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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 4 December 2025:
2 Chronicles 12:1 — When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.
The moment Rehoboam felt secure, he drifted. Strength without dependence is a false signal, an internal KPI that looks good on paper but hides systemic vulnerability. When leaders grow comfortable, they often loosen their grip on the disciplines that safeguarded their rise. Rehoboam models this failure pattern: prosperity triggered complacency, and complacency triggered abandonment. Because the king drifted, the nation followed. Leadership drives culture, for better or worse.
2 Chronicles 12:2-4 — In the fifth year… Shishak king of Egypt came up… with twelve hundred chariots….
God allowed an overwhelming external force to expose internal spiritual decay. Shishak’s advance is not simply geopolitical; it is covenantal discipline. God uses pressure as a strategic intervention to awaken His people to reality. The threat is massive by design — it forces Judah to see the consequences of drifting from God. When God wants to capture a leader’s attention, He escalates until the message cannot be ignored.
2 Chronicles 12:5 — You have abandoned Me, therefore I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.
Through Shemaiah, God reframes the crisis. The problem is not military; it is relational. The invasion is not failure of national security; it is failure of spiritual fidelity. God gives Rehoboam a hard truth: abandonment of God invites vulnerability. He lets Judah feel the weight of their choices so they can understand the cost of living outside His covering.
2 Chronicles 12:6 — Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The LORD is righteous.’”
This is the critical pivot. Rehoboam fails often, but here he demonstrates a rare leadership competency: humility under pressure. The leaders acknowledge God’s righteousness, an admission that God is right and they have been wrong. This is the turning point of every true course correction. God never resists humility; He is moved by it.
2 Chronicles 12:7-8 — Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them… nevertheless they shall be servants to him, that they may know My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.
God responds immediately, but not by erasing consequences. He mitigates the judgment but leaves a corrective structure in place. Serving Shishak becomes a hands-on leadership workshop. Judah must experience the difference between serving God and serving foreign powers. This is not just punishment; it is re-alignment. God disciplines to restore, not crush.
God responds to genuine repentance but may not completely remove the consequences of your sin. It is hard for us to see how God is using pain to chisel away the unwanted sinfulness in our hearts to reveal the masterpiece He is creating us to be. Beautiful rose bushes must be pruned, pure silver must be put through the fire, and our hearts must be refined through adversity. Romans 8:28 reminds us that, in Jesus, there are no bad circumstances, only good.
2 Chronicles 12:9-11 — Shishak… took away the treasures of the house of the LORD… and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze….
The glory of Solomon’s era collapses in one campaign. The gold shields, symbols of divine blessing and national strength, are gone. Rehoboam replaces them with bronze, a visual downgrade that mirrors Judah’s spiritual downgrade. The ceremonies continue, but with inferior materials. Outward ritual remains; inward vitality has eroded. This is the Chronicler’s point: without fidelity to God, even the symbols of glory lose their substance.
2 Chronicles 12:12 — And when he humbled himself the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction.
Even with all his flaws, humility keeps Rehoboam from disaster. God honors contrition even when it comes from inconsistent leaders. Judah experiences stability, not because Rehoboam is strong, but because God is merciful. This is God’s operational model throughout Chronicles: humility moves His hand.
2 Chronicles 12:13 — So King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and reigned….
Rehoboam’s strength returns, not because he corrected everything, but because God stabilized the environment. He enjoys the benefits of God’s mercy despite not fully aligning his heart. His reign is not marked by greatness but by recovery held together by divine patience.
2 Chronicles 12:14 — And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.
This is the diagnostic summary. The fundamental issue was not a catastrophic sin event; it was a failure of intentional pursuit. Rehoboam reacted to crises with humility, but he never proactively pursued God. He knew how to repent but not how to seek. The Chronicler makes it clear: the absence of intentional seeking is the root cause of his entire leadership collapse.
Rehoboam was a highly skilled leader who lived a compromised life before the Lord, so he failed to live up to his full potential, missed out on the blessings he could have received from the Lord, suffered under God’s discipline needlessly, led many people astray, and lived a relatively comfortable, marginal life until he died. Beginning his reign with such great promise, his ‘epitaph’ ultimately reads – “And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.”
Rehoboam replaced the gold shields with bronze shields, a great public symbol of the life he led. Gold is a symbol of rare, highly valued purity, suitable for noble purposes – “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3) “I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.” (Isaiah 13:12) “Instead of bronze I will bring gold….” (Isaiah 60:17) “…the city was pure gold….” (Revelation 21:18) While gold is a precious metal, bronze is an alloy metal, a mixture of copper, tin, other metals and even non-metals. For perspective, in today’s market, gold is worth around $1,920 dollars per ounce, while bronze is worth about 36₵ per ounce. Both gold and bronze are shiny, but there is no comparing bronze with gold. The symbol of Rehoboam’s life, which he displayed to the world, was bronze instead of gold, compromise instead of purity, instead of holiness and genuine worth, unsuited for noble purposes. What shields do we carry before the world? Will we display shiny but cheap shields of compromise and impurity, or will be carry precious gold (which by the way is much heavier than bronze) shields of wholehearted commitment to the Lord? “For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.” (Psalm 89:18)
- 1 Peter 1:3-7 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 4:1 — I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called….
- Philippians 1:27 — Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel….
- Colossians 1:10 — …so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:12 — …we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:11 — To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
- 2 Timothy 2:15 — Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
In one generation after Solomon, the kingdom was forever divided. Chronicles records that “Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, walking in the ways of David and Solomon during this time.” (2 Chron 11:16,17) However, by the 5th year of Rehoboam’s reign, “he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 12:1)
Rehoboam’s goal was not to establish a kingdom for God but rather a kingdom for himself (11:1), and “he did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.” Psalms point out that God has commanded fathers throughout the generations to impress upon their children the vitality of fidelity to the Lord that “they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.” (Psalm 78:7). 1 Kings 2 records that David charged Solomon to “be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses.” However, 1 Kings 11 records that “The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, [and] Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.” Tragically, the Bible does not record a charge from Solomon to Rehoboam to set his heart on seeking the Lord and to remain faithful.
2 Chronicles 12:15-16 — And there were continual wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam… And Rehoboam slept with his fathers….
His life ends without distinction, without legacy, without spiritual impact. He inherits a kingdom with extraordinary potential, but his lack of devotion produces a generation of conflict and decline. His record becomes a cautionary case study: leadership without a heart set on God is leadership marked by instability, diminished glory, and unrealized potential.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 December 2025: Set your heart intentionally today. Do not wait for pressure or crisis to drive you to humility. Build one concrete act of seeking into your rhythm, a defined point of Scripture, prayer, or obedience that resets your alignment with God before the day adds noise.
Pray: “Father, anchor my heart in You. Keep me from drifting when things feel stable and secure. Build humility into my character. Teach me to seek You with intention, not reaction. Strengthen me to lead with faithfulness, dependence, and clarity. Guard me from the slow erosion that comes from complacency. Shape my life so it reflects Your glory, not bronze substitutes. Amen.”
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