INTRODUCTION
The music group The Police had a song called “Every Breath You Take.” Here are some of the lyrics:
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I’ll be watching you
Those words are no more true than when it comes to our influence over our children and grandchildren. The point is that they see what we are doing. They observe the choices we are making. They hear the words we use. They know the expressions on our faces. We may think that we are hiding from them where our hearts truly lie, but we are only lying to ourselves. They are watching us and observing us and, sometimes to our shame, imitating us.
The kings of Israel and Judah – especially the kings of Judah – are especially instructive to see the power of parents’ influence because we have 20 generations of father, son, grandson, great-grandson, so that it is easy to see the end result of these behaviors.
I want to consider the “Parenting Failure” of King Rehoboam by looking at his son – the third generation from King Solomon – and see what type of son Rehoboam had…
A PARENT’S INFLUENCE – 14:31, 15:1-2:
King Rehoboam intended to make Abijah king (2 Chron. 11:22). He made him the head and leader among his other brothers. Abijah only reigned for three years. But he had seen enough of his father’s behavior and absorbed enough of his father’s heart and influence to have the course, the direction of his life, set. You will notice in verse 2 that Abijah’s grandfather’s name is “Abishalom.” Some scholars believe this is an alternate spelling for “Absalom,” King David’s wicked son. If that is true, then we have two evil influences working on the heart of King Abijah.
THE MATTER OF THE HEART – 15:3:
All of our behavior, all of our choices, flow from our heart. We are either serving our emotions or our emotions are serving us. To say that King Abijah’s heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord means that he was wishy-washy, spiritually speaking. He was not dependable. He was double-minded. He was not trustworthy from a spiritual perspective. Of course, he could not expect to have success in his reign if he was following the example of his father and grandfather.
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BY CONTRAST, THE GRACE OF GOD – 15:4:
God had promised King David in 2 Samuel 7 that King David would always have a son sitting on the throne of Judah. God’s plan was to bring the “Son of David,” the Messiah into the world through King David’s family. That’s why God was patient and tolerant of the sins of Judah. David loved and respected God. As far as this historian is concerned, the only sin in David’s life was the matter of Uriah’s wife – notice that the historian does not white-wash what David did by just using Bath-sheba’s name!
THE VALUE OF COMMANDMENTS – 15:5:
We talked about David’s relationship with God… David emphasizes that God was the light for David’s path, for David’s feet. That light shown in David’s life through the commandments of the Lord: 2 Samuel 22:29; Psa. 119:105; Prov. 6:23.
THE GRACE OF GOD – 15:6-8:
Then we need to shift to 2 Chronicles 13 to get some details of this war between Rehoboam and Abijam / Abijah. The author of 1 & 2 Chronicles writes his history with an agenda: to show what happens when God’s people are faithful to Him and to show what happens to God’s people when they are unfaithful to Him. King Abijah is a wicked king. But, when he decides to do the right thing – when he decides to “trust” in the Lord (verse 18), then God does great things for King Abijah.
For Israel, their standard for worship was not, “what does the Bible teach,” but “what makes you feel good?” They were more than happy to change and alter anything that God had said, as long as it was popular and was well-received by the people.
So, Abijah points out that God is with them and He will give Judah success over Israel (13:12). Judah “subdued” Israel (13:18). Notice why: “because they ‘trusted’ in the Lord, the God of their fathers.”
NO ONE IS LOCKED INTO THEIR STATE IN LIFE – 2 Chronicles 14:2:
King Solomon turned out to be a bad king. His son, King Rehoboam, turned out to be a bad king. His son, King Abijah, turned out to be a bad king. But that track record did not mean that all kings would be evil and wicked. Evil is a choice. It is a choice to either listen to God and obey Him, or not. The next king of Judah was one who chose to follow God, to follow the example of King David: King Asa.
Asa was largely a good king. So important was Asa and his reign (41 years!) that the historian of 2 Chronicles gives Asa three chapters (14-16)!
Our actions will have a profound impact on the direction our children take. Abijah shows us we need to take our influence very seriously.
Paul Holland
