1 Kings 14:1-20 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Kings 14:1-20. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Kings 14:1-6 (NIV)
1 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,
2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go, disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there–the one who told me I would be king over this people.
3 Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 So Jeroboam’s wife did what he said and went to Ahijah’s house in Shiloh. Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age.
5 But the LORD had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.”
6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.
On verses 1-6: Jeroboam’s son Abijah is sick, so Jeroboam tells his wife to disguise herself and consult the prophet Ahijah to find out what will happen to the boy. Up in years, Ahijah was physically blind, but the Spirit of God helped him to discern that the woman coming to see him was Jeroboam’s wife.
What can we learn from this? Here are three lessons I believe the Holy Spirit taught me from these verses:
1. Sometimes what we lack in the natural, God can give in the spiritual. In other words, you may be naturally blind, but God can give you spiritual sight and discernment, as he did with Ahijah. You may be naturally shy and not a public speaker, but God can make you His mouthpiece, as he did with Moses. God loves to show His power through our weakness.
2. When you come into the presence of God, come just as you are. You don’t need to pretend to be someone that you are not. God already knows you fully any way (Psalm 139:1-4). God has searched you and knows you. He perceives your thoughts from afar. He is familiar with all your ways. Before a word is on your tongue, He knows it completely. And despite our thoughts, our ways and our words falling short of God’s glory, this holy God allows us to approach Him. Why? It’s because He is full of mercy and compassion, and by the blood of His Son Jesus, your sins no longer separate from Him.
3. When your life is full of sin and you don’t repent, like Jeroboam and his wife, you’ll just end up pretending in front of God. But you don’t need to. Jesus Christ has already paid for all of your sins on the cross. And thus you can approach Him with confidence so that you can receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
1 Kings 14:7-20 (NIV)
7 Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel.
8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.
9 You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back.
10 ” ‘Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel–slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone.
11 Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!’
12 “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die.
13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good.
14 “The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now.
15 And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles.
16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
17 Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.
18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the LORD had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah.
19 The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.
20 He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his fathers. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.
On verses 7-20: Ahijah proceeds to give the wife of Jeroboam a message for her husband:
1. First the Lord reminds Jeroboam that He was the one who raised Jeroboam up to be king (v7), taking almost all the tribes of Israel away from the house of David and giving them to Jeroboam (v8). Yet Jeroboam did not follow the Lord the way David did; rather by inventing a new religion and plunging himself and the nation into idolatry, Jeroboam did more evil in God’s sight “than all who lived before you” (v9). In so doing, God tells Jeroboam: “you thrust me behind your back” (v9).
2. Because of Jeroboam’s sin, God promises to cut off every male in his house (v10-11). His boy Abijah will die (v12) and will be the only one in his house who dies a peaceful death, since he is the only one in Jeroboam’s house in whom God has found anything good (v13).
3. God will appoint a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam (v14). Even more, because of the sins Jeroboam committed and caused Israel to commit, God will strike Israel, uprooting them and scattering them out of the land He had given them (v15-16).
Just as the Lord spoke through Ahijah, when Jeroboam’s wife returns home, Jeroboam’s son Abijah indeed dies and is buried (v17-18). Jeroboam himself also eventually dies and is succeeded by his son Nadab after a 22 year reign as king of Israel (v19-20).
What can we learn from all this? Ultimately it was Jeroboam’s sins that caused the entire nation of Israel to be eventually ousted out of their land and sent into exile. We might be tempted to think that our sin is ultimately a personal and private issue, but it is not. Unless we repent and receive forgiveness for our sins, our sins will end up catching up to us and affect not only us but everyone in our care as well, causing them and us to forfeit the blessing God would otherwise want to bring in and through our lives. So for the sake of those in your care, be quick to repent of sin and to humble yourself before God.
Father, thank You that You have searched me and You know everything about me. Despite all the ways I’ve fallen short of Your glory, thank You for the mercy and grace You have poured out on my life time and time again. Because of Your mercy and grace, expressed through Jesus Christ, I can approach You just as I am with confidence and receive what I need. May I not be like Jeroboam, whose sins led him, his family, and his nation out of Your presence. Instead of pretending before You, may I be open and honest with You about my sin so that I and everyone in my care can benefit from Your mercy and grace. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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