Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 14

Jeroboam’s son got sick. So he got his wife up and said, “I want you to disguise yourself so others won’t know you are my wife, then I want you to go to Shiloh and look for Ahijah the prophet and find out what is going to happen to my son.” He sent some food with her for payment.

When she got there, Ahijah could not see. So God told Ahijah who was coming and why. So, when she came to the door, he invited her in and told her, “I don’t have good news. Tell Jeroboam that God said because he sought after other gods and did not obey me and follow my statutes the way David did, I will take the kingdom, all I have given him, away. And, I will bring evil upon his house, and those that are left of his house will be carried away as trash and those that die will be eaten by animals and not get a proper burial. Go and tell him, and when you step foot back into your home, the child will die. He will get a proper burial because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam who has even attempted to follow my ways. And I will raise up another King to take Israel from Jeroboam, but because Jeroboam has sinned and has led all the people of Israel to sin, all of Israel shall be punished. I will take away their inheritance. I will scatter them abroad. “

When she arrived in Tirzah, where the child was, he died, as Ahijah foretold. He was buried and mourned by all of Israel.

In the meanwhile, Rehoboam ruled in Judah for fourteen years. During this time, he also raised up images of worship and led the children of Judah away from God. They had many sodomites in the land of the children of Judah, and they did all the things the people did that God had cast out before they took over the land.

In the fifth year of his reign, the King of Egypt came and took away all of the treasures of the king’s house, and all of the gold shields Solomon had made. So Rehoboam had brass shields made and gave them to the guard to keep.

Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought each other all the years of their reign, and Rehoboam died, then his son Abijam ruled in his place.

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If you follow the ways of the world instead of the ways of God, God will take away the many blessings He has blessed you with over time, and you will have nothing to leave your children and people will not remember you.

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Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 13

God called a prophet out of Judah to go to Bethel. Jeroboam was by the altar in Bethel, fixing to burn some incense.

The prophet said that a man would come out of the House of David, named Josiah, and he would offer up the priests as sacrifices on that altar and human bones would be burnt on it. He also said to prove that it would happen the alter would break apart and its ashes would be spilled.

Jeroboam put his hand toward the altar and demanded they grab the prophet. When he did, his hand was dried up and withed, and the altar broke and the ashes were spilled. Jeroboam was mortified. He begged the prophet to ask God to restore his hand, so the prophet did, and his hand was restored.

Jeroboam offered him dinner if he would come home with him. The prophet said, “I don’t care if you offered me half your house, I will not go with you. God ordered me not to eat or drink anything, and not to go out the same way I came in, so I won’t.” And he didn’t.

Now, in Bethel, there was another old prophet who had sons that saw everything that had just happened, and they saw the way the man left out of Bethel, so they went and told the old prophet everything. So he had his sons to saddle a jackass, and he rode to find the prophet that had left Jeroboam. He found him under an oak tree and asked him, “Are you the man that came from Judah?”

The first prophet said, “I am.”

The old man said, “Come back home with me and eat some bread.”

“I cannot. God told me not to,” the prophet said.

So the old man lied to him and said, “I, too, am a prophet. God told me to bring you back and feed you.”

So the prophet went back with the old man and ate. As they were eating, God came to the old man and sent a message to the prophet he brought back with him.

God said, “Because you did not obey, you will not return home. You will die.”

When the prophet left the old man, a lion killed him. Some men came back and told the old man, who went and got the dead body and buried him in his own tomb. He then told his sons, “When I die, I want you to bury me in the same tomb, beside him, because what he prophesied will surely happen.”

And Jeroboam was guilty in the eyes of God for the death of the prophet, as well as the sins he committed, and sought to destroy him.

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If someone tells you that God said something or is going to do something, it is best to listen and not test him, because if he dies you will be held responsible, and there will be a punishment to bear.

If he is not telling the truth, it will not happen, but your job is to wait on God, regardless.

God sometimes lets people know what He has planned, not so you can stop it or do anything to help make it happen, but so your faith will grow, and you will have a chance to repent.

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