This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may contact us and request that devotion. Please send your request, along with $.50 (p&h) for each page to:
Bruce McGee,Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
HERE
Bro. Bruce's commentaries for the
books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus are
now available in hard copy for $7.50. Just mail your request for
COMMENTARY ON GENESIS to the address above.
1KINGS
1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
2 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 Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.
3 And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.
4 And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
Now isn't this sad. Here is a man who KNOWS God IS, but REFUSES to follow Him. He also knows where the prophet is, but never wants to listen to him. He never wanted a REAL church - just a ritualistic religion.
I know a lot of people (some family, friends and just acquaintances). Many of them never darken the doors of a church, have never given any monies to the Lord, never pray, and never read their Bible. But when they are sick - or dying - they call for the "preacher."
Man instinctively KNOWS there is a God. God created us with breath of His own life (Genesis 2:7). We cannot HELP but know that God IS. But salvation is only to those who are called by grace, and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jeroboam represents the majority of people in the world today. He KNEW God IS, and he wanted to HEAR from God about his problems; but he wouldn't SURRENDER to the Lordship of God in his life.
5 And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.
6 And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.
7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
8 And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;
9 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:
10 Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.
11 Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it.
12 Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
14 Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.
15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.
16 And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.
17 And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, 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 spake 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 which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
Ahijah may have been physically blind, but he had spiritual sight because he walked and talked with God.
God gave him a special word for Jeroboam. YES! The child would die. And further, God is going to "cut off" all of Jeroboam's descendents (verse 10). But in this child has been found some "good thing," and God will bring him to the grave so he can be with God (verse 13).
Also God is going to "cut off" all of Israel (the 10 Northern tribes) because they wholly follow Jeroboam's sin of rebellion and refusal to follow God.
My friends, I'm afraid we're going to be surprised how MANY people will be in eternal hell, and how few in heaven. (See Habakkuk 2:4-5 and Matthew 7:13-14)
The ONLY way to the Gateway of Heaven is through surrender to Jesus Christ. ((John 14:6, Luke 9:23))
Jeroboam died, and Nadab (his son) took the throne. Nadab lasted only 2 years and was assassinated with ALL his family (see 1Kings 15:25-29).
God will not allow evil to exist continually. He will indeed remove it totally one day.
21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose 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 which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
While Jeroboam was diabolically corrupting the Northern kingdom, Rehoboam was ALLOWING the Southern kingdom to be ruined from within.
Rehoboam allowed the people to sin grievously. They began to build altars in "high places." These weren't like the altars Solomon built before he constructed the temple. Those he built were altars to God only. But these were altars to IDOLS.
Note also (verse 24). Rehoboam allowed "sodomites" in the land. These were homosexuals. Friends, I can't say it better than God says it. Homosexuality is an "abomination" to God!
When a government does not deter homosexuality it is a SIN! And when a government PROMOTES it, it is a heinous crime against humanity!
25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
26 And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
27 And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house.
28 And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare 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 And 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 stead.
Before Shishak came against Jerusalem, he came against the cities and fortresses of the Southern part of Judaea. He captured them, and committed many of them to slavery.
The only reason Shishak didn't totally anihilate Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, was because of God's preserving grace! And this is the same reason that the church is not totally destroyed in the world today - God's preserving grace!
Rehoboam humbled himself and sought God when he realized Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. (See 2Chronicles 12:1-12).
There are over 8 billion people in the world today. Fewer than 1 billion of them are avowed Christians. It is a miracle of God that the church is not totally overrun and destroyed!!
Shishak took all of the gold and treasures that David and Solomon had gained and stored in the house of the Lord. Rehoboam substituted brass works for golden works. He substituted fakery for truth.
And this is one of the reasons the church has little influence in the world today. In the overall church of Jesus Christ today there are those who say that homosexualism is OK. There are those who say that divorce is OK. There are those that say gambling is OK. There are those that substituted fakery for truth.
The Bible says that Rehoboam "..did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." (2Chronicles 12:14)
I pray that Christians today will prepare their hearts to SEEK the Lord. And then, and only then, will we see healing come to our land (2Chronicles 7:14).
Please continue with us in daily Bible study.
CHAPTER 14
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."(Leviticus 18:22)