3rd generation

Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, and the grandson of King David. Under his rule, God's people became divided: Judah and Benjamin served Rehoboam, the other tribes served Jeroboam. The Levites eventually migrated to Judah because Jeroboam did not follow the Lord, but he served idols.

Rehoboam served the LORD God to a degree. He with 500,000 faced the Jeroboam with 800,000. The Bible says that Rehoboam honored the LORD by calling out for His help. Thus, Jehovah gave Rehoboam the victory and 500,000 of Israel died.

Nevertheless, Rehoboam was considered evil by the LORD. 2 Chr. 12 summarizes Rehoboam's life, "But he was an evil king, for he did not seek the Lord with all his heart." How did Rehoboam not seek God with all of his heart? "But when Rehoboam was firmly established and strong, he abandoned the Law of the Lord, and all Israel followed him in this sin." God had given him the victory and he was securely set as the King of Judah. Nevertheless, Rehoboam left/stopped following the Law of the LORD.

We can learn from this example. First, the LORD wants us to seek Him when we desperately need Him and when we are doing well. Second, one stops following after the LORD when this person does not follow after His word. If we follow/seek the word of the LORD at all times, we can conclude that this constitutes looking for God with our whole heart.

An interesting note, Rehoboam the grandson of David did not follow in David's footsteps. Both Rehoboam and David made mistakes (eg Rehoboam taking the advice of the young counselors, David's deception with Bathsheba). In spite of this, Rehoboam gives us a negative example and David gives us a positive one. The difference is that David depended and turned his attention to God and His word.