1 Kings 14:12
As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.
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
The Reprobate's DoomJ.A. Macdonald 1 Kings 14:12-14














In the queen of Jeroboam we see a remarkable messenger. For she went as messenger from a king and returned as messenger from a prophet. Her message in the first instance was simple, but in her return twofold. She brings a message to the king, and with it a message also to the nation. The message to the king brings -

I. HEAVY TIDINGS RESPECTING ABIJAH.

1. As to the issue of his illness.

(1) "The child shall die." This is a direct answer to the question with which the royal messenger was charged (ver. 3). Here was the withering of a limb of Jeroboam's family answering to the sign of the withering of his arm (see 1 Kings 13:4).

(2) The king does not now ask for the restoration of the child as he had done for the restoration of his arm (1 Kings 13:6). He did not even ask, in time, that the judgment might be averted. How could he, without repenting of his sin? Note: The descents of depravity, like those of natural gravitation, are in accelerating degrees.

(3) This judgment is the signal that the season of retributions has now fairly set in. What a horror to wake up to such a conviction! "Be sure your sin will find you out."

2. As to the near approach of his death.

(1) "When thy feet enter into the city." Every step of the queen's advance over that twelve miles from Shiloh to Tirzah measured a stride of death towards his victim. Do we sufficiently realize the fact that this is the case with us in passing through the journey of life?

(2) What must have been the conflict in the heart of the queen? Maternal affection would urge her steps with speed that she might see her son alive. Yet was it a race with death; and death was first at the palace. That monster overtakes the swiftest. If he passes one it is to strike another, and so that the recoil of his sting may wound the trembling heart.

3. As to the circumstances attending. "All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him;" but for him only of the royal family, "because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel." Hence learns

(1) God's punishments are discriminative. He does not overlook the good in the evil.

(2) Yet the good suffer with the evil. Abijah dies for the sin of his father. Christ dies for the sin of the world. But in His death is life to the believer.

(3) Still the good suffer for their good. They are taken away from evil to come. Had Abijah lived he might have been drawn into his father's sin. God often takes them soonest whom He loves best.

(4) The evil suffer in the good, Jeroboam had reason to mourn the loss of the best of his family. So had Israel, since the succession would now open to a wicked prince. Note: We should pray for the preservation of virtuous and useful lives. Especially so when such are found in seats of power and influence.

II. HEAVY TIDINGS RESPECTING HIS SURVIVORS.

1. They are devoted to extermination.

(1) This as a general fact was already known.

(2) It is now published with additional circumstance. The agent that shall effect it is one who shall himself mount the throne of Israel.

(3) This was fulfilled to the letter (see 1 Kings 15:27-30).

2. Judgment will come speedily.

(1) Some think this exclamation of the prophet, "But what? Even now" arose from his having seen that this would be the case.

(2) So it proved. Within two years Jeroboam died. He was succeeded by Nadab, who two years later was slain by Baasha. In that time also, and by the same hand, the predicted extermination was completed.

(3) "The wicked do not live out half their days." This is true of dynasties as of individuals. The dynasty of Jeroboam lasted only four and twenty years. - 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
Arise, Boy, Child, Death, Depart, Die, Died, Enter, Foot, Hour, Lad, Rise, 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 14:6-16

     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

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