“When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and
all Israel with him forsook the law of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:1).
“When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of
the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, ‘They have humbled
themselves so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them
SOME MEASURE OF DELIVERANCE” (2 Chronicles 12:7).
Scripture declares that “everyone who sins is
a slave to sin” (John 8:34), and that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans
6:23). But, “I find...the principle that
evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of
God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans
7:21-23). And such is the experience of
all the sons of Adam who are also the sons of God; full deliverance is
promised, assured, and something we patiently wait for—the redemption of our
bodies. Though sin repented of is
forgiven, the consequences of sin—the reaping and sowing principle behind it—remains
in full force except as God occasionally disrupts and nullifies consequences as
He sees fit.
What God declared to Moses concerning Himself,
He declares to all: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth
(faithfulness); keeping mercy and lovingkindness for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; BUT HE WILL BY NO MEANS
LEAVE THE GUILTY UNPUNISHED [emphasis mine], visiting
(avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers upon the children and the
grandchildren to the third and fourth generations [that is, calling the
children to account for the sins of their fathers]” (Exodus 34:6-7). Clearly “the guilty” which God “will by no
means leave...unpunished” are not those who occasionally sin, but are those who
sin long enough and strong enough to make themselves staunch haters of God,
because the following elaboration of similar words as that of Exodus 34:6-7 brings
it out more explicitly. “You must have
no other gods before me. Do not
make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on
the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or worship them
because I, the Lord your God, am a passionate [jealous] God. I punish children for their parents’
sins—even to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But I am loyal and gracious to the thousandth
generation of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Deuteronomy
5:7-10). The progressive revelation in
Scripture concerning genealogical culpability or benefit starts with God
unambiguously declaring to man that He will punish children for their father’s
sin as far out as the fourth generation.
That punishment, however, is prefaced by a declaration of His loving and
longsuffering essential nature. Then the
revelation expands along two tracks, one positive and one negative, reaching as
far as “the thousandth generation” along the positive track of love and
obedience, and reaching only as far as the fourth generation along the negative
track of hate; and therefore, in ultimate and mathematical terms, love reaches
two-hundred and fifty times as far as hate does. It is noteworthy that the number one
thousand, in spiritual significance, means, “divine completeness and the glory
of God.” Four means “cosmic, world,
God’s creative works”; four also “stands for the WEAKNESS found in the world
and man.” Two-hundred and fifty is a
combination of two-hundred (“insufficiency”) and fifty (“Holy Spirit”). All quotes about number significance (here
and throughout this writing) are from Biblical
Mathematics: Keys to Scripture Numerics, by Evangelist Ed. F. Vallowe. Putting it all together, and relating it to
God’s formulaic response to those who either love or hate Him, we see that
love, in generational extension, reaches all the way out to “divine
completeness and the glory of God,” whereas hate, in generational extension,
only reaches as far as “the WEAKNESS found in the world and man.” Nonetheless, and notwithstanding man’s
free-will hate and God’s sovereign love (and how those contrary facts
ultimately play out for each individual soul in final destiny), the Holy Spirit
added to insufficiency and multiplied by that hateful weakness in man and his
fallen world reaches exponentially beyond the material facts and brings man to
“divine completeness and the glory of God.”
Finally, the prophet gets to the core of the issue when he says, “You
may wonder why a son isn’t punished for the sins of his father. It is because
the son does what is right and obeys my laws.
Only those who sin will be put to death. Children won’t suffer for the
sins of their parents, and parents won’t suffer for the sins of their children.
Good people will be rewarded for what they do, and evil people will be punished
for what they do. I will judge each of
you for what you’ve done. So stop sinning, or else you will certainly be
punished. Give up your evil ways and
start thinking pure thoughts. And be faithful to me! Do you really want to be
put to death for your sins? I,
the Lord God, don’t want to see that happen to anyone. So stop sinning and
live!” (Ezekiel 18:19-20, 30-32).
Matthew Henry, speaking on these seemingly
contradictory ideas of genetically transmitted sin (or the proclivity to be
tempted along the same genetic predispositions) and sin that the individual
commits wholly of his/her own volition (without any genetic influence
whatsoever), made these salient points:
God had often said that he would visit
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, especially the sin of
idolatry...and the heavy punishments he would bring upon idolaters that parents
might be restrained from sin by their affection to their children and that
children might not be drawn to sin by their reverence for their parents. God does not punish the children for the
fathers’ sins unless they tread in their fathers’ steps and fill up the
measure of their iniquity (Matthew 23:32), and then they have no reason to
complain, for, whatever they suffer, it is less than their own sin has
deserved. And, when God speaks
of visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, that is so
far from putting any hardship upon the children, to whom he only renders
according to their works, that it accounts for God’s patience with the
parents, whom he therefore does not punish immediately, because he lays up
their iniquity for their children (Job 21:19).
