1 Chronicles 9 The Queen of Sheba. She came to observe the wisdom of Solomon and said that it was twice as great as she had been told. She gave him great mounts of gold and spices, and he reciprocated. The gold that Solomon received each year from countries he subjugated was about #3 billion. He had a fleet of trading ships to bring in gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons. He has thousands of horses and traded with Egypt for horses. God had warned Israel when they asked for a king that a king should not multiply horses or wives, and Solomon did both. Ethiopian tradition says that Solomon and the queen of Sheba had a son named Malik (Menelik I) who was the founder of the Ethiopian Solomonic dynasty. According to the national epic Kebra Nagast, the dynasty traced its lineage to Menelik I, the mythical son of biblical King Solomon and Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. The Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie claiimed to be a descendant of Menelik I and cruelly ruled Ethiopia from 193-1974. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church also claims to have the ark of the covenant protected in a church there. They say Manelik I brought it back to Ethiopia after one of his trips to see his father Solomon. It is guarded by a single custodian. All this is myth with no genetic or historical proof. Surely the Bible would have recorded all this if it really happened. But we don’t know what happeened to the ark of the covenant. It was not in the temple when the Romans destroyed the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. The famours Arch of Titus in Rome shows them bringing back the menorah and would most certainly had a pic of the ark on that arch if they had brought it from Jerusalem. Some think that the people of Judah buried the ark somewhere under Jerusalem so the Romans couldn’t get it. So we can’t confirm or deny whether the ark is in Ethiopia. Interesting! Solomon died after reigning for 40 years.

2 Chronicles 10 Rehoboam succeeds Solomon as king. Rehoboam could have had the loyalty of all 12 tribes if he had just eased up on the “harsh labor and heavy yoke” that Solomon had put on them. But he listened to his younger counselors instead of the older wise counselors and told them that he would be more harsh than Solomon was. An interesting comment: 10:¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.” It is always puzzling how God lets people like Rehoboam make their own free will choices and yet makes it work out according to His plans. He had already told Solomon that the kingdom would split after he died so this split had to occur. The providence of God and his foreknowledge of how people will choose works together to make His will work out. Rehoboam barely escaped being killed by the rebels.

2 Chronicles 11 This almost turned into an immediate bloody civil war between the 10 tribes who rebelled and the 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin) who stayed loyal to Rehoboam. Rehoboam was ready with 180,000 men to go fight Jereboam but God told him not to and he didn’t. Kinda like the South succeeded from the Union and the Northern states had to decide whether to just let them go or go fight to keep the Union together, I guess. So a bloody civil war was fought but at least the Union was preserved. Not a parallel ending. Many of the Levites from the 48 Levitical cities across the 12 tribes came to Jerusalem to side with Rehoboam since Jereboam rejected the Levitical priesthood and set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The same polygamy: 11:²¹ Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.” I don’t understand why God allowed that.

2 Chronicles 12 Unfortunately, Rehoboam and Judah quit following the Lord after that. In Rehoboam’s 5th year God sent Shishak king of Egypt with 12,000 chariots and 60,000 horsemen to attack and take cities in Judah and would have taken Jerusalem if Rehoboam had not repented. But Shishak carried off the treasures in the temple. Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite.

Here is the chart we will be using to study the kings of Judah from 2 Chronicles 9:31 through 36:21. Remember, 2 Chronicles ony discusses the kings of Judah, although at different times kings from Israel will be involved. 19 kings of Judah. Most were bad, only a few were good and most of the good ones ended up badly due to pride late in their reigns. From here on “Israel” will refer to the 10 northern kingdom tribes and “Judah” will refer to the 2 southern kingdom tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

Judah #1 Rehoboam. 2 Chronicles 9:31-12:16. Reigned 17 years. Bad.

Judah #2 Abijah. 2 Chronicles 13:1-22 Reigned 3 years. Bad Abijah took 400,000 men to fight the 800,000 men of Jereboam. Abijah gave a passionate speech to the people following Jereboam, appealing to them to return to the true Levitical priesthood (Jereboam had appointed his own non-Levitical priests) and temple worship at Jerusalem (Jereboam had set up golden calves to worship at Dan and Bethel), but it did not avert a battle. Abijah won the battle, inflicting 500,000 casualties on Jereboam and Israel. Interesting comment: 13:¹⁸ The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.” God did not allow Rehoboam to attack Jereboam b/c He wanted the kingdom to split. But now that the kingdom is split, He was with Abijah fighting Jereboam and gave Abijah the victory even though he was a bad king. God is going to protect Judah b/c Jesus will come from the tribe of Judah in the future.