Scripture:
2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
“No one is able to serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and money. Matthew 6:24
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
Reflection:
A friend reminded me of a passage in the Bible I hadn’t read in a long time, found in 1 Kings 14:27. It reads: In the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem. He ransacked the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple and the royal palace; he stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes and entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Temple of the LORD, the guards would also take the shields and then return them to the guardroom.
Rehoboam serves as a cautionary tale of poor decision-making. Throughout his seventeen-year reign, compromise marked almost every choice he made. He ignored the wise, experienced counsel of those who urged him to serve his people in favor of advice from those who told him what he wanted to hear. The elders advised him to win loyalty through service, while the younger men urged him to rule with an iron fist. Rehoboam forsook God’s law (2 Chronicles 12:1), allowing idolatry and corrupt worship practices to spread throughout Judah (1 Kings 14:21-24).
This brings us to the story of Solomon’s gold shields. In 1 Kings 10:14-17, we learn that during the peak of Solomon’s reign, he had 200 large shields and 300 smaller shields made of gold, which were stored in his royal palace. When Solomon died, Rehoboam inherited both the palace and the shields. However, when the King of Egypt invaded, his forces plundered Judah, seizing the gold shields and other treasures from Jerusalem’s temple (1 Kings 14:25-26).
In response, Rehoboam ordered bronze shields to be made as replacements. Gold would have cost Rehoboam, so he went with the compromise and ordered bronze instead. These shields became a symbol of his reign, marked by half-measures and settling for less. Rather than striving for the best, Rehoboam accepted a lesser substitute.
Rehoboam’s compromise led to Judah falling out of favor with God. I think that we often don’t connect the dots of compromised decisions result in losing God’s best blessing. The golden splendor of Solomon’s era was replaced by the bronze inferiority of Rehoboam’s reign.
We can, without realizing it fall into the same trap as Rehoboam. We make decisions that seem either logical or prudent, when what God is asking for is extravagant. What then happens is that where we once served Christ faithfully, we settle for less, and while we might not lose our salvation, we miss out on the heavenly treasures God had intended for us. In this way, we risk becoming like Rehoboam, who didn’t lose his palace but certainly lost the splendor and its treasure.
The lesson here is clear: Are we willing to settle for bronze shields because the cost of gold seems too high? Gold requires that refining process and thorough examination of our hearts, where confession, and repentance along with uncompromised action restore what has been lost. Once we’ve experienced gold, bronze will never truly satisfy.
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