Jeroboam's Downfall I Kings 14

I Kings 14:20 "And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years and he slept with his fathers and Nadab his son reigned in his stead."

Here is the picture. Jeroboam reigns over Israel (10 tribes) and has set up calves for the people to worship. Then his son falls sick and he turns to the prophet for help. He does not approach the prophet himself but sent his wife who he told to pretend to be someone else.

v2 "And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam: and get thee to Shiloh: behold there is Abijah the prophet which told me that I should be king over this people."

There is only one letter difference in the name of the son who was sick and the prophet. The son Abijah, the prophet Ahijah.
Abijah: my father is Jehovah
Ahijah: Jehovah is brother

Abijah, the son of Jeroboam has a nice name but I can't help but wonder, considering the life Jeroboam lived, that if he was referring to himself when he named his son 'my father is Jehovah'. He was quite arrogant.

Anyway, it did not work when the wife went to Abijah. Abijah, the prophet was blind but the LORD told him the woman was coming and why she was coming. the pronouncement was not good for the family.

v12 "Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die."

Jeroboam did several things wrong. He tried to play both sides, for one thing,. He brought the false gods of Egypt back to Canaan but still tried to hold on to the power of God. The Bible says that Jeroboam put God behind his back. It seems he wanted God around but only when he needed him.

v9 "But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:"

So Jeroboam died and his son Nadab reigned in his stead. v20 There is some overlap between the lives of Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah. Rehoboam's successor warred with Jeroboam so we can see that the king of Judah died first.

v22 "And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD...v23 For they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree."

v25 "And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Reboboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: v26 And took away the treasures of the house of the LORD..."

The riches and the kingdom that David and Solomon built is now disintegrating. Solomon brought in the daughter of the king of Egypt and so they had inside information of all the happenings and weakened condition and civil war in Canaan. It was a good time to go on a robbing spree and they did so.

David worshipped only the one true God and Solomon did at first but his wives drew him away in his efforts to please them.

We see a kingdom falling apart. They were established by the LORD who also fought along with Israel in the conquest of the nation. The LORD also sustained them in the land and brought the 'early and latter rain'. But they turned from Him in their prosperity. Now, we see the sadness of a great kingdom coming down.

Now Abijam the son of Rehoboam rules in Judah, while Nadab the son of Jeroboam rules in Israel.

Psalm 124:8 "Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

Keywords: Old Old Story, Bible Study, Old Testament, Israel, Kings, Jeroboam, Rehoboam. The kings die and their sons take over in Judah and Israel.