WWUTT 639 Abandon God and He Will Abandon You?

Jesus said that the greatest command was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

We are to have no other gods, but to worship the one true God and be faithful to Him, because He has been faithful to us when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. Find videos and more at our website www .tt

.com Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2

Chronicles, and today we'll be in chapters 12 and 13. The story of Solomon occupies the first nine chapters of 2

Chronicles, but once we got to the end of the story of Solomon, what we did not read about in 2

Chronicles, but we did read about in 1 Kings, was how Solomon sinned against God by erecting temples to the false gods that were worshiped by his pagan wives.

And God said to Solomon that he would take his kingdom from him, although it wouldn't happen in his lifetime, rather it would happen when his son was on the throne and the kingdoms would be split.

So we have the northern kingdom, Israel, which is ruled by Jeroboam, and then the southern kingdom,

Judah, ruled by Rehoboam. And we read a little bit about Rehoboam last week in chapters 10 and 11.

So here we get to chapter 12, and because of Rehoboam's sin against God, God is going to punish

Judah. And this is really kind of the first time that we see a punishment come upon Judah because they had sinned against the

Lord. We didn't see any penalty that was being enacted against Israel because of Solomon's sin, but we do see that happening during Rehoboam's sin.

At least this is the way that the chronicler is telling the story, which is leaving out some details that was left out by the writers of 1 and 2

Kings. But we're also going to get some details that were not included in 1 and 2

Kings. For example, today we're going to read about an event that happened in Abijah's reign that was only hinted at by the writer of 1

Kings. But here we have it expounded upon significantly more in 2 Chronicles. So let's get to 2

Chronicles chapter 12, when the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the

Lord and all of Israel with him. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the

Lord, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem with 1 ,200 chariots and 60 ,000 horsemen.

Now that's the middle part of verse 3 there, but I'm going to stop there for just a moment. So it mentions in verse 2, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the

Lord. Now that's a common word that you're going to see reoccur over and over again in 2

Chronicles. The people of Israel were unfaithful. Now in 1 and 2 Kings, as I've mentioned before, our focus was primarily upon the kings, but the chronicler gives us insight into the hearts of the people a little bit more than what we read about in the kings.

So here it was said that Rehoboam abandoned the law of the Lord. And at the end of verse 1, and all of Israel with him, and then mentions that all of Israel had been unfaithful to God.

So Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem with all these chariots and horsemen.

And this is actually a military campaign that has been affirmed archaeologically at the

Karnak temple complex in East Central Egypt, which is just down the Nile from Cairo.

It's actually the second most visited ancient Egyptian relic after the pyramids at Giza.

It's a very popular site. And there is a temple there with writing all over it. As a matter of fact, there's writing all over the complex.

But on this temple in particular is writing that commemorates a campaign by Shishak I through Israel and Judah.

Sheshank is Shishak, who is written about here in Second Chronicles chapter 12.

He ruled from 945 to 924 BC, and that would have been exactly this time period that we're looking at here in Second Chronicles.

So he came through with 1200 chariots, 60 ,000 horsemen, and the people were without number who came with him from Egypt, Libyans, Sakim, and Ethiopians.

This and the Sakim that are mentioned here are probably of Libyan origin. And that's it's another group of people that has been affirmed through Egyptian writings.

Verse four, he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

Then Shemiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak.

And he said to them, thus says the Lord, you abandoned me. And so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.

Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, the Lord is righteous.

When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemiah. They have humbled themselves.

I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

Now remember that Rehoboam and the people of Israel had become very complacent. We read in verse one, when the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the

Lord. Things were really good in Judah. They were still enjoying the wealth and prosperity that had been established by Solomon.

And it wasn't until the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the

Lord, that God had judged them in this way by allowing Shishak to come in and conquer part of Judah.

But because they were genuinely repentant, the Lord said, I will not pour my wrath out on them, but they are going to be servants to Shishak.

So they would remember their service to me. They would remember they were supposed to have been faithful to me, but because they weren't, now they are being oppressed by a foreign invader.

And keep in mind that second Chronicles was being written in a post exilic

Israel. So after Judah had been exiled to Babylon and they came back, they rebuilt

Jerusalem. And second Chronicles is remembering all of the things that happened that led up to Judah being exiled.

So at that time, or more specifically, at the time that this is being written, there is still a reign over Judah.

