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.
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?
A promise turned inside 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.
W. W. FeredayEven 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 reason behind the "therefore"
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.
H. L. RossierJeroboam 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.
Swept out like refuse
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.
Leslie M. GrantGod 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.
The sentence carried out — and repeated
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.
H. L. RossierThis 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.
C. KnappOf 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.
Why a whole house suffers
The judgment reaches past the guilty man to his family and his nation. One writer draws a lesson from it for every reader.
Leslie M. GrantJeroboam 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.
Summary
- 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.