"Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up His jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites." (1 Kings 14:22-24) The chronicler describes the people's apostasy like this: "After Rehoboam's position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 12:1)
Why did Rehoboam and his subjects descend into idolatry---and so quickly? The stage was set for this during Solomon's reign. Solomon felt an overwhelming attraction for pagan women and he did nothing to try to curb this fetish. Instead he allowed it to have full reign. He accumulated a total of one thousand wives and concubines and if any of these women were women of his own culture the Bible doesn't say so. Not only did he marry heathen women but he did not require that they convert to the God of Israel. Instead, to please the women to whom he had unwisely given his heart, he built altars for them to their false gods and even engaged in idolatrous practices with them. Rehoboam was the son of one of Solomon's foreign wives and she likely had far more religious influence on him during his formative years than his father did. Rehoboam would have spent his younger years living among the women of his father's harem and their children, so he was exposed to the false religions of the other women as well as the religion of his mother. He received mixed messages from his father who worshiped the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem but also brought offerings to heathen altars on the hilltops of Judah. Rehoboam's upbringing did nothing to demonstrate the importance of making God the Lord of his life. His upbringing gave him the impression that God was just one of many gods.
The hilltop heathen shrines built by Solomon were still in the land. This influenced the people to dabble in idolatry and even give themselves fully over to it. Rehoboam's own attitude toward religion did nothing to encourage the people to submit to the Lord and forsake the false gods of the other nations. The Lord becomes angry at them and He becomes angry for them. What I mean by this is that He's angry they've abandoned Him after He's done so much for them and He's angry that they are depriving themselves of the abundant and fulfilling lives they would have if they'd devote their hearts to Him. Rehoboam is hurting himself and the people with his idolatrous ways. The people are hurting themselves by forsaking the Lord and they're hurting the children they are raising in this environment. Because of this spiritual rebellion, the Lord allows difficulty to come into their lives to get their attention so they will consider their ways and turn from sin.
"Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 12:2-4) The chronicler makes an unmistakable connection between the people's idolatry and the invasion by the enemy. The author of 1 Kings doesn't state it the same way but he clearly implies that the invasion was a result of the people's sin, for he tells us of the invasion right after informing us of the widescale idolatry taking place. "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem." (1 Kings 14:25)
This hardship is a direct result of sin. It is intended as an instrument of discipline to get the people back on track. Not every hardship in this life is due to us having been disobedient to the Lord, for we live in a fallen world where bad things happen to godly people as well as to wicked people. We live in a world where there are people who have no regard for the Lord at all and who do not follow His commands about loving their neighbors as themselves and about doing unto others as they'd have done unto them. So we suffer the natural hardships of a fallen world (weather disasters, disease, accidents, death) and we suffer the hardships of living in a world where people do us wrong. But anytime hardship comes into our lives, it's important to pray and search our hearts to see whether we've brought it upon ourselves by living in disobedience to our God. In the case of Rehoboam and the people of his kingdom of Judah, that's what has happened, and in tomorrow's text we'll study the invasion by Pharaoh Shishak along with a message from a prophet of God. We'll take a look at the people's wise response to their hardship and to the message from the Lord.
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