June 2

The Summary of a Life

2 Chron. 12:1,14 After Rehoboam's position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord. He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.

In our study of the kings over the next few weeks, there will be a one verse summary of their lives. It will either describe them as doing evil in the eyes of the Lord or it will be a good report of doing good and right in the eyes of the Lord. It might not seem unfair to boil life down to one sentence, but life isn’t always fair. This is a reminder that there will be a day when our lives will be summarized in one sentence too.

Rehoboam was not half as bad as some of the other kings, but the scriptures still say “he did evil.” There are several hints about why he walked on an evil pathway. It might be good for us to know the causes.

He could have had poor parental guidance. His father Solomon was never nominated as “Father of the Year” and his mother was an Ammonite. Poor parenting could have impacted his spiritual formation.

“He abandoned the law” is a rather serious charge coming from our reading today. His father Solomon began his reign seeking the Lord and His wisdom, but Rehoboam did not. He forsook God’s wisdom and counsel and turned to his fraternity brothers for advice.

We usually “abandon the law” on a gradual decline. We get particularly busy at work and don’t have time to read in the morning, we wake up late or we just don’t feel like reading that particular day. Regardless of the excuses we always end up in the same place. We abandon God as he waits in the quiet spots in our homes alone.

The normal consequence of abandonment of God’s Word is a phony life. When the gold shields of Solomon were taken, they were replaced with shields made of brass. Instead of saying, “We messed up and God used our enemies to humble us,” Rehoboam makes brass shields, tells his guys to polish them really hard, and hopes no one notices. I am color blind but I can tell the difference between gold and brass, no matter how polished it is. Rehoboam wasn’t fooling anyone and neither are we when we put up the polished façade, no matter how hard we work on image control.

The real reason for his poor life summary was he “did not set his heart on seeking the Lord.” That was a huge failure. I wonder what he was seeking after. Popularity, power, pleasure or prestige... all the same distractions we have today. The only issue in life that matters is knowing God. If we go through this day and fail to connect with God, to enjoy his presence, to say that we love him... if we fail to do these things we have wasted a day.

Two reflection questions for you:

1. What are you seeking after?

2. What will be the one sentence summary of your life?