>> Jen: Well, good morning faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. Today we're going to talk about Rehoboam, his life, the spiritual problems he had, and also his death. So stay tuned for that. I really hope all of you guys had a fantastic and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and that you were able to, um, just relax, take some time off, put your feet up, eat some good food, eat some good leftovers, and just
enjoy yourself. But now we're back to work and it is the Christmas season, which is basically the busiest season of the year for everybody. So I know that this is going to be a busy season for you guys, but I do hope you get a chance to enjoy the beauty of the Christmas season when you get a minute. Today we're going to be reading first Kings 14 has nothing to do with Christmas, but it does have something to do with our spiritual walk with
Christ. And we're also going to be talking about how the modern day church is not holy or set apart the way God, uh calls it to be. Let's read 1 Kings 14:21 through 31. As always, I'll be reading out of the web. Grab your favorite hot beverage, whether it's tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and let's go ahead and read 1 Kings 14:21 31. Rehoboam, um, the son of Solomon reigned in
Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all of the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah. The Ammonitess. Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which they committed above all that their fathers had done.
For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of Yahweh's
house and the treasures of the king's house. He took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made King. Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who kept the door of the king's house. It was so that as Often as the king went into Yahweh's house, the guard bore them and brought them back into the guard room. Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, aren't they written in the book
of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in David's city. His mother's name was Naamah, the Ammonitess Abijam, his son reigned in his place. So now this talks about the life and death of King Rehoboam, who was the king of Judah. To refresh you guys, Israel and Judah have been split apart. They are now two separate nations. And Rehoboam was kind of the
guy that started all. Well, actually I guess Solomon, his father was the guy that started all that because Solomon didn't follow after God, uh and that was God's punishment to Israel and also to Solomon's line was that Israel was going to be divided. But Rehoboam was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. He caused some trouble early on in his reign. And Israel
basically had a civil war. And the result was two nations, one named Israel, which was like the northern parts of Israel, and then the other half was named Judah, which was the southern parts of Israel. So Rehoboam was the king of Judah. He became the king when he was 41 years old, and he reigned in Judah just 17 years. And his capital city was Jerusalem, because that was the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. So Jerusalem had
significant religious meaning to Judah. And that was going to be the capital city because Yahweh had chosen that particular city. And that was where the temple to Yahweh was that Solomon built. So it says that Rehoboam's mother was named Naamah and she was an Ammonitess. So she was not from any of the tribes of Israel. She probably followed other gods. She probably was one of the women, one of the wives of Solomon. That basically turned Solomon's heart away toward other gods.
And yet her son became the king of Judah. And you can imagine that that would cause some problems for Judah, because not only was Rehoboam a son of somebody who was not from Israel, and there would be some culture shock there, he probably was taught all of the ways of the Ammonites from his mom. And I mean, look at Solomon. He had what, a thousand women always around him? Was Solomon ever teaching Rehoboam any of the ways of the Israelites? Was he ever teaching him any of the ways of
Yahweh? Probably not. Especially if Solomon was going to these idol temples to worship with his wife. With his wives. I can imagine that Rehoboam was taught the ways of the Ammonites. And. And that would be very problematic for Israel because Israel was supposed to follow the laws of God, uh, not follow the laws of the nations that surrounded them. In fact, every single time we see Israel fall into trouble, it's because they're doing exactly what the nations around them did or are
doing. When God, uh said, you need to be different, you need to literally be holy. Holy means set apart. If Israel was not being holy, then they were not doing what God, uh wanted them to do. And the same goes for you and I and for our, uh, churches. Nowadays. Our churches are supposed to be different. They're supposed to be holy. Because if the church is exactly like everything else, if our church just teaches all the same things that the world teaches, then why would anybody go to church?
