Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Rehoboam & Jeroboam are also the focus of 2 Chronicles 10. The story is the same, but we do not get the story of Jeroboam in this chapter. His story will come in chapter thirteen.

Rehoboam returns to Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles 11 to muster his troops to attack the other nine clans of Israel. The prophet Shemaiah tells the Judeans and the Benjamites not to attack the other Israelites and they returned to their cities. Because Yahweh would not allow an offense, Rehoboam fortified Jerusalem as a defensive strategy.

Jeroboam and the Northern tribes rejected Jehovah and the Levitical priests. They all moved from the Israelite cities to communities in Judah and Benjamin.

Rehoboam chose his son Abijah to succeed him because the young man’s mother was his favorite of the eighteen wives and sixty concubines he had.

The siege of Judah by Egypt is told again in 2 Chronicles 12. Rehoboam and his officials are warned by Shemaiah that Yahweh has abandoned them. Their repentance brings forgiveness, but not complete deliverance. As we read in I Kings, the gold is taken from the Temple. We are reminded of the constant struggle between the Southern and Northern Kingdoms of Israel.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger