It’s an all too familiar pattern: when people become prosperous and peaceful they cease to have any time for God. That’s what seems to have happened to King Rehoboam and his subjects: when his kingdom was “established and strong,” he and all his people “forsook the law of the Lord” (II Chronicles 12:1).

Now, we’re not sure exactly what part of God’s law they broke. Maybe they put too much faith in their military prowess – after all, at one time Rehoboam was able to muster 180,000 soldiers to go into battle (II Chronicles 11:1). Or maybe they became proud of the magnificent Temple that Rehoboam’s father Solomon had built, with all of its golden decorations. But the important thing isn’t so much what they did wrong, but instead what they didn’t do: they didn’t put God first in their lives. Instead, they forsook God, turning away from Him (II Chronicles 12:5).

And what did God do about His people’s faithlessness? Because they turned away from Him, He turned away from them, ceasing to protect them from their enemies (II Chronicles 12:5). As a result, He allowed the Egyptians to conquer the people of Judah and enslave them (II Chronicles 12:8), just as they had done in the days before the Exodus. And why did God do this? So that His people would learn just how different, how much better the service and worship of God is compared to serving any other kings or gods (II Chronicles 12:8).

And God still tends to do the same thing to those who turn away from Him: if we don’t want to have anything to do with Him, He lets us see what that would be like. Sometimes He takes away the things in which we have been placing our faith, just as He allowed the Egyptians to destroy the Judeans’ military power and carry off those beautiful gold shields from Solomon’s palace (II Chronicles 12:9). Sometimes, that’s what it takes to get us to repent, to turn away from the gifts and return to the Giver.

And what does true repentance look like? It’s as simple as it is difficult – the princes and the king flatly stated, “The Lord is righteous” (II Chronicles 12:6). In other words, they were willing to admit that God was right and that His Law was right, and thus that any way they had deviated from God’s law was just wrong. Repentance therefore involves much more than simply being sorry for suffering the consequences of sin – it invariably involves a course correction. And turning back to God’s ways necessarily means turning away from our own.

So in this time when we Americans have lost so much of our prosperity, so much of our safety and so much of our security, could it be that we had been putting too much stock in those things, perhaps even worshipping them? And if so, maybe we also need to say, “The Lord is righteous” – and mean it.

II Chronicles 12:1-12 (NASB)

It took place when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong that he and all Israel with him forsook the law of the LORD.
2 And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem
3 with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were without number: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians.
4 And he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
5 Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.'”
6 So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”
7 And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some measure of deliverance, and My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak.
8 “But they will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”
9 So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s palace. He took everything; he even took the golden shields which Solomon had made.
10 Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the care of the commanders of the guard who guarded the door of the king’s house.
11 And it happened as often as the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards came and carried them and then brought them back into the guards’ room.
12 And when he humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and also conditions were good in Judah.