A Tale of Two Kings (1 Kings 14 1-31)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is a daily, in-depth, encouraging, and uplifting study through the entire Bible,  chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Today's Episode: A Tale of Two Kings (1 Kings 14 1-31)

Charles Dickens once wrote one of the great classics of English literature, A Tale of Two Cities. The cities in Charles Dickens' novel were London and Paris. I’d like to borrow that title—but with a slight twist, because today’s passage could easily be called: "A Tale of Two Kings".

 Because in 1 Kings 14, we meet the first two rulers of the newly divided kingdom of Israel—one in the north, one in the south. And their stories are not just historical curiosities. They are warnings. They are lessons in leadership, obedience, and consequences. 

Their story is one we need to know so that we don’t repeat their mistakes….

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Two Thrones, Two Choices, and Two Very Different Outcomes. Charles Dickens once wrote one of the great classics of English literature, a novel called A Tale of Two Cities. Now I haven't got to it yet, but in season one of my new classic literature podcast, I've been working through the books of Charles Dickens. And I hope to read it very soon and post an episode on it, certainly by the end of the year. Anyway, the two cities in the Charles Dickens novel were London and Paris. And I'd like to sort of borrow, some might say steal the title a little, but with a slight twist, because today's passage could easily be called the Tale of Two Kings. Because in 1 Kings chapter 14, we meet the first two rulers of this newly divided kingdom of Israel, one in the north and one in the south. And their stories that are unwrapped for us today are not just historical curiosities, they're meant to be warnings. They are lessons in leadership and obedience and the consequences of not being obedient. Before these two kings had taken the throne, remember, Israel had been united, but almost immediately after Solomon's death we saw the kingdom split in two. The northern kingdom, that's what will now be referred in scripture to as Israel, is ruled first by Jeroboam, and the southern kingdom, Judah, is now ruled by Rehoboam. And in the chapter we looked at yesterday, it told us the tale of these two men, how they came to power, what they did, and why it matters, and how their choices that we will see today shape the future of the nation. And the story is one we need to know and learn from today so that we don't repeat their mistakes. So let's try and do that together and discover that together in today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. And then in it it begins by telling us immediately that Jeroboam's son falls sick. Verse 1 opens with this simple but ominous line At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became sick. Now the little phrase at that time obviously connects this chapter to the one we looked at yesterday, the immediately preceding one. And what happened at the end of that chapter, chapter 13, was that account of how Jeroboam did evil things. We heard about his idolatry, his false religion, his setting up false idols, the places of worship, and when confronted his refusal to repent. And now, right in the middle of all that's going on, all this, all these forms of rebellion, his son becomes ill. Now we're not told the nature of the sickness, and we're not told the age of the child, we're simply told that the boy is sick. And Jerobam, what does he do? Well, it almost appears like he sort of panics. The next verses say, And Jerubam said to his wife, Go disguise yourself so you won't be recognized as the wife of me. Then go to Shiloh, Ahijah, the prophet is there, the one who told me I'd be king over these people. And take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him, and he will tell you what will happen to the boy. So why disguise yourself? Well, that's because Jerobam knows exactly what he's been doing. He knows he's rejected the Lord, he knows he's built idols, and he knows that he's provoked God's anger. And he also knows that Ahijah, the prophet in Shiloh, is the man who once told him that he would become king, and that prophecy came true. So Jeroboam thinks maybe he can tell him something about what to do about his son or what is likely to happen, so he can try and avoid that situation happening. But he also recognises that he won't get a warm welcome if the prophet recognises that she is his wife. So he decides to try and send her in disguise, carrying gifts, loaves of bread, cakes, and a jar of honey. So let's see what happens. So Jerobam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh. Now Ahijah could not see, his sight had gone because of his age. But the Lord had told Ahijah, Jerobim's wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such as an answer. When she arrives she will pretend to be someone else. So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, Come in, wife of Jerobam, why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news. So she arrives at Ahijah's house, and he is old and he's blind, but God, you see, has already spoken to him. Before she even steps through the door, God has told Ahijah that this woman coming is the wife of Jerobim, and she's actually coming to ask about her son. And she, yeah, she's going to pretend to be another woman. Was it Abraham Lincoln