2 Chronicles 12 (NIV)✞: Shishak Attacks Jerusalem
I hate to do this, but before I even get into this passage I have to get into a weird nuance, because we’re going to get thrown a curveball. 🙃 Let’s look at verse 1:
After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 12:1 (NIV)✞, emphasis added
A huge part of the story of God’s people at this point is the fact that the nation that was previously called Israel has been split into two nations: Israel in the North, which immediately abandons God and never comes back to Him, and Judah in the South, which is ruled by the line of David and is hit and miss in terms of how well they follow God. Judah is the focus of the book of Chronicles, but Israel is also mentioned from time to time. Nice and clear.
Except… the book of Chronicles will sometimes use the name “Israel” when it’s referring to the nation of Judah. I think this is because of the reason for the book of Chronicles being written in the first place: God’s people are returning from exile—hundreds of years after the events that are described in this book—back to what used to be their land, and need to be reminded of all that God had done for them. They’re going to end up calling this land “Israel” again, so even though Chronicles is focusing only on Judah, the author(s) just generically use the term “Israel.” Except when they don’t, because the names “Israel” and “Judah” are intermixed in this passage!
I’m assuming I’ll keep using the name “Judah,” but we’ll see how consistent I am with that – I might get pulled into following the author(s) of Chronicles.
Passage
This is an interesting event in Rehoboam’s reign over Judah. It starts off bad: as I quoted above, pretty much immediately after becoming king, Rehoboam (and the nation with him) abandons God. Actually, the author(s) have an interesting way of looking at it; let’s look at verse 1 again, and add verse 2:
1 After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD. 2 Because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam.
2 Chronicles 12:1–2 (NIV)✞, emphasis added
I think this is consistent across all of the Old Testament: being unfaithful to God and abandoning His law are synonymous. If His people are being faithful they demonstrate it by following His Law; if they aren’t following His Law it’s a sign of a deeper abandonment of Him. In fact, it’s consistent in the New Testament as well:
“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 14:15 (NIV)✞, Jesus speaking
So, as mentioned in verse 2 above, because Judah has abandoned God and/or His Law, He sends the king of Egypt against them with what seems like an insurmountable force. And then this happens:
5 Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.’”
6 The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is just.”
It’s one of those seemingly rare cases in the Bible when a prophet brings a message from God to His people and they respond exactly as they should! Notice that they’re not even praying for deliverance (though I’m sure that was also happening), just recognising that He is… being just!
When He sees that His people have responded properly, God’s anger is ameliorated; He is still going to allow them to be punished by the Egyptians, but not completely destroyed. And that’s what happens: the Egyptians attack and carry off a bunch of plunder from the treasures of the Temple and the palace.
Remember those shields made out of gold by Solomon? Specific mention is made of the fact that the Egyptians carry those off, forcing Rehoboam to replace them with shields made out of bronze. Under the reign of Solomon the nation of Israel was overflowing with so much gold that silver was considered worthless, and now the king of Judah is having to resort to bronze for making his shields1!
The remainder of the chapter is kind of mixed. It’s as if the author(s) can’t go too far talking about Rehoboam’s bad side before reminding the readers that he also had a good side – but then can’t go too far in talking about his good side without reminding us that he had a bad side, too!
12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD’s anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah.
13 King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 14 He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.
2 Chronicles 12:12–14 (NIV)✞, emphasis added
I say this all the time, but the Bible is way more nuanced than we sometimes want it to be. Was Solomon a good king, or a bad one? Yes. What about his son Rehoboam? Also yes.
The chapter closes with mention of the fact that there was continual warfare between Rehoboam/Judah and Jeroboam/Israel.
Thoughts
This passage had me thinking, once again, about cause and effect, in a spiritual sense. Events in the Bible—especially in the Old Testament historical books—are often presented as if God is responding to certain events: the nation of Judah abandons God, so, as a result, He decides to punish them; then they repent, so, as a result, He decides to pull back on His punishment.
If we read this too simplistically we see a God who is reactive: He sees what His people are doing and responds accordingly, then sees what they do next and responds accordingly to that. That reading doesn’t properly account for the fact that God is in control of everything, nor does it account for the fact that God is outside of time, and already knew how Rehoboam and the people of Judah were going to respond long before they did it. On the other hand, if we read the entire passage as God simply doing what He wills that’s too simplistic the other way, and doesn’t account for the fact that Rehoboam and the people of Judah were humans with their own free will, and able to make their own decisions. It’s a tension that exists throughout the entire Bible – and, therefore, one I mention on a regular basis in this blog. 🙂
It’s also interesting to think about the treasures that the Egyptians take from Judah:
When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made.
Yes, some of the plunder taken from Judah came from Rehoboam’s palace, but the author(s) emphasise that, actually, a lot of the plunder came from the Temple. What should we take away from that?
First—and the main point I usually think of, when I read about foreign nations plundering the nation and taking treasures from the Temple—is that there might be an aspect of the people giving up that which they care about the least: “Go ahead and steal from the Temple! That’s just God’s stuff; as long as you don’t take our stuff, we’ll be fine.” There are instances where that reading of events seems more explicit, when kings of Judah specifically take from the treasures in the Temple to give to foreign kings as tribute, and that kind of thing.
However, as I’m thinking about aspects of both people’s free will and God’s sovereignty, it also occurs to me that there’s an aspect of God allowing Himself to be stolen from, as part of His teaching Judah a lesson.
It’s not a direct analogy, in this case (I don’t think), but those of us who are familiar with the New Testament will see a pattern in God allowing Himself to be punished for the sake of His people…
Footnotes
- Aside from the symbolism of having to “downgrade” from golden shields to bronze ones, I’m kind of thinking that bronze might be a better metal to make shields out of anyway! Wouldn’t gold be too soft and heavy to make a good shield? ↩
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