You win but you don’t deserve it - 2 Chronicles 13
Have you ever received something, perhaps a gift but you didn’t deserve it? Maybe you got a heap of money from an inheritance, but you didn’t really know or perhaps even appreciate the relative who gave you the inheritance, but you got it anyway. Perhaps the reason was simply because you were related to the one who bestowed the inheritance or you were a friend of a rich beneficiary. In such cases, it really is ‘who you know,’ although not always the case, I heard this week that the mining magnate Twiggy Forrest is not leaving his billions to his children, but donating it all to charity. I am sure his children will be looked after in any event, the parents saying leaving billions of dollars to children is irresponsible. Unearned blessing is surely undeserved, yet it happens to a select few.
Sometimes we are blessed regardless of our character; some receive what they don’t deserve. The king we read about this morning was one such individual. When we study the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, they always have a tag associated with their character at either the start of the end of their reign and it generally goes like this: The king (name) did what was right before the Lord, or the king (name) did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Or in the case of Jeroboam who sinned by making 2 gold calves, all the kings who followed his bad example after that are said to have “followed in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat that caused Israel to sin.”
When we read about the kings of Israel and Judah, we have two main sources – the books of 1 and 2 Kings and the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. Abijah reigned for only three years (913—911 BC). It consisted of war between himself and King Jeroboam of Israel, because Abijah, like his father Rehoboam, was trying to reclaim Israel's northern ten tribes to be a part of his kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 15:6). King Abijah is sometimes referred to as King Abiah or King Abijam.
The description of Abijah from 1Kings 15:1-3 is this: “Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God.”
The testimony in 1 Kings is clearly unfavourable to King Abijah. He walked in the sins of his father. Who was his father? That would be Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
What was Rehoboam noted for? 1. For listening to youth rather than wisdom, after which the nation of Israel became 2 kingdoms – the north 10 tribes and the South Judah – 2 tribes. But what about Rehoboam as a person? How was Abijah, his son, like him? We are told in 2Chronicles 12:1, 2 how Rehoboam ruled. It says, “When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.” 2. He abandoned the law, which means he abandoned the Lord. How – must likely in the ways his father Solomon did – Rehoboam likely worshipped foreign idols. Solomon had many foreign wives and it says Rehoboam’s mothers name “was Naamah the Ammonite.” (2Chronicles 12:13, 14) And it says Rehoboam “did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.” This was Abijah’s upbringing and heritage. What we say and do and what we believe affects our kids. 2Chronicles 15:13 says, “she had made an abominable image for Asherah.”
Abijah learned from this example of his father, so this is why he has the description that he has, but…
Abijah had a season of faith, truth, obedience and blessing.
1. Faith - Abijah invoked the name of the Lord
2. Truth – Abijah gave a history lesson on Israel’s rebellion and Judah’s faithfulness.
3. Obedience – He prayed to the Lord and trusted in Him when Judah was ambushed, had twice the numbers
4. Blessed – Israel’s army was 800 000 compared to Judah’s 400 000. Israel lost 500 000. Then Judah had peace and took cities from Israel. Even in Asa’s (Abijah’s son’s) reign, the first 10 years were peaceful.
God gave Abijah undeserved mercy. He was a man who was unfaithful to the Lord, but at a critical period in his life, trusted in the Lord and was blessed as a result.
What does this show about God’s character? 1. The past doesn’t count when faith is put into practice. Abijah’s past didn’t matter when he exercised faith and trust at this moment. The Lord will do that for anyone here this morning in the same way. 2. God is ready to show both His power and Salvation 3. He honours faithful prayers and obedience of past generations. You don’t know who has prayed for you in the past. I don’t have grandchildren, but I have already prayed for them and for my great grandchildren, should the Lord hold off His return until then. 4. He blessed future generations of Judah as a result. Asa, Abijah’s son, became a mighty leader in Israel and saw even greater victories than this.
Abijah won, but he didn’t deserve it. The point is we, as those who are fallen in Adam, receive mercy and grace in Christ. We don’t deserve it, but God tells us to simply trust in him.
There is a sense that you have nothing to lose. Abijah was surrounded by the Israelite army; he was at the end of all other help. Sometimes we need to be put in that place. We need to be at the end of ourselves where we are put in a place of complete dependency upon the Lord.
While the account in Kings is not very flattering to Abijah, there is a brief phrase in 1Kings 15:3 that says, “and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God.” This passage gives me some hope. While it says he didn’t wholly follow, he didn’t wholly unfollow; still friends with God. It also says, “the Lord His God,” which also gives me hope. Abijah knew a great deliverance when he relied on the Lord, but why not stay true whole heartedly?
Abijah was certainly undeserving of the great gift of deliverance that the Lord had given him over Israel’s army. But, of course, we are undeserving of the great mercy that we have received in Christ. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
What should our response be? Nothing more than praise and worship into eternity. Our salvation is eternal and so shall our praises be around the throne.