1 KINGS 14 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
1 KINGS 14 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
God secured something for Himself even in the house of Jeroboam. There was a testimony there in a young life in which was found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel. This was another way by which God spoke to Jeroboam. First by the prophetic testimony of the man of God (Ahaziah the son of Ahab sent to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron: 2 Kings 1: 2) from Judah, and now through the moral exercises of his own son. But this one who is the only living link with Jehovah in Jeroboam’s house falls sick and it proves to be unto death. There was nothing in Jeroboam’s house or ways to keep him alive, and God takes him away, it would appear, in mercy. Jeroboam has evidently a feeling that God has something to say in the matter, but his conscience tells him that he has departed from God and that he has no right to apply to the prophet. His wife must not be known as such. How often the conscience is speaking when the will is unsubdued! Jeroboam no doubt knew that Abijah was the only one in his house who feared Jehovah. In Abijah’s sickness God was speaking to a heart and he felt it, and was assured that Jehovah was interested in the lad and that His prophet would tell what should become of him. But the message sent to Jeroboam by the prophet was hard. It was a message of judgment upon his house, and indeed upon all Israel for their idolatry. The only point of good was Abijah. It is the good that was taken away so that unsparing judgment may come on all the rest. It was definitely made known that all Israel would be given up on account of Jeroboam’s sins. Those who have been a testimony perhaps in weakness, taken away. There could not morally be a good king in Tirzah; we never read of one. They waxed worse and worse until carried away “beyond the river”.
God had given Jeroboam great opportunities, but he made very bad use of them. God had also testified by the man of God against his idolatry and had shown at the same time by healing his hand (1 Kings 13: 6) that He would act in grace to him if he took the place of dependence and need. But all was of no avail: he persisted in his evil course. In conditions of departure God is pleased to put men in places of responsibility and give them opportunity, which, if wrongly used, become an occasion of judgment: God speaks to popes and bishops and kings and in principle to us all. We are all tested by the position God puts us in in His government or providence. But if nothing results for God in it judgment is inevitable.
But people with whom God has had dealings cannot forget it, and the conscience and the heart act even when there is no change in the will. This accounts for inconsistence in the conduct of people who seem sometimes as if they feared God and yet their general course is such as to greatly displease Him. To have a responsibility in relation to God is one thing, and it may be to feel it at times, but to be subject to God so that one is practically controlled by His will is quite another.
So Jeroboam, when concerned about his son, thinks of the prophet. He has no personal access to God, and he would not have it known that he was owning the God of Israel. There is no straightforwardness or transparency about him. And his sending to the prophet only brought condemnation on himself and his house and ultimately on all Israel.
The general state of the people was represented in Jeroboam, but in his son Abijah -’My Father is Jah’ — we see that God had one even in Jeroboam’s house in whom good was found towards Jehovah the God of Israel. There was a remnant there who were not subject to the judgment pronounced. Indeed Abijah had to be taken away before the house of Jeroboam was cut off. So that Abijah represents a faithful remnant when hearts think of God and of Christ in a day of prevalent evil. Abijah is a great encouragement to those who are the only ones in their family who think of what is due to God. In his coming to the grave there is the thought that He would have no place in the idolatrous system, but he would have a place in God’s world of resurrection. In the darkest time of departure God has reserved for Himself and for His world a remnant who are removed from the scene of judgment before the judgment comes.
Then we find that idolatry was rampant in Judah also, so that the world comes up and takes away the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and of the king’s house; “he even took away all”, even all the shields of gold. Twice it is said that Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonitess. Solomon’s unholy links with the strange women bore its fruit in their offspring: they were not “wholly a right seed”, Jeremiah 2: 21.
God definitely pronounced judgment upon Jeroboam, Baasha and Ahab. Each represented the state of the last days, which shew evil come to a head. This shews that the moral character of the last few days may re-appear in successive periods of church history as in Israel’s. John speaks of the last hour (1 John 2: 18). It was so morally though a prolonged period had still to run its course. I think when the apostles’ teaching was departed from, the whole character of the last few days was present, the mystery of lawlessness working all the time but God holding things in check in view of His own purposes and testimony. So we can understand the long history of [p. 129] things, bringing out the patience and faithfulness of God at the same time as it brought out the evil in God’s people and the certainty of His judgment upon it.
I believe the features of the last days have always been present since idolatry was set up, and all the principles of the place where God sets His name departed from, that is the principles of the assembly.