Great Texts of The Bible: God Divides His People | Pastor William Hixson

Mike.

Okay, we're continuing our section on

uh

these Old Testament great texts.

And I'd like to turn your attention to

First Kings 14.

First Kings

14.

really uh our message tonight needs to

go with the message we had last time in

chapter

13.

See these chapters very much go

together, but we're not going to review

tonight. We're just going to move on.

We're we're back dealing with King

Jerobal.

And

I I I find this section so important and

so insightful

that I felt it was good to spend a

little extra time here

in this section. You know, Jeroboam was

a very ambitious guy, man. A great

ability. He and Solomon got into it long

before Solomon even died.

And

uh

it's a he's an interesting individual

all the way around.

But and personally I think he was a more

capable person than Rehab

who was in the south.

But

um things didn't turn out too well for

him.

and it was all his own fault

and

uh our chapter deals with some of this

and it's a great warning to all of us

and all of us are more like him than we

want to admit was a government major I

tend to think ahead politically and he

was getting so political he forgot out

forgot the spiritual dynamics

of the theocracy

was more important than being

politically astute.

And so

he got to be he was being dealt with

on that.

You remember the prophet that came up

and rebuked him and rebuked the whole

business of this these two idols, these

calves and Bethl and Dan and uh all that

went on there.

And then that prophet died

because of his disobedience of not

eating. He was not supposed to eat in

the north. All of that was absorbed

by this king.

He absorbed these things intellectually.

And one of the interesting things about

kings is you're this chapter deals with

the north and then the south northern 10

tribes and then it goes down to the

south. This is what's going on up in the

north. This is what's going on in the

south and then it flips back and forth

between north and south. If you saw the

Civil War war movie Gettysburg, which I

think is a fine movie, although

obviously a lot of fighting and pain in

that movie, 3 hours long. Um, but that

movie moves between the Union troops and

the Confederate troops. It's switching

back and forth between the two sides all

the way through the movie really. And um

and so sometimes in that movie you're in

the north and sometimes you're in the

south and dealing with the people on

both sides.

Well, here's the issue in the Bible when

it comes to the northern 10 tribes and

the two southern tribes. Horrible sins

are being done on both sides.

And um

sharp correction from God is coming on

both sides.

And the odd thing is

both sides are not only out of

fellowship with God because they're both

got their own problems that God has

problems with. They're fighting each

other.

And uh they saw each other as in the

wrong. The South looked at the North as

in the wrong. The North looked and the

South as in the wrong. They saw each

other as enemies.

Just like our civil war.

Um except in our civil war, the South

succeeded from the north. And in this

civil war, the North succeeded from the

south.

A little flip there.

But they actually saw each other as

enemies.

And when you look at the big picture,

the Lord sharply corrects both.

Sharply corrects both.

Um when my brother and I get in a fist

fight, my dad or my mom would deal with

us both.

Both get in trouble. and um not just the

one

and uh

we both were dealt with.

Now, we're at a a long string of events

here.

And this is not an event that we're

looking at tonight in chapter 14

that has not been preceded by other

events before it. Remember the prophecy

of the of the prophet that uh pro

predicted prophesied against the the

golden calf at Bethl and Dan and me

remember the king Jerobam said rest that

man and his arm froze. Remember that?

And then the prophet died because he ate

something up there instead of going home

uh hungry.

And there was a prophecy given that all

this is going to be destroyed. And that

prophecy would be fulfilled later by

King Josiah in the south who came up and

did that very thing. And he was named in

that prophecy.

So um

Jerobam knows this prophet. It was this

prophet that told him,

"You don't have to be fighting Solomon.

You don't have to be fighting uh

Rahobam. God's going to give you

these 10 tribes." This prophet told him

that

Ahijah, the prophet, now it gets very

hard here. You got Abijah and Ahijah.

Abijah

and Ahijah. There's two different ones,

very close names, but uh it's Ahijah,

that's the prophet, and it's Jeroboam

that's the king.

And so, let's read the section and we'll

get started tonight.

