1 Reis 14

1 Reis 14

1 Kings Commentaries Chart from recommended resource Jensen's Survey of the OT - used by permission 1 Kings Chart from Charles Swindoll THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL (NOTE: Many consider Amaziah and Hezekiah as "good" kings) SEE ALSO: ESV chart - kings of Israel - more information ESV chart - kings of Judah - more information Another Chart with Variable Dates for Reigns of Kings 1 Kings 14:1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. that time: 1Ki 13:33,34 the son of Jeroboam : 1Ki 14:12,13 Ex 20:5 1Sa 4:19,20 31:2 2Sa 12:15 1 Kings 14 Resources - multiple sermons and commentaries THE HEIR TO THE THRONE IS ILL At that time - What time? After the continued ordination of false priests at the high places (1Ki 13:33-34+) in spite of the sign of the split altar and stiffened arm (healed by the man of God). "The order of the narrative shews that the writer of Kings connects the sickness of Jeroboam's son with the events which have been narrated in the previous chapter in the nature of a divine judgement." (Lumby) So now we see the judgment of God beginning to unfold against Jeroboam by causing his son and potential royal heir to become ill (cf 1Ki 14:10-11+). Jeroboam did have another heir for 1 Kings 15:25+ says "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." Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick - Abijah means “my father is Yah(weh),” suggesting a pretentious claim on the part of Jeroboam. The name Abijah can be confusing because it is the name of the son of Jeroboam in the present story and is also the name of Rehoboam's son (also called Abijam - 1Ki 14:31) who succeeded him as King of the Southern Kingdom. James Smith - PRAYING IN DISGUISE 1 Kings 14:1–17 “Prayer against His absolute decree No more avails than breath against the wind, Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth: Therefore to His great bidding I submit.” —MILTON. The more deeply we are imbued with the spirit of prayer the more simple and child-like shall we become. “Sublimity always is simple,” is how Longfellow puts it. Eloquent prayers may only be the haughtiness of the human heart in disguise. The wife of Jeroboam is not the only one who has put on the mask while making their requests known unto God. Purity of worship was at a very low ebb while King Jeroboam made the “lowest of the people priests” and consecrated “whosoever would” (chap. 13:33), “I want to” is by no means the only qualification for the service of God. The Lord had sent a warning cry against this unholy altar (chap. 13:2). Now the jealous God of Israel visits the iniquity with judgment. This attempt to outwit and delude the prophet of the Lord has its lessons for us. There was a— I. Knowledge of God. Jeroboam could not be a stranger to the great things Jehovah had wrought for His people Israel; and had not the prophet of the Lord foretold him that he should be “king over this people?” (1Ki 5:2). But the revealed will of God had been set aside. His acts of worship were now according to his own thoughts and convenience, so he made Israel to sin by the substituting of his own ways for the ways of the Lord (1Ki 12:33). There may be a knowledge of the ways and will of God, while the daily life is a presumptuous denial of the divine revelation. II. Feeling a Need. “Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick” (1Ki 14:1). They were very anxious to know “what shall become of the child” (1Ki 14:3). Our dearest and our best are never beyond the withering touch of God’s finger. Every sorrow and disappointment may be to us as goads to drive us nearer our God if our hearts are right with Him. There is bitterness of heart that cannot be spoken into the ears of ordinary mortals; that needs the touch of the Eternal. The yearning of the soul at such times is to know what the will of God is concerning us. III. Disguising of Character. The wife of Jeroboam changed her appearance and went to inquire of the man of God, “feigning herself to be another woman” (1Ki 14:2–5). Perhaps the king knew that the old prophet Ahijah was blind by reason of age, but both he and his wife seemed to forget that God was not blind. It is utterly needless for any one to come to God feigning themselves to be different from what they are; and yet this disguising of the true character, while making requests known unto God, is a common pious fraud. On our knees we may pretend to believe all that the Lord hath spoken, then among our fellowmen we put on our self-magnifying glasses, and forget the Lord that bought us. God looks on the heart, and as a man thinketh in his heart so is he before Him. IV. Complete Failure. As soon as she came to the door of the prophet she heard these mask-scathing words, “Come in thou wife of Jeroboam, why feignest thou thyself to be another” (1Ki 14:6). The veil of her disguise was rent from the top to the bottom, and the light of God’s presence shone in upon her. Saul had his disguise torn off him while on the way to Damascus. The Pharisee that went up to the temple to pray feigned himself a righteous man, but he went away as he came, with his mask untouched and his soul unblessed (Luke 18:14). Jeroboam and his wife were desirous of knowing the mind of the Lord about their child, but they were afraid to face the will of God concerning themselves and their ungodly lives. The disguise was evidently an attempt to avoid the dreaded prediction of the “man of God” in the preceding chapter. Is there anything in the background of our lives that we are afraid God