Bible Devotion

Meditative Reflection
The Folly of Rehoboam

“Come back to me in three days.” (2 Chr. 10:5)

As much as the division of David’s kingdom was inevitable because of the sin of idolatry by Solomon (1 Ki. 11:9ff), Rehoboam’s folly did contribute directly to the division of the kingdom.

However, I had to admire Rehoboam’s initial reaction to the request of the people of the ten tribes. Their request, as valid as it might have been, was basically a challenge to the authority of this new king. However, Rehoboam did not give them an answer right away; instead, he asked them to come back in three days. This was wisdom.

It is often wise for us not to rush to our decision, especially when we are confronted with a challenge that provokes us to anger, because as the Apostle James puts it, “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (Jas. 1:20). It means that if we allow ourselves to react in anger, even if we think we are doing it out of righteousness, chances are we will be wrong in our course of action. Therefore, it is wise for us to “sleep on” the problem for at least overnight; that will allow us not only to cool down, but will also help us bring our problem to the Lord and resolve it first before Him.

Rehoboam was wise in delaying his decision, except that he used this “cooling-down” period only to consult men, and not God. And in his seeking advice from both the old and the young, it appeared that his mind had already been made up already anyway. This was his folly.

Meditative Reflection
The Folly of the People

“What share do we have in David, what part of Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house David!” (2 Chr. 10:16)

On the face of it, the rebellion of the ten tribes against Rehoboam was justified, because (1) it was foretold by the Lord as a result of Solomon’s sin (1 Ki. 11:9ff), (2) the heavy tax burden by Solomon was likely excessive (1:4), and (3) Rehoboam was arrogant and lacked compassion for the people. However, the people were essentially rebelling against God, not men as C.F. Keil rightly points out:

“(W)hilst the secession itself was occasioned by Rehoboam’s imprudence; yet it was essentially a rebellion against the Lord and His anointed, a conspiracy on the part of these tribes against Judah and its king Rehoboam. For apart from the fact that the tribes had no right to choose at their pleasure a different king from the one who was the lawful heir to the throne of David, the very circumstance that the tribes who were discontented with Solomon’s government did not come to do homage to Rehoboam, but chose Sichem [i.e. Shechem] as the place of meeting, and had also sent for Jeroboam out of Egypt, showed clearly enough that it was their intention to sever themselves from the royal house of David; so that the harsh reply given by Rehoboam…furnished them with the desired opportunity for carrying out the secession upon which they had already resolved…The usurpation of the throne was therefore…a falling away from Jehovah, the God King of His people.”
(K&D, 134-5)

This reminds me of the many church-fights that I have witnessed over the years. While many of the reasons for splitting the church might appear to be valid, I cannot help but think that they, nonetheless, were essentially a rebellion against the Lord and a falling away from Christ, the Head of the Church.

Meditative Reflection
The Way of the World

“In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.” (2 Chr. 11:21b)

It appears that with the example of his father Solomon who took 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Ki. 11:3); it was inevitable that his son Rehoboam would follow his footsteps and had 18 wives and 60 concubines. The Bible even “appears” to praise him for his wisdom that he posted his many sons “throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities” (11:23), implying that with such a consolidation of power, he was able to make Judah and Benjamin strong and united.

However, the word of God remains firm and clear as Moses had already warned all future kings of Israel that, “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” (Deut. 17:17). As it turned out, Rehoboam could only follow the righteous way of his fathers, David and Solomon for “three years” (11:17) after which he did evil in eyes of the Lord and set up all kinds of high places and Asherah poles for idol worship. Worse, he even allowed male shrine prostitutes to flourish in his land (1 Ki. 14:22-24). All these, like Solomon, seemed to begin with the taking of many wives.

However, at the heart of taking many wives, apart from the yielding to one’s lust, is the desire to be a king like those of the nations. The people demanded a king so that they might have kings, “such as all the other nations have” (1 Sam. 8:5); the kings married many wives, so that they too might follow the way of the nations. In both cases, they have abandoned God as their King (1 Sam. 8:7).

Anytime, we follow the way of the world, we too have abandoned the Lord as our King.

Meditative Reflection
The Façade of Piety

“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.” (2 Chr. 12:10)

The Lord indeed is a merciful God. In spite of the error made by Rehoboam in listening to his peers which led directly to the division of the kingdom, God has obviously moved the hearts of priests, Levites and many Israelites from the ten tribes whose hearts were set on seeking the Lord to migrate to Jerusalem to pledge loyalty to Rehoboam (11:16). Therefore, in spite of the fact that at the latter part of Solomon’s reign, idol worship had already crept into the life of the nation, for three years the nation was able to maintain their course in staying faithful to the Lord (11:17)

However this did not last long and we read that they had quickly returned to all forms of idol worship, including even having male shrine prostitutes as “the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites” (1 Ki. 14:24).

