And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and go to Shiloh behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who told me that [I should be] king over this people.
Jeroboam had built a religion of his own for the ten tribes. Yet when his son Abijah falls ill, he sends his wife in disguise to a prophet of the LORD — so why turn to God only in a crisis, and why hide your face doing it?
The king does not send to the religion he invented. One writer points back to an earlier moment, when Jeroboam's hand dried up:
Although Jeroboam had set up a religion of his own invention for his people, it is clear that he had no real confidence in it himself. When his outstretched hand had dried up, he asked the man of God from Judah to pray to "the LORD your God" that his hand might be restored to normal use. Here too, when his son Abijah was sick, he sent his wife to the aged, now blind prophet Ahijah to find out what would become of him. His own religion might be useful for his political goals, but not when his body's working or his son's life was at stake! This same principle holds true of all religions that men have invented.
Commentators give more than one reason for the disguise. One writer lays them side by side:
In his distress Jeroboam's troubled spirit does not turn to the old prophet of Bethel, or to others like him in Israel. It turns to the LORD's prophet. That is not uncommon with sinners. It is a striking witness to the power of conscience, and a testimony to the influence of a righteous man in the middle of abounding evil. He is probably ashamed to let his subjects know that he preferred a prophet of the LORD to those of his own idolatrous system. So he sends his wife in disguise. Or the reason may be this: Abijah king of Judah had taken Shiloh, along with Bethel and other neighbouring towns (see 2 Chronicles 13:19), so it would then be in his enemy's territory. Or could it be that, conscious of guilt and afraid of bad news, he hoped to deceive the prophet?
Jeroboam remembers Ahijah as the man who once told him he would be king. One writer weighs what that memory shows, and what it misses:
Jeroboam acknowledges the man of God's ability and thinks he can help him. But one thing is lacking, the thing an unconverted soul always lacks — the awareness of having to do with God. It does not enter his mind that he is about to come before Him... God was not in his thoughts, so he does not take account of the connection between the prophet and the LORD. What the man of God had said had come to pass; therefore it was worth consulting him. Jeroboam would just as easily consult a fortune-teller.
A disguise assumes the one you meet can be fooled. Another writer sets Jeroboam's wife beside King Saul, who also went out in disguise at night:
So the king disguises himself, and under cover of night goes down with two companions to the place of the evil spirit, turning his back on the LORD at last. In the same way Jeroboam's wife pretended to be someone else when she came to the prophet. What madness it is to think of God as being just like ourselves, as though He could be deceived by a disguise! The night shines as the day to Him.
Shiloh was no random address:
It was at Shiloh that the ark had remained during the long period of the judges and the priesthood of Eli. People in Israel could call it to mind now that they could no longer go up to the temple at Jerusalem... Israel was now in troubled circumstances. Perhaps Ahijah had no more work to do at Shiloh than the old prophet had at Bethel. But there he stood apart from idolatry, ready to receive messages from God, who had placed His name there. How good it is in a day of ruin to remember what was there from the beginning! One can always find God there, for though His ways change from age to age, He Himself never changes.
The boy's illness strikes at the succession:
If this cherished son, his successor, should die, what would become of the monarchy he had thought to secure for himself by so much cunning? ... The LORD had assured Jeroboam of the kingdom, but he had preferred to secure it for himself by forsaking the LORD... He had not counted on death. His plans left out the one thing men can never escape, and they were about to be reduced to nothing.
- Hidden: The disguise admits his shame at consulting the LORD's prophet instead of his own system.
- Hollow: His invented religion served his politics, but not his son's sickbed. Every man-made religion fails that test.
- Half-hearted: He wanted Ahijah's news, not Ahijah's God. A fortune-teller would have done just as well.
- Hopeless: No costume fools the One to whom night shines like day.
- Helpless: His cunning never allowed for death. One sickbed reduced all his planning to nothing.
And take with thee ten loaves, and cakes, and a cruse of honey, and go to him he will tell thee what shall become of the lad.
King Jeroboam's son is dying, and he sends his wife to a prophet with bread, cakes and honey. He still believes God's word comes true, yet he sends her in disguise, with a present in hand — the way people approach a stranger.
One writer notes what is missing from the errand:
His wife, in disguise, goes to Shiloh. She does not go to ask prayer for the sick son. She goes to find out what would become of the child, as if consulting a fortune teller.
He respects the prophet's record without reckoning on the God behind it:
Jeroboam recognises the man of God's ability and thinks he can help him. One thing, however, is missing. An unconverted soul always lacks it: the awareness of dealing with God. It does not enter his mind that he is about to come before Him... Jeroboam would just as easily consult a fortune teller.
The ten loaves, the cakes and the honey are not lavish. Older translations read "cracknels" here — "a kind of cake that is not clearly identified" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). The gift itself is chosen to fit the disguise:
Bring him some presents, he says — not the kind that would suit the dignity of a queen, which would give us away. But after all, a present is always in order when someone goes to consult a prophet!
The same instinct appears in another king who sent gifts to a prophet:
Like Naaman, he was prepared to pay well for any benefit he might receive... That God is not a trader but a giver — and a very generous giver — seems a fact people find very hard to grasp. In every age people want to bargain with God: so much money or labour for so much blessing.
The king had a religion of his own close at hand. In this crisis he sends past it to a prophet of the Lord.
Jeroboam had set up a religion of his own invention for his people. Yet it is clear he had no real confidence in it himself... His own religion might be useful for his political goals. It was no use when his own body failed or his son's life was at stake. This same principle holds true of all religions that people invent.
The choice of Ahijah says something about the king, and something about the prophet:
Jeroboam's troubled spirit does not turn to the old prophet of Bethel, or to others like him in Israel. In his distress he turns to the Lord's prophet. This is not uncommon with sinners. It is a striking witness to the power of conscience, and a testimony to the influence of a righteous man while evil is everywhere.
The queen came dressed as an ordinary woman. The prophet named her as she stepped through the door.
A hypocrite never got pardon in the disguise of a saint. He will call you by your own name, even if you come to Him looking like someone who has repented. "Come in, wife of Jeroboam," said the prophet. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind the eyes of the Almighty. You may put your own eyes out, so that you do not see Him, but you can never blind His eyes so that He does not see you.
Jeroboam asked what would become of the boy. The answer was that he would die — yet one writer finds mercy in it for the child:
When God takes away one of His own by death it is not always in judgment. We see this when God took away the son of king Jeroboam. He did it because in him there was "found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel." In His goodness God took the lad away from the evil that was coming. It was His severity towards the wicked Jeroboam, but His goodness towards his son.
- Trouble drives him. A dying child sends Jeroboam past his own invented religion to the Lord's prophet. Man-made religion serves his politics. It is useless at a sickbed.
- Curiosity, not repentance. He asks what will happen, not for mercy. He consults the prophet the way others consult a fortune teller.
- A gift to trade with. The loaves, cakes and honey treat God as someone you can pay for an answer. He is a giver, not a trader.
- A disguise that changes nothing. The prophet names her at the door. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind God.
- Severity and goodness together. Judgment falls on Jeroboam's house. Yet God takes the one child with some good thing in him away from the evil that was coming.
And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. And Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
Jeroboam's wife does what her husband told her. She walks to Shiloh, to the house of the prophet Ahijah, whose eyes are too old to see her. A careful disguise meets a man with no eyes to fool.
