And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, [that] Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
Five years into Rehoboam's reign, the king of Egypt marched on Jerusalem and looted it. Why did the fall come so fast, who stood behind it, and what did Judah lose?
The shock of this invasion is its speed.
Shishak, the king of Egypt, comes up against Jerusalem (vv. 25-28). All Solomon's prosperity, the treasures of the temple, the riches of the king's house, the golden shields of his guard, all is gone, and so quickly! In less than seventeen years the kingdom of David's son collapses — all its glory thrown down and trampled! The gold is gone, and only bronze takes its place (v. 27).
This was only the first of many such strippings.
Only five years after Solomon's death, Shishak, King of Egypt, plundered the Temple... There were probably some replacements. But unfaithful kings stripped the Temple more than once to pay tribute to foreign powers. In time came the terrible day when the LORD could no longer tolerate the evil nation, and He gave everything up to destruction.
The record ties Shishak's invasion to something Judah had done first.
He was the king of Egypt who sheltered Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon. Later he invaded Judah in the reign of Rehoboam, "because they had transgressed against the LORD." He came with a huge army, took the fortified cities, and looted Jerusalem and the temple.
What turned Rehoboam aside was not hardship but success.
This short-lived blessing strengthened the kingdom of Judah and let Israel establish itself. But it became a snare for Rehoboam. The flesh uses even God's favors as an occasion to depart from Him... Only one man needs to turn aside — a man the Lord commissioned to shepherd His people — and all the rest will follow his example. What a responsibility for him!
Of all the powers that could have humbled Judah, this one carried a special sting.
Judah did not fall to their brother Israel, whose religion they were right to defend themselves against. They fell lower than that. They fell into the hands of a world that God had once redeemed them from with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. As before, the king of Egypt made them his subjects.
One writer reads Egypt as a picture with a lesson for today.
Egypt pictures the world in its independence of God. The gold pictures the glory of God. Rehoboam had no regard for God's glory, so his gold shields only showed his hypocrisy. In the same way, disobedience to God will rob us of all that is precious in the blessings of the Word of God. Our worldliness all but invites the world to take what ought to be ours.
Egypt's king took the plunder. The question is who sent him.
Note what God says: "I will not destroy them." Shishak was only His whip. The Assyrian was the same at a later date. Through His prophet Isaiah, God calls him "the rod of my anger" and "a razor that is hired." In disasters like these, blessing comes only when we see past the instrument and know the hand that uses it. Their lives were spared, but they had to become servants to Shishak, "that they may know," God says, "my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." Where there is true submission, the Lord's yoke is easy. If His saints refuse to wear it, they must learn by humiliating and painful experience what the enemy's yoke is like.
This chapter records the loss and stops there. Another account of the same reign tells what the king and his princes did next.
Shemaiah the prophet said: "You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak." These words did a real work of conscience in the heart of the king and his princes. They "humbled themselves; and they said, 'The LORD is righteous.'" This humbling of themselves saved Judah from complete destruction... All this work of repentance, the fruit of grace, is missing from 1 Kings 14 — and with good reason.
Something survived that Shishak could not carry off.
Shishak, we are told, took everything. Everything! And yet one thing still remains: the altar is there, God is there. For faith, in the middle of ruin and humiliation, this was far more than all the gold the king of Egypt carried away.
- Cause — Judah's own sin opened the gate. Success, not hardship, turned Rehoboam aside, and the nation followed his lead.
- Speed — Within five years of Solomon's death the gold was gone. One campaign swept away what a lifetime had gathered.
- Instrument — Shishak was a whip in God's hand, not a power acting on his own. Faith looks past the invader to the hand that uses him.
- Picture — Egypt stands for the world. Judah went back under the very power God had redeemed them from. Worldliness invites the world to take what ought to be ours.
- What remains — Kings records the stripping without the repentance, yet the altar still stood. God Himself was the one treasure Egypt could not carry away.
And he took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all; and he took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
Within a few years of Solomon's death the wealth of his reign was gone, carried south into Egypt by an invading king. Two questions follow: why did God allow it, and what did Rehoboam put in the gold's place?
