Jereboam evidently felt as though he was persona non-grata amongst the prophets, so when his son became ill and he needed help he sent his wife to the prophet Ahijah, and in disguise. He clearly knew that Ahijah was reliable, having earlier prophesied what would happen to Solomon's kingdom.
However, this subterfuge did not work as God spoke to the prophet what was happening. Men cannot defeat God! Ahijah then gave Jereboam's wife the word of God. This condemned him for his disobedience in not following the way of David. So disaster would come upon him and the nation. Moreover, the boy would die. The boy was the only one who would be buried in Israel, and the only one in whom the Lord found anything good. Now this seems rather strange to us that the boy's "reward" for this is to die.
The key lesson from all this is that ruler's need to know that they are there to fulfil God's commands, not follow their own way.
Meanwhile things were no better in Judah. Rehoboam set up all sorts of idols. It seems to be inferred that this is partly a result of Rehoboam being the son of an Ammonite woman. Egypy attacked Judah and took off the gold shields, along with other goods. So Rehoboam was reduced to using bronze shields, but then seemed to carry on as before. Rehoboam died and was succeeded by his son Abijah.
No comments:
Post a Comment