KEY
VERSES: Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king (Rehoboam) humbled
themselves; and they said, ‘The Lord is righteous.’ And when the Lord saw that
they humbled themselves, the Word of the Lord came… saying, ‘They have humbled
themselves; therefore, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some
deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem’… And when he
(Rehoboam) humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that He
would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well… he (Rehoboam)
reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of
all the tribes of Israel, to put his Name there… (2 Chron 12:6-7, 12, 13b)
After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam, became King of Israel. An adversary of the house of David, Jeroboam, had fled to Egypt to ally himself with Pharaoh against Rehoboam. Once the people of the northern kingdom resented Rehoboam, Jeroboam came back and was made king of the new kingdom of Israel. The Kingdom of David had been reduced to the weak kingdom of Israel and the stronger one in the south, Judah.
Before Jeroboam had been made king, God, through the older faithful men, had encouraged Rehoboam to make peace with Jeroboam. The younger generation advised that he take a firm hand against the northern tribes, and Rehoboam tried to strong-arm them into submission.
That failed, and then the Pharaoh invaded Judah and destroyed all their cities but Jerusalem. All of King Solomon’s treasures were misappropriated by the Egyptians, and the people of Judah (Jews) came to be satisfied with bronze. They were humbled, as was King Rehoboam!
The key verses above are about the humbling. God granted the Jews deliverance because they were humbled. They were safe from Pharaoh.
In scripture, Egypt represents sin and Pharaoh, the Devil. In typology, the Jews and Rehoboam were saved from sin, and the “Devil” Pharaoh, would not destroy them.
This humbling of the Jews is a foreshadowing of God’s grace. God could have allowed Pharaoh to rule over Judah, the Jews deserved that, but by grace, God was merciful on the Jews, and delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh, and protected them thereafter.
If Pharaoh had destroyed Jerusalem, Judaism would be dead, and the Abrahamic Covenant with the promise of the Messiah through David would have never come about. The Jews deserved destruction, but were kept safe from Pharaoh so that God’s Plan would come to fruition. Think on that: Because God was merciful to sinful Rehoboam, He was merciful to us by keeping His promise of a Savior. Compare God’s grace in delivering the Jews from sin, to the grace of Christians saved from sin: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Ephes 2:5).
In that verse, Jesus “quickened” or kept Christians alive as they had been dead in sin. Sin is spiritual death. It’s when people do what is right in their own eyes, and disregard God’s Will. God says that He is the great “I AM” and sinners want “TO BE.” That is spiritual deadness, but God, by grace, allows those who are humbled to be saved from sin immediately!
James, inspired by God, gave Christians exemplary advice:
But
he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be
afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and
your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up. (Jas 4:6-10)
“Humility” is the attitude that occasions God to provide His grace. Rehoboam and the Jews were humbled by Pharaoh. God uses the Devil as a tool to humble His people, and He used Pharaoh for the same reason.
When things get tough, arrogant sinners are often humbled. For instance, America was under attack by demonic Islamic terrorists who destroyed America’s own “high places.” When our phallic symbols fell, the after-affect was humility. Just as with Rehoboam, it was only temporary.
Humility is when sinners diminish themselves and let God do the lifting-up. Sinners own desires “TO BE” their own gods, is extinguished when they realize that only Jesus “IS” God!
When sinners become persuaded of that, they are converted by rebirth, which Jesus said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Rehoboam was saved from his own sin, but not from Pharaoh. Pharaoh was merely a tool to make Rehoboam fear God and to humble himself. As a result of Rehoboam’s humility, God delivered Rehoboam from sin (the laws of Pharaoh), but he did not kill Pharaoh. Rehoboam had to deal with Pharaoh on a day-to-day basis, hence his bronze shields for safety.
Scripture speaks of that as well where it is written, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Ephes 6:16). That’s what Rehoboam did, not with arrogant shields of gold which Pharaoh impounded, but shields of brass. The gold represented that Rehoboam was king, but brass that he was ordinary (or peculiar).
Rehoboam and the Jews were delivered from death by the hands of Pharaoh just as Job was from Satan. Of course, as with Job, “Satan” could still harm Rehoboam but not kill him. That is where the born-again Christian is with sin; he is free from sin, but not dead to Satan unless he endures to the end (Mat 10:22).
From the key verses, Rehoboam, “Humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that He would not destroy him altogether.” Rehoboam was saved from his sin, and not destroyed (perished). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Rehoboam was delivered from immediate death, at that time, but he died in apostasy; he did not endure to the end. (1 King 14:30) as he warred with Jeroboam until his death, and remained in conflict with God’s Will that there be peace.
He was kept “safe” from sin, but not saved from the consequences of sin which is death: “But God had so much loving-kindness. He loved us with such a great love. Even when we were dead because of our sins, He made us alive by what Christ did for us. You have been saved from the punishment of sin by His loving-favor (Ephes 2:4-5; New Life Vers.)
The “punishment for sin” is death, and the author of death is Satan. Salvation is when living souls of Christians are entirely beyond the influences of Satan, and that occurs at the end of mortal life. Thus, “salvation” is in two stages: (1) safe from sin, and (2) saved from the evil one and eternal punishment in Hell.
Rehoboam, like Christians, are safe from adversaries, but the adversaries can still taunt them, as Pharaoh and Jeroboam continued to do. Their humility kept the Jews safe from utter destruction, but the Jews are still in danger of capitulation to evil until Jesus comes again – when those dead in Christ will rise first followed by the living Christians. That occasion is called the rapture and is a “snatching up” from the influence of the world.
Be safe, Christians, from sin and Satan, until you are saved from the evil one in the end.
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