Abijah
Abijah
reigned for only three years after Rehoboam’s death. He did not last long as king, although he
left quite a few tell-tale markers upon the kingly line of David. Let’s look at a few of the things that Abijah
leaves behind as clues to his reign.
Civil Warfare
There was
war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Regardless
of who started it, remember that by definition war between Judah and Israel is
civil war. God brought up the
descendants of Israel – the children of Abraham – as a single nation. Though they were of different tribes they
were of one God. Now politics and
economics and human jealousy have driven a wedge between the people. Civil war ensues because the people are more
concerned about their human demarcations and their human investments than their
relationship with God. When our
relationship with stuff grows larger than our relationship with God we will
usually have trouble and conflict in our life – especially those of us who are
supposed to be humbly submitted to God.
However,
the people do choose to go to war with one another. The people of Judah come out against the
people of Israel. There shouldn’t be any
doubt that the people of Judah are smaller than the people of Israel. Remember that only a few years prior Rehoboam
had just fought a conflict with Pharoah Shishak of Egypt. It makes sense that Judah can only muster the
smaller force.
Before
the battle begins, Abijah addresses the gathered Hebrew people. He reminds the Israelites especially that God
had given the whole of the people to the line of David. Remember that God did not want a king in
Israel, but the people did. Therefore,
God gave the people over to their will and established a kingly line. This is the covenant of salt to which Abijah supposedly
refers.
However,
let’s look at the covenant of salt. We
do see that in Leviticus 2:13 the Hebrew people were to season their grain
offerings with salt as a testimony to the lasting nature of God and the
relationship between God and mankind.
But even more specifically in Numbers 18:19 we hear that the covenant of
salt is actually a covenant made between God and the Aaronic priests. The covenant of salt is that the priests
receive the sacrifices as provision for their lives since they will not be
receiving land upon which they could provide for themselves.
Abijah is
beginning to show his true colors. He
has taken the true covenant of salt and misappropriated its meaning. Originally it was reassurance to the priests
that they would be cared for by the people.
Now Abijah changes the terms and makes it refer to the Davidic line of
kings and how the people were to be under the kingship of the line of
David. What had been for the support of
God’s agenda was now being twisted and misconstrued by Abijah to imply his own
greatness and the sustaining of his rule.
We see
even more misconstruing of the facts as Abijah recounts Jeroboam’s
rebellion. Remember that Jeroboam and
the people in the northern kingdom came to Rehoboam and asked for the yoke to
be made lighter after the intense period of Solomon’s building. Rehoboam had the good counsel of the elders
to ease the burden on the people. But it
was Rehoboam who chose to not listen to the people and drove them to rebellion. Yes, the people rebelled. But it was Rehoboam who drove the people into
rebellion.
Caught in the Trappings
Abijah
takes this point and makes it even more egregious. He reminds the Israelites that Judah has all
the priests of God and the Levites and Israel has none. Remember that Jeroboam kicked all of the
priests of God out and established new places to worship and erected idols at
those places. In this point, Abijah is
correct in his facts. Israel doesn’t
have any priests of the Lord remaining in its land.
However,
what Abijah seems to forget is that at the end of Rehoboam’s career the whole
system became corrupt. Remember that God’s
Word taught us that Rehoboam and all the priests coming from Israel were only
faithful for a measly three years. They
may have the people and the official building, but that doesn’t mean that they
have true relationship with God. Here we
see that Abijah is caught in the human trappings of the worship of God, not in
a relationship with God. Abijah is about
the stuff and the process, not God.
Abijah
also makes the declaration that The Lord is with Judah. That may be true, but he goes on to add that
the Lord is their God and they have not forsaken Him. In this Abijah does go too far. We know about the end of Rehoboam’s
ways. We know Abijah only reigns for
three years and 1 Kings 15 tells us that he walked in all the sins of his
father. In fact, 1 Kings 15 tells us
that the only reason that his son was allowed to rule was for David’s sake, not
anything that Abjiah did.
In Abijah
we see a man who clearly believes that his circumstances indicate that he is
right. Since he is successful and king,
then God must love him and he must be right in his choices. What a dangerous philosophy to have.
Judah may
win the battle. God might even fight
against Israel. But let’s remember this
point. Just because God fights against a
nation does not mean that God is for the opponent. God uses Assyria to judge Israel and drag
them into captivity. But that does not
imply that God loved Assyria and that Assyria was better than Israel. It simply meant that God had a lesson to
teach Assyria. I believe the same is
true here. Judah may win because of God’s
hand. But I believe that has more to do
with God trying to humble Israel than it has to do with God supporting the ways
of Abijah.
Harem
In the
end, we know that Abijah has 14 wives. 1
Kings 15 has told us that Abijah walked in the evil was of Rehoboam, so this
isn’t really a surprise. The sins of the
people – and especially the sins of the kings of Judah – are perpetuated to the
next generation.
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