Why would God preserve the same accounts for us in two separate books? Remember the provision in the Law that important matters couldn’t be decided on the testimony of a single witness? Isn’t God good to give us more than one witness about this history? He must value it as important for us to grasp. We can learn important lessons from God’s interactions with men through the lives of the kings.
Since the book of Chronicles recorded events in Judah alone, it will add information about Judah that Kings did not record. This offers another opportunity for doubters to claim that there are inconsistencies in Scripture. The truth is that the accounts in Chronicles, providing more detail than those in Kings, flesh out the accounts related by Kings; the two do not disagree.
Isn’t it interesting that the kingdom of Judah was strengthened by its preservation of God-honoring worship? Jereboam offered what in his mind was a freeing alternative to worship according to the Law. True worshippers rejected his accommodations, moving to Judah and thus strengthening it. Do we weaken the Church by accommodating interests that want to deviate from true worship of God, thus driving away true seekers of God as we attempt to attract people who just want to be entertained?
King Rehoboam was strongest when he was so weak in his own eyes that he was driven to depend humbly on God. When God’s anger was turned away with Rehoboam’s humbling himself, what did that mean for him and his kingdom? Deliverance, but not restoration. He was left in his reduced state, not only plundered of all the gold and apparently even the silver that was so worthless in Solomon’s day, but also forced to pay tribute to the king of Egypt. Isn’t it worth remembering that humble dependence of God is so much lovelier than reduction?
Note also the sad and telling verse, “He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.” His failure to set his heart on seeking the Lord didn’t lead him to do good or even to be neutral, but to do evil. Doesn’t that teach us the wisdom of seeking God? I encourage you to examine your heart to understand whether it has been set on seeking God. Do you need to make a choice today, or renew your choice, to set your heart on seeking God?