God gave victory to Ahab so the king would see that He was God. But all the proof in the world couldn’t change His heart and make him surrender His life to the Lord. Do you see His proof? Has it changed you? Is there proof of Him in you?

God’s Brings Israel Victory - 1 Kings 20

In his despair, God had told Elijah to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as the prophet who would succeed him. Elijah did anoint Elisha, so we might expect the next events to show Hazael and Jehu immediately rising against Ahab. Instead, the Syrian king Ben-hadad gathered his army against Israel, and God sent other prophets to speak to Ahab. This shows that, despite Elijah’s hopeless feelings, he and Elisha were not the only prophets left in the land. It also shows that God’s plan for Ahab and Israel would not happen immediately but would unfold over time instead.

Ben-hadad, along with the armies of 32 other kings, sent messengers to Ahab, demanding he hand over his silver and gold, along with his loveliest wives and children. Ahab agreed to these terms, but Ben-hadad took advantage of the king’s willingness to surrender by now insisting that his servants be allowed to search the royal houses and take whatever Ahab valued most.

At this escalation, Ahab consulted the elders of the land, and they told him to refuse. So, the king told Ben-hadad he was willing to concede to the first demand but not the second. Israel was willing to submit as a vassal state, but Ahab was not going to concede to being plundered. This made Ben-hadad angry, and he swore he would reduce Samaria to dust, leaving so little of their land behind that each of his soldiers could carry away only a handful. Ahab replied with a warning of his own, saying that it is easy to boast when you are putting your armor on, but it might be wise to wait and see if his army was still alive to take it off when the battle was over.

But the king was confident that the vast army he brought against Israel would easily be victorious, and he was drinking with the other kings when Ahab’s reply came back. He was undeterred by Ahab’s warning and told his soldiers to get stationed for battle.

While Ahab’s enemies prepared for battle, a prophet came to the king of Israel, saying that the Lord would deliver the great army into his hand so Ahab would know that He was God. When Ahab asked who would go out to fight, God said it would be the young men who ruled the provinces. Then, when he asked who should attack first, God said it should be Israel.

Read more

Jezebel’s Willfulness - 1 Kings 19:1-2

After the miracle on Mount Carmel, Ahab went back to Jezebel and told her how Elijah had killed the prophets of Baal. Did he tell his wife the whole story, explaining that her god had proved himself impotent in the face of the Lord’s incredible power, which is why the prophets were killed? The Bible doesn’t explicitly say. All we know is that instead of realizing the truth, she was infuriated and threatened to kill Elijah as retribution. Jezebel did not know Israel’s God. As the Phoenician princess of Sidon (Lebanon), she brought Baal worship to Israel. So, she was a true believer. Without her influence, Ahab and the rest of the people might have been persuaded by God’s miraculous display of power and Baal’s lack thereof. After all, they knew God and had a history with Him. But when the queen refused to see the truth and doubled down instead, her husband hardened himself, too.

This should encourage all of us to teach our children about the Lord, in hopes that because they know the truth, even if they stray at some point, they will eventually come back to it (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Proverbs 22:6).

Also, this should serve as a warning not to yoke ourselves to unbelievers. When we form close relationships with people who don’t know God, they can draw us away and blind us to His power in our lives (Proverbs 13:20; 1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

Elijah’s Despair – 1 Kings 19:3-8

When Elijah realized not only that the Lord’s victory over Baal had not brought an end to idol worship in Israel, but also that his life was being threatened by the woman who had already killed many of God’s prophets, he ran. He went over 100 miles before stopping in Judah’s southernmost town of Beersheba with his servant. He left his servant there and continued running for another day farther south into the Wilderness of Beersheba. This was about as far and as isolated as he could get from the murderous queen while staying within Israelite territory. Although it looked like he was running to preserve his life, he didn’t want to live anymore. He just didn’t want to hand a victory to the idolatrous kingdom by allowing them to kill him. But when he finally found rest under the shade of a broom tree, he asked God to take his life. He was tired and believed he had no more success than his predecessors in putting an end to the idolatry of Israel. He was tired of running, hiding, and striving. Clearly, none of it mattered anyway. For all the hiding, his life was still in danger. Then, even after God’s miraculous victory over Baal, the Israelites were still worshipping idols.