who famously said you can fool some of the people all of the time? And all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time? Well, forgive me, but let me add one more line to that. You can't fool God any of the time. Jerobam's wife tried, but the moment she enters, Elijah says, Why are you pretending to be another person? Now she came hoping for healing and for mercy, really coming hoping for a miracle, but instead she will hear a message of judgment. It begins, verse 7. Go tell Jerobam that this is what the Lord the God of Israel says. I raised you up from among the people and appointed you to rule over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. You have done more evil than all who have lived before you. You made for yourself other gods, idols of metal, you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. So Ahijah tells it like it is, and tells her to go home and tell Jeroboam this is what he says. You have done more evil than all who were before you. Why does he say that? Well, simply because Jerobam had gone all out and made other gods. He'd crafted idols and created places of worship and sacrifice there, and in doing so he provoked the Lord to anger. And now that judgment is coming. He continues, Because of this I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jerobim. I will cut off from Jerobam every last male in Israel. Slave or free, I will burn up the house of Jerobam as one burns dung until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jerobam who die in the city, and birds will feed on those who die in the country. The Lord has spoken. This is vivid language, isn't it? It's graphic. It's telling a devastating story. Jerobam's dynasty will be wiped out, every single meal will die. This is disgrace, dishonor. This is complete judgment of God. And then comes that last most heartbreaking line of all, verse twelve, as for you, speaking to the mother, go back home, and when you set your foot in your city, the boy will die. So the death of the child becomes the sign that everything God said will come to pass. But then God adds something unexpected. He says in the next verse, verse 13, All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jerobam in whom the Lord the God of Israel has found anything good. So this sick child, this dying boy, is the only one in all of the household of the Northern Kingdom with anything good in him. And God in mercy will allow him to die before the judgment falls. It's better, it seems, for him to die in sickness than to die in disgrace. The text now is forcing us to face something we often like to avoid the death of a child. We don't know what disease this boy had. We only know that it was terminal, but we do know that God says something remarkable here. The child would die, yes, but he would die with dignity, and his death, in effect, would be a mercy, because the truth is the rest of Jehovah's whole household, all the males would die in disgrace. It is better to die of natural causes, a disease even, than it is to die prematurely in dishonour. Now, of course, the death of a child is one of the deepest pains a human being can experience. So what can I really say about it? Well, one writer put it this way, what I think gives us a little helpful glimpse of how we might approach this tricky area. The death of a child, they wrote, is one of life's harsh realities. But believers can rest in assurance that the Lord never allows a youngster to die without a loving purpose in mind. So the text here is saying that God found something good in this boy, and in fact by taking him early, God was sparing him from the horrors that were coming upon his whole wider family. Sometimes, sometimes the greatest mercy is the very thing in life that we struggle with and we least understand. Now I'm not saying this slightly, but I have to say that I think this passage tells us that sometimes that is the case and that was what can be going on. One testimony I read was of a father who told the story of his infant girl who died before her first birthday. Yes, he said her life was short, but in that life she healed a broken marriage, drew her grandparents back together, she awakened her parents' spirituality, and in fact that child influenced a whole neighborhood and sparked a movement that ultimately helped start a new church. God can do more with tragic circumstances and even that of a short life than in anything we can imagine. John 9 tells us a story of a man born blind, and the disciples asked who sinned, this man who's parents, and Jesus said neither. He was born blind so that God could be glorified through him. I once met a young man at a Christian camp who said, I'm blessed with blindness because I get to see the first thing I see will be Jesus. Now we need to remember, friends, that Romans 8 28, that famous verse, doesn't say that all things are good. It says that all things can work together for good. And sometimes the greatest good is hidden from us, and in the most painful situations it may be hidden from us until we reach eternity. Anyway, okay, the text continues. The Lord it says will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who will cut off the family of Jerobam. Even now this is beginning to happen, and the Lord will strike Israel so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they aroused the Lord's anger by making Ashera Poles, and he will give Israel up because of the sins Jerobam has committed and