2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
November 16, 2022
2nd Chronicles 12
Verses 1-4. Chapter 12 details the quick rise and fall of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Rehoboam inherited the kingdom of Israel from his father Solomon, but because he was hardheaded and immature, the people in the north would not follow him. He made the mistake of listening to his young friends as opposed to the wise elders. A costly mistake then and a costly mistake now. LESSON: be cautious of taking advice from folks who have not experienced the situation you are facing. The nation of Israel was spilt into two kingdoms, the north and the south. Rehoboam ruled the southern kingdom consisting of Judah and Benjamin. God blessed Rehoboam in the beginning with favor, but the young king quickly abandoned the law of the Lord and led the people astray (See 1 Kings 14:22-24). Because the King led the people astray and abandoned the Lord, the curse that God spoke of in 2nd Chronicles 7:19-22 happened. In the fifth year of his reign, God sent an enemy to punish the nation for their spiritual adultery. The Egyptian King Shishak, (Shesonk in Egyptian), galvanized his troops and troops from the eastern part of North Africa (Ethiopia and Sudan) and they raided the southern kingdom capturing the fortified cities and came as far as Jerusalem. Shishak carried off the treasuries of the temple and the royal palace including all the gold shields Solomon had made (1st Kings 14:25-29). This was a humiliating defeat for Rehoboam. The Egyptians stripped them of their valuables. It could have been worse, but God was merciful. Their outward prosperity was stripped bare.
Verses 5-6. After this humiliating defeat, the man of God Shemaiah came to King Rehoboam and the other leaders and told them what the Lord said. The Lord said that since they had abandoned God, God abandoned them to the Egyptians. Since serving other gods is what they wanted, let those gods protect you. One of the worse things God can allow to happen to a person is to let them see how it feels to lose the protection of God. Upon hearing his indictment, the leaders humbled themselves and repented for their sins. They declared that the Lord was just in allowing them to suffer like they did.
Verses 7-8. When the Lord heard and saw that the people were sorry for what they did, he sent a word to the prophet to speak to the people. God instructed Shemaiah to tell the people that God would not let them be destroyed, but they would have to become subjects to Shishak. The point was to teach the Israelites that it was better to serve God than serve other kings.
Verses 9-11. Because the Egyptians took all the gold, the palace guards could only stand with bronze shields. Solomon left his son great wealth, but only after 5 short years most of the wealth was gone. (1st Kings 10:16-17). The bronze was seen as an imitation of gold. The king can only appear wealthy. The king could only put-up appearances. They had so little bronze that they had to keep the shields under lock and key, When Solomon reigned, he allowed the gold shields to hang from trees because it was in such abundance.
Verses 12-16. After humbling himself, the King reigned for 12 more years never to see the nation rise to its former glory. He paid a heavy cost for turning away from God, but things could have been far worse. Unfortunately, other kings would not follow his example of repentance. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.
Chapter 13:1-22. When Abijah became King, Jeroboam was still king over the northern tribes. Abijah challenged Jeroboam because he felt Jeroboam was wrong to erect the golden calves and allow anyone to buy their way into the priesthood. When Abijah speaks to the northern tribes, part of what he said was true and the other part was not. He told a narrative that the northern tribes rebelled against the south, when in fact it was his grandfather and father who caused that division. King Jeroboam did forsake the lord later, but this was not the cause of the split. Abijah went to war against the Northern tribes and was successful because the northern tribes had fallen into gross idolatry. God allowed the northern tribes to be punished by the southern tribes for their idolatry. At one point in the battle, it looked like Judah would fall, but God heard the cries of the priest and gave Judah a great victory. This was only because the northern tribes had not turned back to God. Before God told his people not to fight against each other. The point of this story is to show that the victory was won because they relied on the Lord. Even though this chapter says he grew in strength, we know from 1st Kings 15, that Abijah did not remain faithful to God and that is why his reign was cut short after only 3 years. He too turned from God. The bible says he married many wives and had many children. Marrying many wives was the cause of Solomon’s falls; we can assume Abijah made the same mistake.
click here to select another lesson