At that time, I'm reading not from the

King James this time. Tonight, I'm

reading from another Bible. At that

time, Abijah, son of Jerobom, became

ill.

Jerobom said to his wife,

"Go disguise yourself

so you won't be recognized

as the wife of Jeroboam.

Then go to Shiloh

the prophet is there, the one who told

me I would be king over his people."

Very interesting. He told me it came to

pass. So this prophet's prophecy comes

to pass.

And so I want to know about my son if

he's going to live or die.

Take 10 loaves of bread with you, some

cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him

and he will tell you what will happen to

the boy.

So here's a very interesting

observation that we have from Jerobom.

He knew

he knew

that the prophet that predicted

uh he would be king had come to pass.

He knew

that that prophet predicted that the

altar in Bethl would be torn down by a

fellow by the name of one of the good

king

Josiah in the in the years to come. He

knew all that. He knew this guy,

whatever he says happens, we got to find

out what's going to happen to our son.

He will tell you what will happen to

you.

So the wife did

what he said

and went to Ahijah's house in Shil.

Now

let's stop just a minute here.

Why the disguise?

Why does she have to be

hiding who she is?

And notice what he does. This is not

hiding herself from people on the way as

the king's wife.

Go disguise yourself so you won't be

recognized as the wife of Cherobam. Then

go to Shiloh Ahijah the prophet is

there. The one who told me I'd be king

over the people. Take 10 loaves of bread

and and so forth. So he'll tell you what

will happen to the boy. So Jeroboam's

wife did what she told and went to

Ahijah's house in Shiloh. This was to

disguise her to the prophet,

not just the people on the road.

In other words,

Gerobam had a pagan view

of spiritual things

that God could be manipulated

to do what you want him to do.

And he was concerned because he'd had

negative prophecies from this prophet,

but he figured if he doesn't know who

he's talking to, maybe we can slip one

in on him.

So that's the picture. The boy is sick.

That boy is a parent.

He's the oldest son.

And so

that's what's going on. And so he says,

"Disguise yourself." And that's a bad

thing. Did you ever watch when people

are disguising themselves in the Bible?

Usually it's not a good result.

They're playing Halloween and it's not

not working out too good.

I'm serious. It's very interesting

phenomena.

If you're going somewhere and you have

to hide who you are, turn around and

leave.

You know, somebody says, "I don't want

to I don't want to be seen going in this

movie theater." Then don't go in.

Something's playing that you don't want

people to see you're going in.

Uh I don't want to be seen robbing the

bank. Well,

take off your disguise and don't go in.

Change what you're doing.

During CO, I wore a mask in the to the

bank for the first time in my life.

Normally, you don't put a mask on when

you go in the bank. The wrong signal.

So, the picture here, disguise yourself.

Every time in the Bible someone's

pretending to be someone they're not,

it's not a good sign. They're hiding who

they are.

And this was not to desool the town's

people. It was not. The point was don't

tip off the prophet because if he knows

who you are, we'll get a bad prophecy.

Now, that's not true. The prophets were

to tell it the way it was from God,

right?

The good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it

is, it's going to you're going to get

it.

And one person, one commentator, Old

Testament commentator said, "Disguise

always considered wrong and

ineffective."

Just go through the Old Testament. King

Saul disguised himself to go into the

witch.

How'd that work out for him?

Ahab disguised himself to go into battle

because the prophecy that was given was

that he would die. and he half believed

it even though he put the prophet that

said it in jail.

If if he really thought that prophet was

wrong, he would have said, "I'll go into

battle with my king's robes

and uh you go and disguise yourself if

you want to." But it was the other way.

So, this is interesting business.

And remember Jacob and Esau. Remember

how that that was successful. Jacob

pulled it off that he was Esau. But it

was it was successful in deceiving his

father. But it was successful. Was it

successful in getting what he wanted?

Not really. He got what he wanted. He

got it by deception. But he paid a big

price for that on his wedding night.

because God

taught him very painfully. You want to

fool other people. You like to dress up.

