2 Chronicles 10-20

All right, let's do some blogging.

Now we go back to Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and all the trouble that starts with him. We get a similar account as in Kings about the people begging for leniency, but Remy listening to his cronies and threatening harsher conditions. So Jeroboam leads the northern tribes in separating from Judah, and the nation is now divided into two parts.*

But when Jerry sets up his own idols and gods for Israel to worship, the Levites and other worshipers of the Lord migrate to Judah where they can worship at the Temple. Remy's rule continues, is good, and he takes on eighteen wives and sixty concubines. This may seem like a lot, but it's a minuscule amount compared to daddy Solomon's collection of 1000 women!

Eventually, though, Remy turns away from God, and Judah follows his example. So God allows them to be defeated by the Egyptians.** Then Remy dies and his son Abijah takes over.

Wars and battles between Judah and Israel are continuous. Abijah goes up on a hill and defies Jerry, saying only "worthless scoundrels" sided with Jerry. Who is Abijah learning insults from, Princess Leia? He also slams Israel by saying that those who worship Jerry's idols are "priests of what are no gods" (13:9). Burn! So Abijah was a rather good king. Then he died and Asa became king.

Asa was also a good king and, with the help of God, fought off an invading Ethiopian army of one million men!*** Then Israel starts building Ramah, a fortress just north of Jerusalem. Asa bribes the king of Aram to attack Israel and distract it from Judah. While Israel was busy with Aram, Asa dismantled Ramah. A seer named Hanani rebukes Asa, for he relied on Aram instead of God. Asa is ticked by this, imprisons Hanani, and goes on a bit of a downward spiral. Then he dies and his son Jehoshaphat takes the throne.

Jehoshaphat organizes a bunch of Levites, priests, and officials to go throughout the town of Judah educating from the book of the law of the Lord. Since the Chronicler is writing after the exile, the law of the Lord book, or the compiled Torah, as it were, would be very important. Emphasis on the Torah book occurred during the exile when the people no longer had the Temple to worship at, so they had to rely more on the written word of the Lord.

Then Jehoshaphat teams up with Ahab, king of Israel, to fight some Arameans. Ahab's prophets all say victory will be theirs, but Jehoshaphat wants another opinion. The prophet Micaiah is summoned and tells them that the Lord put a false prophesy in the mouths of the prophets so that Ahab would go to war and die. Ahab imprisons Micaiah and goes to war anyway. Ahab is killed, but God saves Jehoshaphat.

Later, a great alliance of enemy nations approaches Judah. The people are very afraid, but a prophet speaks out that they should trust God. So they do. Before the alliance can attack, they start fighting amongst themselves. They quickly enter full scale war against each other and slaughter one another. The army of Judah arrives to pick up all the booty left by the armies.



*Don't worry, this won't get quite as confusing as Kings. The Chronicler focuses almost solely on the southern kingdom of Judah, which he views as the only legitimate kingdom. In his eyes, northern Israel is merely "in rebellion against the house of David" (10:19).

**According to the Chronicler's theology, God is in total control and the divine plays a hand in all major events that take place. Israel does not win or lose a battle unless it is the will of the Lord.

***Again, read these numbers with some skepticism. A million could have a different numerical value than we're used to today. Or, the Chronicler could just be exaggerating the size of the army, as we often do today when we exclaim something to number a million. It's fairly safe to say that, at this point in history, an army of a million men in this region was rather impossible to amass. The point is, the Ethiopian army vastly outnumbered Asa's army. But, because of the Lord, Asa was able to be victorious. It's your usual David and Goliath scenario.