1 Kings 14:1-20

[0:00] It's good to see you this evening. Thankful to have the opportunity with you. And it is a joy to be gathered with you this evening. Trust that you've had a good day. Trust that things have went well.

[0:11] Take your Bibles, go with me to the book of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 14. 1 Kings chapter 14. As we just continue to make our way through Scripture.

[0:22] And really, Sunday night and Wednesday night, just making our way through Scripture. And so we've made it to this point. 1 Kings chapter 14.

[0:33] Our text this evening will be verses 1 through 20. Verses 1 through 20, 1 Kings chapter 14. Let's open up with a word of prayer and then we'll get right into it with one another.

[0:47] Lord, I thank you so much. Thank you for just the opportunity we have of gathering together. Thank you for the privilege it is to study the Word of God with one another.

[0:57] Lord, to be challenged and encouraged by it. Lord, I pray as we open up the Scripture, Lord, that you would open it up before our eyes and plant it in our hearts and minds.

[1:09] Lord, we pray that as we gain information and understanding, Lord, that it would be so much more than just a collection. But, Lord, it would be a driving force behind our lives.

[1:21] That it would be that which shapes and forms us for your glory. We do pray, Lord, that you would let these truths take root. And may they find great application in our daily living.

[1:32] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, let's put ourselves in context. And I said we have to do this with every portion of Scripture. Because a text out of context really just becomes a useless text that can be twisted and warped around for anything.

[1:48] So, where we're at, we don't have to recap a whole lot because I know Wednesday night I really kind of went into it. But, in the period of the divided, we're just right in the beginning stages of the period of the divided kingdoms.

[2:01] So, we have Israel and Judah. The northern kingdom, the southern kingdom. After the death of Solomon, you know, his son Rehoboam ascends to the throne. The kingdom is divided as God had said.

[2:11] We have the northern kingdom that we focus on first. And after this portion of Scripture really that we read here, the emphasis will go back to the southern kingdom until midway through the 15th chapter.

[2:24] And then we go back to the northern kingdom. So, this is that point in the historical writings of the Old Testament where we're like, man, we just keep getting all these names. And we're bouncing back and forth. And all these king's names begin to sound alike.

[2:37] And even this evening, one of the sons, the son of the king's name is Abijah. The prophet that he goes to is Ahijah. And you're like, man, everything is so similar there. So, we want to kind of make sure that we take our time and we really understand what's going on.

[2:51] But we're at this period where we're focusing on Jeroboam in the northern kingdom. And the last chapter, the 13th chapter, brought the prophet from Judah who came with a word of God to Jeroboam at the moment that he was offering this false worship on this false altar.

[3:10] And Jeroboam really instituted idolatry and worship and all these things and began to open up the doors of all this false worship in the nation of Israel.

[3:21] And in particular, in the northern kingdom, he set one up in Bethel and he set one up in Dan. And at that very moment, God brought a word of judgment. And God validated that word with prophetic signs.

[3:33] You remember that. And you remember later the false prophet that was living there as well in Bethel. And then he called the prophet back. And that prophet's death even is a warning against misapplication or not faithfully obeying the word of God.

[3:48] So the whole last chapter was really this declaration of the word of God must be obeyed. Right? He must be obeyed with life. And that's important because Jeroboam is king because God had declared to him that he would be king.

[4:04] Okay? God had used the prophet that we'll find in this chapter to declare to him that he was going to make him king of the ten tribes that were pulled away in his act of discipline upon the house of David.

[4:17] Or not David, the house of Solomon. But we see here that he had not been faithful to that. Now, we ended the 13th chapter with the affirmation that Jeroboam did not return from his wicked ways, but rather pressed forward into them even more so and made whoever wanted to be a priest a priest.

[4:40] So that's where we ended. Now, I say we need to know where we ended because the 14th chapter ties together with exactly that period. You need to know what's going on. Now, Jeroboam is unrepentant.

[4:54] It's undeniable that God has shown and validated the word that what he's doing is wrong. He will not repent of it. He does not change his ways, and he continues to go even further into that sin.