You You think you're marrying Rebecca

and you're really going to marry Leah

and you're not going to find out till

the next morning

when you're locked in.

Albert Barnes, the old Presbyterian

commentator, said, "One can never

successfully prevent God's will from

being accomplished by employing such

strategys." And I believe that, don't

you?

I mean, God's going to do what God's

going to do. You're not going to stop

him. I'm not going to stop him. We can't

can't manipulate God. But, you know, in

pagan religion, you can manipulate the

gods.

You can manipulate them.

But not in the Bible. You can't

manipulate God. So basically, the wife

is dressed up because

he's doing his best to hoping the

prophet's busy and the woman's going to

come in and the prophet's going to give

her, "Oh yeah, he'll get better. Thanks

for the food and it'll all be good."

Now, that poor woman had to go 27 miles

one way.

27 miles long.

So that was a 54 mile round trip. It's

quite a journey for a woman to make

alone.

There was no royal gifts.

It would be the kind of gifts that a

plain ordinary Israelite would give to

kind of pay for the expenses of a

prophet that they were going in to ask

for something.

Why was the deception needed?

Why even send his wife instead of going

himself?

Why not go to the prophet yourself?

What was he trying to accomplish?

He was operating on a pagan pantheistic

view of God that the God, the forces of

God could be manipulated.

And what should he have done? I'll tell

you what he should have done. He should

have confessed his sin.

How about that approach?

Confess that the whole Dan Bethl uh

golden calf stuff was wrong. I should

have had more faith than that. I should

have been trusting rather than

manipulating.

I should get right with God.

He didn't do that.

Matthew Henry said better if he had

desired to know why God contended with

him and begged the prophet's prayers and

cast away his idols from him.

And I think it was Matthew Henry that

said most people would rather be told

their fortunes than their faults.

They they want their fortunes told, but

they don't want their faults told or

their duty.

Now, this king is operating on a guilty

conscience.

His conscience is in overdrive.

How do I know about a guilty conscience

has been in overdrive? Because I've had

a conscience in overdrive. Haven't you?

Is any of us ever not had our conscience

in overdrive?

And what's going on here is the very God

who promoted Jerobom to power

has been defied and demoted and

dishonored by the very man he put in

office with that whole golden calf

business.

And Jerobalam who seemed so

sure of himself, he knew all that. He

knew what he'd done. He knew, he

remembered.

On the surface,

he was acting if none of this is really

going on, but underneath he knew better.

It's a pagan view to manipulate the

supernatural in the interest of one's

own. And he wanted his own dynasty to

survive and mature, grow, but not on

God's grounds.

Not because he could ba bow to God, but

because he could manipulate God's

promise to say something would happen.

So this king remembered the former

prophecies that had been fulfilled.

He ignored Ahijah. He ignored his

prophecy.

And this is going to be the third time

this king

has been encountered

by this prophet.

Let's go back. You You only get this

that the same prophet here that dealt

with the little boy. Go back to First

Kings 11.

1 Kings 11:29.

1 Kings 11:29

Now, King Jerobam couldn't say what uh

Ahab said about the prophet in his day.

He only prophesies evil against me.

Well, God was very gracious to Jeroboam

in this first prophecy in First Kings 11

29.

Um,

let's go back to 26. And Jeroboam, son

of Neabbat, rebelled against the king.

He was one of Solomon's officials, an

Ephraite from Zereda.

and his mother was a widow named Zura

Zerua. He here is the account of how he

rebelled against the king. Solomon had

built the supporting terraces and had

filled in the gap in the wall of the

city of David. Now Jeroboam, this was

before he was king in the north.

Jeroboam was a man of standing.

And when Solomon saw how well the young

man did his work, he put him in charge

of the whole labor force of the house of

Joseph. He got promoted pretty fast by

Solomon, but he was ambitious. That

wasn't enough for him. About that time,

Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and

Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, met him

on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two

of them were alone out in the country,

and Ahijah, this is the prophet that

we're talking about in our chapter

today, took hold of the new cloak he was

wearing and tore it in 12 pieces.