It is only in temporal calamities that children (and sometimes innocent
ones) fare the worse for their parents’ wickedness, and God can alter the
property of those calamities, and make them work for good to those that are
visited with them; but as to spiritual and eternal misery (and that is the
death here spoken of [Ezekiel 18]) the children shall by no means smart for the
parents’ sins. This is here shown at large; and it is a wonderful piece of
condescension that the great God is pleased to reason the case with such wicked
and unreasonable men, that he did not immediately strike them dumb or dead, but
vouchsafed to state the matter before them, that he may be clear when he is
judged.
Now in the case of Rehoboam and his people,
the primary subject of this writing, God gave them only SOME MEASURE OF DELIVERANCE; likewise, when
we sin, deliverance is sometimes slow and partial. The ultimate measure of deliverance is when
this mortal puts on immortality, but until that happens in the hereafter, God
in the here and now, and in His perfect wisdom, often deems it necessary that
we pay the price for our sin in temporary but redemptive discomfort. Even when we are not the sinner, we pay the
price of others’ sins (most often our father’s and mother’s and relative’s),
and thus we share in our Lord’s sufferings.
But not aimlessly without purpose.
Our ultimate goal, like Paul’s, needs to be “that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I
may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11). While full deliverance is the ideal and
ultimate reality—and that which we will undoubtedly secure in the end—some measure
of deliverance is most often our experience while we are pilgrims in a strange
land.
But also in the case of Rehoboam, is the sin
of his father Solomon in particular (and perhaps an evil proclivity also
inherited through his Ammonite mother).
“Now king Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women along with
the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite
women, from the very nations of whom
the Lord said to the Israelites, ‘You shall not associate with them,
nor shall they associate with you, for the result will be that they will turn
away your hearts to follow their gods.’
Yet Solomon clung to these in love” (1 Kings 11:1-2). “So the Lord became angry with
Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of
Israel,” and ultimately, “the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done
this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you,
I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your
servant. However, I will not do it in your
lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand
of your son (Rehoboam). However, I will
not tear away all the kingdom; I will give one tribe (Judah) to your son for
the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen”
(1 Kings 11:9, 11-13). Though it is not
Rehoboam’s fault that his father Solomon sinned and that his mother was a
“foreign woman,” that commingled inheritance set him up for failure before he
even began. And such were some of us,
born of incest and adultery, spiritual and natural. But thanks be to God! Indeed, “Do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [by perversion], nor
those who participate in homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor
drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult,
humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have
any share in the kingdom of God. AND
SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU [BEFORE YOU BELIEVED]. But you were washed [by the
atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made
holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s
new life and changed behavior]” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Since “All Scripture is inspired by God
and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16), and I see in the story of King Rehoboam a
lesson for us today regarding some measure of deliverance, I proffer this
exegesis of 2 Chronicles 12 to elaborate my points.
2 Chronicles 12:1.
“When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and
all Israel with him forsook the law of the Lord.”
The Lord had warned the children of Israel,
and because “whatever was written in earlier times was written for our
instruction” (Romans 15:4), so He warns us today likewise: “Beware that you do
not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments and
His judgments (precepts) and His statutes which I am commanding you today;
otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses
and lived in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply,
and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have increases, then
your heart will become lifted up [by self-conceit and arrogance] and you will
forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, out
of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14 Amp.). It was not when Rehoboam was fledgling and
weak that he and his fellow citizens of Judah forsook the law of the Lord, but
it was when they were “established and strong.”
It is a perfect law of causation that always, “Pride goes before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Proverbs 16:18).
Just as time would fail listing all the
champions of faith, “of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David
and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms,
performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut
the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put
foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:32-34), so time would also fail listing
all the unfaithful missteps of many of the kings of Israel; of Amaziah who
“sought the gods of Edom” (2 Chronicles 25:20); of Uzziah who, after being
greatly helped by God, became “so proud that he acted corruptly, and ... was
unfaithful to the Lord his God, [entering]
... the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense
[something only priests were allowed to do, not kings]” (2 Chronicles 26:16);
of Hezekiah who “gave no return for the benefit he received [being healed of a
mortal disease], because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and
on Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 32:25); and of Josiah who interfered with
God and was consequently killed by not listening “to the words of Neco from the
mouth of God” (2 Chronicles 35:22).
2 Chronicles 12:2-4.
“And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been
unfaithful to the Lord that Shishak king of Egypt came up against
Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt
were without number: the Lubim, the Sukkiim and the Ethiopians. He captured the fortified cities of
Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.”
