1 Kings 18:1-19 - Elijah is Here!

1 Kings 18:1-19

Elijah’s Message to Ahab

1 And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”

2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in Samaria. 3 And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. 4 For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) 5 And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock.” 6 So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

7 Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”

8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”

9 So he said, “How have I sinned, that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10 As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you; and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here“‘! 12 And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to a place I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me. But I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth. 13 Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD’s prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here.“‘ He will kill me!”

15 Then Elijah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today.”

16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, ”Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

This statement, ‘Elijah is here!’ caused great fear after three and a half years (Luke 4:25) of a severe drought throughout the land.  Obadiah feared the wrath of his master Ahab if he told him where to meet the prophet and he was not there, and Ahab feared the omnipotent LORD God of Elijah who caused the lack of rain and crops to survive for all that time.  The simple statement announcing he was actually going to be there to meet Ahab was unsettling to both.  The further promise to Obadiah that rain would then fall again seemed too good to be true as well.  Though Obadiah was Ahab’s man, he also feared God enough to have hidden one hundred prophets during the scourge of the idolatrous Jezebel, a fact hidden from Ahab but well-known to the LORD of Elijah.  This faithfulness saved his life and caused him to be chosen by the LORD to be the herald of Elijah’s return from exile to bring the good news of the rain to come.  This is a reminder of sorts of the Elijah to come (Matthew 17:12, Mark 9:12, 13) who would call for repentance from sins such as idolatry and herald the coming of the Christ after a forty day exile in the wilderness facing temptation and then arriving with good news of a latter rain (Isaiah 45:8, Joel 2:23, James 5:7-8) to come.  The meeting of Elijah and Ahab was to bring judgment on the idolatry of the evil king and his equally evil wife for their rejection of God’s word and subsequent idolatry and warring against the LORD and His people.  This reminds us of the judgment announced by Jesus Christ against those who continue to reject the good news of repentance from sin and faith towards God (Acts 20:21) and to then experience relief from the drought of being outside the will and grace of the Lord by the presence of His Spirit as living water (John 7:38-39, Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17) to water, cleanse, and nourish the empty soul.  It began with John as Elijah returning to say, ‘I am here!’ as the herald of the Messiah and water for our parched and thirsty souls.  We are called to hear and heed this good news, turning from sin to Christ by faith in His work on the cross with the promise of life beyond the grave through the resurrection of life to come. 

1 Kings 17:17-24 - Certainty of Life from Death

1 Kings 17:17-24

Elijah Revives the Widow’s Son

17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?”

19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” 21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”

24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”

After Elijah had been staying with the widow and her son for some time, providing them with a seemingly bottomless supply of flour and oil to survive the drought, the boy got sick and apparently died.  The woman was upset with grief and questioned why this man of God came if he could not have kept her son from dying after all they had been through.  Echoes of Jesus hearing the sisters of Lazarus (John 11:21) asking a similar question come to mind after he died and Jesus was not there to keep him from dying.  In both these instances, God raised the dead to life as an act of compassion and also of a future hope of the resurrection to come at the end (John 11:24, 5:24) of time.  The difference was faith in Jesus by Martha compared to the accusations of the widow here against God’s servant; one trusted in God’s will either to give life in the present or in eternity, while the other blamed God in her grief without faith in God’s ability to give life.  Elijah had to cry out three times to God to bring life back to the lifeless boy there until the LORD heard and answered by returning the boy’s soul to him; Jesus as God’s Son simply ordered the soul of Lazarus to return (John 11:41, 42, 43) by a direct divine decree.  When Elijah presented the widow’s son to her alive, she believed that he was a man of God with truth in his mouth; when Jesus presented the brother of Mary and Martha alive after four days in the tomb, they had already had the faith to trust He could do it, but the reality before their eyes to see Lazarus alive before the resurrection (John 11:24) must have bolstered their faith to see (Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1) him come back to life and have a deeper faith of who Jesus is as more than just a man of God (Acts 26:22, 23) like the prophets of old.  We know from the word of God recorded throughout scripture from beginning to end that the Man of God is the Son of God and that He alone gives life now (John 5:24) and after the grave in the resurrection to come because He told us and proved it by raising Himself first from His own grave to show us He is more than able to do so for us (1 Thessalonians 4:14, 1 Corinthians 15:20-21) as a man of His word of this certain (Titus 1:2, 1 Peter 1:3) promise.  These accounts of the widow’s son and Lazarus and the accompanying promises throughout the scriptures are our certainty of life from death in our souls now and in the rest of our bodies in eternity to come. 

