2 Chronicles 12:5-8 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

Two messages from Jehovah.

I. A MESSAGE OF WARNING . ( 2 Chronicles 12:5 , 2 Chronicles 12:6 .)

1 . By whom sent. Shemaiah the prophet, or man of God ( 2 Chronicles 11:2 ). When Jehovah has a message for any age, people, or individual, he can always find a messenger to bear it—a Moses to go to Pharaoh, a Samuel to speak to Saul, a Nathan to send to David, an Elijah or a Micaiah to warn Ahab, a John the Baptist to preach to Israel and testify against Herod. The hour never comes without the man. When a Paul or a Polycarp, an Athanasius or an Augustine, a Calvin or a Luther, a Knox or a Wesley, is needed in the New Testament Church, he appears at the moment when most required.

2 . To whom addressed. To Rehoboam and the princes of Judah whom Shishak's invasion had caused to convene in Jerusalem. They had come together to consult about the safety of the capital; they had not called Jehovah to the council. They had not realized that in such a crisis as had arisen "vain was the help of man," and "through God alone could they do valiantly" ( Psalms 60:11 , Psalms 60:12 ); that unless God kept the city, they the watchers would watch in vain ( Psalms 127:1 ). Yet they seem to have discerned that their best efforts would prove ineffectual, and they were filled with fear. Happily Jehovah thought of them, though they forgat him.

3 . In what terms it ran.

4 . What effect it produced.

II. A MESSAGE OF MERCY . ( 2 Chronicles 12:7 , 2 Chronicles 12:8 .)

1 . Its occasion. The success of the first message in the (at least seeming) penitence of the king and his princes. "God speaketh once, yea twice ( Job 33:14 ), to men, even to his people, who often fail to understand his first voice, or understand but refuse to hear ( Isaiah 65:12 ), though occasionally also they listen and submit ( Jonah 3:5 ). In the first case, his second speaking may be nothing more than a repetition of the first, or an explanation of its contents; in the second, it commonly assumes the form of increased warnings and severer threatenings; in the thirds it is usually a voice of mercy following on a voice of judgment. It was so with Rehoboam and the princes of Judah.

2 . Its contents.

Learn:

1 . The omniscience of God: "All things are naked," etc. ( Hebrews 4:13 ),

2 . God's compact with the soul: "The Lord is with us," etc. ( 2 Chronicles 15:2 ).

3 . The mercifulness of God: he is "long-suffering, and slow to wrath" ( Exodus 34:6 ; Psalms 78:38 ).

4 . The misery of sin: it ever entails sorrow ( Psalms 32:10 ).

5 . God's ability to execute his own sentences: "It is a fearful thing," etc. ( Hebrews 10:31 ); "Though hand join in hand," etc. ( Proverbs 11:21 ).—W.