There are many precious nuggets of truth to
be mined from these three verses, and though the mining is strenuous and the
nuggets complex, it is worth the time and effort to unearth them and bring them
to heavenly light. Before I do this,
however, we must first understand some place and name meanings and what certain
numbers signify symbolically. Rehoboam
means “enlarges the people.” Five (the
“fifth year” of his reign) is the number of grace. Shishak means “present of the bag; of the
pot; of the thigh.” Egypt has a complex
etymology and means roughly, “a place where the projection of an attribute of
divinity [an aspect of God] manifests via the physical projection of the
soul.” Lubim means “dwellers in a
thirsty land.” Sukkiim means “dwellers
in tents.” Ethiopian means “a black
countenance” or “full of darkness” or “scorched countenance.” Judah means “praise.” Jerusalem means “dual peace,” or as Lonnie
Lane elaborates, “The name Jerusalem is divided between two root words: Yara (pronounced as yahr-ah) and shalem. We
already know what shalem means [“safe” or “peace”]. Yara means:
dual, as related to the two hills on which Jerusalem sits. And it also means:
founded peacefully, to flow as water (i.e. rain), to shoot as an arrow, to
point out (as if by aiming a finger), to teach. It also means to cast, direct,
inform, instruct, show, teacher, teaching and through (as in the way to go
through). Put Yara and Shalem together
as the Hebrew word for Jerusalem and we have a picture of the intent of the
Bible in its entirety, of God’s instructions and ‘teaching’ to mankind. The
meaning of the name of Jerusalem reveals the very nature and character of the
Kingdom of God. Put all this together and we see God’s motive or intention
always for JERUSALEM TO BE THE PLACE WHERE HE INTERACTS WITH MEN IN THE WAYS
THAT DEFINE ITS NAME [emphasis mine].” Concerning
the 1,200 chariots: Ten (“law and responsibility [intensified]” or “perfection
of order”) times ten times twelve (governmental perfection) or one hundred and
twenty (a divinely appointed period of probation) times ten equals twelve
hundred. Concerning the 60,000 horsemen:
Six hundred (warfare) times one hundred (God’s election of grace) or ten times
ten times six hundred equals sixty thousand.
Putting all this information together, we
begin by seeing God’s response to unfaithfulness in His people. In the fifth year of Rehoboam, in that year, grace
is given to him and the children of Israel (in spite of faithlessness on their
part), and God begins to enlarge them through sufferings, to feed them on the
fruit of their own ways, on the dainties or presents of their real king
(Shishak), the alien king of soul power (Egypt). And God allows this to the extent that
extinguishes praise (Shishak captures the fortified cities of Judah), but short
of a complete desecration of all that is holy (Shishak came as far as
Jerusalem, but not in and beyond what Jerusalem means). But to the degree that thirst (Lubim) and
displacement (Sukkiim) and darkness covers the glory of their countenance
(Ethiopian), God allows Rehoboam and Israel to suffer. To the degree of 1,200 chariots of force, a
period of probation is enacted until spiritual Israel, the new creation man, is
perfectly governed by the Holy Spirit.
Physical circumstances of constraint and material blows of punishments
are for the lawless, for those not fully developed after His image, those not
yet spiritually mature. To the degree of
60,000 horsemen warring against God’s people, so God allows the enemy to come
in like a flood in order to teach them that only God is able to deliver us from
evil. “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect
you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). “It
is [indeed] of the
LORD'S mercies” and not because of our righteousness or strength “that we are
not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22). “You can only come this far and no further,”
says God to the enemy. Shishak/Satan can
only plunder the outskirts of our persons; only the fortified cities of Judah,
the strongholds of praise, can be overrun (and then only temporarily). Only during the time of God’s
punishment—during His spanking sessions—does joy flee. But the peaceable fruit of righteousness,
which is the direct result of that punishment, is never completely
disturbed. Shishak/Satan can only come
as “far as Jerusalem,” as far as—but not completely into—that center of our
beings where God lives and reigns in us as the King of Shalom (peace, harmony
and wholeness/completeness).
Moreover, in King Rehoboam’s first year he
set precedence by rejecting the sound and tried advice of the elders who served
his father for the foolish and untried advice of the young men who had grown up
with him and served him. Consequently,
he lost the ten northern tribes of Israel, retaining only the two southern
tribes of Judah and Benjamin (see 1 Kings 12:1-17). The fact that this was ordained by God,
decreed to his father Solomon (perhaps before he was born), does not mean that
he is not also complicitous. The
sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist—how?—even human genius cannot
figure. Nonetheless, we are accountable
to God for our behavior regardless of what sovereign context it occurs in.
2 Chronicles 12:5-6.
“Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of
Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them,
‘Thus says the Lord, “You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken
you to Shishak.’” So the princes of
Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The Lord is
righteous.’”
Shemaiah means “heard of the Lord,” and
undoubtedly, he genuinely heard the Lord and obediently conveyed the Lord’s message
to Rehoboam and “the princes of Judah.” Thankfully,
they listened to the word of the Lord from the mouth of the prophet Shemaiah
and humbled themselves. They admitted
the Lord was right and responded properly.
