In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had trespassed against Yahweh, with twelve hundred chariots, and sixty thousand horsemen. The people were without number who came with him out of Egypt: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. He took the fortified cities which belonged to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, who were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Yahweh says, ‘You have forsaken me, therefore I have also left you in the hand of Shishak.’ ”
Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, “Yahweh is righteous.”
When Yahweh saw that they humbled themselves, Yahweh’s word came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them; but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath won’t be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they will be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”
So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He took it all away. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 7, 8 Which were a people of Africa called the Troglodytes…
Which were a people of Africa called the Troglodytes because they dwelled in holes.
Or, black Moores.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–9 2Ch 12:2 And it came to pass, [that] in…
2Ch 12:2 And it came to pass, [that] in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD,
Ver. 2. In the fifth year of Rehoboam.] In his fourth year they fell from God’s service to idolatry, and did evil as they could. Had they taken away the idol temple set up by Solomon - as Zisca in Bohemia, and Cromwell here, did the monasteries, they had not likely so soon and so much corrupted themselves. But herein also Manasseh was to blame; and Constantine the Great, in that he only shut up the idol temples, and destroyed them not, which Julian the apostate did soon after set open again.
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Shishak king of Egypt.] See on 1Ki 14:25.
Came up against Jerusalem,] Which when he had taken, he went on to other parts, and subdued all Asia, say Herodotus and Siculus.
Because they had transgressed against the Lord.] See 1Ki 14:22-24. Shishak probably was stirred up by Jeroboam who had lived in the court of Egypt, and married a wife there of the blood-royal, as some say - to invade Rehoboam’s country: but this he could not have done, had they not prevaricated against the Lord.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 7, 8, 9 In the fifth year; presently after the apostacy of…
In the fifth year; presently after the apostacy of the king and people, which was in his fourth year, by comparing this with 2Ch 11:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–9 And it came to pass in the fifth year…
And it came to pass in the fifth year of Rehoboam,.... In the fourth year, the apostasy of him and his people began; and, in the year following, what is next related happened, as a punishment of it:
Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; of whom see Kg1 11:40,
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because they transgressed against the Lord; transgressed the law of the Lord by falling into idolatry and other abominable evils; the Targum is,"against the Word of the Lord.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 7, 8 Fifth year - Presently after the apostacy of the…
Fifth year - Presently after the apostacy of the king and people, which was in the fourth year.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 6, 8, 9 Verse 2. Shishak king of Egypt] Concerning this man,…
Verse 2. Shishak king of Egypt] Concerning this man, and the motive which led him to attack the Jews, see the note on 1Kg 14:31.
Transgressed against the Lord] "Against the WORD of the Lord." - Targum.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 2Ch 12:2. In the fifth year Shishak came up…
2Ch 12:2. In the fifth year Shishak came up against Jerusalem — Presently after the apostacy of the king and people, which was in the fourth year. As this great calamity came upon them so soon after they began to desert the worship of God, and by a hand they had so little reason to suspect, having had a great deal of friendly correspondence with Egypt in the last reign; and as it came with so much violence, that all the fenced cities of Judah, which Rehoboam had lately fortified and garrisoned, and on which he relied much for the safety of his kingdom, fell into the hands of the enemy without making any resistance, it plainly appeared that the Lord had sent it, because they had transgressed against him. And doubtless God brought this unexpected trouble upon them so soon after their departure from him, not only to manifest his displeasure at, and to punish them for, their crime, but also and especially to recover them to repentance before their hearts were hardened.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Shishak ... came up ... because they had transgressed…
Shishak ... came up ... because they had transgressed - The writer speaks from a divine, not a human, point of view. Shishak’s motive in coming up was to help Jeroboam, and to extend his own influence.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 7 Troglodites, who dwell in caverns, near the Red Sea.…
Troglodites, who dwell in caverns, near the Red Sea. Pliny ([Natural History?] v. 8., and vi. 29.) speaks of the city Suca, which in Hebrew means a tent, as here we read succiyim, (Haydock) "dwelling in tents;" which some explain of the Arabs, who are called Scenites, on the same account. (Tirinus) --- People of this description, without any fixed abode, inhabited the Stony as well as the Desert Arabia, chap. xiv. 14.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 6, 7, 9 Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem--He was…
Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem--He was the first king of the twenty-second or Bubastic Dynasty. What was the immediate cause of this invasion? Whether it was in resentment for some provocation from the king of Judah, or in pursuance of ambitious views of conquest, is not said. But the invading army was a vast horde, for Shishak brought along with his native Egyptians an immense number of foreign auxiliaries.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 3. The Lubim — Libyans, Dan_11:43; probably identical with…
3. The Lubim — Libyans, Dan_11:43; probably identical with the Lehabim of Gen_10:13. They were an African nation, apparently under Egyptian rule, and are repeatedly mentioned in connexion with the Egyptians and Ethiopians. Compare 1Ch_16:8; Nah_3:9. They peopled the African coast along the Mediterranean, west of Egypt.