This was not the first time the king looked past his own religion when something real was at stake:
Although Jeroboam had set up a religion of his own invention for his people, it is clear that he had no real confidence in it himself. When his outstretched hand dried up, he asked the man of God from Judah to pray to "the LORD your God" that his hand might work again… His own religion might serve his political goals. It was no use when his own body or his son's life was at stake! This same principle holds true of all religions that men have invented.
One writer traces the king's move to conscience, and gives two possible reasons for the disguise:
In his distress Jeroboam turns to the LORD's prophet, not to the old prophet of Bethel or others like him in Israel. That is not uncommon with sinners. It is a striking witness to the power of conscience, and to the influence of a righteous man while evil is everywhere. He was probably ashamed to have his subjects know that he preferred to consult a prophet of the LORD before those of his own idolatrous system, so he sends his wife in disguise… Or could it be that, conscious of guilt and afraid of bad news, he hoped to deceive the prophet?
Whatever the reason for the costume, the king had misjudged the One he was consulting:
Jeroboam had no sense at all that God is sovereign and knows everything. He wanted information from God, and thought he could fool God into giving it without knowing to whom He was giving it!
One writer looks at what never crossed the king's mind:
He remembers the prophet who told him he would be king over this people. One thing, however, is lacking, and an unconverted soul always lacks it: the awareness of having to do with God. It does not enter his mind that he is about to come before Him. If it were otherwise, could he be telling his wife to disguise herself? No, even this godless king could hardly think a disguise would hide him from God. But God was not in his thoughts, so he does not reckon with the link between the prophet and the LORD. The man of God's word had come true, so he was worth consulting. Jeroboam would as easily consult a fortuneteller.
Shiloh was where the tabernacle, Israel's old tent of worship, once stood. By Jeroboam's day it was a memory, not a centre of worship. That is why a faithful prophet could live there:
For the faithful who had to live among the ten tribes, at least the memory of the worship of former days remained, the first blessings tied to the presence of the tabernacle at Shiloh… Ahijah may have had no more to do at Shiloh than the old prophet at Bethel had to do. But there he stood clear of idolatry, and fit to receive messages from God, who had placed His name there. How good it is in a day of ruin to remember what was from the beginning! One can always find God there, for if His ways change in the different dispensations, He Himself never changes.
Age had dimmed Ahijah's eyes — older translations say they were "set", or fixed. That looks like the end of a man's usefulness. It was not:
But the prophet's dull eyes did not hinder his spiritual vision, as had been the case with Eli. He remained in direct connection with the Lord… Ahijah knew and saw because the Lord knew and saw. Blessing like this comes only through communion of heart with God… Our weaknesses do not stop God from speaking to us. Our worldliness and our disobedience do.
Jeroboam trusted this prophet's word about the future. He did not reckon with what else the prophet could see:
He could not see. His eyes were set, fixed because of his age. But God gave him to hear, and gave him to see what was unseen… What folly men show! Here was a man who could trust the prophet to tell him the future, and not to see through his wife's disguise. How great is the folly of the wise, for Jeroboam was a wise man in the ways of this world.
- Invented religion. Jeroboam's homemade worship suited his politics and was useless at a sickbed, so he sent past it to a prophet of the LORD.
- A disguise that failed. The costume was meant to hide a queen. It exposed a king who never reckoned he was dealing with God.
- Shiloh still. The old place where God had put His name was still clear of idolatry, because God Himself does not change.
- Blind eyes that saw. Age had fixed Ahijah's eyes, yet he knew and saw because the Lord knew and saw. Worldliness, not weakness, is what stops God speaking to us.
- The blind king. Jeroboam was clever enough to trust the prophecy, yet foolish enough to think a change of clothes could beat the God behind it.
And Jehovah said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee about her son; for he is sick thus and thus shalt thou say unto her; for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign to be another.
Jeroboam had set up his own religion, yet when his son fell ill he sent his wife in disguise to Ahijah, the prophet who had once announced his rise. God told the blind prophet who was coming and what to say — so can anyone come to God under a false name?
Ahijah's eyes had failed with age, so every fact in the verse reaches him by revelation. One writer notes that this loss of sight did not shut him out of God's counsel — the opposite.
"Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim with age." But the prophet's dull eyes did not hinder his spiritual vision, as had been the case with Eli. He remained in direct connection with the Lord. God speaks to him, reveals to him who it is who is about to come to him, for what purpose, and that she will come disguised. Ahijah's natural sight could never discern all this, but by grace, the Lord had given him his real sight. He had seen everything; He sees in the present and in the future. Ahijah knew and saw because the Lord knew and saw.
The same writer asks what really keeps God from speaking to a person.
Blessing of this kind is found only in communion of heart with God. It is not our weaknesses that stop God from speaking to us; it is our worldliness and our disobedience. God finds satisfaction in weak vessels if their hearts are faithful to Him.
Jeroboam's plan contradicts itself. He trusted this prophet to tell him the future, then expected a disguise to defeat him.
Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were fixed; age had dimmed them. But God let him hear, and let him see too what was unseen… What was the folly of men! There was a man that could trust the prophet to tell him the future, and not to see through the disguise of his wife. How great is the folly of the wise, for Jeroboam was a wise man after this world. But the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, even as God's wisdom is foolishness in their eyes.
Why would a king send his wife in disguise at all? One writer traces it to something that never entered Jeroboam's mind.
Jeroboam acknowledges the man of God's ability and thinks that he can help him. One thing, however, is lacking — the thing an unconverted soul always lacks. He has no sense of dealing with God. It just does not enter his mind that he is about to come before Him. If it were otherwise, could he be telling his wife to disguise herself? No, even this godless king could hardly think that a disguise would hide him from God. But God was not in his thoughts, so he does not take account of the connection between the prophet and Jehovah.
Rossier adds another motive. Jeroboam had invented a new religion, so his people must not see him turning back to the prophets of the old faith.
She came "to inquire of you concerning her son," and God had already settled what Ahijah would say to her. One writer notes what her errand left out, and what she got instead.
In disguise, Jeroboam's wife goes to Shiloh. She does not go to ask prayer for her sick son, but to find out what would become of the child, as if consulting a fortune teller. Ahijah was blind. What need was there for Jeroboam's wife to pretend to be someone else? And the Lord saw her coming and announced her approach to blind Ahijah. She hears from his lips not good tidings, but a message of judgment.
The disguise did not survive the doorway: Ahijah greeted her by the very name she had hidden. One writer applies this to anyone who comes to God pretending.
A hypocrite never got pardon in the disguise of a saint. He will call you by your own name, though you come to Him looking like a penitent: "Come in, wife of Jeroboam," said the prophet. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind the eyes of the Almighty. You may put your own eyes out, so as not to see Him, but you can never blind His eyes so that He should not see you.
Another writer puts his finger on what such a disguise assumes about God:
What madness it is to think of God as altogether such a one as ourselves, as though He could be deceived by a disguise! The night shines as the day to Him.
- Seen first. God told Ahijah who was coming, why, and that she would pretend. The answer was ready before the question.
- Seen through. Jeroboam trusted the prophet to reveal the future, yet thought a disguise would beat him. The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.
- Blind king. God was not in Jeroboam's thoughts. It never entered his mind that he was about to deal with God at all.