What's the point of it? If you can just go to a, I don't know, book club and get the same thing there, what's the point of going to church? There's no point. Churches are supposed to be different. They're supposed to be set apart. They are supposed to be holy. And unfortunately, in today's age, they are not. Right now, there's a movie out which I haven't seen and I do want to see. It's about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a Lutheran pastor during the
1940s in Germany. And he was one of the few people, one of the few pastors in Germany that was actively going against Hitler and the Nazis. And he was encouraging other pastors to do the same. But these other pastors were like, no, no, um, no, we're not going to get involved in politics. We're not going to deal with all of that. We're just going to preach the gospel. That is what the church is here for, is to preach the gospel. And Bonhoeffer was like, no, we got to stand against what is
happening to these Jewish people. We got to stand against that. And all the other churches in Germany were like, no, we're not going to do that. So Bonhoeffer was the only one that stood against all of that, and he ended up paying the price for it. But he was right. The churches in Germany should have stepped up and should have done something against the evils of what happened in Germany at that time. But they didn't. They were complacent. And, man, that's what our
churches are nowadays. They're complacent and they're like, oh, we're not going to get involved in politics. We're not going to do anything like that. And that causes a lot of trouble. And, you know, for anybody that says, and this is, um, I'm going off on a rabbit trail right now, but I just have to say this, and I've said this before, anybody that says that Christians shouldn't get involved in politics have never read the Bible because there's politics all over the
place. Just look at the Psalms. The Psalms are filled with David singing songs about both Israel and God, uh. Politics are intermixed with many of the Psalms. I mean, even in this chapter, we're talking about politics. We're talking about the kings and the leaders of Israel in 1 Kings 14. Today, politics are all over Scripture. So anybody that says that Christians shouldn't get involved in politics have never read the Old Testament.
Continuing on, though, it says here that Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight. They provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed above all that their fathers had done. It turns out that life in Judah under the rule of Rehoboam was just as bad, if not actually worse is what it says. Life was worse for the people of Judah because they just followed in all of the sins of their fathers. So Solomon kind of
snowballed it. Rehoboam continued the snowball, and Judah just kept snowballing even worse. It says they set up all of these idols all over the place. They built for themselves high places, sacred pillars and asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. And that's probably not an exaggeration. There was literally, probably religious symbolism all over Judah. It was probably everywhere. The same way that you and I. Not so
much anymore. But even to this day, we can still see religious symbolism in much of America. You know, if you travel, you'll probably see a cross on the side of the road somewhere. But unfortunately, the Judites were not following Yahweh. These were heathen religious symbols that they were putting everywhere under every green tree. It says that these were at. There were also sodomites in the land.
That m probably means that there were male religious prostitutes happening in Judah, the place that was supposed to be more in line with God, uh, but yet homosexuality is happening and men are paying these male prostitutes to have sex. With them. So this is all happening in the land of Judah. They did according to all the abominations of the nations, which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel. And that's a very harsh statement. Judah started doing exactly what God, uh drove
the other nations out for doing. They were doing the exact same things. But God, uh, because he's kind and he loves his people, actually shows mercy. It says here, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of Yahweh's house and the treasures of the king's house, and he took away all of it, including all the gold
shields which Solomon had made. So you remember all those beautiful things that Solomon made for Yahweh's temple and also for the king's, um, home. And the Forest of Lebanon, which was like a big building that had so many beautiful Lebanese, uh, tree pillars in it that it looked like a forest. So they called it the Forest of Lebanon. Solomon made these beautiful gold shields, each of which would have been worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars in today's money. And, uh, I can't remember how many he made, but he made these gold shields, and he hung them up on the walls of this forest of Lebanon. Shishak comes in, who was the pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt, which Shishak historically was a very pivotal figure in Egypt's history because Egypt before Shishak had been kind of weak
and very divided. But then when Shishak came in, who was actually from, um, Libya, he came in and he gained political favor because he started making friends with all the priests in Egypt, and he intermarried well. And because of these two things, he became the next pharaoh of Egypt. So he really strengthened Egypt, and Egypt became, um, pretty unified once again and
pretty solid. So now Shishak, because he has strengthened Egypt so much, is now looking outward, and he sees Israel and Judah divided. He goes and tears through both Israel and Judah, looting all of these cities, taking all of these cities. He caused a ton of damage, especially in Judah, but also in Israel as well. In fact, if we read the story from 2 Chronicles 11, 15 or I'm sorry, 5 through 17, it'll talk more about