Kings 17:1-16 - God’s Provision in Times of Drought

1 Kings 17:1-16

Elijah Proclaims a Drought

1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ”As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

2 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah and the Widow

8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

12 So she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’”

15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.

The prophet Elijah spoke the word of God’s judgment on evil Ahab and the nation that followed his sins of idolatry and rejection of the LORD.  He proclaimed a drought that would seem endless to them and then vanished into the wilderness to find provision by God’s hand through the ravens sent to bring him food by a brook of water that fed the Jordan to nourish and keep him through the dry three and a half years (Luke 4:25) ahead.  We likewise are fed by the providence of God’s provision wherever we go, and especially as we face tribulation for His sake and the word of the gospel.  Elijah stayed there until the brook dried up and the LORD led him to a poor faithful widow living in Zarephath of Sidon on Mediterranean coast north of Tyre and just south of Sidon which is now in modern-day Lebanon.  He stayed with the widow whom God led him to stay with to provide room and board from what nothing she seemed to have.  God provided for her, her son, and him by miraculously giving her an unending supply of flour and oil in bottomless jars, reminiscent of Jesus feeding the five thousand () later.  He provided this as long as necessary until it was time to bring the rain back after such a long time of judgment.  This is an example of God’s provision in times of drought in a physical manner, but we also find it translates into spiritual provision for strength in the midst of trials and tribulations as well, for we partake of the body of Christ as our manna (John 6:32-33, 35, 48-50) to nourish both body and soul.  As it has been famously said, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.  We are called to trust and obey equally in the face of opposition in the wilderness and in good times of plenty to (Isaiah 55:1) drink deeply of His goodness of grace and supply our lack in times of need.

1 Kings 16:21-34 - Follow the (Right) Leader

1 Kings 16:21-34

Omri Reigns in Israel

21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22 But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. 23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and reigned twelve years. Six years he reigned in Tirzah. 24 And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; then he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill. 25 Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who were before him. 26 For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

27 Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

28 So Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. Then Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.

After all the evil rulers before Omri came and went, you would think that this one would have looked back at their end and turned from idolatrous sin back to Him who reigns on high over all kings, and especially among God’s people.  He did not.  After building ding the city of Samaria, Omri did more evil than those before him as if patterning his life after Jeroboam who showed how to provoke the LORD with such evil sins and leading God’s people to follow him to the divine’s disdain.  When Omri died and passed the torch to his son Ahab, the chain continued to loosen in even more disobedience to God and His word of righteousness and worship.  The first commandment tumbled away and the others followed in their praxis of the Law given to guide them into peace and a lasting relationship with their Creator.  Ahab continued this downward spiral of sin, even marrying Jezebel and serving her false god Baal.  He carved a wooden idol to replace the God of the commandments and rejected the living God of his people whom he also led away from Him.  During this time, Jericho was raised up by a man named Hiel, a city that was supposed to remain in rubble and whose sons were used in its foundation as promised (Joshua 6:26) after the LORD leveled it when He led His people into the promised land now sullied with the sins and consequences they had been warned of.  The sins of the leaders had spread this far to influence complete disobedience to their God.  We must therefore beware of evil influence (1 Corinthians 5:6-7, 15:33) and keep the word of God foremost in our thoughts to guide our right (1 Corinthians 15:34) actions.  We start by choosing to follow the right leader, one who follows the written word (2 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 13:7) and imitates (1 Corinthians 11:1) the living (John 1:1, Hebrews 4:12) Word. 