caused Israel to commit. Then Jerobam's wife, she got up and left, and returned to Terzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy indeed died, and they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the Lord had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah. So judgment is not only declared prophesied as coming, it's already in motion. God says Israel be shaken like a reed water and uprooted from the land and scattered beyond the river. Why? Because they provoked the Lord to anger with these idols. There it is again. It's the theme of the chapter. The heartbeat of the chapter is explaining God's reason for his displeasure. Idolatry. You see, Jerobam's sin, as we said yesterday, wasn't a private mistake, it became a national disaster. And that image of a reed shaken in water would of course been familiar to Israel, especially having their long history in captivity in Egypt. Reeds grow in unstable soil, where there is water and flooding. They bend, they sway, and they are uprooted easily. And that is the picture of the northern kingdom here, and indeed in 722 BC, Assyria will uproot them and uproot them completely. And verse 16 adds, he will give Israel up because of Jerobam who sinned and made Israel sin. Now this phrase is crucial. He, Jerobam, it says, made Israel sin high? Well he established the high places, he created the false religion, and he made idolatry convenient for the people by the geographical location of those high places. They didn't go to the one true place, Jerusalem anymore, and that leader's sin easily, seamlessly became a nation's sin. And eventually a nation's sin will of course become that nation's downfall. And that prophecy is seen to be fulfilled and begins to be completed when this child dies. And Israel does indeed mourn, and they do indeed bury him with honor, and the prophecy is fulfilled exactly as God said. So we have now seen the first king of the divided kingdom, Jerobam, and the devastating consequences of his idolatry. And verse 19 closes the chap the portion of the chapter on his life. It says the other events of Jerobam's reign, the wars and how he rules, are written in the book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. He reigned for twenty two years and then rested with his ancestors. And Nadab, his son, succeeded him as king. So he reigns twenty-two years, he dies, and his son succeeds him, and that's it as it's recorded. So a man who began with such promise ends with such a loss. Jerobam's reign is a story of lost territory and lost influence. And during this reign we actually see that Jerobam has lost much of the land Solomon had at one time controlled. Now at the beginning he was a gifted leader, he was a capable administrator, he was a man that Solomon employed and was so effective that at one point Solomon even considered killing him. But when he actually got established in power, he sinned, he put the Lord behind his back, and he built these places of idolatry, and he was the one who led the stray the nation astray. And Scripture sums up his legacy in that one devastating line: He sinned and made Israel sin. Imagine having that on your tombstone as your final inscription. Here lies this man or woman who sinned and caused others to sin. And that is Jeroboam's strapline and story here. And it has to be taken as a warning to every one of us, particularly people who are in leadership. Every influencer, every believer, every parent indeed, the fact that your sin never just stays with you personally, it always spins over, spills over into those you have authority or influence over. So Jeroboam's story is tragic for this whole northern kingdom. His sin not only destroyed his family, his idolatry destroyed his dynasty, and the rebellion that he started against God destroyed the whole future for him and the nation. But the chapter's not finished, because now it turns to the south, to Rehobim and the king of Judah, and his story is just as sobering. Judgment continues there. Like I said, I call today's episode a tale of two kings, so now we meet the second. We've seen the first king, let's turn to the second. Verse 21. Rehobam, son of Solomon, was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem. The city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his name, and his mother's name was Naima. She was an Ammonite. So Rehoabam is Solomon's son. He's forty-one years old when he becomes king, and it tells us he reigns for seventeen years. But it also adds this little unusual detail. It says his mother's name was Naima. Why mention his mother's name at all? And that's to tip us off that of her influence and how that is shaping his reign. Rehobam's mother Namah, we're told, is from Ammon. That's modern day Jordan. So the point is here she's not an Israelite at all. She is an idolatry in background, and she is the one who is having an influence, some would say a profound influence on her son. Under Rehobam, Judah revived the very Canaanite paganist religion that God commanded Israel to destroy back in the day. Now the text by telling us her heritage is hinting strongly that it was Naemah's presence in the palace was the thing that helped open the door to this idolatry. Now of course mothers can have a powerful influence, hopefully for good, but sometimes for harm, and in this case it would seem it was tragically harmful. Verse 22 continues Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up jealousy, anger