Shishak here as well. It says Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah. He built Bethlehem, Edom, Tekoa, Bethzor, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Aderim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Ajalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah. And in Benjamin, he fortified the strongholds, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil and wine. He put shields and spears in every city and made them exceedingly strong. Judah and Benjamin belonged to
him. Oh, actually, I'm just realizing now that I'm reading the wrong passage. It's supposed to be 2 Chronicles 12. But actually, let me keep reading what I was reading, because it does have a point. It says, uh, going back to verse 13, the priests and the Levites who were in Israel stood with him out of all their territory. For the Levites left their pasture lands in their possession and came to
Judah and Jerusalem. For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off that they should not execute the priest's office to Yahweh. He himself appointed priests for the high places, for the male goats and for the calves, which he made after them. Out of all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to
Yahweh, the God, uh of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon. And my point for reading all of that, even though it was the wrong passage, is because Rehoboam started out actually very strong as a king. Now, of course, spiritually, he was never strong, but he
started out as a pretty good king for Israel. For three years, he fortified all the cities, he made a lot of weaponry for Judah, and he had a strong army. And not only this, all of the people that were in Israel that didn't like what King Jeroboam was doing up there, when he was, like, making all of these, like, false idols, those people came down to Judah and started worshiping God, uh in Judah. And for three whole years, Judah was really strengthened
because not only was Rehoboam doing all of these. These good things for Judah, but also the people who loved Yahweh were there, and they followed after Yahweh for three years. Just three years. That's it. So if you turn to 2 Chronicles 12, it talks about what happens after that. Going to verse 9 of 2 Chronicles 12, Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, took away the treasures of Yahweh's house, and the treasures of the king's house, he took it all away. And the shields of gold
which Solomon had made. But remember, a few minutes ago when I said that God's kindness was really great towards Judah, what happened was Shishak was going to go in and destroy all of Judah. He was that strong of a king. And Judah, even though their defenses were supposedly good, couldn't stand up to Shishak. So what ended up happening was the Judites called out to Yahweh. It says that the prince of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, Yahweh is
righteous. And when Yahweh saw that they humbled themselves, Yahweh's word came to Shimeah, who was a prophet, saying, they have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance that my wrath won't be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they will be his servants, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So then Shishak goes in, loots
Jerusalem. But because Israel ahead of time had turned their hearts toward Yahweh, God, uh saved them and spared them. And Shishak wasn't able to do as much damage as he could have initially done. So even though Judah had to pay tribute to Shishak, they were still relatively independent and there were still good things happening in Judah in spite of all
of Judah's sins. Now, historically, biblically, and archaeologically, we know that Shishak existed and that this event did in fact take place in history, because the Bible is true. And archaeological discoveries always prove the validity of the Bible. Always. But anyway, going back to 1 Kings 14, after all of these gold shields are taken out of the forest of Lebanon by Shishak, it says that Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields.
And that's kind of embarrassing, quite honestly, for Rehoboam, because that's how far Judah fell under Rehoboam's reign. Just a couple chapters ago, when Solomon was still alive, it actually said that silver was as plentiful as the stones on the street. That is how rich Israel was under the rule of Solomon. Now they can't even afford to do silver shields. They have to make bronze ones to make them look almost like gold. That is how far Israel has fallen.
So these bronze shields were kept, it says, uh, by the captains of the guard. So they were. They weren't, like, on display anymore because Judah was now, you know, paying tribute to the king of Egypt. And, uh, they couldn't afford to have things out in the open like this anymore. So they were kept behind guarded doors. And the only times these bronze shields were brought out was for ceremonial purposes. Then Rehoboam dies. It says the rest of the acts of Rehoboam
and all that he did. Aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. So Israel and Judah were constantly fighting with each other. It was like a constant civil war. Rehoboam slept with his fathers and he was buried with his fathers in David's city. His mother's name was Naamah.
The Ammonitess, it's amazing how they mention that twice that Rehoboam, um, was basically of Ammon because King Solomon did not follow the laws of God, uh and Rehoboam once again would have learned all of the ways of the Ammonites instead of the ways of Israel, the way God, uh wanted him to. It says that Abijam, which it's probably Abijam, I'm sure I'm saying almost every name incorrectly, but Abijam or Abijam his son, or Abijah, if you look in 1st Chronicles, reigned in
Rehoboam's place. Now we're going to talk about Abijah and everything that he did, and also his son. There's some real weird things taking place with Abijah's son. Real weird. So we'll talk about that in the next chapter or so, faithful listeners, I hope you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I will see all of you guys tomorrow for an episode from First uh, Corinthians where we'll finish up talking about the gift of speaking in tongues. Happy listening and God, uh bless.