Today's Scripture Reading (December 27, 2022): 2 Chronicles 11
Mao Zedong was a power in
China. As with most people of extreme power, there is little agreement on what
Mao's legacy should be. He was someone of incredible political intellect; he
was a brilliant military strategist, poet, and national visionary. He improved
the lives of women in China during his time leading the nation, as well as
being praised for driving imperialism out of the country. But tens of millions
of Chinese citizens died as a direct result of his policies. They were starved,
persecuted, and were killed working in prison work camps, as well as being
executed. Mao was a great man but also a great villain of China. Some seem to
believe that the good outweighs the bad, but those unjustly accused and
executed might have a different response.
Mao Zedong ruled with an iron
fist, but late in his life, he was also very sick. He had suffered heart
attacks, likely worsened by his constant chain smoking. There were rumors that
he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. As a result, the end of Mao's life
is shrouded in mystery. His last public appearance and the last photograph of
Zedong was on May 27, 1976. After that, Mao Zedong disappeared. All through the
summer of 1976, the world wondered. There were rumors that he had died, but
they were just rumors, nothing that could be confirmed. The logic for the mystery
of Mao's life or death was that if China's leader had died, China had a reason to
fear that this could be when her enemies would take advantage of the moment and
come after China.
Mao Zedong had another heart
attack on September 5, 1976; this time, the heart attack left him without the
power to move. He died shortly after midnight four days later, although China
delayed announcing his death for another sixteen hours. They had likely been
already planning what to do when the moment of the leader's death came, and the
nation needed to be ready to quell any threats coming from both inside and
outside of the country.
Rehoboam has lost control of
his father's nation. The northern tribes separated from Judah and Benjamin, and
now Rehoboam leads just the two southern tribes. And he and his advisors decide
that they need to fortify some of the towns of Judah. The author of Chronicles
lists fifteen towns that required fortification. It might be natural for
Rehoboam to be suspicious of the Jeroboam and the northern tribes, scared that
they might come to try to take control over all of Israel. But the list of
towns that Rehoboam decides to fortify tells us a different story. All of the cities
Rehoboam decides to reinforce are at the nation's southern and western borders.
And that doesn't make sense if Rehoboam feared an attack from Jeroboam and the
northern tribes. The towns that Rehoboam fortifies only make sense if he feared
an attack from Egypt. Rehoboam was afraid that maybe this was the time that
Egypt would take advantage of Judah's weakness and add her to the satellite
nations over which Egypt already ruled.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles
12
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