They are still subject to the Persian kings. So the people of Judah are kind of remembering this thing that happened with Rehoboam and the king of Egypt and how

God did not totally destroy them, but he still left them under the thumb of Shishak.

And so it was the same with Judah at the time that this was being written. They were still under the thumb of Persia, but grateful to the

Lord that he did not destroy them even though it's what they deserved.

They deserve to be wiped out because they had rebelled against God. But because they had repented, he allowed them to come back to their land and worship at the temple.

They had rebuilt the temple. They were worshiping at the temple again, but still remembering the sins that led them to the place that they were in and learning from history not to repeat their former errors.

You know, we likewise as Christians, we have been set free from the bondage of sin and from the wages of sin, which is death, the punishment that we were due because we rebelled against God.

All of us deserve to be destroyed because every one of us has sinned against the creator of the universe, believing that our ways were higher than his ways.

And God is so good and so holy that he cannot allow himself to be blasphemed in that way.

And so there is going to be judgment upon those who had rebelled against the Lord. What we deserve for our rebellion is death.

But God, though we were sinners against him, showed love toward us by sending his son

Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Romans 5, 8, God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. So in Christ Jesus, we have been set free from the bondage of sin.

We have been released from the penalty of that sin, which is the death and destruction that we deserve.

And furthermore, we have been made inheritors of the kingdom of God. If you have turned from sin and you worship

Christ, you are now a fellow heir in Christ's kingdom. However, that total deliverance has not happened yet.

You have not yet been completely delivered from the ways and the course of this world into God's kingdom.

So we still live in this world. We're still warring against the flesh. We're still surrounded by temptation, and we still feel the effects of the fall.

So we are reminded of the things that we did against God, and we are promised that there is going to be some ultimate deliverance, but we're not quite there yet.

And so this was the case with Judah as well. They have been promised a deliverance by a king who was going to come from the line of David.

Now, we know that's the savior that they are anticipating. They also would have thought of him as a savior, but just did not know that it was going to be

Jesus Christ. So they're anticipating a fulfillment of a promise just as we are. We are anticipating the total fulfillment of God's promises in the return of Jesus Christ, who will finally put an end to all of evil, will deliver us out of this world and into his perfect and imperishable kingdom.

So that's one of the things that this story can point us toward is our expectation of that heavenly kingdom of God.

And so here the people of Israel had, or the people of Judah more specifically, had repented of their rebellion against God and God relented, but they were still under the rule of Shishak.

So verse nine, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the

Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon made and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the king's house.

And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard came and carried them and brought them back to the guard room.

And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him. So as not to make a complete destruction, moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

That's interesting that the chronicler kind of adds that in there, you know, despite all of these things going on, conditions were still pretty good.

It would get worse, but at least for now, Jerusalem and Judah were spared.

So verse 13, King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city that the

Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was

Naama the Ammonite, and he, Rehoboam, did evil for he did not set his heart to seek the

Lord. Even though we kind of had this momentary period of repentance happen in about verse 6, overall, the chronicler looks back over Rehoboam's reign and says that he was an evil king.

He was not righteous. He did not seek the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Verse 15. Now the acts of Rehoboam from first to last, are they not written in the chronicles of Shemiah the prophet and Iddo the seer?

There were continual wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Abijah his son reigned in his place.

And we read a little bit more about Abijah in chapter 13 than we read about Abijah in first Kings.

So here's chapter 13. In the 18th year of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.

He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

Now there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam, who again was the ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Abijah went out to battle having an army of valiant men of war, 400 ,000 chosen men.

Now that certainly seems like a lot, but Jeroboam's going to outdo him. He drew up his line of battle against him with 800 ,000 chosen mighty warriors, 400 ,000 men from Judah, 800 ,000 men from Israel, ready to do battle against one another in what would basically amount to being a civil war.

Verse four, then Abijah stood up on Mount Zimmerim, that is in the hill country of Ephraim and said, hear me,

O Jeroboam and all Israel, ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?

Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon, the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his

Lord and certain worthless scoundrels gathered about him and defied Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when

Rehoboam was young and irresolute and could not withstand them. And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the

Lord in the hand of the sons of David because you are a great multitude and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods?

Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites and made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands?

Whoever comes for ordination with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of what are no gods.

But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him.

We have priests ministering to the Lord who are sons of Aaron and Levites for their service.

