1 Kings 14:21-25 (ESV)
Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
One generation! That is all it took for Israel and Judah to fall into sin and have their enemies come up against them. King David and Solomon had set up the kingdom for God’s glory and their good. Solomon, late in life, however, began to wavier as to his service to God. His son, Rehoboam, brought them completely down in just one short breath of leadership. In the first part of chapter 14 we read that Jeroboam did the same thing to the northern tribes. That is all it took. One generation is all it takes. It is too bad neither of them remembered or practiced what King David writer earlier:
Psalms 145:4-7 (ESV)
One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
When the transfer of God’s word and God’s commands does not take place from one generation to the next, this is what you experience.
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