God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 12:7-12 Shishak, the shields and forgiveness

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 18, 2024

7 When the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the LORD came to Shemaia. He said, “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them. Shortly I will give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 8 Nevertheless, they will become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.” 9 When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the house of the king. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made. 10 To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the king’s house. 11 Whenever the king went to the house of the LORD, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, but then they returned them to the guardroom. 12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD’s anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. And more than this, there was some good in Judah.

Sin usually has consequences. Rehoboam had sinned, and so had the people of Israel. But when Shishak came, the prophet Shemaia told the king and the people that God was chastising them: “You have abandoned me, so now I have abandoned you to Shishak” (2 Chronicles 12:5). They accepted God’s judgment, and now they even humbled themselves. Usually this involved sackcloth, ashes, and prayer (Joel 1:13; Jonah 3:5-8; Lamentations 2:10). We’re not told exactly what Rehoboam and his people did, except that Rehoboam went back to church.

But after the king and the people humbled themselves, the consequences did not vanish. Shishak did not fall dead at Jerusalem’s gate. Rehoboam’s sin was forgiven in heaven, but his sin carried consequences here on earth. The glorious “finishing touch” that Solomon had placed on his arsenal, the fabulous golden shields (see 9:15-16) were taken down and carted off to Egypt. Other things, many gold treasures, were also removed from the temple and from Rehoboam’s own palace. As I mentioned in a previous devotion, we don’t actually know that Shishak removed the ark of the covenant, although this is the premise of a famous movie. But the ark of the covenant is mentioned twice after this incident: once in the time of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 36:3) and still later in a prophecy by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:16), although this second example might be a reference to forgetting about what is already gone.

After God’s law has caused fear and terror in a sinner’s heart, and brought the sinner to his knees and to stop the sin, and after the Gospel has soothed the sinner’s troubled conscience and reassured that sinner of God’s love and forgiveness—even after this, some of sin’s consequences may remain. “The external consequences of sin, indeed, remain, such as toilsome labor, tribulation, disease, pain, temporal death, etc., (Genesis 3:16-19; Acts 14:22); yet these are no longer to be regarded as punishments for sin, but are fatherly chastisements intended for our good” (A Summary of Christian Doctrine p. 114). The Holy Spirit tells us: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” (Hebrews 12:7).

Therefore a certain sinner (let’s imagine him to be a thief, from the list in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) is forgiven when he repents. But he may still have his reputation damaged or destroyed by his sin. He may lose his job; it is even possible that he might lose his family. It will be difficult for him to regain trust, or his reputation, and he could conceivably need to start over in a new place to do so. And even then, he might have to take entry-level, low-paying work to begin with. It is possible to rebuild a damaged life, but we also see again and again that while a sin can be forgiven, it is not easily forgotten.

It is a good and loving, Christian act to attempt to forgive and forget. But “forgive and forget” is not always easy. When trust is broken it can take a very long time to regain. It is certainly never, ever, the place of the one who damaged a relationship to say, “You have to forgive me.” Even in the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, when we all pray, “Forgive us our sins,” it is in the form of a request, not a command. Luther helps us here: “God has promised us assurance that everything is forgiven and pardoned, yet on the condition that we also forgive our neighbor. Since we sin greatly against God every day and yet he forgives it all through grace, we must always forgive our neighbor who does us harm, violence, and injustice, bears malice toward us, and so on” (Large Catechism III:93-94). If the neighbor is a family member, especially a spouse or a child, that forgiveness may take time, and repentance must show itself in real contrition and genuine change in the sinner’s life. Of course, our life as forgiven sinners is a life of stumbling forward and sometimes falling down, and we all need to remember that. If we daily sin much against God, we will certainly also be sinned against by our own family and friends, and even by strangers who don’t even know us. But since God has been kind to me, I will find it easier to be kind to those who sin against me. We sinners are like the Great Lakes. When Lake Superior flows down, its silt and some of its pollution flows in two directions: some into Lake Michigan, and some into Lake Huron. Then Lake Erie takes in what leaves Huron, and Lake Ontario is last—what leaves Lake Ontario flows east into the sea. And so since I have sent my sins to Erie, I know that I should forgive Superior. I only pray that they, too, may find it in their hearts to forgive me for all of the many wrongs I have done to them.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

Browse Devotion Archive