Two Lessons From Rehoboam

Issues – June 2021 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Two Lessons From Rehoboam

And [Rehoboam] reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there ... And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. —2 Chronicles 12:13-14 NKJV

Rehoboam became king after the death of his father, Solomon. Many lessons might be learned from the sad history of Rehoboam, but let’s consider just two.

First, he refused the wise counsel of old, experienced men in favor of the advice of young, arrogant novices (2 Chr. 10:6-8). We are prone to do the same thing today, especially if the bad counsel is what we want to hear. Our greatest need is to wholeheartedly take counsel from the Word of God and especially from Him who has said, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich” (Rev. 3:18).

Second, when Shishak, the king of Egypt invaded Jerusalem and took away all the gold shields of Solomon his father, Rehoboam replaced them with shields of brass (2 Chr. 12:9-10). What a miserable exchange! Gold is precious and beautiful, typifying the righteousness of God. Brass is a poor substitute for gold, although somewhat resembling it.

How sad for a saint of God, who has been robbed through worldliness of that which is precious and beautiful in his life, to seek to replace it with cheap imitations. Such things make noise but not music; they may produce superficial froth but not abiding fruit.

When we have been robbed by Shishak, who is a type of the world, it is far better to humble ourselves before God, confessing our loss, than to save face by attempting an appearance of godliness. The brazen shields of pretence and hypocrisy must be abandoned if we want to recover the true gold of godliness in our individual and assembly lives.

By Grant Steidl