“When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him forsook the law of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 12:1
In our Previous Reading we’re told (1st Kings 11), “King Solomon loved many foreign women” who would eventually “turn your heart away after their gods”, and that he “went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites”. This would bring God’s Judgement against him with the promise to “tear the kingdom from you, and…give it to your servant”. This came to fulfillment through Jeroboam, who would become the King of the Northern Kingdom.
Well, after his death, Solomon did hand off the baton of the Kingdom to his son, Rehoboam. At the time, Israel was the wealthiest it had ever been and enjoyed Peace among ALL its neighbors. And even though by forsaking his father’s Wise Counselors, he ends up giving away the majority of it, we see in Today’s Verse, “the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong”. But Alas, now, as he settles in to secure what remains, he and his people forsake the God that made them great.
One of the great Puritans, Thomas Brooks said, “Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.” This describes Israel at this time, and unfortunately, our Nation as well! It is not during Poverty and Adversity we are most prone to forsake God, it is during time of Abundance and Ease. As Ezekiel said regarding Sodom and their guilt, it was “abundant food and careless ease” that’s highlighted, not Immorality.