You're listening to the Hartman podcast, reclaiming biblical masculinity in a world of self. In 2 Chronicles 13 we find Judah about to face off in battle against Israel.

Following the glorious climactic reign of Solomon, the kingdom by this point has been split in two.

And we know that Rea Bam took foolish counsel from other young

men and he answered the people harshly. When the overburdened people asked for a lightning

of Solomon's heavy-handed rule, Raya Boam doubled down instead. He walked into a fight with his words, and he thus divided a nation.

One man's folly ended the golden age of Israel's national existence.

Some years later, Abbaija, Solomon's grandson and David's great-grandson, led Judah

in battle against Jerbaum and Israel.

The wide-angle view of Abijia's life was hardly the picture of obedience to God's law.

Yet in this snapshot, he seems to have been in the right.

As the battle near, Judah was outnumbered, with 400,000 set against Israel's 800,000.

Despite the fact that Gerabhomb's army surrounded and began to ambush Judah's

fighting men, Abiz's troops would win a stunning victory. In the end, some 500,000 Israelites, and keep in mind these were chosen men and valiant warriors

they were slain.

500,000.

The victory went to Judah because unlike Israel, it had not forsaken God.

Despite the victory, it was ultimately tragic. A civil war that costs nearly as many lives as the American Civil War.

You could trace all the senseless carnage and shattered lives back to this one failure, to the failure of leadership displayed by

Ria Baum. You see one man's soft character led to the death of three quarters of

a million of his own people and changed the direction of the nation forever.

Abijo's speech before the battle focuses in on this aspect of Rehobuam's character and past actions.

As the two armies form battle lines, Abiguet told Gerboham that he, Gerbom, was able to revolt against Reaubom,

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