>> Jen: Good morning faithful listeners. Thank you for tuning in to the Bible Explained podcast this morning. Today we're in the book of, uh, first kings, and we're talking about 1 kings 15 and a king that is not very well known in Israel's history because he was only king for like a year and a half approximately. So this is the story of Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, and he does not have a very bright future. So let's talk about 1 Kings 15:25 through
34. As I usually do, I'll be reading from the web, but make sure to grab your favorite Bible version and also your cup of coffee or a cup of tea this morning. And if you're looking for a good delicious coffee brand, I highly recommend seven Weeks Coffee. It's the coffee brand that supports life in the womb. They've been able to raise, I think, over $600,000 for pregnancy centers across the US and they only got started three years ago, so they are doing
fantastic work. And when you use my link to purchase some seven weeks coffee, 10% will benefit a pregnancy center in the US and also another 10% will benefit P40 ministries. All right, now that you have your delicious cup of seven weeks coffee, let's go ahead and read. First Kings 15:25 34 Nadab, the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah. And he
reigned over Israel for two years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he walked in the way of his father, and in the sin in which he made Israel to sin, Baasha the son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. For Nadab and all of Israel were besieging Gibbethon. Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha killed him and reigned in his place. As soon as he was king,
he struck all the house of Jeroboam. He didn't leave to Jeroboam any who breathed until he had destroyed him. According to the saying of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilanite, for the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and with which he made Israel to sin, became his provocation, with which he provoked Yahweh the God, uh of Israel, to anger.
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, there was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, all their days. In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah for 24 years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he walked in the way of Jeroboam in his sin, in which he made Israel to sin.
So, quick recap. Before we begin, you'll remember that Israel is in the middle of a civil war, and Israel split into two separate countries. So the 10 northern tribes of Israel are now considered to be Israel, and then the two southern tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin, are considered to be Judah. So Israel and Judah have split off into their own separate
entities. And Israel, the northern country, is experiencing a lot of trouble because Jeroboam, their king, their first king, caused Israel to sin because he set up all sorts of temples for worship of idols, and he created his own religion that he wanted Israel to follow because he was concerned that the Israelites would travel down to Judah to visit Jerusalem, which was where
the temple of God, uh was. So Jeroboam made his own religion, and he caused Israel to sin with these golden calves that he made in Israel. So Israel is experiencing a lot of trouble, and so is Jeroboam, because actually, Jeroboam's son, as we found out in the last chapter, First Kings 14, his son was on the brink of death. Jeroboam sends his wife to go to a prophet that he
knew. And this prophet that he sent his wife to, who was named Ahijah, was actually the same prophet who had, years beforehand, told Jeroboam that he was going to be the king of Israel, and that Israel was going to experience a split and a civil war. So Jeroboam sends his wife down to Ahijah, because even though Jeroboam created his own religion, he clearly didn't really believe it himself, because when the crap hit the fan, he turned to Yahweh. He was looking for answers from the
truth, from Yahweh. And that's why he sent his wife to visit the prophet Hijah in the last chapter. So now, going to First Kings 14 and rereading what Ahijah says to Jeroboam's wife. Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, because Ahijah was blind. And he said, come in, Jeroboam's wife. Why do you Pretend to be another. Because Jeroboam's wife, it was very uncool and possibly there was, like, some persecution happening.
It was not cool for people to visit prophets to Yahweh, So she actually dressed up as somebody else. But of course, the prophet, who's blind, knew immediately who she was because he was in communication with God, uh. So he says, I am sent to tell you heavy news. Which is funny because, you know, Jeroboam's wife actually came to visit him. But he's like, I was sent to you. He says, go tell
Jeroboam. Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, says, because I exalted you from among the people and made you a prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from David's house and gave it to you, and yet you have 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 my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods and 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 Jeroboam from everyone who urinates on a wall, meaning all men, because only men can, you know, urinate 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. So God, uh actually calls Jeroboam's family dung. And it's not because they themselves have no value as
people. Every single human being has value. Otherwise God, uh wouldn't have sent his son into the earth to die for all people. But the Jeroboam's heart and his actions were like dung. And the same goes for his sons. Because actually, in second Chronicles chapter 11, it mentions what happened when Jeroboam made all of those idols, uh, for Israel to worship. Second Chronicles 11, starting in verse 14, it says the Levites abandoned their pasture lands and property and came to Judah and
Jerusalem. So they moved from Israel because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols which he had made. So it says that Jeroboam and his sons were a part of this plan to make all of these molten images and idols for the people of Israel to worship, so that they didn't have to go to Judah to worship Yahweh.
