And in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat began Abijam to reign over Judah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Maachah, a daughter of Abishalom.
This verse gives two short facts about Abijam: how long he reigned, and who his mother was. The second raises a question readers still ask, because her father is named as Abishalom.
One writer sets this short reign beside his father's, and links it to the woman named next:
Though Rehoboam's reign was short, that of Abijam was much shorter, only three years (v.2). His mother's name was Maacah. She must have had no good influence over him, for Abijam followed his father's example in practicing the same sins of disobedience to God (v.3).
One reference work explains the name as a longer spelling of a better-known one:
Father of Maachah, wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijam, king of Judah. 1 Kings 15:1-2, 10. But in 2 Chronicles 11:20 we read that Maachah was the daughter of Absalom. So Abishalom appears to be a fuller way of writing Absalom, and refers to the son of David.
Commentators differ over how close the tie was. Some read Maachah as Absalom's granddaughter rather than his daughter. One writer works through the dates:
It is still a question to me whether Maachah was Absalom's daughter or granddaughter. If she was Absalom's daughter, then allowing only five years from Absalom's death, she must have been six years old when David died... The mother's place was, and is, a kind of official one in the East, not the wife's.
That last remark explains why the mother, not the wife, is named here. Her place at court was an official one, not just a family tie.
One writer notes where the name came from, takes her as Absalom's granddaughter, and explains how Kings uses the word mother later in this chapter:
Absalom's mother was named Maachah (2 Samuel 3:3), so it was natural that this name should be passed down in the family. This Maachah, the mother of Abijam, must herself have been the granddaughter of Absalom, going by the evidence of 2 Chronicles 13:2. In verse 10 Maachah is called the mother of Asa, Abijam's son, following the Jewish custom, although she was his grandmother.
The same woman appears in Chronicles under a different name, and both names say something:
His mother Maachah was a daughter (or granddaughter) of Absalom. So Abijah was descended from David on both his father's and his mother's side. His mother, however, turned out to be an idol worshipper (1 Kings 15:13). Her name Maachah means oppressor. Chronicles, in the account of Abijah's reign, changes it to Michaiah — Who is like God?
One writer traces the pattern across these books:
All through these books we shall see how the character of the mothers, and where they came from, influenced their children. A godly mother sees her sons prospering around her. The apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his blessed ancestry: "... a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well" (2 Timothy 1:5).
The same writer then states the other side:
An ungodly or worldly mother is all the more dangerous for the moral development of her children. God's order, both in nature and in relationship, entrusts the guiding of their early years to her. So it was that during the three years of his reign Abijam walked in all the sins of his father.
Maachah kept her place at court under her grandson Asa. He is the one who ended it:
Asa showed no favouritism. He did not spare his own mother (or grandmother), but removed her from her position for her idolatry... A man's faithfulness is really put to the test in his own family circle.
- Three years. Abijam's reign was far shorter than his father's, and his father's was already short.
- A mother named. The mother is named, not the wife, because hers was an official place at court, not just a family tie.
- A disputed line. Abishalom is read as Absalom, David's son. Commentators differ over whether Maachah was his daughter or his granddaughter.
- Influence, either way. A godly mother sees her sons prosper. A worldly mother shapes the early years too — and Abijam walked in all the sins of his father.
- A chain broken. Asa grew up under the same woman, yet he removed her from her position. One person's faithfulness at home can break a family pattern.
And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as the heart of David his father.
One sentence sums up Abijam's three-year reign: he copied his father's sins, and his heart was not whole toward God. Scripture measures him against David, not against the worst kings of his day. So what does a whole heart mean, and how could a man keep the outward forms of Israel's faith and still fail this test?
Abijam's father was Rehoboam. One writer draws a warning from this record for fathers:
We see from this record that it was his father's evil example that led this king astray. What a voice to those of us who are fathers! May the Lord keep us from leaving behind a trail of sin for our sons to follow! For this was just what Rehoboam did for Abijah.
The verse before names Abijam's mother. One writer weighs how much a mother shapes her children's early years:
An ungodly or worldly mother is all the more dangerous for the moral growth of her children. By God's order, both in nature and in relationship, the work of guiding their early years falls naturally to her. So it was that during the three years of his reign Abijam walked in all the sins of his father.
The phrase is easily misread as sinlessness. One writer traces the same expression back to the law:
It is said to the Israelites, "You shall be perfect with the LORD your God," Deuteronomy 18:13. This referred to one thing: they were not to copy the detestable idol worship of the Canaanites. It did not refer at all to whether this or that Israelite was cleansed from all sin. The opposite is so true that in the same book Moses tells them, "But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear" (Deuteronomy 29:4). So the command referred only to their faithfulness to God in rejecting every kind of idolatry.
(The ESV has "blameless" in Deuteronomy 18:13. Older translations read "perfect" there — the same word they use for Abijam's heart in this verse.)
Why is David the measure for later kings? Because God had all of him:
This great thing is said of David, that he followed the LORD with all his heart. The LORD had power to engage the hearts of His people completely. This became the standard for measuring later unfaithful kings: "his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father." The LORD owned David's heart whole, and worship came out of that at once. The later kings compared so poorly with David because they worshipped the Baals.
David's life held one bad failure. One writer notes what God remembered, and what followed the discipline:
God remembers David and his obedience, even though he had turned aside from what was right in the matter of Uriah. But after the bitter discipline this made necessary, his restored soul found fellowship with his God again.
Abijam was not godless. He leaned on the Lord in war, and the Lord helped him. Yet this verse's verdict still stands:
Abijah had a very short reign of three years, and "he walked in all the sins of his father… and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father." Still, there was reliance upon the Lord. In the war with Jeroboam, recorded in 2 Chronicles 13, Abijah calls his kingdom "the kingdom of the LORD" (verse 8), and adds, "the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him" (verse 10). The king's heart was not perfect with the LORD his God. Yet he still relied, in some measure, on the Lord, and the Lord stepped in to help him and his people in their time of need.
Kings calls him Abijam; Chronicles calls him Abijah, which carries God's name in it. One writer reads that change as intentional, and turns it on the reader:
He is called Abijam in Kings. God would not let His name be called upon him there, because there it is only the dark side of his life which is told. He is jealous of His name. It is a holy name; and He would not have it dishonoured by the sins of those upon whom it has been called. May all His people everywhere give heed to this. The holy name of Christ ("Christian") is given us. May we never by any act of ours bring a stain of reproach on it.
- Inherited — The verse names the cause: a father's sins became the son's path, and a mother shaped his earliest years.
- Undivided — A "perfect" heart is not a sinless heart; it is loyalty that refuses to share God with idols.
- Whole — David is the standard because God had all his heart, and that came out in worship. Even his failure ended in restored fellowship.
- Divided — Abijam could still call his kingdom "the kingdom of the LORD" and get help in battle, while his heart stayed split.
- Named — God withheld His own name from the record of such a man, a caution to everyone who now bears the name of Christ.