2 Chronicles 11:1-23

2 Chronicles: God desires loyal people

The *Kingdom called Judah

2 Chronicles Chapter s 10 to 36

Ian Mackervoy

Chapter 11

*Israel and Judah are at peace – 2 Chronicles 11:1-4

v1 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered the people from Judah and Benjamin. He chose from them 180 000 of the best soldiers to fight against *Israel. He wanted them to make Rehoboam the king of all the people again.

v2 But the *LORD spoke his word to Shemaiah, a man of God. v3 The *LORD said, ‘Speak to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. And speak to all the *Israelites who live in Judah and Benjamin. Say, “This is what the *LORD says. v4 You must not go to war against your brothers. Go home every one of you because I made all these things happen.” ’ So, they obeyed what the *LORD said. They turned back and they did not attack Jeroboam.

Verse 1 The *prophecy of Ahijah became true (10:15). Only the two *tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were loyal to the family of David. From these two *tribes, Rehoboam got together an army of 180 000 men. His purpose was to become the king of all *Israel. He was ready to fight against Jeroboam and against the 10 *tribes.

Verses 2-4 The *LORD would not allow Rehoboam to fight against *Israel. He spoke by means of Shemaiah. And he told Rehoboam that the *LORD caused the *kingdom to split into two. So, if Rehoboam did fight then he would lose the battle. He could not win a fight against the plan of God.

The *LORD told the people in Judah and Benjamin not to go to war. He called the people of the 10 *tribes brothers to Judah and Benjamin. They were all *descendants of one family. Therefore, he told them to go home. The people obeyed God. And they went home. They did not attack Jeroboam.

By this time, Jeroboam had become the king of *Israel (the 10 northern *tribes). (See 1 Kings 12:20.)

Rehoboam makes Judah stronger – 2 Chronicles 11:5-17

v5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities to defend Judah. v6 He built up the cities called Bethlehem, Etam and Tekoa. v7 He built up the cities called Beth-Zur, Soco and Adullam. v8 He built up the cities called Gath, Mareshah and Ziph. v9 He built up the cities called Adoraim, Lachish and Azekah. v10 And he built up the cities called Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were cities with strong walls in Judah and Benjamin. v11 He made the defences stronger. He put officers in control of each place, with supplies of food, oil and wine. v12 He put *shields and *spears in all the cities. And he made the cities very strong. So, Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

v13 The priests and the *Levites from all over *Israel joined Rehoboam’s group. v14 The *Levites even left their farms and property. And they came to Judah and to Jerusalem. Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests to the *LORD. v15 Jeroboam chose his own priests for the high places for *worship. They served the images of the goats and young *bulls that he had made. v16 There were people from every *tribe of *Israel who wanted to obey the *LORD, the God of *Israel. So, they followed the *Levites to Jerusalem. There they gave *sacrifices to the *LORD, the God of their *ancestors. v17 These people made the *kingdom called Judah stronger. And they supported Rehoboam, son of Solomon, for three years. During those three years, they lived the way that David and Solomon had lived.

Verses 5-12 Rehoboam could see two dangers. To the north, Jeroboam might attack his *kingdom. And to the south, there was Egypt. Egypt was probably friendly with Jeroboam. So, he made his cities stronger and more able to defeat an attacking army. The danger was more from Egypt than from Jeroboam. The 15 cities that he made stronger did not defend the northern boundary. But they are on the east, west and south borders of the *kingdom.

These cities were in Judah and Benjamin. In each city, Rehoboam put strong army captains. They had enough provisions in store in each place to last for a long time. And Rehoboam gave plenty of *weapons to them.

Also, Jeroboam made Shechem stronger and he lived there (1 Kings 12:25).

Verses 13-14 The *LORD had told Jeroboam that he should obey the commands of the *LORD (1 Kings 11:38). But Jeroboam *turned away from the *LORD.

He refused to let the *Levites in *Israel be the *LORD’s priests. He and his sons would not let them teach the people. So, the *Levites came from the northern *kingdom to Jerusalem and Judah. This meant that they left all their farms and property in the north. They came because they wanted to be loyal to their God.

Jeroboam’s purpose was to spoil the national unity of the former *Israel. The religion of the *Israelites had its centre in Jerusalem. The *Levites and the people would continue to *worship God. This is what Jeroboam thought. They would still look to the *temple in Jerusalem as the place where God met with his people. They would go to Jerusalem three times each year for the special *feasts. And maybe they would *turn again to the family of David. They might choose to serve Rehoboam and his *descendants rather than Jeroboam’s family. They might even kill Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26-27).

So, Jeroboam tried to change the pattern of *worship in his *kingdom.

Verse 15 Jeroboam built high places for *worship. These were probably on the tops of hills. Then he appointed priests to serve at these places. The priests of the *LORD had to be from the family of Aaron. The *LORD appointed members of this family as his priests. But Jeroboam’s priests came from all sorts of families. Any person who *sacrificed a young *bull and 7 male sheep could become a priest (13:9).

Solomon went up to high places to *worship God (2 Chronicles 1:3). But then there was no *temple. Later, the high places probably became places where people put images of false gods. They became places to *worship false gods and people *turned from the *LORD. So, the *LORD’s judgement of kings depended on whether they tried to remove these places or not.

Jeroboam pretended that Jerusalem was too far for the people to go. So, he made two gold images of young *bulls. He put one of them in the city called Bethel. And he put the other one in the city called Dan. Bethel was in the south of his *kingdom. And Dan was in the extreme north of his *kingdom. These would be the new centres of religion for *Israel. So, he established a new *worship and he made new gods.