The Sukkiim — “This name does not occur elsewhere. The Seventy, who rendered the word by ‘Troglodytes,’ regarded the Sukkiim probably as the ‘cave-dwellers’ along the western shore of the Red Sea, who are mentioned by Strabo and others; but the conjecture of Gesenius, that the word means ‘tent dwellers,’ is plausible, and would point rather to a tribe of Arabs.” — Rawlinson. The Ethiopians inhabited the country south of Egypt, which was watered by the Upper Nile. Compare 2Ki_19:9; Est_1:1.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–9 2. Shishak] The Egyptian king has commemorated this expedition…
2. Shishak] The Egyptian king has commemorated this expedition in a pictorial inscription on the wall of the temple of Karnak. It appears that the Northern kingdom suffered as well as the Southern, but no permanent conquest of Canaan was attempted. (Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, ed. v. pp. 360, 1.)
because they had trespassed] A touch characteristic of the Chronicler; cp. 2Ch_13:18; 2Ch_21:10; 2Ch_24:24; 2Ch_25:20; 2Ch_27:6; 2Ch_28:19; and 1Ch_10:13-14. The Chronicler sees the working of temporal rewards and of temporal punishments everywhere.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–9 (2) And it came to pass.—See 1Ki_14:25, with which…
(2) And it came to pass.—See 1Ki_14:25, with which this verse literally coincides, except that the last clause, “because they had transgressed,” is added by the chronicler.
In the fifth year of king Rehoboam.—The order of events is thus given: For three years Rehoboam and his people continued faithful to the Lord (2Ch_11:17); in the fourth year they fell away; and in the fifth their apostacy was punished.
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Shishak.—The Sesonchis of Manetho, and the sh-sh-nk of the hieroglyphs, was the first king of the 22nd dynasty. “His name,” says Ebers, “and those of his successors, Osorkon (Zerah) and Takelot, are Semitic, a fact which explains the Biblical notice that Solomon took a princess of this dynasty for his consort, and stood in close commercial relations with Egypt, as well as, on the other hand, that Hadad the Edomite received the sister of Tahpenes the queen to wife (1Ki_11:19). In the year 949 B.C. Shishak, at the instigation of Jeroboam, took the field against Rehoboam, besieged Jerusalem, captured it, and carried off a rich booty to Thebes. On a southern wall of the Temple of Karnak, all Palestinian towns which the Egyptians took in this expedition are enumerated” (Riehm’s Handwort. Bibl. Alterth., p. 333).
