I Kings 14
Dear RTB’ers,
Today, a couple of short items on Jeroboam and Rehoboam, both fairly straightforward. Jeroboam tries deception – remember how well that worked for Saul and the medium woman? We cannot deceive an all-knowing, all-seeing God! Even before the deception was playing out, God knew Jeroboam’s plans and revealed them to His prophet, Ahijah, along with a message of doom for Jeroboam’s family. With it all I found myself feeling sorry for Jeroboam’s wife: And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. (v. 17b) She did not even get a chance to hold and hug her ill child before he died. Sad.
Now back to Rehoboam… [NOTE: For quite some time we will be going back and forth between accounts of the kings of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.] Another sad tale – that Rehoboam would follow his father, Solomon’s idolatry instead of the faithfulness of his grandfather, David: And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. (v. 22) And Judah paid the price, quickly overthrown by the king of Egypt, with the treasures of the Temple and other buildings plundered. We only recently read of Solomon’s wealth and power, how he built fortifications along his borders and was secure in all his holdings. One generation later and it’s all for naught!
Thankfully, we sit on the other side of the Cross: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25) Thank you, Jesus!
Blessings.
Regarding the death of Jeroboam’s son, I think it is well worth noting what Ahijah prophesied in I Kings 14:12–13:
Rather than trying to explain any of that, I think it better to let us all mull it over, to ponder the grace of God shown even in the death of that child.