“When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.” – 2 Chronicles 12:1
In 2 Chronicles 12, Israel had a transition of leadership. King Solomon had died, and his son took his place. Anticipation would be high; Solomon was the most powerful earthly king Israel had had up to this point. Each king of Israel thus far had only grown the Kingdom further with more land and riches…
From here, it’s surprising to see what happens, the Chronicler summarizes King Rehoboam as simply abandoning God’s law. Things don’t simply end there though; the entire nation abandons God’s law as well! Imagine how quick a transition that is, from being a nation that was known for at least generally following God’s law to now completely abandoning it. For one, this shows that the hearts of the people were not fully given over to God and His law from the start. Many were merely waiting for an opportunity to go after their flesh and their own desires. Sin is much the same today, people are excellent at hiding it, but when given the opportunity they will embrace it ever increasingly. We must as Christians beware of the evil of sin lurking in others’ hearts and our own hearts as it often comes out in surprising ways.
A second point to observe here is that faithful Christian obedience to God’s law will often be the ‘weird’ minority position in any country at any point in time. A mere five years from Solomon’s death and the majority of the nation would not follow God’s law. To be a faithful follower at this time then would be to receive ridicule, it would feel lonely and the faithful person would feel like the crazy person who is going against everyone in the nation. I would also assert that to be a faithful Christian today can be similar. It will mean that we will be put in positions where we seem like the odd person out, it may be topics like marriage, family, gender, or any other myriad of topics. We shouldn’t run away from this when it happens, or feel embarrassed. Christian are you okay with this? Or do you try to adopt worldly ideas and views, so you can be more acceptable to the world around you?
We need to remember that in the end Jesus is coming back and God’s rule will extend to all the nations, we will not look so strange then. Until then if we are cast aside as the strange persons, we will be ok. Much greater things are still ahead, “if we endure, we will also reign with him” – 2 Timothy 2:12
– Stephen Ramsay