Now, normally somebody takes your cloak

and tears it up in front of you. Those

are fighting words. But when he did

that, he's a prophet. Okay, 12 pieces.

Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take 10

pieces for yourself."

For that's what the Lord God of Israel

says. See, I'm going to tear the kingdom

out of Solomon's hand and give you 10

tribes.

Now, God said that to him before he was

anything.

This was a prophecy. This was an

opportunity.

But for the sake of my servant David and

the city of Jerusalem whom I've chosen

out of all the tribes of Israel, he'll

he will have one tribe.

I'll do this because they've forsaken me

and worship Asteroth, the goddess of the

Sidonians, Chamos, the goddess of the

Moabites, and Malik, the god of Ammon,

and have not walked in my ways, nor done

what's right in my eyes, nor kept my

statutes and laws as David, Solomon's

father, did. He didn't say Solomon, but

he said David, Solomon's father did. But

I'll not take the whole kingdom out of

Solomon's hand. Remember the Davidic

covenant.

I've made him ruler all the days of his

life for the sake of David, my servant,

whom I chose and whom I who observe my

commands and statutes. I'll take the

kingdom from his son's hands and give

you 10 tribes. That's exactly what

happened.

Rabbam

and Gerobam split it up. And Jeroboam

got the 10 northern tribes, and Rahabam

got Benjamin and Judah. I will give one

tribe to his son, so that David, my

servant, may always have a lamp before

me in Jerusalem, a city where I chose.

Put my name. That's in the south, not in

the north.

However, as for you, I'll take you, and

you will rule over all your hearts

desire. You will be king over Israel.

That's the 10 northern tribes. If you do

whatever I command you and walk in my

ways and do what's right and in my eyes

by keeping my statutes and commands as

David my servant did, I will be with

you. That's a conditional promise.

and I will build you a dynasty

as enduring as the one I built for David

and will give Israel to you and I'll

humble David's descendants because of

this

not forever.

Now this is what Matt Postiff would call

a counterfactual.

If you do this this will happen.

But of course,

he didn't do it.

And Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but

Jeroboam fled to Egypt to Shishak the

king and stayed there until Solomon's

death.

Now when you get to chapter 12,

that's where we get the split of the two

kingdoms and uh Rahobam's

stupidity

displayed itself and the 10 northern

tribes went north.

So Ahijah got it. He got what he got

what excuse me Jeroboam got it. He got

what the prophet Ahijah said. Now, he

remembered the first part of this

prophecy. He totally ignored his

obligations on his part.

Here's why he's got a guilty conscience.

He was fine with just remembering the

first part and ignoring the second part

and going political and making these

idols and you don't have to go down

there. You can just worship up here,

these golden calves.

He was such a manipulator

and actually from a political sense he

was astute.

He knew if they keep going down there,

they're going to have an affinity down

there and and reunite sooner or later.

So, I'm going to cut it off.

That's what cults do, don't they? They

cut you off from your parents. They cut

you off from your friends. They keep you

all to yourself. That's just basically

what he was doing.

Now, that was his first encounter with

the prophet Hij. The second one is in

chapter 13.

Here's the second time he has an

encounter

with a prophet. Now, this is an unnamed

prophet.

And we already studied this last week.

This is the prophet that died by the

lion because he ate the food.

And by the word of the Lord, a man of

God came from Judah to Bethl. As

Jeroboam was standing by the altar to

make an offering, he cried out against

the altar. By the word of the Lord, "Oh

altar, altar, this is what the Lord

says. A son named Josiah will be born to

the house of David. on you he'll

sacrifice priests on the high places who

now make offerings here and human bones

will be burned on you the same day the

man of God gave a sign this is the sign

the Lord declared the altar will be

split apart and the ashes on it poured

out when Jeroboam heard what the man of

God cried this is not a hija it's

another prophet out against the altar at

Bethl he stretched out his hand from the

altar and said seize him but the hand he

stretched out toward the man shriveled

up so he could not pull it Fact also the

altar was split apart and its ashes

poured out according to the sign given

by the man of God by the word of God.

