“It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And 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 all the gold shields which Solomon had made.”
I Kings 14:25-26 NKJV
a. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam: This was not so far from the time of David and Solomon, years of strength and security in Israel. No foreign enemy ever did as much against God’s people during the time of David and Solomon as happened during this occasion during the reign of Rehoboam.
b. Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: Both 2 Chronicles and archeology confirm this account. The record in 2 Chronicles 12 gives many details that the writer of 1 Kings summarized. From 2 Chronicles 12 we learn:
· Exactly why this attack succeeded: When Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel along with him (2 Chronicles 12:2).
· That Shishak brought an allied army of nations against Judah (2 Chronicles 12:3).
· That Shishak took the fortified cities of Judah on his way to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 12:4).
· That as the enemy army approached Jerusalem, the Prophet Shemaiah led the leaders of Judah in genuine repentance (2 Chronicles 12:6).
· In response to their repentance, God allowed Jerusalem to remain - but as servants of Shishak, king of Egypt (2 Chronicles 12:7-8).
i. “Sheshonq I (Shishak) had founded the Egyptian (Libyan) Dynasty XXII (945-924 b.c.) and his raid into Palestine in this year (925 b.c.) is well attested on the Amon temple reliefs at Thebes (Karnak). From the one hundred and fifty place-names recorded there, his aim seems to have been to reassert Egyptian control over the main trade routes throughout Palestine and the Negeb.” (Wiseman)
c. He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house: Solomon left great wealth to his son Rehoboam, both in the temple and in the palace. After only five years, that wealth was largely gone.
d. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made: 1 Kings 10:16-17 mentions these 500 shields, 200 large and 300 small. These shields made beautiful displays in the House of the Forest of Lebanon, but they were of no use in battle. Gold was too heavy and too soft to be used as a metal for effective shields. This was an example of the emphasis of image over substance that began in the days of Solomon and worsened in the days of Rehoboam.
i. “Rehoboam made in their stead shields of bronze, and with these pathetically tried to keep up former appearances. It is like souls, who, when despoiled of their freshness and power by the enemy, laboriously endeavor to keep up an outward appearance of spiritual prosperity; or, like a fallen church, shorn of its strength, and robbed of its purity, seeking to hide its helplessness, and cover its nakedness, with the tinsel of ritualism, spurious revivalism, union, and anything that promises to give them some appearance.” (Knapp)
ii. According to Dilday, each large shield was worth about $120,000. The smaller shields were worth $30,000. $33 million was invested in gold ceremonial shields – and now in the hands of the Egyptians. (Guzik)
He Took Away Everything!
God used the king of Egypt to take away everything because Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord.
I have seen this before with addictions, God allows addicts to hit rock bottom, taking away everything before restoring them and making them a new person in Christ. It’s the Potter at work molding the clay into a new vessel for his kingdom. Recently in the news there have been two actors arrested due to addiction who have been unable to cope in society, once famous and now struggling with their past, present and future.
Will you join me in prayer for these two people?
Blessings
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