Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 14

Verses 1-31

Chapter 14

So at that time his son Abijah became sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that they won't know you as the wife of Jeroboam; and go to Shiloh: for there is a prophet there whose name is Ahijah, and he is the one that told me that I was going to become the king over these people. Take ten loaves of bread, some cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: and he will tell you what's going to happen to our child. So Jeroboam's wife did so, she arose, went to Shiloh, and she came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age ( 1 Kings 14:1-4 ).

He was so old that he had gone blind.

But the LORD said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something of you for her son; for he is sick: so this is what you're to say, thus and thus shall you say unto her: for it shall be, when she comes in, that she's going to feign herself [or be disguised] so that she'll look like another woman. And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, she came up to the door, when she knocked on the door, he said, Come on in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why are you feigning yourself to be someone else? [Why have you got this disguise on?] for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings ( 1 Kings 14:5-6 ).

It is humorous that a person would think that he could disguise the truth about himself with God. And yet so often people find themselves in that position of trying to deceive God. Men are often in a disguise when they come to the house of the Lord. They seek to appear to be something they really aren't. But God can see through each disguise.

We remember in the birth of the church in the New Testament when there was such great fervor and zeal, that people were going out and selling their houses and possessions and bringing the money in and laying it at the apostles' feet. They all were just sharing everything together. There was a certain couple, Ananias and Sapphira, who sold a possession. But they conspired to hold back a part of it for themselves and bring in just a part of what they made which was perfectly all right, except that they were feigning to give everything. They were pretending that they were bringing it all in.

And so Ananias came in first and he laid this money before Peter. And Peter said, "Did you sell your house for so much?"

"Yep."

He said, "Why have you conspired in your heart to lie against God? To lie against the Holy Spirit? You've not lied unto man, you've lied unto God. Now while the house was in your name, wasn't it yours?"

"Yep."

"Did anyone require you to sell it?"

"Nope."

"Did anyone require that you bring everything?"

"Nope." But yet you're putting on this big front. You're trying to deceive God. And Ananias fell over dead and they carried him out. His wife didn't hear about it and she came in pretty soon with her part and laid it there at Peter's feet.

"Is that what you sold your house for?"

"Yep."

"Why is it that you and your husband would conspire together to deceive God? Behold, the feet of those that carried your husband are going to carry you out, too." And she fell over dead.

We can be thankful, I guess, that that same power doesn't exist in the church today. I wonder how many of us would last through a service? We surely wouldn't last through some of the songs that we sing. "Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hand, my feet, my moments, my days. Take my silver and my gold. Not a mite would I withhold." Everybody drops over dead.

So it is wrong to think that you can deceive God. Here she comes, all disguised. And while she's knocking on the door, the old blind prophet, prophet's old, blind anyhow. He couldn't see all of this gear that she put on and you know tried to disguise up. He couldn't see it anyhow. He was blind. And yet he says, "Come on in, thou wife of Jeroboam. How come you've put on that weird disguise? I have heavy tidings for you." They were heavy tidings indeed.

Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, And I tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you: yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all of his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes; But you have done evil above all that were before thee: for you've gone and made other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and you have cast me behind thy back: Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off all of the house of Jeroboam ( 1 Kings 14:7-10 ).

Now the Lord declares that I have given to you all of these things. I've blessed you. I made you the prince and the king over My people. And yet you have given nothing back. You turned your back on Me and cast Me behind your back. And therefore, because of your wickedness, you're to be cut off and all of your house.

And those that die from your family in the city the dogs are going to eat; and those that die in the field the vultures will eat: Now go on home: and when your feet enter into the city, your child is going to die. And all Israel will mourn for him, and bury him: but he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of the good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made groves, provoking the LORD to anger ( 1 Kings 14:11-15 ).

And so already at the beginning of the history of the nation of Israel, God is already predicting the judgment that is going to fall some four hundred and fifty years later upon the nation. Because they turned against God, because they began to worship these other gods, they're going to be scattered. They're going to be driven out of the land that God has given to them.

And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. So his wife arose, and when she came to the threshold of her house, her child died; And they buried him; and all Israel mourned according to the word of the LORD, which he had spoken by Ahijah the prophet. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel ( 1 Kings 14:16-19 ).

Now we do have the chronicles of the kings of Judah. They are known in the Old Testament as First and Second Chronicles. However, we do not have the chronicles of the kings of Israel. So First and Second Chronicles really deal with the chronicles of the-they are actually sort of court records of the kings of Judah. The kings of Israel are mentioned in Chronicles only in passing as they are co-reigning about the same time as the kings of Judah. But basically, First and Second Chronicles deal with the kings of Judah. These chronicles of the kings of Israel are other books that we do not have at the present time.

