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Rehoboam Secures His Kingdom
11 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God: “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ‘Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and returned and did not go against Jeroboam.
Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah. He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin. He made the fortresses strong, and put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. And he put shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.
Priests and Levites Come to Jerusalem
And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all places where they lived. For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the LORD, and he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made. And those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.
Rehoboam’s Family
Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse, and she bore him sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. After her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters). And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king. And he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and procured wives for them.
(ESV)
2 Chronicles 11 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
I hate to be pessimistic, but here in Chapter 11, we have bad going to worse. Rehoboam (Solomon’s son) was now the king of the southern tribes of Judah. Jeroboam (Solomon’s former official) was now the king of the northern tribes of Israel. The great divide in Israel’s history proved to be fatal for their spiritual condition. This is because both men decided they were going to do things their own way.
First, Rehoboam wanted to go to war. If it hadn’t been for God intervening, a civil war would have broken out. Ironically, though we read many chapters about the violence in the OT, this would be a case where the desire of God was revealed. He did not want His people going to war.
Next, we see the Levites choosing to minister to the southern kingdom. This was inevitable because the Levite priests were assigned to serve all the tribes of Israel. Now that they had separated and formed their own authority structures, it would be impossible for the priests to serve both sides. They chose the southern tribe of Judah most likely because Rehoboam was within the bloodline of David but also because Jeroboam directly prohibited them to serve his people.
After that, Jeroboam precedes to create false idols and assign his own priests to serve at these pagan sites. The bad decisions were piling up and this one is probably the most disturbing of this chapter. Jeroboam had decided that he was going to change things up. He substituted his own ways for the ways God had commanded for generations. This is a sobering reminder for Christians today.
A lot of times we try and find new ways to “fix” things when God has already spoken. God has given us our battleplan in His Word. We don’t need to look anywhere else and we don’t need to substitute our own methods in place of His!