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)
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