I Kings Chapter 14
Please read: I Kings 14 –
The kingdom of the Israelite people was split and would not be united again. The northern kingdom will be known as Israel and the southern kingdom will be known as Judah. As you move forward with your reading of the Biblical accounts of these two kingdoms you might find it helpful to make two columns on a sheet of paper to record the names of the kings of each kingdom.
In this chapter we find a little bit more written about Jeroboam the king of Israel than we do Rehoboam the king of Judah. The northern kingdom at this point should have been the successful and blessed kingdom because God had personally given Jeroboam the throne. Jeroboam had served under Solomon and so he was not a son of the king but a servant. God had given him a chance to be a great leader of the people, to lead them in a path of righteousness. But instead, Jeroboam became a sad connotation of the human heart and all kings to follow would be measured according to the evil that he had done. The course was now set, the evil that Jeroboam had sewn into the fabric of Israel would only compound and lead to their downfall and later captivity.
Sadly, there is not much good recorded on the side of King Rehoboam of Judah either. He too led the people into worship in created high places. Taking the throne was his son Abijam. The Bible lists his son’s name as Abijam here, but later in II Chronicles 13 he is called Abijah. It may have been spelled a bit different to distinguish him from the son of Jeroboam, Abijah, the son who died from an illness. One other possible explanation for the spelling difference was given by a commentator.
“[the book of] Chronicles spells his name Abijah, which means ‘Yahweh is my father.’ [the book of] Kings spells the name Abijam, which means ‘my father is Yam.’ Yam was a Canaanite sea-god. Could it be that he started out as Abijah, a follower of Yahweh, and ended up as Abijam, a follower of a false god?” [Dilday]
Let's Reflect
1. King Jeroboam’s son Abijah was very sick and so he thought he might learn if his son was going to live if he spoke to the prophet that had originally told him God would make him king of Israel. Obviously, he couldn’t speak to God’s prophet in the sinful condition he was in, so who did he send to inquire of the prophet named Ahijah?
2. According to verse 6 what type of news would the prophet tell her?
3. The message that she was given would be a prophecy of God’s judgement that would be fulfilled some 300 years later (the captivity of the northern kingdom). To prove that God’s prophecy would come to pass there would be a sign that God meant what He said. The sign of God’s future prophecy would be the death of Jeroboam’s son Abijah. When did the son die?
4. According to verse 9 what was the reason that God gave Jeroboam for the prophecy of his son’s death an immediate fulfilment and prophecy that would come to pass in the future?
5. Verse 10 describes the future fulfilment of His prophecy. From other scriptures we know that it would be the Assyrian Empire that would destroy Israel. This verse describes some of the destruction. There will be fire, killings, and starvation of the people and many will die in the streets. What does the Bible say will happen to their dead bodies?
6. The death of Jeroboam’s son was a far more pleasant thing for him than to experience all the judgement that will fall on Israel. And the Bible says that it was pleasing for the LORD. Not pleasing that a son died, but it was pleasing because God was saying remember your place Jeroboam. According to verse 13 who is in charge of Israel and the house of Jeroboam?
7. The connotation of his life and legacy that this man left behind is summed up in verse 16. What was his legacy? And then his son Nadab reigned in his place.
8. The life of Rehoboam, king of Judah, is also one marked by rebellion and abandonment of God’s commands. He was characterized as a man who was like the evil people groups that God had commanded to be driven out of the promised land. What judgement did God allow to happen in the fifth year of his reign?
9. There are more details about this situation written in the Chronicles and what this event meant for the southern kingdom. What do we learn about the two kingdoms in verse 30?
10. Rehoboam was not on the throne as long as Jeroboam. How long did he reign before he died, and his son Abijam (or Abijah) took the throne?