Because they had transgressed.—For they had been faithless to Jehovah. This is the chronicler’s own parenthetic explanation of the event, and expresses in one word his whole philosophy of Israelite history. Of course it is not meant that Shishak had any consciousness of the providential ground of his invasion of Judah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Shishak; Hebrew, qvyvi; Septuagint, Sousakim; Shishak, Sheshonk, Sesonchis, the…
Shishak; Hebrew, qvyvi; Septuagint, Sousakim; Shishak, Sheshonk, Sesonchis, the Sheshenk I or Shashank I of the monuments, son of an Assyrian king called Nimrod or Nemaruth, became King of Egypt as first of six kings who lasted in all a hundred and seventy years, of the twenty-second dynasty of Manetho, reigning in Bubastis. To him Jeroboam had fled for refuge from Solomon. (1Ki_11:40) He reigned An. Sac. 3830 (B.C. 980) to 3851 or 3863. This makes Solomon"s reign A.S. 3799 (B.C. 1011) to 3839 (B.C. 971). Shishak"s invasion, therefore, in aid of Jeroboam, was A.S. 3844 (B.C. 966). A representation of it exists in relief sculptured on the south external wall of the temple of Amen, at Karnak, Thebes; and, together with this, an elaborate list of countries, cities, tribes, conquered by Sheshenk or tributary to him, a hundred and thirty-three in number. Among these are some of the very fifteen fenced cities (see our ver. 4) which Rehoboam built or fortified, viz. the three, Shoco, Adoraim, and Aijalon, while the erasure of fourteen names just where these are found accounts, no doubt, for the non-appearance of others of them. There are also the names of Levitical and Canaanite cities, situated in the kingdoms of the ten tribes, but belonging to the Levites who had been compelled to migrate into Judah. The dates given above are those accepted by Conder, in his "Handbook to the Bible" (see pp. 28-34), and do not quite agree with those adopted in Smith"s "Bible Dictionary," 3:1287-1294. Both of these most interesting articles will well repay perusal, as well as the article "Thebes" in the latter work, 3:1471-1475. (The name and word Shishak has no relation whatever with the Sheshach Jer_25:26; It. 41, a word which, possibly spelling Babel or even Ur, marks the name of a place, and is evidently used by Jeremiah for Babylon or Babylonia.)
Vers. 2-12.
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Penalty, penitence, and forgiveness.
It was not many months before Rehoboam found out the heinousness of his offence, the magnitude of his mistake; for in the path of sin comes penalty, and behind penalty steals shame. Happily for him there was mercy behind that. We look at this succession
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
2. Divine.providence. In some form or other God says to us, "Thou hast sinned, and done evil m my sight.
3. 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:
4. 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.
Vers. 2-4.
Shishak"s invasion.
I THE INVADER. Shishak King of Egypt, the Sesonchis of Manetho, the Shashanq I of the monuments (s.c. 966). Originally the son of an Assyrian king named Nimrod, "who had met his death in Egypt and been buried at Abydos," Shashanq I of the twenty-second dynasty established his seat of royalty at Bubastis, in Lower Egypt (Brugsch, "Egypt under the Pharaohs," 2:215, 216; Ebers, in Riehm"s "Handworterbuch," art. "Sisak;" "Records of the Past," 12:93). His mother"s name was Tentespeh, his wife"s Tahpenes. (1Ki_11:19) One of his wife"s sisters married Hadad the Edomite; another became the wife of Jeroboam (Stanley, "Jewish Church," 2:275; Ewald, "History of Israel," 3:217; 4:32).
II THE ARMY.
1. Chariots. In ancient times a common instrument of war ( (Exodus (2Sa_15:1; 1Ki_20:1) Shishak had twelve hundred, or twice the number of Pharaoh"s chosen chariots in the time of Moses. (Exo_14:7) The Philistines once collected against Israel thirty thousand. (1Sa_13:5) Solomon had fourteen hundred, (1Ki_10:26) Rehoboam likely not so many in consequence of the disruption of the kingdom.
1. Horsemen. Sixty thousand; five times as many as had belonged to Solomon, (1Ki_4:26) and twelve times as many as the Philistines had brought against Israel. (1Sa_13:5) Forty thousand mounted warriors once fell before David"s troops. (2Sa_10:18)
2. Infantry. Without number, composed of native forces and mercenaries or foreign troops Lubims, Sukkims, and Ethiopians.
(1) The Lubims, or Libyans (2Ch_16:8; Dan_11:43) the Lehabim of Gen_10:13, the Temhu, or Tehennu, or more accurately the eastern portion of this people, the Lubu of the monuments (Ebers, "Egypt and the Books of Moses," p. 104), were the inhabitants of the districts of Marcotis and Libya west of the Canopic arm of the Nile (Knobel), or in the larger sense the Liby-AEgyptii of the ancients (Keil), the people dwelling between Lower Egypt and the Roman province of Africa (Kautzsch in Riehm, art. "Libyer").