Elijah had lost hope. But the Lord was not done with him, and He wasn’t done with the idolatrous kingdom. So, as he slept, an angel touched him, telling him to wake up and eat. When Elijah looked, he saw a cake of bread that had been baked for him on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and went back to sleep. But the angel touched him again, saying that he must wake up and eat because the journey ahead of him was going to be difficult. So, he ate and drank. This food gave him the strength to travel 40 days and nights to Horeb, better known as Mount Sinai.

Though that journey would normally take half that time, it is likely that God had a purpose for the 40-day period. When Moses went to the top of the same mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, he stayed there 40 days and nights without food or water (Deuteronomy 9:9). By having Elijah do the same thing, He was linking him to Moses and the covenant God made with Israel. Also, Elijah’s 40-day journey in the wilderness is symbolic of the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness after they refused to enter the Promised Land in the time of Moses (Numbers 14:29-34).

Read more

Obadiah’s Faithfulness - 1 Kings 18:1-16

After three years of drought, God told Elijah to go to Ahab. Then He would finally send rain. So, Elijah went looking for Ahab and found Obadiah, the man over the king’s household, not the person who wrote the book of Obadiah in the Bible. He and Ahab had split up in search of water and green grass for the king’s horses and mules. The famine had gotten so severe that Ahab feared he would lose some of his animals if he couldn’t find somewhere for them to graze. When Obadiah saw Elijah, he fell on his face, asking if it was really him. Elijah confirmed his identity and asked Obadiah to go tell Ahab that he had returned.

Obadiah felt like it was a punishment to be asked to go to the king with such a message. The king had been searching for Elijah ever since he told Ahab it would not rain again until he called for it. Everywhere the king looked, he made the people swear they had not seen Elijah. If Obadiah told Ahab where the prophet was, and then the Spirit of the Lord carried Elijah away again for his safety (1 Kings 17:1-3), Obadiah would be killed. As a devoted follower, he had already risked his life for 100 prophets of God by hiding them in two caves when the queen was trying to kill them, feeding and caring for them there. If Elijah wasn’t there when he brought the king to meet the prophet, Ahab would certainly kill him. But Elijah promised he would not leave that place, so Obadiah went to get the king.

It’s incredible that Obadiah remained devoted to the Lord while in the service of a king who worshipped other gods and even killed God’s prophets. He was obviously glad to see Elijah, but he was not excited about telling the king. He had already risked his life to save the lives of 100 prophets of God. So, why was he being asked to risk his life again?

Have you ever felt like you have already risked enough, sacrificed enough, worked hard enough for the Lord, though more is still being asked of you? Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t choose someone else for a change? Sometimes it feels like God is asking us to do more than we think we can or more than is fair when we look at the sacrifices of other believers. In those times, like Obadiah, we must trust in the Lord. If He has called us to it, He will lead us through it. He will give us the tools, abilities, and strength to do what He asks of us (1 Thessalonians 5:24; Isaiah 41:10; Philippians 1:6, 2:13; 2 Corinthians 9:8). Though it can be hard, we should consider it an honor to be called by God for His purposes (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 1:9). So, when you hear the Lord’s call, trust and rely on Him. He will see you through (Psalm 37:5).

Read more

Read more

God’s Provision – 1 Kings 17:1-16

Because Ahab, the king of Israel, was worshipping Baal, the god the Phoenicians (Lebanese) believed had power over the rain, the prophet Elijah told Ahab that there would be no more rain or even dew in Israel until he declared it. A prolonged drought would prove that their faith in Baal was misplaced and also punish the people for worshipping him in the first place (Deuteronomy 11:16-17). They were holding back their love and devotion to God. In turn, He would hold back the life-sustaining rain from them.

As you can imagine, delivering a message like that to the king put Elijah’s life in danger, too. So God told him to cross over the Jordan River and hide by the brook Cherith, putting distance between him and the king while making sure Elijah himself had enough water. There, the Lord would also command the ravens to bring him food so he would not go hungry either.

