Sharing from my personal devotions this week…

1 Kings 14:25-27

"In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace."

Let me give you some insight into this passage of scripture; While Solomon was king, he would take all the gift offering of gold from neighboring countries and melt them all down to make these shields. They pretty much symbolized victories on behalf of Israel. Simply put, they were trophies. Solomon placed them all around the temple to showcase how good the Lord was to Israel. These shields represented a time when Israel walked with God and did what was right in His sight.

Now to the passage…A few generations of kings have passed and the current king is not even close to being like that of Solomon, much less David. The King of Egypt has attacked and taken the shields amongst other spoils…the former days are gone. The wealth, popularity, and influence on other nations has long disappeared…and rather than addressing their current situation, King Rehoboam simply creates bronze shields in place of the gold ones. Ridiculous…

Are you living in the past like King Rehoboam? If so, why? What is back there?

It will never be that “time” again. It’s already behind you. It’s time to move on and make your own name, or re-establish your name…and do it with your own personal victories. There is no need to hide your failures behind bronze shields…because everyone notices that aren’t gold.