2 Chronicles 12: 9-10, "He (Shishak)
took the gold shields.....Rehoboam made
bronze shields..."
Rehoboam had been stripped of his gold
shields that Solomon had made (years
earlier) after Shishak of Egypt had taken
them. These gold shields had been a
signature emblem of the affluence and
blessing under Solomon's reign, and for the
majority of Solomon's reign he had followed
the Lord. However Rehoboam had determined to
do evil and not good and thus God's
discipline followed. The stripping of the
gold shields no doubt was humiliating but
instead of repenting and turning to God with
a whole heart he instead, made replacement
shields of a vastly inferior metal. He
replaced the shields but he did not return
to God and this lack of inauthentic
obedience was as clear as the difference in
bronze and gold.
His actions remind me of the assessment made
of the Sardis Church, "...you have a
reputation for being alive, but you are
dead!" Do we have genuine repentance toward
God or have we sought to replace His glory
with our clever ideas, innovative
programming, "right" music, and progressive
teaching; and yet all the while it keeps
looking like bronze and NOT gold? May our
worship, our obedience, our service not be a
cheap replacement for what ought to be SOLID
GOLD!
In Christ,
Tommy Middleton
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