At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
Jeroboam had built a kingdom by his own cleverness — a rival throne and a religion of his own making. Then his son, the heir to all of it, fell ill, and the sickness of one child tested what the king really believed.
The blow to a politician's plans
The illness is not just family sorrow. It strikes at the one thing Jeroboam had schemed hardest to secure — the future of his dynasty.
H. L. RossierThis was a blow keenly felt and a reason for great anxiety on the part of the king. If this beloved son and heir should die, what would become of the kingdom he had used so much cunning to secure for himself? For Jeroboam was what men call a great politician. He had other sons, no doubt, but this one, the heir, enjoyed God's favour and that of the people. This is how the folly of human planning without God becomes clear. The Lord had assured Jeroboam of the kingdom, but he had preferred to secure it for himself by forsaking the Lord. He had not reckoned with death. His plans left out the one thing men can never escape, and death was about to reduce them to nothing.
The religion he invented, and the God he turned to
Jeroboam's power rested on the worship he had designed for Israel. His son's illness showed what he himself thought of it.
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.Jeroboam had set up a religion of his own invention for his people. Yet clearly he had no real confidence in it himself. Once, when his outstretched hand withered, he asked the man of God from Judah to pray to "the LORD your God" that his hand would work again. Here too, when his son Abijah was sick, he sent his wife to the old, blind prophet Ahijah. He wanted to know what would become of the boy. His own religion might be useful for his political goals, but not when his own health or his son's life was at stake! This same principle holds true of all religions that men have invented.
Conscience in a hardened man
Israel had prophets of its own sort, including the old prophet at Bethel. The king's choice of messenger says more than he meant it to.
C. KnappThe threatened destruction of Jeroboam's house now begins... 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 unusual 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.
Consulting the prophet without meeting God
The disguise Jeroboam ordered gives him away. A man who truly knew whose messenger Ahijah was would never have tried it.
H. L. RossierJeroboam acknowledges the man of God's ability and thinks that he can help him. One thing, however, is lacking. It is the thing an unconverted soul always lacks — the awareness of dealing 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? ... But 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 as easily consult a fortune-teller.
Why this child fell sick
The sickness that looked like the ruin of a dynasty was, for the boy himself, rescue.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod's purpose was not that Abijah should reign in his father's place on the throne of Israel. His purpose was that the boy, having shown the good work of God, should be "taken away from calamity" (Isaiah 57:1). And so "Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick."
That one bright spot in a dark household is not an oddity of ancient history but a pattern.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe God who claimed one for Himself from the house of Jeroboam is still the same. How often we find one person out of a whole household in whom there is something good towards the Lord Jesus and His God and Father... how wonderful that God, in His goodness, also selects from an evil house those in whom He shows His goodness.
Summary
- Plan — The Lord had assured Jeroboam of the kingdom. He chose to secure the throne by his own cunning instead.
- Blow — His scheming left out death; one sick child was enough to reduce the whole strategy to nothing.
- Instinct — In trouble he passed over his own religion and sent to the LORD's prophet. He never trusted the system he had invented.
- Blindness — He wanted the prophet's news without the prophet's God. The disguise shows God was not in his thoughts.
- Mercy — The illness that ended the dynasty's hope was kindness to the boy. God claimed him for Himself and took him away before judgment fell on that house.