(2) The Sukkim were aborigines of Africa, "cavemen," troglodytes (LXX, Vulgate), "probably the Ethiopian troglodytes upon the mountains on the west coast of the Arabian Gulf" (Bertheau), whom Strabo and Pliny mention, the latter speaking of a troglodyte city Suche, which has been identified with Suakim (Kautzsch).
(3) The Ethiopians, or Cushites, introduced among the forces of Shishak (cf. Nah_3:9) were drawn from the African territory south of Egypt.
III THE REASON.
1. Shishaks. Perhaps to assist Jeroboam in his measures of hostility against Rehoboam, and eventually to secure the supremacy of Judah, possibly also of Israel as well.
2. Jehovah"s. To punish Rehoboam and Judah for their apostasy. Though second causes need not be overlooked, they must not be permitted to obscure, far less to deny, the first. Had Rehoboam remained faithful to Jehovah, all the intrigues of Jeroboam would have failed to start Shishak on the extradition here reported.
IV THE PROGRESS. Shishak captured all the fenced cities of Judah in which Rehoboam trusted, (2Ch_11:5-9) and encamped his army before the walls of Jerusalem. Vain, after all, had been Rehoboam"s confidence. His garrisons and soldiers had yielded the first assault, The props on which men lean often prove broken reeds. The shelters to which sinners run in the day of calamity mostly turn out refuges of lies. (Isa_28:17)
Lessons.
1. The certainty of sin being sooner or later overtaken by retribution. (Num_32:23)
1. The weakness of all defences, whether for nations or for individuals, when God is not within them. (Psa_127:1)
2. When God has a sinner to chastise he can easily find an instrumentwherewith to do it. W. (Isa_10:5)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv8–9 Nevertheless they shall be his servants.
2Ch_12:8
Nevertheless they shall be his servants.
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Servitude or service-which
?--
I. That there are some who have already chosen the service of the kingdoms of the countries. Some have chosen--
1. To be the slaves of open sin.
2. To be the votaries of money-making.
3. To be lovers of fashion, lovers of society, admirers of the world.
4. To become the devotees of culture.
5. To be the seekers of self-righteousness.
II. Some seem to be pining to give up the service of God, and to go to the service of the kingdoms. Some want to change--
1. Out of sheer love of change.
2. Because of the outward aspect of the new thing.
3. Because of their loss of joy in the service of God.
4. Because of the flagging of others.
5. Because religion now has brought them to a point where it entails some extra self-sacrifice.
III. There is a great contrast between the service of God and any other service. The service of God is delightful. Remember, young man, if you are about to engage in the service of God--
1. There is nothing demanded of you that will harm you.
2. There is nothing denied you, in the service of God, that would be a blessing to you.
3. That in the service of God strength will always be given according to your day.
4. That there is no threat made to hang upon it.
5. All the while that you are a servant of God, you have a sweet peace in reflecting upon what you have done.
6. There is, above all this, a hope of the eternal reward which is so soon to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Comparative service
It is an old failing of human nature not to know when it is well off, and the text furnishes an illustration of that failing. There is a great lesson here for to-day. Adam was discontented with Paradise, Israel with Canaan, and many now are despising the goodly inheritance we have in Christ. We are fond of comparing the service of God with alternative services, to the disparagement of the former.
I. Compare the faith of Christ with the faith of scepticism. I say the faith of scepticism, for the sceptic has a creed just as truly as the Christian believer has. Many are greatly dissatisfied with the Christian revelation; they are anxious to set it aside, to find substitutes for it. The proverb says: The cow in the meadow, knee-deep in clover, often looks over the hedge and longs for the common. So, many are now looking over the hedge of revelation, and longing for the bare wastes and the wild growths of infidelity.
