King Rehoboam
made bronze shields (1
Kings 14:27).
After Solomon died,
his son Rehoboam ascended the throne. In his fifth year, Egypt’s Shishak
invaded Judah and carried off the treasures of palace and temple. In spite of
everything that was stolen (we can only imagine the list provided to the
insurance company), 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 could no longer 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 wasn’t.
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 Temple.
It’s probably easy
to forecast 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.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Another opportunity to take
honest inventory: Are you authentic gold? …or wannabe bronze?
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