CXXXIV - I Kings 14:21-16:7 - Leaders Still Matter

The kingdom of Israel is now divided.  Judah and Benjamin together is the nation of Judah.  The other ten tribes together make up the nation of Israel.  Solomon had built a nation that was the envy of all nations in the known world at that time.  They were a military super power, which gave them peace, as there could not be any serious aggression that could stand against the military that Solomon built.  Solomon had established an economy that, as a whole, made Israel the richest nation in the world, even dwarfing Egypt.  But even right before Solomon died, the nation showed cracks in its armor.

As we've studied, there are now two kings:  Rehoboam in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel.  Although the Scriptures describe Jeroboam as being much worse that Rehoboam, they were alike in that they not only gave their nations over to pagan worship, they actually led their nations to pagan worship.  This is mentioned about Jeroboam numerous times in future generations.  As these two kings have established their reign, their military and economic strength had already begun to show weaknesses.

Allow me to interject at this point about the pagan gods and their worship centers.  There are numerous gods in the pagan world throughout the times of the Old Testament.  To simplify, I'll use the names used as a basis for most of their gods.  That would be the fertility gods whose names are Baal (the male) and Ashteroth (the female).  To satisfy these gods, the people engaged in perverted sexual activity at their worship centers.  The worship officials (with various titles) were nothing but male and female prostitutes assigned to lead worshippers in perverted sexual activities.  {I don't wish to offend anyone, but my research tells me that there was much homosexual activity engaged in, plus sexual activity with animals.}  The people foolishly reasoned that the more disgusting the sexual activity was, the more it would please these gods, thus making the crops, herds, and even families to multiply and prosper.  {No wonder God considered this to be the most heinous offence against Him.}  As for their shrines and worship centers, they are often refered to as "high places" and "groves".  In this study I shall use the term most often used for their worship centers: "High Places".  There were literally multitudes of these high places for pagan worship.  They could be made quickly and almost anywhere.  In each high place was some type of altar, (which could be anything they could call an idol) stone pillars placed in some type of pattern, and wooden poles in the ground.  These three items marked a high place for worshipping Baal and Ashteroth.

Chapter 14:21-31 - Rehoboam, King of Judah

We've looked a bit at both of these kings, a little more about Jeroboam.  Now we will finish with Rehoboam, starting in the 21st verse of chapter 14.  Note that to introduce the kings of Judah, the writer followed a particular pattern.  He would state the king's name, the length of his reign, and his mother's name.   {This pattern was not used when naming the kings of Israel.  Perhaps because the king's mother held no office of importance in Israel as she did in Judah.}  Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, an Ammonitess.  {I'm sure she held much influence with Solomon to get her son named as his successor.  He had many sons.}  Verse 22 states very simply, but clearly.  "Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord."  Rehobaom had high places built for the purpose of pagan worship.  Look at vs 24.  There were male prostitutes located at each of these many "high places".  {KJV refers to these male prostitutes as "Sodomites", which had an official translation being "holy men".  How dare they disrespect God so much as to call anything holy "Sodomites".  That in itself is a clue as to the level of perversion and Godlessness that was dominant in Judah's society.}  The next verse (26) is a good example of why I study (and teach) the Bible by each verse, within a passage, within a chapter, within a book, within the Bible itself.  (It is so difficult to allow myself to omit anything, but I realize it takes a very long time to do it this way.)  Look closely at verse 26 - "He (king Shishak of Egypt) carried off the treasures of the Temple of the Lord and treasures of the royal palace.  He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made".  Remember the Scripture describing these gold shields and how much gold and time it took to make them?  They symbolized military might in the soldiers that were assigned to guard the Temple, the king, and his palace.  This verse is shocking as is raises many questions.  Did the Egyptians just walk in and take them?  Where was this large and powerful military that Solomon built?  Had it become so weak it couldn't even keep the enemy from the Temple?  Where were the Israelite soldiers that were with Jeroboam and serving under the mighty general Baasha?  Did the Israelite army so disrespect their cousins that they would not lift a finger to protect the Temple?  {They must not have cared because they might have been too preoccupied with worshipping Baal and Ashteroth.  This is a terrible situation.  It would be like us letting foreign soldiers in and we just stand by while they walked into the Smithsonian and walked right out with all that represents our nation's heritage.  I would like to think that this could never happen.}  Another reason this verse is so telling is that Solomon had just died a few years earlier.  Think about how fast that very powerful nation went from a feared military power to a nation
whose enemies could just walk in and take its most valuable possessions.  I find it difficult to imagine how that could happen in such a short time.  The Scripure is very clear about the reason.  God's chosen people had turned away from Him and worshipped false gods.

Verse 27-->  Solomon was very fond of these gold shields.  They were used by Solomon's guards when he entered the Temple.  After such a ceremony, the shields were returned to their place in storage.  Rehoboam was aware of how important these shields were to his father.  He had them replaced with bronze shields, as the economy was being so squandered he could not amass enough gold to replace them as they were.  It mentions in verse 30 that there was constant war between Judah and Israel during Rehobaom's seventeen year reign.  The chapter ends with Rehoboam's death and
Abijah his son succeeded him as king.

