>> Jen: Happy day before Thanksgiving, faithful listeners. I am excited that you're here to share a cup of coffee with me. We're going to be talking about the death of Jeroboam today and these terrible prophecies that take place right before he dies. So this will be a great Thanksgiving episode. I'm teasing you guys, but anyway, we'll be reading 1st Kings 14 today.
Advent starts on Sunday. It is officially basically the Christmas season after tomorrow, which is really both exciting and also horrible because this year just, like, flew past. I don't know where this year went, but, uh, it's gone now because it's Advent on Sunday. You still have time to grab your Advent devotional for
teenage girls. I especially recommend this devotional if you have teenage girls, or if you are a teenage girl listening into the podcast, you're definitely going to want to partake in the Adore Teen Girls Guide to Advent. It's a great little study and I hope you guys check it out. Now, tomorrow there will be an episode, and also Friday there will be an episode for you members as well. Everything's going to be scheduled as normal, but for today, let's go ahead and read 1 Kings 14:1 through
20 today. And I was teasing you guys at the beginning of this episode that this is a great Thanksgiving episode, which it's not because it's not really talking about Thanksgiving, but it's definitely explaining why we should be having Thanksgiving for Yahweh and how King Jeroboam just didn't. In fact, he cast Yahweh behind his back. So let's talk about the prophecies against Jeroboam today and also how Jeroboam dies. This is 1 Kings 14:1 through 20. I'll be reading from the web.
At that time, Abijah, uh, the son of Jeroboam, became sick. Jeroboam said to his wife, please get up in disguise yourself so that you won't be recognized as Jeroboam's wife. Go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said that I would be king over this people. Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child. Jeroboam's wife did so and arose and went to
Shiloh and came to Ahijah's house. Now Ahijah, uh, could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age. Yahweh said to Ahijah, behold, Jeroboam's Wife is coming to inquire of you regarding her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such, for it will be when she comes in that she will pretend to be another woman. So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, come in, Jeroboam's wife. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news.
Go tell Jeroboam. Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, says, because I exalted you from among the people and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from David's house and gave it to you, and you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all of his heart to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods
molten images to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back. Therefore behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up, and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away dung until it is all gone. The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam and who dies in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat he who
dies in the field. For Yahweh has spoken it. Arise, therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover, Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel, who will
cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day what even now for Yahweh will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking Yahweh to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam which he has sinned and with which he has made Israel to
sin. Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to Yahweh's word, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah. Ah, the prophet. The rest of the Acts of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he reigned. Behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. The days which
Jeroboam reigned were 22 years. Then he slept with his fathers, and Nadab, his son, reigned in his place. So we're going to have some names we have to remember here, because there's an Abijah and then there's two Ahijahs. Uh, I'm going to talk about today, so I'm going to have to keep my name straight, so forgive me if I accidentally say the wrong name, but it says here that Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. And elsewhere in this chapter, it mentions that Abijah the son of Jeroboam was a
child. So I would guess he was a young man, maybe a younger teenage boy. He was probably also next in line for the throne. So Jeroboam is very distraught because Abijah is sick. So Jeroboam says to his wife in verse two, get up and disguise yourself so that you won't be recognized as my wife. Go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the Prophet is there who said that I would be king over this people. Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him.
He will tell you what will become of the child. So Jeroboam asks his wife to go in disguise to meet Ahijah the prophet. And Ahijah was mentioned a couple chapters ago, back when Solomon was still alive. Ahijah came to visit Jeroboam and prophesied that Jeroboam was going to be the king of Israel. So Jeroboam probably trusted Ahijah because everything that Ahijah had said previously did
actually end up happening. But notice that Jeroboam does not go to his idols for help in this moment, even though Jeroboam was the guy who sets up all the Asherah poles and makes all of these temples to false idols and is sacrificing at the altars and everything. Jeroboam doesn't believe any of it. In fact, it was pretty clear that Jeroboam basically did all of that for political gain. Not really, because he believed it himself. And so when the crap hits the fan, who does Jeroboam go to?
