The Torn Kingdom

After taking counsel from his pathetic advisors, Jeroboam acts: “Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, ‘Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here is your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt’” (12:28). He thus defies God’s holy commands (e.g., Exod 20:4) and worships idols. Like the aftermath of the golden-calf incident in Exodus, judgment is coming.

Jeroboam does the exact opposite of what God initially told in him chapter 11.

After that, if you obey all I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight in order to keep My statutes and My commands as My servant David did, I will be with you. I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David. (11:38; emphasis added)

Instead of revering God and His word, Jeroboam follows his sinful heart.

To secure his position (v. 29), he makes a center of worship in both the far north (Dan) and the far south (Bethel). These locations provided a convenient religion for the people. They also held historical significance. Bethel’s significance went back to Abraham (Gen 12:8; 13:3-4) and Jacob (Gen 28:10-22; 31:13; 35:1-16; cf. Judg 20:26-28). Worship took place previously in Dan during the period of the judges (Judg 18). Thus, Jeroboam was able to mask his purposes and perhaps play on tradition and history. The whole plan seems quite subtle.

Finally, we find descriptions of Bethel in particular. Jeroboam makes his own high places, his own altar, and his own priests. To complete the circus, he makes his own festival (cf. Exod 32:5). All of this he does to rival Jerusalem and to secure his position. He violates clear commandments like those in Deuteronomy 12.

Jeroboam lives with absolutely no fear of God. He thinks he can dishonor God with impunity. He considers politics more important than true worship. He thinks his security comes from self instead of God. He lives in total folly, for the handbook for Kings—Proverbs—tells us clearly and repeatedly, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10). Jeroboam neither fears God nor has wisdom from God.

Don’t play the fool. In our culture the foundational message for individual decision making seems to be “follow your heart.” But the Bible teaches otherwise. The message is “fear God” not “follow your heart.” Comedian Bill Murray quips, “I followed my heart, and it led me to the fridge.” Rehoboam and Jeroboam followed their sinful, selfish hearts, and it led them into idolatry and ruin. Will their prophets do any better? Will they fear God and keep His word? We shall see in the next episode.

Disobedience

1 Kings 13:1-34

After Jeroboam builds his new temple, he is all set to initiate his false religion. But things don’t go as planned. Provan contrasts him with Solomon:

Solomon’s temple was built in fulfillment of a prophetic promise about both temple and dynasty (2 Sam 7:1-17), the building of Jeroboam’s temple evokes prophetic threats (1 Kgs 13:2-3; 14:7-13), which in due course will come to fulfillment in the destruction of both dynasty and temple. (1 and 2 Kings, 113; emphasis added)

God intends for His word to be obeyed. Jeroboam violated God’s word, and now we’re introduced to a story of two prophets who must also heed God’s word—first the Judean prophet and then the prophet from Bethel.

The Judean Prophet Confronts Jeroboam (13:1-10)

The man of God from Judah does well at first. While the ceremony at Bethel is going on, this prophet stands up and brings a threat related to the altar. He tells of a descendant of David, Josiah, who will bring judgment on the new priests by destroying them on Jeroboam’s altar and profane the altar by putting human bones on it. He also says that an imminent sign would validate his message.

Jeroboam will have none of it, so he reacts immediately. The king stretches out his hand, saying, “Arrest him!” But when he does, his hand withers and he can’t pull it back (v. 4). In verse 5 we then read that the altar does in fact split and its ashes pour out.

The whole account shows that God isn’t only displeased with idolatry, but He’s also not under the control of any other “god.” He can split the buildings and the altars today if He wishes. He’s also sovereign over rulers. He can take the finger with which they point and immobilize it. Right now, God gives breath to every atheist who breathes out “There is no god.” In God’s immeasurable mercy and patience, He doesn’t always crush such people instantly but instead offers them an opportunity to repent.

But Jeroboam doesn’t repent. He asks for prayer, but this is more like the inauthentic prayers of Pharaoh (e.g., Exod 8:8,28; 9:27-28; 10:17; 12:32) than the prayer of a repentant person. Jeroboam tells the Judean prophet, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me” (v. 6). His request gets answered, but his heart doesn’t change.

As a pragmatic politician, Jeroboam decides to take a different course of action with the prophet. If he can’t capture the prophet, what about inviting him to dinner? He offers the prophet not only a kingly meal but also a kingly reward. But the prophet refuses. He obeys God and says, “for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or go back the way you came’” (v. 9). Then we read, “So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel” (v. 10). God wanted the prophet to stand up, speak up, and get home without being distracted or corrupted. And the prophet obeys. So far so good.

Throughout all of chapter 13, the “word of the Lord” is the primary theme (13:9,17,20,21,26,32; Davis, 148–49). Jeroboam refuses it. The Judean prophet follows it at first (13:1-10) but then abandons it (13:11-24). The prophet from Bethel abuses it (vv. 11-32). What will you do with God’s Word?

The Judean Prophet Gets Killed by a Lion (13:11-32)

The following story is filled with surprising and mysterious drama. The writer tells us that an old prophet from Bethel in the south makes an effort to meet up with this Judean prophet. When the old prophet finds the Judean prophet, he invites him over for dinner. As with Jeroboam, he tells the old prophet that he must decline based on God’s word. His instructions were not to stop for bread and water and to return home by another way. Not to be refused, the old prophet played the “the Lord told me” card and lied to the Judean prophet. This lying prophet insisted that the Lord told him to show hospitality to the Judean prophet, and his lie proved persuasive, as the Judean prophet “went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water” (v. 19).

