In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
Abijah takes the throne of Judah, and the verse dates his first year by the reign of Jeroboam, king of the rival northern kingdom. The nation is still split in two. Why does Chronicles record this short reign at all, and why does Kings call the same king by a different name?
One writer explains what the northern tribes lost when they broke with Rehoboam:
By revolting against Rehoboam, Israel cut themselves off from the channel of blessing God was using to govern them. Then, as if to close off every means of communication from God, one of Jeroboam's first acts was to set up calves for Israel to worship. Even so, the mercy and patience of God rose above this insult. He sent them prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha. Did not some of the kings of Judah do as badly, or worse? They set up the idols of the Gentiles and shut up the temple of the Lord. Yet guilty as they were, worse even than Israel in their abominations, God kept them and watched over them.
One writer traces his crown back to God's covenant with David, not to his own record:
He ascended the throne in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign and was king for three years. Here we find the statement that he walked in all the sins of his father. His heart was not perfect with the Lord, as the heart of David his father was. The statement of 1 Kings 11:36 comes back: for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem. It was the custom then, and still is among the village farmers of Palestine, to keep a lamp burning in the tent all the time. Putting out the lamp meant the removal of the family. The Lord remembered the house of David and His covenant, and because of that covenant He held back the judgment they deserved.
In Kings he is Abijam. Here he is Abijah, a name with God's own name inside it. One writer sees purpose in the change:
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 pay attention to this. The holy name of Christ ("Christian") is given to us. May we never by any act of ours bring a stain of reproach on it!
Kings explains the survival of Abijah's line by looking back to David. Chronicles does something different:
In the Kings account, it is because of David that God gives Abijah a godly successor in his son Asa, and also because of Jerusalem, which God had chosen as the city of His Anointed. Here in Chronicles there is nothing of the kind. As always, in this part of Chronicles it is grace ruling despite everything.
The fighting was against his own people, and the losses were staggering:
The wars that had taken place between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued into the days of Abijam, who had wars with Jeroboam. In fact, 2 Chronicles 13 records that in one battle 400,000 chosen men of Judah fought against 800,000 men of Israel. Judah defeated Israel, killing 500,000! No battle in history comes close to this for the number of people killed. How sad that this took place between brothers! How much better it would have been if the battle had been against the enemies of Israel! Do Christians spend more time quarrelling among themselves than in resisting the enemy outside and winning the lost for the Lord?
Why would God give victory to a man like this? One writer answers:
Abijah took his stand on the rock of truth that cannot perish, and he put his confidence in God, who had revealed that truth. He was not a very commendable man himself (1 Kings 15). But that only makes the surprising victory which followed all the more striking. It shows that the victory was for the truth of God, and it shows too the immense value He sets on faithfulness to the order He Himself established. This does not excuse Abijah's bad personal behaviour in other matters. He suffered for that under God's righteous government.
- Dated — Abijah's reign starts in Jeroboam's eighteenth year. The ten tribes had cut themselves off from the channel God used to bless them.
- Kept — He held the throne because God remembered David, not because he earned it. God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem and held back judgment.
- Named — Kings calls him Abijam and tells only the dark side. Chronicles calls him Abijah, for God guards His holy name from the sins of those who bear it.
- Graced — Chronicles tells of the victory, not the failure. In this part of the book, grace rules despite everything.
- Owned — Three years of fighting his own people ended in a victory for the truth of God. Abijah still suffered for his own conduct under God's government.
He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
Three short facts fill this verse: a reign of three years, the name of the king's mother, and a war that would not stop. Each one raises a question. Why so short a reign? Why is the mother's name different here from the one given elsewhere? And why were God's people fighting each other?
Chronicles gives the reign one line, and the record here is kind to Abijah. Kings tells us what he was really like. Chronicles chooses a different focus.
But Abijah, son of Rehoboam, reigned only for three years in Judah (v. 2). 1 Kings 15:3 tells us that Abijah walked in all the sins of his father and his heart was not loyal to the Lord. Yet Chronicles does not mention this. Instead it highlights what was to his credit: he overcame Jeroboam in battle. The guilt of Jeroboam was far greater than that of Abijah.
One writer sees that silence as the settled character of this part of the book.
As always, in this part of Chronicles it is grace ruling despite everything.
An earlier chapter calls the king's mother Maachah, daughter of Absalom (2 Chronicles 11:20). Here she is Micaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. Commentators differ on how the two records fit together. One writer explains it by her position as queen-mother and by how Hebrew family words work.
Abijah is called Abijam in Kings… His mother was Maachah (2 Chron. 11:20). She is called Michaiah here, probably because she was the queen-mother. There is no conflict between chapter 11:20 and the second verse of this chapter, where she is called the daughter of Uriel of Gibeath. Josephus is probably right that Uriel was the husband of Tamar, Absalom's daughter. In chapter 11:20, she is called a daughter of Absalom — or rather a granddaughter, since Hebrew uses one word for both.
Another writer doubts the link to Absalom, and points to Benjamin instead.
I think it is clear that she was not Absalom's daughter. She might have been his granddaughter, but that is very doubtful… There seems little doubt that Abijah's mother was of Benjamin. She may have been called both Michaiah and Maachah, since a change of name is the commonest thing possible… Uriel was a Benjamite, and he called his daughter Michaiah. The name Maachah was given in Judah, where David's family naturally kept up the connection.
Both of her names carry a meaning, and so does her father's.
His mother Maachah was a daughter (or granddaughter) of Absalom. Abijah was thus descended from David on both his father's and his mother's side. His mother, however, turned out to worship idols (1 Kings 15:13). In the account of Abijah's reign, Chronicles changes the form of her name from Maachah, which means oppressor, to Michaiah — Who is like God? It also calls her here a daughter of Uriel, which means light, or fire of God.
The verse names the king's mother, not only his father. Who guides a child's early years carries weight.
A godless or worldly mother is all the more dangerous for the moral growth of her children. This is because God's order, both in nature and in family relationship, puts the guiding of their early years in her hands. So during the three years of his reign Abijam walked in all the sins of his father.
This war was Israel against Israel. One writer carries the lesson straight across to God's people now.
When Abijah succeeded Rehoboam, war continued between the two houses of Israel, and in battle 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell (2 Chr. 13:17). Do we not find the same thing among God's people today? Because of our unfaithfulness, there has been division among God's people. Instead of standing together against the common enemy, they so often fight each other.
Abijah's heart was not right with God. That is still not the whole account of his reign.
The heart of the king was not perfect with the Lord his God. Even so, he relied on the Lord in some measure, and the Lord stepped in to help him and his people in their time of need.
- Three years — a short reign. Chronicles fills it with Abijah's victory, not his sins. Kings records the sins.
- Grace — that silence is the book's character. In this part of Chronicles, grace rules despite everything.
- A name — commentators differ on how Micaiah daughter of Uriel fits with Maachah daughter of Absalom. One takes "daughter" to mean granddaughter. Another doubts any link to David's son.
- A mother — the verse names her because she mattered. The one who guides a child's early years shaped a king who walked in his father's sins.
- A war — division sets brother against brother. Yet even a king whose heart was not perfect found help when he leaned on the Lord.