He goes to Yahweh, because Jeroboam knows that Yahweh is truly the only source of truth. But he asks his wife to go in disguise. And that shows right there that it was very much uncool for a king or probably anybody to seek out a prophet. During these days of Israel, there's probably some persecution of prophets happening. A lot of the prophets left Israel. A lot of the priests, like the Levites, all left
Israel to go down to Judah. And even in the last chapter, when that one prophet, the man of God, uh, came up from Judah to prophesy against Jeroboam and against Israel, Jeroboam had no problem trying to kill the guy. So there was certainly a persecution of prophets happening. And it was not looked at favorably for somebody to go to a prophet. So Jeroboam's wife does. Everything that Jeroboam asks is that she takes the gifts with her, you know, this, uh, loaves of bread, the cakes and the jar of
honey. She goes in disguise. She goes to Shiloh, which was not very far away. Shiloh was located towards the south of Israel, so it wouldn't be a very far journey. Jeroboam's wife wouldn't have to go all the way into Judah. She would just have to travel a little bit to get to Shiloh. But the other thing is, you might wonder, especially if you listen to Monday's episode, why didn't God, uh use Ahijah, uh, the prophet, more often if he was just located pretty close in
Shiloh? Well, because it says here that Ahijah was very old. In fact, he couldn't see because of how blind he was from age. So he was in no shape to be traveling or to be acting as a prophet, the way, uh, the prophets typically would act in these days. But anyway, Ahijah, uh, knows that Jeroboam's wife is coming because Yahweh talks to him. Yahweh said to Ahijah, behold, Jeroboam's wife is coming to inquire of you
concerning her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such, for it will be when she comes in that she will pretend to be another woman. So he just sitting there waiting for Jeroboam's wife. She comes through the door, he hears her footfalls, and he immediately says, come in, Jeroboam's wife. And I'm sure that Jeroboam's wife was, like, shocked, you know, that, um, she was immediately recognized by this elderly man who couldn't see. But of course, she was recognized because God, uh had a
message for her. And God, uh sees all. You can't hide from God, uh. You can't put on a disguise in front of God, uh. He knows everything. So Ahijah, uh, the prophet says, come in Jeroboam's wife, and we don't know her name. Scripture doesn't say, why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. So that's the other thing. Jeroboam's wife thinks that she's going to Ahijah to get this prophecy. But it turns out Ahijah was actually
sent to her. So all of this was orchestrated by God, uh. And that is what Jeroboam's wife is now learning. So now the prophecy comes and it's bad news is what Ahijah, uh, says. He says, I have some heavy news for you. He says, I have some heavy news for you. And what's funny, it doesn't even seem like Jeroboam's wife has said more than a word at this point in time. And she's just getting, you know, all of this information.
So he just says, go and tell Jeroboam. Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, says, because I exalted you from among the people and made you prince over my people, Israel, and tore the kingdom away from David's house and gave it to you. Which is exactly what God, uh did. He took the kingdom away from Solomon because of the evil things that Solomon did. Solomon was a great king financially for Israel, but he was a terrible king spiritually for Israel. He
caused a lot of problems. In fact, he did some of what Jeroboam did. Um, he put up false idols and temples for these false gods. And that was the reason why God, uh split the kingdom into two and made it Israel and Judah because of the sins of Solomon. And God, uh told Jeroboam when all of this took place, he said, don't do the same thing that Solomon does, because if you do, I'm going to take the kingdom away from you as
well. But Jeroboam didn't listen, didn't care about the things of God, uh until it really mattered to him. And so now God, uh has this heavy prophecy, he says, because you weren't like David, my servant, who kept my commandments and who followed me with all of his heart. You know, this is God, uh being very generous and very kind to David in this moment because, you know, David was a sinner. We've seen several sins that David committed, but yet David's heart was different from other
people's. David's heart truly wanted the things of God, uh. And when he sinned, he always humbled himself and he always said, I am sorry, Yahweh, for I sinned. And it wasn't because David was upset about the punishment that he was going to get for that sin. It was because he was truly sorry, unlike the other kings. You know Solomon, who came before David whenever he sinned? Yeah, he said he was sorry, but that was only because he was upset that he got found out and caught.
