace. Seeking the Lord implies a conscious sense of weakness and insufficiency.

III. Heart preparation. All true and successful seeking of the Lord comes of prepared hearts. The heart is always the part that makes our hearing, believing, praying, and doing right or wrong. As soon as the sun rises in the morning the birds are ready to go forth from their nests to sing. So it is with all the moral forces or faculties of the soul when the heart is prepared to seek the Lord. The heart is to the whole man what the main-spring is to the watch--it sets all the other powers in motion. “But as the bowl,” says one, “runs as the bias inclines it, and as the ship moves as the rudder steers it,” so man seeks as the heart prompts him. A prepared heart is a loving heart, “believing true and clean.” It enters into the secret place of the Most High as a loving child enters into his father’s home. Whence cometh this preparation? There must be some efficient cause to account for the differences we see among men. The difference between the common field and the garden to-day has been brought about by the application of human thought and manual skill. It is even so with respect to differences among men. As the garden did not enclose itself, or of itself become more fertile than the field, neither have men become different among their fellows or before God except by different resolutions of will and energy of character. Those who exercise no forethought or natural sagacity become as the man who built his house upon the sand.

IV. The evil of neglecting to prepare the heart. Men may do evil by failing to do well. Mere neglect is sufficient to ruin a man. A man need not be openly profane or wicked to be excluded from God’s presence; he has but to neglect the means of grace, or to prepare his heart to seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near. (John Kerr Campbell, D.D.).