Elijah went to live by the brook, and the ravens brought him bread and meat morning and night. But because there was no rain, the brook eventually dried up. So God told Elijah to go to a place in Sidon (Lebanon) where the Lord had commanded a widow to feed him. God was sending him to the very country that had brought Baal worship to Israel in the first place, the home of Ahab’s wife Jezebel (1 Kings 16:31-33).

When he approached the gate of the city, he saw a widow gathering sticks and asked her for a drink. As she went to get it, he also asked for some bread. The woman said that as surely as his God lived, she did not have any bread. As a matter of fact, she was gathering sticks so she could bake the last of her flour and oil. Once she and her son ate that meal, there would not be another, and they would die. But Elijah assured her that if she would make him a little cake before she made another for her and her son, God would not let her supply of flour or oil run out until the rain came again to replenish the earth with food. The woman believed Elijah and had faith that God would do as he said. So she made him a cake, then made another for her and her son, and there was still enough flour and oil for all three of them to eat throughout the drought.

Read more

This seems to be the nature of generational sin. Usually, children either commit the same sins as their parents or break free from them and do the opposite. Seldom do children behave slightly better than their parents, and if they follow in their footsteps, the sin often progresses.

Those who don’t learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them and those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Four of Israel’s Kings - 1 Kings 16:1-34

After Hanani was imprisoned for delivering God’s message to Asa, king of Judah (2 Chronicles 16:7–10), the Lord sent his son Jehu to deliver a message to Baasha, king of Israel. God had raised Baasha from nothing to make him Israel’s king, yet he did not honor God. Instead, he continued to lead the people in the false worship practices set up by Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26–33). Because of this, his family would suffer the same fate as Jeroboam’s (1 Kings 14:10–11). They would be killed and left without the honor of a proper burial.

So Baasha died and was buried in the capital city of Tirzah, and his son, Elah, succeeded him as king, taking the throne in the 26^th year of Asa’s reign (931 B.C.). But the following year, in the 27^th year of Asa’s reign, while he was at a friend’s house drinking, Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, struck and killed him. So he took Elah’s place as Israel’s king. Meanwhile, he proceeded to kill the rest of Baasha’s house, not leaving any males of his household alive, neither family nor friend. Coincidentally, this is exactly what Baasha did to Jeroboam’s family (1 Kings 15:27–30) in fulfillment of God’s punishment against him and his son for their sin in leading Israel astray with worthless idols (1 Kings 14:7–16). But instead of recognizing his error, he followed in their footsteps and suffered the same fate.

Read more

Keep in mind that scholars differ on the exact date of the exodus. Some believe it was in 1491 B.C. and others believe it was in 1446 B.C. Because it is not explicitly written in the Bible, we have to use other biblical dates, and those who believe that the exodus occurred in 1446 B.C. also use historical dates. Both theories arrive at the historically established dates of 722 B.C. for the fall of Samaria and 586 B.C. for the fall of Jerusalem, but use different ways of counting for their calculations.

So, you could see a difference of up to 45 years if you read other commentaries. There will also be small variations in the dates each king reigned because they must use different calculations to arrive at the same historical anchor dates.

Because I believe that the exodus occurred in 1491 B.C., all these dates stem from this premise. The dates are calculated using both regnal years, based on the year of the other king’s reign, and elapsed years, based on the length of their own reigns.

But notice that it doesn’t say “after” the other king had been reigning for a certain number of years, but “in” that king’s specific year of reign. Because the king is already in his first year of reign before one full year has elapsed, instead of adding the stated number to the given date, we subtract one year from that number and add the result to the date, although in some cases the partial years aren’t counted at all. Also, keep in mind that some of the kings had co-regencies, so as we go through each one in the study, some of the dates will make more sense.