And the king said to the man of God,

"Enterc with the Lord your God." He

didn't say, "The Lord my God." He said,

"The Lord your God and pray for me that

my hand may be restored."

He he he was concerned about his hand

but not about the kingdom

and not about himself and his

relationship with God. For the man of

God interceded with the Lord and the

king's hand was restored and became as

it were before.

Now here was an opportunity to get right

and he almost got there. He invited the

prophet home but the prophet wouldn't

go. He he there was a little flash of

tenderness there, but it certainly

wasn't deep enough. And uh

it was the epitome of pop apostasy. Not

a shred of repentance here. He he's uh

in bad shape.

Now you know what happened to that

prophet? He died.

in the death of that prophet because

confirmed the prophet's prophecy would

come true.

That death of that prophet when the lion

killed him but didn't eat him should

have shocked

King Rahob Jeroboam, excuse me.

But apparently it didn't enough.

The hardest hearts.

He's still he's hanging on to his

manipulation.

Now, now we come to ours, which is the

third one in chapter 14. And that's why

he sends his wife.

Um,

and there's five bits of bad news in

this.

I want you to look at verse 6. 146.

So when Ahijah, now we're back to the

wife. He's traveled almost 30 miles to

get to the prophet's house.

Oh, I'll go back in verse

uh I'll go back to verse four. So

Jeroboam's wife did what she what he

said and went to Ahijah's house in

Shiloh. Now Shiloh Ahijah could not see.

That's the prophet. His sight was gone

because of his age. But the Lord had

told Ahijah, Jerobom's wife is coming to

ask you about her son or he's ill and

you are to give her such and such an

answer. When she arrives, she'll pretend

to be someone else.

So she wasn't pretending to not to be

someone besides herself

and she she's not protecting herself

from people along the way. She's

actually trying to deceive the prophet

and this magical view of prophecy and so

forth. So when Ahijah heard the sound of

her footsteps at the door, he said,

"Come in, wife of Jeroboam."

Why is this pretense?

That must have taken her back.

Go tell Jeroboam.

This is what the Lord God of Israel

says.

I raised you up from among the people,

made you a leader over my people Israel.

I tore the kingdom away from the house

of David, and I gave it to you. And you

have not been my like my servant David

who kept my commandments and followed me

with all his heart, doing only what's

right in my eyes. You've done more evil

than all who live before you. You've

made yourself other gods, idols made of

metal. You provoked me to anger and

thrust me behind your back.

Wow, that's pretty brutal, isn't it?

Because of this, I'm going to bring

disaster on the house of Jerobom. That

means your your so-called dynasty that I

was going to prompt. I'll cut off from

Jeroboam every last male in Israel,

slave or free. I'll burn up the house of

Jerobom as one burns dung until it's all

gone. Dogs will eat those belong

belonging to Gerobam who die in the

city, and the birds of the air will feed

on those who die in the country. The

Lord spoken.

And as for you, talking about the wife,

go back home.

When you set your foot in the city,

the boy will die.

All Israel will mourn for him, bury him.

He's the only one belonging to Jerobom

who will be buried because he's the only

one in the house of Jerobom and whom the

Lord, the God of Israel, found anything

good. The only good person in your house

is the one that's going to die and he

won't have to see all the agony that the

rest of you see.

The Lord verse 14 will raise up for

himself a king over Israel who will cut

off the family of Gerobam. This is the

day. What? Yes, even now the Lord will

strike Israel so that it will be like a

reed swaying in the water. He'll uproot

Israel from his this good land and he

gave to his their forefathers and

scatter them behind before beyond the

river because they provoked the Lord to

anger by making Asher poles and he will

give Israel up because of the sins of

Jeroboam who committed and has caused

Israel to commit.

Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left and

went to Tis Tears. As soon as she

stepped over the threshold of the house,

the boy died. They buried him. And all

Israel mourned for him as the Lord had

said through the prophet Ahijah.

And other events of Jeroboam's reign,

his wars, and how he ruled are written

in the book of Annals of the kings of

Israel. He reigned 22 years and then

rested with his fathers and Nadab his

son succeeded him as king.

Now there was not a shred of repentance

on the part of that king

with anywhere any spot here. In no way

do we see anything like that any

encounter he has with any prophets. He

he dies in deception.

Uh and the death of the earlier prophet

confirm the earlier prophets prophecies.

And now this prophecy comes. It's just

five bits of bad news.

You're condemned for making idols. Verse

9. Everyone of your line is going to die

and end your dynasty will end. They had

a twoman dynasty. His son, his one son

reigned a couple of years and then died.

The sick boy will die. Jerobom's family

uh

is uh is is going to be replaced by

another and the nations going into exile

and that exile happened about 200 years

later.

Now what a stunn stunning thing. All the

the death of this son just

sealed it. It's going to happen. If the

first thing happened, all the rest of

them are going to happen.

And the timing and the fact of the good

son's death guaranteed that the rest of

the prophecies going to be fulfilled. By

the way, all the prophecies Jesus

fulfilled in his first coming show that

the prophecies about his second coming

are going to be fulfilled.

Alfred Eershim said, "With unswerving

faithfulness and unbending truth, the

prophet spoke, though his heart must

have bled within him, the literal

fulfillment would be to her," that's the

wife, forever afterwards, a terrible

pledge of what was yet to come. In other

words, this happened and this is going

to happen and this is going to happen.

Now they know without a shadow happen.

An Ahijah was the first prophet to

perceive that the kingdom in the north

would have an end and go into exile.

So without speaking a word, Mrs. Jerobom

turned around

and walked 27 miles home to see her son

die as she crossed the threshold for

house.

And she had to give her husband the

message. Now, no one else would have

dared to give him a message,

but

God's working again. The child's in

illness was a gracious opportunity for

the king to turn back to God. He should

have. He has got another opportunity to

repent now.

People don't want truth. They don't want

repentance. They just want God to help

when they need him.

They want God as a bellhop, but not as

God.

Years ago,

Linda's mother took us on a cruise and

we we were in the Baltic and the kids

were along. James wasn't. He was at OU,

but the rest of them went

and uh the kids had a good time uh

ordering food.

in the middle of the night. They We

didn't even know.

They didn't know. Some of that wasn't

free. Some of it was. Some of it was

costing me money.

They had fun. They had a bellhop.

We can order burgers at midnight. All

right.

And uh we found out at the end there was

a bill.

And God's no bellhop. He's not just

there to answer our

desires when we want them. He wants a

relationship with us. And sometimes he

says no to us.

And that's painful.

But in this uh this terrible prophecy

u in chapter 14, it was pretty painful.

Uh God opened up on this man pretty hard

and he needed he needed all of it.

And uh he even told him that he's going

to uproot Israel and all the rest.

It's kind of sad.

Kind of sad.

And he also said because of this I'm

going to bring disaster on the house of

Jerobom. I'll cut off Jerobom every last

male. I'll burn up the house of Jerobom

as one burns dung. You're like a stinky

bathroom to me

till it's gone.

Dogs eat the belongings to Jeroboam.

Those who belong to Jeroboam are going

to die in the city and the birds of the

air will feast and those who die in the

country. Lutal judgment.

Um pretty harsh.

Someone said Jeroboam wants the help of

the Lord in emergencies of life, but not

the rule of the Lord and his word over

the course of

it's a it's an lesson to all of us not

to try to use God as a bellhop.

And may God help us. God unmask us when

we do wrong. He exposes us to ourselves

and

uh like Mrs. Rahab, we're caught.

There's a fascinating story. I don't

remember where I got this. I think it

might have been Philip Reichen. It may

have been somebody else, but it's a

story about Spurgeon. And if you haven't

heard this story, I'm going to tell it

to you. Uh Charles Spurgeon

knew of this. It happened in uh it

occurred at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

on Sunday evening, July 31st, 1864.

A man living in Newington had been

converted under Spurgeon's preaching and

become a regular worshipper at the

tabernacle over his wife's strong

objections.

He was saved she would

for she was a staunch adherent of the

established church. One Lord's Day

evening, however, after her husband had

left for the service, insatiable

curiosity came over her. She determined

to go here Spurgeon. However, she did

not wish to be recognized,

so she tried to disguise herself by

putting on a thick veil and a heavy shaw

and to minimize visibility by going up

to the upper ga galley. So, she's just

going to sneak in.

She was, of course, late reaching the

building. And so just as she entered,

she heard the preacher announcing his

text. This is Spurgeon. Come in thou,

wife of Gerobam,

who fainst thyself to be another, for

I'm sent to thee with heavy tidings.

Boy, God

God has his way, doesn't he, of getting

people's attention.

She averted that Spurgeon pointed

directly at her when he announced those

words. His sermon was apparently suited

to her case, indicating, as he did, that

God's gospel will search you out and

unmask your true character. Disguise

yourself as you may.

Well, God has his ways of dealing with

people, doesn't he? Even the hardest of

people.

And

um this one I did get from Reichen. He's

quoting from Seren Kirkagar, the Danish

philosopher.

Once again, her footsteps at the door

was a portant portant of doom. The

moment she set foot in her house, her

son breathed his last. This was a sure

sign that Ahijah's word was true, that

all his pronouncements of judgment were

the very prophecies of God. If this

first and most immediate prophecy came

true, then the rest of the prophecies

were sure to follow. Judgment was at

hand. Yet, as far as we know, Jeroboam's

wife never repented.

Although she returned home, she never

returned to God. At least as far as

scriptures.

In spite of all the judgments that came

true that come true in scripture, many

people still doubt that God will ever

punish their sins. They've heard of the

final judgment perhaps and after that

eternal hell, but they do not believe a

word of it.

or else they hope somehow to hide their

sins from God. This is a huge mistake.

Seren Kerkagar warned about this one in

one of his major writings. The Danish

philosopher is well known for an 1849

treatise entitled the sickness unto

death in which he wrote about spiritual

death and the despair of sin. But

earlier Kerkugar wrote about the folly

of thinking we can hide our sin from God

and thus avoid facing his judgment. He

compared life to a masquerade ball at

which all the partygoers wear fancy

costumes but will not be able to stay in

disguise forever.

Do you not know, Kaggar wrote that there

comes a midnight hour when everyone has

to throw off their mask?

Do you not think you can slip away a

little before midnight in order to avoid

this? Or are you terrified by it? Kregar

was warning that eventually our mask

will come off and our sins will be

exposed before God rather than waiting

until the final judgment. We'd better be

honest with God now or there's still

time for us to receive his mercy.

That's a true thing, isn't it? The word

of God's like a sharp two-edged sword

piercing the the joints of the marorrow

and exposing the thoughts of the heart.

May God speak to us like he did at

Pentecost when people were hitten to the

heart because of what had done.

Well, we know what happened uh at this

point. Uh the little boy died. Another

son of Jerobom lived and he had a

two-year reign. That wasn't that's not

quite a dynasty, is it? Two twoperson

dynasty and Jerobom had 22 years and

Naab two years. But that judgment was

hanging over the nation that had been

predicted because I'll tell you

something, Jeroboam wasn't the only

center here. The nation let it happen.

The nation went along with it. At least

most of it. And this whole business that

he set up was a terrible, terrible

thing. 200 years plus and judgment would

hit the exile.

One of the saddest things is uh in 2

Chronicles

13, Jeroboam went to war and 800,000 men

went with him

to defend a kingdom that was already

and 500,000 of the 800,000 died in that

battle. A half a million people

died defending a kingdom that was under

the judgment

of God.

People are still occupied with this

world, kingdoms of this world, the

powers of this world.

