I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 11-14.

    When Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem from learning that the Northern Tribes had rejected him as king, he immediately gathered the army to put down the rebellion. However, God sent a prophet to tell him not to do so. I do not believe that Rehoboam listened to the prophet on his own. I believe that his army refused to march out against the Northern Tribes because of what the prophet said to them. We are also told that the priests and Levites living among the Northern Tribes moved to the territory controlled By Rehoboam, as well as those other Israelites who truly wanted to worship God (I am sure that this is slight hyperbole; there were certainly some Israelites who wanted to continue worshiping God for whom relocating to Judah was impractical). Those who moved to Judah from among he Northern Tribes fully supported Rehoboam for three years. Unfortunately, Rehoboam’s “faith” was politically motivated. As soon as he had consolidated power, he abandoned his dedication to God and led the people into sinfulness. We need to be careful about leaders who behave like Rehoboam; leaders who start out apparently worshiping God, who abandon doing so as soon as their power is established.

    In this passage there are three accounts of where the Southern Kingdom was in a bad situation militarily. In each of these cases, they called out to God for deliverance and he delivered them. It is worth noting that in the first case, they first acknowledged that they deserved the suffering they were experiencing because of their failure to be faithful to God. In all three cases they were facing an enemy whose army was vastly superior to their own. The lesson for us is that God is able to see us through whatever troubles we face, no matter how overwhelming they are, if we put our faith in Him.