2 Chronicles 10-12: The Reign of Rehoboam

"When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him." 2 Chronicles 12:1

We have reached that point in our daily scripture reading where we will be going through the reigns of the various kings of Israel and Judah. We have read and discussed extensively about the reigns of David and Solomon, but things are about to take a turn for the worse. Because of the sins of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel during Rehoboam's reign was split in two. The northern part, which the Bible refers to as Israel, contained the ten northern tribes. The southern part, which the Bible refers to as Judah, contained the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. This all happened in 930 BC, right after the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam, which we turn our attention to now.

With all of that historical background, let's talk about the reign of Rehoboam, shall we? First, we must discuss who this Rehoboam guy is. Most importantly, he was the son of Solomon who took over the kingdom after his dad's death. Yet in both 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10, he doesn't start off too hot. Right after he had become king, many of the people of Israel (that is, northern and southern Israel, before the split), came to him asking him to lower their slavery demands. They complain that Solomon had pressed them too hard, and desire to be relieved of their suffering. Rehoboam goes to Solomon's advisors and asks what he should do, and they tell him to lighten their load. However, Rehoboam is power hungry, and he doeesn't listen. Rather, he listens to the new, fresh, and young advisors who tell him to heighten the people's workload rather than lower it. This is ultimately what leads to the cessation of the ten northern tribes.

Yet before we move on too quickly, we must note something here. In both the Kings and the Chronicles accounts, scripture tells us something phenomenal: "So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the LORD might fulfill his word." In this verse, we see how the sovereign hand of God works directly amidst the affairs of men. Was it Rehoboam and his young advicors who brought about oppression in Israel? Surely. Was is the people of Israel who rebelled? Yes! Yet through it all, God was working out his sovereign plan even among the affairs of evil men. Surely this can be our hope today: that amidst the affairs of evil men, God is working out his sovereign plan for the good of his people.

As we continue down the story of Rehoboam's reign, we find that he attempted to start a civil war with the people of Israel (that is, the northern kingdom). However, God sends a prophet to stop him because "this thing [was] from [the LORD]." In other words, God led Rehoboam to not start a civil was because this "split" is exactly what he had designed for the people.

Next, we find Rehoboam establishing the nation of Judah. This is where Rehoboam hits his highest point. He builds many cities in the land of Judah and fortifies the land against attack. Furthermore, scripture tells us that the priests of the land "secured" him in this time, so we can assume that for these short three years of his life, Rehoboam was doing well in honoring the Lord, at least partially. However, even this partial victory did not last long.

In 2 Chronicles 12:1, we find a verse that ought to send shivers down our spine: "When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him." There are a few things to note about this verse. First, let us realize how Rehoboam is a perfect example of King Lemuel's words in Proverbs 30 which we talked about the other day. When Rehoboam had become wealthy, secure, and strong, he forsook the Lord. In his own pride, he was led to thinking that he no longer needed a higher power to aid him through the warfare of life. Surely, he was very wrong. Second, let us point out how when the leader of the people of Israel fell, the people fell along with him. Rehoboam fell first, but scripture tells us that Israel followed in his footsteps. This is a great picture of the importance of having godly leaders in our lives who can point us down the right path. Furthermore, this points us to Christ, who is our perfect leader who will never lead us down the wrong path! Last, let us point out how this is, perhaps, the first negative thing we hear about the kingdom of Israel since Solomon's reign. In the time of Solomon, all was well. The temple was built, and the people were thriving. It was only towards the end of Solomon's reign when it started to go downhill. Yet here, we find the outworkings of this great downfall. In the following verses, we hear of Egypt coming and plundering the city all because of Judah's faithlessness to God: "You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you," said the Lord (2 Chron. 12:5). Although the people did humble themselves and thus the Lord did not destroy them in full, we can all agree that Judah is now going in reverse. They were on top, but they are starting to fall back down the ladder. Amidst their troubles, their gold was traded for bronze, symbolizing their demise. Because of Rehoboam's pride, the nation started to go downhill. Surely the reign of Rehoboam had done much danger to the people of God.

Yet amidst all of this biblical history, where is the application for our lives today? Let us observe two lessons we can learn this morning from the reign of Rehoboam:

Firstly, we ought to seek and listen to good counselors and leaders. Bad counsel and sinful leadership is rampant in this story. First, Rehoboam refused to listen to the good counsel of Solomon's advisors. Next, Rehoboam seemed to listen, at least in part, to the righteous priests of the land, and for a season, did well. Yet in the end, we find Rehoboam himself being the false counselor and leader, bringing his people down. In all of these instances, we find the importance of both listening to and obeying the wise leaders which God has placed in our lives to bless us. If we follow their lead, we shall surely do strong. If we follow the lead of evil men, great will be our downfall.

Secondly, we ought to be careful to not forsake the Lord in our times of prosperity. It is a proverb, is it not, that those who are strong are truly the weak. We see this so evidently in Rehoboam's life. He thought he was wealthy. He thought he was strong. Yet all of his prosperity was stripped from him the moment he forgot where it came from. You see, it is not wrong to enjoy the things of this world, yet we ought not to love them (1 John 2:15). The reason for your prosperity is to point you to the one who blessed you with it. If we fail to do this, it is perhaps better for us to not be prosperous at all.

In the end, the reign of Rehoboam has many practical lessons to teach us today. Yet let us realize that this evil reign of Rehoboam only points us to the righteous reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ would not act out in iniquity and sin but admitted that his food was to do the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34). Where Rehoboam had fallen in his sin, our Lord Jesus Christ has succeeded in his righteousness. All glory and honor be to him alone. Amen!