1. If we renounce revelation, shall we be better off intellectually? It must be remembered that if revelation is rejected, all the dark problems of nature, all the perplexing enigmas of human life, will still be left. Revelation has not created the confusions, the cruelties, the calamities of the world. You will not make a black sky blue by smashing the weather-glass; you will not turn cruel winter into glorious summer by throwing out the thermometer; neither will you get rid of sorrow and mystery and death by rejecting the Bible. Can you, having rejected revelation, give that dark world any clearer or happier interpretation?
2. If we renounce revelation, shall we be better off as pertaining to the conscience? Take away the Bible, and conscience is left--an accusing conscience is left. To what terrible beliefs and deeds an accusing conscience drives men the history of paganism clearly shows. A guilty conscience built the wicker-basket of Druidism; it doomed the children to pass through the fire to Molech. Yes, you reply, but it is impossible for these tragedies of superstition to be repeated; Druidism, for instance, can never come back again. Who can say what may, or may not, come back again? Theosophy teaches that through endless reincarnations we must be purged from our sins. Our sorrows in this life are the results of the sins and errors of past incarnations, and before us is a dreary vista of fresh incarnations in which we are again to sin and suffer. It is terrible to think of the monstrous intellectual and religious systems which must arise when men no longer know the mercy of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The guilty conscience will not go to sleep; it will have blood and tears.
3. If we renounce revelation, shall we be better off touching character? If unbelief triumphed, and Christ were rejected as the pattern and perfecter of character, would anything be gained? The whole world of thoughtful men acknowledges the marvellous, the incomparable moral beauty of Jesus Christ.
II. Compare the doctrine of Christ with the doctrine of the world. Thus many now are inclined to prefer the worldly life to the Christian life. It seems so much more free. Men feel that the Christian law retards their youth, cramps and foils their appetites and curiosities. But is this so? The doctrine of Jesus is hard, men say. But how much harder, exclaims Tolstoy, is the doctrine of the world! Take its doctrine of glory. Cruel doctrine! What blood, groans, tears, it implies! And not only on the battlefield is the doctrine of glory seen to be merciless; it works woe in a thousand subtle ways in all spheres of human life and action. Take its doctrine of gain. How that principle of selfishness, which is the doctrine of the world, grinds men to powder! Take its doctrine of fashion. What a terrible price the world exacts for its empty shows, its vain titles, its purple and gold! Take its doctrine of pleasure. Millions have been ruined by following in its paths of roses and music and beauty. How cruel! Ah! the world has far more martyrs than the Church has. And what is the doctrine of Jesus that men call hard? Instead of the doctrine of glory, He teaches the doctrine of humility and service; for the doctrine of gain, the doctrine of equity and love; for the doctrine of fashion, the doctrine of simplicity and truth; for the doctrine of pleasure, the doctrine of purity and peace. Well may Jesus dare to say, My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
III. Compare the law of Christ with the service of self-will. A man says: I will not be restrained; I will determine my own path, choose my own pleasures, shape my own character, be the architect of my own fortune. It shall throughout be according to my own preferences and determinations. Is, then, the self-willed man happy? Is he happy as he sets himself against nature? You tell your boy not to play with fire; but he is self-willed, and takes the opportunity to sport with matches and gunpowder, and probably repents ever after. It does not pay to set up our will against the grand ordinances of nature. Is the self-willed man happy as he opposes himself to the laws and institutions of society? To outrage the judgments, the feelings, the rights of society is to be keenly miserable. Is the self-willed man happy within himself? You say proudly, I am my own master. Could you have a worse? It is a terrible thing to setup our will against the Divine will as that will is expressed in the physical universe, in society, or as it seeks to fulfil itself in our personal nature and life. Self-will is captivity and ruin: loving obedience to the will of God in Christ, with its self-control and self-denial, is health and peace. To be His slaves is to be kings. Surrender yourselves to Him, and prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The service of the kingdoms of the countries. The Jews often heard delightful things about this foreign service. They remembered the fish which they did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. Nothing to do in Egypt but to regale themselves with piquant viands, and to stroll under the palms on the banks of the Nile. They heard of the attractions of Babylon, of its hanging gardens, its luxuries and delights. And the ambassadors of Sennacherib painted for them in glowing colours the life of Assyria: A land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. No more work, no more worry, no more worship. Getting away from Jerusalem, they were to get away from temple and law, from priest and prophet, and to taste the pleasures of an unfettered life. But did they find captivity so desirable? You who are tempted to despise Gods Word, beware. Young men, weary of the order and restraint of a godly home, and ever hankering after a looser life, be wise, and stay thankfully where you are. Discontented Englishmen, ever protesting against narrowness and austerity, against Protestantism, Puritanism, and bumbledom, and ever looking with longing eyes to laxer civilisations, be content; subdue your murmurings and wantonness, lest God spoil you of your rich inheritance. Discontented Christians, ever casting lingering glances at the life you have left, be content; see to it that there is in you no evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v8 2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
CONTRASTED SERVICES
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2Ch 12:8.
