The falling away from the Lord in a divided kingdom
Jeroboam rejected the Spirit and rejoiced in the flesh – to his detriment.
1 Kings 13: A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam
1 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings.
2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, "O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: 'Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.'"
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: 'Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.'"
4 And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.
5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 And the king said to the man of God, "Entreat now the favour of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me." And the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before.
7 And the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward."
8 And the man of God said to the king, "If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place,
9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.'"
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
The Prophet's Disobedience
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king.
12 And their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
13 And he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it.
14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am."
15 Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."
16 And he said, "I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place,
17 for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.'"
18 And he said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he lied to him.
19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back.
21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command that the LORD your God commanded you,
22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"
23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.
25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD spoke to him."
27 And he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it.
28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey.
29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!"
31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.
32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass."
33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places.
34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.
1 Kings 14: Prophecy Against Jeroboam
1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, "Arise, and disguise yourself, that it not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said of me that I should be king over this people.
3 Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what shall happen to the child."
4 Jeroboam's wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.
5 And the LORD said to Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her." When she came, she pretended to be another woman.
6 But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with unbearable news for you.
7 Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israel
8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes,
9 but you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back,
10 therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.
11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat, for the LORD has spoken it."'
12 Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die.
13 And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
14 Moreover, the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam today. And henceforth,
15 the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger.
16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin."
17 Then Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.
18 And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
The Death of Jeroboam
19 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
20 And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. And he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
Rehoboam Reigns in Judah
21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite.
22 And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
26 He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made,
27 and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.
28 And as often as the king went into the house of the LORD, the guard carried them and brought them back to the guardroom.
29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Abijam his son reigned in his place.
Things to think about…
1. 1 Kings 13:1-10. We are told a man of God came from Judah to Bethel. We don’t know his name, just that he was a man of God. He was certainly that, but ultimately also disobeyed the Lord in returning to Bethel. His word came to pass immediately. But more than this he spoke of a man by the name of Josiah who would come. Josiah came over 250 years after this point and destroyed the gold idol that had lead Judah and Israel astray. Sadly, Jeroboam did not consider the immediate mercy and grace of God in healing him and continued to rebel and worship idols. The altar was torn down and ashes poured out as prophesied 1Kings 13:5, but Jeroboam would harden his heart and rebuild the altar. The gold calf and altar at Dan also still remained.
2. I am always intrigued every time I read the story of the old prophet who lived at Bethel and how he lied to a fellow prophet, 1Kings 13:18, to convince the man of God to stay with him. The prophet returned only to be judged by being eaten by a lion. Firstly, why didn’t the old prophet who lived at Bethel speak out against the gold calf and altar that Jeroboam built? Why did it take an ‘out of towner’ to do it? I think we are sometimes blind to our own local cultural sins. It’s a bit like Lot and the influence Sodom had upon him and his family. The old prophet, even though he lied, was still a prophet and pronounced judgement on the man of God, 1Kings 13:21,22. The Lord still spoke through him in pronouncing judgement against the man of God who disobeyed the Lord. Those who are teachers are more strictly judged, Jam 3:1.
3. Jeroboam should have feared the Lord and obeyed His commandments as he was instructed in 1Kings 11:29-39. If he did, his throne would have been established. He didn’t listen and his throne was not established. Jeroboam remembers the prophet Ahijah and sends his wife to Shiloh to enquire about their sick son, 1Kings 14:1-3. But even in the Lord’s judgement there is mercy. As a sign that the word of the Lord is true his child would die when his wife returned from seeing the prophet. Please note the description the Lord gives of this child, “in him there is found something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel”, 1 Kings14:13. What a wonderful comfort. This child died but went to be with the Lord. I believe this text is a confirmation of God’s true heart of love and compassion for children and a comfort all those who have lost children in infancy. Our loving, merciful God takes them to be with Him. What a comfort in a time of grief.
4. The author of 1Kings returns us to the southern kingdom, this will be done throughout 1st and 2nd Kings as is the case in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Rehoboam lost all the glory and wealth of Judah in less than one generation, 1 Kings14:21. Israel and Judah had both become secular nations and were now only worthy of judgement. Rehoboam still tries to cling hold of his father’s former glory and wealth. The shields of gold which were taken by the king of Egypt are replaced with shields of bronze and Rehoboam had these guarded, 1 Kings 14:27. One may ask for what purpose, but only to have them displayed when he went to the house of the Lord. It’s a rather pathetic picture. Gold replaced by bronze for the shields. Looks the same but clearly not. The glory and blessing of the Lord had departed from him and here he desperately tries to cling to his crumbling kingdom. May our trust only be in the Lord and not in the arm of flesh or the glories of a past life.
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CBC’s Vision :- To be a growing biblical church community, significantly influencing our city and beyond, through intentional outreach, fulfilling our mission.
Life groups Wednesdays. 6:30pm every Wednesday. 5:30pm prayer.
Prayer Points
1. A new admin and finance officer for CBC. Pray for God’s choosing in this role.
2. Prayer for Israel, Gaza and Lebanon for peace to descend over the region.
3. Pray for the work we have going on with site development and TMR and the development of a project team.
4. Keep praying for PlayPatch on Fridays, pray for more families to be reached.
5. Pray for Chaplaincy and Kids Hope at Karalee State School.
6. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
7. Church finances to continue to grow and expenses to be more than met.
8. Pray for Kids@Church, Life groups. Young Adults.
9. Mathys has a prayer time at church on Wednesday afternoons, 5:30pm at church. He would be happy for you to join him and to send prayer requests.
10. That we be bold in our witnessing for Christ. Pray for a heart to see those around you to be saved. Pray for the blessing over the new pastoral care and hosting program.
11. Growth, conversions, joy in the Word and Spirit to increase.
Praise Points
1. Faithful p[reaching Andrew Otte.
2. More new visitors on Sunday. Pray they feel welcomed in the church
3. Café, music, sound and technical team every week
4. Joy, peace and grace we see at CBC. Thankyou Lord
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2. PlayPatch Friday mornings – 9:30am. Contact Anna for details
3. Prayer meeting 5:30pm and Life Group Wednesday 6:30pm at church.
4. Carols Sunday 22nd Dec starting from 3pm.
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Catechism questions for November...
Q. 26. Who tempted them to this sin? A. The devil tempted Eve, and she gave the fruit to Adam.