They offer to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices.

Set out to show bread on the table of pure gold and care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening for we keep the charge of the

Lord our God. But you have forsaken him. Behold, God is with us at our head and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you.

Oh, sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed.

Now, a Baja was not one of the righteous kings of Judah. As a matter of fact, in First Kings 15, three, it mentions that he was not wholly true to the

Lord. The chronicler doesn't take as negative a view of a Baja as the writer of First Kings.

But that doesn't necessarily mean the two contradict. In fact, it doesn't mean the two contradict if what

First King says about a Baja not being true to the Lord. The chronicler doesn't disagree with. Instead, what he chooses to focus on is how

God was working through Judah at this particular period of time, not raising up a

Baja as some sort of righteous man. He mentions that a Baja had power, but doesn't say that he was a good king.

Rather, the focus here in Chapter 13 is more about how God was faithful to Judah and was not faithful to Israel because Israel was not faithful to him.

They had raised up golden calves, just as a Baja had pointed out. They started their own priesthood and did not follow with the priest that God had ordained.

And so for this reason, though a Baja is outnumbered two to one, he is standing up before Israel and saying, you can't win because God's promise is to us through the

Davidic line. Again, that's that's a key theme in First and Second Chronicles. You have no such promise.

You are supposed to be under the reign of David. So if we're going to go to battle like this, it doesn't matter that you outnumber us.

We're going to end up winning this. And a Baja's speech may have actually been pretty motivational for Judah at the time that this was being written and remembered.

Remember to serve the Lord, your God. Remember to worship him in the place that God has designated. Do not betray the commands of God and go after false gods, for it is only if you are faithful to the

Lord that you will succeed. That would have been a very important message to Israel at the time that this was being written.

So verse 13, Jeroboam had set an ambush, had sent an ambush around to come upon them from behind.

Thus, his troops were in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them. And when

Judah looked, behold, the battle was in front of and behind them. And they cried to the

Lord and the priests blew trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised the battle shout. And when the men of Judah shouted,

God defeated Jeroboam and all of Israel before Abijah and Judah.

The men of Israel fled before Judah and God gave them into their hand. Abijah and his people struck them with great force.

So there fell, slain of Israel, 500 ,000 chosen men.

Remember, they started with 800 ,000, 500 ,000 were struck down in this particular conflict.

Thus, the men of Israel were subdued at that time and the men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the

Lord, the God of their fathers. And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him,

Bethel with its villages and Jeshanna with its villages and Ephraim or Ephraim, sorry, with its villages.

Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah and the Lord struck him down and he died exactly as was prophesied would happen to Jeroboam and all of his house.

We talked about that. We were in first Kings, but Abijah grew mighty and he took 14 wives and had 22 sons and 16 daughters.

The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways and his sayings are written in the story of the prophets

Edo. So when Judah had rebelled against God, God judged them by the hand of a foreign king.

And it just so happened to be the king of Egypt, the very place where Israel had been delivered out of slavery.

This was the first foreign power that God allowed to come against Judah and conquer them.

But he did not allow the king of Egypt to have too much power for when Judah repented before God, God relieved some of the burden that was coming against them.

Meanwhile, you had Israel that was also rebelling against God, but they did even worse than Judah for Jeroboam had erected two golden calves on the southern and northern end of the kingdoms and said, these are your gods who delivered you out of Egypt.

So God sent a Baja and Judah against Israel to punish them for their rebellion against the

Lord. And a Baja was successful because God moved through the people of Judah and was faithful to his promises to them, not because a

Baja was anyone great, but because God is great. And so we must learn from this, that we are to love the

Lord, our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that we are to remain faithful to the

Lord and steadfast to the end. Now, there are times when we are going to mess up and we are going to sin, but we have a promise that is given to us in second

Timothy, that though we are faithless, he remains faithful. And it is also said to us in first John one, nine, that if we ask forgiveness for our sins,

God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if you ever turn from the

Lord and you start chasing after false gods, the Lord will destroy you.

And he will show his glory in both his wrath and his mercy.

God will receive credit one way or the other, whether it's in destroying you in his wrath or delivering you in his mercy.

Worship the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Our Lord God, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ.

And I pray that it is this reminder that strengthens us throughout our day, reminding us to give you glory for all things, because you are worthy in Jesus name.

We pray. Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.