“It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we will
also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; IF
WE DENY HIM, HE ALSO WILL DENY US [emphasis mine]; if we are
faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2
Timothy 2:11-13). When they forsook the
Lord, they denied the Lord. Thus God
forsook them to Shishak/Satan, and denied their pleas for help until they
humbled themselves sufficiently to reestablish the idea in their hearts that
God alone is righteous and true. And
such He does with all His children! The Lord says that when we are faithless, He
remains faithful, BUT deny Him, and He denies us. It is faithlessness unchecked that must
eventually spawn denial, maybe not by external behavior or even by empty and
idle words that we speak, but God reads our hearts and knows our secret
thoughts (expressed and unexpressed).
Where can we go from His Spirit?
If we are faithless at our core, we deny Him His rightful place at the
center of our being. No matter how
strong and mature we become in Christ, we remain dependent on Him for our
continuance in strength and maturity.
Thus humility is always in order every step of the way, the truth, and
the life if we are to remain strong and mature to the end. As soon as we arrive and relax, we regress
and agitate ourselves.
As Scripture teaches: “Brothers and sisters,
if a person gets trapped by wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual should
help that person turn away from doing wrong. Do it in a gentle way. At the same
time watch yourself so that you also are not tempted” (Galatians 6:1 GWT). With even more emphasis, “Let him who thinks
he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 NASB); and the
same verse explained more explicitly, “These are all warning markers—danger!—in
our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our
positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we
are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and
self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily
as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate
God-confidence” (1 Corinthians 10:12 MSG).
2 Chronicles 12:7-8.
“When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of
the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, ‘They have humbled themselves so I
will not destroy them, but I will grant them SOME MEASURE OF
DELIVERANCE [emphasis mine], and My wrath shall not be poured out on
Jerusalem by means of Shishak. But they
will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference
between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.’”
There is debate among theologians about
whether Christians can ever be demon possessed.
The answer is no in the ultimate and spiritual sense, but yes in the
temporary and body/soul sense. When God
granted “some measure of deliverance”
to Rehoboam, and specifically withheld His wrath from Jerusalem, He basically
did what the Apostle Paul did many years later when a member of the Corinthian
church committed grievous sin. Paul
said, “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and
immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that
someone has his father’s wife.
You have become arrogant and have not mourned
instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your
midst. For I, on my part,
though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who
has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are
assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord
Jesus, I HAVE DECIDED TO DELIVER SUCH A ONE TO SATAN
FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS FLESH, SO THAT HIS SPIRIT MAY BE SAVED IN THE
DAY OF THE LORD JESUS [emphasis mine]” (1 Corinthians 5:1-5).
To my point, demonic oppression pushes down
upon the whole man, but it can never breach the inner sanctum of His Spirit
living in our spirit and possess that holy of holies location at the center of our
Christian heart. “For God has not
destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Thus no
wrath will be poured out on [spiritual] Jerusalem (another name for that inner
sanctum at our center). But to teach us
the difference between the holy and the profane, demons can gain access to us
in SOME MEASURE; they can, and often do, make inroads into our persons. Whereas Satan had no place in Jesus
Christ—and therefore no place in the new creature/spirit in us—Satan does have
access to us insofar as any inroad of sin reaches the depth of our misbehaving
flesh/soul. Satan and his demons can
oppress to the point of possessing the Christian—if, and only if we sin and
thereby give permission—and then only to the depth of our outer man’s extent
(the body and soul aspects of us). Just
as Rehoboam had to learn to be “slaves so that [he might] learn the
difference between [God’s] service and the service of the kingdoms of
the countries [the world],” so do we! Demonic
oppression/possession is more near to us than we like to admit, but assuredly,
the reason it does not lift from us FULLY is remedial in nature. Just as a son is treated like a slave until
the age of inheritance is fully arrived, so we are oppressed and possessed in
varying degrees of bondage until God deems us responsible enough to handle the
freedom that full deliverance brings.
2 Chronicles 12:9-12.
“So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took the
treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s
palace. He took everything; he even
took the golden shields which Solomon had made.
Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed
them to the care of the commanders of the guard who guarded the door
of the king’s house. As often as the
king entered the house of the Lord, the guards came and carried them
and then brought them back into
the guards’ room. And when he
humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned away from him, so as not to
destroy him completely; and also conditions were good in
Judah.”
God not destroying Rehoboam completely means
God destroyed him partially, and the golden shields being replaced by bronze
shields is significant to that point.
Gold is a single element metal, soft and compliant, precious and
representing heavenly things; bronze/brass is a compound metal, hard and
inflexible, common and representing earthly things. God allowed Shishak/Satan to break into and
remove the soft, precious and heavenly defense of the golden shields, not
because golden shields are strong enough by its intrinsic material substance to
physically ward off ransacking hordes of evil, but because God, in some
measure, removed His protection. The
replacement shields of bronze, more suited to physically protect, was now
Rehoboam’s only defense (God and His divine protection having, in large part,
departed). Bronze/brass speaks of
judgment, and though the “conditions were good in Judah,” they were not the
best, and certainly not as God intended.
