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Prophets and Kings
and in the strongholds he had fortified. Little by little he gave way to
inherited weakness, until he threw his influence wholly on the side
of idolatry. “It came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the
kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the
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Lord, and all Israel with him.”
2 Chronicles 12:1
.
How sad, how filled with significance, the words, “and all Israel
with him”! The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to
the surrounding nations were turning from their Source of strength
and seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon,
so with Rehoboam—the influence of wrong example led many astray.
And as with them, so to a greater or less degree is it today with everyone
who gives himself up to work evil—the influence of wrongdoing is
not confined to the doer. No man liveth unto himself. None perish
alone in their iniquity. Every life is a light that brightens and cheers
the pathway of others, or a dark and desolating influence that tends
toward despair and ruin. We lead others either upward to happiness
and immortal life, or downward to sorrow and eternal death. And if by
our deeds we strengthen or force into activity the evil powers of those
around us, we share their sin.
God did not allow the apostasy of Judah’s ruler to remain unpun-
ished. “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt
came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the
Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, and three score thousand horse-
men: and the people were without number that came with him out of
Egypt.... And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and
came to Jerusalem.
“Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes
of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak,
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and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken Me, and
therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.”
Verses 2-5
.
The people had not yet gone to such lengths in apostasy that they
despised the judgments of God. In the losses sustained by the invasion
of Shishak, they recognized the hand of God and for a time humbled
themselves. “The Lord is righteous,” they acknowledged.
“And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word
of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves;
therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliver-
ance; and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the