Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It's Pastor Rod with you yet again, and thank you so much for joining me. It is always a privilege and an honor to be able to serve you in this way. If you can hear it, my voice, I'm a little under the weather. Don't know what happened, but Pastor PJ left and then things started happening. Busyness started abounding, and then God's you know what? On top of all that, I'm going to tie you up a little bit by making your body just sick enough to be annoying, but not so much that you'll be laid out. I actually appreciate that. I'm grateful I'm not lying in bed right now languishing and just wishing life were over. I am functional and I'm thankful for that, and I'm asking the Lord to quickly get me over this. I have a lot of stuff to get done in the next couple weeks and I'd really like to be healthy. I think I'll do better that way as we all do. So if you would pray with me and pray for me, I would really appreciate that. Okay. Second Chronicles chapters 10, 11, and 12. This is the parallel account we just read yesterday, one Kings 12, 13, and 14. And we see the same thing today, but again as Second Chronicles and one Chronicles does, it gives us a slightly different picture. A lot of it is the same, it's even worded in much the same way. But Kings serve to tell the history of the United Individ kingdoms and ultimately their fall and what led to those falls. In First Chronicles and Second Chronicles, what you have is a God's eye view of both the Davidic reign and First Chronicles, and then you have a God's eye view of the reigns of the kings of Judah. And so you have slightly different commentary on it. You have slightly different approaches and different focus focal points with that. What we're looking at today is a god's eye view of the divided kingdom. Now, everything that you have read in One Kings is meant to be carried over. As you read this, there's no indication that the author of Second Chronicles expects that this is the first time that you're coming across this. So we are expecting to have certain information already with you as you read these things. We have the expectation that this is written for post Exilic Israel. That is, it's meant to encourage them and to showcase to them how God can bless them, even though all these things have happened. And so we jump back in parachuting into Second Chronicles chapter 10. And by the way, yesterday I gave you a lot of resources that I suggested that you pick up. I will copy and paste those resources into our show notes. So whatever podcast platform you're using, there should be show notes there, which will also give you our chapters so that you can skip around where you see fit. But the show notes will have the links to the resources that I recommended, and if you so choose, that's a slightly easier way to go find them. Second Chronicles chapter 10. This is, as it says here, the revolt. Against Rehoboam. Now you remember this. Most of it is the same. And the one thing I wanna mention to you in two Chronicles 10, that's slightly different, actually, it's not quite different, I'm just gonna bring it up to your attention. But you'll notice here that in two Chronicles chapter 10, there's a couple words that are used that are reminiscent of something earlier in Israel's history. And this happens in verse four, the people say, your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us. This is actually reminiscent of Israel's time in Egypt. When they were under Egypt. They complained about the hard service of their masters. And so here. There is a subtle clue or an indication that they're basically equating Solomon's leadership with the kind of slavery that they endured under Egypt. And so their complaints is, just in the sense that when God heard them complain in the Book of Exodus, he delivered them. So maybe that's what's happening here. As you remember, r Boem takes counsel with two parties, one the old men and then the other, the young men. And he likes the young men's advice better. I. And in fact, probably as a rule of thumb, it's better to get advice from a plurality of sources, not just a singular source. And often we go to our favorite people, and granted, we should find wise people, so hopefully that's your inclination. But we should get a variety of resources when it comes to wisdom. I. And here he does do that. Rhe bow does do that, but he doesn't listen. For whatever reason, he chooses to find the advice of his friends more palatable and he applies it. And then of course we have in verse 15, the king didn't listen to the people. He failed to listen as carefully as he should have. And if perhaps he did, maybe things would've been different. But verse 15 tells us that this was a turn of affairs brought about by God, that the Lord might fulfill his word. Let the record show God will have the last word. There's never a time when your life or anyone else's life for that matter, goes in a direction that he does not decide everything about your life. Everything about what you do is ultimately God's decision. I. The lot is cast in the lap, but its decision is from the Lord. We read this in Proverbs, chapter 16. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. And here we see the evidence of God moving people exactly where he wants them, even though the movement in this case is apart from one another. And this is a division that's gonna haunt them for years to come. But this is of the Lord, and therefore we had to recognize that not only in two Chronicles chapter 10. But also in your life in 2025, God is still arranging the pieces on the chess board as he sees fit. It is up to us to trust him and to know that he's leading us exactly as he wants us to. In verse 18, it says, king bu sent Hadum. This is a different spelling than what you came across in the First King's narrative. Not to be alarmed, this is the same guy. We will see that again in the Book of Kings. There's gonna be kings with different names similar names anyway, but they have different phonetical pronunciations, and so you have it here. Hadum in Adora, same guy. And that concludes second Chronicles chapter 10. In second, Chronicles chapter 11, you have R Boem securing his kingdom. And you remember in the first King's narrative, Rehoboam says, all right, let's gather all the troops from Judah and Benjamin and let's fight against Israel so we can restore the kingdom back to united under, back to let's restore the kingdom back to a united whole. But God decides to stop that and he sends Shamiah the man of God and says, Hey, don't do this. This is my doing. And they wisely stand down. Better never to go against the Lord's doing. But what he does do, and this is different to the text and Chronicles, is that he builds his defenses. And so you'll see if you jot out the places that are listed here, you'll see that it's basically the northern border. I. Of his kingdom. So the southern kingdom of Judah is building her defenses on the northern side against any PO potential opposition from the northern Kingdom. And verse 12 says he does this and he, as a consequence, he held Judah and Benjamin, which is to say that he's maintaining at least those two tribes, even though he lost the prior tent. A benefit of this division is that the priests and the Levites who were in the Northern Tribes migrate down to be part of the Authentic Temple Services. I. And so verse 14 says, A Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah