The Prophecy of Ahijah
First Kings 14: 1-20
The prophecy of Ahijah DIG: Why did God choose Jeroboam in the first place? Why was his sin so grievous? Why did Jeroboam send his wife to Ahijah in disguise? What is ironic about that? Would Ahijah’s message have been any different if Jeroboam or his wife came without disguise? What is so disgraceful about not being buried? Why is Abijah the exception? Why does the author record nothing about Jeroboam’s response to the bad news?
REFLECT: What feelings do conflict stories, especially your own, bring out in you? Do you tend to avoid or create conflict? Why? Like Jeroboam, most people sense great potential as they start their lives and careers, but sometimes that glitter fades. Why? How do old feelings of potential and promise stay fresh? And refreshed? Do you want to be buried or cremated? Why? How many times does God have to forgive you before you will repent?
The author wanted the Israelites to know the sin caused their downfall,
that not even Josiah could save Jerusalem, and that the prophets spoke God’s Word.
We don’t read in Scripture that Jeroboam sought the help of ADONAI, prayed for spiritual discernment, or asked the LORD to make him a more godly man. He asked for the healing of his hand, and now he asked the prophet Ahijah to heal his son, the crown prince and their to the throne. It’s obvious that physical blessings were more important to him than spiritual blessings. Like many in the congregations of God today, the only time Jeroboam wanted help from God or God’s prophet was when he was in trouble. Jeroboam made three serious mistakes during his twenty-two-year reign. One, he didn’t believe in God’s promises (to see link click Dd – Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel); two, he didn’t heed God’s warnings, and three, he didn’t receive God’s help.344
Dear Heavenly Father,Thank You for being such a loving and wise ruler of the world. You wisely guide situations to bring people back to the joy you have for those who love and follow You. You are not a hard master who only corrects by discipline, but You are a loving Father who reaches out Your hand of mercy to gently bring people back to Your love. Sometimes You use hardships and trials to get people’s attention, for You are more concerned with a person’s character than with their comfort. Godly character is valuable. Comforts will be over in a moment, but a godly character will reap eternal rewards (First Corinthians 3:11-15).
You graciously may use a trial as Your tool to refine and purify me. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (First Peter 1:7). Thank You for guiding the events in my life to bring me closer to You, which is the greatest joy I can ever know. You leave the choice up to me to wisely choose eternal joy and peace in heaven by loving You, or to foolishly pick fleeting and temporary pleasures of this world. For our trouble, light and momentary, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison (Second Corinthians 4:17). Thank You for warning us to stay away from sin. We love to stay close to You, walking in Your ways. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
At this time, Abijah the son of Jeroboam became ill. Now, Abijah wasn’t a little child at this time. He was old enough to be approved by the LORD (14:13) and appreciated by the people, for they mourned over him when he died (14:18). No doubt the people of the North had pinned their hopes on the young prince, but Ha’Shem judged the royal family and the apostate citizens by calling the young man away from the cesspool of sin that was called Isra’el. The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil (Isaiah 57:1 NIV). Abijah means ADONAI is my father, so the fact that Jeroboam gave his son this name means that he viewed the worship of the golden calf as his religion. This was not the introduction of a new religion, but a counterfeit of the original worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was what led to the downfall of the nation.345
The pretending wife: The king wanted help from the prophet, but he was too proud to admit it or face Ahijah personally. Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please come, and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. The prophet still lived in Shiloh because he was too old and infirm to relocate to Judah, and he wanted to be faithful to the very end and warn Jeroboam of the consequences of his sins. Jeroboam didn’t want his wife to visit Ahijah openly because it would show a lack of faith in the idols at Dan and Bethel. And Jeroboam knew that the old prophet was opposed to the religious deviations he had made. In the TaNaKh there are five examples of when a king or a queen disguised themselves, or were in a story that contains a disguise. This is the first example, and the word disguise is from the Hebrew root shanh. The other four examples use a different Hebrew root, kaps, and they are found of Sha’ul (see the commentary on the Life of David Bv – Sha’ul and the Medium at Endor), of the prophet Ahab (see the commentary on Elijha and Elisha Ay – The Prophet’s Rebuke), of Ahab again (see Elijah and Elisha Bf – The Death of Ahab), and Josiah in Second Chronicles 35:22.
Ahijah (meaning, ADONAI is my brother) the prophet is there, the one who said that I would be king over these people. The irony is that Jeroboam was seeking help from the very prophet who prophesied about his rise to power and also warned him to keep the mitzvot of ADONAI. It is also ironic that he tried to disguise his wife’s identity from the man whom he expects to divulge whether his son will live or die!346 The king said: Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes and a jug of honey; and go to him. The gifts were those of a common laborer because he didn’t want to reveal they came from a king. He will tell you what will happen to the boy” (First Kings 14:1-3). A true prophet will tell a true prophecy.347 Did the king think a disguise would fool the godly prophet, blind as he was? Ahijah could see more in blindness than Jeroboam and his wife could see with their gift of sight.
The discerning prophet: Jeroboam’s wife did this; she set out, went to Shiloh and arrived at the house of Ahijah. It was about twenty miles from Tirzah to Shiloh, but the prophet knew she was coming before she even arrived in the city. Now Ahijah could not see, because his eyes were dim with age. This is why Jeroboam thought he could deceive him. But ADONAI had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is on her way to you to ask about her son, who is ill. You are to tell her thus and thus; moreover, when she comes, she will be pretending she is another woman” (First Kings 14:4-5).
