Friday,
February 12, 2021
At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. So Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as my wife. Then go to the prophet Ahijah at Shiloh—the man who told me I would become king. Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and ask him what will happen to the boy.” So Jeroboam’s wife went to Ahijah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you.” So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have bad news for you. Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you ruler over my people Israel. I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did whatever I wanted. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made other gods for yourself and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have turned your back on me, I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone. The members of Jeroboam’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures. I, the Lord, have spoken.’” Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the Lord, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam. “In addition, the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This will happen today, even now! Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord with the Asherah poles they have set up for worship. He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made Israel sin along with him.” So Jeroboam’s wife returned to Tirzah, and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home. And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, as the Lord had promised through the prophet Ahijah. 1 Kings 14:1-17
This
passage of Scripture is hard to read for anyone who has a heart for children or
God. To entertain the notion that a
child dying is part of God’s judgment on a faithless ruler grates at the center
of our belief in a loving, gracious God.
How do we reconcile the pain of a boy’s death as anywhere near kind and
loving?
(Hint: don’t
even try…some things cannot be explained)
Scripture,
however, does not leave us totally in the dark. In 1
Corinthians 10 Paul teaches that all of Israel’s history of
receiving the blessing of God, and then wandering away from God’s covenant to
worship other things, only to suffer the consequences of their faithless
idolatry, were an example for us. If we
would do well in living in covenant with the Lord, we must remain
faithful. The consequence of doing wrong
is judgment; the consequence of faithfully serving God is blessing. It’s that simple…and immutable!
As
painful as reading about the judgment of God which fell on Jeroboam’s son might
be, drawing modern-day conclusions as example of our fate may be like walking
in a minefield. Yet, an example as
warning is as necessary as posting a danger sign on a high-power wire, or a
washed-out bridge. For those who will
heed the warning, it is the means of preserving life.
So,
what applies here? What’s at risk? Where is the bridge washed away?
This is
not a difficult match for our culture.
Scripture is brimming with God’s word of warning about putting anything
above God. It would not be a stretch to
say most of Scripture is about created beings faithfully
loving/serving their Creator. Following
that ray of light back up to the source, we would have to give today’s culture
a failing grade of the most miserable kind.
Sexual sins, killing the unborn, anger, murder, and on into the
abyss…this is the legacy of Jeroboam we are creating for our sons and
daughters. And when judgment comes,
shaking the entire cosmos like reeds in the river, the time for philosophizing
will be buried along with whatever other foolishness we’re dabbling in, rather
than faithfulness.
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