And so that's why God, uh considers the house of Jeroboam to be like dung, because their actions were basically that. So moving back to first Kings 14 with Ahijah talking to Jeroboam's wife, he says he's going to, Yahweh is going to sweep Jeroboam's house away 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. So I actually want to set the record straight because I made a mistake. I mentioned that Jezebel was one of the people who her body was eaten by dogs. But I had forgotten all of the mutinies and dynasties that Israel actually went through and completely forgot that Jezebel was not related to Jeroboam. So this prophecy was actually not talking about Jezebel, though we will talk about Jezebel in the next coming
chapters. Her story is coming up pretty soon. But yeah, she was not related to Jeroboam, so this prophecy wouldn't have been talking about her. But God, uh did say here that all of Jeroboam's sons were going to die in this brutal way and they weren't going to experience a proper burial of any sort. Their bodies would just be lying out in the fields to rot in
front of everybody, basically. But what ended up happening in the rest of this, Ahijah, uh, tells Jeroboam's wife that when she enters back into her home city, her child would die. The one that was sick, he was going to die. But that's because God, uh found something good in that particular son of Jeroboam. And that son was going to be the only one to experience a property honorable burial. And we talked about that a couple weeks ago when we discussed
1st Kings 14. And that was God's judgment on Jeroboam for all of these sins that he caused Israel to commit. And God, uh does judge leaders a lot more harshly than he does the average person. Actually James chapter 3, verse 1 talks about teachers being judged more harshly. You know, teachers of the word of God, uh. James 3 says, not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that he who teaches will be judged more strictly.
The reason God, uh judges teachers and leaders more harshly is because they are leading people and they're leading people spiritually. And Jeroboam did a lot of spiritual harm to Israel. That caused them to completely go astray from Yahweh. And as we know, God, uh hates spiritual death. He hates it. And everything God, uh does in Scripture, He takes steps towards making sure people don't
die a spiritual death. And so Jeroboam was completely fighting against God, uh in this matter and was causing Israel to fall into this spiritual death, basically. So that is why God, uh judged Jeroboam and Jeroboam's sons so harshly. And so that takes me back to 1 Kings 15 with what happened to Nadab, Jeroboam's son, that took over as king. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, verse 25, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa, the king of Judah. And he reigned over
Israel for two years. And it was actually closer to like a year and a half. But based upon how, um, Hebrew language worked, they just attribute it to two years. Since it was more than one year. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he walked in the way of his Father with the sin in which he made Israel to sin, the spiritual death. So Baasha, the son of Ahijah, the house of Issachar, and this is not the same Ahijah that we were just talking about
in 1st Kings 14, the prophet. This is a, uh, different Ahijah. This was a guy from the house of Issachar. One of the tribes of Israel conspired against Nadab, and Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all of Israel were besieging Gibbethon. So in Nadab's first year into his second year of being the king, he decides he's going to go into Philistine territory and take this area of
Gibbethon. And you'll notice that Nadab had no desire in reversing any of the damage his father Jeroboam had done. Instead, Nadab's going into Philistine territory and trying to take this particular city. And you can imagine that if Nadab's heart was right with God, uh in that first year of him becoming king, he would have set people back on the path that leads to Yahweh again by destroying those idols and the temples that his dad put in place and doing things to incorporate Yahweh more
effectively into Israel. But he didn't focus on that. He didn't care about that. He cared about other things. But God, uh did give Nadab a full year to repent and turn from his sins. But Nadab did not do it. So now everything that God, uh said that was going to happen to Jeroboam's house and his sons ends up happening here in Gibbethon while Nadab is trying to take it. It says that Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place.
