Matthew Henry Commentary 1 Kings 14
Matthew Henry Commentary
1 Kings 14
Matthew Henry Commentary
1 Kings 14
"At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. 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, who spake concerning me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cakes, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he will tell thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam`s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And Jehovah said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to inquire of thee concerning her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her; for it will be, when she cometh in, that she will feign herself to be another woman. 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." — 1 Kings 14:1-6 (ASV)
“At that time,” when Jeroboam did evil, his child sickened. When sickness comes into our families, we should inquire whether there may not be some particular sin harboured in our houses, which the affliction is sent to convince us of, and reclaim us from. It would have been more pious if he had desired to know why God contended with him, had begged the prophet's prayers, and cast away his idols from him; but most people would rather be told their fortune, than their faults or their duty.
He sent to Ahijah because he had told him he would be king. Those who by sin disqualify themselves for comfort, yet expect that their ministers, because they are good men, should speak peace and comfort to them, greatly wrong themselves and their ministers. He sent his wife in disguise, that the prophet might only answer her question concerning her son.
Thus some people would limit their ministers to smooth things and do not care for having the whole counsel of God declared to them, lest it should prophesy no good concerning them, but evil. But she will know, at the first word, what she has to trust. Tidings of a portion with hypocrites will be heavy tidings.
God will judge people according to what they are, not by what they seem to be.
"Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, 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, but hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweepeth away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat: for Jehovah hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thy house: [and] when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 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 Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover Jehovah will raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now. For Jehovah will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking Jehovah to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he hath sinned, and wherewith he hath made Israel to sin. And Jeroboam`s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: [and] as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. And all Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the prophet. 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. 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." — 1 Kings 14:7-20 (ASV)
Whether we keep an account of God's mercies to us or not, he does; and he will set them in order before us, if we are ungrateful, to our greater confusion. Ahijah foretells the speedy death of the child who was then sick, in mercy to him. He alone in the house of Jeroboam had affection for the true worship of God and disliked the worship of the calves.
To show the power and sovereignty of his grace, God saves some from the worst families, in whom there is some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel. The righteous are removed from the evil to come in this world, to the good to come in a better world. It is often a bad sign for a family when the best in it are taken from it by death.
Yet their death can never be a loss to themselves. It was a present affliction to the family and kingdom, by which both should have been instructed. God also foretells the judgments that would come upon the people of Israel for conforming to the worship Jeroboam established. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another.
Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin. If great men act wickedly, they draw many others both into the guilt and the punishment. The condemnation of those will be most severe who must answer not only for their own sins, but also for the sins that others have been drawn into, and kept in, by them.
"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 Jehovah had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there: and his mother`s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And Judah did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree; and there were also sodomites in the land: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Jehovah drove out before the children of Israel. And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; and he took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah, 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. And king Rehoboam made in their stead shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king`s house. And it was so, that, as oft as the king went into the house of Jehovah, the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard-chamber. 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? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and his mother`s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead." — 1 Kings 14:21-31 (ASV)
Nothing good is said here of Rehoboam, and much is said to the disadvantage of his subjects. The prevalence of the worst crimes, those of the worst of the heathen, in Jerusalem—the city the Lord had chosen for His temple and His worship—shows that nothing can mend the hearts of fallen men except the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit.
On this alone can we depend; for this let us pray daily, on behalf of ourselves and all around us. The splendor of their temple, the pomp of their priesthood, and all the advantages that accompanied their religion could not prevail to keep them faithful to it; nothing less than the outpouring of the Spirit will keep God's Israel in their allegiance to Him.
Sin exposes, impoverishes, and weakens any people. Shishak, king of Egypt, came and took away the treasures. Sin makes the gold become dim, changes the finest gold, and turns it into brass.
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