King Rehoboam made bronze shields. (1 Kings 14:27)Egypt's Shishak invaded Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of palace and temple. This was most likely when the Ark of the Covenant was lost, yet the writer of 1 Kings doesn't even mention it - instead the account focuses on the loss of Solomon's gold shields. It would seem then, that the shields are a very important part of this story.
We just read 1 Kings 10:16,17 about Solomon having the shields made from hammered gold. Once they were stolen by Egypt, the once wealthy nation of Judah couldn't afford the gold to replace them, so Rehoboam had copies made from bronze.
Every Sabbath, as Rehoboam made his way to the temple, his Secret Service agents equipped with those bronze shields surrounded him. I imagine, as the sun shone down on that bronze, it must have dazzled the eyes of anyone looking - maybe even giving the appearance of real gold - but it was not.
After church the guards would put the shields away, locked in a cabinet where they would stay until the next Sabbath for their weekly parade to the temple.
You probably know where I'm going with this. It's easy to play dress up on the weekend. Some people head for church wearing their shiny best. They look the part, but there's no authentic relationship with God. Others fear what might happen if they were to be transparent.
Are you authentic gold? ...or wannabe bronze?
Can you clarify for me that story of the 2 prophets in Chapter 13? This story has always confused me. Why would the prophet try to get the other prophet to disobey God like he did? Was this something he just did on his own? Something God caused him to do as a test of the first prophet? I just don't get it!
ReplyDeleteMerry,
ReplyDeleteNotice how the biblical account leaves us to decypher the meaning of the story. It gives us the facts, but the moral is left for us to discern. We are not told why the old prophet told the man of God what he did, but it appears it was an outright lie. I have always taken this to teach that when God tells us something, we should obey even when other voices try to persuade us otherwise.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.