The loss came fast. One commentator counts the years:
Shishak, the king of Egypt, comes up against Jerusalem (vv. 25-28). All Solomon's prosperity, the treasures of the temple, the riches of the king's house, the golden shields of his guard — all of it is gone, and so quickly! In less than seventeen years the kingdom of David's son collapses. All its glory falls and is trampled underfoot!
Scripture does not treat this as bad luck. It ties the invasion to a turn in Rehoboam's reign:
We read that Solomon loved many foreign women, and then how idolatry was set up. In the same way, here is the turning point in Rehoboam's prosperity: "he desired many wives." Then, once he was strong in his kingdom, he forsook the law of the Lord. The next event on record is the invasion by Shishak king of Egypt. The Holy Spirit adds the reason: "because they had transgressed against the Lord" (2 Chron. 12).
One writer looks past the army to the hand using it, and shows why God made His people pay tribute:
Notice what God says: "I will not destroy them." Shishak was only His whip. God said the same of the Assyrian later on, calling him, through His prophet Isaiah, "the rod of my anger" and "a razor that is hired." In troubles like these, if there is to be blessing, we must see beyond the instrument and know the hand that uses it. But though God spared their lives, they had to become servants, paying tribute to Shishak, so that, God says, "they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." Where there is true submission, the Lord's yoke is easy. If His saints refuse to wear it, they must learn by humiliating and painful experience what the yoke of the enemy is like.
One commentator reads the plundering as a picture with a warning inside it:
Egypt pictures the world in its independence of God. The gold is a picture of the glory of God. But Rehoboam had no regard for God's glory, so the gold shields only testified to his hypocrisy. So disobedience to God will rob from us all that is precious in the blessings of the Word of God. Our worldliness all but invites the world to take what ought to be ours.
Rehoboam's response is as telling as the loss. He put up no fight; he covered the gap:
Rehoboam, that weak and foolish son of a great father, does not appear to have put up any resistance. He let the glory of the city go without protest. What did it matter? He could substitute brass for gold, and brass looks almost like gold; peace seemed cheap at the price. So when he went up to the house of the Lord, brass shields went up before him instead of shields of fine gold. When his religious duties were over, the guard took them away for safe keeping, as though they were the real thing (1 Kings 14).
The fuller account in 2 Chronicles records a prophet's message and the king's reply:
What is remarkable is that Rehoboam did not harden himself. He did not silence the prophet, as many others would have done. Instead, "the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, 'The LORD is righteous'" (2 Chron. 12:6). It is not easy to say "The LORD is righteous" when one is under the judgment of God. We are more likely to try to justify ourselves.
Gold for brass is not God's last word. One writer sets a promise from Isaiah beside it:
How short-lived is the glory that depends upon the faithfulness of man! The temple that Solomon built is spoiled and robbed in the days of his son. For gold there is brass. When He comes and brings back glory to Israel, this will be reversed: "Instead of bronze I will bring gold" (Isa. 60:17). God takes pleasure in undoing the work of sin. The prophet puts it as a symbol, but no doubt it is true in a literal way as well, for the gold and the silver are His.
(Older translations render Isaiah's word as "brass," matching the metal in 1 Kings.)
- Cause — Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord, and the invasion followed. Scripture gives the reason: it came "because they had transgressed against the Lord."
- Instrument — Shishak was only God's whip. Faith looks past the invader to the hand using him. Refuse God's easy yoke, and you will wear the enemy's.
- Loss — All Solomon gathered went in less than seventeen years. Glory that rests on man's faithfulness cannot last.
- Substitute — Rehoboam put brass where gold had been and carried on the ceremony as though nothing had changed. That is the danger: a copy in the place of the real thing.
- Reversal — Rehoboam did not harden himself; he said, "The LORD is righteous." And the promise "instead of bronze I will bring gold" shows that God means to undo the exchange sin made.
And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the couriers who kept the entrance of the king's house.
Egypt has carried off Solomon's golden shields, and Rehoboam replaces them with copies in bronze for the palace guard to keep. The commentators ask what it means to keep the ceremony going after the real treasure is gone. (Older translations call the metal "brass," so some quotes below use that word.)
