Unbelief humbled, the faithful blessed

(1 Kings 14)

Theme

God's treatment of believers and unbelievers is a reflection of His glorious attributes and a source of hope to His people.

About 910 BC

Personalities

Abijah: A son of Jeroboam. Scripture records no detail of him other than his family.

Ahijah: A prophet during the reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam, and Jeroboam. He announced to Jeroboam that he would be king of the 10 northern tribes in 1 Kings 11:31. It is about Ahijah’s bold witness that Spurgeon makes the famous comment: “he is immortal till his work is done”.

Jeroboam: King of the 10 northern tribes of Israel after Solomon’s reign, he sought his own ends by rebelling against Rehoboam and instituting calf worship. Jewish tradition regards him as one of seven men who would not share in the world to come: Jeroboam, Ahab, Manasseh, Balaam, Doeg, Ahithophel, and Gehazi.

Overview

Previous studies dealt with God’s truth and Jeroboam’s unbelief. This study describes God’s pronouncement of judgement upon Jeroboam’s personal apostasy and Israel’s apostasy in doctrinal terms. Parallels and distinctions between Jeroboam and Israel on one hand and the modern individual, church, and nation on the other are drawn. Secondly, God’s grace in the midst of His judgement is observed in Abijah, illustrating God’s faithfulness to His own.

1 Kings 14:1-18

At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.

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 rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for 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: but what? even now. For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin. And Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.

Israel and modern nations paralleled and distinguished 

Doctrinal applications derived from this text may applied to nations which have undertaken to serve God as a national policy. England, the Netherlands, Scotland, some Swiss cantons, and the United States of America are examples of nations that have made a Christian commitment.

Israel is unique in Scripture and history as the people chosen by God for special purposes. No other nation, including those mentioned previously, has any Scriptural authority to claim a Theocratic Election, or selection by God as His own ethnically or nationally called people. Israel's Theocratic Election was not unto salvation, i.e., it did not save individuals to whom the election pertained, although many Israelites were also Soterically Elected, or elected by God in Jesus Christ to salvation (Romans 9:6). Within these qualifications, three similarities are observed between Old Testament Israel and the five modern nations mentioned:

A lesson for today in this judgement of God?

Jeroboam seized the throne of Israel by rebellion and made himself pontiff over a calf religion of his own creation. He became a king with great promise over a prosperous country which had been blessed with God’s revealed truth, His covenant, and His gracious prosperity. But, Jeroboam sought to establish his reign by emulating the practices of heathen countries, thus forsaking God and His promises.

Israel willingly rebelled against Rehoboam and worshipped the calves. Those who remained true to God migrated to Judah (2 Chronicles 11:13-17). Despite Israel’s pretensions to power and prosperity, God soon showered sobering doses of reality upon apostate Israel. Abijah, the son of Jeroboam who was much loved by his parents and the nation, was afflicted with a deadly disease. This event became the occasion for Jeroboam’s resort to God through the prophet Ahijah.

Jeroboam followed in the footsteps of Saul, who was another tragic figure in Israel’s history. Both men did not persevere in obedience to God’s Word, the sign of the true believer (Matthew 10:22, 24:13; Mark 13:13; 1 John 2:19). Both men became hard of heart toward God and both faced a severe crisis outside of God’s grace. Finally, both attempted as rebels to seek God’s counsel and received a message of severe judgement, including the loss of their sons and rejection of their dynasties.

Jeroboam cast God behind his back

Jeroboam sought God’s counsel when his son became ill, when the situation was beyond his power. Even then, he persisted in his worldly schemes. Note 1 Kings 14:9 where God states that Jeroboam had “cast me behind thy back”. Ezekiel accused Judah of this same sin in Ezekiel 23:25, likening Judah’s behavior to Israel’s in the same terms. This phrase and the curse of Jeroboam’s house expresses the highest degree of sin and judgement.

Jeroboam despised the purity of God’s Word (Psalm 119:140), profaning His image by lifting up a calf as truth before Israel when he knew it to be a political tactic of his own imagination and by causing his wife to present herself as someone she was not. Jeroboam opposed the breadth of God’s Word (Psalm 119:96) by ignoring its application to every part of his life when he took events into his own hand by rebelling against Rehoboam and attempting to secure his works apart from God’s revelation. Finally, Jeroboam strove against the immutability of God’s Word (Psalm 119:89) by doubting God’s promise and ignoring the judgement that God had pronounced upon idolatry.

Today, ostensibly Christian groups often present man’s works as the Gospel’s focal point, making mankind into a new golden calf. This denies power of the Gospel (2 Timothy 3:1-5), and adulterates the Gospel’s full application to the life of faith. Observing the content of books and music in so-called “Christian” bookstores might make one think that God had changed since Jesus’s day, or Jeroboam’s. Jeroboam expected to manipulate a favorable sentiment from God through Ahijah, and many today would not think of reading a book that did not present a scheme for extracting personal profit from God.

