The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 62, Asa The King Of Judah, Part Three

As we concluded 2 Chronicles 14 we found King Asa of Judah and his troops being victorious over the Cushite army because the Lord fought on Judah's side. Not only did Judah route the invading army, which outnumbered them two to one, but they took much plunder from them as well. 

Today we study Chapter 15 and the religious reforms instituted by Asa. We'd been previously told by the book of 1 Kings that during his reign he removed the pagan altars from the land and deposed his grandmother from her influential position as queen mother because of her idolatrous religious practices. Chapter 15 provides us with more details regarding these reforms, which appear to have mainly taken place after Judah's victory over the Cushite army. Asa was already faithful to the Lord before the battle with the Cushites, for the author told us he was faithful to the Lord all his life. The author included Asa's prayer to the Lord about the upcoming battle, which was the prayer of a man who knows the Lord comes to the aid of those who trust in Him. But now he goes even further in leading his people back to the Lord when a prophet comes to him and encourages him.

"The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, 'Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.'" (2 Chronicles 15:1-2) These words are similar to those spoken to the Lord by David, who said, "To the faithful You show Yourself faithful." (2 Samuel 22:26, Psalm 18:25) The Lord gave Judah victory over the Cushites because King Asa and his army placed their trust in Him. But the prophet's words are a warning from the Lord that the people must continue being faithful to Him if they want to continue living victorious lives. They can't just sit back and say, "The Lord will keep on protecting us," while ignoring a relationship with him or while mixing their worship of the Lord with the worship of pagan deities. 

The prophet continues, "For a long time Israel was without a true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them. In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." (2 Chronicles 15:3-7) When the Lord speaks of times past I believe He may be speaking about the centuries before the law was given, when there was no priesthood and no tabernacle or temple. Some scholars interpret verses 3-7 to be speaking about the era of the judges. We cannot be certain exactly what the Lord meant except that He's referring to an era of lawlessness when the nations did whatever they wanted, when the Lord allowed distress to come upon the nations who were not seeking Him. Even in Israel, before Israel ever had any kings and before the temple was built, we were told that "everyone did as he saw fit". (Judges 17:6)

Asa evidently understands the prophet's message because he takes heart when he receives it. I believe that he always wanted to put religious reforms in place but lacked the courage to do so. Now he knows the Lord will protect him, just as He protected him in battle. "When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord's temple." (2 Chronicles 15:8) I don't know what had happened to the altar in front of the portico but it may have been damaged when Pharaoh Shishak invaded Judah and stole valuable objects from the temple and the palace. Even if Pharaoh Shishak and his men did not do physical damage to the altar, their pagan presence in and around it (and their possible use of it for sacrificing or cooking) would have desecrated it and it would have needed to be ceremonially cleansed and rededicated to the Lord. 

"Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side." (2 Chronicles 15:9-15) The people rejoice because there is no better feeling than being in fellowship with the Lord. If we place Him in His proper position in our lives (the top position), He will cause everything else to fall into its proper place.

"King Asa also 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, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. He brought into the temple of God the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated." (2 Chronicles 15:16-18) Asherah was a fertility goddess, among other things, and the images of ancient fertility goddesses tend to be hideous and horrifying. We might suppose these images were of a beautiful and seductive woman but that's not usually the case. Maakah's image was repulsive in appearance and repulsive because it represented a false deity. 

Earlier in the week during our study of Asa we learned that he removed the foreign high places in the land; he did not remove the high places erected in the past by his own people for the purpose of making offerings to the Lord. He should have removed those as well, for the people are now commanded to bring all sacrifices and offerings to the temple. These other altars are a temptation to the people to worship God in their own way instead of in the ways prescribed by Him in the law. These altars are "gateway altars", for lack of a better phrase, to using foreign heathen altars. Using altars other than those at the temple keeps people away from the priests who will teach them the right way to worship, which means they will go about things in their own way and may blend heathen practices into their worship, eventually descending entirely into idolatry in some cases.

"There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign." (2 Chronicles 15:19) The man who becomes king of the northern tribes after King Jeroboam will make war with Asa twenty years in the future." (2 Chronicles 15:20) The king of the northern tribes who comes after King Jeroboam will make war with Asa in about twenty years. We'll move on into the study of that war tomorrow.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 61, Asa The King Of Judah, Part Two

We are continuing on with our study of King Asa of Judah, the great-great grandson of King David. Yesterday we learned that Asa was more like David than any of the other kings have been so far. The author of 1 Kings said, "Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life." What better thing could be said of any of us than that our hearts were fully committed to the Lord all our lives? 

As the author of 2 Chronicles said, Asa "commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey His laws and commands". Asa not only served the Lord himself but encouraged everyone else to do likewise.

During his first ten years as king there was peace in the nation. But he didn't become complacent. He knew there were other nations who would love to sweep in like a flood to take over his country. He also knew he had to be on guard against the northern kingdom of Israel, for King Jeroboam had made war with his father Abijah and with his grandfather Rehoboam. So he spent those years building tall, thick walls around his cities and placing guard towers on the walls. He built up an impressive army too. "Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men." (2 Chronicles 14:8)

A great army from Cush (modern day Ethiopia) comes out against him after his first ten years as king. There appears to have been no provocation for the aggression of the Cushites against the kingdom of Judah. I assume the Cushites come out to fight against the people of Judah for the same reason so many nations have attacked others throughout history: because they want what someone else has. The Cushites want to incorporate the kingdom of Judah into their own nation and to subjugate the people and demand tribute from them. "Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah." (2 Chronicles 14:9-10) Some translations of the Bible render "thousands upon thousands" as "a thousand times a thousand" which would be a million soldiers. Asa has a total of 580,000 soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, so he's outnumbered two to one in this battle. 

Asa knows that no matter how badly he's outnumbered, the Lord can give him victory. Even if the Cushite army contained a million times a million men, the Lord could give Judah victory. No one can stand against the Lord, so Asa prays to Him: "Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, 'Lord, there is no one like You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, You are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against You.'" (2 Chronicles 14:11) 

Asa knows he can't win this battle with a little over half a million troops, not if the Lord isn't on his side. He's done what he could to build defenses around his cities and he's done what he could to train his army. But the rest is up to the Lord. As we said in our last study, we do have a responsibility to be good stewards of what the Lord has blessed us with. We should take care of what He's given us and we should take practical measures to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our belongings. But ultimately our safety and security depend on the Lord. There's only so much we can do in our human weakness in a world where people do wicked things and in a world where disasters, illnesses, and diseases exist. Asa knows his nation's safety and security depend on the Lord and it is to the Lord he calls for help.

The Lord answers. "The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the Lord and His forces. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder. They destroyed all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the Lord had fallen on them. They looted all these villages, since there was much plunder there. They also attacked the camps of the herders and carried off droves of sheep and goats and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 14:12-15) Gerar was located in the lower portion of the nation, on the way to Egypt, and may have been under Cushite or Egyptian control at the time. The Cushites and Egyptians were allies during Old Testament times and we will find their troops fighting together in some battles of the Bible. There must have at least been some Cushite settlements around Gerar since we find the army of Judah attacking and plundering these settlements.

The Cushites are badly defeated. By contrast, the Lord's people have actually benefited from this unprovoked enemy attack. They've benefited by having their confidence strengthened in the Lord. They've benefited by having the enemy fear them and fear their God. They've benefited materially from the plunder they took. The Lord is able to cause any of His children to benefit somehow from any hardship they face in this world. The things that happen here aren't always good in themselves but the Lord is able to take those experiences and use them for our spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, or material good. Being attacked by the Cushites wasn't a good thing for Judah, not from a human standpoint. It's never pleasant to come under enemy attack. But the outcome of trusting in the Lord caused the people of Judah to prosper spiritually and materially---and perhaps in many other ways as well. I'm going through a very sad time right now and the thing that made me sad was a bad thing to have happen. But the Lord will still bless me. I don't know how He'll use this season of my life for my spiritual good but I know He can and I know He will. 

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 60, Asa The King Of Judah, Part One

Rehoboam's son Abijah died in our last study session. Abijah's son Asa ascends to the throne of Judah.