in Jerusalem because Jira Boem and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord. And you remember the reason why is because Jira boem installs two calves to worship, both in Dan the northern, most part of the Northern Kingdom, and Bethel, one of the southern most parts of the Northern Kingdom. They install their own priests. They install their own religious system, and so the authentic guys have no place to go, and so they go south to Judah. This is the benefit because verse 17 says they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made a rebo. The Sons of Solomon secure, so God blesses them all because of Jone's foolishness and his disobedience. We have a small section two with the last part of second Chronicles 11 in verses 18 through 23. We have a few notes about Ria, Bo's family. Two Chronicles Chapter 12. Notice here in the first verse of chapter 12, it says, when the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord and to all Israel with him. Just like he abandoned the council of the old men in the prior chapter, now he abandons the law of the Lord. And so I wonder if this is a subtle clue that he was meant to listen to the old men. Now granted, ultimately he was meant to do exactly what he did 'cause that was the Lord's doing. But I wonder if what God is alluding to here is that he should have listened to the counsel of his elders. I think everybody who has gray hair on this podcast probably said Amen. But here, notice it's when he's strong that he becomes weak. It is when he is most secure, that he's actually most threatened by his own sin. He's deceived by his strength. He's deceived by the fact that he has peace, or at least some relative concept of peace. And it is at that point that he abandons the law of the Lord. Let the record show for us that success has. Enormous dangers to us because they make us think that in some way, shape, or form, those things are really the things that protect us. It's our money or it's our health, or it's something else besides the Lord himself. Remember, it's when the rule of Ria B was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law. So be careful if the Lord has you in a weak situation. Again, no one loves this. No one wants to be there, but this is maybe the way that the Lord's keeping it close to him. Paul says in two Corinthians chapter 12, it's when I'm weak that I'm truly strong. It's when I'm not able to depend on my own resources that I'm, I have to, I must depend on the resources of God and that's where we should be. This is where Reone goes wrong. So second Chronicles. Chapter 12 is where things go awry for Reone. We have some more information here about the attack of Shish Shk, king of Egypt. When we read it in the First King's narrative, we did not read one of the critical portions that we have here. And so Shamiah, the prophet comes in, verse five, came to Ria. Bowman says, here's what's happened. You've abandoned me, so I abandoned you. This is not God being petty. This is God issuing fatherly discipline. And that's exactly what takes place here. But notice in verse six, something really fascinating and quite interesting to me, at least, maybe to you as well, verse six, the Prince of Israel and the King. Humbled themselves. They humbled themselves and they said the Lord is righteous. In other words, what's happening is exactly what we deserve. This is what should happen. The fact that shack is coming to attack us is something that we have earned by our behavior. And notice, verse seven, this is so beautiful. When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves and the word, rather, when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to shamiah. They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them. This is a thing of beauty. This is how God acts with his people. When we repent, God forgives. When we do right after doing wrong, God is willing and able to restore us and to cease his disciplinary hand. Christian, are you living in a period of sin right now? Are things going poorly for you because you're not walking with the Lord? We'll take a note from their playbook here. Humble yourself. Acknowledge that the Lord is good, and perhaps the Lord will withdraw his hand. The Lord is ever present and ready to forgive, and we ought never to forget that the Lord is a humble and gracious God who's eager to show kindness to his people. Now, I would encourage you to throw yourself at his mercy and let him show you how good he is. And so we have this occasion here where shish act, the King of Egypt, comes against Israel even though they could have destroyed them altogether. God shows grace to re boem and the people, and he only lets them plunder them a little bit. He replaces their. There're shields of gold with shields of bronze. And even though they've taken a beating, they're still able to live on after that. And the final verses of this section here, we find out that Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and he reigned. He was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 17 years. And so we have the beginning of the divided kingdom under Rehoboam for the tribes of Judah. And Benjamin Notice in verse 14 it says that he did evil for we did not set his heart to seek the Lord. And this really is the problem for most of us, isn't it? We do evil because we're not set on seeking the Lord. We do evil because we fail to see him as first and foremost in our lives. The evil that we commit is because we're. Believing that something else is better than he is. And this is the fatal error for Rebo and this is why God judges his kingdom reign as evil. This is a bad leadership lesson. Rebo will die and he will put Ab Baja his son in his place and we'll pick up on that when we get to Second Chronicles chapter 13. Thank you so much for joining me today. That's everything I have. I hope this has been a benefit to you and a blessing. Please bear with me as we close, this time out. God, we wanna be people of your word. Please help us. Help us. Father, we, we can't do it. We need you to draw us close. We need you to support us, and we need you to give us wisdom about the word. Lord, it's so easy to read these stories and maybe take away a few lessons, but maybe miss the point. Please help us not to miss the point that you're teaching. Help us to know how. It looks to serve you and to humble ourselves before you and to trust you and not to trust ourselves. Please guard us from the error of Rehoboam, who when he was strong, abandoned your word. Let that not be true for us, Lord, as you strengthen us and give us financial resources or. Personal resources and other ways you bless us in all these areas. Lord, please don't let us fall prey into thinking that we are self-sufficient or in that we in any way have made ourselves as a current American mentality, often asserts that we are pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We know that's impossible. Only you can do that. And Lord, as you give us success in whatever ventures we do, please help us to remain dependent and humble, trusting you all the way. And we want you to do that, Lord, in part by helping us stand your word. And so we ask that you will do that for us over and over again. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you all for joining me. Please pray for me and I'll hope to see you tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. I'll see you.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.