Lives of Scripture

Shemaiah was a prophet active in Judah during the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, right at the moment the united kingdom split in two. When ten tribes rejected Rehoboam's harsh rule and made Jeroboam king over Israel, Rehoboam assembled 180,000 fighting men from Judah and Benjamin to force the northern tribes back by war. Before the army could march, "the word of God came to Shemaiah," instructing him to tell Rehoboam and all Israel, "You must not go up and fight against your relatives... for this thing is from Me" (1 Kings 12:21-24). Remarkably, the army listened and went home -- a rare instance in Scripture of a king's forces standing down entirely because of a prophet's word. Years later, after Rehoboam's kingdom "abandoned the law of the LORD," Shemaiah returned with a harder message: Egypt's King Shishak would invade Jerusalem because Judah had forsaken God (2 Chronicles 12:1-5). When Rehoboam and Judah's leaders humbled themselves, admitting "the LORD is righteous," the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah again -- God would not destroy them, though He would still let Shishak take some measure of Jerusalem's wealth, so that Judah would "learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries" (12:6-8). The Chronicler notes that Shemaiah also kept a written record of Rehoboam's reign (12:15).