Chapter 15 - More kings.  Less Godliness

{To understand the timeline, please refer to CXXXI}  While Jeroboam was still on the throne of Israel, Rehoboam died and his son Abijah became king of Judah.  Abijah reigned only three years.  His mother was Maakah, the daughter of Absalom (remember him?)  The Scripture tells us that Abijah carried on in his father's footsteps which was not a good thing.  The kings of Judah and Israel were always compared to David, being the gold standard of excellence, and Jeroboam, being an
example of the worst, as he led his people away from God.  Note verse 5.  The Scripture speaks honorably of David as the standard but notes that he kept the Lords commands "except in the case of Uriah the Hittite".  {David was loved by God because God was loved by David.  David was not perfect, but his heart was always right.  That should be our goal.}  It mentions that there was constant war between Abijah and Jerobaom for the three years of Abijah's reign.  It does not say how Abijah died, but we know it was at a relatively young age.  His son Asa succeeded him as king of Judah.

Asa  -  A breath of fresh air.

Asa became king of Judah in the last year of king Jeroboam of Israel.  Asa reigned forty one years and put them to good use.  In spite of public opinion, he proceeded to try to turn the nation back to God.  This is no easy task.  He got rid of the male prostitutes.  He deposed his grandmother Maakah because she was such a negative influince against God.  For forty one years Asa fought the good fight in the name of God.  The Scripture says in verse 14 that he did not remove all the high places, but that could mean that there were so many.  It sure wasn't because he was too timid.  This man had courage to do all he did.  {Just imagine if a president tried to bring our nation back to God.  Just for one small example, what would he have to do to discourage the type of sexual activity that we have not only accepted, but have embraced and encouraged through our entertainment industry and the media.  Just that alone would be so difficult, I don't think a president could survive just attempting it.  He would be booed right out of the white house.  Was it any easier for Asa?  I doubt it very seriously, which is why he is one of my favorite kings of Old Testament times.  I've always respected courage that stands against popular public opinion.  We sure could use someone like that right about now.}

At this time I must jump ahead a little and mention that shortly after Asa became king of Judah, that Baasha replaced Jeroboam as king of Israel.  Baasha was a might warrior.  Baasha warred against Judah successfully as Judah had become militarily weak under Rehoboam.  Asa did the only thing
he could do to protect Judah from Baasha.  He gathered all the silver and gold from the treasury and took it to Ben-Hadad, king in Damascus and paid him for protection.  Although Israel had a superior military to Judah, it was not enough to stand against the Syrians.  So Asa's actions brought peace from Baasha's aggression.  Asa worked really hard to bring his nation back to where it should be.  He deserves our respect.  Vss 23-24 tell us that he died at a very old age from desease in his feet.  The Scripture doesn't always give details of the deaths of many of the kings.

Vss. 25-->  Back to Israel

The remainder of chapter 15 tells of the end of Jeroboam's terrible reign in Israel.  Remember, Israel is much large that Judah in both land mass and population.  Jeroboam died in the second year that Asa was king of Judah.  His son Nadab became king of Israel.  He followed in the footsteps of his father.  But unlike Judah, God did not promise that there would be a royal bloodline in Israel.  Therefore, the king was always at risk of losing the throne.  Nadab was a perfect example for this. 
The commander of Israel's military was Baasha from the tribe of Issachar.  Since Baasha had charge of the military, it was easy for Baasha to kill Nadab and take the throne for himself.  (most guns win sydrome)

I Kings 15:29 - 16:7  -  Back in I Kings chapter 14, the prophet Ahijah foretold the fate of the descendants of king Jeroboam:  They would all be killed and would not even have the honor of being buried.  In this passage, Baasha fulfills this prophesy.  Baasha killed every known descendant of Jeroboam.  Just like Ahijah foretold.  Baasha saw to it that there would be no legitimate claim to his throne through the lineage of Jeroboam.  {This was not an uncommon practice in those times.}  This
chapter ends with telling us that Baasha was an evil and heathen king that followed the ways of Jeroboam and reigned twenty-four years.  But the Scripture continues with Baasha in chapter 16 with Jehu.  Jehu was a fearless prophet of God, whose ministry stretched over many years, even into the reign of Ahab and Jehoshaphat.  This passage tells us that Jehu (speaking for God) condemned Baasha for two reasons.  Firstly, he followed in Jerobaom's footsteps in leading God's people even further from Him.  Secondly, Baasha killed all of Jeroboam's descendants with such gruesome cruelty that God was appalled by it.  Jehu prophesied that Baasha would suffer the same fate as did Jeroboam.  The only difference was that Jeroboam was not a part of his fate.  Only his descendants.  Baasha, on the other hand would be included as one of the victims of this prophecy, which included death and the bodies scattered for the dogs and birds to feed upon.

Baasha's son Elah would succeed Baasha as king of Israel, but for a short time, as we will continue with our study of these kings in the next post.