So David just had a different heart. And so God, uh warned Jeroboam way ahead of time, be like my servant David, who followed me with his entire heart. Be like that. Don't be like Solomon, he says, but because you didn't, because you have done evil above all who were before you, Jeroboam, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images to provoke me to anger and have cast me behind
your back. Therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall. That sounds funny, but that basically just means every man in Jeroboam's house. Because obviously men are the ones who can urinate on a wall and women cannot. But the point still stands that God, uh is going to basically destroy Jeroboam's line. He's going to cut off everybody. And this took some time. God, uh did not do this
immediately. Israel still was around for the next 300 years or so until Babylon came in. But God, uh was sharing a future prophecy that Jeroboam's line was going to be gone completely. And that's because of Jeroboam's sin. Now, God, uh did tell Jeroboam, hey, if you do what I tell you to do, then I will actually establish your throne forever. So it's the same exact thing that God, uh always tells people. If you do what I tell you to do, if you keep my commandments, things will go well
for you. If you don't do what I tell you to do, and, uh, if you don't keep my commandments, things will go very poorly for you. And that still stands even today. Now, God, uh doesn't always bless us with physical blessings. You know, the gospel message is not the gospel of Joel Osteen. You know, Joel Osteen is the guy that's like, if you follow God, uh, all these great things are going to happen to you. You're going to be healthy, you're going to be well, you're going to be wealthy. That's
not true. Problems do happen. Even Jesus experienced problems. But things will go well for us a different way. Things will go spiritually well for us. And when things go spiritually well for us, it's amazing how things just start to line up in your life. You know, I always say whenever I feel depressed and I sit down and read the Bible, I just stop feeling depressed. It's like magic. But then I don't do that whenever I'm feeling depressed. I don't actually just
sit down with my Bible, even though I know it's going to work. I, uh, go and do something else. I watch TV or I eat something or I cope in some other way. But I never sit down and read my Bible. But it really is a miracle the way it takes depression and, like, anger and all these other feelings that you have, it, uh, just takes them away. But going back to the story, Jeroboam did not do what God, uh told him to do. And so now the punishment is happening.
God, uh says all these men of Jeroboam's line are going to be gone. The same way that a man sweeps away dung is the way I'm going to sweep away Jeroboam's house. God, uh actually calls Jeroboam's house dung. He calls them crap because of the way they were acting, not because they themselves were crap, but because of their actions and their hearts. He says the dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam, who dies in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field. For Yahweh has
spoken it. Now this happened. We know that Jezebel actually died in the city and dogs did come and eat her body. But anyway, to conclude the prophecy, Ahijah, uh, the prophet tells Jeroboam's wife, arise, therefore go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will die. All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, in the house of
Jeroboam. That's a really curious verse because it kind of sounds like this little boy, Abijah, uh, was more in line with God, uh, and God, uh actually liked him and liked his heart a little bit. It says, all of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh. Now, what that means will come to the grave. Abijah, out of all of Jeroboam's children, he was the only one that was going to go to the
grave. In other words, be buried in an honorable way worthy of a king, basically. And that's because God, uh found something good in Abijah. You might be wondering, well, why did God, uh kill him? Why didn't God, uh just let him become the next king? Well, because God, uh sometimes will take people away early in this life so that they don't have to go through something terrible. Isaiah 57:1 says, Good people pass away. The godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder
why. No one seems to understand that God, uh is protecting them from the evil to come. Now, as we saw in this prophecy, there's a lot of evil coming to the house of Jeroboam, a lot of violence and a lot of really nasty things. Perhaps God, uh was sparing this boy Abijah from having a life filled with this evil here on this earth. And so God, uh took him early. There was another king, actually that God, uh did this with as
well. A very good king. In fact, the best king Israel probably had, possibly even better than David. King Josiah. In 2 Kings 22, verses 18 through 20, this is a prophetess speaking. She says, tell the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD. This is what the LORD, the God, uh of Israel, says concerning the words you heard. Because your heart was responsive and because you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people,
that they would become a curse and be laid to waste. And because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place. So Josiah actually died pretty young. And that was God, uh actually showing Josiah a, uh, mercy. Because directly after Josiah dies, basically Babylon comes in and destroys Israel.