Read more

Baasha invades Judah – 2 Chronicles 16:1-6; (1 Kings 15:16-22, 30-31)

Eventually, Baasha invaded Judah and began fortifying Ramah, a city six miles north of Jerusalem in Benjamin’s territory. Because it was on the main road leading to the capital city, it prevented anyone from going in or coming out. To deter him, Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and in the king’s house and gave it to Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, as an incentive to renew the treaty between their two families and break his treaty with Baasha. So, Ben-hadad invaded northern Israel and successfully conquered Dan’s territory along with two border cities in Naphtali, then swept south into the Galilean region (Chinneroth), eventually overrunning the rest of Naphtali’s territory. This forced Baasha to abandon his blockade of Ramah and return to Israel’s capital in Tirzah. So, Asa ordered all the men of Judah to carry all the stones and lumber from Ramah to two cities on either side of it. Then, he used those same materials to fortify Geba to its east and Mizpah to the northwest of Ramah. By building his own fortified cities on either side of the one Baasha had been building, Asa prevented him from returning to complete the job.

Read more

Read more

We will never be perfectly faithful. But thankfully, it is not about our faithfulness. It is about God’s. If we are relying on our own strength or the system we created, we will not succeed. It is only when we put our trust in Jesus and make Him our King that we enter into that covenant relationship where He is our God and we are His people. Then we can cry out to Him and He will be with us and for us forevermore.

Abijam, King of Judah - 1 Kings 15:1-8

Jeroboam had been ruling the northern kingdom of Israel for 18 years when Rehoboam died and his son Abijam (Abijah) succeeded him as king of Judah. His mother was Maacah (Micaiah), the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah (2 Chronicles 13:2) and the granddaughter of Absalom through his daughter Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27). So, Abijam was a descendant of David through both sides of his family. His dad was David’s grandson through Solomon and Maacah was David’s great-granddaughter through his son Absalom (1 Chronicles 3:1-10).

When Abijam became king, he continued allowing the people of Judah to worship Asherah and have male cult prostitutes as his father had done, instead of remaining faithful solely to God like his grandfather David. Other than his sin involving Uriah (2 Samuel 11), David did what God commanded him and never turned away from the Lord. Because of this, God continued to let his descendants’ light shine in Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:34-36), and He would later raise Abijam’s son to follow David’s example of faithfulness.

Civil War Continues - 2 Chronicles 13:1-19

There were consistent battles between the northern and southern kingdoms throughout Rehoboam’s reign (1 Kings 15:6), and they did not stop when his son took the throne. Jeroboam came against Abijam’s kingdom with 800,000 soldiers, and because Judah was the smaller nation, they only had 400,000 warriors to combat them. But he knew that he had the Lord on his side, which made his army the stronger force even though it was half the size of Jeroboam’s.

Read more

Leave a comment

When Jeroboam (northern king) was confronted with his sin, he was totally unrepentant and God didn’t show him any mercy. On the other hand, when Rehoboam (southern king) and the leaders of Judah were confronted with their sin, they humbled themselves, admitted that they had done wrong, and submitted themselves to God’s righteous judgment. So, God showed them mercy but He also reminded them why they should serve Him faithfully. Unfortunately, Rehoboam didn’t remain faithful because He hadn’t prepared his heart to follow the Lord continuously.

Share

You can receive this teaching as a written lesson by email at LivethruJesus.Substack.com for $6/month or $60/year. With your subscription, you will also receive access to all previous lessons which include the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Subscribe now

Free - blog post with each lesson emailed when you become a free subscriber. Listen to or Watch blog/devotion on LivethruJesus Weekly Devotions YouTube and Podcast Channel.

To remain faithful to God, we must commit ourselves to Him fully with humble and sensitive hearts.

Judah’s Unfaithfulness – 2 Chronicles 12:1-16; 1 Kings 14:21-31

When the nation was divided, Jeroboam immediately led Israel away from God with his own system of worship, while Rehoboam strengthened Judah and followed the Lord. But once the kingdom was strong and established, Rehoboam stopped following God and led the nation away from Him. For the first three years of his reign, the king followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Solomon and David, by worshipping and obeying the Lord (2 Chronicles 11:17). But in the fourth year, he turned away from God along with the rest of the people. First Kings 14:23-24 details their unfaithfulness, saying that they built worship sites, sacred pillars, and Asherim on all the high hills and under every large tree, and that they even had male cult prostitutes in the land. This shows that they did not just stop worshipping or following God. They were actively unfaithful, and it says this provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done. They were worshipping other gods, specifically the Canaanite fertility goddess Asherah, and performing fertility rituals through male prostitution.