- Wrong errand. She came to learn the future, like someone consulting a fortune teller, not to ask prayer for her son. She heard judgment instead.
- Named. "Come in, wife of Jeroboam." No disguise survives His eyes. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind the Almighty.
And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou to be another? But I am sent to thee with a hard [message].
A boy lies dying in the royal house, and his father sends the queen to the prophet in disguise. She never gets to deliver her cover story — the blind prophet hears her footsteps and names her outright.
Jeroboam trusted this prophet to foretell the future, yet thought a change of clothes would fool him. One writer draws out the contradiction:
What folly men show! Here was a man who could trust the prophet to tell him the future, yet not to see through his wife's disguise. How great is the folly of the wise, for Jeroboam was a wise man by this world's standard. But the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, just as God's wisdom is foolishness in their eyes... What a humiliation!
The absurdity goes deeper still. He wanted information from God while hiding his identity from God:
Jeroboam was totally insensible of the sovereign omniscience of God. He wanted information from God and thought he could fool God into giving him the information without knowing to whom he was giving it!
Why would a man try something so hopeless? One writer traces it to what the king lacked:
One thing, however, is missing — what an unconverted soul always lacks: the sense of dealing with God. It never enters his mind that he is about to come before Him. If it were otherwise, would he be telling his wife to disguise herself?... God was not in his thoughts, so he takes no account of the link between the prophet and the Lord... Jeroboam would as readily consult a fortuneteller... And indeed he had good reason for the disguise. What would his people say if their head, who had invented a new religion, turned back to the old faith, to the prophets of the Lord, to seek help and light from them?
Only trouble drove him to God's prophet, though God was already at work inside his own house:
It took the sickness of the child to stir the king up to send to God's prophet — something that should have marked him from the start of his reign... In his house there is a child in whom God is at work. There is the prophet he sends to, the servant of the God of Israel. Yet in the heart or conscience of this idol-worshipping king there is no knowledge of God, and no sense that he has to do with God.
Age had dimmed the prophet's eyes. The loss cost him nothing:
But the prophet's dim eyes did not hinder his spiritual sight... He stayed in direct touch with the Lord. God speaks to him. He tells him who is about to come, why she is coming, and that she will come disguised. Ahijah's natural sight could never have made out any of this, but by grace the Lord had given him his real sight... Our weaknesses are not what stop God from speaking to us. Our worldliness and our disobedience do that.
The woman came for news about her son. She left with a message aimed past her, at her husband:
Since the prophet could not go to her, God brought her to him — and to Himself. God had arranged everything, from the child's illness down to the thoughts and decisions of Jeroboam. His purpose was to bring Jeroboam face to face with the Word the Lord had sent against him through the prophet... Man does without God as if He counted for nothing. He banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so as to see Him no more... But the moment will arrive when, like Jeroboam, he must turn around and meet face to face the God whom he has counted as nothing.
She was not even allowed to state her errand. The prophet's greeting settled everything before she opened her mouth:
He did not give her opportunity to say anything, but gave her a dreadfully solemn message from God to tell her husband.
The mistake was not Jeroboam's alone. One writer names the madness behind any disguise:
What madness it is to think of God as someone just like ourselves, as if a disguise could deceive Him! To Him the night shines as bright as the day.
Think of the mother sent on this errand, and of the one bright line in the news she carried:
How sad for the poor mother, sent on such an errand — forced to pretend to be another woman, exposed by the prophet before she says a word, and left to hear the hard news from his lips, both about her child and about the house of her wicked husband. Still, there must have been some comfort mixed in too, in hearing that God had taken account of "something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel" in her child.
- Disguise. Jeroboam dressed his wife as a stranger. He trusted the prophet's word, yet thought a disguise could outwit the prophet's God.
- Exposure. The blind man named her at the door. Failing eyes were no limit, because he stayed in direct connection with the Lord.
- Cause. The root was not cunning but emptiness. An unconverted soul has no sense of dealing with God, so the king consulted Him as he would a fortuneteller.
- Reversal. She thought she was running an errand. In fact God had arranged the illness, the decision and the journey. It brought Jeroboam face to face with His word — as every man who casts God behind his back must one day meet Him.
- Mercy. Even in that hard message God noted what pleased Him in the child. Judgment came, and comfort came with it.
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
A sick child, a disguised queen, and a nearly blind prophet at Shiloh. When God speaks, His first words are not about the boy. They are a message for the king who sent her: "Go, tell Jeroboam."
Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah in disguise. He still believed the prophet could tell him the future. One writer traces the flaw in that plan:
Jeroboam acknowledges the man of God's ability and thinks that he can help him. One thing is missing, though — the thing an unconverted soul always lacks. He has no sense that he is dealing with God. It never enters his mind that he is about to come before Him. If it were otherwise, could he be telling his wife to disguise herself? … But God was not in his thoughts, so he takes no account of the link between the prophet and the Lord. What the man of God had said had come true, so it was worth consulting him. Jeroboam would as easily consult a fortuneteller.
Ahijah could barely see. The same writer explains why that did not matter:
But the prophet's failing eyes did not block his spiritual sight… God speaks to him. He tells him who is coming to him, why she is coming, and that she will come disguised. Ahijah's natural sight could never discern all this, but by grace, the Lord had given him his real sight.
One writer sees God's hand behind every step of this meeting:
Ahijah could not go to her, so God brought her to him — and to Himself. God had arranged everything, from the child's illness down to Jeroboam's own thoughts and decisions, to bring Jeroboam face to face with the word the Lord had sent against him through the prophet.
God's charge opens by naming what He had done. Jeroboam did not climb to the throne; God lifted him to it. The same writer, commenting on God's earlier promise to him, shows what came with that gift:
A new responsibility now falls on Jeroboam. God was giving him a privileged position. His house was to be as sure as David's, if he would listen to the commandments of the Lord… Jeroboam's kingdom, and Solomon's kingdom too, rested on responsibility and not on grace.
God says He made Jeroboam leader. One writer gives the reason behind that choice:
Solomon had allowed detestable practices and idol worship. Because of this, God appointed Jeroboam to be the future king of the ten tribes. The kingdom became his, because God could not let sin in Israel pass without taking notice of it. And the kingdom would stay his, and his children's after him, if he walked in God's ways as David had done. On that day, outside the walls of Jerusalem, God declared both things plainly: why he received the kingdom, and on what condition he would keep it. And God proved Himself faithful to His word. Solomon was to be king all his life, for David's sake. But God would take the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon's son and give the ten tribes to Jeroboam.
The charge continues in the next verse by measuring Jeroboam against David. A commentator notes what that measure asked of him:
God promised Jeroboam blessing if he sought the interests of the Lord as David did. This was not beyond Jeroboam, for God was only asking what had already been seen in David.
Yet David sinned too. So how could God hold him up as the standard?
Could David have spoken this way of himself? No — neither he nor any other man. But God had disciplined him as a son He acknowledged as His own, and the discipline had borne fruit. Because of his sacrifice, God could pass over the sin of His servant and never remember it again. He could look only at the fruit grown in David's heart — His own work, in which He found pleasure.
One member of Jeroboam's house was an exception. A commentator marvels at what God did in him:
"All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone of Jeroboam's house will come to the grave, because God found in him something good toward the Lord God of Israel." What grace of God — to produce some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of a man who had done such things against the Lord, and to show His mercy by taking him away from the evil to come!
