King Solomon was dead. His son Rehoboam made a bad choice and the country rebelled against him. Now his son Abijah is on the throne and is in a difficult situation. Jeroboam, king of Israel has amassed 800,000 soldiers and is set to attack Abijah’s 400,000 soldiers. Not a pretty sight and it gets worse. While Abijah’s makes his speech, Jeroboam sends an ambush to attack the back of Judah’s army. It was not a good situation … Except for this one fact. Abijah was loyal to the one true God and Jeroboam was not.

I love reading Abijah’s speech. He basically tells off Jeroboam and his troops for forsaking the Lord. “As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him.” Jeroboam had led the other ten tribes into idol worship by creating golden calves for them to worship. But Abijah had not. To this point he was true to the Lord and worshiped the Lord as God required. That was what made the difference in this lopsided battle. Abijah trusted the Lord while Jeroboam did not. God gave Abijah the victory that day.

I think that most people enjoy this David and Goliath kind of story. We like to hear how a small army was able to defeat a larger one. But that’s not really the point. The point of the story is God. He made the difference. He honors our faith and obedience to him. He doesn’t promise riches, honor, and fame. But he does promise to honor those who honor him. And Abijah’s victory is proof of God keeping his promise once again.