2 Ch. 12: Shishak Attak

2 Chronicles 12:10 "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."

Well, Rehoboam had gotten strong, but turned away from God. And this chapter shows what happens. With the covenant broken, there were any number of horrible things that could have happened, but in this case, God uses Shishak, Egypt's king, as His hand of judgement on Rehoboam and Israel. 

Shishak brings a powerful army, and ends up taking some cities. When Shemaiah the prophet hits Rehoboam with some knowledge about why this is happening, he humbles himself. Because of this sudden attack of common spiritual sense, the LORD spares Israel from utter annihiliation, which Shishak could have easily brought. Instead, Israel would become subject to Shishak, which meant serving him, paying tribute to him, and following his laws.

Why? So that Israel "may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands." So I wonder how life was going to change for the Israelites. Shishak would not subject himself to God. But even Rehoboam probably didn't treat the Israelites as his slaves, he was loyal to them purely from a national point of view at least. Good luck Israel.

Also, its interesting that the gold shields placed in the temple by Solomon were plundered, and replaced with bronze. Semi precious, but no where near as beautiful or permanent as the gold ones. Not only that, the bronze shields were not just there for decoration, they were used in combat. Can you imagine that? They tried to make things back the way they were, but it just wasn't right. They could not match the original intent, once the original precious items were taken. Even when they were sort of replaced, they weren't even used the way they were originally intended. In no way could the replacements measure up.

2 Ch. 11: Rehoboam's Unstable

2 Chronicles 11:16-17 "Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, walking in the ways of David and Solomon during this time."

Well, here Rehoboam gets into the more horrible things of his reign. He wants badly to pick a fight with Israel, who had split off to form their own kingdom, but God tells Rehoboam though the prophet Shemaiah that its not a good time. For civil war. Go figure. God didn't want Israelites killing Israelites at this juncture in the game.

That probably didn't make Rehoboam happy. So obsessed was he with military stuff, that he used his pent-up energy to reinforce and supply all these towns so that Israel  wouldn't easily be able to crush him. Despite having the far greater numbers.

Rehoboam spent a bunch of time on military buildup and misleading priests and people who allowed themselves to be misled by misled priests to offer sacrifice to graven images. Nice guy. But interesting that none of this helped Israel. It was those who continued to offer their sacrifices to the LORD that strengthened the kindom, even though their ruler was a reprobate psycho. It's encouraging news for those disatisfied with their current elected leaders. Or leaders-elect.

2 Ch. 10: Rehoboam's a Jerk

2 Chronicles 10:14 "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions."

Well, here's some more on Rehoboam. He was the guy whose legacy lasted a long time. For not good things. He started out his reign with a serious misstep in judgement by ignoring sound advice from the elders of Israel. Where he could have ruled with kindness, he instead ruled with idiotic advice from his boyhood friend. Isn't that how it goes? You and your friend make trouble as kids, and then you all of a sudden think he's qualified to give you advice on running a country? No. 

He claimed that he would be worse than his dad (Solomon) on the people, but the people didn't just roll over and take it. And I don't recall Solomon being that bad of a guy to the Israelites. They stoned the guy he sent to be in charge of them, and caused him to flee. Yeah. Way to go Rehoboam. 

He had no mandate. Obviously.

Further reading: (1 Kings 12, entry)

1 Ki. 14: Power Changes Hands

1 Kings 14:15 "And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles."

So both Jeroboam and Rehoboam turn out to be losers. They both led Israel into idolatry and polytheism. I probably shouldn't say "led." Probably reignited the polytheism in Israel. And how does God bring Jeroboam to the knowledge that his kingdom will be torn away, and his son will be the last in his line to be buried? Jeroboam's son falls ill, and he has his wife disguise herself to visit the prophet Ahijah. Why the disguise? Probably everyone knew the queen. Anyway, the LORD tells Ahijah she's coming, and gives him the words to say. Horrible, horrible words. Jeroboam's son is going to die as soon his wife gets home. Jeroboam knew what he was commanded to do. He didn't do it. And it cost him the kingdom. And it wasn't just not doing what he was told. The prophet tells him that he did more evil than any of his predecessors.

And the punishment isn't limited to just Jeroboam, all of Israel will be uprooted and scattered. This isn't God breaking a promise. It's God keeping a promise. It was the "Conditionally Promised Land." After 22 years of Jeroboam's reign, his son Nadab assumed the throne. Nadab...I've heard that name before. Ah yes, uh-oh.

Rehoboam's story isn't much better. Idolatry, Asherah poles, etc. Invasion by the Egyptians, who came in and took all the stuff out of the temple. They stole all the holy things. Even Solomon's gold shields from the Forest of Lebanon. To see how far Israel fell, the shields were replaced by bronze. Remember when silver was of no use to Solomon? Well now bronze is the replacement. And it wasn't even allowed to be decoration only. They were forced to be functional for the guards. Amazing. After Rehoboam's 17 year reign in Judah, his son Abijah takes over. Yes, I know Jeroboam's son was named Abijah, too. Different guys, apparently. Hopefully.

1 Ki. 12: Traps, Ensnares

1 Kings 12:24 "'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.' " So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered."

This chapter is a political cluster-fooey, and it took like six times to read it. Ridiculous. Rehoboam is the king, but the nation of Israel appears to prefer Jeroboam, who had fled to Egypt. Rehoboam sought advice from the elders to decide what to do with the people of Israel, who requested that he not be as hard on them as Solomon apparently was. After a three day thought vacay, Rehoboam rejects the advice of the elders to give the people what they want, and for some reason threatens to crack down on them even harder. What a jerk.

Israel heard about this, and was like, "Well forget this guy, we'll rule ourselves." They even stoned the guy who came out to force labor on them. And they would have killed that snaked Rehoboam, too, but he got away in the chariot.

Jeroboam was back in town, so Israel was like, "He's gotta be a better option." So they made him the king instead. Redividing the kingdom. Only one tribe, Judah, was loyal to Rehoboam and the Davidic line. They were able to get Benjamin on their side, too. Benjamin's loyalties, throughout history, appear to be very flexible. They are like Julian Sark if the Bible were a really long episode of Alias. Which makes sense, considering Joseph's blessing on their patriarch. Rehoboam takes Judah and Benjamin to fight, but God tells them to cool their jets, man, so they obey and go back home. They obeyed the direct word of the LORD. Which is good. Finally. Why did God not want them to fight against Jeroboam? Especially considering what happened next.

Jeroboam turned out to be a mess as well, installing golden calves for worship in Bethel and Dan. These gods were probably more installed to divert travel to the temple to keep the wrong people out of Jerusalem. The wrong people who would maybe kill him and turn for Rehoboam. He even installed priests for these ridiculous idols, completely flying in the face of what God commanded, claiming that it was these gods who brought Israel out of Egypt. Their leader set the traps for them.