14:25-31
Egypt attacked Judah, and carried off the gold treasures. Rehoboam replaced these with bronze shields, a clearly inferior substitute, this is what happens when man abandons god’s ways.
We get another reference to the “annals of the kings of judah”. His reign involved constant warfare between him and Jeroboam. He died and was succeeded by his son Abijah.
14:1-3
Having gone against the Lord Jeroboam is now in a mess, and he is leading the nation in a wrong direction. We now see that his sin Abijah is ill. Despite his disobedience he knows that Gis is his only hope. Yet he is scared of God, much like Adam and Eve hid from God after they had sinned. So he gets his wife to go to Ahijah the prophet, who had earlier spoken to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11)
Ahijah was blind, but God could still speak to him, and told him what was happening. A man dedicated to God can see better than any rebellious man. So he knew that Jeroboam's wife was coming, pretending to be someone else, he also gave him a word for the king.
14:4-16
So Jeroboam’s wife did as her husband had told her, disguised. Although Ahijah could not see, the Lord had told him that she would come. So when she arrived he knew exactly who she was and why she had come. He also told her that he had bad news for her. The boy would die when she went back home, Israel would mourn for him and bury him. The Lord would raise up a new king, who would cut off the family of Jeroboam. He would also strike Israel and uproot it from the land. This would happen because of idolatry.
14:1-3
Having gone against the Lord Jeroboam is now in a mess, and he is leading the nation in a wrong direction. We now see that his sin Abijah is ill. Despite his disobedience he knows that Gis is his only hope. Yet he is scared of God, much like Adam and Eve hid from God after they had sinned. So he gets his wife to go to Ahijah the prophet, who had earlier spoken to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11)
Ahijah was blind, but God could still speak to him, and told him what was happening. A man dedicated to God can see better than any rebellious man. So he knew that Jeroboam's wife was coming, pretending to be someone else, he also gave him a word for the king.
14:4-16
So Jeroboam’s wife did as her husband had told her, disguised. Although Ahijah could not see, the Lord had told him that she would come. So when she arrived he knew exactly who she was and why she had come. He also told her that he had bad news for her. The boy would die when she went back home, Israel would mourn for him and bury him. The Lord would raise up a new king, who would cut off the family of Jeroboam. He would also strike Israel and uproot it from the land. This would happen because of idolatry.
14:17-20
Jeroboam’s wife went home and the son died as foretold, he was buried and mourned for. Jeroboam reigned for twenty two years and was succeeded by his son Nadab.
14:21-24
Attention now returns to Rehoboam, who was king in Judah, he reigned for seventeen years in Judah. His mother was an Ammonite. He was not a good king, for “Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Something may be fine in man’s eyes but if it is not fine in god’s eyes we are in trouble. They were heavily into idolatry, setting up many high places and asherah poles. There were male prostitutes in the land, and the nation became just like the nations, who had been driven out. So Judah would also be driven out.. Being “like the nations” is nor what we are meant to be.
13:23-32
The man of God set off home, but was met by a lion and killed. News of the event reached the old prophet , and he set out to see what had happened. He had had no wish to see the man of God die, but his actions had contributed to it happening. Even so, the man of God was responsible for his own death. He had some remorse as he sought to give the man a decent burial, he also recognised that the words the man had spoken against the high places would come true.
13:33-34
Jeroboam, however, did not listen to the man’s word, but continued in his evil ways, appointing priests for the high places. This would lead to his own downfall, and that of the whole nation. The essence of this is the importance of the word of God, it is futile to go against the word of God.
13:15-17
When he caught up with him he invited him home, knowing that this was against what God had told the man. We should always respect another man’s conscience and never try to make them do something against what they believe God wants them to do. Once again the man of God refuses.
13:18-22
The Old Prophet then claimed to know better than the man of God, saying, untruthfully, that \god had spoken to him. If we know that God has spoken to us we should not allow ourselves to be intimidated, even by folk claiming to speak the word of God. The man of God was taken in by the old prophet. The old prophet did then speak the word of God, condemning the man of God for his disobedience, saying he would die because of it.
13:1-6
I find this to be a most disheartening event. We have just seen Jeroboam get things badly wrong, now we see a man of God get things wrong. \the man was sent by God from Judah to confront Jeroboam. The man of God foretells the coming of Josiah, and the judgement upon Jeroboam. The essence of the warning is that the high places will come to nothing. Jeroboam has acted in disobedience to\god and when we do that our plans will not succeed. Jeroboam tried to nullify the prophet by having the man arrested, but when he held out his hand it became leprous and the altar crumbled. Man cannot overcome god. Indeed, part of the word of the prophet was immediately fulfilled.Jeroboam now pleaded with the prophet to ask God to restore his hand. He at least realised that the man had a connection with the Lord. The prophet did this, and the king’s hand was restored.`
13:9-14
The king now realised that the man was indeed a man of God, and so invited him home, offering him a meal and a gift.However the man of God refused, because he had been told by god not to eat bread or drink water, and not to return home by the way that he came, and he acted in obedience to God’s command. So all looks well at this stage, but trouble is going to come, and through an “old prophet”. We need to be especially on our guard when we have just obeyed the Lord, or won a victory, for we are then most vulnerable. The “Old Prophet” knew what the man of god had done and said. Hechased after the man of God.
