Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 13:1-5

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come to you in prayer. We ask that you would lead us in it and that you would give us the peace that passes all understanding. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Introduction to the Wednesday Night Bible Study

All right. Well for those who are joining us for the first time, we usually go through about 30 minute Bible study before we dive into prayer proper. Please go ahead and turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 13.

Abijah's Short Reign and the Chronicler's Perspective

All right, 2 Chronicles talking about the kings of Judah and we are transitioning from Rehoboam to Abijah. David, Solomon, Rehoboam, now Abijah. 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 a war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went out to battle having an army of valiant men of war.

400 ,000 chosen men. And Jeroboam drew up his line of battle against him with 800 ,000 chosen mighty warriors. Then Abijah stood up on Mount Zimriahim. 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.

Amen.

All right. So our first question here in 2 Chronicles 13 -1. What is the significance of the length of Abijah's reign? So you remember Solomon and David, that was 40 years, 40 years. And then the last one was 13?

Or 17? 17. And now only three. So this is a very short reign. In fact, if you remember how you count years in the Bible, these are years that there was an intersection with this time on the calendar. Just like Jesus was in the grave for three days doesn't mean three times 24 hours.

It means that on three different days, you can count that he was in the grave. Likewise, it's possible that it was only one full year and then two partial years on either side. So this could have been barely over a year that we're talking about here.

So that is, let's see. Yeah, so in 2 Kings, this is, of course, primarily a sign of God's displeasure. Now, remember the whole point of 2 Chronicles is to show the need for a king to sit on the throne of David.

And so he's highlighting all the best aspects of the kingdom. Now, there was a three-year period that he recently mentioned that in some ways puts a better slant on this three years than if you were just hearing about it in contrast to the other sets of reigns.

Does anybody remember what happened for three years just before this?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, that all happened, but there's a particular three-year period that was mentioned before. And that is, let me go ahead and find it. I'm pretty sure it's in here. Yeah, it's Raibon. Yes, he was strengthening his kingdom for three years.

And that was in 2 Chronicles 11 -17. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Raibon the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

So this is something, that's a detail that you only see in 2 Chronicles. You don't see that in Kings. So if you're reading Kings and you see he's got a three-year reign, the only thing that comes to your mind is the fact that it's shorter than the other.

Reigns.

But if you're reading 2 Chronicles, that's not the only thing that comes to mind. There's also the fact that you had this three years of strengthening in Raibon's reign. So just something to keep in mind there.

There's just a lot of ways that the Chronicler points to the need for a king to sit on the throne of David by showing things in the strongest possible light. Yes. Yeah, I'm saying that, I'm not trying to attribute any kind of mystical properties to the number three or anything.

But yeah, like in context, in Kings, the only thing you would see is that's a much smaller number. In 2 Chronicles, the last three-year period that we saw not long before this was one of strengthening Israel.

So I'm just saying there's a positive connotation to that kind of length here.

All right.

Yes, right. Yeah, and he's still, he's an evil king. Like that's the judgment that's made on him. But the Chronicler points out all the good things of the king of Judah so that you know, we need a king of Judah.

We need that Messiah to sit on the throne. All right, why is his reign dated by Jeroboam? That's just how you date these things. If you read through all these kings, kings of Israel are typically denoted by the, by the, where they are in the reign of the king of Judah and then vice versa.

So here, yeah, we're measuring this by Jeroboam's reign. Let's see. And what is the significance of the war between them? Yeah, it's just a, it explains what's going to happen in the subsequent narrative here.

All right. Now in 1 Kings, if you were reading this, this is at the end. That statement about there being war is something that happens at the end. So it kind of, once again, it puts a negative slant on everything.

Oh, he was warring all the time with Jeroboam. All right, but here it's at the beginning. So it sets up. How did he go to war against Jeroboam? And we'll see a lot of good that he was doing. Okay, so 1 Kings, 15, 1 Kings.

Let me just pull that up. One and two. Now in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam began to read about Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maaka, the daughter of.

Abishalam.

Okay, so you see a couple of names are different here. Instead of Maaka, it's Micaiah. Instead of Abishalam, it's Uriel. Instead of Abijah, it's Abijam. So these people are writing at different times.

The standard form of these names has changed a little, but hopefully you'll remember one of the significant things about Abijah's name being Abijah. Does anybody remember? Yes. Jeroboam's son. Jeroboam's son.