"And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years." (1 Chronicles 14:1) "In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother's name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom." (1 Kings 15:9-10) King Jeroboam is nearing the end of his life; he will reign for only two more years.

Asa is a man with a heart for the Lord. "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. 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. Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. He brought into the temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated." (1 Kings 15:11-14) The author of 1 Kings compares Asa's faith to that of his great-great-grandfather David by referring to David as "his father". Asa is much more like his great-great grandfather David than like his father Abijah or like his grandfather Rehoboam or like his great-grandfather Solomon. Asa is nothing like his grandmother Maakah either, who kept her pagan religion when she married into the royal family, and who likely served as some type of priestess in one of the heathen temples that her husband Rehoboam allowed in the land of Judah. Asa removed her title of "queen mother" and did not allow her in his royal court due to her idolatrous lifestyle. 

The chronicler speaks of Asa's faith like this: "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah Poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey His laws and commands. He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest." (2 Chronicles 14:2-6)

You'll notice that the passage from 1 Kings states that Asa did not remove the high places but the passage from 2 Chronicles states that Asa "removed the foreign altars and the high places". Scholars have interpreted these discrepancies to mean that Asa removed only the foreign religious sites but that he left the high places that had been used for sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. He really should have removed them all since the Lord commanded that the people are to bring their sacrifices and offerings to the temple now, but at least he removed the heathen centers of worship and pointed the people's worship back to the one true God.

For the first ten years of Asa's reign, no enemy from any side troubled the nation of Judah. This allowed the people time to fortify and build up their cities against any enemy attacks in the future. "'Let us build up these towns,' he said to Judah, 'and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought Him and He has given us rest on every side.'" (2 Chronicles 14:7) Asa is being a good steward of his blessings from the Lord. We could compare his building up and maintaining of the cities of Judah to the maintaining of the homes the Lord has blessed us with. It's important to not only be thankful for our blessings but to take care of and protect them. If we said, "Thank you Lord!" when He provides us with a home but we never clean the home, mow the lawn, or do general maintenance as needed, we'd eventually have leaky roofs, clogged gutters, and a buildup of dirt and grime inside and outside. If we truly are thankful for what the Lord has given us, we'll be good stewards of it so that it will continue to be a blessing to us. 

Asa's reign won't always be peaceful, for there are nations surrounding Judah who would like to conquer and subjugate his people, but the Lord mercifully provides him with ten years of peace in which to be a godly influence on the citizens of Judah and in which to fortify the nation against invasion and to build up its infrastructure. This puts him and his people in a stronger position (both spiritually and militarily) to repel enemies when they come. When such hardships do come, the king and the citizens of Judah will stand firm in the Lord.

It's vital for our spiritual health to work on our relationship with the Lord during times of prosperity so that when troubles come (and they will come because we live in a fallen world where people do evil things and where natural disasters, illnesses, and injuries take place) we will be able to stand firm in the Lord. We will be able to repel the spiritual attacks of that old lying serpent, the devil. We will be able to fight the attacks of human enemies as well, for there are those in this world who either don't believe in the Lord or who don't believe He will help us, and they may speak words of discouragement to us. If we work on building up the infrastructure of our faith and if we fortify our hearts against doubts and fears by immersing ourselves in the truth of God's word, we will be in a position to defend ourselves from falling into despair and listening to the lying words of anyone who would love to shipwreck our faith.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 59, War Between Israel And Judah, Part Two

King Abijah of Judah and King Jeroboam of Israel have come out with their troops in battle array against each other. The Bible doesn't provide us with the reason for this conflict but we were told that Jeroboam and Rehoboam (Abijah's father), were always at odds and the same is true now that Rehoboam's son sits on the throne of Judah.

Abijah has been shouting an impassioned speech from a very visible spot on Mount Zemaraim. The speech is intended to encourage his own troops that the Lord is with them and it's intended to discourage Jeroboam's troops because they have forsaken the worship of the living God for Jeroboam's state sponsored idolatry. Abijah is declaring to everyone within earshot that the Lord will not be on the side of the golden calf worshipers of Israel but that He is on the side of the people of Judah who are still going up to the temple to worship. 

We don't know how faithful the people of Judah were in Abijah's day. During his father's reign both his father and the people began engaging in the pagan practices of the tribes of Canaan. Then the Lord allowed the Egyptian army to attack the nation, at which time the nation's leadership and its people admitted their guilt and experienced a revival. Whether that revival is still ongoing during Abijah's day, we cannot say for certain, but we know that the idolatrous images and altars are still in the land because Abijah's son will remove a large number of them when he comes to the throne. Regardless of these pagan worship sites still being in the land, I believe that the majority of people during the remainder of Rehoboam's reign and during the three years of Abijah's reign turned back to the Lord, either partially or entirely. 

While Abijah shouts from he mountain, he asserts, "As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him. The priests who serve the Lord are sons of Aaron, and the Levites assist them. Every morning and evening, they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the Lord. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We are observing the requirements of the Lord our God. But you have forsaken Him. God is with us; He is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of our ancestors, for you will not succeed." (2 Chronicles 13:10-12) 

Abijah wants to thoroughly demoralize Jeroboam's troops with these words. He's saying, "We are on the side of right---on the side of the Lord! You know the Lord promised David an enduring kingdom. You have no right to come up against the kingdom of Judah to try to bring it down and claim it for King Jeroboam. The Lord is on our side, not yours. If you go into battle with us to try to subdue our kingdom, you will certainly lose."

"Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the Lord. The priests blew their trumpets and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. Abijah and his troops inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel's able men. The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages. Jeroboam did not regain power during the time of Abijah. And the Lord struck him down and he died." (2 Chronicles 13:13-20) This is a major victory for Judah. Jeroboam had begun with twice as many troops as Abijah but now he has lost 500,000 of his 800,000 men and he has lost three important cities, with the most important one being Bethel which was the religious center of his kingdom. 

The Bible tells us that during the remainder of his reign, Jeroboam was unable to amass a large army like this again. At the beginning of our chapter we were informed that Abijah became king during the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign. We don't know how soon after Abijah's ascension to the throne that Jeroboam made war with him, but Jeroboam's total reign was twenty-two years. He is almost at the end of it and although the Bible doesn't tell us when and where and how he died, the Bible makes it clear that the Lord allowed him to die not long after the battle of Chapter 13 as judgment for his sinfulness.

By contrast, Abijah prospers. "But Abijah grew in strength. He married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. The other events of Abijah's reign, what he did and what he said, are written in the annotations of the prophet Iddo." (2 Chronicles 13:21-22) I assume he must have already been married to some of these women before he came to the throne. It doesn't seem possible that fourteen women could have carried and given birth to thirty-eight babies during the three years Abijah was king. Each woman would have had to have gotten pregnant, carried a child to term, and given birth each year for three years in a row. If we want to get mathematically accurate about it, each woman would have had to produce 2.71 children. 

We have some additional information about Abijah's life from the book of 1 Kings. "He committed the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his forefather David had been." (1 Kings 15:3) We speculated yesterday that Abijah could have been as old as middle age when he became king since his father didn't ascend to the throne until the age of forty-one. So does this mean his sins of idolatry occurred before the Egyptians invaded Judah during Rehoboam's reign and the people experienced a religious revival? Or did he continue to blend heathen worship elements with his worship of the one true God until the end of his life? The timeline on this is not clear at all. All we know for sure is that Abijah speaks in our text today as if he is wholly committed to the Lord or at least trusting in the Lord's promise of a powerful dynasty for King David's descendants. 

He was right to trust in this promise, for the author of 1 Kings tells us, "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. 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." (1 Kings 15:4-5) For the sake of the promise the Lord made to David---the promise He made him because David's heart was fully committed to the Lord although in his human weakness he made some mistakes---the Lord gives Abijah a godly son to succeed him as king of Judah. We will be studying this son, whose name is Asa, as we continue on through the study of the kings. We close today with the death of King Abijah. "And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. And Asa his son succeeded him as king." (1 Kings 15:8, 2 Chronicles 14:1a) 

We will be pausing the daily Bible study until Monday, November 28th, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Tomorrow my husband and I will be going to visit some of my family in-state and then for three days we'll be visiting his mother out of state. I won't have access to Wi-Fi there so we will pick up where we left off on the 28th. In the meantime I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving!