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 separate monarchy, but they could not endure the separate Temple. So all priests and Levites in Israel, and all the adherents of the ancestral worship in the Temple at Jerusalem, withdrew to the southern kingdom and added much to its strength.
Rehoboam’s narrow escape taught him neither moderation nor devotion, his new strength turned his head. He forsook the law of the Lord. The dreary series, so often illustrated in the history of Israel, came into operation. Prosperity produced irreligion; irreligion brought chastisement; chastisement brought repentance; repentance brought the removal of the invader-and then, like a spring released, back went king and nation to their old sin.
So here-Rehoboam’s sins take visible form in Sheshak’s army. He has sown the dragon’s teeth and they spring up armed men. Shemaiah the prophet, the first of the long series of noble men who curbed the violence of Jewish monarchs, points the lesson of invasion in plain, blunt words: ‘Ye have forsaken Me.’ Then follow penitence and confession-and the promise that Jerusalem shall not be destroyed, but at the same time they are to be left as vassals and tributaries of Egypt-an anomalous position for them-and the reason is given in these words of our text.
I. The contrasted Masters.
Judah was too small to be independent of the powerful warlike states to its north and south, unless miraculously guarded and preserved. So it must either keep near God, and therefore free and safe from invasion, or else, departing from God and following its own ways, fall under alien dominion. Its experience was a type of that of universal humanity. Man is not independent. His mass is not enough for him to do without a central orb round which he may revolve. He has a choice of the form of service and the master that he will choose, but one or other must dominate his life and sway his motions. ‘Ye cannot serve God and Mammon’; ye must serve God or Mammon. The solemn choice is presented to every man, but the misery of many lives is that they drift along, making their election unawares, and infallibly choosing the worse by the very act of lazily or weakly allowing accident to determine their lives. Not consciously and strongly to will the right, not resolutely and with coercion of the vagrant self to will to take God for our aim, is to choose the low, the wrong. Perhaps none, or very few of us, would deliberately say ‘I choose Mammon, having carefully compared the claims of the opposite systems of life that solicit me, and with open-eyed scrutiny measured their courses, their goods and their ends.’ But how many of us there are who have in effect made that choice, and never have given one moment’s clear, patient examination of the grounds of our choice! The policy of drift is unworthy of a man and is sure to end in ruin.
It is not for me to attempt here to draw out the contrast between man’s chief end and all other rival claimants of our lives. Each man must do that for himself, and I venture to assert that the more thoroughly the process of comparison is carried out, and the more complete the analysis not only of the rival claims and gifts, but of our capacities and needs, the more sun-clear will be the truth of the old, well-worn answer: ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.’ The old woman by her solitary fireside who has learned that and practises it, has chosen the better part which will last when many shining careers have sunk into darkness, and many will-o’-the-wisps, which have been pursued with immense acclamations, have danced away into the bog, and many a man who has been envied and admired has had to sum up his successful career in the sad words, ‘I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.’ I cannot pretend to conduct the investigation for you, but I can press on every one who does not wish to let accidents mould him, at least to recognise that there is a choice to be made, and to make it deliberately and with eyes open to the facts of the case. It is a shabby way of ruining yourself to do it for want of thought. The rabble of competitors of God catch more souls by accident than of set purpose. Most men are godless because they have never fairly faced the question: what does my soul require in order to reach its highest blessedness and its noblest energy?
