1 Kings 14:11
Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.' For the LORD has spoken.
Sermons
A Good Boy and a Bad FamilyA. McAuslane, D. D.1 Kings 14:1-18
Affliction and JudgmentJ. Urquhart 1 Kings 14:1-20
Hard TidingsJ.A. Macdonald 1 Kings 14:7-11














Such is the character given by the prophet to the matter of the text (ver. 6). What we translate "heavy tidings" is, in the Hebrew, as in the margin, hard. The uses of the word (קשה) in several places suggest that it should be here taken as indicating retributive judgments merited by one who had hardened his heart in sin. Observe -

I. PRIVILEGES INVOLVE RESPONSIBILITIES. Thus -

1. Special favour calls for special gratitude.

(1) Jeroboam was "exalted from among the people." He was "an Ephrathite of Zereda," an obscure place, mentioned once, and that only in connection with his birth (ch1 Kings. 11:26). The names of his parents also had remained in obscurity but for the figure he cut in history.

(2) He was made "prince" over the "people of God." This was a splendid distinction. A people is great, not through its number or the extent of its territories, but from its virtues (see Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18, 19). What an influence has that people exerted upon human destinies!

(3) The kingdom rent from the house of David was given to him. Jeroboam, then, was placed in succession to that David who had led the armies of Israel to victory! Also to that Solomon who had built the temple, and who, in the earlier part of his career, fined the world with the fame of surpassing wisdom!

2. The favored are compared with their peers.

(1) Jeroboam was a compeer to David. Both were need from humble station - David from the sheep, Jeroboam from the army (1 Kings 11:28). Both ascended the throne of Israel - founded dynasties.

(2) But how do they compare? "David kept the commandments of God" - followed Him "with all his heart." This did not Jeroboam. Melancholy record, he did nothing for God!

3. They are contrasted with their peers.

(1) Jeroboam "had done evil above all that were before him." More than Saul, who never worshipped idols. More than Solomon, who did not make Israel to sin.

(2) Jeroboam made "other gods; and" (or even) "molten images." Note: He intended his calves to represent the God of Israel; but the God of Israel Himself calls them "other gods." So are the images of Antichrist other gods though baptized with Christian names. This was worse than the idolatry of Solomon. The caricaturing of the true God is more offensive to Him than the worshipping of His creatures. Let the worshippers of barbarous pictures of the Holy Trinity, in which the Almighty is pourtrayed as a decrepit old man, and such like, seriously consider this.

(3) Jeroboam is described as having "cast" the God of Israel "behind his back." What a startling figure! How descriptive of the sin of those who now neglect God!

II. RESPONSIBILITIES ABUSED PROVOKE JUDGMENTS. Amongst these may he mentioned -

1. The bitter sense of wasted opportunity.

(1) Jeroboam is reminded that he once had the grand chance of making for himself a "sure house like David" (see 1 Kings 11:38). What golden opportunities may we not have wasted!

(2) That though the more glorious chance was missed and lost, he had then a gracious season of warnings, which also he let slip. (See events recorded ch. 13.) This respite improved might have averted, and would have mitigated, the severity of the judgments impending (compare 1 Kings 21:29).

2. The knowledge that the day of vengeance has set in.

(1) An admonition of such a day was implied in the earlier prophecy of Ahijah, in the judgments then denounced against the house of David for the sin of Solomon (1 Kings 11:30-38).

(2) This admonition was declared explicitly in the message of the man of God from Judah, and solemnly impressed by the signs attending and following (ch. 13.)

(3) Now Ahijah announces that these judgments are taking effect. But even now, had Jeroboam come to God in the spirit of repentance, though his sin is "unto death," yet might he save his soul. It is hard now to break a chain so riveted as that is by which he has bound himself. No repentante being evinced, the knell of doom sounds forth like the echoes of the closing door of Noah's ark, which announced mercy fled and wrath begun.

3. The severity of the sentence.

(1) The honour of the house of Jeroboam is to be brought down to ignominy.

(2) The carcases of members of this family are to be consumed by carrion feeders. Such are the swords of the wicked (compare Genesis 15:11; Jeremiah 34:18-20). Whether by the sword of Baasha, or literally, after that sword had done its part, the words of Ahijah came true (see 1 Kings 15:29). "The doom of the house of Jeroboam was a figure of that of the house of this man of sin (see Revelation 19:17, 18). God knows the proud afar off. But He gives grace to the humble. - J.A.M.

At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
One beautiful flower in a desert; one lovely rose amongst thorns; one fruitful branch on a corrupt tree. We are going to speak of a boy who was like that flower, rose, or branch.

I. This boy's father was very wicked. God had been kind to this man. Instead of remembering God's kindness and obeying Him, he tried to put away all thoughts of God from his mind, and disobeyed Him. He caused two calves of gold to be made. One he placed in Dan and the other in Bethel These he worshipped himself. Sin is like descending a hill, a river in its course, a tree in its progress. This was seen in his life. Some of the kings who preceded him were wicked, but he was the worst.

II. THIS BOY'S MOTHER WAS A DECEIVER.

III. ALTHOUGH THIS BOY HAD A WICKED FATHER AND A DECEIVING MOTHER, HE WAS GOOD. We are told that in him there was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.

