2 Chronicles 12:1-5 (NIV) ¹After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD. ²Because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. ³With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites^£ that came with him from Egypt, ⁴he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.’”

Rehoboam was the son of the world’s wisest man, Solomon. As seemed to happen often in monarchies, there were ambitious men, who could never be on the throne but wanted to be the power behind the throne. They pushed Rehoboam into the position of power. More often than not, those who succeed abandon God. There is nothing that bring spiritual defeat faster than material success.

This passage is so stark and so plain that one shutters over it. Rehoboam abandoned God! Is it possible? Surely it must be, he did it. What is entailed in such abandonment? Do we curse God to His face? Do we send up a prayer of resignation? “Dear God, its been great but its over between us. Its not you, God, its me. We have simply grown apart. I think its best for both of us that I seek out another god.”

I suspect that abandoning God is more subtle than resigning as a Christian. It is more like we grow apart and, little by little, we transfer our loyalty to lesser gods. Some folks face a crisis in life and suffer a great loss. They grow angry with God and curse Him. This, I think, is relatively rare. Most of us abandon God just the way Rehoboam did. We outgrow God.  At least we think we are bigger than God.

Here is the remedy. Lean not our your own understanding, but in all ways acknowledge God and He will direct your life. You can, by faith through prayer, give your whole life back to God. You can confess, “Lord, I have abandoned you without realizing it. I desire for you to become again, the Lord of my life.”

Be content to be a child, and let the Father proportion out daily to thee what light, what power, what exercises, what straits, what fears, what troubles he sees fit for thee.

Isaac Penington (1616–1679)

Our heavenly Father never takes anything from his children unless he means to give them something better.

George Mueller

At first laying down, as a fact fundamental,

That nothing with God can be accidental.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)