It is noteworthy that several Israelite kings and judges, when they were
judged, were bound by chains or shackles of bronze. In no particular order, there was Sampson—who
did not know that the Lord had departed from him—so insensitive had he become
to spiritual reality. “Then the
Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to
Gaza and BOUND HIM WITH [TWO] BRONZE CHAINS; and he was forced to be a
grinder [of grain into flour at the mill] in the prison” (Judges 16:21). Then there was Manasseh. “Now the Lord spoke to Manasseh and
to his people, but they paid no attention.
So the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of
Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks [through his nose
or cheeks] and BOUND HIM WITH BRONZE [CHAINS] and took him to Babylon” (2
Chronicles 33:10-11). Finally, there was
Zedekiah. “Then the king of Babylon
blinded Zedekiah, BOUND HIM WITH BRONZE SHACKLES and took him to Babylon and
there he put him in prison [in a mill] until the day of his death”
(Jeremiah 52:11). It is also noteworthy
that bronze, representing judgment, is nigh unto cursing; it is one of the
metals that God calls the dross of silver (which symbolically represents
redemption). “I [the Lord] have set
you as an assayer [O Jeremiah] and as a tester [of the ore] of My people, that
you may know and analyze their acts.
They are all the worst [kind] of [stiff-necked, godless] rebels, going
around spreading slander. They are [not
gold and silver ore, but] bronze and iron; they are all corrupt. The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed
by the fire; in vain they continue refining, but the wicked are not
separated and removed.
They call them rejected silver [only dross, without value], because
the Lord has rejected them” (Jeremiah 6:27-30). And Ezekiel agrees, “Son of man, the house of
Israel has become dross (metallic waste) to Me.
All of them are (useless) bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace;
they are the dross of silver” (Ezekiel 22:18).
A note of clarification: bronze/brass is used
interchangeably across many versions/translations/transliterations of
Scripture, but it is near certain that the correct rendering is “bronze,” a mix
of copper and tin. Brass, which is
either a mix of copper and zinc, or, of copper, zinc and tin, was not used in
biblical times. This is important
because bronze and brass are often confused, and therefore, for our purpose
anyways, we must regard them as synonomous in symbolic meaning. The reason for this explanation lies in the
fact that Rehoboam used “bronze” and Wigglesworth “brass” (in the next
paragraph), and because I want to demonstrate a parallel between their
respective stories, we cannot afford to dilute or confuse types and/or symbols
if we are to understand the deeper things of God aright.
Julian Wilson, in his book Wigglesworth: The Complete Story tells
of a “remarkable supernatural manifestation [that] took place” in late May of
1922 in Wellington, New Zealand. In Wellington’s
Town Hall meeting house, Wigglesworth, related “to the audience the story of a
young woman suffering from tuberculosis who was raised from the dead as he
prayed. During the night, the woman had
died and Satan appeared at the foot of the bed and sniggered malevolently at
him, saying ‘I’ve got her safely held.’
Recalled Wigglesworth, ‘I seemed to be in hell and everything in the
room turned to brass.’”
“Then, according to Roberts [Harry V.
Roberts, who wrote a book entitled “New Zealand’s Greatest Revivals”], an
extraordinary phenomenon occurred:”
That Wellington audience witnessed the weirdest
thing that ever happened in a public hall.
Everything in the Town Hall appeared to turn to brass. What the Evangelist experienced in that death
chamber was precipitated into the meeting by the power of the Spirit. That vast crowd just felt it had been ushered
into the portals of hell itself. It was
an ineffaceable and awful sensation. The
lights, chairs, walls, the people, the grand organ all looked like solid
brass. The tension [was] only broken
when he [Wigglesworth] told how his own faith had fled away in the leering,
faith-sapping presence of Satan himself.
But he cried to God for help and pleaded the blood, and as he cried, the
faith of God filled his soul.
Ultimately, the alchemy of heaven turns
brass/bronze to gold, but the alchemy of hell does the opposite, it turns gold
to brass/bronze. Perhaps nothing better illustrates
this then one of the curses God promises to place on the disobedient: “The
heaven which is over your head shall be bronze [giving no rain and blocking all
prayers]” (Deuteronomy 28:23). Also, the
first time bronze is mentioned in Scripture is extraordinarily
provocative. “Zillah gave birth to
Tubal-cain, the smith (craftsman) and teacher
of every artisan in instruments of bronze and iron” (Genesis 4:22). The name Tubal-cain means “flowing forth of Cain,”
and Cain means “possession” or “acquisition”; so together, Tubal-cain means
“flowing forth of possession or acquisition.”
