Have We Settled for Mediocrity?

HAVE WE SETTLED FOR MEDIOCRITY? 


In the Old Testament book of Kings, we read about the death of Solomon and the ascendency of his son Rehoboam to the throne of Israel. Israel grew to the height of its power during Solomon’s reign, but shortly after Solomon’s death the country began to move away from God. They became a very secularized nation much like our own.

In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the LORD’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

During his life, Solomon, had adorned his palace with hundreds of golden shields. The splendor of his kingdom and glory of the nation were at its zenith. Whenever the King would travel to the Temple the 200 golden shields would be removed from the palace and the guards would adorn them for the king’s trip. I am sure it created quite a spectacle. But now those shields were carried away and bronze replacements used instead. 

Appearances often mean a lot to us. That was certainly true of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Instead of taking the time to discern the meaning of the lost shields, he decided to make similar ones. A casual observer might have marveled at the sight of Rehoboam’s guards displaying those bronze shields, but those that witnessed the event when the golden shields were used knew the difference. 
Bronze is inferior to gold and it is noticeable only when one has seen the original. 

Don’t focus on how you appear to others. Focus on how you appear to God. Don’t settle for bronze. 
Do your life choices reflect gold or bronze? 

Over time neither Rehoboam nor his people knew the difference in the shields. Life went on.  The bronze became as good as gold. What mattered most to Rehoboam was the pretense associated with the shields. He and is nation settled for mediocrity. The processions to the temple continued but now with inferior shields.
At first there was a buzz in the palace about the lost golden shields, but eventually they accepted the bronze ones. No longer were the golden shields used to adorn the walls of his father’s palace. The walls were bare, as a reminder of days past. Determined not to lose the inferior shields, Rehoboam actually locked them up after use. Instead of being passionate about protecting the golden shields he deemed the bronze just as good as gold. And so, their slow decent into complacency began to unravel their spiritual and material world. 

Does our relationship with God reflect gold or bronze?

While in prayer I asked God where had the passion gone? We have so much to say about so many things but oddly not much to say about God. And it seems when we do speak, we often lack that fire in our hearts, the zeal which consumes. Rehoboam and his people accepted those bronze shields over time. Their mediocrity got the best of them. 
I see a similarity, both in our pulpits and in our nation. We too have accepted bronze over gold. We’ve accepted complacency over passion, tepidity over fire, and in the process we’ve swapped out our gold shields for bronze ones, unaware it had even happened.  

Revival and regeneration happen one person at a time. Our community and our world desperately need passionate voices for His glory. We don’t always have to be theologically perfect. We don’t need to be able to quote verses, but we need passion. 
Even a superficial observer can see the difference between gold and bronze.