Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 14

Verse 12

1 Kings 14:12

I. Whose child shall die? King Jeroboam's child, the beloved son of a king, most likely the heir to the throne. There was another king the one who has been called the king of terrors. All the crowned heads in the world bow before him. And the prince was to become the subject of King Death. He was the child of a very bad man. Jeroboam was a teacher of sin, yet he had a very good child.

II. Why was the child to die? To punish his ungodly father. God had given Jeroboam the chance of being a very great man, but he made Israel to sin, and for that God determined to punish him. It is likely that this wicked man was very fond of his children, for when God means to punish, He can strike us on the most tender place.

III. When did the child die? The prophet told the poor mother that the boy would die just as she reached home. She returned to the palace with her heart heavy and sad, for she felt, "I am killing him in my haste to see him. He will die before I reach home."

IV. Life may be a worse thing than death. All Israel mourned for Abijah. It was not to be so with the other children of Jeroboam. They were to be so hated and despised on account of their great wickedness, that men would rejoice when they were dead and out of the way. Abijah was the best off, for though he died so early, it was better to die and be buried quietly than to live to be hated in life and loathed in death.

Serve the Lord God of Abijah; then, whether we live to be old or die in the springtime of life, all shall be well.

T. Champness, Little Foxes that Spoil the Vines, p. 95.

Reference: 1 Kings 14:12-27 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 352.

Verse 13

1 Kings 14:13

I. Look first at the description of Abijah's piety. The "good thing" in him was not any material endowment, neither was it any moral excellence. The good thing was a "good thing toward the Lord God of Israel," a gracious, a spiritual, a Divine, a holy thing. There are two things which, when found in a man, are good and acceptable to God. (1) The first is true repentance, or what the Bible calls the "broken and contrite heart." (2) The second is "faith in that one sacrifice which doth for sin atone." Amongst all the princes of the royal house, Abijah alone refused to worship the golden calves which his father had made. In the Mosaic ritual he doubtless saw, though it might be with dim and imperfect vision, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who should one day die for the sins of the world.

II. There are one or two special lessons to be drawn from the case of Abijah. (1) Do we not learn how real piety may exist under most adverse and unfavourable circumstances? The brightest diamonds have been found in the darkest mines, and the richest pearls in the deepest seas. (2) Even a young and brief life may be fruitful in blessing. Young as Abijah was, the whole nation mourned for him. The length of life is not to be judged by the number of its years. That life is the longest in which God has been best served and the world most benefited. (3) Piety in life is the only guarantee of peace in death. An early departure from this world is not a thing to be dreaded provided our heart is right with God. If you would come to your grave in peace, be it sooner or be it later, there must be found in you "some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel."

J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned Forearmed, p. 135.

References: 1 Kings 14:13 . J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 169; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 88; HomileticMagazine, vol. vii., p. 217; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1745. 1 Kings 15:22 . Parker, Fountain, Oct. 30th, 1879.