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 58, Abijah Becomes King Of Judah/War Between Judah And Israel, Part One

We saw King Rehoboam of Judah laid to rest with his ancestors as we closed yesterday's study. Now his son Abijah reigns in his stead. Jeroboam the Ephraimite is still king over the northern tribes of Israel; it is his eighteenth year as king.

"In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom." (1 Kings 15:1-2) Maakah was the second wife Rehoboam took for himself, so Abijah is likely not Rehoboam's firstborn son. But Maakah was Rehoboam's favorite of his eighteen wives and sixty concubines. (2 Chronicles 11:21) Abijah was probably chosen as successor by Rehoboam because he is the firstborn son of Maakah and is presumably Rehoboam's favorite of his twenty-eight sons. 

Abijah's reign will only last for three years. We don't know his age at death since the Bible doesn't tell us how old he was when he ascended to the throne. But his father Rehoboam was already forty-one when he became king and reigned for seventeen years so Abijah was likely born while Rehoboam was still quite young (in his twenties) and could have been middle aged when he became king. Still, he did not live to be an old man and his reign was short, leading many scholars to conclude that the Lord was not very favorable toward the way he lived his life and that as a result He did not bless Abijah with a long reign. We are going to study an account of Abijah standing for the Lord but in tomorrow's study we are also going to be told that he mixed the worship of the one true God with the worship of idols.

"There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went into battle with an army of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred thousand able troops." (2 Chronicles 13:2b-3) We do not know what prompted this battle but the Bible has already told us that there were repeated conflicts between King Jeroboam of Israel and King Rehoboam of Judah. It seems as if there must have been no clear winners in any of those conflicts, with each man retaining hold over his own kingdom. Now that Rehoboam is dead, it may be that Jeroboam thinks it's a good time to set out toward Judah in case Abijah is not as good of an army general as his father was. But Abijah makes a speech that rallies his own troops and strengthens their hearts in the Lord. We will study the first half of his speech today.

"Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, 'Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! Don't you know that the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?'" (2 Chronicles 13:4-5) What does he mean by "a covenant of salt"? Scholars are divided on their opinions on this but salt was offered with sacrifices, salt was considered pure, salt was used as a preservative, and salt was a valuable commodity. I don't know whether Abijah is making a literal reference or a metaphorical one, but it's clear that he considers the promise the Lord made to David to be an everlasting promise. Salt in the Bible always carries a positive connotation with it. 

Now Abijah makes reference to the discord that occurred between Jeroboam and King Solomon, who had employed Jeroboam as an overseer over some of the workers at his building projects. "Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David, rebelled against his master." (2 Chronicles 13:6) We don't know what form this rebellion took but when we studied that passage of Scripture it appeared that Jeroboam had become disenchanted with King Solomon and with the way King Solomon was running his forced labor projects. It has been suggested that Solomon began forcing his own citizens into slavery as his plans for the city and the nation became more and more elaborate and costly. It could be that Jeroboam objected to working as a taskmaster over his own people. Whatever the case, Solomon was displeasing the Lord by that time by engaging in idolatrous practices with his many foreign wives, causing the Lord to send a message to Jeroboam by Ahijah the prophet that Solomon's kingdom would not remain intact after his death and that Jeroboam would someday become king over ten tribes of Israel. Jeroboam must have published this information widely, perhaps in an effort to gather a large movement behind him to take over the kingship by force in his own timing and not in the Lord's timing, and Solomon ordered him captured and put to death for treason. That's when Jeroboam fled to Egypt and was sheltered by Pharaoh Shishak until Solomon's death. 

Abijah also accuses Jeroboam of plotting against his father, King Rehoboam, during the early years of his father's reign. He leaves out the part where Rehoboam antagonized the people by not only refusing to lower their taxes and to stop conscripting their men into the building projects, but also by vowing to tax and conscript them even more. "Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them." (2 Chronicles 13:7) Abijah does some creative editing of history here but his next points are valid, or at least mostly, for the northern kingdom has fallen far further into idolatry than the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom seems to have embraced it entirely while the people of the southern king are still worshiping at the house of the Lord. There was repentance and revival near the end of King Rehoboam's reign and there may be people of the southern kingdom dabbling in idolatry again but it has not reached the proportions it has reached in the northern kingdom. 

"And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. But didn't you drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods. As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him." (2 Chronicles 13:8-10a) This shouted speech from the mountaintop is intended to encourage Abijah's soldiers and to discourage Jeroboam's soldiers. He says something like, "We have not forsaken the living God and He will defend the covenant He made with His servant David. But who do you have on your side? You have turned your backs on the Lord and are worshiping things which are not gods. Will Jeroboam's golden calves be able to save you? No, they have no power to save you. And on top of that you have made the Lord angry. His wrath will fall on you and victory will be ours!"

In tomorrow's study we will look at the second half of his speech and the battle.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 57, The Lord Accepts The People's Repentance

The Lord allowed the army of Egypt and its allies to invade the kingdom of Judah when King Rehoboam and the people drifted from a relationship with Him and adopted the idolatrous practices of the tribes who had inhabited the promised land before them. While hiding in a stronghold somewhere in Jerusalem, the word of the Lord came to King Rehoboam and his officials and the elders of Judah through the prophet known as Shemaiah. The Lord said: "You have abandoned Me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak."

The Lord is referring to Pharaoh Shishak who was king of Egypt at that time. This is the same Shishak who offered asylum to Jeroboam of Ephraim who is now king of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Shishak is believed to be the same man known as Shoshenq I/Sheshonk I who was a pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty and who reigned in the 10th century BCE (somewhere around 925-950 BC). Ancient tradition has it that he was able to take control of the fortified cities of Judah without much of a fight---or without a fight at all---because Rehoboam was terrified of him. It very well may be that Rehoboam sent up the white flag instead of fighting back, especially when we consider that Rehoboam had been living in opposition to the Lord. If he had felt confident he had the Lord on his side, he might have stood firm, for the Lord wins battles in the Bible no matter how badly His people are outnumbered. Another reason I think Rehoboam must have surrendered is because the Bible doesn't describe any sort of fighting between Rehoboam's troops and Shishak's troops over the city of Jerusalem. We were told yesterday that Shishak took the valuable items of the royal palace and the temple and we will be told today that the kingdom of Judah will have to pay tribute to Egypt for a time. This indicates to me that some sort of terms of surrender were reached and that Shishak went back to Egypt without causing much (or any) damage to the capital city of Judah.

When Shemaiah delivered the message of the Lord to Rehoboam and his top men, they acknowledged their sin and the Lord's right to discipline them for their sin. They said, "The Lord is just." They are not merely speaking these words in the hopes that the Lord will relent from destruction; they mean these words from their hearts. The Lord, who knows what is in every heart, accepts their repentance. "When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: 'Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kings of other lands.'" (2 Chronicles 12:7-8) The Lord doesn't make the problem go away completely and instantly because He knows they need a longer period of discipline or else they will turn right back to their idolatrous ways. 

The Lord allows chastisement to last only as long as it needs to last. He doesn't remove it so soon that we don't learn anything from it. He also doesn't vengefully leave us in a state of hardship out of a spiteful attitude toward us for our disobedience; the Lord is not like that. He applies the proper amount of discipline for the proper amount of time to accomplish our repentance and to help us learn from our mistakes. The people of Rehoboam's time learned from their mistake and it appears that Rehoboam himself did not sink back into his idolatrous ways, or at least the Bible doesn't say that he did. "Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord's anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah." (2 Chronicles 12:12)

"King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put His name." (2 Chronicles 12:13a) "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?" (1 Kings 14:29) The chronicler phrases it like this: "As for the events of Rehoboam's reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies?" (2 Chronicles 12:15a) We don't possess all the written records that are mentioned in the Bible. But we have everything we need to know in order to come to a knowledge of the Lord our Creator and to give our hearts to Him.

