This is the Bible Book Club, the book of Second Chronicles. Welcome to the club.

Last episode, we began chapter 10 with the division of the kingdom of Israel. Solomon's son

Rehoboam was not popular because he oppressed the people.

At his coronation, the ten northern tribes rejected him as king and made Jeroboam their king instead.

By chapter 11, there are two kingdoms and only one is important to the chronicler, the kingdom of

Judah in the south, for this is the line of kings, starting with

Rehoboam, and it's the promise of the Davidic line. Rehoboam created the conflict that led to the

divide, and that is what he will be remembered for, unfortunately, despite a few redeeming acts.

Okay, so remember, the chronicler's purpose in writing is to tell the exiles the story of their past so they can have hope for their future.

In this episode, he's telling stories of the first kings of Judah, and he provides more detail than the author of the books of kings, because each king is a character study packed with lessons for the Israelites and us to learn.

Scene 1. Abijah King of Judah. Abijah is the fourth king in the line of David. He is David's

great grandson. Second Chronicles chapter 13. In the 18th year of the reign of Jerobam, Abijah

became king of Judah and he reigned in Jerusalem

three years. His mother's name was Meika, a daughter of Uriel of Gibia. There was a war between

Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000 able fighting men, and Jeroboam

drew up a battle line against him with 800,000 able troops.

So poor guy, he must have been challenged by Jeroboam, the king of Israel shortly after becoming

king because he only reigned as king for three years.

So this was a massive showdown between Israel and Judah, with the odds two to one against Judah.

It was 800,000 men to 400,000 men.

Verse 4.

Abijah stood on Mount Zamoriam in the hill country of Ephraim and said, Jeroboam and all Israel,

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