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.
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