2 Chronicles 11 Commentary
A loss can be very painful. But a time comes for a man to sit down, count his losses, mourn the losses, but reorganize what is left, and move on. Yes, even when the loss is your own doing.
This is what Rehoboam does after losing a bigger chunk of his kingdom to Jeroboam.
Behind everything happening is the hand of the LORD, but characters in this story take full responsibility for their actions. They score good grades when they turn to the LORD. They are derided for turning away from the LORD.
But Rehoboam’s godliness wasn’t great. We doubt if he knew much about his God – the God of his father, Abraham. 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 to them. 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 solely 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 toward this point. Let the sent know.
“Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18. The saint wants to make sure they take a position. There is no place in between.
The human authors may not have known it at that time, 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, a son called Jesus would be born. It is this Son who is the center of attention for the holy script.
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 lives. But don’t think too much about physical elements, as the Son’s Kingdom isn’t of this world. Yet the subjects of the Son’s Kingdom live in a physical world. How we should love this thought!
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