Second Chronicles 11 Commentary
After losing a bigger chunk of his kingdom to Jeroboam, and after learning from the LORD that the loss was the LORD’s doing, Rehoboam settled down and reorganized Judah. He built strong defenses around the remaining kingdom. A loss can be very painful. But there comes a time when a man must sit down; count his losses, mourn the losses, reorganize what is left, and move on. Yes, even when the huge loss is your own doing.
Rehoboam’s godliness wasn’t great and we doubt if he knew much about the Law and the LORD’s promises to David. But he was religious enough to allow the true worship of the LORD to persist at the temple. Jeroboam, on the other hand, and as a matter of state policy, instituted idol worship in Israel. From the Book of Kings, we saw how he installed two golden calves; one at Dan and the other at Bethel. These idols became Israel’s official gods and sacrifices were made at these idol temples. The Levitical priests were expelled. He appointed his own priests to serve at these idol temples.
The LORD would send several prophets into Israel to try and restore the true worship of the God of Abraham. The prophets Elijah and Elisha worked in the northern kingdom in the midst of institutionalized idolatry. The Book of Chronicles will sorely focus on the southern kingdom called Judah.
The reader is however drawn to the thought of institutionalized idolatry by Jeroboam. Our world today is fast driving to this point. Nearly everywhere on the globe, what the Bible calls sin was also called sin and declared illegal by human systems. The picture is very different today.
“Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” First Kings 19 verse 18. The saint wants to make sure they take a position. There is no place in between.
The human writers may not have known it but there is a script that they followed. So the rest of Chronicles would focus on Rehoboam’s line through his son Abijah. In this line, and much later, is a son called Joseph. He would have the Son called Jesus, the real son of David that the LORD had talked about.
For now, we have the task of going through several sons. We had the wealthy, powerful, wise, and yet sinful Solomon. Next to him is the unwise and sinful Rehoboam. In the next few chapters, we shall look at several sons in this line. None of them fits the description of the son that the LORD had talked about.
The saint can fast-forward and bask in the reality of the Kingdom of the LORD Jesus under which the saint is living. It is not a kingdom of this world. How we should love this thought!
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