In 1 Kings 14:25-28, the king of Egypt, Shishak, invades Jerusalem and steals all the treasures of the Temple, including the shields of gold that Solomon had made. His son, Rehoboam, who was now the king of Judah, replaced the shields of gold with shields of brass. 1 Kings 14:27 “And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king’s house.”
In other words, Rehoboam replaced those gold shields with a cheap imitation. From that point on, Rehoboam struggled in his life. His was a life filled with conflict, filled with people who had to carry his load for him, and filled with loss as his kingdom was reduced a little bit at a time.
When we replace God with a cheap imitation, we open our lives to struggle. That cheap imitation could be anything from a boat on the lake to sports to rock and roll concerts disguised as worship. Either way, it’s not the real thing.
This means we open our lives to the same things that happened to Reheboam. There will be struggles, lost battles, conflict, needing people to carry our loads, losing what we have. It is a life that goes backwards, not forwards.
Let’s not accept the cheap imitations when God wants us to have the real thing. Nehemiah 9:6 begins, “Thou, even thou, art LORD alone.” If we replace the Lord with cheap imitation, we do so to our own hurt. Don’t be satisfied knowing it’s not the real thing.