Jeroboam reigned then over Israel for twenty-two years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead. And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he began to reign, he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem ( 1 Kings 14:20-21 ),

So now we're going to start bouncing back and forth from the Northern Kingdom to the Southern Kingdom. So you're going to have to watch and I'll try to bring the changes for you so that you know when you're in the north and you know when you're in the south. So meanwhile, back in the ranch. In Judah, in Jerusalem, the descendant of Solomon, Rehoboam, in the Southern Kingdom, he was forty-one years old. He reigned for seventeen years.

And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they began to build high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all of the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel ( 1 Kings 14:22-24 ).

Now there are those today that are trying to have us accept homosexuality as, you know, just as a common thing. Tremendous pressure, that they might be accepted and be totally accepted in our society. That there not be any laws that would restrain them from any kind of position that they might want to hold. If they want to teach your children in the public school, they should have every right in the world to teach your children in the public school though they have a perverted lifestyle and all. And there's tremendous pressure to accept them.

In fact, they have probably one of the strongest and most well-organized and financed lobbying groups in the country today. And it's a rare politician that really doesn't bow unto them because of the tremendous political power that they are able to wield. They also, of course, have created their own churches. And they try to make what they are doing as biblically acceptable and scripturally acceptable. That it is just another way of life and another form of living, that as Christians, we should love everybody and love everything and we should accept them and all.

There was a church in San Francisco, an Orthodox Presbyterian church who had hired an organist who, when he was found to be a homosexual, the church fired him. And he turned around and sued the church for a hundred thousand dollars because of the laws in San Francisco that do not allow any discrimination for a man's sexual preferences. Fortunately, the courts dismissed his suit for which we praise the Lord.

Actually, Calvary Chapel had sent some money to the Presbyterian church in order that they might defend themselves in this suit. And we are glad for the outcome of the suit this last week when the judge dismissed the suit and granted the church the immunity from that particular law on the basic constitutional rights of the freedom of religion. But if this was such an accepted thing and God would have us to accept it, then surely God would not make reference to it as one of the evils that was existing in the land, the fact that they had allowed these people, and no doubt, to practice openly. And this is one of the evils that is mentioned in the land and later on in a spiritual reform. We find that king Asa got rid of all of the sodomites out of the land. That was listed as a part of the reform in the land.

When the morals of a nation sink so low that the people have such bravado in their sin that they begin to publicly flaunt their perversion and sin, that nation is ripening for judgment, even as was Sodom and Gomorrah. I fear for our nation and we need to pray. I do feel that we as a church should not hate these people who have chosen this lifestyle. But as a church we cannot accept them either. We pray for them that they might have a true conversion and be born again and turn from that wickedness and follow and serve the Lord. But we surely can have no real fellowship with them lest we be partakers of their unrighteous deeds.

So still now in Judah, Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.

In the fifth year of his reign, Shishak who was the king of Egypt invaded the land. And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house ( 1 Kings 14:25-26 );

So all of this tremendous loot that Solomon had brought together was now ripped off by the king of Egypt. That's one of the tough things about having a lot is that there's always someone out to rip you off. I have a friend who is involved with the Mafia and he was sharing with me how that there is sort of a big roll of money that just moves around the circles. He said we all know where it is. He said every once in a while, I get a hold of it. And he said when I have it, he says, "Man, I just you know just loathe it". And he says, "But whenever I have it, all of the guys out there are figuring some scam or some way to get it away from me." And he said ultimately I fall for one of their scams and they rip it off. And then they have it for awhile and then we're all figuring out some scam to rip it off from them. And he said this big wad of money just keeps moving around in a circle and we each get to hold it every once in a while. But he said it's just all of us ripping off each other constantly that we might hold this money for a time.

And while I was talking to him it happened to be the time that he had it. And he opened his safe and showed me this tremendous amount of money. And he said, "But I won't have it for long." He said sooner or later they're going to get to me with some scam and he said they'll take it from me.

Now here was all of this treasure that Solomon amasses. So all of the greedy kings around him, "Wow," you know, you become the prime target. And so he gets ripped off and they take it down to Egypt. So then everybody knows it's in Egypt, so they're going to start you know ripping off the Egyptians then.

So Rehoboam made brass shields ( 1 Kings 14:27 ),

Remember Solomon made these gold shields, three pounds of gold per shield. But he replaced them, Rehoboam replaced the shields with brass shields. Now brass is always a symbol of judgment. And it really is the beginning of God's judgment because of their turning away from the Lord.

And so it came to pass when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back to the guard's chamber. And the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, all that he did, are written in the chronicles of [the kings of Israel] ( 1 Kings 14:28-29 ).

So we'll get those when we get to Chronicles.

Or the kings of Judah [rather] ( 1 Kings 14:29 ).

And we do have the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

Now there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. Rehoboam slept with his fathers, he was buried in the city of David. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead ( 1 Kings 14:30-31 ).

Now it is interesting that both men named their sons the same thing. However, Abijah or Abijah and Abijam, they're close to the same thing, they mean the same. He's called Abijah later on. But the king of Jeroboam died. The king of Rehoboam, Abijah or Abijam became the king in his father's stead. And he reigned for three years in Jerusalem. "