- Given. Jeroboam did not seize the throne — God exalted him from among the people and handed him the kingdom torn from David's house.
- Conditioned. The gift came with terms stated in advance: his dynasty would stand as David's did, if he walked in God's ways.
- Measured. The standard was David, and it was within reach. God asked only what He had already produced in a man He disciplined and forgave.
- Squandered. Jeroboam treated the prophet as a fortuneteller and sent his wife in disguise. He never grasped that he was dealing with God Himself, who had arranged the whole meeting.
- Answered. God gave the house on terms Jeroboam broke — yet in one child He found some good thing, and showed him mercy.
and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee; and thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in my sight;
God Himself gave Jeroboam ten tribes. Now the prophet Ahijah measures him against David, the one man God keeps naming as the pattern for a king. The charge is not that Jeroboam failed as a ruler. It is that he was not what David had been: a man who kept God's commandments and followed Him with his whole heart.
Jeroboam was an able man, promoted for his energy. Yet ability was never the thing God was asking for.
Jeroboam worked hard, and that was commendable. But God looks for more than commendable human qualities. He looks at the heart and wants hearts wholly committed to Him.
Scripture sets these two men side by side. The difference shows in what each one did to the people who followed him.
There are two men whose walk in Old Testament days the Holy Spirit places in striking contrast. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, is one, and David is the other. Of the first we read that he was a strong and brave man. He worked hard, so Solomon gave him special authority. Of the second, in spite of personal weakness and failure, we are often told, he walked in the ways of the Lord, keeping His statutes and commandments. Jeroboam was brave and hard-working, yet he turned the people away from the centre God had appointed... The one who did not heed the Word of God sinned himself, and he turned others out of the way. The one who walked in God's statutes himself turned no one away from the established Centre, the place of Jehovah's name.
The comparison with David was not a new demand sprung on Jeroboam at the end. It had been the written condition of his throne from the start.
Just over five hundred years later, Jeroboam became king over the ten tribes of Israel. The Lord had said to him, "If you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you" (1 Kings 11:38). God promised Jeroboam this blessing if he sought the interests of Jehovah as David did. This was not beyond Jeroboam. God asked only what David had already shown.
How could God say this of David, who sinned? The answer lies not in David's record, but in God's dealings with him.
"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" (v. 8). Could David have spoken this of himself? No — neither he nor any other man. But God had chastened him as a son whom one acknowledges, and the discipline had borne fruit. Because of his sacrifice, God was able to pass over the sin of His servant and never remember it again. He could look only at the fruit produced in David's heart — His own work, in which He could find pleasure.
The same message moves from what Jeroboam was not, to what he did: he put God out of sight. That habit has outlived him.
Jeroboam had done without God. He despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? People do without God as if He were nothing. They push Him out of their lives, casting Him behind their backs so as to see Him no more. What they have in front of them is their own plans, their ambition, and their comfort. They do not think about what they have cast behind.
Ahijah's words begin with everything God had given, and that history is exactly what makes the verdict so heavy.
God had exalted Jeroboam and made him ruler over Israel, tearing the kingdom away from the house of David. Yet Jeroboam, unlike David, did more evil than anyone before him. He turned to idolatry of every form and rejected God's authority. So God would bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam.
David was the standard set before a king. For the believer now the standard is Christ, David's greater Son.
David's greater Son is the perfect Pattern for faith today, and He could say, "I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love"; and to the believer it is written, "Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked" (1 John 2:6). No standard short of Himself is set before God's dear children now.
- Gift — God raised Jeroboam up and gave him the kingdom. Everything he held was a gift, and that is what makes the charge so serious.
- Standard — The measure was David, set out in advance as the condition of a lasting house. God asked nothing that David had not already shown to be possible.
- Heart — Jeroboam had energy and ability. God looks past commendable qualities to a heart wholly committed to Him.
- Grace — David could not have claimed this record for himself. God chastened him, the discipline bore fruit, and God then remembered only the fruit of His own work.
- Refusal — Jeroboam did not follow. He put God behind his back and lived for his own plans. People still make that choice, and judgment fell on his whole house.
but thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back
Ahijah the prophet carries God's message to a king who owed Him everything: the throne, the ten tribes, the promise of a lasting house. Verse 9 counts up what he did with it all, and the charge is not just idolatry but contempt — God pushed out of sight, behind a man's back.
The charge weighs against what God had already done for this man. God raised him from nothing and handed him a kingdom on clear terms.
In Jeroboam we see the worthlessness and hopelessness of the flesh, however favoured by God. Lifted out of obscurity by the God of Israel, and granted rule over ten of the tribes, Jeroboam began his reign with every advantage. The Lord promised to be with him. He would build him a sure house, if he would pay attention to His commandments and walk in His ways.
No enemy forced these other gods on Jeroboam. They came out of a calculation about how to hold on to power.
He was afraid of what would happen if he let his subjects go up to Jerusalem. They would think again of their old king. They would think again of the grand purposes of God connected with Jerusalem. So what does he do? He devises a religion out of his own head.
But was this still worship of the true God, only with a visual aid? Commentators answer no.
Some argue that Jeroboam was truly worshipping the Lord, only with the help of visible images. People urge the same thing today to excuse open idolatry. The Bible does not support it. It says plainly: "This thing became a sin." God does not need an image to enable people to worship Him. In fact, Scripture condemns the very idea throughout.
Jeroboam's new religion looked like a compromise rather than an outright rejection of God.
To forsake the worship of the true God is to fall into idolatry, whatever form it takes. In religion there is no middle ground. No doubt Jeroboam thought he had found such a middle ground... He brings back into honour the Jewish idolatry the people practised at the foot of Mount Sinai. That sin had brought God's judgment down on them. Only he goes further than Israel had in the wilderness: his forsaking of God is more complete... He does not add, as Aaron had done, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord!" The Lord is completely set aside.
The last phrase of the verse describes something people still do without building any image.
Jeroboam had done without God, had despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man treats God as a "negligible quantity" and does without Him. He banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so as to see Him no more. In front of him he has his own plans, his ambition, his well-being. He does not think about what he has cast behind him.
The verdict outlived the man.
Scripture charges Jeroboam with doing evil above all who were before him, and his doings became a proverb. For Israel to sin "as Jeroboam the son of Nebat" was a mark of the very worst wickedness.
His sin did not stay his own. He carried a whole nation with him.
Like a death knell, the Spirit marks out this man with the same sad words again and again: "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."... Personal sins are bad enough, but to turn away God's people from the centre which He has set up — what could be worse?
- Given — God gave Jeroboam the kingdom, and promised him a lasting house if he obeyed. Verse 9 weighs the man against that gift.
- Grasped — Fear for his throne, not conviction, produced his religion. He devised a worship out of his own head.
- Guised — Images do not help people worship the true God. God needs none, and the Bible calls the arrangement sin.
- Gone — To cast God behind your back is to treat Him as useless. Your plans, ambition and well-being stay in front of you; He stays out of sight.
- Grown — What one man put behind his back, a nation followed. His name became the label for the very worst wickedness.
therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.
The prophet Ahijah is telling Jeroboam's wife what God will do to her husband's family. Why does judgment fall on the whole house and not just the guilty man, and why does God picture that house as waste to be swept out?