more than those who had gone before them. Yes, more than David, more than Solomon, yes. But how did they do it? Again, verse twenty three, they set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and ashrapos on every high hill and under every spreading tree. These high places were becoming centres of idolatry again. And here's the sobering part. Some of the idols that were being used here may well have begun as images or items of worship of the one true God, just doing just like they did when they fashioned the golden calf back in Exodus 32. The people were again saying, This is the God we worship, this is the God who has brought us thus far. But God has said and declared right from the beginning, you know it, you shall have no other gods before me, no carved images, no substitutes, no visual representations, because what begins as a symbol of God can quickly easily become a replacement for God. And eventually those high places and these things can devolve into full blown pagan worship. Verse 24 then adds this troubling detail. There were even male prostitutes in the land, the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. Now this is referring to male shrine prostitution, which was a central practice in Canaanite religion. This is the very sin God judged when he commanded Israel to drive out the Canaanites. But Israel never fully obeyed because they left remnants, and then Solomon, of course, he married those foreign wives, and now Rehobim inherits their influence, and now Judah is practicing that very abomination that God once specifically condemned. So judgment is seen to fall. Verse 25, in the fifth year of King Rohabam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. So judgment fall, Egypt invades, and what is remarkable, not only does Scripture name the Egyptian king, here's the remarkable thing, we have archaeological evidence confirming this invasion. On the walls of the temple at Karnak in Egypt, there is a 79-line inscription describing Shishhak's campaign into Judah and Israel. And it lists all those things, the taking of the prisoners, the plunder, the cities that he conquered, and the spoils taken. It is in fact the longest surviving continuous monument text that we have from ancient Egypt in that time. And it confirms exactly what the Bible says here. He carried off treasures of the temple and the Lord's treasures of the royal palaces. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made. That's verse 26. So Rehobim's sin cost Judah its protection. God is described as removing his hand of protection from them, and we immediately see Egypt invade and walk right in. So that's the story. We've seen both kings. We've heard about both kings Jerobam, who sinned and made Israel sin, and Rehobim, who followed the influence of idolatry and provoked God to jealousy. And the chapter has shown us the consequences of both these guys' choices and the final verdicts on their reign. And the final details are added, and it tells us in twenty seven and twenty-eight, so King Rehoabam made bronze shields to replace them, that's the ones the Egyptians had taken, and assigned those to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Lord's table, the guards bore the shields, and afterwards they returned them to the guard room. So what's that about? Why is that important? Now remember, a couple of days ago Solomon had made gold shields, fashioned gold shields, symbols of God's blessing, his prosperity, and his presence among them. But Rehobam has to replace them with bronze. So there's a deliberate, tragic, pathetic picture here. Gold is being replaced with bronze. Glory is being replaced with an imitation of glory. Something of substance is being replaced with something that is only for appearance's sake. Rabom was trying to keep the ceremony, keep all the ritual. He'd kept the parade of seals, but the glory and the meaning behind them was now gone. And that, my friends, has to raise a very piercing question for all of us. What bronze have we put in place in our life where gold used to be? Where have you substituted intimacy with the Lord for a show of intimacy with the Lord? Then the closing verses say, As for the other events of Rehobim's reign and all he did, are they not written in the book of the Annals of the King of Judah? There was continually warfare between Rehobam, Rehobim, and Jerobam. And Rehobam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the city of David. And his mother's name was Naamah, she was an Emmonite, and Abijah her son succeeded him as king. So that's the close out. Verse twenty-nine tells us the rest of Rehobam's acts and how they're recorded elsewhere in the books that we today call One and Two Kings and One and Two Chronicles. And in verse thirty says that there is constant war between these two kings in the north and the south. So again, we can see that this sin of this type always brings conflict, always. And then finally we are told Rehuabam dies. But the closing verses again add that little detail one last time, and his mother's name was Naimah. There it is again. A reminder that influence matters, and a reminder that influence shaped her son, and a reminder that influence is going to shape the son as she's the mother of the next king. And this, of course, is a reminder that Rehobam's idolatry was not born in a vacuum, that this woman's influence is powerful, and what could have been a goodly, godly influence has indeed