[5:08] And he's leading not only his own family, but the northern tribes, the ten northern tribes, the grander part of the nation of Israel. He is leading them into this false worship.

[5:18] And so God responds to that in the 14th chapter. And I want you to see in verses 1 through 20 a word of truth in a time of deception.

[5:28] Because one thing that we noticed about Jeroboam is that the false worship was not openly false.

[5:41] I mean, it was, but it was close to the truth. It was near enough to truth to be like unto what they were doing in Judah. They had festivals that were just a month late.

[5:53] They had golden calves that more than likely were representative of the cherubim that were before the ark of the covenant in the inner holy of holies.

[6:04] They had an altar on which they burned offerings much like they did in the temple. They had things that were like it, but it wasn't it. Because Satan loves to operate in the realm of deception.

[6:18] Something that is so near to the truth that it meets the need of the moment. You remember that when Jeroboam introduced this, he said to the nation, Now we know his heart.

[6:29] His heart was if the people go back to Judah to worship, then they'll realize that we should never have split the kingdom. And then they'll come and kill me and my whole household. And they'll make, you know, Rehoboam their king again.

[6:40] They'll go back to the family of David. So his heart was to try to preserve his life. By the way, the very thing that he did to preserve his life ends up costing him his life. And the life of his family. Because God said that I will make you a king and I will give you an enduring family if you will obey me and walk faithfully in all my ways as David has done.

[6:57] Didn't give him a Davidic covenant. Not a covenant like that. But God said I will bless your family if you will walk in faithfulness. He chose the road of self-preservation and made all these decisions. And in the end that self-preservation ends up costing him his family's life.

[7:12] But the way he presented it to the people was it's too far for you to go to Judah. So we're going to do this. We're going to set this worship up. And so it was a worship of convenience.

[7:25] And it was a time of deception. It was a time in which things seemed like they could have been right. They may have been right. One Bible commentator even notices the name in which Jeroboam names his son.

[7:39] You'll meet him in just a minute. His name is Abijah. Abijah means the Lord is my leader or the Lord is my father. So he's naming his children with what we would call godly names.

[7:54] He's not really separating himself from Yahweh. But he wants to make it more convenient and wants to kind of go halfway. It's a time of deception.

[8:05] But in the midst of that there's a word of truth delivered and we'll see it. So let's read. It says, It says, 1 Kings 14.

[11:20] 1 Kings 14. 1-20.

[11:53] Jeroboam was adamantly continuing forward in his sin as he was making whoever wanted to be priest a priest as he was continuing to strengthen this strengthening this false worship of idolatry in which the Lord says you are casting me behind your back the only other repetition of that word phrase is in the prophet of Ezekiel I believe in which the Lord says that you have cast me behind your back so at that time while God saw these things the son of Jeroboam that many people believe is the prince heir to the throne becomes sick Abijah becomes sick now it's it's repetitious of what happens in the 13th chapter where it says that at that time when he was offering the false worship

[13:13] God sent a prophet from Judah at that very moment and God is always on time right God has a way of gathering our attention I spoke to someone today after church and they were sharing their story with me and I said well I'm just thankful you know you're continuing to press forward in the church they said well we didn't for a while the Lord has a way of getting your attention God has a way of doing things at that time at that time when he is strengthening this false worship his son becomes sick but we recognize the weakness because it is at that time when the worship of these false gods these golden calves are being encouraged they're being practiced the festivals are being celebrated the false priests are being admitted and we have all these offerings that are being offered at that time he realizes there's no hope in that false worship for the sickness of his son that is at that time when he comes to a moment of desperation that that which he had counted worthy of his worship and that which he had counted worthy of his allegiance and worthy of his attention and that which was as it tells us the desire of his own heart did not meet the need of the moment and that is that his son was sick one thing that we notice about Jeroboam is that he does not cry out to the Lord God in worship but he has no problem crying out when he has an issue when his hand withers and becomes paralyzed and he cannot call it back to himself in the 13th chapter he calls out to the prophet says cry out to the Lord your God that he may restore my hand and the prophet does and his hand is restored now all of a sudden his son becomes sick and evidently there's no hope to be found in this false worship and so he says we must go talk to this man in shallow because he knows that what he has set up as being important and what he has set up as a matter of convenience and what he has set up to be a matter of self-preservation for his family now falls woefully short because it cannot meet the need of desperation in his family that is not new and that is not old that is something we continue to see today so many come to that time when they realize that what they have set up as being deserving of their worship all of a sudden cannot change the circumstances in their desperation that if they thought it was important enough to dedicate their life to it if they thought it was important enough to live according to it and all of a sudden it does not live up to the moment

