Before we begin this study we need to look at more confusing names – Ahijah, and two Abijahs.
Ahijah ‘my brother is Yahweh’ was the name of a prophet (also an unrelated person we briefly mention at the end of this study).
Abijah ‘my father is Yahweh’ was the unlikely name of Rehoboam’s son – but also the name of Jeroboam’s son too.
(There is a suggestion that both boys were born around the same time while Jeroboam was still working for Solomon, and copying Rehoboam’s choice of name might have seemed a good idea.)
In our last study we read of the sad case of the Man of God who prophesied against the evil king Jeroboam. He had been killed by a lion because he had disobeyed God. What punishment awaits Jeroboam?
Read 1 Kings 14:1-4(a)
1 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, 2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, ‘Go, disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognised 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.
Although Jeroboam had turned his back on God, as he was now desperate he illogically turned to God for help.
It is a fact that many who deny the existence of God will still pray to him when faced with truly desperate circumstances.
Read 1 Kings 14:4(b)-6
4 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 pretence? I have been sent to you with bad news.
Notice that although Jeroboam thought he could trick God’s prophet into revealing the future for his son, God was instead going to use this episode to reveal the future for Jeroboam’s whole dynasty – I have been sent to you (v6).
First, Ahijah will read the charges against him:
Read 1 Kings 14:7-9
7 Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler 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 aroused my anger and turned your back on me.
He couldn’t have failed more conspicuously.
Earlier Ahijah had been used to foretell the glorious future in store for Jeroboam – if he obeyed the Lord – ‘I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.’ (1 Kings 11:37-38)
But instead he chose to disobey the Lord, so Ahijah now pronounces the judgement:
Read 1 Kings 14:10-11
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 will feed on those who die in the country. The Lord has spoken!”
That sounds pretty conclusive to me – but there’s more to come. First though, what of his son?
Read 1 Kings 14:12-13
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.
So he will die because he was good? What kind of a loving God is that?
We are so bound up with our earthly lives that we forget God’s perspective. This life of preparation is just a brief moment before eternity begins for us all.
Let people discuss:
Was it actually the kindest thing for God to do, to now remove this son of Jeroboam from the influences of sin, and take him to himself?
But Ahijah has more prophecy to give:
Read 1 Kings 14:14-16
14 ‘The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. Even now this is beginning to happen. 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 ancestors and scatter them beyond the River Euphrates, because they aroused the Lord’s 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.’
Jeroboam will live on for another twenty years – but he would be a ticking time-bomb. Another son (Nadab) will succeed him, but only for two years – long enough to see if this son would repent (he didn’t). Then his whole family would be destroyed. But the prophecy looks well beyond that. In the following 200 years, no king of Israel will be faithful to the Lord and as a result the Assyrians will eventually take Israel captive and ‘scatter them beyond the River Euphrates’.
Read 1 Kings 14:17-20
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 ancestors. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.
We’ll leave Israel in the north for a while and find out what’s been happening in Judah in the south.
We have already looked at the second half of chapter 14, but it might be worth re-reading it now just to remind us. Remember, because Rehoboam followed his father Solomon in turning his back on the Lord, he had been stripped of all the tribes except one.
Read 1 Kings 14:21-31
21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.
22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine-prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. 27 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterwards they returned them to the guardroom.
29 As for the other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 30 There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 31 And Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.
Perhaps Abijah might turn back to the Lord?
Read 1 Kings 15:1-5
1 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah, 2 and he reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom.
3 He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been. 4 Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong. 5 For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days of his life – except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
The Lord looked beyond the failures of Rehoboam and his son Abijah, and for the sake of David and the history of the world that would follow him, he provided a son, and strengthened Jerusalem. But wasn’t there anything else worth recording of Abijah’s reign?
Read 1 Kings 15:6-8
6 There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam throughout Abijah’s lifetime. 7 As for the other events of Abijah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 8 And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. And Asa his son succeeded him as king.
It seems that the only thing worth recording (twice – verses 6 & 7) was that there was war between the two halves of the nation: Israel and Judah. Would he son Asa now do any better?