It's a very sad thing, but it's true.

And as bad as Israel was, Judah's sin

exceeded it.

So, be a hard time to live, wouldn't it?

You got the monotheistic religion of the

Lord in the south in Judah, but there's

some idolatry there, and it's going to

get worse. You got Jerobom synchristic

anti-Jerusalem cult, and you got

Canaanite idolatry.

So, you got

it. There wasn't any real great options

then.

And it was better in the south for a

while, but it didn't stay that way. And

thank God for Josiah's revival and

Jeremony's Jeremiah's ministry, but

still pretty bad. These are these are

hard lessons as we come through this

section of the Bible, but we have to

know that split between the north and

the south. It's critical to understand

the Bible, isn't it? You got to know

where you are.

And you know, in the beginning of the

Civil War, the armies wore the same

colored uniforms.

Well, that didn't work out very well.

You couldn't tell who was who. Who am I

supposed to shoot? Who am I supposed to,

you know, trust? And so they they came

with blue and gray. Uh because of the

confusion, they realized we can't go on

like this.

And so when we study the Old Testament,

sometimes if we're a lazy reader, we

forget where we are. Am I in the Israel

in the north, 10 tribes? Am I in Judah

in the south, the two southern tribes?

Which where where am I? Who are these

kings? And where are they kings of? And

where am I? And what's going on here?

And we have to remember that as we read

a lot of the Old Testament. And it's one

of the reasons that I included this

these messages is I just want to kind of

pound that drum a little bit to help

each of us read our Bible with a greater

clarity of where we are.

Because if you don't know where you are,

you don't know what you're supposed to

do.

And you you you got to have that uh

geographical and political and spiritual

understanding if you're going to open up

these passages. Whether you're dealing

with a prophet in the north or a prophet

in the south or a prophet in the south

that's going north like Amos, you got to

you got to be able to see what's going

on. Otherwise, it's just confusion. I

hope that this has been helpful to you

on a Bible study level, but I hope also

for all of us on a personal level, a

spiritual level. When God gives us a

promise, we should believe it.

We don't have to manipulate

to make the promise come true.

We believe what God says in his word

and we just take it and run with it.

or we take it and wait for it. We don't

have to manipulate.

The sad thing about Jerobom, he became a

man manipulator

and he went into idolatry

to do the manipulation.

He just couldn't hang on to the word of

God.

Now, I know some people uh think

something's the word of God. It's not

the word of God. It's just what they

want. But when we have the Bible, we got

something God says, right?

we can take it take it to the bank.

That's an important lesson from our

text. And the second thing is God

God knows who we are

and we can't hide from him.

And sometimes

in my youth, I was embarrassed

because I was I wasn't really hiding,

but I wasn't being open about my

Christianity.

And I'd get caught.

And in God's providence, I'd get caught.

You're Bill Hixon. You go to Tabernacle

Baptist Church.

Oh, great. I've been caught.

And that was good.

Painful

because I realized I was failing the

Lord, but good in that I realized God

wasn't letting me sin without

me knowing that he knew.

And Jerobo after that first experience,

there shouldn't have had to be another.

that he was trusting his plan

and his ability and his insight rather

than God's promise.

And that was the heart of the whole

problem that got him into trouble. And

God wants us to trust him and let

everything else go. I don't I I um I

relate to this section very much because

I'm I I have to watch myself being

political and analytical and trying to

manipulate events uh like a politician.

Uh and I have I have to wait. Put that

away, Bill. Put that away. Just trust

God. Just do what's right. Say what's

right. And uh let God take care of the

results.

Father, we thank you for your grace and

we thank you for that proverb. Trust in

the Lord with all your heart. Lean not

to your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and

he'll direct your paths.

Help us, Lord.

Uh our own hearts, all our hearts are

idle factories and we can't trust

ourselves, but we can trust you.

We trust your written word

that will not come back void but it will

accomplish that where until you've said

it in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Turn base 385

385ord

as we go from this place

loving you more

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin darkened

world as we go from this place.