1 Kings 14 Devotional
By Pastor Lawrence

Even atheists will try praying to God when all else fails. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’ve been converted or are expressing genuine faith but are merely seeking to cover all their bases. Nevertheless, it still testifies to the truth of Scripture that deep down in their hearts they know that there is a God, even though they refuse to submit to him. In our text this morning, we see that Jeroboam, the tyrant and maker of idols in Israel, still acknowledges the one true God when he is desperate for help. When his son Abijah falls deathly sick, he sends his wife to Ahijah, a prophet in Judah, to find out the fate of their child. Because this same prophet had foretold his own rise to power, Jeroboam figured that the man had access to some heavenly wisdom in a way that none of his own priests and prophets could match.

But out of sense of guilt for having broken God’s law and leading Gods’ people away from the one true God, Jeroboam commanded his wife to dress like a peasant so that the prophet would not know whose son she was interceding for. This coverup shows that Jeroboam is at least cognizant of the righteousness of God and proves also that foolishness is still bound up in the heart of this unrepentant sinner. For, if he fully understood that the Lord could foresee his own future as well as any future for his son, what would hinder the Lord from seeing the recent transgressions of the king, and the true identity of his wife. Jeroboam’s thinking is a little warped, but so too is our own thinking when we are walking in the flesh. We see only partial truths about God and fail to see our own hypocrisy, hoping that God will fail to see it as well.

We are told that at this time the prophet Ahijah was very old and had lost his physical vision, but that would not hinder the Lord from giving this man spiritual vision to rightly read the situation in front of his face. Before Jeroboam’s wife ever enters into the prophet’s house, the Lord has already shared with him the identity of the woman and the purpose of her visit, despite the fact that she disguised herself and came bearing gifts of a commoner rather than a king. With the help of the Lord, this blind man could immediately see through the cloud of lies and send her back to her husband with some very sobering news. Even before she opens her mouth, the prophet tells her that her child will be dead the minute she steps foot back into her town and into her house. But the prophet gives an even more expansive prophecy conveying to the woman and her foolish husband that because he has not walked in the ways of David but in great wickedness and idolatry leading God’s people to do the same, God would bring a curse upon his entire household, cutting off every male descendant in his line wiping them off the face of the earth. The prophet also predicts the fall of the entire kingdom of Israel when God will punish his people as well for turning away from the Lord into idolatry. After all, Jeroboam’s idolatrous scheme involving two golden calves succeeds only because the people themselves are so fickle in their love for the Lord.

Interestingly, the one thing that Jeroboam feared the most, the loss of his sickly son, was actually the good news in this dark prophecy. Whereas the rest of Jeroboam’s relatives would die in disgrace, this one son would receive a proper burial and be mourned by many, for there was something found in him that was pleasing to the Lord. This implies that the young man, the very son of the tyrant in Israel, had come to trust in the Lord, for the writer of Hebrews says that without faith it is impossible to please the Lord, yet here is one who has pleased God. It is truly a miraculous work when God saves the son of a wicked man, showing that He can work with or without the aid of godly parents.

On the other hand, Rehoboam, the grandson of David, was not much like him at all, for he not only allowed false worship in the land of Judah but even allowed the heinous tradition of having male cult prostitutes in the city of Jerusalem, promoting idolatry and sexual immorality at the very gates of the Lord. But unlike with Jeroboam, Rehoboam’s lineage would not be wiped out, not because he was so much better than his rival king, but only because the Lord had promised David that a son of his would sit upon the throne forever. Nevertheless, Rehoboam would still face immediate consequences for his sin, for the Lord would raise up Shishak, the king of Egypt to besiege the city of Jerusalem and to strip the golden treasures of the king’s house. And similar to Jeroboam’s attempt to deceive God, Rehoboam continually seeks to deceive his own people by replacing the golden shields and instruments with those made entirely of bronze. He would actually charge someone to watch over these shields that were of very little value merely to keep up the pretense of a glorious kingdom, hoping that no one would recognize the hypocrisy, not even God whose gold he had given away.

R.C. Sproul would often remind his listeners that every day, every minute of our lives, we live “Coram deo,” before the face of God, whether we want to or not. God knows our hearts, he knows our schemes, and he certainly knows our hypocrisy. So let us not pretend any longer, but humbly step into the light of the Lord, repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus that we might live intentionally and comfortably before the face of the Lord.