Eve, in naming Cain (her firstborn son), supposed he was the promised
Messiah, and therefore she declared, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 4:1). Cain of course was a tiller of the cursed
earth, and a murderer; to flow forth from that stream is to flow forth rivers
of bronze (judgment). The fact that
Tubal-cain was the originator and “teacher of every artisan” in—not only bronze
but iron—speaks of someone expert in manipulating the Adamic nature to its
logical and matured end. But to
propagate the curse is to propagate the evil behind it, no matter how beautiful
or useful the instrument or implement is that is fashioned from it. The fact that his mother’s name is Zillah, meaning
“shadow,” suggests that he manifested his masteries from the shadows, not the
substance. This is not to suggest that
working with bronze and iron are inherently sinful, but only in the symbolic
sense. As we see his name and nature and
work in context within Scripture, we see a colossal root of error (all those
who flow from the wrong stream, those who flow unimpeded from their Adamic
nature).
Next we read, and seemingly insignificantly,
that “The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah” (Genesis 4:22). And if it were not that Rehoboam’s mother was
also named Naamah—“And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. He did evil
because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14)—I
would not have commented on it. But as
it is, note how his mother being an Ammonite and he doing evil are mentioned in
connection, as though he, being “born from incest” also (like his mother: the
meaning of Ammon/Ammonite) causes him not to be inclined to seek God (not being
a pure Israelite). Hybrid
people—Moabites and Ammonites—are people born of Lot’s daughters, of incest;
they inverted the stream of progeny, polluted it, and produced unnecessary
antagonism, commingling the righteous stream of spirit with the unrighteous
stream of flesh. Symbolically, carnal
Christians today are Moabite and Ammonite people, eventually redeemed, but only
after much decimation (the Ammonites and Moabites are completely, if not
nearly, destroyed from off the face of the earth). Apparently, the last vestige of hope
concerning them is found in Rahab the Ammonitess and Ruth the Moabitess as they
were both inserted into the lineage of Christ (see Matthew 1:5). I think these carnal Christians are like that
Corinthian Christian that Paul spoke of, the one that prompted him to say “I
have decided to deliver such
a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5).
Furthermore, “No one of illegitimate birth
shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even
to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the
assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants,
even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord,
because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came
out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor
from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to
Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing
for you because the Lord your God loves you. You shall never seek their peace or their
prosperity all your days” (Deuteronomy 23:2-6).
Though this is scathing and seemingly inapplicable to us today in
Christiandom, I see in it food for enlightenment, and more importantly, since
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16),
a meaty lesson on spiritual truth.
Anyone only born of Adam is illegitimate to genuinely enter the assembly
of the Lord; only spiritual Israel is born-again and therefore the only legitimate
Christian. The tenth generation removed
hybrid man is still illegitimate, and can never, as constructed (without being
born-again—or if born-again—backslidden and joined to idols), enter the
household of faith. The destruction of
their flesh by Satan, as a last resort, is their only hope. In varying degrees short of this extreme
measure, is SOME MEASURE OF DELIVERANCE for the bulk of us. But may we never, as Abraham did, birth
Ishmael (“Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with
just anyone?”—Proverbs 5:16)—streaming our life-force off on a tangent course
and dispersing indiscriminately and foolishly; but even more so, may we never
birth Ammon or Moab (children of incest)—streaming our life-force back in on
itself and destroying its flow altogether. If wisdom is justified of her children, no
doubt, foolishness is justified of hers.
The ending verse, “You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity
all your days,” flies in the face of tolerance and mushy mother love, that
brand of love that most Christians today delusionally believe to be God’s
love. Carnal Christianity can never be
coddled and/or embraced; to preach peace when war is coming and prosperity when
condemnation is decreed, is both cruel, false and unrighteous. Peace and prosperity is not helpful along the
wrong line; in fact, to put flesh in a nursery and indulge its every whim is to
spoil it without remedy. Only in the
vein of truth and spirit is lasting peace and prosperity obtained and
maintained.
Mortality must put on immorality, not be
redeemed like the new creature; we must mortify our flesh by the Holy Spirit,
not embrace it or befriend it. I am not
speaking of harshly treating our bodies, but we must curb its appetite and
control its impulses if we are to walk in the spirit and manifest Christ in our
mortal flesh. God threshes us, purifies
us, refines us, and brings us to maturity, but assuredly, He never does this to
flesh, only to spirit. When Satan
desired to sift Peter like wheat—and the Lord allowed it—it was because he
doubted any useful part of the wheat existed in Peter; only the Lord’s prayers
concerning Peter not losing his faith (not his substance) saved him from
destruction. Even with that, a
monumental failure occurred. As David
conveyed in his last mortal song, “Truly is not my house so [blessed] with
God? For He has made an everlasting
covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured. For will He not cause to grow and prosper
all my salvation and my every wish? Will
He not make it grow and prosper? But the wicked and worthless
are all to be thrown away like thorns” (2 Samuel 23:5-6). Thorns and thistles are always associated
with the curse, and the curse is upon Adam/earth; God has thrown away that
construction of man. Only the plant of
Christ in that cursed Adam, the true supplanter, is nourished and cared for by
God. God promises to punish to the third
and fourth generation them that hate God; Amorites were given to the third and
fourth generation to fill up the measure of their sins only to be removed from
the Promised Land forever. Amorites
represent all of us to some degree or another (which YES, secretly hate God);
it corresponds to that part of our natural mind which is high and lifted up and
speaks its natural mind nature into the holy work instead of the mind of Christ
into the holy faith. It is refining
flesh; it is threshing thorns. It is
worthless and not worthy of being refined of course, but alas, we often waste
much time trying to extract the precious from the vile of something that is
nothing but vile all the way through.
