Gold for the heart - 1 Kings 14-16

1 Kings 14

1 At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became sick. 2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Please, get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh: behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Take with you ten loaves, and cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him: he will tell you what will become of the child. 4 And Jeroboam’s wife did this, she got up, went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see because his eyes were set because of his age.

God prepared Ahijah for the visit of the queen

5 And the LORD said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to ask something of you for her son because he is sick: this is what you are to say to her: when she comes in she is pretending to be another woman. 6 And when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in the door, he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you pretend to be another? I am sent to you with heavy news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, the LORD God of Israel says this, Because as I exalted you from among the people, made you prince over my people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you: but still you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only what was right in my eyes; 9 But have done evil above all that were before you: for you have gone and made other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back: 10 Therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisses against the wall, both him that is bound and free in Israel, and will sweep away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. 11 The dogs will eat those that die of Jeroboam in the city; and the birds of the air will eat he that dies in the field: for the LORD has spoken it.

God had warned Jeroboam in chapter 13 and given him time to return to God. Idolatry leads people to eternity in the lake of fire. Therefore it is worse than murder. It is eternal murder.

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

1Corinthians 8:4…we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will not pass away.

12 Rise and go to your own house: and when your feet enter the city, the child will die. 13 And all Israel will mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good word toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. 14 Moreover the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? Even now. 15 For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will uproot Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.

Notice that God is searching for some good thing in us toward Him.

Exodus 34:14 you will worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has made all things for himself: yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.

16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned, and who made Israel to sin. 17 And Jeroboam’s wife got up and left, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; 18 And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. 19 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20 And the days that Jeroboam reigned were two-twenty years: and he slept with this fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

When children die they go to be with God. David said so in 2 Samuel 12:23.

21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD chose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. 22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built themselves high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

Exodus 20:5 Do not bow yourself down to them, or serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

The LORD had cast out the others for their abominations

24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations that the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. 25 And in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: 26 He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made.

Leviticus 18 describes all the abominations for which God cast out the people of Canaan.
Idolatry took the Lord, the true treasure, out of the hearts of the people and then the treasures of the house of the LORD were taken out of God’s temple.

Judges 5:8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates…

27 King Rehoboam made in their place bronze shields, and committed them to the hands of the chief runners, who kept the door of the king’s house. 28 And when the king went to the house of the LORD, the guard carried them, and brought them back into the guard chamber. 29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his place.

Brass was the symbol of judgment in scripture.
They worshipped God and had shields of gold.
When they worshipped idols they had shields of judgment.
When the Prince of Peace is first in our lives, then our lives are full of peace.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly.

1 Kings 15

1 And in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam reigned over Judah. 2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. 3 He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father. 4 Nevertheless, for David’s sake, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem: 5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

God wants our hearts to be perfect toward Him.
‘Perfect’ means complete.
Abijam lacked knowledge of God and His ways.
The sins of his father was idolatry or the worship of gods other than our Maker.
These other gods are liars; they are nothings.
They did not make heaven and earth.
They will not be calling anyone into account when their lives are over (Psalm 96:5, 1 Corinthians 8:4).

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:

John 8:12 Then spoke Jesus again to them saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. 7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. 8 And Abijam slept with his fathers; they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his place.

Judges 5:8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates:

9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel Asa reigned over Judah. 10 He reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. 11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

That which was right in the eyes of the LORD was what God had told the people to do in the His law.
The record of the Kings alternates between the rulers of the northern kingdom and southern kingdom.
A godly king often ruled Judah, the Southern kingdom of Israel. God sees everything.

Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, since he gives to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after him, and find him, though he is not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being…

12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13 And also Maachah his mother, he even removed her from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove; Asa destroyed her idol, and burned it by the brook Kidron.

God designed man for happiness and tells man how to get it.

14 But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days. 15 And he brought in the holy/things that his father had dedicated, and the things that himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels. 16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah so that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 18 So Asa took all the silver and gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, 19 There is a treaty between you and I, and between my father and your father: behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he may depart from me. 20 So Ben-hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of the army that he had against the cities of Israel, and struck Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth/Galilee, with all the land of Naphtali. 21 And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. 22 Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, that Baasha was building with; and king Asa built with it Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

Baasha, the idolatrous king of the Northern kingdom of Israel built a fortress in Ramah to stop any commerce or travel of any kind into the Southern kingdom ruled by godly Asa.
Asa took the gold and silver from the temple of God and with it persuaded Ben-hadad, ruler of Syria, to break his treaty with Baasha.
When Ben-hadad broke the treaty, Baasha quit building the fortress.
Travel and commerce resumed.
Asa took the materials used to build the fortress at Ramah and built two cities with them.
The gold and silver of the temple were gifts that people had given to God.
Should those gifts to God have been used for that purpose?
Was the Almighty God not able to deal with Baasha for Judah?