[15:45] I think I might have said this before but I one of the greatest quotes that I've ever heard and read in the scripture Martin Lloyd-Jones oh what a kindred spirit he seems to be to me Martin Lloyd-Jones when he's preaching to the people in Britain and he was telling them in the 1930s and even into the 1940s he said I have no problem with you if you don't want to accept Christ he said I don't care if you don't want to accept Christ it bothers me when he preached the gospel he says I have no problem he says all that I ask is that you be consistent when your kinfolk die don't ask the church to bury them and when you want to celebrate marriage don't come to the church for us to marry them don't come to us in moments of desperation and the reason he said that was not to be judgmental is because he was pinpointing the reality to the world that there comes a moment in every individual's life where we realize we need something more than what we're currently relying upon it is the reality that in moments of desperation the one thing that we know to that is going to be truth is the gospel and he wasn't being judgmental and casting the world out the doors he was showing the world the futility of the things that they were trusting upon and when Jeroboam comes at this moment that when his son is sick he realizes it's not a sacrifice on the altar before a golden calf that he needs he realizes not running to Dan or going to Bethel what he needs he needs the help of the

[17:06] Lord God and there's only one place that he knows that he can find it and that's in shallow now it amazes us because shallow is in the northern kingdom God always has a man no matter how dark the days and he's just still living in shallow last week we looked at the reality that this man that was living in Bethel and was a prophet that was a false prophet that if he'd have been a sure prophet that he would have went south you say what about Ahijah well Ahijah could not see he had physical limitations that the last prophet that we saw that was a false prophet was saddling donkey getting his sons to saddle donkeys riding donkeys putting dead men on donkeys and carrying them back had no physical limitations Ahijah had physical limitations he stayed there but God always has his man truth always has a place even in the midst of darkness and God had his man waiting there Jeroboam knew that that which he was counting on could not help him in this moment now is that true faith no it's not true faith it's faith of desperation in the moment now can God honor that we call those deathbed conversions and all those realities sure we're not here to cast judgment upon that but what we do know is that he did not cry out in worship he cried out in need and he was not sincere in that it was not a heart matter as a matter of fact we see the weakness not only of what he has been relying upon in worship but we also see the weakness of the individual because he's unwilling to go and be face to face with this gentleman because he knows he has been wrong so he sends his wife Jeroboam himself realized that what he had been counting on in worship could not address the need that he had before him but he also was not willing to go and humble himself before the prophet who had declared to him that he would be king one day he would not go and humble himself and acknowledge his own wickedness and declare his own ways had been wrong and ask for help he tried to do it in secrecy God will not be mocked he wanted a secret blessing from the Lord rather than a public profession he told his wife to disguise herself so that no woman know that you're Jeroboam's wife and even at some point out the offering that she is bringing to the priest would be representative of an offering of a poor country individual not of the queen of the land he said I want you to fully disguise yourself and ask God to bless he was trying to connive the Lord even though he recognized the weaknesses of what he was worshiping it's a recognized weakness the second thing we see is a revealed truth because since God always has his man truth always has a place ahijah is there in the land and Jeroboam's wife is going to do what Jeroboam has asked him to do or asked her to do and she's going to disguise herself and bring this thing but the Lord always speaks in truthfulness because though we may deceive man we will never deceive the Lord God who sees all things so the Lord proclaims to ahijah he wasn't going to be tricked by the way she looks anyway because his eyes cannot see that well he had a physical limitation she could disguise herself all she wanted to he couldn't see her anyway but the Lord saw and the Lord revealed this truth ahijah that

