He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. Sermons
I. AS EXPERIENCED BY THE KING OF JUDAH. First of all, following fast on his transgression, came: 1. Divine displeasure and humiliating defeat. There came in to his palace-gates the stern spokesman for God, the prophet of Jehovah, with the language of cutting censure on his lips, "Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, therefore have I also left you," etc. (ver. 5); and with this anger of the Lord came disgraceful defeat on the field of battle. Those strong places he had so carefully fortified, of which he was so proud, and on which he so much relied, went down one after the other at the approach of the enemy, and left the capital at his mercy (vers. 3, 4). Then came: 2. Spiritual agitation. Shame, fear, confession. Rehoboam was ashamed of his great folly; he was afraid for the safety of Jerusalem, and even for his own liberty or life; he made a humble confession of his sin. He and his princes "humbled themselves" before God (ver. 6). And then came: 3. The Divine clemency. (1) God took him back into his forgiving favour (ver. 7). "The wrath of the Lord turned from him" (ver. 12). (2) He promised him deliverance in a short time, and he graciously fulfilled his word; for Shishak went back without destroying or sacking the capital, and without taking the life or liberty of the king. (3) His mercy included discipline. God let Rehoboam be subject to the Egyptian king for a while that he might know the difference between a degrading servitude and an ennobling service (see next homily); and he suffered Jerusalem to be stripped of some of its proud treasures, that the king and his princes might learn that their strength and wealth were as nothing in comparison with the favour of God, and would be forfeited by their disobedience and disloyalty. God's mercy was of such a kind as to justify repentance, but to discourage rebellion and wrong-doing. II. IN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. Following our sin against the Lord, whether this be some special act of transgression, or whether it be the condition of estrangement and separation from him, is: 1. The Divine rebuke. This comes to our heart through the written or uttered Word of God, or through the pricking and piercing of our own conscience, or through the coming of God to the individual soul by his Divine providence. In some form or other God says to us, "Thou hast sinned, and done evil m my sight." 2. Spiritual agitation and return. Our heart is humbled; we are conscious that we have violated the Law and grieved the Spirit of God, and our soul is filled with a holy and a manly shame. And then our heart turns toward God; we "set our hearts to seek the Lord God," our Father and our Saviour and our Friend; we earnestly desire to be taken into his service. And then comes: 3. Divine forgiveness. God receives us fully into his favour; he takes us back to his heart and to his home, so that we are no longer aliens or enemies, but children at his hearth and table. Yet he makes us to know that our past sin has left some of its marks behind it. It has robbed us of some treasure; it has injured us, perhaps in our circumstances; certainly in our soul. We cannot break his righteous Law, we cannot oppose his holy and loving will, we cannot violate the laws of our own spiritual nature, without being something the poorer for our folly and our guilt. Nevertheless, the capital is not taken, the enemy withdraws; we have left us our liberty, and our power to serve the righteous and the loving Saviour. - C.
He prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. I. HE DID NOT BEGIN LIFE WITH SEEKING THE LORD.II. HE SHOWED NO HEART IN SEEKING THE LORD AFTERWARDS. III. HE WAS NOT FIXED AND PERSEVERING SEEKING THE LORD. IV. HE HAD NO CARE TO SEEK THE LORD THOROUGHLY. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. Of the loss sustained. How is God lost to man? He has lost — (1) (2) (3) 2. Of its retrievableness. For this purpose — (1) (2) (3) 3. Of the importance of its recovery. II. MENTAL CONVICTION. In Rehoboam we see mental conviction arising from knowledge of duty, promptings of conscience, consciousness of guilt. This is a mental state of frequent occurrence. It may be observed — 1. As the effect of truth. The Word of God is "a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Felix. There are many Felixes. 2. As intensified by circumstances. 3. As critical in its results. How much depends on moments of conviction! They are often the turning-points of destiny. It does not seem that Rehoboam ever paused in his downward career from this time forward. III. MORAL INFIRMITY. There was want of decision in Rehoboam. He did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. This may be traced — 1. To sensual habits (2 Chronicles 11:18-23; 1 Kings 14:21-24). 2. To evil companionship. 3. To Satanic temptation. IV. ACCUMULATED GUILT. "He did evil because," etc. This sin was parent of a host. He sinned in this neglect of known duty, and in what resulted from it. So do all who pursue a like course. They sin — 1. In resisting their convictions. 