In Deuteronomy 8, God through Moses warned the people not to forget or turn away from Him when they were comfortably settled in the land (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). It seems that is what these people did. It only took them three years to abandon the God who had preserved them and given them peace and prosperity.

So, because of their unfaithfulness, in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, the king of Egypt came against them with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless Egyptian foot soldiers, along with troops from Libya (Lubim and Sukkiim) and Cush (land south of Egypt). Shishak began capturing the fortified cities and made his way north until he reached the capital city of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, as Rehoboam gathered with his officials to discuss the invasion, Shemaiah the prophet addressed them to relay a message from the Lord. He said that since they had abandoned God, He would abandon them to the Egyptians. But when faced with their sin, instead of remaining indifferent as Jeroboam had done, they humbled themselves and declared that God’s ways were right. This implied that they had done wrong and He was right in how He chose to handle their sin.

When God saw that they were humble enough to admit their sin and were also willing to submit to His judgment, He told Shemaiah that He would grant them some mercy and not permit total defeat. But, since they didn’t want to serve Him, He was still going to let the Egyptians have some measure of control over them so they could see what it was like to serve another.

Read more

Leave a comment

When Jeroboam was confronted with his sin, he hid and didn’t change a thing. When David was confronted with his sin, He asked for forgiveness and God gave it. David’s sin was washed away but Jeroboam’s damaged his relationship with God forever.

Share

You can receive this teaching as a written lesson by email at LivethruJesus.Substack.com for $6/month or $60/year. With your subscription, you will also receive access to all previous lessons which include the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Leave a comment

Free - blog post with each lesson emailed when you become a free subscriber. Listen to or Watch blog/devotion on LivethruJesus Weekly Devotions YouTube and Podcast Channel.

God’s Judgment - 1 Kings 13:33-14:22

Jeroboam did not change anything about his worship system after the prophet came from Judah and cursed the altar in Bethel. So, because of his sin, God’s judgment was extended to his bloodline, and his son Abijah became very sick. Since Jeroboam didn’t have a personal relationship with God, he sent his wife to ask the prophet Ahijah, who told him he would become the king of Israel (1 Kings 11:29-39). So, she set out for Shiloh with ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey to give to the prophet.

Now, Ahijah’s eyes were getting bad in his old age, so God told him ahead of time that Jeroboam’s wife would be coming to ask about her son’s health, but that she would be pretending to be someone else. So, when he heard her at the door, he welcomed her as Jeroboam’s wife and asked why she had come to him in disguise. By demonstrating that God had revealed her identity to him before her arrival, the prophet was confirming the harsh message he had been given about her son.

Then, he said that she should tell her husband that even though God tore the kingdom away from David’s lineage and gave it to him, making him Israel’s leader, he did not follow the Lord like David had done. But it wasn’t just that he did not live up to David’s standard of following God with all his heart. He had done the opposite of David and turned away from the Lord, doing more evil than all the kings before him by making his own system of worship contrary to God’s.

Because of this, the Lord vowed to bring disaster to Jeroboam’s house, cutting off all the males belonging to the king, whether they were his servants or his children. God would sweep away Jeroboam’s bloodline as a person sweeps away manure, making sure not to leave any trace that could “stink up” the land. All the men of his household would die in disgrace, judgment, and dishonor by the hand of the man who would destroy Jeroboam’s dynasty and become the next king of Israel. Then, Ahijah told her that as soon as she entered the city, her son would die. But because he was the only one in whom the Lord found something good, he would be honored, mourned, and buried.

Then, before she left, Ahijah said that the king’s sin would also affect the nation of Israel. Because they were not wholly devoted to God, they would sway like a reed in the water. Eventually, their idol worship would take them from the land, just as it had taken them from God, and the Lord would give them over to their enemies who would scatter them throughout the foreign lands (Deuteronomy 28:58-64).