The authors of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles tell us there were continual conflicts between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom during Rehoboam's reign but we are not provided with any details regarding these conflicts. "There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam." (1 Kings 14:30, 2 Chronicles 12:15b)

"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." (1 Kings 14:31) 

Rehoboam was a man who began his reign with some sort of relationship with the Lord, albeit a casual one. Then, once he felt as if his kingdom was fortified and strong, he fell into idolatry as if he didn't need the Lord. To show him the error of his ways, the Lord allowed invasion by an enemy so he would see that everything he had was due to the Lord's goodness. Rehoboam repented of his faithlessness to the Lord and as far as we know he maintained a relationship with the Lord from then on. We were told in yesterday's study that Shishak carried away the gold shields from the palace and that Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields which his guards carried whenever they escorted him to and from the temple of the Lord. This means that after Judah was invaded, Rehoboam made it a habit to visit the house of the Lord, and I hope this also means he gave his heart fully to the Lord and abandoned all the idols to which he formerly clung. 

Join us tomorrow as we begin studying the reign of King Abijah of Judah and the military conflicts he had with King Jeroboam of Israel.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 56, The People Of Judah Repent After Invasion By The Egyptians

Yesterday we learned that Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt attacked the kingdom of Judah during the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign. Shishak came with 12,000 chariots and 60,000 horsemen of his own, plus an untold number of Libyan, Sukkite, and Cushite soldiers. He captured many of the fortified cities of Judah, which Rehoboam had worked so hard to build up as fortresses against invaders, and got as far as the city of Jerusalem and sacked it as well.

We were told that after Rehoboam had established himself as king and had fortified these cities, he and many of the people of Judah fell into idolatrous practices. Perhaps Rehoboam thought he didn't need the Lord's protection? Perhaps he and the people thought their human efforts were enough to prevent invasion by enemies? It is always a mistake when we rely on our own strength and ingenuity instead of relying on the Lord. There's nothing wrong with taking protective safety measures on our own behalf (such as locking our doors at night, installing smoke detectors in our homes, wearing seatbelts in our cars, eating healthy diets, following doctor's orders regarding medications we've been prescribed) but ultimately our safety depends on the Lord. Even King Solomon, who unfortunately dabbled in idolatry in his latter years, knew this and said: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders build in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." (Psalm 127:1) 

It appears that King Rehoboam and his subjects may have depended on themselves to defend their nation. They stopped being faithful to the Lord and began engaging in pagan rituals. They began indulging in immoral sexual practices as part of these rituals, according to what we read yesterday. The Lord took disciplinary action against them by allowing the Egyptians to invade because His people had "engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites". (1 Kings 14:24b) The Lord's people became as sinful as the heathen nations that had occupied the land before them. The Lord told them earlier in the Bible that if they began to behave just as the heathens behaved, He would uproot them from the land just as the tribes of Canaan had been uprooted. He doesn't want to have to do this, but if sending them into captivity is what it takes to cause them to repent, the fate of their eternal souls is far more important than anything that happens to them in this world. But at this point in time they are going to be willing to hear the word of the Lord and repent, as we'll see later in today's text.

When Pharaoh Shishak arrives in King Rehoboam's kingdom, he loots the most valuable things of the capital city. "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 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." (1 Kings 14:25-26) In 1 Kings 10 we studied about the gold shields Solomon made: two hundred large shields and three hundred small shields. These were for the king's special guard to carry whenever the king traveled to and from the palace. After Shishak takes these gold shields back with him to Egypt, Rehoboam's special guard will have to use bronze shields as replacements. "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. Whenever the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom." (1 Kings 14:27-28, 2 Chronicles 12:9-11) I assume Rehoboam could not afford to replace the gold shields with more gold shields. He does not have the vast wealth of his father Solomon because he is unable to tax all twelve tribes of Israel as his father did. His trading ventures are likely nowhere near on the large scale as his father's were either. He lacks the amount of money his father had with which to build large fleets of ships and he cannot conscript men from all twelve tribes of Israel to supply himself with a vast amount of men for a royal navy. 

Verse 28 lets us know that Rehoboam was in the habit of going up to the temple of the Lord, at least after the gold shields were replaced with bronze shields. So we know he was obeying the prescribed religious observances after his nation was invaded. Prior to the invasion, we know he was bringing sacrifices and offerings to pagan altars but he may also have been visiting the temple as well. The Bible doesn't say for certain whether, prior to the invasion, Rehoboam had forsaken going to the temple altogether or if he was blending the worship of the Lord with the worship of heathen deities. In addition, the Bible doesn't say for certain whether Rehoboam completely forsook the heathen deities after his nation was invaded by Egypt. What the Bible does say is that Rehoboam humbled himself before the Lord after the Lord allowed an enemy army to attack his nation. While he and his top officials and the elders of Judah are holed up somewhere in Jerusalem so they will not be captured or killed by the enemy, a prophet speaks the word of the Lord to them and they heed this word. 

"Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Israel who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, 'This is what the Lord says, 'You have abandoned Me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.' The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, 'The Lord is just.'" (2 Chronicles 12:5-6) The word "Israel" in verse 6 would be more accurately rendered as "Judah" since it is not all Israel that is being referred to at this time. 

Shemaiah is the same prophet Rehoboam wisely listened to in Chapter 12 when he warned Rehoboam not to assemble the troops of Judah to attack the ten tribes of Israel that seceded from his kingdom. He told Rehoboam he must accept this division of the kingdom as the Lord's will. Rehoboam did so, sparing much loss of life among the men of the kingdom of Judah as well as the kingdom of Israel and perhaps sparing all twelve tribes as a whole from being destroyed by a civil war or by enemies that would have seen this as a good time to invade and conquer. In our text today we find Rehoboam wisely accepting the words of Shemaiah again. The king and the leaders of Judah acknowledge that their sin and the sin of the people has brought this calamity upon themselves, saying, "The Lord is right to allow our enemy to invade us. We are reaping what we have sown. We have sinned against Him and we deserve this hardship." 

Now this attitude is an attitude the Lord can work with! The hardship the Lord allowed to come into their lives has accomplished its intended purpose. Because the king and the leaders and the people admit their sin, humble themselves before the Lord, and throw themselves on His mercy, He is going to be merciful. Join us tomorrow as we study the conclusion of this event.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 55, Jerusalem Attacked During King Rehoboam's Reign

In our text today the king of Egypt attacks Jerusalem during the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam of Judah. The Lord allows this to happen because Rehoboam and the people fell into many idolatrous practices not long after he became king. The author of the book of 2 Chronicles says, "He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord." (2 Chronicles 12:14) The king placed no importance on serving the Lord and he set a poor example for the people. Everyone began following their own natural inclinations instead of obeying the word of the Lord.

"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. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 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." (1 Kings 14:22-24) The chronicler describes the people's apostasy like this: "After Rehoboam's position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 12:1) 

Why did Rehoboam and his subjects descend into idolatry---and so quickly? The stage was set for this during Solomon's reign. Solomon felt an overwhelming attraction for pagan women and he did nothing to try to curb this fetish. Instead he allowed it to have full reign. He accumulated a total of one thousand wives and concubines and if any of these women were women of his own culture the Bible doesn't say so. Not only did he marry heathen women but he did not require that they convert to the God of Israel. Instead, to please the women to whom he had unwisely given his heart, he built altars for them to their false gods and even engaged in idolatrous practices with them. Rehoboam was the son of one of Solomon's foreign wives and she likely had far more religious influence on him during his formative years than his father did. Rehoboam would have spent his younger years living among the women of his father's harem and their children, so he was exposed to the false religions of the other women as well as the religion of his mother. He received mixed messages from his father who worshiped the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem but also brought offerings to heathen altars on the hilltops of Judah. Rehoboam's upbringing did nothing to demonstrate the importance of making God the Lord of his life. His upbringing gave him the impression that God was just one of many gods. 