The plunder was not bad luck. One writer traces it to Rehoboam's own turning away.
"And when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him" (2 Chronicles 12). Such is the way of people: not so quick to follow good, but so ready in evil. So God sent an unexpected enemy against him. The king of Egypt came and took away the treasures that Solomon had collected. This was the righteous government of God. Poor king Rehoboam was driven to make shields of brass instead of shields of gold. The gold shields were now going down into Egypt. "And when he humbled himself, the wrath of Jehovah turned from him, so that He would not destroy him altogether. And in Judah things went well." How gracious of the Lord! Every little act of repentance brought its blessing.
One writer reads Egypt here as more than a foreign army:
Egypt pictures the world in its independence of God. The gold is typical of the glory of God. Rehoboam had no regard for God's glory, so his gold shields only testified to his hypocrisy. So disobedience to God will rob us of all that is precious in the blessings of the Word of God. Our worldliness all but invites the world to take what ought to be ours.
Solomon's temple had been overlaid with gold and admired by foreign royalty. The speed of the collapse is part of the lesson.
Though the temple of Solomon, with its porches, and beams, and posts, and walls, was overlaid with pure gold; and though the house was garnished with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was the gold of Parvaim; yet decline began with its own king, and the glory which overcame the spirit of the Queen of Sheba was soon tarnished.
Notice what is missing from the record: no protest, no move to win the gold back. Rehoboam settles for a lookalike.
Rehoboam, that weak and foolish son of a great father, does not appear to have put up any resistance. He let the glory of the city go without protest. What did it matter? He could substitute brass for gold, and brass looks like gold, almost; peace seemed cheap at the price. So when he went up to the house of the Lord, shields of brass went up before him instead of shields of fine gold. When his religious duties were done, he handed them to the guard to keep safe, as though they were the real thing.
The bronze shields still came out in procession. One writer sees the same habit in believers and in churches:
The king of Egypt also took the five hundred shields of gold that Solomon had made. Rehoboam made shields of bronze to replace them. With these he pitifully tried to keep up former appearances. It is like souls who have been robbed of their freshness and power by the enemy. They work hard to keep up an outward appearance of spiritual prosperity. It is like a fallen church, stripped of its strength and robbed of its purity. Such a church tries to hide its helplessness and cover its nakedness with the tinsel of ritualism, false revivalism, union, and anything that seems to give it some right to say, "I am rich, I have prospered."
Commentators differ on how far to read the metals. One draws a sharp picture from the bronze, and asks what a shield is for:
Rehoboam replaced the gold shields with bronze (or copper) ones. How far below the gold they were! Gold speaks of God's glory, but copper speaks of holiness. The Christian world today has sadly copied Rehoboam's example. They have lost sight of God's glory. Instead they have taken up the principle of holiness. They speak convincingly about living a holy life, but they leave Christ out of the picture altogether. Shields are for protection. Is there any real protection in our boasted claims of holiness as compared to a living faith in the Son of God?
The verse ends with a downgrade. One writer looks ahead to the trade running the other way:
Solomon's shields of beaten gold were surely not for use in war; they were just ornaments. But Rehoboam lost these costly ornaments in war. In his vanity he made shields of brass to replace them, and had them brought out in display when he went into the house of Jehovah. Oh, the pitiful vanity of poor flesh! It must keep up appearances even after the reality has gone. What a blessed contrast when God restores His people in grace! "Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace, your taskmasters righteousness" (Isa. 60:17). All sham will be banished.
- Cause. Rehoboam forsook God's law first. The invasion that stripped the gold was God's righteous government, not accident.
- Cost. Gold speaks of God's glory. Worldliness hands it back to the world and all but invites Egypt to take what should be ours.
- Substitute. Rehoboam put up no fight: brass almost looks like gold, and cheap peace seemed worth the swap.
- Sham. The shields still paraded to the house of the Lord. Souls and churches do the same when the power and purity are gone.
- Reversal. Humbling turned God's anger away even then. Grace promises gold in place of bronze, with every pretence gone.