In other words, for all intents and purposes, they had severed their relationship with the Lord and it was only a matter of time that God would show His displeasure through not only His judgment on the nation, but through the destruction of the very temple which bore His name.

However, as Rehoboam showed signs of humbleness, the Lord only allowed Shishak, king of Egypt, to loot the treasures of the temple and of the royal palace without completely destroying the nation (12:9, 12). Had Rehoboam learned his lesson? Not really. The comment on the life of Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles ends with these words, “He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord” (12:14). This final comment should not come as a surprise as we can see that in spite of God’s chastisement through Shishak of Egypt, Rehoboam still wished to maintain a façade of piety and pomp by replacing the ceremonial gold shields made by Solomon with bronze ones which he used to decorate his parade to the temple of the Lord. It was such a fitting image of false religion in that we often use cheap substitutes for the loss of true piety, thinking that by maintaining our external worship, service and sacrifice, we can hide our sins and waywardness from God and from others. But the truth of the matter is we are only delaying the inevitable, and it is only a matter of time that such a façade will be torn apart by God for all to see.

Meditative Reflection
Do not Judge a Book by Its Cover

“Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear, they cried out to the Lord...” (2 Chr. 13:14)

If we only read the account in Chronicles about the battle between Abijah and Jeroboam, we would be led to think that Abijah must be a king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, because

- In spite of the fact that his army was outnumbered by that of Jeroboam by 2:1 (his was only 400,000 while that of Jeroboam was 800,000), he did not retreat at all;

- He chose to address Jeroboam and his troops. It was more than a psychological warfare tactic that he raised. From the words he spoke it was clear that he was grounded in confidence in the fact that he and his people were pleasing and chosen by the Lord; it was not so with Jeroboam, because Jeroboam had resisted “the kingdom of the Lord” (13:8), worshipped idols and driven out the priests of the Lord (13:9); and

- In the heat of the battle, they cried out to the Lord for help.

The result was a convincing victory as “God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah” (13:15).

However, as in all things spiritual, a good outcome is not necessarily proof of God’s pleasure with the person. As 1 Kings 15 points out, Abijah in fact, “committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been” (1 Ki. 15: 3). Why then would God grant him such decisive victory? Well, apart from the fact he was the lesser of the two evils (Jeroboam was probably the most wicked of all kings in Israel), the Bible makes clear it was “for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong" (1 Ki. 15:4).

The English adage is right in that we should not judge the book by its cover.

Meditative Reflection
A Prayer of Trust

“Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty.” (2 Chr. 14:11)

It is true that toward the end of his life. Asa did waver in his total reliance on the Lord as he faced the threat of Israel, the northern kingdom. For the most part, his trust in the Lord was very exemplary and the essence of his trust in the Lord was very much encapsulated in his prayer to the Lord as he faced the formidable army of the Cushites (14: 11). Let’s learn from this great prayer of trust:

- Admission of our nothingness: As much as he had an army of 580,000 “brave fighting men” (14:8), he saw himself as powerless and was determined to trust not in his own strength, but in the Lord's.

- Acknowledgement of who God is: He acknowledged that there is no one like the Lord and that includes men and gods. This is why he addressed Him as “the Lord— Yahweh”—the name of the One and Only God of the universe.

- Reasons why God should help them:

1. They had resolved to rely on Him — not on themselves or their allies;

2. They were fighting this battle in His name: God’s name was therefore at stake.

3. He was their God: They have a covenant relationship with God and they belong to Him.

4. They had complete confidence in the Lord, because their enemies were mere mortals.

This is such a great prayer of trust that we should emulate when we face formidable challenges in our lives.

Meditative Reflection
It is Our Own Choice

“Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.” (2 Chr. 15:17)

Asa was the great great-grandson of David; this meant he was four generations apart from David, inheriting the idol-worship of Solomon, Rehoboam and Abijah. What was the chance that he could, all of a sudden, turn the tide of idol-worship back to the genuine worship of Yahweh? Very slim, I am afraid. And yet, that was exactly what happened.

It is true that Asa eventually proved to be a less than perfect king, but overall, the Bible comments that “Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life” (15:17). The fact that he could break the vicious cycle that had begun in the latter years of Solomon, and did not follow the footsteps of his grandfather and father, was very unusual. He even dared to cut down and burn the repulsive image of Asherah which his grandmother had made.

It is true that the prophet Azariah gave him great encouragement, but his encounter with him (2 Chr. 15) appeared to have come between Asa’s 11^th–15^th years of reign which was after he had already begun to turn the tide from idol-worship to the singular worship of the Lord.

While the Bible is silent on who or what might have influenced Asa in his breaking away from the idol-worship of his fathers, the truth is clear that ultimately whether a person would follow the Lord and His ways or not is a personal choice. We cannot blame our family heritage, our culture or our environment for our wrong choices, Each one of us will be held accountable for our choices in life, just as the prophet Jeremiah affirms, “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes — their own teeth will be set on edge.” (Jer. 31:29-30)