Reflections on 2 Chronicles 12

 2 Chronicles 12(Contemporary English Version)

1. Soon after Rehoboam had control of his kingdom, he and everyone in Judah stopped obeying the LORD.
2. So in the fifth year of Rehoboam's rule, the LORD punished them for their unfaithfulness and allowed King Shishak of Egypt to invade Judah.
3. Shishak attacked with his army of one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand cavalry troops, as well as Egyptian soldiers from Libya, Sukkoth, and Ethiopia.
4. He captured every one of the fortified cities in Judah and then marched to Jerusalem.
5. Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah had gone to Jerusalem to escape Shishak's invasion. And while they were there, Shemaiah the prophet told them, "The LORD says that because you have disobeyed him, he has now abandoned you. The LORD will not help you against Shishak!"
6. Rehoboam and the leaders were sorry for what they had done and admitted, "The LORD is right. We have deserted him."
7. When the LORD heard this, he told Shemaiah: The people of Judah are truly sorry for their sins, and so I won't let Shishak completely destroy them. But because I am still angry,
8. he will conquer and rule them. Then my people will know what it's like to serve a foreign king instead of serving me.
9. Shishak attacked Jerusalem and took all the valuable things from the temple and from the palace, including Solomon's gold shields.
10. Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe.
11. Whenever Rehoboam went to the LORD's temple, the guards carried the shields. But they always took them back to the guardroom as soon as he had finished worshiping.
12. Rehoboam turned back to the LORD, and so the LORD did not let Judah be completely destroyed, and Judah was prosperous again.
13. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled seventeen years from Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen to be worshiped. His mother Naamah was from Ammon. Rehoboam was a powerful king,
14. but he still did wrong and refused to obey the LORD.
15. Everything else Rehoboam did while he was king, including a history of his family, is written in the records of the two prophets, Shemaiah and Iddo. During Rehoboam's rule, he and King Jeroboam of Israel were constantly at war.
16. When Rehoboam died, he was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijah became king.

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It seems that the primary pursuit of mankind has always been to rule one's own destiny, so to speak, and not be subservient to anyone. But this pursuit is an exercise in futility. We do not have the option of ruling our own destiny, only to choose whom we will serve. All our efforts to be in control just become manuevers to dodge the control of another. Whether our actions are proactive or reactive, they are designed, nevertheless, to avoid the control of another and to have control for ourselves. But eventually circumstances build to the point that we can no longer avoid being under the control of either another or of the circumstances our choices have brought to pass.

In the case of king Rehoboam, we are told in chapter 12 that he chose not to serve the Lord. Therefore, verse 2 says that because he was "unfaithful to the Lord . . . Shishak king of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem." But the Lord always gives us opportunity to reverse course. After the Egyptian army had penetrated deep into Israel and come to the city of Jerusalem, the Lord sent the prophet Shemaiah to Rehoboam to tell him and his leaders that, "You have abandoned Me; therefore, I have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak." (12:5) This was Rehoboam's chance to reverse course, and he took it. Verse 6 says, "the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, 'The LORD is righteous.'"

As a result of Judah's repentance, the Lord modified their punishment, but they still had a lesson to learn. The Lord wanted Judah to "recognize the difference between serving Me and serving the kingdoms of the land." (12:8) So He caused Judah to become the servants of Egypt. The Egyptians broke into Jerusalem and stripped the kingdom of most of the gold that had been amassed by king Solomon. How long Judah remained subservient to Egypt is not known, but it evidently did not last to the end of Rehoboam's reign.

Unfortunately Judah did not learn the lesson the Lord intended them to learn from serving Egypt. Verse 14 says that, "Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the LORD." It does not say that he determined to do evil, but whether by default or by intent, he made that choice. This evil heart toward the Lord characterized his reign and escalated Judah's decline toward destruction.