Heedless Kings (Part A)

This prophet in Shiloh was not dispatched to Bethel.

Well, he was by reason of his age and his eyesight. He was just hindered from going, and so God imported the prophet from Judah to go, bypassing the old prophet of Bethel who was there in the city. A lot of challenging information for us because every Christian wants to say to God, as Paul said when he was converted, Who are you?

What do you want me to do? But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Kings chapter 14 as he begins his message, Heedless Kings. But it doesn't work that way. That is material to preach to the lost souls who think highly of themselves.

Ah, not so bad as people go. Yeah, but it's not you that you're going to be, you're not going to be judged by people according to people. Romans 2 16, In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

It's deliberate. It's carved in stone. We are going to be judged by Jesus Christ.

He's the standard, and if you can't live up to that standard, you're done. Unless your sins have been covered, washed away, covered as in taken care of by the Lamb of God. Because remember the Old Testament, the sins were covered. The New Testament, they are removed. John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. So, very significant language. Verse 14, or verse 1.

That would have been fast. Verse 1 chapter 14, 1 Kings. At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam became sick. Well, where it says at that time, during the days when Jeroboam was at the altar at Bethel, the man of God was dispatched to deal with him and that altar, chapter 13.

And so that's what that is talking, so around this time. The significance is, Jeroboam is unfazed by all that took place at that altar. The miraculous, the altars, you know, the rebuke, the hand being paralyzed and then restored.

It just didn't faze him and that's the significance. He was heedless to the message, unmoved by the miracles. Here he is, still going to be engaged in idolatrous practices and disrespecting God right to his face. It says, Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. Now both Jeroboam and Rehoboam had a son named Abijah, so we just have to live with that.

But again, these opening words connect the sickness of the son with Jeroboam's impenitence, his refusal to repent. He still wants something from God, verse 2. And Jeroboam said to his wife, please arise and disguise yourself that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam and go to Shiloh, indeed Ahijah the prophet is there who told me that I would be king over this people.

Well Jeroboam says to his wife, please arise. Now Bethel is not where he lived. He lived in Shechem, but he either had a summer home in Terzah or moved there. We'll find that out later, but that's where he is right now in Terzah. Solomon said Terzah was a very beautiful place.

It's included in the Song of Solomon in chapter 6. And he has no shame, as we've already observed, sinning against God, but yet he wants to hide his desperate need for this God to help him out without repentance. He wants something from God.

It's a one way, you know, I just want something from you and just get out of my face. A lot of people live that way. He doesn't want anyone, including the prophet whom he is sending his wife to, to recognize that they're going to Yahweh for help. How does someone suppose that they can approach God through deception? How does a person think that they can deceive God? Well, the first part of that is their view of deity is defective.

It's deficient. They also suppose God is like them. God is made in their image. You know, that's what idolatry is. Instead of being made in the image of God, you make God's in the image that you find acceptable. Psalm 115, for example, points that out. Those who make them are like them because man cannot think beyond himself without God. Their view of God is irreverent and in the truest sense of the word it is profane. It is away from the sacred. It is insulting. And here he admits that the prophet Ahijah told him he would be king, prophesied it, he became king of the ten tribes, just as it was said, and yet he refuses to even mention God's name.

The way these things are recorded, they're intentional. It's not that the writer just, you know, whatever the writer was thinking, the spiritual scribe, God is thinking beyond that, knowing that we will come later on and look at his word and notice these things because they are there to be noticed. And here he is in dire need. He turns to the only true God. Why not his idols? Why doesn't he go up to Bethel or Dan? Why not go to the golden calves he had put there instead? This was something, you know, the prophets, they just had to deal with this.

It's just like we have to deal with this broke generation, you know. They had to deal with this stuff too and suffer alongside of them. Jeremiah 2, 28, Jeremiah is speaking to these people who have these fake gods. He says, But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves?

Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. So he sends his wife, this king, to the god he refuses to obey and bow down to, gross hypocrisy, and took, of course, Yahweh's prophet, Hijjah. Now the boy's name, the prince that's sick, is Abijah and this is Ahijah.

And I'm sure you need to have that pointed out. Anyway, he wants his child facing death and he wants him healed. Apparently, God does not approve of kings disguising themselves. Now here, he is having his wife disguise herself, but it is by his order. King Saul disguised himself and both Samuel and the witch at Endor realized it was him. The disguise only went but so far. The wicked king Ahab, he disguised himself in battle saying to the gullible king Jehoshaphat, who was a righteous king but he just hung out with the wrong people, got the wrong crowd, almost killed himself a couple of times. Anyway, he was hoping that he would, you know, I'll put my cammies on, you put this bullseye on.

I mean, you'll king me robes. And of course, it almost got Jehoshaphat killed. He cried out to the Lord and an archer at a venture randomly just fires the arrow and it hits the wicked king Ahab, which he then died from those wounds. The godly king Josiah also interfering with Pharaoh Neko coming, you know, into the region against the Assyrians and Josiah is going to make a name for himself and throw himself into the battle and he disguises himself.