[20:18] Jeroboam's wife would be coming attempting to deceive him because the deception of the wicked will one day be brought about or brought to light so the Lord said to ahijah and was very clear on what was going on in the moment she walks in the door I love this we see no presentation of her gift to the prophet we see no opportunity for her to deceive because the truth cuts it off immediately ahijah says as soon as she walks in come in wife of Jeroboam calls her for who she is why do you pretend to be another woman and truth is a very revealing truth and yet at that moment when this truth is being revealed he says something astounding to her he says for I have been sent to you now in her mind Jeroboam has sent her to him but in the economy of God what was really going on is God was bringing her there for a divine appointment because while ahijah was limited in his physical capabilities God has no problem with bringing it before him so that the truth may be proclaimed so he says to her you may think you've been sent to me but I've been sent to you and he does not hesitate and he does not apologize because here we find a faithful prophet he says I have been sent to you with a harsh message and he begins to reveal the truth of the reality that not only is this son sick because he does not even start with the sickness of the son for the purpose of her coming much like Nicodemus who came to Christ by night and Jesus didn't answer his question Jesus got to the heart of the matter when the wife of

[22:06] Jeroboam comes into the presence of ahijah God gets to the heart of the matter she was coming because she had a sick son the prophet is declaring the sickness of her husband and begins to decry the wickedness that has been brought into the nation because of his actions and God declares openly through ahijah all the falsehood that has been practiced he begins to declare what had happened in the past what was happened presently and then he declares what will happen in the future and he does it unapologetically because the truth speaks reality in the midst of desperate circumstances he tells her that God was faithful that it was the Lord God who raised him up to be king he reminds Jeroboam that the reason he is king is because the Lord God made him king you said well if you go back and you read in the 12th chapter this dividing of the kingdom and all this other stuff and you said that they made him king but even before that before Solomon's death before all these things when God was pronouncing judgment upon Solomon for his divided heart God sent ahijah to meet Jeroboam on the road

[23:16] God told Jeroboam that he would be king that it would be the Lord God who made him king and that he would give him 10 tribes from the nation of Israel and he encouraged him and called him to walk in faithfulness God reminds him of this calling God reminds him of this divine appointment God reminds him of the position that he holds is a direct result of the faithfulness of God and then God reveals to him the truth of the reality that he has ignored what God has admonished him to do he has not walked in faithfulness he has not walked in obedience as a matter of fact more than any other person who's went before him think about that just for a moment more than any other person in all of the nation of Israel's history up to this point Jeroboam has acted wickedly more than the sins of Saul more than the sins of David more than the sins of Solomon even more than the sins of any of the judges more than any individual before him he has acted wickedly God begins to speak the truth of what's going on that this false worship really was a casting of the Lord God behind his back he calls it what it is because this is a time of deception and he pulls the curtains back and will not let deception have his day but speaks the truth in that reality and reveals it and then God reveals the truth that not only will the son not live the son will be honored the only one that is honored in his family because he will have a proper burial but that every male in the household of Jeroboam will die it is a truth revealed and it is a truth fulfilled God does raise up a king who does slay every male in the household of Jeroboam this Abijah is the only one that has a proper burial of Jeroboam's descendants the rest of them are not or do not because of the declared word of God so we see a revealed truth the next thing that we see in the passage is a responsibility shared because up until this point we could say man Jeroboam has done wickedly but in case we miss what is going to transpire in the rest of the historical writings and it happens very quickly as we progress among the kings especially in the northern kingdom is that it's not just Jeroboam it is a responsibility shared God declares the judgment that is going to come upon the house of Jeroboam but then in verse 15 God makes this statement for the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaking in the water for the Lord will strike Israel now the tendency is to say well Jeroboam is the one who has sinned therefore

