Great blessings were poured out on King Solomon and beautiful things given to him. But, sadly, he made many bad choices, including marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. And Solomon’s son Rehoboam learned his father’s sins well, and because of them the blessings were gone and the beautiful things lost to another pharaoh. Here we see gold shields replaced by inferior copies made of brass, a metal often used in Scripture to describe judgment. The king’s lack of faithfulness reduced his spiritual condition to such a degree that it became a poor copy of what had once been the true faithfulness of Judah’s most famous king\u2014David. How painful it is to watch the children of men and women of God turn from the faith of their parents.<\/p>\n
There is a vast difference between serving the Lord and serving the things of this world. Why settle for second best? Scripture urges us to possess those things that we cannot lose and cautions those who would sacrifice the eternal for the temporary:<\/p>\n
\nFor whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? (Luke 9:24\u201326).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Or as Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” There is a promise in Revelation that calls out to all who desire to be wise in the things of God. “To him who overcomes”\u2014the things of the world\u2014”I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God\u201d (Rev. 2:7).<\/p>\n
“LORD, we desire to be wise in Your eyes and walk with You today. Help us to choose that which will last for eternity.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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2 Chronicles 12 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the\u00a0LORD, and all Israel with him.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the\u00a0LORD,\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And he took the fenced cities which\u00a0pertained\u00a0<\/em>to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. 5<\/sup>\u00a0Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and\u00a0to\u00a0<\/em>the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the\u00a0LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The\u00a0LORD\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>righteous.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And when the\u00a0LORD\u00a0saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves;\u00a0therefore<\/em>I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.\u00a0\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the\u00a0LORD, and the treasures of the king\u2019s house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king\u2019s house.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And when the king entered into the house of the\u00a0LORD, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0turned from him, that he would not destroy\u00a0him\u00a0<\/em>altogether: and also in Judah things went well.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother\u2019s name\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Naamah an Ammonitess.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the\u00a0LORD.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last,\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And\u00a0there were\u00a0<\/em>wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.\u00a0\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Great blessings were poured out on King Solomon and beautiful things given to him. But, sadly, he made many bad choices, including marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. And Solomon’s son Rehoboam learned his father’s sins well, and because of them the blessings were gone and the beautiful things lost to another pharaoh. Here we see gold shields […]<\/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\/7171"}],"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=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16362,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions\/16362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}