He puts on, you know, his utility uniform to face the enemy and is killed in battle. And so, there are lessons there. God not liking the leaders to disguise themselves. Be who I made you, be who I appointed you to be.

I think that's one of the great lessons that comes out of it and here it is. He's going to be revealed. He's not going to get away with this. His wife is disguising herself on his behalf and of course, the prophet's going to call him out on it. Verse 3, also take with you 10 loaves, some cakes, a jar of honey and go to him.

He will tell you what will become of the child. It's just insanity of sin, what sin does to a human being. This man knows that the prophet can see the future because God tells him. You would think you would say, okay, that's going to be my God. People come to the Bible and they read it.

I see it. I can't dispute it and they still don't become believers sometimes. These gifts that she brings are common gifts. They're not gifts fitting for a queen to give to someone.

We discussed this last chapter. It wasn't uncommon for people to bring gifts to the prophets. Remember, Naaman comes and he has these gifts for Elijah and he turns them down and Gehazi goes for them. So you say, well, are they cheapskates or are they staying in character where they don't want someone to notice? If they brought good gifts, the prophet would say, well, who are you behind this disguise to afford such a gift?

That's probably what's going on. Either way, he says here, and he will tell you what will become of the child. And again, you just, duh. Then how come you don't serve this guy? This man's God. Well, this is common grace, the common grace that belongs to the wicked and the righteous alike. Without this, civilization could not function. Wicked human beings can do good things. Wicked human beings can do good things to people they choose to do good things, or not. Relatively decent people who are not going to heaven exist.

Decent as far as the terms of society. Again, common grace as opposed to special grace, which is receiving the salvation by special revelation, which is, of course, through the Holy Spirit and God's word. So this, he's concerned for his child as a loving parent, and that's common grace. And it doesn't diminish it. It doesn't mean it's, you know, small or anything like that.

It's, again, society could not function without it. Verse 4, And Jeroboam's wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah.

But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age. Now, we know that this is the same Ahijah the prophet, because he already told us this is the one that prophesied he's living in Shiloh. And we wonder, as she is on her way, you know, what kind of woman she was. We're not told.

It's about a 20-mile trek from Terza to Shiloh. Did she protest? Did she want to stay with the child? Again, we don't know. But either way, she has little choice, and Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age, likely cataracts. Her disguise is not going to hide her from God's man because of God. And, of course, the story, the greater part, he doesn't need eyes to see if God is, again, giving him the knowledge. Two reasons why this prophet in Shiloh was not dispatched to Bethel.

Well, he was by reason of his age and his eyesight. He was just hindered from going, and so God imported the prophet from Judah to go, bypassing the old prophet of Bethel who was there in the city. That's a lot of challenging information for us because every Christian wants to say to God what Paul said when he was converted. Who are you? What do you want me to do? Who are you, Lord? What would you have me to do?

That encapsulates the Christian response to Jesus Christ at conversion. Here's my life. What do you want from me?

And not challenging. What do you want from me? But, Lord, here I am, hopefully a vessel of honor. Verse 5, Now Yahweh had said to Ahijah, Here is the wife of Jeroboam coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her, for it will be when she comes in that she will pretend to be another woman. Well, there's a lot there. Some humorous stuff.

We won't go into that because I can get to my truck safely. The prophet is the one that traffics spiritual information from God. The false prophet traffics it from hell. And here he is, of course, a true prophet and God is speaking and he's speaking through the prophet. He has something directly or direct to say. Nothing indirect in this.

Not a general statement. It is to Jeroboam and his wife. Poor woman doesn't know what awaits her deception. What she's going to hear is not because she's come to deceive. That's just more evidence of their shallowness.

But she doesn't know what she's getting into. Now, this is the gift of knowledge. It's not the only place it shows up in the scripture. The gift has not so much to do with learning information, but knowing something that you could not know unless God revealed it. That is the gift of knowledge. So if you go to a church and the pastor is very knowledgeable about the Bible, that's not the gift.

That's hard work. Knowledge comes in his insights and the ability to see things that others aren't seeing because God has told him. And it doesn't have to be, you know, astounding.

It has to be useful. Sometimes it is astounding. So when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. You know, a guy that just says the right thing in a situation where nobody seems to be able to catch that. And the Holy Spirit gives that person that right word. Many times they don't even know it. They just say it and it's God. To another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit. And so Paul spoke of these things as though they were common to Christianity. Of course, the abuses make everyone afraid of gifts.

So whole denominations have just written them off as they've all ceased, except the ones they like. Like teaching. He's a gifted teacher.

Well, how come he can't be gifted in other things too? Because those have ceased. We don't like them.

They're abused. Anyway, you have to be careful. I don't think we can, it's very unwise to be possessive of any gift that God gives. Ephesians 3-3, how by revelation he made known to me the mystery that I have briefly written already. So there's Paul saying God made known to me the mystery. That's the gift of knowledge. He doesn't say, well I have the gift of knowledge.