The hilltop heathen shrines built by Solomon were still in the land. This influenced the people to dabble in idolatry and even give themselves fully over to it. Rehoboam's own attitude toward religion did nothing to encourage the people to submit to the Lord and forsake the false gods of the other nations. The Lord becomes angry at them and He becomes angry for them. What I mean by this is that He's angry they've abandoned Him after He's done so much for them and He's angry that they are depriving themselves of the abundant and fulfilling lives they would have if they'd devote their hearts to Him. Rehoboam is hurting himself and the people with his idolatrous ways. The people are hurting themselves by forsaking the Lord and they're hurting the children they are raising in this environment. Because of this spiritual rebellion, the Lord allows difficulty to come into their lives to get their attention so they will consider their ways and turn from sin.

"Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 12:2-4) The chronicler makes an unmistakable connection between the people's idolatry and the invasion by the enemy. The author of 1 Kings doesn't state it the same way but he clearly implies that the invasion was a result of the people's sin, for he tells us of the invasion right after informing us of the widescale idolatry taking place. "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem." (1 Kings 14:25)

This hardship is a direct result of sin. It is intended as an instrument of discipline to get the people back on track. Not every hardship in this life is due to us having been disobedient to the Lord, for we live in a fallen world where bad things happen to godly people as well as to wicked people. We live in a world where there are people who have no regard for the Lord at all and who do not follow His commands about loving their neighbors as themselves and about doing unto others as they'd have done unto them. So we suffer the natural hardships of a fallen world (weather disasters, disease, accidents, death) and we suffer the hardships of living in a world where people do us wrong. But anytime hardship comes into our lives, it's important to pray and search our hearts to see whether we've brought it upon ourselves by living in disobedience to our God. In the case of Rehoboam and the people of his kingdom of Judah, that's what has happened, and in tomorrow's text we'll study the invasion by Pharaoh Shishak along with a message from a prophet of God. We'll take a look at the people's wise response to their hardship and to the message from the Lord.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 54, King Rehoboam's Family

The narrative in 1 Kings now switches from King Jeroboam of Israel to King Rehoboam of Judah. We will be studying Rehoboam's life from the book of 1 Kings and the book of 2 Chronicles.

"Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned 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." (1 Kings 14:21) We learn here that Rehoboam will only live to be fifty-eight years old. His father Solomon is estimated to have lived only to the age of fifty-eight to sixty, in comparison to David's age of seventy at death. David's longer life may be attributed in part to his faithfulness to God and also to more physical activity (he was a warrior until late in his life when his reaction time in battle became a bit too slow for safety in 2 Samuel 21) and perhaps less indulgence in rich foods and wines. 

Solomon loved foreign women and Rehoboam's mother was one of them: an Ammonite. We've already learned that Solomon did nothing to discourage his foreign wives from continuing to worship false gods; sadly, he encouraged their continuing worship of false gods by building pagan altars to please the foreign women he loved. Growing up in a household with a father who worshiped the one true God but dabbled in idolatry, and with a mother who likely worshiped the gods of the Ammonites, must have contributed to Rehoboam's casual attitude toward the God of Israel. Though his chief wives are Israelite women and not foreign idolaters, as we'll learn momentarily, he will not cling in faith to the God of his grandfather David but will drift into apostasy, as will many people of his kingdom. 

"Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David's son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse's son Eliab. She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham." (2 Chronicles 11:18-19) Rehoboam, as many ancient kings did, marries back into the royal family to strengthen his claim and his descendants' claims to the throne. His first wife is his cousin.

His second wife, who will become his favorite wife, is also his cousin. "Then he married Maakah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters." (2 Chronicles 11:20-21) Rehoboam doesn't take as many wives as his father did. He may have wanted to but finances are a hindrance. Because he is ruling over a divided kingdom, he is only able to tax only two tribes of Israel instead of all twelve as Solomon did. I assume he is not receiving tribute from as many foreign tribes and nations as Solomon did either, since he would only be able to control those peoples whom the tribes of Judah and Benjamin had subdued. 

"Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maakah as crown prince among his brothers, in order to make him king." (2 Chronicles 11:22) It's interesting to note that both King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam had a son and crown prince named Abijah. In Jeroboam's case, Abijah was his firstborn son. Jeroboam's son passed away in yesterday's text before reaching adulthood. In Rehoboam's case, his son Abijah is almost certainly not his firstborn since he belonged to Rehoboam's second wife. But Rehoboam's second wife was his favorite wife so he chose her firstborn son to be heir to the throne. This Abijah will survive to adulthood and will succeed his father as king of Judah.

Rehoboam's older sons may have felt slighted at not being considered as his primary heir but he did at least deal bountifully with them. He appointed them as leaders throughout the major cities of his kingdom and provided them with every luxury imaginable and with many wives to provide them with many children. "He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them." (2 Chronicles 11:23) This prestige and wealth may have been intended to help pacify any resentment they felt toward him and toward the crown prince Abijah. Their dispersal throughout the kingdom may have been intended to keep them from forming a rebellion against his chosen crown prince. If all his sons had united together in a conspiracy against his chosen heir, they could have taken Abijah's life---and even Rehoboam's!---and placed his firstborn son (who was probably Jeush) on the throne. Or perhaps they would have warred with each other after removing Abijah from the earth, causing the whole family to fall apart, weakening the nation and exposing it to enemy invaders who would have regarded this as an opportune time to strike.

We were told earlier in our study that after the kingdom split, Rehoboam set to work building up and fortifying the nation of Judah. Rehoboam should have been busy fortifying his heart against idolatry while he was fortifying his nation against enemy attacks. The Lord would have protected him if his heart had been faithful. But because his heart is wayward and because the hearts of the people have grown wayward, the Lord will allow Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt to attack Jerusalem during the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign. The Lord allows this for the people's own good to correct their waywardness and to cause them to repent and turn back in faith to Him.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 53, The Death Of King Jeroboam's Son

Yesterday Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise to the prophet Ahijah to find out whether their son Abijah would die of his illness or recover. The prophet, though blind, immediately knew who the woman was and gave her the sad news that the boy would die. We discussed a theory as to why the Lord allowed him to die and if you missed yesterday's study you can scroll to the archived posts at the bottom of the page and find the study session for November 16th.

Ahijah said the boy would die as soon as Jeroboam's wife returned to her city of residence. But he also stated that this son was the only member of Jeroboam's household in whom the Lord had found anything good and that he would be the only male of Jeroboam's household whose death would be mourned. Disaster is to come upon the dynasty of Jeroboam because of his own personal idolatry and because of the idolatry into which he is swiftly leading the nation. The Lord promised Jeroboam a great dynasty like that of David's if he would be faithful to Him. But Jeroboam didn't want to be faithful to Him. Because he did not want to be faithful to Him, fears came upon him about losing the kingship and even his life, so he prevented his people from going down to the southern kingdom to worship the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem. He thought they would give their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah if they were allowed to travel to Jerusalem and back. He instituted his own state religion which utilized golden calves and unlawful altars on the high places. The majority of the people of his kingdom and the people of his own family have followed him into these idolatrous practices. 

Because of these sins, the prophet pronounces this judgment of the Lord upon Jeroboam and upon the northern kingdom: "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. 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 Euphrates River, because they aroused the Lord's anger by making Asherah poles. And He will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit." (1 Kings 14:14-16) 

The first part of this prophecy will come true during the second year of the reign of Jeroboam's successor. Jeroboam either already has, or will have, a son named Nadab. I believe Abijah was Jeroboam's firstborn son and that Nadab was the second son born to him. Nadab will succeed Jeroboam as king but during the second year of his reign he will be killed by a man named Baasha of the tribe of Issachar who will take his place as king and slaughter every member of Jeroboam's family. Baasha will be as much of an idolater as Jeroboam was. The prophet's statement that the Lord would "raise up for Himself a king" is not an indication that the king who takes the throne away from the family of Jeroboam will be a good man. It simply means that this will be the man who makes the prophecy come true that the dynasty of Jeroboam will soon come to an end.

The second part of the prophecy won't be fulfilled until about three hundred years later when the northern kingdom of Israel is conquered by the nation of Assyria. Had there ever been a widescale turning away from idolatry during those three centuries, the Lord would have turned away this invading nation, but He knew three hundred years ahead of time that the majority of the people would not heed the warnings of any of the prophets He sent to them. This is why He could say with certainty that He would "uproot Israel from this good land that He gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River". 