1. This good thing was religion. It is called good for four reasons:

(1)It comes from the good God.

(2)It makes those good who truly receive it.

(3)It leads them to do good to others.

(4)It prepares them for the good place, heaven.

2. Religion was in this boy:

(1)In his mind.

(2)In his heart.

(3)In all his words and actions.Religion was found in this boy.

(1)It was found by God, for He sees all things.

(2)It was found by the boy himself. It made him happy, strong and hopeful.

(3)It was found by all who knew him. To them he was a shining light, or as a city on a hill.

3. How could he be so unlike his father and mother?

(1)He believed what was written in the sacred Scriptures.

(2)He prayed to God.

(3)His win was the king of his circumstance.Imitate him in these three things. If some of you have ungodly homes, you will then learn, as he did, that you can be godly there.

IV. THIS BOY DIED.

(A. McAuslane, D. D.)

People
Abijah, Abijam, Ahijah, David, Israelites, Jeroboam, Naamah, Nadab, Rehoboam, Shishak, Sodomites, Solomon, Tirzah
Places
Bethel, Egypt, Euphrates River, Jerusalem, Shiloh, Tirzah
Topics
Air, Anyone, Belonging, Birds, Death, Die, Dies, Dieth, Dogs, Eat, Family, Feed, Field, Fowl, Fowls, Heavens, Jeroboam, Jerobo'am, Open, Sky, Spoken, Town
Outline
1. Abijah being sick,
2. Jeroboam sends his wife, disguised, with presents to the prophet Ahijah
5. Ahijah forewarned by God, denounces God's judgment
17. Abijah dies, and is buried
19. Nadab succeeds Jeroboam
21. Rehoboam's wicked reign,
25. Shishak raids Jerusalem
29. Abijam succeeds Rehoboam

Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Kings 14:11

     4630   dog

1 Kings 14:6-16

     1431   prophecy, OT methods

1 Kings 14:7-13

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment

Library
Synopsis. --The Gradual Narrowing of the Miraculous Element in the Bible by Recent Discovery and Discussion. --The Alarm Thereby Excited in the Church. --The Fallacy Which
It is barely forty years since that beloved and fearless Christian scholar, Dean Stanley, spoke thus of the miracles recorded of the prophet Elisha: "His works stand alone in the Bible in their likeness to the acts of mediaeval saints. There alone in the Sacred History the gulf between Biblical and Ecclesiastical miracles almost disappears."[5] It required some courage to say as much as this then, while the storm of persecution was raging against Bishop Colenso for his critical work on the Pentateuch.
James Morris Whiton—Miracles and Supernatural Religion

Jeroboam
BY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. "Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin."--1 KINGS xiv. 16. Jeroboam's character is worthy of serious study, not only because it influenced the destiny of God's ancient people, but because it suggests lessons of the utmost value to His people still. He may be fairly regarded as a type of those who are successful men of the world. He was not an example of piety, for he had none--nor of lofty principle, for he was an opportunist who made expediency
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Whether Contention is a Mortal Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that contention is not a mortal sin. For there is no mortal sin in spiritual men: and yet contention is to be found in them, according to Lk. 22:24: "And there was also a strife amongst" the disciples of Jesus, "which of them should . . . be the greatest." Therefore contention is not a mortal sin. Objection 2: Further, no well disposed man should be pleased that his neighbor commit a mortal sin. But the Apostle says (Phil. 1:17): "Some out of contention preach Christ,"
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Divination by Drawing Lots is Unlawful?
Objection 1: It would seem that divination by drawing lots is not unlawful, because a gloss of Augustine on Ps. 30:16, "My lots are in Thy hands," says: "It is not wrong to cast lots, for it is a means of ascertaining the divine will when a man is in doubt." Objection 2: There is, seemingly, nothing unlawful in the observances which the Scriptures relate as being practiced by holy men. Now both in the Old and in the New Testament we find holy men practicing the casting of lots. For it is related
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Whole Heart
LET me give the principal passages in which the words "the whole heart," "all the heart," are used. A careful study of them will show how wholehearted love and service is what God has always asked, because He can, in the very nature of things, ask nothing less. The prayerful and believing acceptance of the words will waken the assurance that such wholehearted love and service is exactly the blessing the New Covenant was meant to make possible. That assurance will prepare us for turning to the Omnipotence
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). In our last chapter we considered at some length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown that the will of the natural man is neither Sovereign nor free but, instead, a servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner's will-its servitude-is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

The Prophet Joel.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.),
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
1 Kings 14:11 NIV
1 Kings 14:11 NLT
1 Kings 14:11 ESV
1 Kings 14:11 NASB
1 Kings 14:11 KJV

1 Kings 14:11 Bible Apps
1 Kings 14:11 Parallel
1 Kings 14:11 Biblia Paralela
1 Kings 14:11 Chinese Bible
1 Kings 14:11 French Bible
1 Kings 14:11 German Bible

1 Kings 14:11 Commentaries

Bible Hub
1 Kings 14:10
Top of Page
Top of Page