The Lord does not condone fighting between churches or individual believers. They are our brothers in Christ. We are to help each other but we are not to fight over doctrine. God fights those battles. Anything done without love as its base is not of God. We are all His children, however misdirected. He has His own way of bringing us back into His fold.
11 Now when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled from the house of Judah and Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.
2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 3 "Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, 4 'Thus says the Lord: "You shall not go up or fight against your brethren! Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me." Therefore they obeyed the words of the Lord, and turned back from attacking Jeroboam.
5 So Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah. 6 And he built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7 Beth Zur, Sochoh, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and Benjamin, fortified cities. 11 And he fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. 12 Also in every city he put shields and spears, and made them very strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side.
13 And from all their territories the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with him. 14 For the Levites left their common-lands and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to the Lord. 15 Then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons, and the calf idols which he had made. 16 And after the Levites left, those from all the tribes of Israel, such as set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. 17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.
The NKJV Study Bible says this: Shortly after the kingdom divided, the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah to form the southern kingdom. Benjamin was closer geographically to Judah than to the northern tribes. Shemaiah was a prophet who wrote. The writer of Chronicles depended on Shemaiah's writings for some of his information. Though Israel and Judah had split into two kingdoms, the priests and the Levites of Israel sided with Judah. One reason for this was that they knew that Rehoboam was David's offspring, and therefore the heir of God's covenant promise to David. Another reason was that Jeroboam had established his own religious cult which had no need for the true priests of God. Once the legitimate religious leaders had left Israel, the worshipers of God in the northern kingdom could no longer worship in good conscience, so they made pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year. Jeroboam's program of establishing a new religious structure in Israel apparently took at least three years. Meanwhile, the pilgrimage of godly Israelites from the north to Jerusalem strengthened Rehoboam and weakened Jeroboam.
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