should deal with, things which make us put on a mask when we venture to seek for divine light or guidance? It will not improve matters to hide them, God will deal with us according to our daily life before Him. Therefore come to the light that the evil deeds may be reproved, confessed, and cleansed (John 3:19–21), for be sure your sin will find you out. John Kitto - The Disguised Princess—I Kings 14:1–18 This quiet place, apart among the enclosing hills, is Shiloh. It was once the seat of the Lord’s tabernacle, his altar, and his ark, and was then replete with holy activities and solemn sounds. But since these departed, it has been well nigh forsaken, and has relapsed into a silent village, or a small rural town. Yet still holy things are here—holy men, who have found here a sort of refuge from the wickedness of the time—a quiet retreat, favorable to sacred memories, and to the nourishment of holy thoughts. Among them is Ahijah, that old prophet who rent the new cloak of Jeroboam, and promised him the largest share of the divided kingdom. He is now blind. Upon the outer world, made foul by man’s abominations, he has closed his eyes, and sees and lives by the light that shines within. Now observe that woman stealing down the street, and seeking the old prophet’s house. By her guise she is of the peasantry, and she bears a basket. Yet her gait scarcely befits her garb; and the quick furtive glance she casts around under her coarse hood-veil, betrays some conscious concealment, some fear of recognition, some purpose she would not wish to have known. This woman, mean as she seems, is the lady of the land; and although her basket contains but a few cakes and biscuits, and a little honey, she might, if she pleased, have filled it with precious and costly things. She is the wife of Jeroboam—as far as we know, his only wife,—the mother of his heir; and therefore, if he had a score of wives, the chief of them all. That heir, by name Abijah, is alarmingly ill; and, at the instance of Jeroboam, and impelled by motherly love, that royal lady has come all the way from Tirzah, in this disguise, that she may learn of the prophet what is to become of her son; and the things in her basket are gifts for the man of God, suited to the condition she had assumed. The disguise was thought necessary to conceal this visit from the people, and partly in the idle hope of obtaining, in the semblance of another, the desired answer, unmixed with the reproof and denunciation, which Jeroboam knew that his conduct had been calculated to draw down, from the prophet who had foretold his exaltation. He thus foolishly thought to cozen the Lord, through his prophet, out of an answer of peace, and slyly to evade the judgment he feared might be connected with it; and he idly calculated that the prophet, whose view could extend into the future, hid in the counsels of God, could not see through a present matter wrapped up only in the thin cover of it woman’s hood. “There was never,” says Dr. Hall, “a wicked man who was not infatuate, and in nothing more than in those things wherein he hoped most to transcend the reach of others.” All this fine contrivance was blown to pieces the moment the wife of Jeroboam crossed Ahijah’s threshold; for then she heard the voice of the blind prophet—“Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.” He then broke forth in a strong tide of denunciation against Jeroboam, because he had sinned and made Israel to sin; and the voice which had proclaimed his rise from a low estate to royal power, now, with still stronger tone, proclaimed the downfall and ruin of his house—quenched in blood—its members to find tombs only in the bowels of beasts and birds. There was one exception—only one. The youth of whom she came to inquire—he only should come to his grave in peace, by dying of his present disease, because in him only was “found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.” Woeful tidings these for a mother’s heart; and scarcely, perhaps, intelligible to her stunned intellect. Here was beginning of judgment upon Jeroboam, and upon her, because she was his. Judgment in taking away the only well-conditioned and worthy son; and judgment stored up in and for the ill-conditioned ones who were suffered to remain. God, when it suits the purposes of his wisdom and his justice, can afflict no less by what he spares than by what he takes. Yet there was mercy in this judgment; mercy, strange as it seems to say,—to him on whom the sentence of death was passed. It is so stated; and it is more intelligible, than it seems. It was because there was some good thing found in him that he should die. Death was to be for him a reward, a blessing, a deliverance. He should die peaceably upon his bed; for him all Israel should mourn; for him many tears be shed; and he should be brought with honor to his tomb. More than all, he would be taken from his part in the evil that hung over his house; and the Lord’s vindicatory justice would thus be spared the seeming harshness of bringing ruin upon a righteous king for his father’s crimes. Alas! how little do we know the real objects of the various incidents of life and death—of mercy, of punishment, and of trial! In this case the motives were disclosed; and we are suffered to glance upon some of the great secrets of death, which form the trying mysteries of life. Having the instance, we can find the parallels of lives, full of hope and promise, prematurely taken, and that in mercy, as we can judge, to those who depart. The heavenly Husbandman often gathers for his