Jeroboam and Israel stand as examples of a ruler and a people who discarded their blessings for worldly ways. Israel first desired a king to lead them when they demanded: “now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5). The ten Northern tribes, led by Jeroboam, worshipped a god that they, like the nations, could make, see, and control.

This parallel between the times of Jeroboam and our own applies not only to the individual, but also the nation. As God’s people, Israel had been delivered from bondage in Egypt and by God’s grace, transformed into a military and economic powerhouse, while the Israelites' rebellious hearts focused on the idolatry of materialistic and sensual sin, like Demas (2 Timothy 4:10).

Likewise, no historian can deny the blessings of Christianity on the United States. The influence of the Gospel on this nation was reported as far back as the early 1800s by Alexis de Tocqueville: There is, he said, “no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America”. Not only has God blessed the United States, but He has used that nation to deliver Europe from a nazi holocaust, a communist evil empire, and two world wars. Europe’s self inflicted catastrophes took the lives of over 100 million people, yet incredibly, Europeans and many Americans advocate US emulation of Europe’s apostasy.

Organizations identifying themselves as “Christian” do not occupy the same position as the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament, nor can the United States be directly compared to the Israel in the Old Testament. However, it is correct to derive the lesson that God will judge nations, peoples, and individuals who, despite the witness of Gospel truth, profess unbelief and practice idolatry of the self. God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7).

Jeroboam and Israel were judged according to the multitude of their idols

Jeroboam sought deliverance for his son from God, though in his heart he retained his idols. Ezekiel was once asked to prophesy by a group of elders who were also godless at heart and on that occasion, God revealed how He dealt with petitions from idolators: according to the multitude of their idols.

Ezekiel 14:1-8

Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel and Ahijah may have pitied the petitioners who sought God in their difficulties, just as believers today are sympathetic when unbelievers appear to turn to God in their extremities, but God warned both Ezekiel and Ahijah that His response would not be favorable. God expects that He and He alone will have sway in men’s hearts (Deuteronomy 10:12; Psalm 119:11,35-36; Ephesians 6:6). Jeroboam and Israel denied God's rightful claims by their unbelief.

As both the elders in Ezekiel and Jeroboam sought God’s answer, it was their own idolatry that they had put before their face, i.e., their own imaginations ruled their minds and hearts. Jeroboam maintained his contempt for God, so he attempted to trick God by his wife’s false piety. His action betrayed his heart: his deception revealed that he knew he had no part in God. God, in the Ezekiel passage, responded to inward wickedness wrapped in outward piety with the rhetorical question: “should I be enquired of at all by them?” Although not stated, it is clear that God identified Jeroboam’s imaginations as the Knower of men’s hearts (Psalm 119:168, Luke 16:15, Acts15:8).

Again in Ezekiel, God stated that He answered idolators according to the multitude of their idols. The believer sees the prophecies given by God as His grace toward men. It is a sign of great mercy that God would tell men about Himself and about His plan of salvation. But to the unbeliever, God’s Word is a judgement. God judges sin and the revelation of His will is judgement unto sinners and rejection of their works. God is immutable; it is predictable that He will judge any idol that usurps His throne in men’s hearts. Therefore, the prophecy delivered to Jeroboam and Israel by Ahijah was according to their idolatries. Whatever seemed clever and whatever seemed expedient to Jeroboam when he rebelled against God was returned upon him, his house, and his nation in terrible judgements.

What were these judgements? Jeroboam’s house was destroyed by terrible calamities. Ultimately, Israel was ejected from the Land of Promise. Should it be considered coincidence that leading families of the US and UK suffer repetitive tragedies? Abijah, that most promising young man mourned by all Israel, was taken before the nation benefitted from his godly attributes. Who can tell what preachers, what statesmen, what gifted scientists and doctors have been taken from the United States since the judgement of abortion cursed this country? Could it be that the very idols of our nation: self worship, materialism, and the right to murder, are the very idolatries by which God has been and is judging this nation today?

God answers idolators according to their idolatry so that their evil and God’s righteousness will be manifest. The evil of Jeroboam and Israel has certainly been made manifest in the Scriptural accounts. The future of the United States is hidden in God, but in this passage, God not only made the evil of Jeroboam manifest, He also announced that Israel’s sins would be manifested by their ejection from the Promised Land.

God’s electing grace displayed in Abijah

These Old Testament accounts relate the same human conditions that are present in modern society. As with modern society, a diligent search of these narratives is not required to identify sin and judgement. God’s great purposes in judgement are certainly beyond man’s understanding without the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. This is also true of His grace, and God’s grace to His own is also evident in these Scriptural narratives.