[26:08] Jeroboam is deserving of the punishments for his sins but God reminds us here that his striking of Israel is for this reason because they have made their ashram provoking the Lord to anger for they have made their ashram ashram refers to the false worship of false gods that the Canaanites displayed as the nation of Israel came into the land we have not seen an asher a pole in the land of Israel since the days of Gideon at this time in scripture and we remember when Gideon pulled it down and and did it in the middle of the night and burned it with fire and everybody got upset because Gideon did this and this is the beginning of Gideon's battles and he's pushing out he had to destroy the false worship but now we see the nation of Israel has resurrected that which had been torn down what Jeroboam introduced were golden calves and false altars what the rest of the people were doing were raising up ashram and provoking the Lord to anger Jeroboam is a greater representative of what was going on among the population so we see here that this is a responsibility shared it's easy to blame the leaders Jeroboam has done all this God reveals the truth of the reality that it's not just

[27:41] Jeroboam that is sin but it is the entire people we have seen and I even declared it this morning that there are no such things as personal sin that personal sins always affect the corporate body and it would be easy to look at that and say well the sins of Jeroboam affected the entire 10 tribes of the northern kingdom if God had not declared to us that in monks the corporate body the individuals are still responsible for their own sins they cannot hide in ignorance because they have not only allowed it they have participated in it as well so again God is just in what is going to take place it's not just that they had a bad leader is that the people group as a whole were on a trajectory of denying the Lord God and ignoring him and embracing the false worship everything that they had been warned against everything that they had spoken of God will use the Assyrian kingdom to reign judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel he will use it and he will carry them away which gets us to the fourth and final thing and that is a reaffirmed prophecy there's a recognized weakness there's a revealed truth there's a responsibility shared and there's the reaffirmed prophecy God declares in verse 15 again

[29:06] I didn't finish it a minute ago I left the middle part out so I want you to see it for the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water and he will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates river verse 16 he will give up Israel on account of the sins of Jeroboam which he committed and with which he made Israel to sin again the personal responsibility what we have here is a reaffirmed prophetic word this is a very clear indication of the judgment of which God will call upon the nation of Israel for their denial of him as their Lord God and as their only object of worship he says very clearly by the way this is the very limits of a he's just prophetic word to us we see his declaration that God will uproot them and scatter them beyond the Euphrates river this is a repetition of the very words that Moses declared in Deuteronomy chapter 29 in Deuteronomy chapter 29 as they stood on the banks of the Jordan river and Moses is delivering what would be his final address he is preparing Joshua to lead the nation victoriously into the promised land that was as far as Moses could go

[30:37] Moses is delivering his final address to the nation of Israel and he declares to them things that will happen in the future he declares to them that a day would come when they would turn their backs on the Lord God and that they would begin to embrace the worship of false gods and he says to them that during that time that God will bring judgment upon the nation of Israel and that in his judgment God would scatter them and drive them out of the land that he is about to give them it seems strange in light of the reality that Moses had reminded them that God brought them out of Egypt in order to bring them into the promised land remember that was that twofold thing that we always need to see God brought them out in order to bring them in God brought them out in order to bring them in that is God didn't just get them out of captivity God got them out of captivity to bring them into a relationship in a promised land so the the implications of salvation is he doesn't just set us free from the consequences of sin he brings us out of the captivity of sin to bring us into the presence of his relationship but anyway as they are on the verge of that after 40 years of wilderness wandering actually 38 years of wilderness wandering two years of hanging out at Mount Sinai getting all the plans and covenants and all those things so the first two years they were supposed to be there they wandered around for 38 years in disobedience they're finally ready to go into the land and Moses declares to them that there will come a day in the future where they will turn their backs on the Lord their God and that God would judge them and then he says that the people will pass through the land and they'll see all the rubbish and the the rubble of the land and they'll say what happened here and the people will declare to one another because they forsook the Lord their God he drove them out and scattered them among the nations that's the prophetic word and I'm sure that when they heard that the people saying this will never happen this will never happen this will never happen they go in and it takes some time oh it's painfully slow time some 400 plus years before they finally drive out to the inhabitants of the land of Canaan and they have their land they have their kings

