1 Kings 14

Jonathan Ledbetter

Kingdom, Come • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Scripture Reading: Luke 18:10-14

Introduction

Have You Ever Met a Fake Christian?

A Fake Christian is Someone…

Who Acts as if Their Relationship with God is Genuine/Strong…

But it’s All a Facade/Fake

They’re Not Very Rare are They?

They Want Everyone to Think…

They’re a Godly/Righteous/Faithful Person

Maybe Their Always Posting Spiritual Things on Social Media…

Or They Always Find Ways to Insert Their Spiritual Practices into Conversations

But Those Who Know Them Best…

Know that it’s All Fake

If Someone is Always Trying to Persuade You of How Righteous They are…

You should Probably Be Suspicious

Godly/Righteous/Faithful People…

Don’t Try to Persuade Others of How Godly/Righteous/Faithful They are

The Righteous are Like the Humble Tax Collector

They Recognize and Confess Their Failings and Unworthiness

It’s the Ungodly/Unrighteous/Faithless…

Who are Like the Pharisee

Believing Themselves to Be Godly/Righteous/Faithful

And Constantly Trying to Persuade God & Others…

Of How Godly/Righteous/Faithful They are

They May have Deceived Themselves and Others…

But They aren’t Deceiving God

He Knows the Genuine From the Fake

And He Doesn’t Tolerate the Fake

In Our Text, We’re Going to See the End of 2 Kings

They Wanted to Put Up the Facade…

That They had Good Relationships with God

But They were Fakes

And God wasn’t Fooled

1 Kings 14

Last Time, We Ended with this Unfortunate News:

1 Kings 13:33–34 (NET)

33 After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; he continued to appoint common people as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest.34 This sin caused Jeroboam’s dynasty to come to an end and to be destroyed from the face of the earth.

In Our Text, We’re Going to See End of Jeroboam’s Dynasty…

Prophesied in Brutal Detail

We’ll Also See the End of King Rehoboam’s Reign as Well

1 Kings 14:1–6 (NLT)

1 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. 2 So Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as my wife. Then go to the prophet Ahijah at Shiloh—the man who told me I would become king. 3 Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and ask him what will happen to the boy.”

4 So Jeroboam’s wife went to Ahijah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. 5 But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you.” 6 So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have bad news for you.

Jeroboam Tries to Deceive the Prophet of God…

Probably in Hopes that He would Give Good News About Their Son

If You Think You can Deceive God…

You’re Only Deceiving Yourself

Immediately Upon Walking Up to Ahijah’s Door…

He Informs Her that He Knows Exactly Who She is…

And that He’s Got Bad News

We’re Told that Ahijah is More or Less Blind

But Jeroboam Told His Wife to Disguise Herself

This May Indicate that Jeroboam…

Didn’t Even Know He was Blind

Which Means, He Hasn’t Been in Contact with the God’s Prophet in a Long Time

This Shows How Distant From God that Jeroboam’s Been

Now, Let’s Hear the Bad News for Jeroboam and His Family

1 Kings 14:7–20 (NIV)

7 Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

9 You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. (Lit. “Thrown Me Behind Your Back”) 10 Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone.

11 Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country. The Lord has spoken!’ 12 “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

14 “The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. Even now this is beginning to happen. 15 And the Lord will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they aroused the Lord’s anger by making Asherah poles. 16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”

17 Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the Lord had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah. 19 The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. 20 He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his ancestors. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.

God Gave Jeroboam Everything…

And He Squandered it All

He Tossed God Behind His Back, Like Trash

Now God is Going to Treat Him and His Descendants Like Trash

He’s Going to Turn Jeroboam’s Dynasty into Ashes

His Sick Son is the Only One Who will Receive a Proper Burial…

Because There was Actually Good Inside Him

But, He will Die the Moment His Mother Returns Home to Him

God Also Foretells Through Ahijah…

The Destruction and Dispersion of the Northern Kingdom

We’ll Learn About that When We Get to the Latter Half of 2nd Kings

That’s All We’re Told of the Reign of Jeroboam

We aren’t Told a Single Positive Thing

He Reigned for 22 Years and Did a Horrific Job of it

He Did More Evil Than Anyone Who Came Before Him

Unfortunately, We’re Going to See that Said About Many of the Kings

Jeroboam’s Neighbor to the South isn’t Ruling Any Better

1 Kings 14:21–31 (NET)

21 Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. His mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah.

22 Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done.23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 24 There were also male cultic prostitutes in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.

25 In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.

29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other. 31 Rehoboam passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah replaced him as king.

Southern Judah was Living Just as Wickedly as Northern Israel

They were Practicing All the Sins of the Former Inhabitants of the Land

Do You Remember Why God had the Israelites…

Destroy/Dislocate the Canaanite People?

Deuteronomy 9:4–6 (NLT)

4 “After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. 5 It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.

Do You Think God was Trying to Tell Them Something?

The Canaanites were Punished By God Because of Their Wickedness

Now God’s Own People are Doing the Same Exact Things

Because of Their Wickedness, God Allowed Egypt to Attack Them

We See a Reverse Exodus Happen

When Israel Left Egypt, They Plundered Egypt

Now Egypt is Plundering Israel

They Took All the Gold Shields from the Temple

Rehoboam Replaced Them with Bronze Shields

Rehoboam Wanted to Appear as if God was Still with Them

But His Fake Gold wasn’t Fooling Anyone

The Peace/Prosperity of Israel in Solomon’s Time…

Is Officially in the Past

In 2 Chronicles 12, We Read that King Rehoboam and the Leaders of Judah…

Humbled Themselves and Agreed that God was Just in Allowing Egypt to Attack

This Caused God to Not Allow Egypt to Utterly Destroy Judah

But, This Humility Didn’t Last

Overall, Rehoboam was a Wicked King…

And Judah Followed Him in His Wickedness

Application

Jeroboam Tried to Deceive the Prophet of God

Rehoboam Replaced Gold with Bronze…

In Hopes that it would Appear that God was Still with Judah

Both of These Men were Wicked, Deceitful, and Fake

They had Deceived the People Under Their Authority…

And Led Them into Terrible Evil

And They Wanted to Deceive God as Well

But God is Not Deceived

To Try and Do So is Only to Deceive Yourself

The Galatian Churches were Dealing with Judaizing False Teachers

They were Teaching that to Be a Good Christian…

You had to Be a Jew

Paul Indicates to Us One Reason Why They were Teaching this

They were Trying to Avoid Persecution from the Jewish People

Notice What He Said:

Galatians 6:12 (NIV)

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

These False Teachers Just Wanted to Impress People

They were Riding the Fence Between Judaism and Christianity

They were Deceiving People People for Personal Gain

They were Fake

Just Before this Paul Wrote to Them:

Galatians 6:7–9 (NASB95)

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

God Knows the Difference Between the Humble Tax Collector…

And the Self-Righteous, Self-Deceived Pharisee

What You Sow is What You’ll Reap with God

There is No Deceiving/Mocking Him

He Knows the Genuine from the Fake

Do What is Good and Receive Life From God

Do What is Evil and Receive Corruption/Death

Humble Yourself Before God and Serve Him