God's sentence falls on a man He had offered the opposite. A secure house was once within Jeroboam's reach, and one writer explains why it could not stand.
Even with all his wickedness, the Lord let Jeroboam reign twenty-two years. The Lord had used him to discipline the guilty house of David. But Jeroboam took an evil course of his own. He knew about Solomon's sins, and God had also encouraged him to do well. Even so, his evil course made it impossible for him to establish a new dynasty. The "sure house" mentioned in 1 Kings 11:38 could not be, for Jeroboam had led the people far away from their God.
The sentence is not random. It answers the charge just made: Jeroboam had made other gods and cast God behind his back. One writer sees the same habit in people today.
Jeroboam had done without God. He had despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man does without God as with something that counts for nothing. He banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so as to see Him no more. In front of him, man has the pursuit of his own plans, his ambition, and his well-being. He does not think about what he has cast behind him.
The picture in the verse is a humiliating one. Older translations say God will take the house away "as a man takes away dung, till it be all gone." The ESV says He will burn it up like dung until it is gone. Either way, the point is disposal, not just defeat.
God had lifted Jeroboam up and made him ruler over Israel, tearing the kingdom away from the house of David. Yet Jeroboam, in contrast to David, did more evil than anyone before him. He turned to every kind of idolatry and rejected God's authority. Therefore God would bring disaster to the house of Jeroboam. He would cut off in death every male descendant of Jeroboam, discarding them as though they were only garbage.
This was not an empty threat. One writer, looking at the later fall of Ahab's family, notes how the same dreadful words kept coming back.
This judgment had to put an end to the dynasty of Omri, to fulfil the sentence spoken against Ahab. For the same reason, the Lord had already put an end to the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (1 Kings 15:28-30), and to the house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:1-4). Each time He repeated the same dreadful word: "The dogs shall eat anyone who dies in the city, and the birds of the heavens shall eat anyone who dies in the field" (1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4; 1 Kings 21:24).
There is an irony here. Baasha wiped out what was left of Jeroboam's family, and then received the same sentence himself.
Of the house of Jeroboam God had said: "I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man takes away dung, till it is all gone" — so would it be with Baasha, who had removed the remnant of Jeroboam's house by murder.
The judgment reaches past the guilty man to his family and his nation. One writer draws a lesson from it for every reader.
Jeroboam was to learn that his disobedience to God did not only affect himself. It affected all of his family while he was living, and the welfare of his family after he died. It also affected the nation over which he ruled, both while he was ruling and for many years afterward. This is surely a striking illustration of the truth that none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. Our influence is a far more serious matter than we generally think.
- Offer. God had promised Jeroboam a lasting house if he obeyed. The offer fell once he led the people away from God.
- Provocation. The "therefore" answers a man who made other gods and cast God behind his back. Commentators see the same habit today.
- Disposal. The judgment cuts off every male and sweeps the rest away like waste. It is total removal, in humiliating terms.
- Pattern. God carried out the word, then spoke it again over Baasha and Ahab. Even the man who had executed it on Jeroboam's family fell under it.
- Reach. One man's disobedience touched his family in life and after his death, and his nation for years after. No one's influence stops with himself.
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat; for Jehovah hath spoken.
Ahijah the prophet has just warned Jeroboam's disguised wife that disaster is coming on her husband's whole family. Verse 11 spells out the end — no grave, only scavengers — and it raises two questions: why so harsh a sentence, and what the closing words about the LORD add to it.
One writer spells out what this sentence meant for Jeroboam's family:
He would put to death every male descendant of Jeroboam, throwing them away as though they were only garbage. They would get no burial. The dogs would eat those who died in the city. Scavenging birds would eat those who died in the countryside. Then Ahijah added, "The LORD has spoken!"
Two verses earlier God named the charge. Jeroboam had made other gods and cast God behind his back. One writer asks whether people today are any different:
Jeroboam had done without God. He had despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man does without God as with something not worth counting. He banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so as to see Him no more.
The same words came back again. Later kings who walked Jeroboam's road heard them word for word:
That horrible curse takes the place of the joy so longed for, and it sounds again and again through this sad history of Israel. This was the judgment of Jeroboam, the judgment of Baasha, in the very same words: "Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat."
The verse rests everything on God's own word. Jehu once gave orders to bury Jezebel, and the order failed:
Man's will has very little to do with fulfilling the word of God... Jehu had heard that word only a short time before, and he clearly meant to carry out his commission exactly. But how little man, good or bad, carries out the word of God! Now it seems the old sense of respect for one who was a queen — a king's daughter — rises in his mind. He says, "Bury her, for she is a king's daughter." But the word of God had spoken its own command before... They found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
The sentence was not carried out at once. Delay is not cancellation:
More than fifteen years had passed since the LORD, through Elijah, had announced the doom of the house of Ahab and the doom of Jezebel. Now the hour of execution had come. God will judge in the end, though He is never in haste to carry out His threatened judgments.
With Jeroboam's own house, Baasha was the man who carried it out:
When he reigned, he struck down the whole house of Jeroboam. He left Jeroboam no one alive that breathed, until he had destroyed him. This was what the LORD had said through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins Jeroboam sinned and made Israel sin.
Two verses later one child in that house gets what verse 11 denies to all the rest: a grave, and mourning. One writer calls it grace:
"All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him. He alone of Jeroboam's house shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD, the God of Israel." What grace of God! He produced some good thing toward Himself in the house of the man who had done such things against Him. And in mercy He took the child away from the evil to come.
- Cause — Jeroboam made other gods and cast God behind his back. Verse 11 is God's answer to that.
- Sentence — his family would be thrown out like garbage, with no burial at all: dogs in the city, birds in the open country.
- Pattern — the same words later fell on Baasha's house and on Ahab's, one curse running through Israel's history.
- Certainty — "the LORD has spoken it" settles it. Jehu tried to bury Jezebel and failed. Man's will does not bend God's word.
- Exception — one child, in whom God found some good thing, got a grave and mourning. Mercy took him away from the evil to come.
And thou, arise, go to thine own house; when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
Jeroboam's wife came in disguise to ask about her son, and the prophet sent her home to a death timed to her arrival. The child who dies is the one person in that house in whom God found something good — so why does the best person die?
The same announcement means opposite things for father and son. One writer sets them side by side and traces the boy's standing to God's choice.
He shall die! What a judgment upon Jeroboam! What grace for the child! He was one of the Lord's elect. "In him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam" (v. 13). The eyes and heart of God rested upon this weak offshoot of a family given up to destruction. There too God had a remnant according to the election of grace.
The good thing in the boy appeared in an unlikely address. One writer names who put it there.
What grace of God! He produced some good thing toward Jehovah God of Israel in the house of the man who had done such things against Jehovah. And He showed His mercy in taking him away from the evil to come!
Commentators read the boy's early death as God sparing him, not sentencing him.
Dear child, Abijah (Jehovah is my Father) was his name, and his heavenly Father called him home. He was one of "the righteous" who is "taken away from the evil to come." Scripture says, "He enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness" (Isaiah 57:1-2). We expect to meet and greet you, Jehovah's little child, in that bright morning. For those who "have part in the first resurrection" there will be no more "evil to come."