So God, uh took Josiah early and that was a mercy to him. Sometimes we just don't understand why God, uh takes people before their time. But m, there is a reason God, uh actually says that he cares very deeply about the death of his people. And God, uh also knows the reality of life after death in a way that you and I just can never understand until we actually get there. We don't have that same understanding of life after death the way
that God, uh does. And it sounds here, going back to 1 Kings 14, that little Abijah, this child There was something good God, uh saw in him. And as a mercy toward him, God, uh actually took his life. But not only was this a mercy to Abijah, it was also a punishment to Jeroboam as well, because Jeroboam was a nasty guy, and God, uh was punishing Jeroboam for all the evil that he did. So Jeroboam had to see his young son's life get cut short because of the evil that Jeroboam himself
did. And that should have weighed very heavily on Jeroboam, but I don't know if it did. Verse 14. Moreover, Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day what even now for Yahweh will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and he will scatter them beyond the river because they made their Asherah poles, provoking
Yahweh to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam which he has sinned and with which he has made Israel to sin. So that phrase the sins of Jeroboam is going to pop up a lot more because Jeroboam was the start of all of the sins of Israel. And so every time we see a king of Israel basically arise, in the next few chapters, they're going to follow in the sins of Jeroboam. And so that phrase is going to be repeated a lot in scripture. So after getting this bad news, Jeroboam's
wife arose, ah, and departed. And I'm sure she was crying through all of this, you know, I'm sure she was distraught. She comes to Tirzah, it says, as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. So basically, the moment she steps in Tirzah the city, her child does die. And it says all of Israel buried him and mourned for him. According to Yahweh's word, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah, uh, the prophet. In other words, little Abijah got a very honorable burial.
And that was God, uh doing that for Abijah, because God, uh saw something good in Abijah, and because God, uh does care deeply about the death of his people. It says the rest of the Acts of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he reigned. Behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. The days which Jeroboam reigned were 22 years. Then he slept with his fathers, and Nadab, his
son, reigned in his place. Now, this phrase slept with his fathers, that doesn't always necessarily mean that those people go to heaven, because a lot of kings after this who are very evil and, uh, who are clearly not righteous people and are not saved, it says that they slept with their father. So that just means that they died. But it says that Jeroboam reigned for 22 years, and then he died. He actually died
in battle against Israel. So if you go to 2nd Chronicles 13, I'm just going to read a little bit of this, verses 1 through 3. It says in the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah. So there's the second Abijah. I think I said Ahijah earlier. I don't. I don't know. Everybody's named the same these days. So there was Jeroboam, there was Rehoboam, now there's Abijah and Ahijah. Anyway, Abijah was the son of Rehoboam, the king of
Judah. And now Abijah is the new king of Judah and Jeroboam still the king of Israel. It says that Abijah reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000, uh, able fighting men. Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with 800,000 able troops. So Jeroboam had exactly twice as many troops
as Abijah did. It says in verse 13, Jeroboam 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. 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, uh routed Jeroboam and all of Israel before
Abijah and Judah. The Israelites fled before Judah, and God, uh delivered them into their hands. Abijah and his troops inflicted heavy losses on them so that there were 500,000 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, uh of their ancestors. Abijah, uh, pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshnah 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. So yeah, Jeroboam, I thought initially that he died in battle, but now it's it doesn't look like that. It says that God, uh struck him down. And we don't know exactly how God, uh struck him down, but God, uh killed Jeroboam. God, uh was done with him because of all the evil that Jeroboam did. And Jeroboam lost some power as well at the end of his life.
So the moral of the story of Jeroboam is don't be like him. Do not reject Yahweh. Do not cast Yahweh behind your back just like a piece of trash. Don't do that. Because obviously things go well for the people who cry out to Yahweh. Even in second chronicles 13, that battle I just read about, Judah cried out to God, uh and God, uh rescued them and saved them, but did not rescue and save Israel at that time because Israel had rejected God, uh and thrown him behind their
backs. So that's the moral of Jeroboam's story. And my mom, I think, is writing a blog post about how the church, the modern day church, is very similar to Jeroboam's religion. And that's going to be a great blog post. I'm looking forward to putting that one up. Anyway, faithful listeners, I hope you all have a fantastic and wonderful Thanksgiving. There will be an episode
tomorrow. I decided to do one because I like you guys and also because I'm excited to talk about First uh, Corinthians, chapter 14 and the discussion of the gift of speaking in tongues a little bit more tomorrow. So there will be an episode tomorrow. So I hope you tune in 6am or whenever you choose to wake up to listen tomorrow because I know you all are going to sleep in and I know y'all are gonna stuff your faces full of turkey and delicious food, hopefully if you have the day
off. Anyway, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Wednesday. I'll see you guys tomorrow. And I'll also see you faithful members on Friday. There will be a Friday episode. As usual. Have a wonderful, fantastic rest of your evening. Happy listening and God, uh bless.