1 Kings 16:1-20 - Falling like Royal Dominoes

1 Kings 16:1-20

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani, against Baasha, saying: 2 “Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, 3 surely I will take away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 4 The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the fields.”

5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 6 So Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. Then Elah his son reigned in his place.

7 And also the word of the LORD came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed them.

Elah Reigns in Israel

8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Tirzah. 9 Now his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. 10 And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

11 Then it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he was seated on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave him one male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends. 12 Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, 13 for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they had sinned and by which they had made Israel sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Zimri Reigns in Israel

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri had reigned in Tirzah seven days. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. 16 Now the people who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired and also has killed the king.” So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. 18 And it happened, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house down upon himself with fire, and died, 19 because of the sins which he had committed in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he had committed to make Israel sin.

20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the treason he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

The rulers of Israel seemed to fall like royal dominos as many turned from the LORD and His word to continue unrepentant in doing evil and rejecting the good.  Baasha, the successor to Jeroboam’s son Nadab, had been overthrown by Baasha by conspiracy and an apparent attempt to destroy the evil of Nadab but now he also walked in the way of Jeroboam to lead  Israel to sin as well.  The LORD ended Baasha and his family and his evil son Elah briefly took over the throne.  His commander Zimri then conspired against him and killed him, taking his place on Israel’s throne.  He immediately killed all the heirs of Baasha for all his sins as prophetically promised by God to hold them accountable to Him.  But then he was accused of treason and another conspired against him, namely Omri, the commander of the army.  This time the evil king was not killed, for he heard the hoofbeats of judgment coming for him and burned down the king’s house on top of himself in an act of suicide.  Like a line of royal dominoes of evil around the throne of Israel, all these fell by God’s hand of judgment against their unrepentant sins of idolatry and disobedience to all of the LORD commandments.  This is the curse of sin which the Messiah of the Seed of David came as promised to cleanse and atone for eternally by His work and person as the true and righteous King of kings.  We are called to follow His rule in obedience and holiness (Ephesians 4:24, 1 Peter 1:15) and not conspire against the righteous one whose rule cannot be usurped. 

Kings 15:25-34 - Overthrowing Evil with Evil

1 Kings 15:25-34

Nadab Reigns in Israel

25 Now Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 26 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.

27 Then Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. 28 Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. 29 And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, 30 because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

Baasha Reigns in Israel

33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years. 34 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.

Nadab ruled Israel for just two years, and his reign of evil ended by a conspiracy leading to murder.  The one who killed him, Baasha the son of Ahijah (brother of Jehovah), took over the throne and killed the rest of the lineage of the evil Jeroboam, wiping them out to the last man (1 Kings 14:10) as foretold by the LORD to keep the idolatrous cancer from spreading among God’s people.  This act of wiping out an evil bloodline was to hold the sinful ruler accountable for his own sins and for those he caused the nation to commit.  As a ruler, he was held doubly to account for provoking the LORD with this heinous rebellion that brought down the wrath of God (Romans 6:23) on his sins.  This Baasha then ruled Israel for twenty-four years but ended up doing evil himself like Jeroboam before him and imitated his evil ways over the nation as well.  Replacing one evil ruler does no good if the replacement ends up doing the same kinds of evil causes the people to sin again with him.  Overthrowing an evil ruler is then just a self-serving power grab and not a righteous act.  May we not answer evil with evil (Romans 12:21), but with good to honor the Lord instead. 

1 Kings 15:1-24 - Rulers of Evil and Good

1 Kings 15:1-24

Abijam Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 13:1—14:1)

1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. 2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. 3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. 4 Nevertheless for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. 7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

8 So Abijam rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place.

Asa Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 14:1—16:14)

9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. 10 And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. 11 1 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David. 12 And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13 Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 14 But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days. 15 He also brought into the house of the LORD the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.

