We were told that after Rehoboam had established himself as king and had fortified these cities, he and many of the people of Judah fell into idolatrous practices. Perhaps Rehoboam thought he didn't need the Lord's protection? Perhaps he and the people thought their human efforts were enough to prevent invasion by enemies? It is always a mistake when we rely on our own strength and ingenuity instead of relying on the Lord. There's nothing wrong with taking protective safety measures on our own behalf (such as locking our doors at night, installing smoke detectors in our homes, wearing seatbelts in our cars, eating healthy diets, following doctor's orders regarding medications we've been prescribed) but ultimately our safety depends on the Lord. Even King Solomon, who unfortunately dabbled in idolatry in his latter years, knew this and said: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders build in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." (Psalm 127:1)
It appears that King Rehoboam and his subjects may have depended on themselves to defend their nation. They stopped being faithful to the Lord and began engaging in pagan rituals. They began indulging in immoral sexual practices as part of these rituals, according to what we read yesterday. The Lord took disciplinary action against them by allowing the Egyptians to invade because His people had "engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites". (1 Kings 14:24b) The Lord's people became as sinful as the heathen nations that had occupied the land before them. The Lord told them earlier in the Bible that if they began to behave just as the heathens behaved, He would uproot them from the land just as the tribes of Canaan had been uprooted. He doesn't want to have to do this, but if sending them into captivity is what it takes to cause them to repent, the fate of their eternal souls is far more important than anything that happens to them in this world. But at this point in time they are going to be willing to hear the word of the Lord and repent, as we'll see later in today's text.
When Pharaoh Shishak arrives in King Rehoboam's kingdom, he loots the most valuable things of the capital city. "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak 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." (1 Kings 14:25-26) In 1 Kings 10 we studied about the gold shields Solomon made: two hundred large shields and three hundred small shields. These were for the king's special guard to carry whenever the king traveled to and from the palace. After Shishak takes these gold shields back with him to Egypt, Rehoboam's special guard will have to use bronze shields as replacements. "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." (1 Kings 14:27-28, 2 Chronicles 12:9-11) I assume Rehoboam could not afford to replace the gold shields with more gold shields. He does not have the vast wealth of his father Solomon because he is unable to tax all twelve tribes of Israel as his father did. His trading ventures are likely nowhere near on the large scale as his father's were either. He lacks the amount of money his father had with which to build large fleets of ships and he cannot conscript men from all twelve tribes of Israel to supply himself with a vast amount of men for a royal navy.
Verse 28 lets us know that Rehoboam was in the habit of going up to the temple of the Lord, at least after the gold shields were replaced with bronze shields. So we know he was obeying the prescribed religious observances after his nation was invaded. Prior to the invasion, we know he was bringing sacrifices and offerings to pagan altars but he may also have been visiting the temple as well. The Bible doesn't say for certain whether, prior to the invasion, Rehoboam had forsaken going to the temple altogether or if he was blending the worship of the Lord with the worship of heathen deities. In addition, the Bible doesn't say for certain whether Rehoboam completely forsook the heathen deities after his nation was invaded by Egypt. What the Bible does say is that Rehoboam humbled himself before the Lord after the Lord allowed an enemy army to attack his nation. While he and his top officials and the elders of Judah are holed up somewhere in Jerusalem so they will not be captured or killed by the enemy, a prophet speaks the word of the Lord to them and they heed this word.
"Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Israel who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, 'This is what the Lord says, 'You have abandoned Me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.' The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, 'The Lord is just.'" (2 Chronicles 12:5-6) The word "Israel" in verse 6 would be more accurately rendered as "Judah" since it is not all Israel that is being referred to at this time.
Shemaiah is the same prophet Rehoboam wisely listened to in Chapter 12 when he warned Rehoboam not to assemble the troops of Judah to attack the ten tribes of Israel that seceded from his kingdom. He told Rehoboam he must accept this division of the kingdom as the Lord's will. Rehoboam did so, sparing much loss of life among the men of the kingdom of Judah as well as the kingdom of Israel and perhaps sparing all twelve tribes as a whole from being destroyed by a civil war or by enemies that would have seen this as a good time to invade and conquer. In our text today we find Rehoboam wisely accepting the words of Shemaiah again. The king and the leaders of Judah acknowledge that their sin and the sin of the people has brought this calamity upon themselves, saying, "The Lord is right to allow our enemy to invade us. We are reaping what we have sown. We have sinned against Him and we deserve this hardship."
Now this attitude is an attitude the Lord can work with! The hardship the Lord allowed to come into their lives has accomplished its intended purpose. Because the king and the leaders and the people admit their sin, humble themselves before the Lord, and throw themselves on His mercy, He is going to be merciful. Join us tomorrow as we study the conclusion of this event.
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