II. The contrasted experience of the servants.
Judah learned that the yoke of obedience to God’s law was a world lighter than the grinding oppression of the Egyptian invader.
God’s service is freedom; the world’s is slavery.
Liberty is unrestrained power to do what we ought. Man must be subject to law. The solemn imperative of duty is omnipresent and sovereign. To do as we like is not freedom, but bondage to self, and that usually our worst self, which means crushing or coercing the better self. The choice is to chain the beast in us or to clip the wings of the angel in us, and he is a fool who conceits himself free because he lets his inferior self have its full swing, and hustles his better self into bondage to clear the course for the other. There is but one deliverance from the sway of self, and it is realised in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. To make self our master inevitably leads to setting beggars on horseback and princes walking. Passion, the ‘flesh’ is terribly apt to usurp the throne within when once God is dethroned. Then indulgence feeds passion, and deeper draughts become necessary in order to produce the same effects, and cravings, once allowed free play, grow in ravenousness, while their pabulum steadily loses its power to satisfy. The experience of the undevout sensualist is but too faithful a type of that of all undevout livers, in the failure of delights to delight and of acquisitions to enrich, and in the bondage, often to nothing more worthy to be obeyed than mere habit, and in the hopeless incapacity to shake off the adamantine chains which they have themselves rivetted on their limbs. There are endless varieties in the forms which the service of self assumes, ranging from gross animalism, naked and unashamed, up to refined and cultured godlessness, but they are one in their inmost character, one in their disabling the spirit from a free choice of its course, one in the limitations which they impose on its aspirations and possibilities, one in the heavy yoke which they lay on their vassals. The true liberty is realised only when for love’s dear sake we joyously serve God, and from the highest motive enrol ourselves in the household of the highest Person, and by the act become ‘no more servants but sons.’ Well may we all pray-
‘Lord! bind me up, and let me lie
A prisoner to my liberty,
If such a state at all can be
As an imprisonment, serving Thee.’
God’s service brings solid good, the world’s is vain and empty.
God’s service brings an approving conscience, a calm heart, strength and gladness. It is in full accord with our best selves. Tranquil joys attend on it. ‘In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward,’ and that not merely bestowed after keeping, but realised and inherent in the very act. On the other side, think of the stings of conscience, the illusions on which those feed who will not eat of the heavenly food, the husks of the swine-trough, the ashes for bread, that self and the world, in all their forms set before men. A pathetic character in modern fiction says, ‘If you make believe very much it is nice.’ It takes a tremendous amount of make-believe to keep up an appetite for the world’s dainties or to find its meats palatable, after a little while. No sin ever yields the fruit it was expected to produce, or if it does it brings something which was not expected, and the bitter tang of the addition spoils the whole. It may be wisely adapted to secure a given end, but that end is only a means to secure the real end, our substantial blessedness, and that is never attained but by one course of life, the life of service of God. We may indeed win a goodly garment, but the plague is in the stuff and, worn, it will burn into the bones like fire. I read somewhere lately of thieves who had stolen a cask of wine, and had their debauch, but they sickened and died. The cask was examined and a huge snake was found dead in it. Its poison had passed into the wine and killed the drinkers. That is how the world serves those who swill its cup. ‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?’ The threatening pronounced against Israel’s disobedience enshrines an eternal truth: ‘Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies . . . in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness and in want of all things.’
God’s service has final issues and the world’s service has final issues.
Only fools try to blink the fact that all our doings have consequences. And it augurs no less levity and insensibility to blink the other fact that these consequences show no indications of being broken short off at the end of our earthly life. Men die into another life, as they have ever, dimly and with many foolish accompaniments, believed; and dead, they are the men that they have made themselves while living. Character is eternal, memory is eternal, death puts the stamp of perpetuity on what life has evolved. Nothing human ever dies. The thought is too solemn to be vulgarised by pulpit rhetoric. Enough to say here that these two tremendous alternatives, Life and Death, express some little part of the eternal issues of our fleeting days. Looking fixedly into these two great symbols of the ultimate issues of these contrasted services, we can dimly see, as in the one, a wonder of resplendent glories moving in a sphere ‘as calm as it is bright,’ so, in the other, whirling clouds and jets of vapour as in the crater of a volcano. One shuddering glance over the rim of it should suffice to warn from lingering near, lest the unsteady soil should crumble beneath our feet.