And it was so, that as often as the king entered into the house of Jehovah, the couriers bore them, and brought them again into the chamber of the couriers.
Shishak, the king of Egypt, had carried off the gold shields Solomon made, and Rehoboam replaced them with bronze copies. This verse shows what happened next: the same ceremony went on with the copies, as though nothing had changed.
One writer measures how fast Jerusalem lost everything Solomon had gathered.
Shishak, the king of Egypt, comes up against Jerusalem (vv. 25-28). All Solomon's prosperity, the treasures of the temple, the riches of the king's house, the golden shields of his guard — all is gone, and so quickly! In less than seventeen years the kingdom of David's son collapses; all its glory is cast down and trodden underfoot! The gold is gone, and only brass is left in its place (v. 27).
Egypt looks like the main actor here. One writer points past Shishak to the hand that was using him.
Note what God says: "I will not destroy them." Shishak was only His whip, like the Assyrian at a later date, whom God, through His prophet Isaiah, calls "the rod of My anger," and "a razor that is hired." In troubles like these, blessing comes only by looking past the instrument to the hand that uses it. Their lives were spared, but they had to become servants to Shishak and pay him tribute. God said why: "That they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." Where there is true submission, the Lord's yoke is easy. If His saints refuse to wear it, they must learn by humiliating and painful experience what the yoke of the enemy is like.
The verse describes a habit, not a single event, and the cheapness of the replacement is the point.
Then Rehoboam, that feeble and foolish son of a great father, does not appear to have put up any resistance; he let the glory of the city go without protest. What did it matter? He could substitute brass for gold, and brass looks like gold, almost; peace seemed cheap at the price. And so, when he went up to the house of the Lord, bronze shields went up before him instead of shields of fine gold. When his religious duties were done, the guard took them back for safe keeping as though they were the real thing (1 Kings 14).
The same writer applies this to worship that keeps up the same pretence.
The pretence of approach to God is kept up, but the bronze shields go before them instead of shields of gold, and God will not have their counterfeits. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," are our Lord's own words. The bronze imitation may suit and fascinate men, but it is detestable to God; He can accept nothing but the pure gold.
Knapp reads the copies as a picture of what people do after being robbed of their power.
Shishak took with him the five hundred shields of gold that Solomon had made, and Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place. With these he pathetically tried to keep up former appearances. It is like souls who, robbed of their freshness and power by the enemy, work hard to keep up an outward appearance of spiritual prosperity.
One writer asks what the bronze itself stands for, and what a shield is for.
How far inferior the bronze (or copper) shields were! While gold speaks of God's glory, copper speaks of holiness. Christendom today has sadly copied Rehoboam's example. They have lost sight of God's glory and taken up the principle of holiness instead. They talk convincingly about living a holy life, but they leave Christ out of the picture altogether. Shields are for protection. Is there any real protection in our boasted claims of holiness compared with a living faith in the Son of God?
Another account of this reign adds that Rehoboam humbled himself.
"And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so He would not destroy him altogether. And in Judah things went well." How gracious of the Lord! Every little act of repentance brought its blessing.
The exchange of metals is not God's last word on Jerusalem.
How short-lived is the glory that depends on the faithfulness of man! The temple that Solomon built is spoiled and robbed in the days of his son. For gold there is brass. When He comes and brings back glory to Israel, this will be reversed: "For brass I will bring gold" (Isaiah 60:17). God takes pleasure in undoing the work of sin.
(Older translations say brass where the ESV says bronze. The ESV renders that promise "instead of bronze I will bring gold.")
- Gold lost. Solomon's gold shields were gone within seventeen years. Glory that rests on man's faithfulness does not last.
- Gold taken. Shishak was only the whip in God's hand. Judah had to serve him and pay tribute, so they would learn what serving God is worth.
- Gold replaced. Rehoboam offered no resistance. He hung bronze in place of gold, because bronze almost looks like gold and peace seemed cheap at that price.
- Gold imitated. The ceremony carried on as though the copies were real. God will not accept that pretence, and a copied shield shields nobody.
- Gold promised. Every small act of repentance brought blessing, even to Rehoboam. And God's promise still stands: instead of bronze, gold.