Jeroboam's wife accepts the words of the prophet because there's nothing else she can do. "Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left and went to Tirzah." (1 Kings 14:17a) Whether she had any desire to turn from idols to the living God we cannot say, but it's clear from the Scriptures that her husband and their son Nadab never do. If her son Abijah had lived to adulthood, it's quite possible that he too would have eventually been seduced into the idolatry of his family's household and of the nation at large. As we discussed yesterday, the Lord saw something good in Abijah which was probably a heart that longed to know the Lord even if the boy didn't quite understand what this longing was. And the Lord mercifully took him into His presence to spare him from going the wrong way and to spare him from the destruction to come. 

"As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died. They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the Lord had said through His prophet Ahijah. 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. He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his ancestors. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king." (1 Kings 14:17-20) We will be learning more about Jeroboam as we take a look at the reign of King Rehoboam of Judah in the coming days. These two men reigned at the same time and the events of their lives are written in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. We'll be combining sections from both these books as we continue our study of the kings of Israel and Judah.

The main thing we can take away from the life of Jeroboam is that he could have had what he wanted---a secure kingdom and a lasting dynasty---if only he'd obeyed the Lord. Instead he sought to retain a powerful kingdom and a lasting dynasty through human means while he lived in opposition to the Lord. Jeroboam should have taken these words penned by David to heart: "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:3-4) David isn't saying we'll obtain every single thing we want in life if we are faithful to the Lord but that if we commit our ways to the Lord and serve Him, we will want what He wants. We will place our trust in Him even when He allows things to happen in our lives that we don't fully understand.  And it's certainly true that we'll find more fulfillment in our families, in our work, and in everything else if we've placed the Lord at the center of our lives. The Lord knew Jeroboam was an ambitious man and He said to him, "You will rule over all that your heart desires". (1 Kings 11:37) But this promise was conditional upon Jeroboam's obedience. (1 Kings 11:38) Jeroboam went out of his way to be disobedient after he became king and the Lord is not obligated to give Jeroboam the desires of his heart. The longlasting and powerful dynasty Jeroboam envisioned is not going to materialize. He could have had this dream come true if he'd have bowed his knees to his Creator. So many blessings could have been his.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 52, A Prophecy Against The House Of Jeroboam

Jeroboam instituted a state religion in his kingdom of the ten northern tribes of Israel. He erected a golden calf at Bethel and another one at Dan and has been offering sacrifices at Bethel. Earlier in Chapter 13 an unnamed prophet from Judah came to pronounce judgment against Jeroboam's sinful religious system. Enraged when the prophet spoke against him, Jeroboam stretched out his hand toward the prophet and ordered his men to seize the man, at which point the Bible said Jeroboam's hand shriveled and he could not draw it back toward himself. This may have been something like a stroke that drew his hand up into a clawlike posture and paralyzed his arm. At the same time the idolatrous altar split in two and all its ashes poured out onto the ground.

Jeroboam begged the prophet to intercede for him with the Lord for the healing of his hand. The prophet did so and the hand was restored to health. But the king did not allow the events of this day to bring him to a state of repentance toward the Lord. He kept on perverting the true worship of the Lord by insisting that his subjects accept the two golden calves as "substitutes" or "representations" of the Lord. "Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth." (1 Kings 13:33-34)

As we begin Chapter 14 we'll find King Jeroboam seeking the services of a prophet named Ahijah. This is the prophet who told Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11 that he would become king over ten tribes of Israel. This is also the prophet who delivered a conditional promise to him from the Lord. That conditional promise was that if Jeroboam would be obedient to the Lord and serve him, the Lord would build him a dynasty as enduring as the dynasty of King David. But Jeroboam has not lived in obedience to the Lord and he has no intention of doing so. Therefore this same prophet will deliver a prophecy of doom against the dynasty of Jeroboam.

As we begin our look at the first part of Chapter 14 we will need to take care to keep two names straight because they are very similar. Ahijah is the prophet and Abijah is the son of  King Jeroboam. "At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, 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. 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.' So Jeroboam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh." (1 Kings 14:1-4a)

Jeroboam, like many people who live in opposition to the Lord, wants other people to intercede with the Lord for him. He doesn't fall to his knees and repent of his sins and ask the Lord to heal his son. He doesn't even go to the prophet himself and ask the prophet to pray on his behalf, perhaps because he knows the prophet will tell him to repent and he doesn't want to repent. He doesn't even want his subjects to know he's sending his wife to the prophet, maybe because he won't be able to force his people to submit to his state-sponsored religion if they suspect he doesn't wholeheartedly believe in it himself. After all, if Jeroboam doesn't trust in his own religious system or the priests he's appointed but is still seeking the help of a true prophet, why should they adhere to any of the king's religious rules? Why shouldn't they go outside of his territory to worship at the temple in Jerusalem instead of bringing offerings to his golden calves?

Some scholars propose that Jeroboam's intention isn't that the prophet would pray for his son (Abijah is almost certainly Jeroboam's heir-apparent to the throne) but that Jeroboam just wants the prophet to divine the future---that he is asking whether Abijah will survive or not. We'll learn later that Jeroboam has at least one other son, named Nadab, but we don't know whether he was already born at the time Abijah fell ill because the Bible doesn't say. We can safely assume Abijah is Jeroboam's oldest son and it will become clear from our text that Abijah is still a child when he falls ill because the prophet will refer to him as "the boy".

Jeroboam's wife goes to Shiloh in disguise. I think her disguise was partly to keep the people from knowing that Jeroboam was sending his wife to a true prophet of the Lord. Jeroboam's also wants to disguise her identity from the prophet. This was a foolish idea; if he's a true prophet he will certainly discern her identity. It turns out the prophet has lost his physical sight, which is something neither Jeroboam nor his wife was aware of, but it doesn't matter because he still has his spiritual sight. The Lord told Ahijah she was coming long before she got there. "Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. 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.'" (1 Kings 14:4b-5)

We don't know the name of Jeroboam's wife. Ancient tradition is that she was an Egyptian princess and this is quite possible because Pharaoh Shishak gave asylum to Jeroboam during the final years of the reign of King Solomon. Whether or not Jeroboam married an Egyptian princess, it's doubtful he married a godly Israelite woman since he is not a godly person himself. I doubt that a devout woman of God would have appealed to him. My guess is that Jeroboam's wife is from a pagan nation but I do feel sorry for her. Whether Jeroboam's concern for his son is because he loves his son or is because he's worried about the future of the kingship, this woman probably loves her son and is hoping to receive good news about him. She is living in a time when women had little control over their lives and her marriage to Jeroboam was likely an arranged marriage. She may or may not want to be his wife but she must abide by all his decisions and she must share in the consequences of all his decisions. 

The prophet greets her by her true identity when she arrives. "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. 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. 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. 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.'" (1 Kings 14:6-9) We know that King David made mistakes but he did what was right in the eyes of God by repenting as soon as he became aware of sinning against the Lord. You and I don't live perfect lives either but it's the right thing in God's eyes for us to repent when we become aware we have sinned. In that sense the Lord can say that a person is faithful to Him and follows Him with all their heart. 

Jeroboam's sin is considered so grievous because he's leading a ten-tribe nation into idolatry. Solomon dabbled in idolatry in addition to his worship of the Lord but at no time did he set up and enforce an idolatrous state religion in Israel. Jeroboam is not only leading people astray but is also preventing untold numbers of people from coming to the Lord. Because of him, children who are being born in his kingdom are never even hearing the truth about the real God. They are being prevented from having an opportunity to know Him and give their hearts to Him. Jeroboam's own son is one of these children being raised in an idolatrous household in a nation that is quickly turning its back on the Lord.