And God told me he does it in a more classy way. Again, he writes to the Colossians, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And that's broader there because Daniel said in latter days knowledge will increase.

And he's not speaking so much about spiritual knowledge as he is about just knowledge and knowing things. And we've seen this through the, I guess, it probably really began to take hold of the steam engine being invented. And the inventions just continued.

I don't know, some couple hundred thousand patents filed for during the Civil War. People were just inventing stuff left and right to go ahead and kill other people, albeit. But man has of course increased in knowledge and look where we are today. One of the biggest threats to this generation's youth is the influence of social media and the internet. Well, the computer world has brought us this.

There's good things on there and there are bad, we know. Anyway, if you were to say to someone, well for instance, Micah the prophet says, He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. This is a revelation from God, you know, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk with your God in humility, which is what the Bible teaches from the beginning to the end. But there are other times when you say, how do you know that? God has shown me. And this is an example. What does it look like in the Bible when someone has not the gift of knowledge when it would have been useful?

Well, we're going to get to in the same section. Gehazi was a servant of the prophet, Elisha, and he was, of course, he doesn't, he fails, but here one of the mothers, the Shulamite woman, her son dies. So she goes to the prophet to get him to heal the child. Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.

So there you have, Gehazi doesn't know what's going on. The man of God knows something is happening, but God has not yet revealed it to him. And then there is the scene after Elijah comes, Elisha, the prophet, when Naaman comes and has healed of his leprosy. He wants to bring the prophet gifts, the prophet turns them down, and then we pick it up in 2 Kings 5, then he said to him, well, let me back it up before I read this. So Elijah says, Elisha says, I don't want the gifts.

Naaman heads home with his entourage, Gehazi says, those are some really nice things he just turned down, and I'm going to get some. And he goes behind to Naaman, catches up, oh, my master changed his mind. And he takes the garments and whatever else he took and he hides it, and he comes back to serve the prophet. That's when we pick it up in chapter 5, verse 26. Then he said to him, the prophet speaking to Gehazi, did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves, vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? So he knew that Gehazi had done this because God told him.

And so there are some examples, there are others, but those two should suffice. And here we're seeing it in Ahijah, the gift of knowledge. We don't have to wait to get to the Old Testament to see the gifts in operation. What happens is in the New Testament, they all converge on Jesus Christ directly. In the Old Testament, it was maintaining the kingdom righteous so the Messiah could have a kingdom to come in fulfillment of the prophecies. Those prophecies are critical so that the unbelievers would have less ammunition. That's why Peter said we have more sure word of prophecy, you can track these things. We get to the New Testament and God says, okay, we've settled this, now everything is for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit testifying not on his own authority but Jesus Christ, exalting the Christ.

If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me. All right, well, verse 6, and so it was when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps, as she came through the door, he said, come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person, for I have been sent to you with bad news? Well, Jeroboam sends his wife and he calls her out.

You can't see her, that's made clear. And she's kind of, how humiliating, you know. She probably says, no, it's not me.

Or, no, it's not me or something. She probably doesn't say anything, she's just mortified. And so Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah. But Ahijah says that he was sent to her, for I have been sent to you with bad news, at the bottom of verse 6.

She traveled to him, but he was sent to her without traveling to her, without moving. And that God is just ahead of everything. And so, you know, these small views of God, they ruin the soul. The Christian has a big view of God. God is magnified.

He's not made bigger, he's just seen as being bigger than what the unbeliever sees. With bad news, so he braces her for God's judgment, that's coming, verse 7. And the implications of the story are that she's an idolater too.

There's nothing in here that puts her in a good light. The way he speaks to her is, well, he's going to say it. He's going to come out and say, there's only one good person in your family, and you're not it, sister, and we'll come to that. Verse 7, go tell Jeroboam, thus says Yahweh, God of Israel, because I exalted you from among the people and made you ruler over my people, verse 8, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. And yet, you have not been as my servant David who kept my commandments, who followed me with all his heart to do only what was right in my eyes.

Again, we've covered this. David had moral struggles as everybody else, but he never had a spirit. He was never confused about God's identity, his spiritual identity as a believer in Yahweh, never even a hiccup there as to who God was. This, where it says in verse 7, go tell Jeroboam, thus says the Lord. The prophet is saying, I want you to be clear about this. This is not my opinion. This is God.

This is what's going to happen. It is prophetic, and God is reminding the wicked king just who put him on the throne. You'd think that would mean something. Even with just an unbeliever, that can register. Yeah, you know what? I do have some allegiance to you for helping me out. I mean, who makes it to the top of anything without a hook, without somebody at the top dropping a hook down and picking them up? I mean, they're mentors.

I think most of it, when you hear somebody say, I'm a self-made man, you're a self-made fool because you're missing it, but you're conveniently missing it. We all benefit from somebody's influence, somebody opening doors for us. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit crossreferenceradio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's crossreferenceradio.com. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings on Cross-Reference Radio.