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

23 The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his old age, he was diseased in his feet. 24 And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Was Asa diseased in his feet because his walk before God was faulty?
It is possible to know what we should do, but not act on it.

Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies;

God sees everything

25 And Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years. 26 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. 27 And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. 28 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha killed him, and reigned in his place. 29 And when he ruled he struck all the house of Jeroboam; he did not leave to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite:

1Kings 14:14 Moreover the LORD will raise him up a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam …

Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger. 31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 32 There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. 33 In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty-four years. 34 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.

Notice that the king caused the people to sin by doing evil in God’s eyes by worshipping the golden calves that Jeroboam had placed in Dan and Bethel (2 Kings 10:29).
God is angry at the pain and ruin that sin causes.
Remember the two trees of Eden.
One was life; the other one was evil and death.
We either eat from one or the other: we either follow what the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth says, or what evil says.

Daniel 2:21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.

1 Kings 16

God judged Baasha whom He had exalted and made prince of His people

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha saying, 2 Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you prince over my people Israel; and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made my people Israel sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; 3 Behold, I will take away the future generations of Baasha, and the future generations of his house; and will make your dynasty like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 4 The dogs will eat those that die of Baasha in the city; and the birds of the air will eat those that die of his in the fields. 5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his strength, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 6 So Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah: and Elah, his son, reigned in his place.

Baasha ruled the Northern kingdom of Israel.
God’s judgment is loving and merciful.
It would be better for a child to be taken from a house of idolatry rather than learn the ways of idolatry and burn forever in hell.
If Baasha turned back to the Lord, the judgment would be averted, just like Nineveh in the book of Jonah.
Life is an awesome opportunity that God has given us.
The ultimate conquest is revealed in Revelation 3:21 “He that overcomes will sit with me on my throne.’

7 By the hand of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, the word of the LORD came against Baasha and against his house for all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he killed him. 8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa, king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years. 9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. 10 And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. 11 And when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, he killed all the house of Baasha: he left not one of him that pissed against a wall, neither of his relatives, nor of his friends.

Those that piss against the wall are men.
All the males were destroyed.
Elah the son of Baasha was a drunkard.
Zimri killed him while he was drunk in the house of his steward.

12 Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, 13 For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah, his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities/empty nothings. 14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

God’s word spoke creation into being—Genesis 1, Psalm 33:6, 9.
Notice that the leaders made the people sin.
God is jealous because He loves us greatly.
Where there is no jealousy, there is no love.
Vanities are nothings, the false gods and worship systems that they set up are nothing and can do nothing.
These lead people to eternal death. God allows that only long enough to test the hearts of men.

Exodus 34:14 For you are to worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. And the people were camped against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines. 16 And the people that were camped heard it said, Zimri has conspired, and has also killed the king: so all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the palace of the king’s house, and burned the king’s house over himself with fire, and died, 19 for his sins that he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel sin. 20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he carried out, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni, the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri. 22 But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.

Power struggles are not new.
People are the greatest national resource.
To control the people is to control the revenue from the people or the tax dollars.

1Timothy 6:10 the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

23 In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, twelve years: he reigned six years in Tirzah. 24 And he bought the hill Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city that he built after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria. 25 But Omri worked evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him. 26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities/idols/empty nothings.

God calls into account.
The false gods were attractive to the kings and the people because they didn’t require integrity or morality.
The false systems catered to passion and pleasure without an accounting.
God made us in His image.
He gave each of us a certain number of years of life and breath.
He has given us amazing promises and opportunities.
He will require us to give an account of what we did with our lives.

Romans 14:12 So then every one of us will give account of himself to God.

27 Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and his power that he displayed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 28 So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab, his son, reigned in his place. 29 And in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel: and Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

The names and years of the kings pinpoint only one person in history.
God’s method of recording stays accurate through the upheavals of time, language, and history.

30 Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. 31 And, as if it had been a small thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

32 He raised up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal that he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a grove; Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 34 In his days Hiel, the Bethelite, built Jericho: he laid the foundation of it in Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates of it in his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

Jericho was cursed by God to never be rebuilt.
If anyone dared to rebuild Jericho, his firstborn would die when the foundation was laid and his youngest son would die when the gates were set up.
This happened to Hiel.

Joshua 6:26 And Joshua ordered them at that time, saying, Cursed is the man before the LORD, that rises up and builds this city Jericho: he will lay its foundation in his firstborn, and in his youngest son he will set up the gates of it.

SUMMARY: I Kings 14-16

The LORD prepared the prophet Ahijah for the visit of the queen
He cast people out of their lands for abominations to Him
He sees everything
He judged Baasha whom He had exalted to be prince over His people