The Lord has harsh words of judgment for the man who loves sin more than righteousness. He offered Jeroboam a beautiful promise but Jeroboam rejected it in favor of living in opposition to the only One who could give him the powerful dynasty he desires. Ahijah continues the message of the Lord to Jeroboam: "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. 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! As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. 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.'" (1 Kings 14:10-13)

This is not the news King Jeroboam's wife wants to hear. I think the prophet may feel sympathy for her, as I do. It's a sad fact of this fallen world that whenever someone does evil there are always those around them who suffer. Jeroboam's wife is likely an idolater but women of her era and children of her era had little power and often became "collateral damage" when the male head of the household behaved unwisely. The boy will die but the Lord's words indicate that the boy may have had something in his heart that desired to know the Lord, in spite of not being able to learn much of anything about Him in the wicked household of Jeroboam. The Lord has found something "good" in this boy and as much as it grieves us to know the boy will die, we must consider that it is a mercy of the Lord to take the boy from Jeroboam's household and bring him into His presence before he lives enough years to be gradually indoctrinated fully into Jeroboam's idolatrous state religion. Abijah might have wholly rejected the Lord in time if he had lived to become an adult in this environment. It's natural for us to consider death a tragedy but sometimes the Lord takes people on into His presence to spare them from tragedy. We will close with a verse from the book of Isaiah to back up this theory. Isaiah lived in idolatrous times and he spoke words to comfort those who were mourning the untimely-appearing deaths of loved ones who were still faithful to the Lord. "The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death." (Isaiah 57:1-2) 

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 51, The Prophet From Judah Is Deceived, Part Three

We've been studying a tale of two prophets. The Lord sent a man from Judah to speak words of judgment against the idolatrous state religion instituted by King Jeroboam. When an older prophet heard about this younger prophet's visit to Bethel, he invited him home with him for a meal, at which point the younger prophet informed him that the Lord had commanded him not to eat or drink anything while he was in the northern kingdom. The older prophet lied to him and said an angel of the Lord had appeared to him and instructed him that the Lord had changed his mind---that the younger man was to eat and drink with the older prophet of Bethel.

Yesterday and the day before we discussed the possible reasons for the old prophet's lie and the younger prophet's acceptance of his invitation so we won't go back over that today. As we closed yesterday's passage we found a true word of the Lord coming to the younger prophet through the older prophet as the men sat at the table together. I am sure the older prophet was dismayed to hear this message of the Lord and to pass it along but he could not help passing it along. I think the words came out of his mouth involuntarily and that they grieved his heart deeply, not only for the sake of the younger man but because he himself played a part in the younger man's disobedience to the Lord.

We'll back up and reread the closing words of yesterday's passage. "While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.'" (1 Kings 13:20-22) Yesterday we talked about why the Lord's judgment of the prophet was so harsh. If you've missed any previous installments of the Bible study, they are archived at the bottom of this page if you'd like to be able to refer to them. But here we find the Lord speaking of the death of the prophet, and although He doesn't say when the prophet will die, He gives a clue about how the prophet will die. The prophet will die in some sort of manner that prevents his remains from being placed in his family tomb. This was considered in many cultures to be a form of judgment handed down by a higher power. In the younger prophet's case that's exactly what it is.

"When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him." (1 Kings 13:23) I believe the older prophet is overwhelmed with guilt for deceiving the man from Judah and is trying to assuage his guilty conscience by doing whatever he can for him.

The younger prophet continues his journey back to Judah and meets his doom along the way. "As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived." (1 Kings 13:24-25) When the people passed by they saw the donkey and the lion standing together peacefully. This was a sign to those who viewed this sight that the prophet's demise was due to his disobedience of the Lord. The lion wasn't interested in eating the donkey or the passersby or even the prophet, as we'll see momentarily. The lion didn't attack the prophet out of hunger. 

"When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, 'It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.'" (1 Kings 13:26) This comes across as sounding pretty sanctimonious considering he's the person who convinced him to disobey the Lord! I am not sure if that's the way this verse is intended to be read though. It may be that when the prophet hears that an unknown man has been mauled by a lion, he automatically suspects who the person must be. When he describes the younger man as "the man of God who defied the word of the Lord" he may not intend this description to be derogatory, just a description of who he thinks the man is. 

"The prophet said to his sons, 'Saddle the donkey for me,' and they did so. Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, 'Alas, my brother!' After burying him, he said to his sons, 'When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.'" (1 Kings 13:27-32)

The old prophet had a hand in the death of the young prophet. If he had not gone after him and told him a lie, the younger man might be back home in Judah by now. I think it is guilt that causes the elderly man to give the prophet a fine funeral and burial and to place him in his own family tomb. Why, though, was the sin of the younger prophet judged more harshly than the sin of the older prophet? We don't know. We can't be certain that it was, for we hear of this old prophet no more and he may have met his demise soon after and have been lain to rest beside the man he wronged. One thing I think we can assume with some confidence is that the older prophet had probably stopped allowing himself to be used by the Lord some time ago. He had retired, in other words, from his calling even though there is no retirement from being a witness to the goodness and holiness of God. I doubt he was ever used of the Lord again, even if he wished he might be used of Him, and that should be considered a worse fate for a prophet of God than death.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah, Day 50, The Prophet From Judah Is Deceived, Part Two

We've been studying an unnamed prophet from Judah who came up to Bethel, upon instructions of the Lord, to pronounce a judgment against the idolatrous altar of King Jeroboam of Israel. In yesterday's text he was told a lie by an older prophet from Bethel. 

The Lord commanded the prophet from Judah not to eat or drink anything while he was in the northern kingdom. It was important that this man not appear to have any fellowship at all with any of the dark spiritual doings of that territory. He turned down an invitation from King Jeroboam to eat at his house after he healed the king's hand and when last we saw him he was resting under an oak tree.

While this man was on his way home, the sons of an elderly prophet of Bethel came home after viewing the events that took place earlier in our chapter at the golden calf Jeroboam had set up at Bethel. They told their father that a man from Judah had come to speak against the idolatrous things going on at Bethel, then King Jeroboam reached out his hand toward the prophet and ordered his guards to seize him, then the king's hand withered and froze in place, then the idolatrous altar split in two. The king implored the prophet to restore his hand, which the man did, and then the king offered him a meal and a gift, which the prophet refused. Upon hearing these words, the elderly prophet ordered his donkey saddled so he could ride after the younger man to invite him to his house. The younger man declined the invitation politely, citing his command from the Lord not to eat or drink anything in that country, so the older man lied and said the Lord had told him he was to bring the younger man home with him. The younger man accepted the elderly prophet's words without question and went home with him.

Yesterday we talked about what might have motivated the aged man to tell such a lie. My theory is that he intended no harm but desperately wanted to spend time with a like-minded man who despised the idolatry in Israel as much as he did. Were his actions selfish and misguided? Yes, but I don't think he wished the younger man any ill. I think as he grew older and as he viewed the spiritual decline in his country, he became spiritually lazy and no longer possessed the spiritual discernment of his younger years. I believe he had given up on doing much of anything further for the Lord but was pinning his hopes on the younger generation of prophets to make a positive change in the nation. The news that a younger prophet had appeared with a message may have energized the man enough to bestir himself from his home (after all, he hadn't gone out to the idolatrous altar himself to speak against it) to pass the baton to someone younger who had more physical strength and spiritual zeal.

We also talked about what might have motivated the prophet of Judah to accept the older man's words without consulting the Lord. One theory was that he had a great deal of respect for his elders and especially for elderly prophets. The man from Bethel may once have been a prophet of great renown whose word no one would have thought to question. The Bible referred to him in yesterday's passage as "a certain old prophet" as if people of the author's day would have known who he was. Today we are going to discuss a couple more possible reasons that may have caused the younger man to give in without thinking things through. 

One of those reasons may have been that he was thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. He was resting in the shade of a large oak tree when the aged man found him. This indicates he was tired. It indicates it was hot out. He may have been sitting there thinking about how nice a cold drink of water would be and how nice a fresh homecooked meal would taste. He may have been thinking more about his physical needs than about his spiritual needs in that moment. The Lord obviously didn't command him to forego food and drink in the northern territory in order to cause him to faint on the journey; the Lord knew he could make it to Bethel and back without suffering any concerning health issues. But perhaps the prophet was discouraged because neither the king nor any of the king's subjects repented when they heard his message. This discouragement could have caused him to concentrate on his temporary physical discomforts more than was actually warranted.