16 Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17 And Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 18 Then Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, 19 ”Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Come and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

20 So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maachah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. 21 Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah, and remained in Tirzah.

22 Then King Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted. And they took away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

23 The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. 24 So Asa rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. Then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned with evil in Judah and his son immediately following him did the same.  Abijam ruled in evil, not with a good heart after God like king David, but with a disloyal heart full of blasphemous actions.  He warred against the northern tribes of Israel from Judah until he eventually died and his son Asa ascended to the throne.  This man ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem with a good heart and did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as his great grandfather David had done.  He cleaned up the ritual homosexual prostitutes in the temple, destroyed the idols and removed his idolatrous grandmother, returned the dedicated things of silver and gold to the temple which his father had absconded for himself, and continued the war with Israel.  He ended up having to use the silver and gold items to buy a ceasefire with Israel by payment to Syria for help, however.  He then took the building materials Israel was using to build Ramah and used them to build Geba and Mizpah instead for Judah.  His reign of doing good in spite of the evil done by his father Rehoboam eventually came to and end and his son Jehoshaphat took over the throne of Judah (1 Kings 22:43) and did good himself in his reign, a faithful son after God’s heart as well.  These were examples of good and evil rulers who were so recorded by their adherence to God’s word or their rejection and subsequent actions to the contrary.  May we who are in Christ pursue the good heart after God as David and his righteous offspring gave us example and not go the way of the unrighteous offspring who spurned God’s word and worshiped worthless idols of (1 Samuel 15:23, Colossians 3:4-5) immorality and evil actions with their self serving intentions as Abijam’s.

1 Kings 14:19-31 - Sinful Assimilation of God’s People

1 Kings 14:19-31

Death of Jeroboam

19 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20 The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 11:5—12:16)

21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. 22 Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. 24 And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

25 It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. 26 And 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 gold shields which Solomon had made. 27 Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. 28 And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.

29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 31 So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then Abijam his son reigned in his place.

The sinful assimilation of God’s people into the ungodly cultures around them is seen in the reign of idolatrous Jeroboam in the northern nation of Israel, but even more in the southern nation of Judah led by Rehoboam into every sort of abomination to the LORD from idolatry to immorality to ritual prostitution and homosexuality.  The nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel became their role models of sinful living.  The things which our current western world are pursuing are those that ancient Israel did in their pursuit of denying God and loving for perverted pleasure and serving gods of self and self-gratification.  For the people of God then, this led to defeat by foreign powers such as Egypt who took away all the temple treasures dedicated to the LORD and left them with cheap imitation shields kept locked away instead of on God-honoring display.  How long until our churches become similarly sold off and taken away by compromise and corruption (1 Corinthians 5:6-7) of pure and pure worship?  Will we continue to allow what the Lord plainly calls blasphemy and immorality infiltrate by cultural assimilation of all the scriptures say we are to avoid in the name of relevance or to avoid cultural conflict?  We would do well to remember Jeroboam and Rehoboam who led the people into such sinful association and immoral assimilation with those the LORD had commanded to be driven out of the promised land and not followed into judgment as a people and a nation.  Solomon’s sins of adultery and murder festered in his son Solomon and culminated in the rottenness of his son Rehoboam seen here in this account.  What sinful behavior and acceptance of cultural assimilation with such disobedience to compromise God’s word we accept, these things we pass to our children and cause great spiritual and social harm to all unless we drive it out of (1 Corinthians 5:9, 11,12-13) the congregation with accountability and church discipline.  We are to keep godliness intact (John 17:15, 17) by the teaching and preaching of the whole counsel of God’s word to one another in a holy union with Christ and one another to avoid the disastrous consequences of sinful assimilation with the world we live in, having been called out of such darkness into the light of righteousness (Acts 26:18) and obedience in devotion of our worship.  If we call ourselves by His name (2 Timothy 2:19), we will keep living in the light (Ephesians 5:8, 1 John 1:7) instead of darkening with the world. 

