Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 2 Chronicles 13 and Haggai 1 today. This devotional is about 2 Chronicles 13. In the 18th year of Jeroboam's reign, Abijah became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Micaiah, daughter of Uriel. She was from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in formation against him with 800,000 chosen and mighty men of valor. Then Abijah stood on Mount Zimrim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, O Jeroboam, and all Israel. Do you not know that the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David, and his descendants, forever, by a covenant of salt? Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master. Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them. And now you think you can resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods. But did you not drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves, as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not God's. But as for us, the Lord is our God. We have not forsaken him. The priests who minister to the Lord are sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. Every morning and every evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the Lord. they set out the rows of showbread on the ceremonially clean table, and every evening they light the lamps of the golden lampstand. We are carrying out the requirements of the Lord our God, while you have forsaken Him. Now behold, God himself is with us as our head, and his priests, with their trumpets, sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers. for you will not succeed. Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to ambush from the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah, the ambush was behind them. When Judah turned and discovered that the battle was both before and behind them, they cried out to the Lord, Then the priests blew the trumpets, and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. And when they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell, slain. Thus the Israelites were subdued at that time. And the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers. Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him, Bethel, Jeshanna, and Ephron, along with their villages. Jeroboam did not again recover his power during the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him down, and he died. But Abijah grew strong, married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. Now the rest of the Acts of Abijah, along with his ways and his words, are written in the treatise of the prophet Iddo. This is God's Word. The northern and southern kingdoms battled each other from the very beginning, as we saw yesterday in 2 Chronicles 12.15. The battling continued after Rehoboam's son, Abijah, took over as king of Judah, as we saw today in chapter 13, verses 1 and 2. Abijah was not content merely to wage war against his brothers in Israel. First, he preached to them about how they had forsaken the Lord. We saw that in verses 4 through 12. While he was preaching, however, Jeroboam decided to send troops behind him and attack from two sides. We saw that in verses 13 and 14 today. This gave Abijah the opportunity to practice what he was preaching. He had already claimed, God is with us, he is our leader in verse 12. Now he would have the chance to put that claim into action. To his credit, Abijah and his men cried out to the Lord according to verse 14b. The Lord kept his promise and God delivered them into their hands according to verse 17b. Make no mistake about it, Judah was outnumbered with only 400,000 troops against Israel's 800,000 troops, according to verse 3. But because Judah trusted in God for victory. Verse 18 says, the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Speaking truth to others is important, but applying the truth to our own lives is every bit as important. If Abijah had preached to Israel about Judah's faith in God, but then surrendered when Israel surrounded him, or worse, cried out to another God when Israel surrounded him, then Abijah's message would have lost all credibility. When you tell others around you that God's word says something and when you tell other people what God wants people to do, do you apply that to yourself as well? Every challenge we face in life is an opportunity either to apply God's word to our lives or to have our own hypocrisy revealed. Be a person who both speaks the truth to others and follows the truth in your own life. 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