Why does the threshing never end?
Perhaps we’re threshing the wrong crop in the right field. When God was displeased with His people He
said to His prophet, “They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns; they
have strained themselves to no profit” (Jeremiah 12:13). In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that
some of the Seed (the Word of God) fell among thorns, and when those thorns
came up they choked the Seed out; next, and only to His disciples (those
disciplined into the narrow way), He explained that “The one on whom seed was
sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the worries and
distractions of the world and the deceitfulness [the superficial pleasures
and delight] of riches choke the word, and it yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:22). We can never thresh the thorn! We cannot expect God to refine “worries” and
“distractions of the world” and “deceitfulness [the superficial pleasures and
delight] of riches”; no, they can only be, as David said, “thrown away like
thorns.” God does not redeem the works
of the flesh, He destroys them!
“Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded down with
wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing], offspring of evildoers,
sons who behave corruptly! They have
abandoned (rejected) the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel
[provoking Him to anger], they have turned away from Him. Why should you be stricken and punished again [since no change
results from it]? You [only] continue to
rebel. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart is faint and sick.
From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing healthy in
the nation’s body, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or
bandaged, nor softened with oil [as a remedy]” (Isaiah 1:4-6). Whenever the air clears and our ways clarify—but
without His presence—instead of joy, mourn, because He has left us to subsist
on the fruit of our own ways. Yes, there
is much truth in these words, “Thorns
and snares are in the way of the obstinate [for their lack of honor and their
wrong-doing traps them]; he who guards himself [with godly wisdom] will be far
from them and avoid the consequences they suffer” (Proverbs
22:5); also, “The way of the lazy is like a hedge of thorns [it pricks, lacerates, and
entangles him], But the way [of life] of the upright is smooth and open
like a highway” (Proverbs 15:19). But
there is a grieving of His Spirit away that mimics “the way [of life] of the
upright”; it too “is smooth and open
like a highway,” but it is deceitful.
There is, to be sure, pleasure in sin for a season, but afterwards it
yields only bitter and putrid fruit.
When Moses chose “rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God,
than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25), he did so with his
eyes on Christ and the reward in heaven that awaits all those who are patient
and faithful while clothed in mortal flesh.
2 Chronicles 12:13-14.
“So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now
Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from
all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother’s name was
Naamah the Ammonitess. He did evil because
he did not set his heart to seek the Lord."
Ah, but there is no other place but Jerusalem
to really strengthen ourselves,
because strengthening ourselves outside the scope of spiritual reality is not
strengthening but weakening. Whenever we
fail to humble our soul with fasting (things of this world, not just food) we
inflate our pride and enlarge ourselves by mere neglect of spiritual discipline,
enough to allow our soul life to magnify itself and grow too large and strong,
enough to eclipse our still and quiet spirit into relative obscurity and
insignificance. Though King Rehoboam
gets kudos for making himself strong in Jerusalem, he nonetheless did evil
there because “he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.” It is clear that God only sovereignly,
without Rehoboam’s help or genuine agreement from the heart, established
Jerusalem as a praise throughout the earth.
When God punished Rehoboam’s father Solomon, he tore away much of Israel
from Solomon’s house, but for Solomon’s father David’s sake, none of this
occurred in Solomon’s lifetime. Instead,
Rehoboam took the brunt of punishment.
God’s last words of punishment to Solomon were, “However, I will not
tear away all the kingdom; I will give one tribe (Judah) to your son for the
sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen” (1
Kings 11:13).
God’s purposes, in spite
of our deflections and failures, are never abandoned, but are accomplished with
or without our agreement and participation.
Rehoboam reigned powerfully in relative obscurity in the diminished
scope of one prominent city surrounded by little but strong support. “Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he
began to reign” and forty-one, as a number, represents the sovereignty of unity
made between a probationary period of testing (40) and the advents of the Lord
(both His first and second comings)(42).
In the case of Rehoboam’s life, God sovereignly unified His concerns at
the outset of Rehoboam’s reign as king; this, in spite of the failure on
Rehoboam’s part to pass the probationary test of his first forty years of
existence. At the back end of
everything, inclusive of Rehoboam’s entire life span, is the two-fold coming of
Jesus Christ “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make
atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up
vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place” (Daniel 9:24).
