Rehoboam (untitled article fragment)

Rehoboam replaced those shields with brass ones, which had to be a constant reminder of his stupidity in forsaking of the law (v. 10). A Divine assessment is given of him in verse 14: "And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord." Why didn't he? He had the wisest father in the world. He was 41 when he became king and therefore not some neophyte without benefit of wisdom or experience. Of all the things that Solomon wrote, perhaps these words most appropriately describe the situation with his son and successor, Rehoboam:

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I will leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise also under the sun. This also is vanity (Ecc. 2:18-19).