What is the context?
Back in Jerusalem, Rehoboam gathers a hundred eighty thousand chosen warriors from Judah and Benjamin. The plan is to fight Israel and restore his rule over the whole kingdom.
Before the campaign begins, God sends a word through Shemaiah. The king and people are not to fight their fellow Israelites. Each man is to go home, because the division has come from God.
This time they listen. The force turns back, and the attempt to reverse the separation by war stops at God’s command.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry understands the response as submitting to God even when His word crosses the king’s wishes. Gill likewise reads an attack to recover the kingdom as resisting the judgment God has just announced.
The command is specific to this threatened conflict between the two parts of Israel. Its force in the story is that Rehoboam’s claim to restore his power must yield to what God has said.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.