Events ordered by God and described in Scriptural accounts are not fully understood apart from the wonderful doctrines of God’s electing grace, and that is the case with Abijah. Scripture states regarding Abijah that “in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel”. Since all good things come from God (James 1:17), since nothing man can do is sufficient to please God (Isaiah 64:6), and since only faith in God can please Him (Hebrews 11:6), it is clear that the good thing in Abijah was from God and was therefore a gift of God’s grace. Imagine, growing up with the knowledge of God in one of the most wicked and severely judged families in the Old Testament!

Good things alone in a man’s life do not gain God’s favor, however. To be truly good things, they must have God as their object. A study of Jehu reveals good things: He was precise in carrying out the destruction of the House of Ahab commanded by God. He was careful to destroy all worshippers of Baal, as the Lord had commanded in Moses’s Law (Exodus 22:20, Deuteronomy 13:6-11). Jehu even chose the company of godly Jehonadab the Rechabite. But, his good things were toward his own ambitions, not toward God. When God gives the gift of good things having Himself as an object, His grace will be evident for others to see.

Two aspects of God’s grace are shown in Abijah: How God distributes His gifts, and the true nature of His care for those who receive them.

No person or condition is beyond the reach of God’s electing grace

The example of King Joash of Judah demonstrates that a right heart with God is not something that is acquired from a good environment: No young man was raised in such godly surroundings as Joash, yet he was revealed to have been a wicked man. Jeroboam’s son Abijah shows the reverse situation: no matter how ungodly one’s upbringing and environment may be, nothing can prevent God from exercising His electing grace when He has predetermined to do so. This is not to say that godly teaching and environment is not to be desired, since providing both is a command of Scripture (Psalm 78:5-8, Ephesians 6:4). The point is that God’s saving grace is not limited by man’s works, but is bestowed according to God’s will alone.

God’s working in the life of Abijah provides comfort and hope regarding the eternal destiny of loved ones. It is a matter of loving obedience to witness the glorious works of God in giving His Son for His people and raising them up with Him. It is a liberation from legalism that the miracle of salvation is wrought by the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration leading to faith. The example of Abijah shows that, no matter what circumstances a person may be in God will surely save His own. Perhaps the means may involve an obedient saint’s witness, but God will have His way in men’s hearts, regardless of situation or the means.

God’s grace does not stop with salvation, however. His favor is also expressed in sanctification, which encourages and sustains the believer until they are complete in His presence.

Death not the end for the elect

God’s taking of the righteous young is a mercy to them, but often a judgement and punishment to the wicked who are left behind. God judges the sinful world by removing his saints who are a source of blessing to mankind (Matthew 5:13, 14). It was not murderous Cain who was removed, nor sinning Adam or deceived Eve, but righteous Abel who God took to be with Himself.

Moreover, the attitude of the world when a young person dies is that of great loss, since the reality of eternal life with God and its great value is not seen through unbelief. The world, with its materialistic self love, is more satisfied to have a young person become a successful athlete or businessman, or even the President of the United States, than it is to see a young person taken to live in the courts of God forever. In this, the world is accurately depicted by Esau, who did not regard the blessing of God to be preferred over a bowl of soup (Genesis 25:30-34, Hebrews 12:16). The Christian recognizes entry to God’s Kingdom as the highest thing to which one can aspire (Matthew 13:45-46; the “pearl of great price”). Or, as Paul says: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Death is recognized as judgement by the world. All Israel mourned for Abijah, who perhaps displayed the evidence of God’s grace in the form of an excellent spirit, like Daniel (Daniel 5:12, 6:3). However God’s grace was manifested in the young man, his loss to Israel was incalculable, unlike that of the other members of his sorry family. He would have been the only one of Israel’s 20 rulers to have governed Israel as a shepherd of God’s people (1 Chronicles 1:10).

Although Abijah’s removal was a terrible judgement to Israel, for him the passage to the Father’s presence was a great blessing. All lovers of God rejoice in the presence of their loved ones in Heaven. God’s judgement shows the believer that His Word is true and that He is unchanging. God’s grace in our own lives and the lives of others demonstrates His mercy to the sinner, a great source of hope. Let us always praise God for His unmerited favor that has saved our souls, and continue to petition Him to show His redeeming grace to others.

Resources

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1 Kings 14:1-18, Matthew Henry

Commentary on the Old Testament, Keil and Delitzsch, 1 Kings 14:1-18, C. F. Keil

Commentaries on the Prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel 14:1-9, John Calvin

“A Hearer in Disguise”, Charles H. Spurgeon sermon #584

“Abijah or Some Good Thing Towards the Lord”, Charles H. Spurgeon sermon #1745

“A Bad King’s Good Son”, Charles H. Spurgeon sermon #3320

Old Testament Bible History, Alfred Edersheim, Book 5, ch 11

Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus, Book 8, ch 9

Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “Sermon 15, Romans 7:22-25”, Andrew Bonar

The History and Character of Calvinism, John T. McNeill.

Articles: “Election” (contributed by John Murray), “Jeroboam”, The Zondervon Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by Merrill C. Tenney


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