These writers quote older translations. In the ESV, Isaiah 57:1 reads "the righteous man is taken away from calamity," and verse 13 reads "something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel."
One writer joins three things: where God took the boy, the burial he alone received, and the exact moment of his death.
He took him home to Himself before the day of judgment burst on the rest of the house of Jeroboam. This boy was the only member of Jeroboam's family to receive a proper burial and to have Israel mourn his death. In His wrath against the ten-tribe kingdom God still remembered mercy for this boy. Yet how heavy his mother's burden must have been! For as soon as her feet entered the city her son died. God ever keeps His Word.
She had come asking about one child and left carrying a verdict on an entire household. One writer draws out how far a king's sin travelled.
Jeroboam was to learn that his disobedience to God did not only affect himself. It affected all of his family while he was living, and the welfare of his family after he died. It also affected the condition of the nation he ruled, both at the time of his ruling and for many years afterward. This is a striking illustration of the truth that none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. Our influence is a far more serious matter than we generally think.
The errand was not pure loss for her. The hard news carried something no one else in that house heard.
How very sad for the poor mother! She was sent on such an errand. She had to pretend to be someone else. The prophet exposed her before she said a word, and she heard the hard news from his lips, both about the child and about the house of her wicked husband. Still, some comfort must have been mixed in: she heard that God had taken account of "the good thing toward the Lord God of Israel" in her child.
- One house, two verdicts. One message brought judgment to Jeroboam and grace to his son: severity for the man who had acted against God, mercy for the child in whom God found something good.
- One good thing, and God made it. The boy's goodness did not come from his home. It came from God's grace at work inside a family He had given up to destruction.
- One death, called rescue. God took him away from the evil to come. He entered peace before judgment fell on his family.
- One promise, kept to the step. The child died the moment his mother's feet entered the city, exactly as the prophet said — God keeps His word to the detail.
- One man's sin, a nation's cost. Jeroboam's disobedience reached his family, his reign and Israel long after him. None of us lives or dies to himself.
And all Israel shall mourn for him, and they shall bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
A whole royal house stands under judgment, yet God finds one good thing inside it — a dying boy. That raises the hardest question of the chapter: why does the good child die while his guilty father lives on?
The setting makes the verse startling. Jeroboam brought idolatry back into Israel, and almost every one of the eighteen kings after him kept to his ways. Against that background, one writer points out how the contrast itself is the point:
Who then would have looked for anything for the Lord in the house of Jeroboam? Yet one was there with something good in him. It gave pleasure to the heart of the God of Israel. The very darkness of that idol-worshipping household made this little bit of goodness stand out — goodness that God could take account of.
The ESV says God found "something pleasing" in the boy. Older translations read "some good thing toward the LORD" — the wording most of these writers use. Scripture never tells us what Abijah did. No sermon, no protest, no reform — only that God found something. Commentators read this as God recognising what He Himself had planted:
We are not told much of Abijah. The Bible does not present him as a powerful witness to the true God. It does not show him standing up against what was going on in Israel. He seems to have been quite young, only "a lad" or "a child." Yet God had marked him out for Himself. He had begun His good work within him, the only work in which God can find His pleasure.
The wonder is not the size of the good but its address. William Kelly ties the two halves of the verse together — the good produced, and the child removed:
What grace of God — to produce some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of the man who had done such things against the Lord, and to show His mercy in taking him away from the evil to come!
One death meant two opposite things to two people:
When God takes away one of His own by death it is not always in judgment. We see this when God took away the son of king Jeroboam, because He found some good thing in him toward the Lord God of Israel. God, in His goodness, took away the lad from the evil to come. It was God's severity to the wicked Jeroboam, but His goodness towards his son.
Rossier goes further and treats the boy as evidence that God keeps a remnant even in a condemned family:
The eyes and heart of God rested upon this weak offshoot of a family given up to destruction. There too God had a remnant according to the election of grace. The child could not remain in Israel. God would take him out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself.
Judgment would burst on the rest of Jeroboam's house. One member is the exception:
The Lord had found something good toward Himself in this boy. He took him home to Himself before the day of judgment burst upon the rest of the house of Jeroboam. This boy was the only member of Jeroboam's family to get a proper burial, and the only one Israel mourned. In His wrath against the ten-tribe kingdom, God still remembered mercy toward this boy.
Behind the message stands a grieving mother. Her errand was bitter, but not without comfort:
How very sad for the poor mother! She was sent on such an errand and forced to pretend to be another woman. The prophet exposed her before she said a word. Then she heard the hard news from his lips, both about the child and about the house of her wicked husband. Still, she must have found comfort mixed in as well, hearing that God had taken account of "the good thing toward the Lord God of Israel" in her child.
Writers apply the verse to families today, where one person alone knows God:
The God who claimed one for Himself from the house of Jeroboam is still the same. How often we find one from a whole house in whom there is some good thing found towards the Lord Jesus and His God and Father. Scripture also shows God's judgment falling on the sons of good men, as with the sons of Aaron and the sons of Eli, because of their evil ways. How wonderful, then, that God, in His goodness, also selects from an evil house those in whom He shows His goodness.
- Dark background. In a house that led a nation into idolatry, the darkness only made the one small good thing stand out.
- God's planting. Abijah is no hero and no preacher — just a lad in whom God had begun His own work, the only work that gives Him pleasure.
- Mercy, not punishment. One death meant two things: severity toward Jeroboam, and goodness toward his son, taken from the evil to come.
- The only grave. He alone in his family got a grave and a nation's tears — wrath on the house, mercy on the child.
- Still the same. God still claims one out of a whole household; the good He finds is the good He first put there.
And Jehovah shall raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day; and what? ... even now.
Ahijah once told Jeroboam that God would build him a house as lasting as David's, on one condition. Here the same prophet says God will raise up a king to cut off Jeroboam's house — so who was that king, and what went wrong?
The promise Jeroboam lost came with a condition attached:
"And it shall be," says Ahijah to Jeroboam, "if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did — then I will be with you. I will build you a lasting house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you." A new responsibility now rested on Jeroboam. God was giving him a privileged position. His house was to be as secure as that of David, if he would listen to the commandments of the Lord... In due time the grace on which David's kingdom was founded would claim its rights again. Jeroboam's kingdom, and Solomon's kingdom too, rested not on grace but on responsibility.
The prophet who once announced Jeroboam's rise now announces his fall:
Ahijah added more to his message in verse 14: the Lord would raise up a king over Israel to cut off the house of Jeroboam. This matter was completely settled. The Lord would shake Israel so hard as to uproot them from the land He had given to their fathers. He would scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates), because Israel's idolatry had provoked His fierce anger... This message of God's unsparing anger and vengeance against Jeroboam's sin stood in great contrast to Ahijah's first message to him (ch.11:28-39).
Jeroboam's son Nadab died by treachery while besieging the town of Gibbethon. Writers tie that death straight back to this verse:
Gibbethon bordered on the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines most likely seized it when the Levites moved away to Judah. Its name means "lofty place". Nadab was killed by treachery while trying to win it back for the crown. But it was in fulfilment of the prophecy of Ahijah, "The Lord shall raise Him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now."
(Knapp is quoting an older translation of the verse's closing words; the ESV reads "today. And henceforth.")