garner the fruit that early ripens, without suffering it to hang needlessly long, beaten by storms, upon the tree. Oh, how often, as many a grieved heart can tell, do the Lord’s best beloved die betimes—taken from the evil to come,—while the unripe, the evil, the injurious, live long for mischief to themselves and others! Roses and lilies wither far sooner than thorns and thistles. Doleful were the tidings the disguised princess had to bear back to the beautiful town of Tirzah. All remoter griefs were probably to her swallowed up in this—which rung continually in her ears in all her homeward way,—“When thy feet enter into the city the child shall die.” It is heavy tidings to a mother that she must lose her well-beloved son; but it is a grievous aggravation of her trouble that she might not see him before he died. They who were about him knew not that he was to die today, and therefore could not estimate the preciousness of his last hours, and the privilege of being then near him, and of receiving his embrace. She knew; and she might not be near, nor pour out upon her dying son the fulness of a mother’s heart. Knowing that her son lay on his death-bed, her first impulse must have been to fly home to receive his dying kiss; but her second to linger by the way, as if to protract that dear life which must close the moment she entered the city. Never, surely, before or since, was a distressed mother so woefully torn between the contrary impulses of her affection! At last her weary steps reached the city; and, as she entered its gate, her son died, and she was only just in time to press to her arms the heart still warm, although it had ceased to beat. 1 Kings 14:2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise now, and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who spoke concerning me that I would be king over this people. disguise: 1Ki 14:5,6 22:30 1Sa 28:8 2Sa 14:2 2Ch 18:29 Lu 12:2 Ahijah: 1Ki 11:29-38 1 Kings 14 Resources - multiple sermons and commentaries Shiloh is also called Silo - see just above Ephraim JEROBOAM'S WIFE'S CLANDESTINE CONSULTATION Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise now, and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who spoke concerning me that I would be king over this people (1Ki 11:29-40+) - Why is Jeroboam's wife being sent on this mystery mission? The context tells us she is sent to inquire about Jeroboam's sick son Abijah. Shiloh (Silo) was the site where Joshua divided the tribes by lot,was the site of the temple during the Judges period and was Ahijah's home. Shiloh is located in the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, in the central hill country of Israel, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Jerusalem but only a few miles north northeast of Shiloh so that the journey his wife would take would not be a long one. It is interesting that Ahijah (clearly a true prophet of God) remained in the Northern Kingdom in spite of Jeroboam's abominable apostasy. It was as if God had him stationed there to provide a lifeline to Jeroboam if he were willing to humble himself. It is interesting the KJV has "Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself." (1Ki 14:2KJV) Jeroboam's prayer was misguided! Regarding the disguise, we do not know if the disguise was intended to fool Ahijah or to conceal Jeroboam (via his wife) going to a prophet of the LORD. L M Grant makes a good point stating that "Jeroboam was totally insensible of the sovereign omniscience of God. He wanted information from God and thought he could fool God into giving him the information without knowing to whom he was giving it!" J. Rawson Lumby has pointed out Jeroboam’s plans "reveal to us a singular condition of mind … we see the king confident in the prophet’s power of foretelling the future even in the case of an individual life, and yet thinking that the queen could go to him with her question and he not know who was making the inquiry.” (First Kings page 90) Wayne Barber on why this disguise - Perhaps he did not want the people to know he was seeking help from a prophet of the Lord. Perhaps he was too proud to admit the evil of his ways and humble himself before the Lord and one of His true servants. His actions admitted that he was powerless to bring healing to his son. All his man-made rituals and self-appointed priests were helpless and useless. (Life Principles from the Kings of the Old Testament) Dale Ralph Davis: Ahijah had admonished Jeroboam to function according to the David-standard (1Ki 11:37–38), but he had not done so; Jeroboam had determined that neo-bovinism would do more for royal stability than covenant orthodoxy. Hence his bull cult (12:25–33). He likely knew Ahijah would hold a ‘jaundiced’ view of his religious innovations. He therefore dare not approach Ahijah directly, nor must his wife in any recognizable form. That would be sure to bring a bad word from the prophet. But if the royal wife appeared simply as an anxious Israelite mother seeking a word from God regarding her stricken son, why, the prophet might well be prone to give her a ‘good’ word. Certainly a gift (fee for services?, v. 3) wouldn’t hurt. In fact, the situation was better than Jeroboam dared hope, for Ahijah could scarcely see a thing anymore (v. 4b)! Here is the king, then, with his magical view of the word of Yahweh. If he can only weasel a positive pronouncement out of the prophet, his son will surely recover. Even a manipulated word will be a certain word. (1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly ) Cyril