Read 1 Kings 15:9-15
9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, 10 and he reigned in Jerusalem for forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. 12 He expelled the male shrine-prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. 13 He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14 Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. 15 He brought into the temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated.
(It may be worth mentioning that the Bible sometimes contains confusing expressions; ‘son of’ and ‘father of’ simply meaning descendant or ancestor. Here we have Asa’s ‘father’ as David (v11) and of course Jesus was ‘son of David’.)
Read 1 Kings 15:16-17
16 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns. 17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.
There was a main north-south trade route through the border town of Ramah, so this was an early form of ‘economic warfare’ but the route was too valuable for this to be allowed.
Read 1 Kings 15:18-19
18 Asa then took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace. He entrusted it to his officials and sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. 19 ‘Let there be a treaty between me and you,’ he said, ‘as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.’
Well there had already been an uneasy truce between Israel and it’s north-eastern neighbour, so this generous inducement was enough to tip the balance. But at what cost? The vast wealth that David and Solomon had amassed was now all gone.
Although Asa ‘did what was right in the eyes of the Lord’ (v11) I notice that there was no question of asking the Lord for help in this civil war.
Read 1 Kings 15:20-24
20 Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maakah and all Kinnereth in addition to Naphtali. 21 When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. 22 Then King Asa issued an order to all Judah – no one was exempt – and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using there. With them King Asa built up Geba in Benjamin, and also Mizpah.
23 As for all the other events of Asa’s reign, all his achievements, all he did and the cities he built, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? In his old age, however, his feet became diseased. 24 Then Asa rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the city of his father David. And Jehoshaphat his son succeeded him as king.
We now turn our attention back to Israel, in the north. We read in verse 16 that the king of Israel was Baasha. What had become of Jeroboam? We read earlier in 1 Kings 14:20 ‘Nadab his son succeeded him as king.’ Ok, so what had happened to Nadab?
(More confusion possible here over common names: ‘Baasha’ king of Israel and an unrelated ‘Baasha’ of the tribe of Issachar.)
Read 1 Kings 15:25-28
25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. 26 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit.
27 Baasha son of Ahijah from the tribe of Issachar plotted against him, and he struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine town, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging it. 28 Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah and succeeded him as king.
29 As soon as he began to reign, he killed Jeroboam’s whole family. He did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all, according to the word of the Lord given through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. 30 This happened because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.
31 As for the other events of Nadab’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 32 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.
33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. 34 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of Jeroboam and committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.
Look again at verses 26 and 34. This is now going to be a constant refrain as we read in 1 Kings 16 of the next kings of Israel: Elah v13, Zimri v19, Omri v26, and finally Ahab
(I have omitted the first part of 1 Kings 16 to save time, but you could read it all now if you wish.)
Read 1 Kings 16:28-33
28 Omri rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king.
29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel for twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
Something had to be done.
At this point this series of studies will take a different turn as we begin to look at the prophet Elijah. Someone who was, as the NIV used to translate it, ‘just like us’ (James 5:17) raised up by God to stem Israel’s decline. If you wish instead to jump to 2 Kings, choose HERE
Elijah : And the Secret of his Power.
About fifty years ago an old book grabbed my attention. According to the flyleaf it had been given to someone in 1888. It was ‘Elijah : And the Secret of his Power’ by F B Meyer.
It was an amazing book, but the style of writing was archaic and hard to understand, so I set about re-writing it in modern English.
I failed, many years later I had got to the end, but I had lapsed into the thought patterns of the author, and it was far from modern.
Having retired, my wife and I moved to Devon and joined a Baptist Church. I was asked to lead a small Bible Study group and I found a new purpose in doing something with ‘Elijah’.
Over the years we have covered many books of the Bible and I have gradually adopted a style for my notes. It is these that are offered on this website, and Elijah is among them (Still with some ‘old’ phrases)!
PROPHECIES
You may have noticed the number of times prophets have been involved in the lives of the kings we have mentioned so far. If this is a subject that interests you, I have produced a time chart available as a PDF file HERE or an excel spreadsheet HERE.