So Baasha was apparently one of the fighting men, possibly a military leader of Nadab's. And Baasha decides that he wants to become king, and so he kills Nadab. It says as soon as he became the king, he struck all the house of Jeroboam. So he killed
them all. He didn't leave to Jeroboam any that breathed until he had destroyed them, according to the saying of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilanite, for the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and with which he made Israel to sin because of his provocation, with which he provoked Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger. Now, this is kind of a side note, but I thought it's something that I
actually want to address here. We Talked recently about First uh, Corinthians 13, you know, the love chapter where Paul talks about what true love really is on the New Testament side of stuff. Well, one of the things love is not is it is not provoked to anger. And you might be like, oh, well, in 1st Kings 15 here it actually says that God, uh was provoked to anger because of Jeroboam's sins. So is that a contradiction in Scripture? Because
we know that God, uh is love. And if love is not easily provoked to anger, then how is it that God, uh is provoked to anger here with Jeroboam's sins? Well, the short answer is that there's two different types of anger. There is a righteous anger and there is an unrighteous anger. And the anger that Paul is talking about in first uh, 1 Corinthians 13 is the unrighteous sort of anger. The anger we just feel at people when they do something to hurt us
personally, like our pride is hurt. And we're angry that they did that to us. Like, how dare they treat us like that? That is the unrighteous kind of anger because it is self focused and it is prideful. But the anger that God, uh experiences in First Kings 15 is the righteous form of anger. I mean, what did I just talk about? God, uh was angry at Jeroboam because Jeroboam was causing the people that God, uh loved so deeply to fall into spiritual darkness and sin and
death. And Jeroboam was deeply responsible for a lot of that. And so God, uh, in his love for his people who are dying in their sins, becomes angry, righteously angry at Jeroboam for causing all of that corruption and all of that sin. So there is two types of anger. An unrighteous, sinful type of anger and a righteous, good kind of anger. And so whenever we see God, uh feeling anger, it's the latter form of
anger. So, yes, if you're wondering about first uh, 1 Corinthians 13 and being provoked to anger, Paul is talking about sinful, prideful anger. But Moving forward, in 1 Kings 15, Baasha strikes down Nadab and his entire family, the entire family of Jeroboam. And then it says in verse 31, now, the rest of the Acts of Nadab and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel? Which is interesting, because Nadab isn't mentioned at all in the Book of Chronicles. Uh, well, he is. He actually is very briefly mentioned in, like, the genealogies, but his reign is actually not mentioned at all in the Chronicles. In fact, the Chronicles almost exclusively talk about the kings of Judah, and barely at all the kings of Israel. First and second Kings go a lot more in depth with the kings of Israel. So then why does it say that Nadab is mentioned in the Chronicles
if he is not? Well, probably because the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel was a different book that never became part of the Old Testament because the Chronicles focus mainly on, uh, the kings of Judah. And you'll notice if you go back to 1 Kings 14, again, at the very bottom, it talks about Rehoboam, who was the son of Solomon and also the first king of Judah. It mentions, after he died in verse 29, the rest of the Acts of Rehoboam and all that he did.
Aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel are two separate books. And it seems that the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel never made it into the Old Testament canon. So this is just another book that the Scriptures mention that isn't a
part of Scripture. Similarly to the, uh, Book of Jasher that is briefly mentioned, uh, a handful of times in two Samuel, I think Scripture will reference other books that aren't actually part of Scripture. So now Nadab is dead, and that ends the first dynasty of Israel. And Baasha comes in as the second dynasty of Israel. And there's going to be nine dynasties of Israel, whereas Judah only has one dynasty the entire time, and that dynasty, obviously is the
house of David. But Israel is going to experience a lot of violence, a lot of wars, a lot of infighting, and a lot of different dynasties because they are just constantly rebelling against God, uh and not doing what they should be doing. So in verse 33 to end 1st Kings 15, it says, in the third year of Asa, the king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah, began to reign over all of Israel and Tirzah for
24 years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, in which he made Israel to sin. So that does not bode well for Baasha because God, uh judged Jeroboam and Jeroboam's family for what they had done and the spiritual sins that they caused Israel to commit. And it looks like Baasha is doing the exact same thing. He's becoming an evil king that had a very long reign for the most part, but caused Israel to sin in the exact same ways as
Jeroboam did. So we'll see how God, uh responds to Baasha in the next couple chapters. Faithful listeners, I hope you've been enjoying the book of First Kings so far. I have been absolutely loving it. I really enjoy the books of First Kings and Second Kings and also the Chronicles as well. Some of my favorite books in the Old Testament. Just all the history and the, you know, the mercy of God, uh being shown in, like
every chapter is just really amazing. And I'm really excited to get into the story and the life of Elijah as well in the next couple chapters here. So stay tuned for all of that. But tomorrow we'll be in the book of First uh, Corinthians and we'll be still discussing chapter 15, not finishing it tomorrow, but still discussing the chapter. And I hope to see all of you guys there tomorrow, 6am or whenever you choose to wake up and listen. Happy listening and God, uh bless.