Read more

Leave a comment

Jeroboam and the prophet sent to warn him both failed to listen to and follow God, and they suffered the consequences for it. Jeroboam completely disregarded God’s commands, and the prophet was deceived, but still disobeyed the Lord. He trusted what someone else told him that God said instead of doing what God told him directly. Jeroboam let his fear overtake his faith and made up his own set of rules, while the prophet put his faith in a man instead of God Himself. So, how can we keep from making the same mistakes?

Share

You can receive this teaching as a written lesson by email at LivethruJesus.Substack.com for $6/month or $60/year. With your subscription, you will also receive access to all previous lessons which include the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Subscribe now

Free - blog post with each lesson emailed when you become a free subscriber. Listen to or Watch blog/devotion on LivethruJesus Weekly Devotions YouTube and Podcast Channel.

So, how can we keep from making the same mistakes?

Consequences of Jeroboam’s Sin – 1 Kings 13:1-10

One month after the Jews celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, King Jeroboam instituted a feast for the Israelites, allowing them to celebrate at whichever of the two new worship sites was closest to their homes (Deuteronomy 16:13-16). Jeroboam himself went to Bethel to burn incense on the altar. But while he was there, a man of God came from Judah with a word from the Lord. He cursed the altar, prophesying that a descendant of David by the name of Josiah would one day defile it by slaughtering the illegitimate priests and burning their bones on it (fulfilled in 2 Kings 23:15-20). Then, he proved that this prophecy would be fulfilled by declaring that the altar would now split and its ashes would pour out onto the ground, desecrating the altar and its sacrifice (Leviticus 6:10-11). When Jeroboam saw this sign happen immediately it would prove that the future prophecy about Josiah would definitively occur, as well.

After Jeroboam heard the curse, he stretched out his hand and called for the prophet to be seized. But his arm locked up so that he could not draw it back in. Then, the altar split apart, sending its ashes to the ground, just as the prophet had said. So, the king asked him to pray that the use of his arm would be restored, which the prophet did. The fact that Jeroboam asked the prophet to pray to God on his behalf instead of just praying for himself reveals that he was aware that he was not truly walking with the Lord.

Then, when he was able to move again, the king asked the prophet to come back to his palace so he could reward him. But the prophet refused, saying that God had forbidden him from staying there to eat and drink and even from traveling back the same way he came. He probably didn’t want him to give the king the impression that his new system of worship was anything less than a total abomination to the Lord (Deuteronomy 12).

Consequences of the Prophet’s Sin - 1 Kings 13:11-32

There was an old prophet from Bethel whose sons came home and told him what had happened there at the altar, and he went out to find this man of God. When he found him, he asked the man to go back to his house and eat with him. Then, when the prophet told him that God had forbidden him from lingering in the northern kingdom, even to eat or drink, the old prophet lied and said God was the One who had sent him there with the invitation. The man of God believed him and went back with him.

Read more

Leave a comment

If we want to grow in our faith, we must be aware of God’s hand in our lives. And if we want to remain faithful, we must know God and follow Him closely.

Share

You can receive this teaching as a written lesson by email at LivethruJesus.Substack.com for $6/month or $60/year. With your subscription, you will also receive access to all previous lessons which include the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Subscribe now

Free - blog post with each lesson emailed when you become a free subscriber. Listen to or Watch blog/devotion on LivethruJesus Weekly Devotions YouTube and Podcast Channel.

Jeroboam, the Idolatrous King of Israel – 1 Kings 12:25-33

After King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam went to Shechem expecting the people to make him their king. But when he refused to honor the northern tribes’ request to lighten their workload, they refused to make him their king and anointed Jeroboam instead. Jeroboam then made Shechem the capital of Israel and also built a stronghold in Penuel on the eastern side of the Jordan River in the central land of Gad. This demonstrated his authority over the northern part of Israel and the entire Transjordan territory.