The revealing message: When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in the door, he said, “Enter, wife of Jeroboam! Why pretend you are someone else? She was immediately recognized. I’ve been given bad news for you. Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah, but Ahijah said that he was sent to her! He gave her a message she was to tell to her husband . . . and it wasn’t a very happy one. First, the prophet reminded Jeroboam of God’s grace in the past. Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what ADONAI says: I raised you up from among the people, made you prince over my people Isra’el, tore the kingdom away from the dynasty of David and gave it to you (First Kings 14:7-8a).
But then, Ahijah revealed Jeroboam’s sins in the present. In spite of this, you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my mitzvot and followed me with all his heart, so that he could do only what I regarded as right. Rather, you have committed more evil than Sha’ul, David and Solomon put together! You went and made false gods for yourself and images of cast metal to make Me angry, but Me you shoved behind your back (First Kings 14:8b-9)! And you allowed the people of northern tribes to worship them! He had organized a counterfeit religion, provoking Ha’Shem to anger, and refused to listen to the prophets who were sent to warn him. This led to Ahijah’s revelation about Jeroboam’s future.
To begin with, unlike King David, Jeroboam would not establish a dynasty, even though God had promised to bless him with a lasting dynasty if he would observe YHVH’s regulations and mitzvot (11:38). Therefore, I will now bring disaster to your house. All of Jeroboam’s male descendants would be cut off. I will cut off every male of Jeroboam’s line, whether a slave or free in Isra’el. The LORD would make a “clean sweep” of Jeroboam’s family and take away every potential heir, just as completely as when servants sweep away dung until it’s all gone. But even worse, none of them except Abijah, the ailing crown prince, would have a decent, dignified burial. If someone from the line of Jeroboam dies in the city, the dogs will eat him; if he dies in the countryside, the vultures will eat him. Their corpses would be devoured and never be buried, a terrible humiliation for a Jew. For ADONAI has said it (First Kings 14:10-11).348
The divine judgment: Then Abijah got to the matter at hand, the future of the sick heir to the throne. So, get up and go home; when your feet enter the city, the boy will die. All Isra’el will mourn him, and they will bury him; he is the only one of Jeroboam’s line who will lie in a grave, because he alone in the house of Jeroboam has in him an element of good toward ADONAI the God of Isra’el. The one son of the wicked king who could have ruled justly would be taken from them, not because he was wicked . . . but because he was good. God wanted to spare him the suffering that lay ahead of the northern Kingdom. As he looked ahead, Ahijah then saw Nadab, Jeroboam’s second son, reign for two years and then be assassinated by Baasha, a man from the tribe of Issachar (15:25-31). Baasha would not only kill Nadab, but he would also exterminate the family of Jeroboam in fulfillment of Ahijah’s prophecy. Moreover, ADONAI will raise up for himself a king over Isra’el who at that time will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now (First Kings 14:12-14).
Then the blind prophet looked even further ahead and saw the entire kingdom of Isra’el defeated by an enemy and rooted out of the Land. ADONAI will strike Isra’el until it shakes like a reed in the water; He will uproot Isra’el from this good land, which he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River in the future Assyrian captivity. This would not happen for about another 200 years, but just as Ahijah’s near prophecies had been fulfilled, authenticated him as a prophet, so then his distant prophecies could then be trusted. Obviously, the exilic readers already knew about the devastation of Isra’el and about Josiah’s reign. What the author wanted them to know was that sin caused the fall, that not even Josiah could save Jerusalem, and that the prophets spoke God’s Word, which was the truth, from the start of Isra’el’s history.349
The kingdom of Isra’el had a new religious system, but she was still under the Covenant with YHVH (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Fl – Summary of the Covenant Demand). That covenant warned that her disobedience to the Torah would bring military defeat and national dispersion (Deuteronomy 28:25-26 and 49-52; Leviticus 26:17, 25, and 33-39; Deuteronomy 7:5 and 12:3-4). What would be the cause of this terrible judgment? Because they made wooden asherah poles, representing the Canaanite mother-goddess of fertility, consort of Ba’al,350 for themselves, thus making ADONAI angry. He will give up on Isra’el because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed himself, and with which he made Isra’el sin as well (First Kings 14:15-16).
The distressing fulfillment: Jeroboam’s wife got up, left and went to Tirzah. Jeroboam had apparently moved his court to Tirzah as well as having a palace in Shechem, and it must have been on the edge of the city. Ahijah had told Jeroboam’s wife that their son would die as soon as she entered the city (First Kings 14:12). The moment she reached the threshold of the house, the boy died. All Isra’el buried him and mourned him, in keeping with the word of ADONAI spoken through his servant Ahijah the prophet (First Kings 14:17-18). The king’s hand had been healed and his altar destroyed (First Kings 13:1-16), and now his son was dead. His army would be defeated by the king of Judah, also known as Abijah (Second Chronicles 13). How many times did God have to warn him before he would repent?351
The death of the king: Other activities of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he ruled are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el. Jeroboam reign lasted twenty-two years; then he slept with his ancestors, and Nadab his son became king in his place (First Kings 14:19-20). Jeroboam is a tremendously important character in First and Second Kings. Indeed, one could argue that he is more significant for the story than Solomon, Hezekiah or Josiah. After all, it was Jeroboam who was God’s instrument for punishing Solomon’s sins, which also ended the Davidic rule over all Isra’el. Jeroboam’s counterfeit religion had such a negative impact on both Isra’el and Judah that it was a major factor in both country’s demise. Finally, this clever yet unfaithful man’s life helped to demonstrate the significance of the prophets, who now emerge as the only reliable bearers of God’s Word knowing the future, and therefore, should be consulted before any important decisions were to be made.352
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