2 Chronicles 12:6-16: a reflection

6Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, “The LORD is righteous.” 7When the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the LORD’s word came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath won’t be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. 8Nevertheless they will be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” 9So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the LORD’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He took it all away. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 10King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. 11As often as the king entered into the LORD’s house, the guard came and bore them, then brought them back into the guard room. 12When he humbled himself, the LORD’s wrath turned from him, so as not to destroy him altogether. Moreover, there were good things found in Judah. 13So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned; for 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 out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14He did that which was evil, because he didn’t set his heart to seek the LORD. 15Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, aren’t they written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, in the genealogies? There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 16Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in David’s city; and Abijah his son reigned in his place.

When Shishak of Egypt invaded, Rehoboam and his officials humbled themselves and said, The LORD is righteous. And God responded to that humbling with mercy: because they humbled themselves, he did not destroy them, but granted them deliverance. Yet the chapter's final verdict on Rehoboam is sobering: he did evil, because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD. Beneath his whole wayward reign was one root: he did not set his heart to seek God.

Notice the diagnosis Scripture offers. Rehoboam's failures are not traced first to particular sins or bad decisions, but to something deeper and more fundamental: he did not set his heart to seek the LORD. His heart was not fixed on seeking God, and everything else followed from that. The problem was not merely what he did, but the unset heart underneath it. When the heart is not set on seeking God, a wayward life follows almost inevitably.

That cuts to the root of our own lives too. It is possible to have moments of humbling, as Rehoboam did, and still, at the core, not set the heart to seek God, not make seeking him the fixed direction of our lives. And from that unset heart, drift and evil follow. The deciding factor is whether we set our heart to seek the Lord, deliberately, as the settled orientation of our life. Do not let your life be summed up as Rehoboam's was. Set your heart to seek the Lord, and let that fixed direction shape everything else.

Lord, Rehoboam's whole wayward reign came down to one root: he did not set his heart to seek you. Search my own heart. Keep me from a life of drift that flows from a heart not fixed on you. Help me deliberately set my heart to seek you, to make seeking you the settled direction of my life, so that everything else flows from that. I do not want my life summed up as his was. Draw me to seek you.