He made images of goats and young *bulls for the people to *worship. Before the *Israelites came, the people in that country *worshipped goat gods (Leviticus 17:7). Jeroboam had come from Egypt. In Egypt they *worshipped gods that were like *bulls.

Verses 16-17 There were people in every *tribe that would not *worship the new gods. They wanted to serve the real God of *Israel. These people went with the *Levites to Jerusalem. There they *sacrificed to the God of their *ancestors. They could not *sacrifice to God in any other place.

It seems that for three years these people came to Jerusalem. They accepted Rehoboam as the king. They helped to make the *kingdom called Judah stronger. And they lived good lives as David and Solomon had done.

Rehoboam did well for these three years. But for the next 14 years, he and the people were not as loyal to God.

Rehoboam’s family – 2 Chronicles 11:18-23

v18 Rehoboam married Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth and Abihail. Jerimoth was David’s son, and Abihail was the daughter of Eliab, Jesse’s son. v19 They had three sons, Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. v20 Then Rehoboam married Absalom’s daughter, Maacah. They had 4 children, Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. v21 Rehoboam loved Maacah more than he loved his other wives. He had 18 wives of the first rank and 60 other wives. And he had 28 sons and 60 daughters.

v22 Rehoboam chose Abijah, son of Maacah to be the chief prince among his brothers. He wanted Abijah to be king after him. v23 He was wise when he sent his sons to live in different parts of Judah and Benjamin. He sent them to all the strong cities. He gave plenty of supplies to them and he found many wives for them.

Verses 18-20 Jesse had 8 sons. Eliab was the oldest of these sons (1 Samuel 17:13). He had a daughter or, more probably, a granddaughter called Abihail. David was another son of Jesse. David had a son called Jerimoth. Jerimoth and Abihail married and they had a daughter. And Mahalath married Rehoboam. By Mahalath, Rehoboam had three sons Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham.

Absalom, a son of David, had three sons and one daughter called Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27). The three sons died before their father Absalom (2 Samuel 18:18). Maacah was probably the daughter of Tamar. Tamar was the wife of Solomon’s son, Uriel (13:2).

Rehoboam married Maacah and she was his favourite wife. They had 4 children. One of these was Abijah who later became king.

God said that the king must not have many wives (Deuteronomy 17:17). Solomon did not obey this command and he had 700 wives of first rank and 300 other wives. These wives caused him to *turn away from the *LORD (1 Kings 11:3-4). Rehoboam was not as bad as his father was. But, like his father, he did not obey the *LORD’s command. He had 18 wives of first rank and 60 other wives.

Verses 22-23 Rehoboam loved Maacah more than he loved Mahalath. And he gave to Abijah, son of Maacah, the position that he should have given to his first son Jeush. In this, he did not obey God’s law (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).

The choice of Abijah as the chief prince might mean that Abijah ruled with his father. In the same way, David made Solomon king while David was still alive (1 Chronicles 23:1).

Such a decision might have caused a lot of trouble in the family. Rehoboam was wise to send his sons to different parts of his *kingdom. He gave to them authority over cities. He provided them with all that they needed. He even found wives for them. In this way, he made sure that they would not oppose his choice of Abijah.

The rulers of Judah – 2 Chronicles 12:1-36

kingdom ~ the place or territory where a king rules; or, the people that a king rules over.
LORD ~ ‘LORD’ is the special name that God gave to himself. It means that God has always been.
lord ~ someone with authority such as the king.
prophecy ~ a message from God; a gift of the Holy Spirit. But sometimes false prophets tried to speak a prophecy.
prophet ~ person who speaks on behalf of God. He or she can sometimes say what will happen in the future. Some prophets worshipped false gods. So, not all prophets spoke words from God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
tribe ~ the *Israelites were divided into the 12 families of the sons of Jacob. These families are the 12 tribes of *Israel.
kingdom ~ the place or territory where a king rules; or, the people that a king rules over.
descendant ~ a future member of a family or of a nation.
shield ~ soldiers carried shields in their hands for protection in battle; they were like covers to protect the body from swords or from other weapons. Solomon’s shields of gold were probably not for use in war.
weapon ~ a tool of war; people use it in attack or in defence when in a fight (like a sword or a gun).
spear ~ a long and thin weapon of war, like a sword but they usually threw it.
weapon ~ a tool of war; people use it in attack or in defence when in a fight (like a sword or a gun).
Levite ~ a person who belongs to the tribe of Levi.
tribe ~ the *Israelites were divided into the 12 families of the sons of Jacob. These families are the 12 tribes of *Israel.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
bull ~ the male animal that mates with a cow.
sacrifice ~ something that people give to God. If it was an animal, the priests would burn all or part of it on an altar. That was to say thank you to God, or to ask him to forgive. God made Jesus to be a sacrifice because of our sins. To sacrifice is to give a sacrifice.
altar ~ the special table that someone made out of stone or wood or metal; on it they burnt animals or they offered other gifts to God or to false gods.
sin ~ sin is the wrong things that we do. To sin is to do wrong, bad or evil deeds and not to obey God. Those who sin are sinners.
ancestors ~ people in history that your family has come from.
weapon ~ a tool of war; people use it in attack or in defence when in a fight (like a sword or a gun).
turn ~ to decide to support someone. Or, to decide to oppose someone. If a person ‘turns away from God’, that person decides not to be loyal to God. If a person ‘turns to God’, that person decides to be loyal to God.
temple ~ a special building for the worship of God or of other gods. The Jews had one in Jerusalem for the worship of the real God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
Jews ~ another name for the *Israelites.
feast ~ a large meal; but in this book a feast is often a special time when the people came together to worship God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.