been squandered. Naemus certainly squandered hers because her son led a nation into a deeper sin, a sin it is cleared to be worse than anything David or Solomon ever did. So how do we summarize all this? Well, it's a story, as I said, of two kings Jerobim, the one who started with promise, but he sinned and he made Israel sin, and by doing so he provoked God's anger, and that led to the loss of his dynasty. Then there is Rehuabam, he inherited the throne, but also followed the pagan influence of his mother, and he led Judah into a deeper sin than any of their fathers had done before them, again provoking God's jealousy, thereby losing God's protection. Now Dickens, in his introduction to his book, A Tale of Two Cities, wrote, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It's a very famous introduction. But here, for this passage today, I might have used as an introduction, it was the worst of times, and things just got worse. Both kings sinned, both kings caused others to sin, and both kings provoked God to anger by their actions. And because of that, both kingdoms have suffered devastating consequences. Their idolatry has made God angry, their pagan practices have made God angry, and now the question, if I put it at the front, is there anything here that we can learn from this? Anything that we are doing in our lives that might just make God angry? Now you might say, Well, I'm not an idolater, I'm not building high places, I'm not leading, certainly not leading a nation astray, but you see Scripture in the New Testament gives us a much broader context to this. Ephesians 5 tells us what makes God angry today. Now Paul writes and warns us of this first, but by first, by encouraging us to first be imitators of God and walk in love, but then to avoid the things God makes that make God angry. And he lists them fornication, uncleanliness, covetousness, filthiness, foolishness, foolish talking, coarse jesting. Let them not be named among you, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of the disobedient. So there you have it. All these things. Now that list contains some very ordinary things. They're not all very exotic sins, some of them are very everyday sins. They are the sins that as Christians we're often inclined to excuse or ignore. But I think this passage is telling us that God doesn't excuse them. God is angered by them, and because of that, Paul warns us and says, do not be partakers of them, don't dance with those things. This is the true lesson of two kings for us today. But thankfully, Ephesians 5 also tells us the antidote, how to live the correct life and avoid God's anger, and that is to walk in love, walk in purity, walk in gratitude, build others up, and avoid all these sins that are inclined to provoke God's anger. So the story of the two kings is meant to speak to us as well today, because every single one of us, as believers, have choices, multiple choices to make every day. We can choose gold or bronze, we can choose obedience or disobedience and compromise. We can choose to live a life of gratitude or spend it grumbling all the time. We can choose to speak and build people up or tear them down. We can choose to walk in love or we can choose to walk in the way or towards sin. You see, the Old Testament story of both these guys, Jeruim and Rehobim, I know their names are very similar and can get confusing at times. It's there to show us what can happen when people drift, when leaders drift. But Ephesians 5, my friend, has also shown us how to stay on track and to keep walking in the light. And you know what? I believe the Lord today, by us choosing to study this passage, has chosen to wisely show us the path that we should take. And my prayer is that we all might take that path today. And thanks for being with me today. Both men with privilege, both men with opportunity, both men entrusted with leadership, and yet we see both men squander it. And in both cases, scriptures say the same thing. Because of this, God got angry. He got angry not because he's petty, he gets angry because he knows that sin destroys us. That sin not only destroys us, it corrupts families, nations, and leads other people astray. So the question comes home to us all: are you doing anything that provokes the Lord to anger? Have you replaced gold with bronze? Have you substituted intimacy with God for something cheaper? Have you allowed the habits, attitudes, or screeps to drift into the very things that Ephesians 9 just warned us against? This tale of two kings is not just ancient history, my friends. It's meant always, all these old books are meant to give us warnings and encouragement, and they're meant to give us a call to examine ourselves our own hearts and our own motivations. But of course, this story of kings is an ending here today, because in the very next chapter, which tomorrow is 1 Kings 15, we're going to discover something quite remarkable. How God evaluates every person by one universal standard. Not by their accomplishments, not by their position in life, not by their military victories or their political skill, not even by their popularity, but by the posture of their heart. So join me next time as we explore God's Standard of Judgment. A chapter that can remind us how God sees the heart, he weighs the motives, and he measures every life by his own unchanging standard. You don't want to miss it. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Bye-bye, for now.