But Solomon’s successor failed to exert a strong influence for loyalty to Jehovah. He was naturally headstrong, confident, self-willed, and inclined to idol worship. Nevertheless, if he had placed his trust wholly in God, he would have developed firm faith and submission to the divine requirements. But as time passed, the king put his trust in the power of his position and in the strongholds he had fortified. Little by little he gave way to inherited weaknesses until he threw his influence entirely on the side of idol worship. “When Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, ... he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him.” 2 Chronicles 12:1.
The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam—the influence of his wrong example led many astray.
God did not allow the apostasy of Judah’s ruler to remain unpunished. “And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt. ... And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.
“Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.”’” Verses 2-5. In the losses they suffered by Shishak’s invasion, the people recognized the hand of God and for a time humbled themselves. “So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had made. Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place. ... When he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things also went well in Judah.” Verses 9-12.