Now, you would think that being anointed as Israel’s king would have increased Jeroboam’s faith since the Lord had already declared years before Solomon died and before the nation was ever divided that all this would happen. If God had the power to give him the kingdom, it seems that He would also have had the power to protect his rule. But even after Jeroboam saw God do all He said He would, the king did not trust or follow Him more closely. Instead, he became consumed with fear. Jeroboam was terrified that if the people continued returning to the kingdom of Judah to worship God in Jerusalem, they would eventually return to Rehoboam, too, and he would lose the kingdom. But instead of trusting the God who gave it to him, he tried to secure it himself, taking away the people’s reason to return by creating his own system of worship, completely disregarding the system God had established.

Pretending to care about their lengthy travel to Jerusalem, Jeroboam made two golden calves, put one in the far south and one in the far north, and said these were the gods who brought them out of Egypt. So, the people who lived in the south began worshipping before the calf in Bethel, which was about 11 miles north of Jerusalem near the border of Ephraim and Benjamin. Then, the people in the north worshipped before the calf in Dan, which was 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. This should have immediately reminded the people how many people died when they worshipped the golden calf Aaron created (Exodus 32). Yet Israel again allowed themselves to be led astray in the same way by another leader making the same claim.

Read more

Leave a comment

In it we discuss what it means for God to fulfill His plans on this earth and how that practically plays out in people's lives. How do we reconcile the tension between God's sovereignty and our freewill.

Share

You can receive this teaching as a written lesson by email at LivethruJesus.Substack.com for $6/month or $60/year. With your subscription, you will also receive access to all previous lessons which include the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Subscribe now

Free - blog post with each lesson emailed when you become a free subscriber. Listen to or Watch blog/devotion on LivethruJesus Weekly Devotions YouTube and Podcast Channel.

The End of Solomon’s Reign– 1 Kings 11

Before God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, He warned them about marrying the Canaanites who lived in the land and those from the surrounding idolatrous nations because He did not want them to be influenced to worship other gods. He also warned the kings not to “multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away (Deuteronomy 17:16–17).” But King Solomon (Israel’s third king) broke all these rules. Over his 40-year reign, he accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of them “princesses” from the royal families of these idolatrous nations, along with those who had lived in the land before the Israelites settled there. Then, everything God warned about came to pass. Solomon’s heart was divided between the One True God and the many gods of his wives, and he did not follow the Lord fully as his father David had done.

God extended to Solmon the promise He had made to his father David, saying that if he would walk before Him in integrity of heart and uprightness and obey His commands, his family would never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. But He also warned that if he or his descendants failed to keep His commands and instead turned away to serve and worship other gods, He would cut them off from the land of Israel and cast the Temple from His sight (1 Kings 9:1–9). So, because Solomon multiplied his wives along with his gods, the Lord said He would tear the kingdom away from Solomon and give it to his servant. But because God promised David that he would treat Solomon like his own son by disciplining him when appropriate but not taking his mercy away as He had done to Saul (who He took the kingdom from), He would wait and take the kingdom from his son instead of Solomon himself. Also, because God had also promised David that his house and kingdom would endure forever (2 Samuel 7:16), He would only take the ten northern tribes away and leave Solomon’s son the southern land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, which sat on the border with the tribe of Benjamin, connecting it to the southern kingdom.

But God did not just tell Solomon about His plans. He also told Ahijah, the prophet, and instructed him to deliver this message to the man He had selected to rule the northern kingdom. So, Ahijah went to Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant in charge of labor for Joseph’s house, and tore his new cloak into twelve pieces, telling Jeroboam to take ten for himself. This symbolized that God intended to tear the kingdom apart, giving ten tribes to Jeroboam to rule after Solomon’s death. Then, He extended a promise to Jeroboam similar to the one He made with Solomon saying that if he would listen to the Lord’s commands, walk in His ways, and do what was right, God would be with him and give him a lasting reign over the kingdom of Israel (although He wouldn’t keep the kingdom from David’s descendants forever).

When Solomon heard what Ahijah told Jeroboam, he tried to put him to death, even though God had delivered the same prophecy to the king himself. So, Jeroboam fled to Egypt until the death of Solomon who was then buried in the city of David after reigning over Israel for forty years.

Read more