Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Take a stroll down your personal memory lane for a moment. Disobedience is defiant rebellion isn’t it, and it’s one thing in our families but it’s another thing with God, do you agree?
Come with me again back to Jerusalem in about the year 925bc. The famous King Solomon has been dead about 5 years. His son Prince Rehoboam is king on Solomon’s throne, however, as we’ve seen in the past few days, King Rehoboam’s kingdom is a tiny fraction of what the Kingdom of Israel was under his father Solomon. Why? Because King Solomon failed badly toward the end of his life and turned away from God, embracing the false idol gods of other nations.
His son King Rehoboam turned his back on much of what he learned from his father Solomon’s leadership wisdom, and the people of Israel turned their back on King Rehoboam and Israel divided! As a result what was called the “southern kingdom” of Judah was only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin including Jerusalem and the desert region to the south. God watched King Rehoboam and waited, as God does with you and me. What was God watching and waiting for?
God was watching to see what Rehoboam would do with the magnificent family heritage and great wisdom legacy which he had inherited. Remember, Rehoboam’s grandfather was King David?! Sadly, Rehoboam turned his back on almost all the spiritual wisdom he had learned from his father and grandfather.
Yesterday we looked at what God did with King Jeroboam’s rebellion, now today let’s look at what God did with King Rehoboam’s rebellion. You’ll remember I told you the Biblical accounts found in the Kings & Chronicles are two different perspectives of the important times of the Kings in Israel’s history. 1&2 Kings tend to prioritize the story taking place in the ‘northern kingdom’ of Israel, while 1&2 Chronicles tend to prioritize the parallel story taking place in the ‘southern kingdom’ Judah simultaneously.
So yesterday we saw God’s discipline of King Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13 & 14, today we’ll see God’s discipline of King Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 12. The record begins: “After Rehoboam’s position as king was established...he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD. Because they had been unfaithful to the LORD God, Shishak, king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. With 1200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, King Shishak captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.” (2 Chron. 12:1-4)
Now that sounds very much like what is happening in Israel today, doesn’t it my friends? Yesterday I urged you to not make the mistake of separating political or military or even climate events in Israel from the spiritual/moral condition of the leadership and people of Israel. From the days of Jacob, God has used a wide range of punishments to discipline His people Israel as they turn away from Him and disobey His commands and instructions to them.
Do you see in 2 Chronicles 12 that God was disciplining King Rehoboam and rebellious Israel by removing His great hand of protection and allowing attacking enemies to ravage the fortified cities of southern Israel and this vast army had come all the way up to Jerusalem!! Do you also see God had been patient, giving Rehoboam 5 years to turn his heart back to God, but instead Rehoboam kept leading the people further away from God. That’s significant my friends, for God is ALWAYS patient, watching and waiting for people to turn back to Him. But, God’s patience has a limit and for Rehoboam, God’s patience reached its limit at 5 years!
As runners came from the southern fortified cities like Hebron and Aijalon and even Bethlehem (2 Chron. 11:5-12) reporting the devastating results of this gigantic advancing army and how it was ravaging the cities Rehoboam had fortified to be his southern defense, can you imagine his fear for Jerusalem and his own life? Evidently King Rehoboam called an emergency crisis meeting of his key advisors to discuss this advancing tsunami of an enemy force.
As they met a knock came on the throne room door and the prophet Shemaiah was brought in with a message from God! “This is what the LORD says, ‘You have abandoned Me; therefore I now abandon you to Shishak.” (2 Chron. 12:5) Does God watch carefully over Israel and every military or terrorist plan and activity against Israel, even today? Oh yes my friends, and here’s an example. Does God want to speak His wisdom and His guidance into the military and political aspect of Israel, even today? Oh yes, and here’s an example. Is God watching and waiting for repentance from Israel’s leadership, even today? Oh yes, and here’s an example! Look with me at what the record next says!!
“The leaders of Israel and King Rehoboam humbled themselves before God and said, ‘The LORD is just’. When the LORD God saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the LORD came to the prophet Shemaiah: ‘Since the leaders have humbled themselves, I will NOT destroy them but will soon give them deliverance! My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. They will, however, become subject to Shishak so they may learn the difference between serving Me, the God of Israel, and serving the kings of other lands.“ (2 Chron. 12:6-8)
Oh my friends, please understand and embrace the lesson of what is happening here. Humility and repentance will always yield a deliverance response from Almighty God.
But sometimes, if God sees there are yet important life lessons to be learned for the benefit of our future, God will not totally deliver but may allow us to suffer some consequences of our rebellion. Rehoboam and his small army was vastly outnumbered and out-gunned by Shishak’s gigantic and well armed approaching army. Without God’s intervention Shishak easily could have demolished Jerusalem and the Temple, hauled off everything of value, and slaughtered or taken as captive every person living in and around Jerusalem.
Do you see the important lesson God wanted King Rehoboam and his prince sons, and the leaders, and all the people of Jerusalem to learn? The difference between serving God and serving a foreign king would be a major difference! So the record next tells us that Shishak’s army did attack Jerusalem. While Shishak did not demolish it, his army did take out of both the Temple and the royal treasury almost everything of value, including the golden artifacts in the Temple which King Solomon had built! We can assume they also helped themselves to things of value in people’s private homes as they ransacked Jerusalem! But they did not destroy Jerusalem!
As the army withdrew it should not be difficult for us to imagine the shame, the humiliation and victimization King Rehoboam and the people of Jerusalem felt. Little of value remained! Yet they were alive, they had their homes and they could slowly rebuild their lives and their city. It could have been much worse! Jerusalem could have been demolished and every inhabitant slain. Yes, God had been merciful!
The record says: “Because King Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD’s anger turned away from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah.” (2 Chron. 12:12) Oh the contrast between God’s response to King Rehoboam’s humble repentance and God’s response to King Jeroboam’s prideful arrogance as we saw yesterday.
As we summarize the remainder and legacy of King Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, we see that Rehoboam ascended to the throne at age 41 and reigned for 17 years in Jerusalem. This one statement summarizes his reign: “He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.” Now my friends let’s pause and ponder. If your entire lifetime will be reduced to ONE phrase which summarizes the morality of your life and your relationship with God, what do you suppose that phrase will be?
Do we understand the devastating moral and spiritual collapse of the nation of Israel after the death of King Solomon and how that affected every aspect of Israel and resulted in the division of Israel into two failed kingdoms? Can we look at modern day Israel and the nation in which you live and I live, and draw some conclusions about the present day mess? Tomorrow we’ll continue with more important lessons to learn, for today let’s look closely at ourselves and consider what God is waiting for in our lives?
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 12.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.