2. In self-depravation. "Beware lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." 3. The depravation of others. Through his guilty conduct the people were corrupted. "One sinner destroyeth much good." (S. A. Browning.) I. THE FIRST CONDITION OF A FIXED HEART IS A SIGHT OF THE CROSS. The world's religion ends with forgiveness; God's religion begins with it. There is nothing that imparts such solidity to character, and such strength and dignity to life, as conscious peace with Heaven. II. The next thing is to LOOK UPON YOUR "BROIDERED COAT" — the righteousness that is "unto all and upon all them that believe." III. Bunyan's pilgrim looked also oftentimes into the ROLL WHICH HE CARRIED IN HIS BOSOM. Habitual study of the Bible is indispensable to a healthy condition of the soul. McCheyne would not speak to any one in the morning till he had first of all heard the voice of God. It gives a tone to the whole day, when we begin the day with Him. IV. "WHEN HIS THOUGHTS WAXED WARM ABOUT WHITHER HE WAS GOING," THAT GAVE FIXEDNESS TO CHRISTIAN'S HEART. You may be none the less shrewd as to the interests of time because you are wise as to the concerns of eternity; like a trusty pilot, who, though his eyes are on the stars, keeps his hand upon the helm. (J. T. Davidson, D.D.) I. There is what one may call NATURAL SEEKING. Seeking is the language of human want. The cravings of life will always demand attention. All the industries of the world, with their ten thousand beneficent developments, are the products of human wisdom to supply human wants. Human life is but a seeking in so many ways, from the cradle to the grave.II. SEEKING THE LORD. This is not born of nature, but of grace. Seeking the Lord implies a conscious sense of weakness and insufficiency. III. HEART PREPARATION. All true and successful seeking of the Lord comes of prepared hearts. The heart is always the part that makes our hearing, believing, praying, and doing right or wrong. As soon as the sun rises in the morning the birds are ready to go forth from their nests to sing. So it is with all the moral forces or faculties of the soul when the heart is prepared to seek the Lord. The heart is to the whole man what the main-spring is to the watch — it sets all the other powers in motion. "But as the bowl," says one, "runs as the bias inclines it, and as the ship moves as the rudder steers it," so man seeks as the heart prompts him. A prepared heart is a loving heart, "believing true and clean." It enters into the secret place of the Most High as a loving child enters into his father's home. Whence cometh this preparation? There must be some efficient cause to account for the differences we see among men. The difference between the common field and the garden to-day has been brought about by the application of human thought and manual skill. It is even so with respect to differences among men. As the garden did not enclose itself, or of itself become more fertile than the field, neither have men become different among their fellows or before God except by different resolutions of will and energy of character. Those who exercise no forethought or natural sagacity become as the man who built his house upon the sand. IV. THE EVIL OF NEGLECTING TO PREPARE THE HEART. Men may do evil by failing to do well. Mere neglect is sufficient to ruin a man. A man need not be openly profane or wicked to be excluded from God's presence; he has but to neglect the means of grace, or to prepare his heart to seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near. (John Kerr Campbell, D.D.). People Abijah, Cushites, David, Ethiopians, Iddo, Jeroboam, Naamah, Rehoboam, Shemaiah, Shishak, Solomon, SukkitesPlaces Egypt, JerusalemTopics Belonged, Bulwarks, Captured, Captureth, Cities, Fenced, Fortified, Jerusalem, Judah, Pertained, Towns, WalledOutline 1. Rehoboam, forsaking the Lord, is punished by Shishak5. He and the princes, repenting at the preaching of Shemaiah, 7. are delivered from destruction, but not from spoil 13. The reign and death of Rehoboam Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Chronicles 12:1-4 5214 attack Library Contrasted Services'They shall be his servants: that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.'--2 Chron. xii. 8. Rehoboam was a self-willed, godless king who, like some other kings, learned nothing by experience. His kingdom was nearly wrecked at the very beginning of his reign, and was saved much more by the folly of his rival than by his own wisdom. Jeroboam's religious revolution drove all the worshippers of God among the northern kingdom into flight. They might have endured the … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Chronicles Links 2 Chronicles 12:4 NIV2 Chronicles 12:4 NLT 2 Chronicles 12:4 ESV 2 Chronicles 12:4 NASB 2 Chronicles 12:4 KJV 2 Chronicles 12:4 Bible Apps 2 Chronicles 12:4 Parallel 2 Chronicles 12:4 Biblia Paralela 2 Chronicles 12:4 Chinese Bible 2 Chronicles 12:4 French Bible 2 Chronicles 12:4 German Bible 2 Chronicles 12:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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