2 CHRONICLES 10-12 REHOBOAM

Heart Issues
It is tempting very often to listen to the advice of the young, popular people in my life and hold their advice as new, fresh, and radical. I am easily influenced by this and I have the same heart as Rehoboam far too often in that I want to break from tradition. I want to do something new and for my name to be made great, God save me from my pride and selfish ambition. I want to want you and I desire to desire your glory more than my own. That is so hard as I am too easily consumed with my wants and desires. May I never become too strong in my own eyes that I turn away from you. I always want to seek you with my heart and allow you to make me more like you. Keep me from evil and lead me in your way. I long for humility, but so often that seems so far from my grasp. You turn people over to their greatest desire and allow them to passionate pursue other things. You allow this because of your love and because you deserve our genuine love and not our hypocrisy. Forgive me Lord when other things become my passion other than you. Help my name go down as one who followed you and did what was right in your eyes.

Notes
-The elders were wise and knew what was best. They had lived alongside Solomon the wisest of all men for many years, it was now wonder they gave the best advice. The young men were obviously thinking of pride and arrogance – wanting to make Rehoboam someone that the people feared.
-12:1 – When he became strong he abandoned the way of the Lord. That is the temptation in all of our lives.
-12:6 – The Lord is just. He is right in the way he judges them for they turned their back on the one who established them. God did still turn them over to do what they had already tried to do on their own – serve other gods.
-Evil is found in not seeking the Lord. Rehoboam did not follow in the way of David and therefore the promise that God had made could already be relinquished, but God still allows Abijah to be the next king.