1 KINGS LESSON 19


     We will begin this lesson in I Kings 14:1 "At that time Abijah
the son of Jeroboam fell sick."

     This is the son that Jeroboam had planned to take over the
kingdom, when he died. "Abijah" means the Lord is my father. This
sickness is punishment to Jeroboam for his sin.

     I Kings 14:2 "And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee,
and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of
Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there [is] Ahijah the
prophet, which told me that [I should be] king over this people."

     The message that Jeroboam would send to Ahijah is too personal to
warrant anyone else carrying it. He would not go himself, for fear of
being found out, and also, Ahijah might not see him, because of his
sins against the LORD. This would, be a journey, over rough land of
about 30 miles. This would also be a dangerous journey if it were
known this was Jeroboam's wife. This same Ahijah had told Jeroboam he
would be king of the ten tribes of Israel.

     I Kings 14:3 "And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a
cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of
the child."

     Jeroboam did not trust the people, he had put into office as
spiritual leaders. He knew they were not called of God. The present
that Jeroboam sent to the prophet was meager, not what a king's wife
would bring. She is to inquire, whether her child will live, or not?

     I Kings 14:4 "And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to
Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for
his eyes were set by reason of his age."

     She was as anxious as Jeroboam to know of the welfare of their
son. Ahijah was blind, and could not see her.

     I Kings 14:5  "And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of
Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he [is] sick:
thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she
cometh in, that she shall feign herself [to be] another [woman]."

     The woman was doing, as her husband had instructed her to do. Her
disguise is so that Ahijah will receive her. The LORD tells Ahijah
exactly what to say to the woman.

     I Kings 14:6 "And it was [so], when Ahijah heard the sound of her
feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of
Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself [to be] another? for I [am] sent
to thee [with] heavy [tidings]."

     Ahijah would not be deceived by the costume she was wearing,
becuase the LORD had told him who she was. She had come to him,
because he would be able to tellher what would happen to her son. She
should not be surprised that he would know her, also. Now, she knows
the news is bad.

     I Kings 14:7 "Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of
Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made
thee prince over my people Israel,"

     The LORD is speaking through Ahijah. The LORD God is still over
Jeroboam, even though he had done this terrible thing. It was the LORD
who exalted him, and it would be the LORD who brought him down.

     I Kings 14:8 "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David,
and gave it thee: and [yet] thou hast not been as my servant David,
who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to
do [that] only [which was] right in mine eyes;"

     The ten tribes that were torn away from Solomon, David's son, are
the tribes that followed Jeroboam. David had loved God in his heart.
It was the sin of idolatry that Solomon had gotten into, that caused
the tribes to be given to Jeroboam.

     I Kings 14:9 "But hast done evil above all that were before thee:
for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to
provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:"

     This is specifically speaking of the two golden calves along with
all the other idolatry. They not only made the golden calves, but
worshipped them, as well.

     I Kings 14:10 "Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the
house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth
against the wall, [and] him that is shut up and left in Israel, and
will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh
away dung, till it be all gone."

     This is speaking of cutting off all the men in the family of
Jeroboam. To God they are like the dung. They will be cast away
completely.

     I Kings 14:11 "Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the
dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air
eat: for the LORD hath spoken [it]."

     In their sight, one of the most disgraceful things to happen to a
person was to be left for the dogs, or the fowls, and not buried
properly. Not only will they be killed, but disgraced, as well.

     I Kings 14:12 "Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house:
[and] when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die."

     This was not the news this mother wanted to hear. When the mother
arrives home, and the baby dies immediately, she will know that all of
the other part of the prophecy will certainly happen, too.

     I Kings 14:13 "And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him:
for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there
is found [some] good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house
of Jeroboam."

     This is speaking of Jeroboam's son. The mother was pleased, that
at least her son will have a decent burial. It appears that, he had
done something that had not gone unnoticed by the LORD. Some believe
that he helped those who slipped out, and went to Jerusalem to
worship.  He, at the least, was not involved in the worship of the
golden calves.

     I Kings 14:14 "Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over
Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what?
even now."

     Judgement had already begun. The house of Jeroboam will be so far
removed, there will be no memory.

     I Kings 14:15 "For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is
shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good
land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond
the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to
anger."

     The grove worship was yet another type of idolatrous worship
condemned here. The people could have refused to worship the false
gods of Jeroboam, but they did not. They were involved, too. The
punishment would reach to them all.

     I Kings 14:16 "And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of
Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin."

     It appears, that Israel sinned along with Jeroboam, and the LORD
had condemned them along with Jeroboam. He sinned himself, and led
others into his sin. They are all guilty.

     I Kings 14:17  "And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came
to Tirzah: [and] when she came to the threshold of the door, the child
died;"

     This had to be a very long journey back, knowing that when she
arrived, her son would be dead. The prophecy is true, the child died.

     I Kings 14:18 "And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for
him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of
his servant Ahijah the prophet."

     The mother had to be relieved, in a sense, that they buried her
son. It is God's way of doing things, to have the destruction of
Jeroboam spoken by the same prophet, who proclaimed he would be king.

