“He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house.”
I Kings 14:26-27
All the extravagant ornate treasures in both the temple and in Solomon’s house were gone. The things that were so precious, expensive and took a great deal of time to make were stolen. Judah was quick to learn to guard their possessions after that, setting up a guard room and carefully watching over their new shields (which were made of much less expensive material and a poor replacement for their precious treasures). If only they would have been as quick to learn to guard their hearts when their hearts were stolen away from the Lord, they would have saved themselves much grief. How about you? Do you tend to learn more quickly when it affects your pocket book than you do when it’s an issue of the heart? How can we guard our hearts more carefully?