II Chronicles 13:1 "Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah."

At the death of king Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into two separate nations, called houses. These two nations were called the house of Judah, and the house of Israel. The house of Judah included the entire tribes of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. However remember that the tribe of Benjamin was made up of the 600 men that survived the war with the other tribes. The wives for these Benjamites came from families of the tribe of Judah. So the children's lineage of Benjamin were part of the tribe of Judah. In this manner the tribe of Benjamin could be remembered in the many years to come.

After the death of Solomon, when the nation was seeking a man to reign over them, there was only one condition that the other tribes asked of Rehoboam, if they would confirm his position of the throne over them. That condition was that he reduce their taxes. Did Rehoboam listen and agree to their terms? hardly.

II Chronicles 10:4 "Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee."

So what was Rehoboam's answer to the ten tribes?

II Chronicles 10:13, 14 "And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men," [13] "And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." [14]

The people of Israel killed the tax collector with stones, and sent Rehoboam running for his royal life. From this point in time, their were two nation, where God will be treating each separately from here on, until the sounding of the seventh trumpet that closes out this earth age of flesh man. We read in II Chronicles 12:13 that Rehoboam lived seventeen years after the death of his father, and at his death his son Abijah would now take the thrown over the house of Judah.

II Chronicles 13:2 "He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam."

"Michaiah" name was called Maachah in I Kings 15:2. The name Michaiah in the Hebrew tongue means; "Who is like Jehovah". Michaiah then is the name she used in her position as the Queen Mother, however the people spoke of her as Maachah, meaning "oppression, when speaking of her idolatry.

"Uriel of Gibeah"; according to Josephus (Ant, VIII. 10. 1) says he was the husband of Tamar the daughter of Absalom, and mother of Michaiah. I Kings 15:1, 2 "Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Mebat reigned Abijam over Judah." [1] "Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom." [2]

The name Abijah in the Chronicles, is the same person as Abijam of the book of I Kings.

II Chronicles 13:3 And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour."

As we look at these numbers of men in the armies of the Judah and Israel, it becomes important to note that the numbers of men for Judah, of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, are increasing. At the same time the numbers of men of the army of Israel has decreased. Rehoboam, the father of Jeroboam could only assemble 180,000 men just a few years prior, as Abijah's army of Judah now numbers 400,000 fighting men under arms. Then six years later Asa called 580,000 men to arms, and some thirty two years later Jehoshaphat's army numbered 1,160,000 fighting men.

On the other hand, as we consider the men of Israel under Jeroboam, the number stated here was 800,000 men. Ahab's army was called two little flocks of kids in I Kings 20:17, which not stand against the Syrians. This increase of Judah was caused by the constant emigration of Israelites from the ten tribes living to the north. This emigration out of Israel and into Judah was caused because these people would not bow to the two golden calves. They pulled up their belongings and headed for Judah, where they could continue to worship the Lord in the manner that God set forth in the laws of Moses.

II Chronicles 13:4 "And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, "Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel;"

"Zemaraim" was in the hill country of the tribe of Ephraim.

II Chronicles 13:5 "Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?"

"A Covenant of Salt", was a covenant that once established could not be broken by God. Sure that throne of David would continue, and exist even to this day, for Queen Elizabeth II now sits on that throne. God foretold through the prophet Ezekiel how this throne would be overturned, overturned and overturned again to a place to where it would never again be over turned until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sure Reheboam is correct in what he said, but he lost sight that this reign of his would only be over the house or nation of Judah at this time.

Ezekiel 21:26, 27 "Thus saith the Lord God; "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high." [26] "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come Whose right it is; and I will give it Him." [27]

Because of the wickedness going on in Judah, God showed the prophet Ezekiel exactly what He would do with the throne that was in Jerusalem. It would be made low, stripped and take from Jerusalem, and that change would be moved three times before it would rest in the final place: In England. Why England? Because the English people are of the lineage of Ephraim, and Ephraim is the tribe that would carry the name of Israel, as well as the Abrahamic Covenant promises. This is told in Genesis 48:16-20, when Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph, and passed on the Covenant promise that came through Isaac to himself.

