From Splendor to Shadow

Rehoboam Fails

But Solomon's successor failed to exert a strong influence for loyalty to Jehovah. He was naturally headstrong, confident, self-willed, and inclined to idolatry; nevertheless, had he placed his trust wholly in God, he would have developed steadfast faith and submission to the divine requirements. But as time passed, the king put his trust in the power of position and in the strongholds he had fortified. Little by little he gave way to inherited weaknesses until he threw his influence wholly on the side of idolatry. “When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.” 2 Chronicles 12:1. SS 49.2

The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam—the influence of wrong example led many astray. SS 49.3

God did not allow the apostasy of Judah's ruler to remain unpunished. “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him from Egypt ... . And he took the fortified cities of Judah, and came as far as Jerusalem.” SS 50.1

“Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, You abandoned Me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.’” Verses 2-5, RSV. In the losses sustained by the invasion of Shishak, the people recognized the hand of God and for a time humbled themselves. “So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made; and King Rehoboam made in their stead shields of bronze ... . And when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction; moreover, conditions were good in Judah.” Verses 9-12, RSV. SS 50.2