1 Kings 14:1-18 - Consequences of Bad Stewardship

1 Kings 14:1-18

Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. 2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” 4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age.

5 Now the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

6 And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; 9 but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back— 10 therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. 11 The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the LORD has spoken!“‘ 

12 Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

14 “Moreover the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; this is the day. What? Even now! 15 For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the LORD to anger. 16 And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin.”

17 Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

The consequences of Jeroboam’s bad stewardship of the throne of Israel came to its end at last according to the warning given by God for his unrepentant acts of idolatry.  When his son was ill, he used his wife to try to find out the child’s fate from an old prophet by deception, yet the LORD warned the prophet and the real future was told to her.  The consequences of such evil stewardship of the throne given to guide and lead Israel into true worship and that was used for idolatrous blasphemy instead, the consequences of these came to bear on the bad king through the message given to him through his complicit spouse.  Jeroboam failed to exercise wise leadership as steward of the role given to lead the tribes of God’s people torn from Judah who had gone wrong as he led these of Israel even further astray from following God and His commandments as king David did.  Jeroboam was not a man after God’s own heart, but a man after his own corrupt heart instead who did more evil than any gone before him as he made his own lifeless gods in his own image and led the people away from the LORD to serve them instead as they desecrated the first commandment with impunity.  God cursed the house of this corrupt king and pronounced the end of the family lineage in specific events to follow.  All the male heirs would be disposed of like trash and dogs would devour the leftovers of them, a horrendous proclamation equal to the blasphemy of Jeroboam.  This curse would extend to all Israel who followed him into this pit of despair as a consequence of his bad stewardship and their equally bad acquiescence to his lead.  Their child mercifully died as the only good one of the family (1 Kings 14:12-13) as soon as his mother came back from the prophet to the cursed king.  The lesson for us here is that apostasy has severe and lasting consequences for the perpetrator and all who follow him instead of honoring the Lord and His Word. 

1 Kings 13:11-34 - Deception and Disobedience

1 Kings 13:11-34

Death of the Man of God

11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”

18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.)

19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, 22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.” 27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. 30 Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”

33 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. 34 And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

The sins of Jeroboam spread to destroy his house and took the man of God with him who had exposed him.  This man of God was warned by the LORD not to stop to eat in Bethel and to return home by a different route than the one he came by.  A prophet heard of what he had done and intercepted the man of God along the way and desired him by saying the LORD told him it was alright to deviate from God’s word and come with him back to Bethel to eat.  The man of God gave in without question or discernment whether this was of God and disobeyed God.  His disobedience therefore spawned from the deception of this prophet who claimed to have a different word from God that would allow the man of God to go with him instead of the way God had told him, and he suffered the earthly consequences of that ill-fated decision because he was still accountable to God for the initial command.  The irony is that God had used this prophet to test the man of God for he then prophesied for real to tell him he had disobeyed and would face the consequences of impending death.  On the journey home, the man of God who exposed Jeroboam and was deceived into disobedience was killed by a lion and left on the road home with his donkey and that lion of the LORD watching over his body along the roadside.  The prophet retrieved the body to bury in his own tomb and had his sons promise to bury his bones alongside the man of God (2 Kings 23:17-18) when he returned to the earth as well, which would be undisturbed when the prophecy of burning the bones of the disobedient ones by Josiah (1 Kings 13:2) would come to pass.  He honored the man of God who spoke out against the sins of Jeroboam for the king’s idolatry and high places of worship to false gods while the king continued to blaspheme the name of the LORD with false priests (including himself!) and altars of idolatrous worship.  In the end, the king would be exterminated along with his offspring for this disobedient blasphemy.  We should learn from this example not to go against God’s word given to us in scripture in disobedience even when a godly man tells us to do otherwise with deception; we are tested by our adherence to the word of God and not of any man (Matthew 24:24, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 John 3:7) over those commands, principles, and examples.  The answer to this deception is to know God’s word to avoid being led astray into disobedience by anyone.