Jeroboam's line outlived him by one short reign:
His reign lasted two years; this short period of time was enough to prove his wickedness. The Lord's word against Jeroboam came true in his son and in all his family.
That God "raises up" a man does not make that man good:
Baasha made sure that none of Jeroboam's descendants would challenge him. He killed them all. On his part this was vicious cruelty, but by killing them he fulfilled the Word of the Lord by Ahijah the prophet (v.29), who had given the message of judgment to Jeroboam's wife.
Jeroboam himself had once been such a tool, and the pattern does not stop with him:
God might use Jeroboam to punish Solomon and his house. He might use the kings of Assyria to punish Jeroboam's subjects. He might use Nebuchadnezzar to punish Judah and its kings. But God has had to judge each of these in turn. These rods of His anger (Isa. 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
The word took years to land, and its reach goes beyond Israel:
Baasha then struck down all the house of Jeroboam. This fulfilled the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh... God's predicted judgments never fail in the end. The Lord will one day carry out the judgments written against our own age, this evil age, just as He carried out every other judgment He had threatened against Israel.
- Offered. God promised Jeroboam a house as secure as David's, on one condition: that he walk in God's ways as David did.
- Forfeited. He turned to idolatry instead. Ahijah's second message was the reverse of his first: not a kingdom given, but a house cut off.
- Named. The king God raised up was Baasha. He struck Nadab at Gibbethon and left Jeroboam's line with no survivors.
- Used. Baasha's act was real cruelty on his part and fulfilled prophecy on God's part. The rods God uses are judged in their turn.
- Certain. The sentence took years to land, but it never lapsed. Commentators read it as proof that God's announced judgments always arrive — including the ones over our own age.
And Jehovah will smite 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 Asherahs, provoking Jehovah to anger.
Ahijah's message to Jeroboam's wife does not stop with the king's family. It reaches the whole nation, and it raises two hard questions: why does a whole people suffer for a king's idolatry, and is a scattering like this ever undone?
The judgment is not vague trouble. It is removal from land God Himself had given them. One commentator names the river they would be driven past:
The Lord would shake Israel so hard that He would uproot them from the land He had given to their fathers. He would scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates), because Israel's idolatry had provoked His fierce anger. He would give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin. This message of God's unsparing anger and vengeance against Jeroboam's sin stood in sharp contrast to Ahijah's first message to Jeroboam.
That first message had held out a lasting house to Jeroboam, but only on one condition. It also kept David's line in view:
The LORD still speaks of "David my servant," who "may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My name." In the middle of all the evil, the house of David is not forgotten. There will be affliction, "but not forever." Jeroboam also has the chance of a house "as I built for David," on the condition of obedience. But ambitious Jeroboam did not keep the statutes and commandments of the Lord.
It would be easy to read the verse as a whole nation punished for one man's crime. But the people had a share in the sin themselves:
But the people must face judgment too (vv. 15, 16). Not only had the king led them astray; they had sinned themselves, for "they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger." God judges them by the principle set out in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."
Centuries later the sentence fell. The record names both the leader and the people who followed him:
"Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin." But on the other hand, "the people of Israel walked" (so they were guilty themselves) "in all the sins that Jeroboam did; they did not depart from them." And Assyria carried Israel away.
The word behind "Asherim" is often translated "groves," which sounds like trees. One dictionary shows why that reading fails:
The word 'grove' suggests a row of trees. But that cannot be the meaning, since people set up groves 'under every green tree.' … One passage speaks of planting groves; another of making them; another of building them. They are always linked with idols and images.
Israel already had clear orders about these objects:
They were to have nothing to do with the impure and abominable idolatries of these nations. He called His people to holiness. Moreover, they were to destroy their altars, their images and their groves. The word groves is "asherah." … It flourished among all the ancient nations, but the Canaanites used it most of all. When Israel later fell in with these abominations, the judgment fell upon them.
Assyria carried out the sentence. One writer notes what never followed it:
The others (that is, Israel) were carried away into captivity to Assyria, and were never as a people restored to the land.
Their exile was not just Assyrian policy. Commentators point out that God Himself moved those kings, and that the same place appears in a promise of return:
Their sins and idolatry caused all the disasters that came upon them. The word "therefore" in verse 18 sums it all up — "Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight." … Notice, it was God who stirred up the spirit of these kings; so they carried Israel away to Assyria. This is one of the places mentioned in Zechariah 10:10, from which they will be brought back in a future day.
- Gift. The land was given to their fathers; idolatry cost them the very inheritance God had handed them.
- Guilt. Jeroboam led the nation into sin. But the people made the Asherim themselves, so judgment reached them too.
- Groves. The "Asherim" were not trees but idol objects, planted, made and built — and Israel had orders to destroy them.
- Gone. The word came true to the letter: Assyria carried Israel away, and as a people they never returned to the land.
- Gathered. The scattering is real but not final; commentators point to a future day when God brings them back from the places He sent them.
And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he has sinned, and made Israel to sin.
Ahijah's last word to Jeroboam's wife gives the reason a whole nation will lose its land. The blame falls on the king who taught his people to sin — so how far does one man's sin reach?
The message moves from one household to a whole people. One writer describes what "give Israel up" will look like, and contrasts it with Ahijah's first message to Jeroboam.
The Lord would shake Israel so hard that He would uproot them from the land He had given to their fathers. He would scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates), because Israel's idolatry had provoked His fierce anger. Israel would be given up because of the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel sin. God's unsparing anger and vengeance against Jeroboam's sin stood in great contrast to Ahijah's first message to him.
Earlier in the same message God compared Jeroboam with David. One writer asks what that comparison shows, and what Jeroboam had done with God Himself.
Could David have spoken like this of himself? No — neither he nor any other man. But God had disciplined him as a son whom one acknowledges, and the discipline had borne fruit. … But to Jeroboam He says: "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." Jeroboam had done without God, had despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man does without God as with a quantity that counts for nothing. He banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so that he sees Him no more.
The phrase "made Israel to sin" became Jeroboam's lasting name in Scripture. One writer notes how often it returns, and weighs it against ordinary personal sin.
Jeroboam stands out prominently in the Old Testament as the great division maker. Under him the great mass of God's people, ten of the twelve tribes, broke away from God's centre at that time. Like a death knell, these sad words with which the Spirit marks out this man are repeated again and again, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."… Personal sins are bad enough, but to turn away God's people from the centre which He has set up — what could be worse?
That name was not fixed in advance. God sent Jeroboam messengers, and one writer weighs what God offered him against what he chose.
It would have been well for Jeroboam if he too had listened to God's messengers. The God of Israel could have blessed him and his descendants (one of whom, his son Abijah, seems to have shown great promise), and he would never have deserved that terrible description, the man "that made Israel to sin." But the promises of God were not enough for this man. He reasoned on a purely human level.
Blaming Jeroboam does not leave the nation innocent. One writer points to the idols the people made for themselves.
But God must judge the people too. It is not only because the king had led them astray, but because they had themselves sinned: "they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger." God judges them by the principle set out in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."
The chapter opens with one sick child and closes with a scattered nation. One writer traces how far Jeroboam's disobedience spread.
Jeroboam was to learn that his disobedience to God did not only affect himself. It affected his whole family while he was living, and the welfare of his family after he died. It also affected the nation he ruled, both while he ruled and for many years afterward. This is surely a striking illustration of the truth that none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. Our influence is a far more serious matter than we generally think.
