Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 11-14.
In today’s passage we have three successive kings of Judah and four wars (sort of). After Jeroboam led the northern tribes in rebellion against him, Rehoboam mustered the fighting men of Judah and Benjamin to force an end to the rebellion. However, God sent the prophet Shemaiah to tell them not to fight against their fellow Israelites. When the army heard Shemaiah’s words, they went home. (as a side note: this always reads to me like Rehoboam did not have a choice about whether to contest the rebellion after this because his army refused to fight to reclaim the northern territory). Initially after this, most of those who lived in the northern territory who rejected Jeroboam’s idol worship moved south to Judah. In Rehoboam’s fifth year, Judah was invaded by Egypt. Once again, the prophet Shemaiah delivered God’s word to Rehoboam and the people of Judah. Shemaiah told them that God had abandoned them to the Egyptians because they had abandoned Him. In response, Rehoboam and his officials humbled themselves. Since they humbled themselves, God turned aside from His anger. After Rehoboam died his son, Abijah ruled in Jerusalem. During Abijah’s reign he was at war with Jeroboam. In one battle, the army of Judah was vastly outnumbered by Jeroboam’s army. Abijah appealed to God, and his army cried out to God, and they routed Jeroboam’s army. The final battle in today’s passage occurred when Asa, Abijah’s son was king. The king of Cush marched against Judah with a massive army. Asa called out to God, and God struck down the Cushite army.
There are two lessons to learn from this. First, we need to listen to God when we choose which battles to fight. Second, we need to learn to call on God and trust Him when we do fight battles. And, actually there is a third lesson: if we do not listen to God, we may end up having to fight battles we would have been better off avoiding.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.