No worries, they're very similar. Yeah, Jeroboam's son is Abijah. And if one of the things the Chronicler keeps emphasizing, which he emphasized here too in this passage, is that Judah is actually the true Israel, not the northern kingdom called Israel.

It's actually Judah that's the true Israel. Then choosing the form of Abijam's name to be Abijah, which is Jeroboam's son's name. You see the,.

Yeah, it.

Once again communicates that Judah is the true Israel. Who has the real Abijah? Judah has the real Abijah. Our questions here, what differences exist between these verses? I think we've already talked about those a little.

Oh, I, no, I think they're the same person. Yeah, just like different forms of names.

Yeah.

Because most people agree that Maaka is Maikia. Now it could be that it's a grandfather versus a father.

Oh.

That might be, yeah. Okay, so some of these might be just different names, and this one might be going to grandfather. Let's see. Did I write about that here? Okay, sorry. Uriel is the son of the Absalom, but he's called Bashalom.

So I think this is the same. I think this is the same, but he's called by his father's name anyway. Sorry, was there another question there? Where is Gibeah? I forget. Yeah, I don't know that one. I mean, isn't that in Benjamin?

I think that's in Benjamin. But I can't remember. All right. Let's see. Okay, what accounts for these differences? Well, we already talked about that. The way he's framing the, yeah, he's focusing on the details about Judah.

Let's see. Yeah, the significance of her mother. If you remember in 1121, she was Rehoboam's favorite. Yeah, if you all remember, Abijah is not actually the firstborn of the first wife. So this is actually contrary to what the law in Israel requires, but he's chosen the first son of his favorite wife, kind of like you see with Joseph.

But yeah, that's Abijah. He's the first son of the favorite wife, not the first son of the first wife. All right, and then 1 Kings 15, 3 through 6. Let me go ahead and read that. And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father.

Nevertheless, for David's sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him and establishing Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. So now you see all that passage that was in the middle there before it got to there being war.

So,.

All of that had to do with the failures of Abijah, right? And the Chronicler just skips all that. Doesn't focus on all the failures of Abijah. He's not denying any of that. He's not denying the assessment that Abijah is evil, but that's not his focus.

His focus is on the good of the kings of Judah, and he's, yeah, he's trying to highlight those things. All right, verse 3. And Abijah joined battle with an army of valiant men, even 400 ,000 chosen men, and Jeroboam set the battle in a ray against him with 800 ,000 chosen men who were mighty men of valor.

All right.

So,.

Why did they go against battle each other, against each other? For the possession of the land. Remember that Rehoboam had been given instruction not to bother, but Abijah is now going to go for it. Yes.

It seems to be, it seems to be, but yeah, the prophetic instruction Rehoboam had gotten in his time was not to not to do this. But it does seem that Abijah is not necessarily trying to go for all the land, just some of it.

So he's, he's not laboring under the delusion that he can reunite the kingdom entirely, which is what Rehoboam was doing, despite the prophecy that was given. Sorry, what was the, what was the question?

Which?

Okay. Oh,.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, it just predated him. He's, he's continuing on in that. All right, so we've got 400 ,000 against 800 ,000. So he's outnumbered two to one, and yet he is going to go for this. Abijah's side is inherently weaker, but yeah, these are huge numbers.

I mean, that's, that's a massive number of people. Just imagine, yeah, what it would look like for, I don't know, one out of every two people in Santa Clara County to go to war. Like, that's, it's kind of crazy.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes. Yeah, it's, it's earlier. Well, some of them, so like later on, it'll talk about the writings of Isaiah the prophet or something like that. And yeah, we have this, but.

No,.

No, we don't have any of those. And they would, yeah, they, I'm guessing they would probably be regarded as scripture if we did. So all right, verse four. All right, so the city of Zimmerayim, if you look in Joshua 18, it will describe that it is where?

Anybody know? It says a tribe. Yes, Benjamin. Now, why does that sound odd given what we just read? Okay, Benjamin is part of the southern kingdom, right? It's part of Judah. And where does it say he is here in 2 Chronicles?

Yeah, it says he's in Ephraim. That's part of the northern kingdom. So he's like on the border, right? He's, imagine you were to go up to the border and there's a big mountain. You stand on the mountain and you, and you're talking northward to all these people.

That's what's happening here. Yes, yeah, he's at the northern part of his territory looking north towards the northern kingdom of Israel, and he's speaking to them. And then he's, let's see. Yeah, and then it says in verse five, should you not know that Jehovah, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever?

Right, so God gave Israel to David. That includes both kingdoms, the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom. They're both supposed to belong to the throne of David. Abijah sits on the throne of David.

Jeroboam does not. Jeroboam has rebelled. He's telling them that they should repent and turn back. Why does he ask the question to Jeroboam, right? He's calling him to surrender. Then, yes, go for it.

Yes, 5b. Yeah, we're, we're getting there. Even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt. Okay, so numbers 18, 19. Let me go ahead and read that. All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due.

It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you. Okay, so what does it mean to be a covenant of salt? Well, what does salt do? It preserves things. This is just talking about the lasting nature of the covenant.

That it's not something that's just temporary, but it's something that's supposed to be lasting. Yeah, that's, that's all that's meant by the phrase a covenant of salt. And this covenant in numbers is the portions which are given to the Aaronic priesthood.

So, so long as the Aaronic priesthood exists, they're supposed to get particular portions from the tribes. And then, why is this important for the Chronicler? Once again, it demonstrates the special status of Judah, right?

That's what he's just focusing on repeatedly is the fact that Judah is the true Israel. And they are the ones who have a right to the throne and and that that needs to be restored essentially. That's the underlying emphasis as they come back from exile that throne needs to be restored.

Yes. Lot's wife? No, I don't think so. I, but then again, I don't know if I have an answer off the top of my head why she turned him to salt instead of something else. I've never heard anyone speculate on that.

But maybe it has to do with preserving. I, I don't know. No, they're, they're different things because the other covenant of salt was particularly about the Aaronic priesthood, right? It just means a lasting covenant.

And this is something that's said about a lot of these covenants that's emphasized that this is lasting. Like the terms have not.

Ceased.

Now, of course, when it calls a covenant eternal, that does not mean necessarily that it will still be relevant for all time. It just means so long as the terms exist, as long as the conditions exist, it applies.

That it doesn't just, it doesn't lapse because of time. It might lapse for some other reason, but not because of time. So there's a number of those kinds of eternal covenants, like the covenant of circumcision is an eternal covenant.

But,.

Clearly, that's not something that continues given Galatians. The, the conditions under which it would still be needed are now obsolete. But, of course, that's not the case for Jeroboam here. None of the conditions have changed for him.

All right, so reflecting back on this and divisions in the church. Yeah, why, what divisions exist within the church today? Why does God allow division in the church? And what confidence can the Christian have despite those divisions?

So, yeah, it is interesting to see this kingdom divided by just saying, hey, you need to turn back. We do live in a divided kingdom. There's a lot of division that shouldn't be in the body of Christ. That used to distress me quite a bit when I was a kid.

Like,.

It just seemed like that was a feature that almost, not that I ever doubted the truth of the Bible, that just seemed so contrary to what I expect reality to look like, given what the Bible talks about.

The unity of the church, that I didn't really have an accounting for it. That was also partly because I wasn't really a Baptist back then, and I didn't have a theology of the church that had the notion of independent churches.

And so I thought every church should be under one denomination or something.

Which,.

Now I realize, oh no, churches are independent. There's no authority under Christ over the church beyond just the congregation. So we don't need to be in one kind of human hierarchy or anything. But also, yeah, it is going to be the case that there will be some measure of division, so long as there are, so long as there's sin.

But God has his purposes in that, to show his own glory. That truth would be made known amidst division, kind of like it describes in 1 Corinthians 7. 6, wait, 11, sorry. I don't know why I said 7. Maybe because it rhymes with 11.

There you go. It's a good passage. Any other thoughts, comments about this? Yeah, Christ is the one who sits on the throne of David. What is happening when there is division? Because a lot of people go really relativistic with it, right?

And they say, well, how can you know which side if they're all different sides, and everybody says their own thing? There's an obvious right side, in that Christ sits on the throne of David. His is the right side, and he has given his word.

So when you have divisions, you don't have people just rebelling against each other. You have one side particularly rebelling against Christ. And that's important to remember, so that we would actually contend for the truth, not just abandon it.

Or think that unity comes from abandoning the truth, because Christ is asking for loyalty. He's demanding it. All right, let's go ahead and pray here. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. I pray that it would direct us in prayer today, that we would pray according to your will being led by your word, and may your kingdom advance.

And may your church be unified. May we not be divided as this kingdom was, but may we be unified under the reign of Christ.

In his name we pray, amen.