About three hundred years later after the death of Abijah, the king of Babylon took Zedekiah captive; that throne left the Middle East to sail to Spain and on to Ireland while the rest of Judah was confined to captivity in Babylon. The first overturning is this time when Jeremiah the prophet took the daughters of Zedekiah, and brought them to their new land where "the scarlet cord" of the Zarah line of Judah in the Cretan and Milesian kings, would marry into the Pharez line of Judah through King David, through the daughters of Zedekiah. This was the first overturning of Ezekiel when Tamar Tephi, Zedekiah's daughter married Eochaidh (Eremhon- Heremon of Ireland). This confusion over the king line of Judah is told in Genesis 48:20 - 30. It took from 1727 B.C. to 477 B.C. to join the two lineages of Judah into one.

The second overturning came when the throne moved from Ireland from king Mortough of Ireland Scotland; to the thrown of Fergus More-King of Argyll. Then the third overturning came many years later, when King James the VI, became, King James the 1st of England, the same king that endorsed the King James Version of our Holy Bible. Today Queen Elizabeth II sits on that throne over the true Israel, the nation of England, the tribe of Ephraim.

II Chronicles 13:6 "Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord."

No, Jeroboam did not rebel against the Lord God, but against the lord or king over the whole of Israel under Solomon, but God's prophet told him that the kingdom would be his and given to him when Solomon died. The kingdom did not fall into the hands of Jeroboam because of his rebellion, but because of the bad council Rehoboam received from the crowd of kids he ran with in Jerusalem. Remember that Israel would have followed Rehoboam if he would have just lightened the taxes a little, but Rehoboam refused.

II Chronicles 13:7 "And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them."

To put it a more correct way, the tribes of the house of Israel rebelled against Rehoboam when through his own stupidity and foolishness this young lad caused himself to lose most of the kingdom of his fathers. Yet those things that did happen were all foretold before hand, and we see that when a youth takes over a kingdom and fails to follow the wise council of his forefathers that were on the throne, the same thing happens again. There is nothing new under the sun, those things that happened before will happen again under the same set of circumstances.

II Chronicles 13:8 "And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods."

This young king is standing on this hill side giving his sermon, when all the time his enemy is setting a trap for him.

II Chronicles 13:9 "Have you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods."

Sure this is all true what he is saying, the house of the Lord is in Jerusalem and the Levites are the ones to offer the sacrifices to the Lord in the House of God. As he speaks the army may not be listening, but the people are, for shortly there will be pouring of many people of all the tribes into Judah, for the sake of worshipping as God commanded through Moses.

II Chronicles 13:10 "But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business:"

Abijah's reign will not be as Rehoboam reign, for he will make an effort to clean up the land of idolatry and Baal worship. There is only one place that the priests and Levites could minister to the Lord and make their sacrifices and offerings; that place is in Jerusalem at the house of the Lord.

II Chronicles 13:11 "And they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him."

The burning of incense is called the "katar offering", and it is offered on the altar of God at the temple.

II Chronicles 13:12 "And Behold, God Himself is with us for our captain, and His priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you, O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper."

II Chronicles 13:13 "But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them."

II Chronicles 13:14 "And when Judah looked back, behold the battle was before and behind: and they cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets."

II Chronicles 13:15 "Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah."

The Kenite scribes version of what happened here is different from the Prophet's writing, for we know that Jeroboam outlived Abijah by three years, for Abijah died in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign. Consider the source here for this writing was given some four hundred years later; not by a Levite scribe, but by "a stranger given to service", a Kenite Scribe, as recorded in I Chronicles 2:55. "And the families of the scribes which dwelt in Jabez [Jerusalem], the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab [not Israel]."

II Chronicles 13:16 "And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand."

II Chronicles 13:17 "And Abijah and his People slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men."

II Chronicles 13:18 "Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers."

II Chronicles 13:19 "And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephrain with the towns thereof."

II Chronicles 13:20 "And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo."