The Word of God - A Discussion: 2 Chronicles
5/1/22 Sunday Evening Study

Remember last week, Solomon finishes his blessing and dedication of the temple by saying:

“Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
    and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.”

Right in the beginning of 2 Chronicles 7 we see fire from heaven to consume the offering, as if God is answering him then and there in full view. The people actually recognize what they have seen and they worship God. At the end of the dedication, God visits Solomon and tells him the secret to everything - the one thing that if they would remember this, there would be no hardship in the land like they are about to experience for hundreds of years - verse 14 reads “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Then, he makes it perfectly clear what happens if they do not do what they are called to do, where verses 19-20 read “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” How much heartache could have been spared if this was the lesson passed from generation to generation?

The next 2 chapters chronicle Solomon’s achievements and wealth, and how impressive he was even to the Queen of Sheba. Who was the Queen of Sheba and why does it matter that she was impressed? Well, it so happens I looked that up. There is a book dated from the 6th century BCE Called Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings) which is an important text in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It names the Queen of Sheba as the beautiful queen Makeda and identifies the land of Sheba as ancient Ethiopia. 

According to the Kebra Nagast, Queen Makeda travels to Jerusalem and has a love affair with King Solomon. Makeda then returns to the land of Sheba—giving birth to a son, Menelik, along the way. Menelik is raised in Ethiopia, but when he turns 22, he travels to Jerusalem to meet his father. King Solomon is delighted with his firstborn son and tries in vain to convince Menelik to remain in Israel and succeed him as king. However, Menelik chooses to return to the land of Sheba. Solomon sends the firstborn sons of Israel’s elders with his son from Israel to Ethiopia, and the Ark of the Covenant travels with them. To this day, many Ethiopians believe that the Ark of the Covenant resides within the Chapel of the Tablet next to the Church of Maryam Tsion in Aksum, Ethiopia.

Ethiopians claim the Queen of Sheba as part of their heritage, and through her union with King Solomon, Ethiopians also claimed a connection between their kings and the Davidic monarchy of Israel. Bar Kribus explains: “Their [Ethiopian] kings were seen as direct descendants of the House of David, rulers by divine right.”

HOWEVER, Archaeological and historical sources document a Kingdom of Saba (Sheba) during Biblical times in modern-day Yemen. Those in ancient Ethiopia were fully aware of the Kingdom of Saba in southern Arabia—and sometimes even appropriated aspects of their culture later on so as to make the story of Makeda more believable.

The story of Bilqīs, as the Queen of Sheba is known in Islamic tradition, appears in the Qurʾān, though she is not mentioned by name, and her story has been embellished by Muslim commentators. The Arabs have also given Bilqīs a southern Arabian genealogy, and she is the subject of a widespread cycle of legends. According to one account, Solomon, having heard from a hoopoe, one of his birds, that Bilqīs and her kingdom worshiped the Sun, sent a letter asking her to worship God. She replied by sending gifts, but, when Solomon proved unreceptive to them, she came to his court herself. The king’s jinn, meanwhile, fearing that the king might be tempted into marrying Bilqīs, whispered to him that she had hairy legs and the hooves of a donkey. Solomon, being curious about such a peculiar phenomenon, had a glass floor built before his throne so that Bilqīs, tricked into thinking it was water, raised her skirts to cross it and revealed that her legs were truly hairy. Solomon then ordered the jinn to create a depilatory for the queen. Tradition does not agree as to whether Solomon himself married Bilqīs or gave her in marriage to a Hamdānī tribesman. She did, however, become a believer.

What do we get from this? Really, nothing, because we do not know the truth. However, archeological study points at Sheba most likely referring to Southern Arabia and not Ethiopia, so there is that. You learned something new this evening.

Back to the kingly stuff, Solomon dies and Rehoboam takes his place in chapter 10, beginning his reign by immediately disregarding good advice and eventually splitting the kingdom because he treats the rest of Israel so poorly. 5 years in per Chapter 12, he turns away from God completely, and what happens is exactly what God said would happen - Egypt comes and wipes out everything he has built and ransacks the temple.

In chapter 13 Abijah takes over Judah, and inherits a land in a war that it cannot win with Israel and Jeroboam. Yet Abijah trusted God, defied Jeroboam, and God struck down Jeroboam.

Asa takes over in Chapter 14 and does what is right, and the land has 10 years of peace - again, exactly as the Lord told Solomon. In fact, not just peace, but rest. When the Ethiopians came against Judah with twice as many men, Asa and the Lord wiped them out completely. Asa did his best to reform the faith of the people, all but making outlaws of those who did not pursue God - even to the point of stripping his mother of her title because she had an image of Ashera.

In chapter 16, Israel starts to set up in a position to attack and hurt Judah, so Asa makes allies with the king of Syria who caused Israel to back down. Since Asa trusted the king of Syria rather than trust God like when the Ethiopians came, the end came to Asa’s peace, and though he died loved, he was overshadowed by his son and successor Jehosephat in chapter 17.

Jehosephat gets mixed up with Ahab and Jezebel and all that mess, and runs afoul of him when he trusts the word of Micaiah over that of the priests of Ahab. In battle against the advice of Micaiah, Ahab is struck at random by an arrow and dies.

Jehosephat sets about cleaning up Juday in chapter 19. He sets up judges and priests and all that so that the people would begin obeying and serving again. When several countries come out of Edom to attack Judah, Jehosephat prays together with Judah in public for deliverance, which God grants, wiping out the entire army before them and leaving incredible amounts of spoil for Judah. Jehosephat ends his reign with the king of Israel practicing evil.

Jehoram takes over for Jehosephat, securing the kingship by murdering all of his brothers, took the daughter of Ahab as his wife, and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Eventually he loses everything except his youngest son and his life.Philistines come up and take what they want from Judah, and Jehoram, and he gets an incurable disease. In Chapter 21 It says specifically that he departed with no one’s regret. Quite a legacy.

Here on out we have a bunch of mostly bad kings, leading up to almost exactly where we were last week - King Hezekiah: good man, he restores the temple and brings the kingdom back in line, the best that He can. The section finishes out in Chapter 29 where temple worship is restored and God provided for them.