- Offer. God could have blessed Jeroboam and his descendants. God's promises were not enough for him, and he reasoned on a human level.
- Refusal. One phrase names his sin: he cast God behind his back. He treated Him as a useless object, as people still do today.
- Spread. What one man refused, a nation copied. Scripture marks him out as the great division maker, who turned God's people away from the centre God had set up.
- Shared guilt. The people were not only victims. They made their own idols, and God judged them because they themselves sinned.
- Reach. The ruin touched his household, his family after his death, and the nation for years. None of us lives to himself, and our influence is more serious than we think.
And Jeroboam's wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah; when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died.
Jeroboam's wife walks home to Tirzah, her own city, carrying the prophet Ahijah's verdict on her son. She reaches her doorway, and the boy dies — just as Ahijah said. The verse raises the hardest question in the chapter. Why does the one child in that family who pleased God die, while his guilty father lives on?
The death is not a coincidence of illness. It lands on the step the prophet named. Commentators read that timing as God standing behind His own word.
The Lord had found something good toward Himself in this boy. He took him home to Himself before the day of judgment burst upon the rest of the house of Jeroboam. This boy was the only member of Jeroboam's family to get a proper burial, with all Israel mourning his death. In His wrath against the ten-tribe kingdom God nonetheless remembered mercy toward this boy. "The righteous man is taken away from calamity" (Isaiah 57:1). Yet how heavy his mother's burden must have been! For as soon as her feet entered the city her son died. God ever keeps His Word.
(Older translations read "taken away from the evil to come" — the wording the writers below use.)
One death carries two opposite meanings. The blow that takes Jeroboam's heir is goodness to the boy. And it falls after the king has already refused his own chance to turn.
God would not let the child pass through the terrible judgment about to fall on his father's house. He would take him out from among people who had shown themselves unfit to rule among His people on earth. If it was God's judgment upon the king and his house, the removal of the child was the showing of God's goodness towards the child who thought of Him. Nor was there further room left for repentance. The king had already had his chance to repent. But he ignored the warning of the man of God, and he despised God's mercy in healing his withered hand.
Nobody would go looking for good in that house. That is what makes this child remarkable.
Who then would have looked for anything for Jehovah in the house of Jeroboam? Yet there was one there in whom there was something good, something that gave pleasure to the heart of the God of Israel. The household worshipped idols. That dark background made this little bit of goodness stand out, and God could take account of it.
One writer traces that good back to God Himself:
What grace of God! He produced some good thing toward Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the house of the man who had done such things against Jehovah. And He showed His mercy by taking the child away from the evil to come!
For the child, this death was not loss. One writer calls it rescue.
He shall die! What a judgment upon Jeroboam! What grace for the child! He was one of the Lord's chosen. The eyes and heart of God rested on this weak shoot of a family given up to destruction. He could not remain in Israel. God would take him out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself. He was righteous.
The road home was the hardest part for his mother. Yet one writer hears comfort in the boy's own name.
Sad indeed must have been her journey back to the city, and her home, on entering which her son would die! Dear child, Abijah (Jehovah is my Father) was his name; and his heavenly Father called him home.
The most sobering part is what does not happen next. His son's death changes nothing in the king.
We might have thought that the king would now pay attention to his ways and cry to God for mercy. But there is not the slightest evidence that he was moved at all towards God. God had spoken of His judgments, and of the good in the child that had spared him the judgment hanging over his house.
His choices reached far past himself:
Jeroboam was to learn that his disobedience to God did not affect only himself. It affected his whole family while he lived, and their welfare after he died. It also affected the condition of the nation he ruled.
- Word — the child dies at the exact step the prophet named; the timing is God signing His own message.
- Grace — the one good thing in that house was God's work, produced where no one would have looked for it.
- Mercy — the same death that judged the father sheltered the son, taking him away before the calamity.
- Honour — alone of Jeroboam's family he gets a grave and a nation's grief; his heavenly Father called him home.
- Warning — the father felt the loss and still would not turn, and his refusal cost his family and his nation.
And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
The prophet Ahijah had sent the child's mother home with a plain forecast. Her son would die the moment her feet reached the city. Israel would bury him and mourn. This verse records that it happened. It also raises a question. Why should this one boy, in a royal family marked for ruin, be the one given a grave and a nation's tears?
This verse does more than report a funeral. The burial matched a word spoken beforehand. It also set this boy apart from everyone else in his family.
The Lord had found something good toward Himself in this boy. He took him home to Himself before the day of judgment burst upon the rest of the house of Jeroboam. This boy was the only member of Jeroboam's family to receive a proper burial and have Israel mourning his death. In His wrath against the ten-tribe kingdom, God still remembered mercy toward this boy. Yet how heavy his mother's burden must have been! For as soon as her feet entered the city her son died. God ever keeps His Word.
Ahijah had given the reason for the boy's honourable end: God found something in him that pleased Him. The surprise is where that good thing grew — in the house of a man who had done terrible things against God.
What grace of God — to produce some good thing toward Jehovah, God of Israel, in the house of the man who had done such things against Jehovah! And what mercy He showed in taking the child away from the evil to come!
Even in a family marked for destruction, God had someone of His own. For the child, an early death was grace, not judgment.
He shall die! What a judgment upon Jeroboam! What grace for the child! He was one of the Lord's elect. "In him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam." God's eyes and heart rested on this weak shoot of a family given up to destruction. There too God had a remnant according to the election of grace. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such a young child. He could not remain in Israel. God would take him out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself.
The boy had a name of his own: Abijah. One writer reads that name next to his death, and then looks past the grave.
Dear child, Abijah (Jehovah is my Father) was his name; and his heavenly Father called him home. Here was one of "the righteous" taken away "from the evil to come." And Scripture says, "He enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness" (Isaiah 57:1-2). We expect to meet and greet you, Jehovah's little child, on that bright morning. Then, for those who "have part in the first resurrection," there will be no more "evil to come."
Another writer turns the event into a rule that holds for other deaths too.
When God takes away one of His own by death it is not always in judgment. We see this in the son of King Jeroboam. God took him "because in him there" was "found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel." God, in His goodness, took away the lad from the evil to come. It was God's severity to the wicked Jeroboam, but His goodness towards his son.
All Israel mourned, but the king himself did not change.
Despite this testimony, Jeroboam keeps on in his sin. The only one of his sons who showed any godliness dies, and God pronounces judgment on his house.
This one grave was also a lesson in how far a man's choices travel.
Jeroboam was to learn that his disobedience to God did not affect only himself. It affected his whole family while he lived, and the welfare of his family after he died. It also affected the nation he ruled, both while he ruled and for many years afterward. This is surely a striking illustration of the truth that none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. Our influence is a far more serious matter than we generally think.
- One word. God said it first, and the burial matched His word to the detail. "God ever keeps His Word."
- One good thing. God's grace produced something good for Him in the last house anyone would expect — Jeroboam's own.
- One rescue. The death was removal, not punishment: God took the child "out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself."
- One grave. He alone of Jeroboam's family got a proper burial and a nation's tears. God remembered mercy in the middle of wrath.
- One warning. Jeroboam kept on in his sin anyway. A man's disobedience reaches his family, his nation, and years he never sees.