But the true Lord of our lives loves us too well to let us experience all the bitter issues of our foolish rebellion against His authority, and yet He loves us too well not to let us taste something of them that we may ‘know and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God.’ The experiences of the consequences of godless living are in some measure allowed to fall on us by God’s love, lest we should persist in the evil and so bring down on ourselves still more fatal issues. It is mercy that here chastises the evildoer with whips, in hope of not having to chastise him with scorpions. God desires to teach us, by the pains and heartaches of an undevout life, by disappointments, foiled plans, wrecked hopes, inner poverty, the difference between His service and that of ‘the kingdoms of the countries,’ if haply He may not be forced to let the full flood of fatal results overwhelm us. It is best to be drawn to serve Him by the cords of love, but it is possible to have the beginnings of the desire so to serve roused by the far lower motives of weariness and disgust at the world’s wages, and by dread of what these may prove when they are paid in full. Self-interest may sicken a man of serving Mammon, and may be transformed into the self-surrender which makes God’s service possible and blessed. The flight into the city of refuge may be quickened by the fear of the pursuer, whose horse’s hoofs are heard thundering on the road behind the fugitive, and whose spear is all but felt a yard from his back, but once within the shelter of the city wall, gratitude for deliverance will fill his heart and ‘perfect love will cast out fear.’
The king concerning whom our text was spoken had to suffer humiliation by the Egyptian invasion. His sufferings were meant to be educational, and when they in some measure effected their purpose, God curbed the invader and granted some measure of deliverance. So is it with us, if, moved by whatever impulse, we betake ourselves to Jesus to save us from the bitter fruits of our evil lives. The extreme severity of the results of our sins does not fall on penitent, believing spirits, but some do fall. As the Psalmist says: ‘Thou wast a God that forgavest them though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.’ A profligate course of life may be forgiven, but health or fortune is ruined all the same. In brief, the so-called ‘natural’ consequences are not removed, though the sin which caused them is pardoned. Polluted memories, indulged habits, defiled imaginations, are not got rid of, though the sins that inflicted them are forgiven.
Is it not, then, the part of wise men to lay to heart the lessons of experience, and to let what we have learned of the bitter fruit of godless living turn us away from such service, and draw us by merciful chastisement to yield ourselves to God, whom to serve accords with our deepest needs and brings first fruits and pre-libations of blessedness and peace here, and fullness of joy with pleasures for evermore hereafter?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 5, 7, 9 It happened
It happened
This phrase is used here to mark where the action starts. If your language has a way for doing this, you could consider using it here.
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in the fifth year of King Rehoboam
This refers to the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign as king. AT: "in the fifth year that Rehoboam was king" or "in year five of King Rehoboam's reign" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Ordinal Numbers)
Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem
"Shishak, king of Egypt" here is a metonym for Shishak along with the Egyptian army. AT: "Shishak, king of Egypt, and his army with him, came up against Jerusalem" (See: Metonymy)
Shishak
This is the name of a man. (See: How to Translate Names)
came up against
This is an idiom that means marched against or attacked. AT: "came to attack" (See: Idiom)
twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen
"1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen" (See: Numbers)
Soldiers without number
This exaggeration means that there were more soldiers than a person could easily count. AT: "Many soldiers" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites
These are people from Libya, Sukki, and Ethiopia. The location of Sukki is uncertain, but it may be a region in Libya. (See: How to Translate Names and Translate Unknowns)
translationWords
Egypt
Jerusalem
faithful
chariot
horseman
Ethiopia
kingdom of Judah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 3, 6, 9 12:2-4 Shishak, also known as Shoshenq I (945–924 BC),…
12:2-4 Shishak, also known as Shoshenq I (945–924 BC), ruled a reunited Egypt and founded the 22nd dynasty.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.