Be careful whenever someone says, “The Lord told me.” Many cult leaders have played this same trick. Be careful around religious people who know how to manipulate others through religious language and schemes. Paul says that false teachers “worm their way into households and capture idle women” (2 Tim 3:6). Such people are deceptively evil. We should also be mindful that yesterday’s victories don’t ensure today’s and tomorrow’s victories. The Judean prophet triumphed at Jeroboam’s altar, but in the next scene he disobeys God’s clear word. This wild story reminds us of our great need for discernment and a daily, resolute commitment to obey God.

The story takes a strange twist. The old prophet actually speaks God’s word honestly. God can use all sorts of people. After clearly lying (v. 18), the old prophet now speaks truth:

This is what the Lord says: “Because you rebelled against the command of the Lord and didn’t keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you—but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place that He said to you, ‘Don’t eat bread and don’t drink water’—your corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.” (vv. 21-22)

Because of the Judean prophet’s disobedience, he will not make it home, and he will not die in peace. So a lion attacks and kills this man of God from Judah. A strange scene then follows his awful death. The lion doesn’t eat the body or attack the donkey. The lion’s unusual behavior magnifies that fact that this death was not an ordinary “man gets mauled by a lion” type of death. This is God’s judgment. The strangeness led everyone to talk about it.

When word gets back to the prophet from Bethel, he goes and retrieves the dead body, performs burial rites, and tells his sons that what the Judean prophet actually said concerning Jeroboam will come to pass.

The writer then says that Jeroboam didn’t change his evil ways but continued in sin despite the previous prophecy and the miracle at the altar. Due to his hard heart, destruction awaits the king.

As we observe this odd story, we should make one additional, obvious application: everyone must obey God’s word—prophets, kings, and everyone in between. In the case of the prophets, we’re reminded that those doing public ministry don’t get a pass on personal obedience. Just because the Lord uses you to speak His word doesn’t mean you can take personal obedience casually. The Judean prophet serves as a warning to us. Our personal lives and our public ministry should be harmonious, not duplicitous. Live with the same degree of commitment to the Lord in your home and neighborhood as you do in a church building and on a platform.

Death

1 Kings 14:1-20

The next episode in the Jeroboam reality TV show is equally intriguing and sad. Jeroboam is troubled by his son’s sickness, so he sends his wife to the clergyman who predicted his ascent to the throne (11:37-38). He wants to know his son’s future. He tells her to take some Krispy Kreme doughnuts with her and to disguise herself. But the disguise makes no sense for two reasons. Ahijah is a prophet who already knows about the situation, and he’s blind.

Why does Jeroboam try to use this tactic? We aren’t told, but it’s probably because he was not following Ahijah’s original instruction to follow God’s word. Jeroboam probably thinks if he approaches Ahijah directly, then bad news will follow. He wants good news. But no one can manipulate God (cf. Acts 8:9-25), and no one is ever out of the eyes of God. No one can sneak away from God’s just judgment.

In verse 6 Ahijah dispenses with the games, saying, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you.” He proceeds to give her the unbearable news. Because Jeroboam hasn’t acted like David and has worshiped false gods instead, disaster is coming. The Lord is going to bring Jeroboam’s dynasty to a disgraceful end:

I will eliminate all of Jeroboam’s males,

both slave and free, in Israel;

I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam

as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!

Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city,

the dogs will eat,

and anyone who dies in the field,

the birds of the sky will eat,

for the Lord has said it! (vv. 10-11)

Ahijah then tells her of the fate of her sick son: he will die. It’s tragic indeed, but at least this son will be buried. The wider tragedy is that Jeroboam’s house will be cut off. Ahijah tells the king’s wife,

The Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel, who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam. This is the day, yes, even today! For the Lord will strike Israel and the people will shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that He gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates because they made their Asherah poles, provoking the Lord. He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit. (vv. 14-16)

Provan summarizes, “Jeroboam’s disobedience affects not just his own destiny (as the Judean’s prophet’s destiny had done), nor just that of his own house; it affects the destiny of the whole kingdom” (1 and 2 Kings, 119).

When Jeroboam’s wife returned and crossed the house’s threshold, the boy died according to the prophet’s word, and all of Israel mourned.

This story echoes David, who also lost a son due to sin, and the king’s sin affected others (2 Sam 12). But of course David’s whole house wasn’t destroyed. The God of justice is also the God of mercy, who in the fullness of time brought forth the ultimate Son of David, Jesus.

Conclusion

This is where we should end: Jesus. How might we wrap up this dark period of Israel’s history of division, downfall, disobedience, and death? The story reminds us that we need a better King and a better Prophet. We need One who can overcome our great problem: death. We need One who can bring about a united kingdom under a perfectly just and wise reign. We have all of this—yes, all of this—in Jesus, the King to end all kings.

The good news of the gospel is that God is merciful to sinners. He forgives idolaters and liars. He offers everlasting life to dying people. This salvation is made possible through the work of the King who took our judgment at the cross, rose from the dead, and opened the way of salvation for all who will heed God’s call to repent and believe in Christ. Don’t persist in sin. Repent. Look to Jesus as your sin-bearing substitute who alleviates our greatest burden, and embrace the fullness of salvation He offers. Then you can be assured of a place in His coming kingdom. If you have embraced Him as your Savior and King, then rejoice in Him now. Realize that your King has come, your King will return, and peace and righteousness will dwell forever. Live this day in light of that day, as a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom.

Reflect and Discuss