Daily Devotional for Tuesday, April 1

Rehoboam’s Rebellion

   “And it came to pass, 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.

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:5, 6).

       A wealthy son left home to live on his own. He turned away from his father’s teaching and made a mess of his life. What’s worse, he influenced his friends to do the same. His father still supplied funds for his basic necessities, but because he refused to follow his father’s instructions, his father stripped away all the extras. He sent a team to repossess the son’s car, motorcycle, boat, his condo on the beach and valuables in his home. The son realized he had taken his father for granted. He humbly called his dad. After receiving his son’s apology, the father stopped the team from taking anything else. The son was left with a place to live, but he was forced to pay a high rental fee for it. The father knew this was the only way the son would learn to honor and respect him.

After reigning five years, Rehoboam turned away from God’s Law, and he led Israel to do the same. The priests, Levites, and sincere God-followers had been exiled from northern Israel because they refused to worship Jeroboam’s idols. They moved to Judah to worship at the Temple, but when Rehoboam turned away from God and many followed him. Worship was no longer sincere and regular. The Lord sent Shishak from Egypt to plunder Jerusalem. He took treasures from the Temple, Rehoboam’s house and from the king’s armory. Shishak took everything, but God spared Rehoboam because he finally humbled himself and recognized the Lord’s righteousness.

THOUGHT

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye… not sons” (Hebrews 12:7, 8).

Kelli Reynolds