[32:46] Saul is man's king he fails them miserably David is God's king he does wondrously well Solomon is a popular king he's a king's king and he fails because his heart is divided and then all of a sudden the prophetic word which Moses had declared so many years prior is reaffirmed and restated that God is going to judge the nation of Israel and he will scatter them among the nations on the other side of the Euphrates River and it is a reminder that this is the Lord's land it's not their land that they have been given the land which he gave to their fathers he will also take back some of you in your daily reading are making your way through Old Testament writings which speak of the year of Jubilee some of you read it today the 50th year the year of Jubilee we have no record in scripture that the nation of Israel ever practiced the year of Jubilee but God had declared to them that when they go into the promised land they were to have the year Jubilee that is in the 50th year that every individual would revert back to the land of their inheritance so if an individual sold themselves into slavery because they were a hard time because if an individual couldn't afford to pay his bills or if an individual had to sell the family farm so to say that on the year of Jubilee they would revert and they would go back to the land of their fathers because the land didn't belong to them God declared who would own the land that when they sold the land they were actually selling a number of crops they weren't selling the land and God put that in place to remind them that they weren't owners they were caretakers somewhere along the line they forgot that they were caretakers and began to think they were owners and that what God had entrusted to them was really theirs to be held on to and the land became more important than the Lord who gave it to them and somewhere along the line they began to think that they were established and that they were settled and they began to live in the deception of the enemy that what they had was really theirs until God says I'm taking it back and God put them among the nations by taking the land back from them and he reminded them once and for all that what he entrusted to them was not theirs the one thing they did have was an opportunity to have a relationship with the Lord who owned it all the one thing they were deceived by is that they thought that what they held on to was theirs that's not something that has passed out of the Old Testament by the way we today still try to convince ourselves that the things which we quote unquote possess are really ours when really they are just matters which we have been entrusted with for a season and for a time the one thing we do have is an opportunity to walk in faithfulness and obedience and a loving relationship with the Lord God who owns it all because there will be a day where he calls it all back to himself and we want to walk in faithfulness until that day we have seen that God was justified in his actions among the Canaanites not only because he had warned them so many years earlier when Abraham preached among them but that God was the rightful owner of the land therefore he gets to dictate who lives in the land you know sometimes we live under the deception that what we have is ours when in reality it's not what God reminded them was is that he had warned them in advance that the greatest thing that they possessed was an opportunity to have a relationship with him but the one thing they neglected was that relationship so God took what they thought they had away these are words of truth in times of deception and unfortunately the times aren't changing that much

[36:47] we need to be reminded that quite often that which we dictate our time and energies to in moments of desperation reveal our weakness is not our strengths we need to be reminded that no though we may try to deceive others that the truth is always revealed when we come before the Lord God Almighty we need to be reminded that we have a responsibility shared in every sin of our nation it's not the leader's fault it's our fault and we need to be reminded that the word of God does not fail that he calls us to walk in faithfulness to him these are applications we find from 1st Kings 14 God always has his people the heart cry ought to be let us be the Ahesias in the land of darkness may we be the people of truth who would declare it faithfully and obediently even though we may be living in such a place of deception let's pray and we'll be dismissed

[37:59] Lord I thank you so much for this day I thank you for your faithfulness and I thank you for your word God we know your word speaks to times past but we also know that your word speaks to times present Lord it has grand application even today so Lord help us to be people of truth to live by the way of truth for your glory and your honor Lord we want to live open-handedly saying God we realize that you have entrusted much to us so may we be good stewards of that very gift that you've given may we be more concerned about being in relationship with the one who owns it all than trying to own it all Lord may we have a greater concern of what our lives look like before the throne room of heaven than they do to the judgment of the world Lord just be glorified and honored how we live out our lives and may it be pleasing in your sight and we ask it all in Jesus name

[39:02] Amen Thank you guys I greatly Thank you