Another reason he may have gone home with the prophet might have been due to the loneliness of being a prophet of God. I don't mean that prophets didn't have families and friends who shared their love of the Lord but the life of a prophet---much like the lives of church pastors in our day---involved speaking the word of the Lord and not always having that word received in a positive manner. That has to be a lonely feeling. It's a lonely feeling the prophet's wife and children and close friends couldn't have completely shared with him, not being prophets themselves. Perhaps he craved the encouragement and friendship of an older prophet. Maybe he thought the prophet could speak some words of wisdom to make him feel better.

You might have heard of the principle known as "HALT" which warns us not to make any big decisions when we are too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. I think the younger prophet may have been all of those things when he made the very big and very unwise decision to disobey the Lord.

While he is dining with the older man, the word of the Lord comes to the older man. I don't think this message is one that the aged man wants to deliver. He cannot help but deliver it. I think the words come out of his mouth involuntarily. "While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man who had come from Judah, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.'" (1 Kings 13:20-22) 

In ancient times, to not be buried with your ancestors---or to not be buried at all---was a curse. We will find this prophecy coming true in tomorrow's study. But why does the Lord judge the prophet from Judah so harshly? 

I think his judgment is severe because his influence was great. We don't know the name of this prophet or how many people were following his example in Judah but his disobedience to the Lord has disqualified him to lead people in the ways of godliness. I assume his sphere of influence was large enough and that people put so much stock in everything he said that his disobedience could have turned people off the idea of coming to the Lord altogether. Just as the Lord could not allow King David to emerge unscathed from his fall into adultery and murder, He could not allow this prophet's actions to tempt others into disobedience.

The prophet will meet his death in the remainder of Chapter 13 but it's important to note that it's only his life that he loses, not his salvation. If we knew more about him and about how his testimony had affected others up until this point, we could better understand how he has somehow committed "a sin that leads to death". (1 John 5:16) When the Apostle John spoke these words he was speaking of believers who transgress the word of God in such a way that the Lord has to remove them from this world. John was speaking of believers, not unbelievers. He was speaking of saved people, not unsaved people. I don't profess to understand the message in 1 John or exactly what happened here in 1 Kings but I think it's clear that the more authority a person holds over others, the more responsibility he or she has to set a godly example, and if they instead set such an ungodly example that they will cause others to never come to faith in the first place, the Lord must remove them from the earth for the sake of those whose paths to salvation they are hindering. This does not mean the Lord takes their salvation away from them. The prophet from our text today was simply removed from the earth because so many people looked to him as their example for living and his mistake was so great that the people had to see the Lord disciplining him for it. They had to see how serious it is to disobey the commands of a holy God, especially if you are a person in a position to either build or shipwreck the faith of others.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 49, The Prophet From Judah Is Deceived, Part One

The remainder of our chapter contains a strange story. It involves the prophet from Judah who came up to Bethel to pronounce a judgment against King Jeroboam's wicked religious practices. It also involves an elderly prophet from Bethel.

You'll recall that in yesterday's text the prophet from Judah healed Jeroboam's withered hand, after which Jeroboam invited him to his house to dinner and promised him a gift of gratitude. The prophet refused, saying, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: 'You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.' So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel." (1 Kings 13:8-10) I presume the prophet was given these instructions because of the idolatrous wickedness that was already abounding in the northern kingdom in its early years. The prophet had to be careful not to appear to condone anything going on in that territory by partaking of anything there. Jeroboam did not repent when he heard the prophet's message, nor did anyone else as far as we can tell. Under these dire circumstances it was best for the prophet not to fellowship with anyone in the breaking of bread. To quote the Apostle Paul: "What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 for this entire quote.)

We talked yesterday about how the Bible doesn't forbid believers to eat meals with unbelievers. Jesus ate at the houses of sinners who invited Him. But what the Bible instructs is to do is to consider each of these invitations on a case by case basis. The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about following one's conscience where taking part in meals and feasts were concerned. In his day, many feasts were idolatrous ones, where the meat served had previously been offered to idols. A lot of those feasts involved sinful forms of entertainment. There's a difference between attending an event like that and eating lunch in a cafe with a friend or co-worker who is not a believer. So, to provide us with a modern example, if we are invited to a meal that's a party where there will be drug use and drunken carousing, we ought to politely decline. Like the prophet who visited King Jeroboam, we don't want anyone to think we are taking part in anything contrary to the word of God. That will harm our testimony for the Lord. But if we are simply being invited to someone's house for an ordinary meal just like the type of meal we'd be invited to at a believer's home, I don't believe we are commanded to refuse. I believe in that case we should view it as an opportunity, just as Jesus did, to build rapport with an unbeliever in hopes that our love for the Lord will inspire them to seek their own relationship with Him.

We found the prophet from Judah heading home as we concluded Saturday's study. On his way he is met by a elderly prophet from Bethel. I think it's extremely likely that this prophet is his senior by many years. The man from Judah isn't described to us as "old", which is how the man from Bethel is described. I believe that the difference in their ages has a lot of bearing on what happens in today's text. The older prophet will deceive the younger prophet and I think the younger prophet's respect toward an older man is the reason why he gives heed to bad advice.

"Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, 'Which way did he go?' And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, 'Saddle the donkey for me.' And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God." (1 Kings 13:11-14a) Bethel is the religious center of Jeroboam's kingdom. It's the capital, if you will, of his state-appointed religion. This prophet's sons appear to have been at the sacrificial ceremony Jeroboam was holding at the location of the golden calf and idolatrous altar that day. This does not necessarily mean his sons were taking part in anything idolatrous; they may have attended only as observers, possibly at their father's request so they could report back to him the sinful doings of the king. 

Upon learning that a prophet from Judah came and pronounced a judgment against the altar, then caused Jeroboam's hand to wither, then caused the altar to split in two, and then healed Jeroboam's hand, the older prophet wants to meet this man. I don't get the feeling that he intended any harm. I tend to think he wants to enjoy a time of fellowship with a like-minded individual. Living during the spiritually dark days of Jeroboam's reign, the older man may feel as Elijah will later feel during a time of widespread spiritual darkness. Elijah will say, "I am the only remaining prophet of the Lord." (1 Kings 18:22) This was not true but in Elijah's distress he felt like it was true. I believe the elderly prophet thinks he and the man of Judah are the only two prophets standing up for the Lord at this moment. He takes off after him to invite him home with him.

"He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, 'Are you the man of God who came from Judah?' 'I am,' he replied. So the prophet said to him, 'Come home with me and eat.' The man of God said, 'I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.' The old prophet answered, 'I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house." (1 Kings 13:14b-19) The prophet from Judah takes the man's word for it, not questioning in his heart why the Lord would change his mind, not taking the time to consult the Lord to make certain this is His will.

The younger prophet's mistake is a reminder to us not to automatically accept anyone's statement that they have a word from God for us, no matter who that person is. Even if it's our church pastor, we still must consult the Lord before taking any action on any supposed word of God the Lord gave to someone other than us about us. The person may mean well and they may really believe they are giving us sound advice but in many cases they are just being led by their emotions. A person who cares about us and deeply desires to help us with our problems may think they are operating in the Holy Spirit when they give us advice but they could be deceiving themselves, as well as us, by passing along a message that is from their own minds and not from the Lord. Anyone who thinks they are passing along a word from the Lord ought to take time to pray and make sure this is so, but even if they have done this and feel convinced they are giving us the truth, we still have a duty to pray and make certain of it ourselves. The Lord is a good father and a good father is not going to reject his child's request for instruction. If I had ever gone to my late father for advice for living, he wouldn't have said, "I've already told so-and-so to tell you what to do. Go and ask them." When the older prophet told the younger prophet he'd been given a message for him from God, the younger prophet should have confirmed this with the Lord. The Lord would then have told him he was being deceived.

Why doesn't the younger prophet pray to the Lord before going home with the older man? We've already talked about the possibility that he held the older man in such high esteem that he did not question his words. There are two other reasons I can think of that may have led to his moment of poor judgment. Our remaining text from Chapter 13 is too long for us to include in today's study. Tomorrow we will take a look at the other half of this text and talk about why the younger man allowed himself to be led to the older prophet's home.