God promised David that his descendants would sit on the throne forever. But Solomon\u2019s disobedience caused the kingdom to be divided, plunging it from the heights of greatness to the depths of idol worship. Jeroboam was king of Israel (the 10 southern tribes), and he quickly led the people into idol worship. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, was king of Judah (the 2 northern tribes). For a short few years, Rehoboam followed the Lord. But he was stubborn and self-willed, and it wasn’t long before he too went after false idols and led the rest of the people of Judah with him. So God disciplined Rehoboam and the people\u2019s idol worship by sending the pharaoh of Egypt to sack Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
The Holy Spirit wants us to see the deterioration that was taking place in the kingdom because of their sin of idol worship. Solomon had crafted solid-gold shields for the guards to use, and they were kept in the House of the Forest of Lebanon, the royal armory. Pharaoh carted off the gold shields, and Rehoboam tried to save face by having bronze shields made to replace them. In striking contrast, the guards left the bronze shields in the guardhouse instead of the armory because they were not very valuable. Brass will take on a shine if you work hard enough at it. It looks like gold for a while, but it doesn’t take very long before it tarnishes. Sin has a way of doing that in our lives doesn’t it? Haven\u2019t we made similar substitutes? Brass for gold? How much better (and easier) to simply say:<\/p>\n
“LORD, I am wrong. Please forgive me and take control of my life again. I surrender to You this day<\/em>.<\/em> Amen”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Kings 14 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Ahijah the prophet, which told me that\u00a0I should be\u00a0<\/em>king over this people.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And Jeroboam\u2019s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he\u00a0is<\/em>sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself\u00a0to be<\/em>another\u00a0woman<\/em>.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And it was\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>another? for I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>sent to thee\u00a0with\u00a0<\/em>heavy\u00a0tidings<\/em>.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and\u00a0yet\u00a0<\/em>thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>only\u00a0which was\u00a0<\/em>right in mine eyes;\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0hath spoken\u00a0it<\/em>.\u00a012<\/sup> Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house:\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found\u00a0some\u00a0<\/em>good thing toward the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover the\u00a0LORD\u00a0shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0For the\u00a0LORD\u00a0shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the\u00a0LORD\u00a0to anger.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin. 17<\/sup>\u00a0And Jeroboam\u2019s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah:\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the\u00a0LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And the days which Jeroboam reigned\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.\u00a0 21<\/sup>\u00a0And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother\u2019s name\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Naamah an Ammonitess.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And Judah did evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.\u00a023<\/sup> For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.\u00a0\u00a024<\/sup> And there were also sodomites in the land:\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0cast out before the children of Israel. 25<\/sup> And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0And he took away the treasures of the house of the\u00a0LORD, and the treasures of the king\u2019s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king\u2019s house.\u00a0\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0And it was\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>, when the king went into the house of the\u00a0LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber. 29<\/sup> Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did,\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>days.\u00a031<\/sup>\u00a0And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother\u2019s name\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God promised David that his descendants would sit on the throne forever. But Solomon\u2019s disobedience caused the kingdom to be divided, plunging it from the heights of greatness to the depths of idol worship. Jeroboam was king of Israel (the 10 southern tribes), and he quickly led the people into idol worship. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6755"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16251,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions\/16251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}