Once Rehoboam gained the
throne, he reigned seventeen years. The
number seventeen signifies victory or completeness of testimony. It is not insignificant that attached to the
pronouncement that Rehoboam “reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem” is this
further elaboration, that Jerusalem is “the city which the Lord had
chosen from all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there.” Thus the completeness of testimony or victory
attached to Rehoboam reigning strongly in Jerusalem was not so much about him,
but about God’s interest in preserving Jerusalem as the place that “reveals the
very nature and character of the Kingdom of God”; and also that “place where He
interacts with men in the ways that define its name” (both quotes, Lonnie
Lane). The advents of Christ are about establishing Jerusalem (the center of
spiritual Israel; the center of our new creature beings) as a praise on the
earth. Indeed, “On your walls, O
Jerusalem, I have appointed and stationed watchmen
(prophets), who will never keep silent day or night; you who profess
the Lord, take no rest for yourselves, and give Him no rest [from your
prayers] until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise on the earth”
(Isaiah 62:6-7). “If anyone does not
love the Lord [does not obey and respect and believe in Jesus Christ and His
message], he is to be accursed. Maranatha (O our Lord, come)!” (1
Corinthians 16:22).
2 Chronicles 12:15-16.
“Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in
the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, according
to genealogical enrollment? And there were wars between
Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. And
Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and his
son Abijah became king in his place.”
The phrase “according to genealogical
enrollment” is mostly lost to the western mind, but to the eastern mind (of
which Israel obtains), it is of paramount significance. Whereas westerners often think too individualistic,
easterners often think too communal or tribalistic. Nonetheless, God chose the communal thinking
Israelite, and not the individualistic westerner to be the apple of His eye, so
we westerners need to move closer to communal thinking to better understand
God’s overarching intent with man.
Undoubtedly, however, Scripture teaches both communal and individual
responsibility and openly rewards or punishes any discharge or negligence of duty
enjoined to either type of responsibility.
Both types of responsibility are explicitly outlined in these words of
Paul the Apostle: “CARRY ONE ANOTHER’S
BURDENS [communal] and in this way you will fulfill the requirements of the law
of Christ [that is, the law of Christian love].
For if anyone thinks he is something [special] when [in fact] he is
nothing [special except in his own eyes], he deceives himself. But each one must carefully scrutinize his own
work [examining his actions, attitudes, and behavior], and then he can have the
personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable without
comparing himself to another. FOR EVERY
PERSON WILL HAVE TO BEAR [WITH PATIENCE] HIS OWN BURDEN [individualistic]” (Galatians
6:2-5). Rehoboam received both
genealogical advantages and disadvantages, but in the end, just as the apostle
taught us, we must each bear our own burden.
How fair and gracious is God concerning this matter? Look at the disparity between the punishment
length and severity of those who hate God and the reward length and
graciousness extended to those who love Him.
“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol [as
an object to worship], or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what
is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt)
of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for
the sins of their fathers], to the third and the fourth generations of
those who hate Me, but showing graciousness and lovingkindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love
Me and keep My commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:7-10).
Finally,
Shemaiah the prophet, as we learned earlier, means “heard of the Lord”; Iddo
the seer means “timely.” Together, they
recorded “according to genealogical enrollment” things both heard and seen. Thus they alternately either affirmed or
condemned both genealogical and personal behaviors in Rehoboam as God either
told them or showed them (or even both...maybe God told and showed them). Anyways, Rehoboam, as we might recall, means
“enlarges the people”; Jeroboam means “whose people are countless.” The one enlarges a small contingent of
committed disciples, while the other merely amasses masses. The tension between those who enlarge people
they already have and those who numerically increase the number of people they
gather to themselves is a type of warring between spirit and flesh respectively. Just as ten spies gave a bad and faithless
report concerning the Promised Land, and two spies gave a good and faithful
one, so ten tribes (the number of law and that which is only numerically
superior [quantity]) attached themselves to Jeroboam, and two tribes (the
number of true witness and that which is numerically inferior [quality])
attached themselves to Rehoboam. This is
of course only symbolically true and typed by God, not man, because in the
final analysis neither Rehoboam nor Jeroboam were typecast by only their
respective behaviors. Behind their lives
then, as ours now, is the wonderful and almighty sovereignty of God and the
genealogical placement of our lives into a context that both undergirds and
overwhelms us simultaneously. Our
free-will decides our narrow fate, but never outside the confines of the broad
and sovereign will of God, a context that includes seemingly contradictory
things (only because of our shortsightedness).
God wholeheartedly “desires all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3), but
He will nonetheless “destroy all who have caused destruction on the
earth” (Revelation 11:18). If we are
wise, we will accept SOME MEASURE OF DELIVERANCE above full deliverance
temporarily—in the course of our life here on earth—if, by so doing, it
restrains us from destroying the earth and ultimately ourselves.
