Context No. 3256 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 14:25-31: in context

25In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; 26and he took away the treasures of the LORD’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made. 27King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the door of the king’s house. 28It was so, that as often as the king went into the LORD’s house, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard room. 29Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 30There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 31Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place.

In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt marches up and plunders Jerusalem, carrying off the treasures of the LORD's house and the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. Rehoboam replaces them with shields of bronze, which the guards carry whenever the king goes to the LORD's house.

A small detail tells the story: bronze in place of gold. From a distance the new shields look much the same, carried in the same procession, but the glory has been diminished, and everyone knows it. The reign has declined from Solomon's gold to Rehoboam's imitation. It is a picture of what happens when a people drifts from God: the outward forms continue, the shields still hang and are still carried, but the substance behind them has been quietly downgraded. We can keep the appearances of devotion long after the reality has faded. The question is whether what we carry is still gold, or only bronze pretending to be.

Have I let the gold of real devotion quietly become bronze, keeping the outward forms while the substance has drained away?

Sources

1 Kings 14:26: "He took away the treasures of the LORD's house... He even took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made."
1 Kings 14:27: "King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place."
Revelation 2:4: "But I have this against you, that you left your first love."