{"id":41973,"date":"2018-06-05T04:45:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T09:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=41973"},"modified":"2018-06-05T04:45:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T09:45:55","slug":"counsel-of-scorpions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/counsel-of-scorpions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Counsel of Scorpions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solomon was said to be the most successful king that Israel ever had\u2014renowned for his wisdom and his riches. His heir Rehoboam, not so much.<\/p>\n

Of the 12 tribes of Hebrews that constituted the nation of Israel, 10 revolted under Rehoboam\u2019s reign. Later leaders would manage shaky alliances. But after Rehoboam, it was no longer just Israel that people spoke of but rather \u201cIsrael and Judah.\u201d (And what most of us think of when we think of ancient Israel\u2014Jerusalem, the temple, the Davidic dynasty\u2014was actually Judah.)<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/h3>\n

Some lump Rehoboam\u2019s failure up to heavy taxation. That\u2019s part of the story behind the fracture, but far from the whole of it. Kings, like all leaders, rely on their advisors to read the mood of their constituents. And whose advice Rehoboam chose to heed here proved ruinous.<\/p>\n

Monarchy at the time was a new experiment for Israel, and it faced resistance. One failed dynasty (Saul\u2019s) gave way to a more successful one (David\u2019s, expanded under Solomon). The last recognized prophet-leader of Israel, Samuel, had warned the people against the high costs of a monarchy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Samuel preached against \u201cthe ways of the King who will rule over you.\u201d There would be mass conscription for his army and his palace, enabled by heavy taxation and with what we might call \u201ceminent domain\u201c today.<\/p>\n

The king would expropriate \u201cfields, vineyards, and olive orchards,\u201d along with \u201ca tenth\u201d of the nation\u2019s grain and livestock and gift them to his generals and cronies. Echoing the Hebrews\u2019 Egyptian past, the prophet predicted the people would ultimately be the king\u2019s \u201cslaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is, by and large, what happened. \u201cKing Solomon created the wealthiest and most powerful central government the Hebrews would ever see\u201d explains<\/a> historian Richard Hooker, \u201cbut he did so at an impossibly high cost. Land was given away to pay for his extravagances and people were sent into forced labor into Tyre in the north.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consequently, when the great king died \u201cbetween 926 and 922 BCE, the ten northern tribes refused to submit to his son, Rehoboam, and revolted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whips and scorpions<\/h3>\n

The story behind that revolt is told in dramatic fashion in the first book of Kings<\/a>. Many people petitioned their new king at the time of his coronation. They rightly pointed out that his father had laid \u201ca heavy yoke\u201d on them and asked for some relief.<\/p>\n

The people said they would pledge their undying loyalty to him if he would give them a little bit of breathing room. This seemed to surprise Rehoboam. He asked for some time to consider their petition while he consulted his retinue.<\/p>\n

Among his advisors, Rehoboam found two schools of thought, diametrically opposed. One group, the greybeards, advised what we might call servant leadership. They said that at the very least he should \u201cspeak good words\u201d to the people and consider reducing royal demands. Another group, his peers and flatterers, said that would indicate weakness. The impression that the people needed to have of their new king was that his \u201clittle finger\u201d was \u201cthicker than his father\u2019s thigh.\u201d He liked that advice better.<\/p>\n

So when the petitioners returned for an answer, hoping for the best, they got an earful instead. \u201cMy father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. He disciplined you with whips. I will use scorpions,\u201d the new king informed his subjects.<\/p>\n

Sticks and stoned<\/h3>\n

Such a frankly Pharaonic pronouncement did not play well with this crowd. Rehoboam had promised scorpions, but it was their response that really stung. They declared, \u201cWe have no inheritance\u201d in this \u201cson of Jesse,\u201d Rehoboam\u2019s great-grandfather. They refused to recognize him as king and crowned their own competing king of Israel instead.<\/p>\n

Rehoboam tried to reassert his rule by sending a fearsome \u201ctaskmaster over forced labor\u201d into the North to restore order. The people responded by stoning the taskmaster to death. Even within Judah, Rehoboam found himself embattled, holed up in Jerusalem. He called up an army of 180,000 men to march north and take it back.<\/p>\n

They were stopped in their tracks not by an opposing force but by a prophet named Shemaiah, who delivered a message from a Higher Power. \u201cThus says the Lord,\u201d Shemaiah prophesied, \u201cYou shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home.\u201d And that was that. Unified Israel was undone.<\/p>\n

Rehoboam\u2019s folly, and ours<\/h3>\n

One obvious lesson here is that Rehoboam failed because he acted not like a leader but like a caricature of a leader \u2013 what we would call a dictator or a tyrant. Though they may make claims to the contrary, no leader\u2019s power is absolute. They operate under both material and manpower constraints. Their constituents or soldiers or followers or customers ultimately will have some say. In this case, what they said was, \u201cEnough!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there is the matter of the advice Rehoboam chose to take. It was whatever comes after \u201cbad.\u201d And it was a disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Imagine that you are an ambitious new CEO. You have just laid our your vision for the organization and you talk to advisors who break down into two schools of thought.<\/p>\n

One is a group of seasoned pros who know the workers and customers well. They say they want to help you realize your vision but point out real obstacles to progress. They propose that you make some practical concessions. They advise that you get buy-in from stakeholders and from your team\u2014and that you give serious consideration to your customers as you change things.<\/p>\n

The other group is younger, hungrier, more ambitious. They tell you that you should go forth and change the world, avoiding all advice from \u201cnaysayers.\u201d They tell you that any caution is really a concession to fear and that you should \u201cgo with your gut.\u201d In fact, maybe you aren\u2019t going far enough! In other words, they tell you something that is much more pleasant for you to hear.<\/p>\n

What this particular vignette teaches us is that it is unwise to dismiss the cautions of your seasoned pros out of hand. At a minimum, hear them out, take their reasonable concerns to heart, let that inform how you speak about your vision going forward. More honey, fewer scorpions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solomon was said to be the most successful king that Israel ever had\u2014renowned for his wisdom and his riches. His heir Rehoboam, not so much. Of the 12 tribes of Hebrews that constituted the nation of Israel, 10 revolted under Rehoboam\u2019s reign. Later leaders would manage shaky alliances. But after Rehoboam, it was no longer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":41985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,16],"tags":[44,417,33,38,232,373,39,469],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Counsel of Scorpions | Full Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/counsel-of-scorpions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Counsel of Scorpions | Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Solomon was said to be the most successful king that Israel ever had\u2014renowned for his wisdom and his riches. His heir Rehoboam, not so much. 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