     I Kings 14:19 "And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he
warred, and how he reigned, behold, they [are] written in the book of
the chronicles of the kings of Israel."

     It appears during this time, they had begun to record the
happenings of the kings. The book, mentioned above, is not the books
of Chronicles that are part of the Bible.

     I Kings 14:20 "And the days which Jeroboam reigned [were] two and
twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned
in his stead."

     We are not given the name of his mother. It does appear, however,
that Jeroboam just had one wife, so perhaps, Nadab was another of her
sons. Jeroboam reigned 22 years and died.

     I Kings 14:21  "And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah.
Rehoboam [was] forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did
choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his
mother's name [was] Naamah an Ammonitess."

     Rehoboam is the same as Reboam, and Roboam. This son of Solomon
was 41 years old, when he began to reign, and he reigned for 17 years.
Solomon had many wives. The mother of Rehoboam was Naamah. "Rehoboam"
means whom enlarges the people. "Naamah" means pleasant. Jerusalem was
the headquarters for Judah, and was the city where God had chosen to
put His name.

     I Kings 14:22 "And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and
they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had
committed, above all that their fathers had done."

     The first three years of his reign, the kingdom was strong and
kept the faith. The idolatry that was brought in with the many wives
of Solomon, however, seems to have influenced the people of Judah. It
appears, that many of them had fallen into idolatry. Solomon, and
especially David, at least had their heart stayed upon God.

     I Kings 14:23 "For they also built them high places, and images,
and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree."

     All of these things are speaking of the worship of false gods. It
seems idolatry is rampant, even in Judah.

     I Kings 14:24 "And there were also sodomites in the land: [and]
they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the
LORD cast out before the children of Israel."

     "Sodomites" means those involved in sex with the same gender.
This is speaking of homosexuality and lesbianism. They were primarily
speaking of male prostitutes for other males. The worship of Astarte
is what is indicated here. This is one of the reasons God wanted the
people killed, when they took their land. He wanted to keep this sin
down.  "Abomination"  means a revolting sin.

     I Kings 14:25  "And it came to pass in the fifth year of king
Rehoboam, [that] Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:"

     The chastisement of God came on Judah immediately. God wanted
them to repent, and return to worship of the One True God. The reason
Shishak thought he could win a war with them, is because the ten
tribes had broken off from Judah.

     I Kings 14:26 "And he took away the treasures of the house of the
LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all:
and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made."

     In a previous lesson, we had determined that these shields were
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold. These treasures would
have been worth millions.

     I Kings 14:27 "And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen
shields, and committed [them] unto the hands of the chief of the
guard, which kept the door of the king's house."

     Brass was very plentiful and, also, very durable. We see, also,
the great wealth of Solomon taken away. This son of Solomon, not only
lost the treasury of the gold his father had accumulated, but he lost
the God that David and Solomon had loved. It appears, he went along
with all of the idol worship. This might have been because of the
influence of his mother, who was an Ammonite. They had turned their
back on the One True God.

     I Kings 14:28 "And it was [so], when the king went into the house
of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the
guard chamber."

     This is speaking of the shields being kept in the guard chamber.
It appears, that Rehoboam still went to the temple and worshipped,
even though he was allowing the idol worship.

     I Kings 14:29  "Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all
that he did, [are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Judah?" I Kings 14:30 "And there was war between Rehoboam
and Jeroboam all [their] days."

     This is not speaking of all out war, but skirmishes they had from
time to time. The book mentioned is not in the Bible.

     I Kings 14:31 "And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was
buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name
[was] Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead."

     Rehoboam had an honorable burial. He was buried with Solomon, in
Jerusalem. His mother was not a Hebrew. She, possibly, influenced him
greatly about the idol worship, that he allowed.

                        1 Kings 19 Questions


1.  Who fell sick in verse 1?
2.  What does "Abijah" mean?
3.  Who was the prophet, that told Jeroboam he would be king?
4.  Why does he send his wife to see the prophet?
5.  Where is the prophet?
6.  What is she to take to the prophet?
7.  How long is this journey?
8.  Why could Ahijah not see?
9.  Who told Ahijah about Jeroboam's wife?
10. What does the prophet say to her?
11. Who had made Jeroboam king?
12. What kind of a person was Jeroboam?
13. What had Jeroboam done, that had so angered God?
14. What judgement did the LORD speak on Jeroboam?
15. What did He compare him to in verse 10?
16. Those of Jeroboam, that die in the city will be eaten of ______.
17. When will the child die?
18. Who is the only member of Jeroboam's family, who will have a
    burial?
19. What was grove worship?
20. Where are the rest of Jeroboam's acts found?
21. How long did Jeroboam reign?
22. How old was Rehoboam, when he began to reign?
23. How long did he reign?
24. Who was the mother of Rehoboam?
25. What were some of their sins in verse 23?
26. Who are "sodomites"?
27. What is an "abomination"?