1 Kings 14.
A SECOND time Jeroboam was made to feel the hand of God laid on him, though warnings seem to have been of no avail. Abijah the only child he had, in whom there was piety (verse 13) fell sick, and Jeroboam again showed that he knew there was power in the true God which was not in the demons behind his golden calf. To the prophet of Shiloh, Ahijah, of whom we read in chapter 11, and who wrote a book (2 Chronicles 9:2929Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat? (2 Chronicles 9:29)) which has not been preserved, went Jeroboam’s wife, disguised at her husband’s request in order that it should not be known that the king and leader in idolatry was sending to a servant of the true God. He would be able to tell her what should become of the boy.
Ahijah was very old, and could not see, but He whose eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good (Proverbs 15:33The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)), told him that Jeroboam’s wife was approaching, and what was her errand. The Lord God of Israel, whom Jeroboam had provoked to anger by his ways, which were evil above all those who lived before his time, gave Ahijah the answer he was to make to Jeroboam’s wife, to be carried back to her husband. As Ahijah told her when she came into his dwelling, it was a hard message he had to give.
God had exalted Jeroboam to the high place he held, taking the kingdom from the house of David because of Solomon’s sins, but instead of profiting by this, Jeroboam had sinned worse than any that were before him, in making other gods and molten images and turning the people after them. He had rejected the true God entirely. For this reason evil would be brought on the house of Jeroboam; not a man would be left, and the dogs and birds would eat their bodies. (See 2 Chronicles 13:2020Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and the Lord struck him, and he died. (2 Chronicles 13:20) for the cause of the death of Jeroboam, and chapter 15:29, 30 for the killing of all his sons). The one exception, of Jeroboam’s children, would be the boy on whose account their mother had come to the prophet, and he would die before she got back to him.
The positive statement was now made that Israel would be removed out of the land, and scattered beyond the river (Euphrates), given up because of Jeroboam’s sins, and his making Israel to sin. (See 2 Kings 15:2929In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. (2 Kings 15:29) and 17:6 for the carrying out of His word). It was in B. C. 740 that the tribes of Israel east of the Jordan were carried away, and nineteen years later, the rest of the kingdom of Israel followed. One hundred and thirty-three years still later, or in B. C. 588, the kingdom of Judah was ended, and its people carried away to Babylon (2 Kings 24:14-1614And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. 15And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. (2 Kings 24:14‑16) and 25:11).
The ten tribes of Israel have never been found, but they are to be brought back to their place in the land of Israel after the Lord has appeared on earth to set up His kingdom. Those we know as Jews are of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Jeroboam’s boy died, and the whole country lamented his death, according to the word of the Lord. Jeroboam had been king for twenty-two years, when he died. Nadab, another of his sons, took the throne when Jeroboam died.
We are now directed to the history of Judah during this period. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned 17 years in Jerusalem. Led by him the people turned increasingly to idolatry, and the wickedness of the nations was practiced among them. The king of Egypt, Shishak, or Shashank 1 (there are several spellings) was therefore sent against Judah before Solomon had been dead five years, and he carried away much of the gold of Solomon’s magnificent temple, and of his grand house. Twelve years after this, Rehoboam died, and Abijam his son reigned in his stead. How short lived is earthly glory, and how quickly the heart turns away from the true God to serve Satan!
ML 07/17/1927