The Lord is referring to Pharaoh Shishak who was king of Egypt at that time. This is the same Shishak who offered asylum to Jeroboam of Ephraim who is now king of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Shishak is believed to be the same man known as Shoshenq I/Sheshonk I who was a pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty and who reigned in the 10th century BCE (somewhere around 925-950 BC). Ancient tradition has it that he was able to take control of the fortified cities of Judah without much of a fight---or without a fight at all---because Rehoboam was terrified of him. It very well may be that Rehoboam sent up the white flag instead of fighting back, especially when we consider that Rehoboam had been living in opposition to the Lord. If he had felt confident he had the Lord on his side, he might have stood firm, for the Lord wins battles in the Bible no matter how badly His people are outnumbered. Another reason I think Rehoboam must have surrendered is because the Bible doesn't describe any sort of fighting between Rehoboam's troops and Shishak's troops over the city of Jerusalem. We were told yesterday that Shishak took the valuable items of the royal palace and the temple and we will be told today that the kingdom of Judah will have to pay tribute to Egypt for a time. This indicates to me that some sort of terms of surrender were reached and that Shishak went back to Egypt without causing much (or any) damage to the capital city of Judah.
When Shemaiah delivered the message of the Lord to Rehoboam and his top men, they acknowledged their sin and the Lord's right to discipline them for their sin. They said, "The Lord is just." They are not merely speaking these words in the hopes that the Lord will relent from destruction; they mean these words from their hearts. The Lord, who knows what is in every heart, accepts their repentance. "When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: 'Since they 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 him, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kings of other lands.'" (2 Chronicles 12:7-8) The Lord doesn't make the problem go away completely and instantly because He knows they need a longer period of discipline or else they will turn right back to their idolatrous ways.
The Lord allows chastisement to last only as long as it needs to last. He doesn't remove it so soon that we don't learn anything from it. He also doesn't vengefully leave us in a state of hardship out of a spiteful attitude toward us for our disobedience; the Lord is not like that. He applies the proper amount of discipline for the proper amount of time to accomplish our repentance and to help us learn from our mistakes. The people of Rehoboam's time learned from their mistake and it appears that Rehoboam himself did not sink back into his idolatrous ways, or at least the Bible doesn't say that he did. "Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord's anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah." (2 Chronicles 12:12)
"King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put His name." (2 Chronicles 12:13a) "As for the other events of Rehoboam's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?" (1 Kings 14:29) The chronicler phrases it like this: "As for the events of Rehoboam's reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies?" (2 Chronicles 12:15a) We don't possess all the written records that are mentioned in the Bible. But we have everything we need to know in order to come to a knowledge of the Lord our Creator and to give our hearts to Him.
The authors of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles tell us there were continual conflicts between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom during Rehoboam's reign but we are not provided with any details regarding these conflicts. "There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam." (1 Kings 14:30, 2 Chronicles 12:15b)
"And Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king." (1 Kings 14:31)
Rehoboam was a man who began his reign with some sort of relationship with the Lord, albeit a casual one. Then, once he felt as if his kingdom was fortified and strong, he fell into idolatry as if he didn't need the Lord. To show him the error of his ways, the Lord allowed invasion by an enemy so he would see that everything he had was due to the Lord's goodness. Rehoboam repented of his faithlessness to the Lord and as far as we know he maintained a relationship with the Lord from then on. We were told in yesterday's study that Shishak carried away the gold shields from the palace and that Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields which his guards carried whenever they escorted him to and from the temple of the Lord. This means that after Judah was invaded, Rehoboam made it a habit to visit the house of the Lord, and I hope this also means he gave his heart fully to the Lord and abandoned all the idols to which he formerly clung.
Join us tomorrow as we begin studying the reign of King Abijah of Judah and the military conflicts he had with King Jeroboam of Israel.
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