Gold & Bronze Shields
The Old Testament is an epic account of history covering some 2500 years from creation to the birth of Jesus.
It contains all sorts of stories: adventure, tragedy, action, romance, mystery and drama as it tracks the ups and downs of the Jewish nation.
From time to time, it zooms in on specific people and situations detailing something which, at first, seems random.
I came across one such story recently about Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, who succeeded him as King...
“In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.”
After reading this I thought, why is this story about shields in the Bible and what does it say to us?
God had blessed Solomon with great wisdom and wealth. So much in fact, that gold was in great abundance! It was used for making cutlery and even shields. Imagine and army going into battle with golden shields!
But when Rehoboam succeeded Solomon as King, he was invaded by the Egyptians who stole lots of the treasure, including those golden shields.
So, what did King Rehoboam do? He replaced then with bronze ones. In other words, he kept the appearance that all was well, when really there was a problem!
We all go through times when things go wrong, sometimes by our own doing, and other times, it is just out of our control. We can appear to be doing OK, when actually there is a problem. A modern phrase for it is ‘papering over the cracks.’ There hides an issue that does need to be dealt with!
So, what do we do? We need to start by acknowledging there is a problem, and then, I suggest, do something positive about it.
The fabulous news is that God sees us, knows us and loves us. I believe he wants us to live free from hidden problems. Let me encourage you to allow God and others to help, and don’t be like King Rehoboam who lived with the pretence.
God bless
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader