Abijah Attacks Jeroboam

1 Kings 15:1-8; 2 Chronicles 13

From Sunday School lessons to inspiring sermons, modern portrayals of biblical characters often suffer from overly simplistic, two-dimensional perspectives on people’s moral character and deeds, but a careful reading of Scripture often shows reality to be more complex. The story of Abijah is ripe for similar misunderstanding unless one reads both biblical accounts of his reign. Abijah (also called Abijam) son of Rehoboam reigned for only three short years over Judah, and 1 Kings 15:3 tersely notes that “he committed all the sins that his father did before him; his heart was not true to the Lord his God.” It also notes that Abijah’s entire reign was marked by war with Jeroboam (1 Kings 15:6). From this it would be easy to assume that his reign was characterized only by wickedness and moral decline. Yet 2 Chronicles, though silent on the final assessment of Abijah’s overall character, seems to present Abijah as a leader who takes up the righteous cause of bringing the rebellious northern tribes of Israel back under the fold of Judah’s Davidic dynasty and Aaronic priesthood, though he was ultimately unsuccessful. As part of this effort, Abijah makes a foray into the northern tribes’ territory and arrives at Mount Zemaraim, but Jeroboam confronts him there with twice the amount of forces. The location of Mount Zemaraim is not certain, but it may have been located at the twin hills (which may explain the dual form of the name) of Ras ez Zemara, which suggests Abijah was advancing along a secondary route to avoid initial detection or fortifications along the main Central Ridge Route. There Abijah calls upon Jeroboam and all Israel to return to the leadership of David and Aaron. While Abijah is making his appeal, however, Jeroboam positions some of his forces in ambush behind Abijah’s forces, but Abijah’s men win a great victory over them and capture the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron (also called Ophrah). The writer of Chronicles notes that Abijah’s forces were victorious “because they relied on the Lord” and that Jeroboam never recovered from his weakened power for the rest of his reign, while Abijah grew strong (though Abijah’s reign was only for three years).

Prophets of the Old Testament before 800 B.C.

If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, they will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to simply “forthtell” divinely acquired messages to leaders and groups of people, and at times that included foretelling of coming judgment, blessing, rescue, etc. Also, though plenty of prophets (sometimes called “seers” in Scripture) often spoke in confrontational or eccentric language that put them at odds with kings and religious leaders, the biblical writers also applied the term prophet to people who communicated God’s messages in ways that many readers today might not think of as prophecy, such as worship leaders appointed by David to “prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 25:1). Similarly, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings are typically categorized as history by Christians, but in the Hebrew canon they belong to the category of Former Prophets. The Lord raised up prophets throughout all of biblical history, from the giving of the law under Moses to the revelation of the last days by the apostle John, and the kings of Israel and Judah often recognized and supported specific people as official prophets of the royal court and consulted them to find out God’s perspective about official matters. Following is a list of nearly everyone designated as prophet or seer in the Old Testament and the primary area of their ministry.

• Deborah (1216 B.C.) [Judges 4:4] => Baal-tamar?
• Samuel (1070 B.C.) [1 Samuel 3:20; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 35:18] => Ramah
• Gad (1018 B.C.) [2 Samuel 24:11; 1 Chronicles 21:9; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Masada?
• Nathan (1000 B.C.) [2 Samuel 12:1; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Jerusalem
• Asaph (1000 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 29:30] => Jerusalem
• Ahijah (935 B.C.) [1 Kings 11:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29] => Jerusalem
• Shemaiah (930 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 12:2-15] => Jerusalem
• Iddo (913 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22] => Jerusalem
• Jehu son of Hanani (890 B.C.) [1 Kings 16:1-7; 2 Chronicles 19:2] => Samaria?
• Azariah (890 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 15:1-8] => Jerusalem
• Elijah (860 B.C.) [1 Kings 18:36] => Samaria
• Micaiah (853 B.C.) [1 Kings 22:8-23; 2 Chronicles 18:7-22] => Samaria
• Jahaziel (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:14] => Jerusalem
• Eliezer (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:37] => Mareshah
• Elisha (850 B.C.) [1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 2:15] => Samaria
• Joel (835 B.C.) [Joel 1:1] => Jerusalem