Because They Had Been Unfaithful

We saw last time that it was the faithfulness of the remnant of Israel that preserved Rehoboam for the first three years.

And during that time Rehoboam fortified the cities of Judah. If you look at a map of those fortified cities, they outline a very small circle in the center of Judah and Benjamin. Rehoboam is willing to surrender the Negeb in the south, the coastal plains – basically everything except a small territory surrounding Jerusalem.

But in the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and the Chronicler tells us that this happened “because they had been unfaithful to the LORD.”

One possibility for your feeling that God has abandoned you is that you have abandoned God.

And it is that situation which we will explore tonight!