“It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem…he took away the treasures…he also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made. The King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place.”
– 1 Kings 14:25-26
As I read these stories in 1 Kings, I shake my head in disbelief. It makes me upset. I don’t want to read them, because there are so many stories of people who just mess up everything. God makes it so clear that if you will just follow His ways and obey His commandments that it will go well for you and God will bless you far above what you could ever imagine. Indeed, that is what he did for David and for Solomon.
Solomon lived in the pinnacle of Israel’s glory days. David had ruled justly and had passed the kingdom to Solomon who also began to do right in the sight of God. And as God had promised, blessings were poured out in abundance in every way. Israel had peace, wealth, strength, and glory. People, kings, and queens came from all over the world to see the glory of Israel. It was Israel’s glory days and one of the symbols of that glory was the large, magnificent shields that Solomon had made out of pure gold.
But Solomon turned from the Lord. So did his son, to whom all of those wisdom-packed proverbs were written to. The kingdom was split and both rulers did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. As a result, the protection of the Lord had lifted and Egypt invaded. They took away the treasure and the beautiful golden shields, which were a symbol and icon of the glory days, which were now gone. Rehoboam made bronze ones in their place.
God makes is so clear that if we do certain things then He will bless us. He makes it simple, but people insist on their own way. They think that their own way is better, but in the end they will realize that disobeying the God who created us is a bad idea.
We can bring back the glory days. We can choose to forsake evil and obey the Lord. He will shower His blessing upon us. We can also have the glory days as a nation. If the people will turn from evil and love the Lord and love their neighbor as themselves, then the glory days will come to us corporately as well.
I want to live in the glory days.
Hal Chaffee 