Broken Vessels: Kings, Part II

Welcome! Today we continue our series called Broken Vessels, in which we have explored major characters from the Old Testament. The last time, which was two weeks ago, I gave you a handout on the kings of ancient Israel and Judah. We spent our time looking at the first kings of the divided kingdoms, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Prior to these kings, Israel was a united kingdom under David and then Solomon.

When Solomon died, Rehoboam his son became king. Rehoboam was a weak leader, and the people were not unconditionally in support of him. Two weeks ago we learned how the people of Israel outside Judah demanded that Rehoboam treat them with a light hand. Rehoboam, rejecting the wise counsel of Solomon’s advisors, and instead consulted his own young foolish friends who said he should tell the people that he would be even harsher than his father, much harsher. Foolish Rehoboam took this advice, and the result was that Israel (except for Judah and the tribe of Benjamin) rejected him as king. Jeroboam, a man who was called by God by the prophet Ahijah much like how David was anointed during Saul’s reign, stepped into the power vacuum and became king of Israel, beginning the centuries-long division between Israel and Judah.

Now there was plenty of sin all around, but there was a real problem with Israel rejecting Judah – where was the temple? Where were the priests? The sacrifices? Everything was in Judah, in Jerusalem, to be exact. Jeroboam, the king of Israel, knew this, and he brazenly instituted a new religion in Israel, a copy of worship in Judah, except for a few “minor” differences, such as making and worshiping golden calves, building shrines on high places to false gods, doing sacrifices himself, and letting anyone be priest who wanted to be priest. All of this was detestable to God. Let’s pick up the story in I Kings 14.

At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, and Jeroboam said to his wife, "Go, disguise yourself, so you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people. Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy." So Jeroboam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh. – I Kings 14:1-4

There are some exceptions, but most of the time in the Bible, disguising oneself is not a good sign. Why did Jeroboam want his wife to disguise herself? Here is my theory, and it is admittedly only a theory. I think Jeroboam believed that somehow it was true that the things prophets said did come to pass, but he also may have thought that the prophets had a role in making these things come to pass. That may have been true in a few cases, but in general, the prophet simply reported what God told him to say. I think Jeroboam’s plan here was to have his wife go to the prophet Ahijah with the “sob story” of their ill child, hoping that in sympathy, the prophet would tell her that the son would be healed, or that if she did such and such a thing, he would be healed. Why the disguise? Because it had been a long time since Jeroboam had seen Ahijah, and he had been absolutely horrible since then, not following or seeking after God at all. Being the founder of a false religion and literally leading his entire people away from God was about as far from God’s will as he could get.

I think he was fearful that Ahijah might pronounce something really terrible against him and his family if Ahijah knew who they were. To me it’s almost like if you know you are going to be sued, and so you fear being served papers that inform you of the lawsuit and that you must appear in court. If they can’t find you, they can’t serve you. Perhaps Jeroboam thought that God kind of worked like that – if God couldn’t find him, He couldn’t punish him. Of course this is absolutely ridiculous – and how embarrassing, tragically embarrassing, if the king of Israel really thought like this.

Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. But the Lord had told Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else." – I Kings 14:4-5

I hope you notice the humor of this situation. Ahijah is blind! I can just picture Jeroboam’s wife working really hard on that disguise. How exciting, to pretend to be someone else! Just the right clothing – just the right “low-class” jewelry – you cannot betray the fact that you are a queen! Dress like one of the “common people.” But Ahijah is blind! He cannot see anything of her outfit. But Ahijah does not need to see – the Lord sees, and He has told him the truth. Because of the Lord, blind Ahijah sees what probably every person did not see in Jeroboam’s travels to Ahijah’s house in Shiloh.

And of course the symbolism of this is so profound – it is a theme throughout the Bible: The Lord sees. Adam and Eve learned this after they tried to hide from God. Even Hagar learned what Jeroboam did not know – in Genesis 16:13, after Hagar fled from Sarah after being mistreated, the angel contacted Hagar, and in response, she said to the Lord, “You are the God who sees me.” Psalm 33 is prophetic for this situation:

From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on earth- He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. – Psalm 33:13-16

Later, Isaiah, speaking as a prophet of the Lord, said it perfectly:

Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? – Isaiah 29:15-16

If we really grasped the truth of “the Lord sees,” how much would our behavior change? As a professor, there have been times I have seen wandering eyes during tests. I just start to stare at the person. As if by magic, they look up and know I am looking. They quickly look back down at their own paper. I keep looking at them. They know. They might make the quickest glance up at me and immediately look down. They know, and they know that I know. Knowing that the Lord sees is powerful.

By the way, I share this not with the intention of getting you all to feel like you have cheated on tests. God is holy, but He is not a cold, uncaring, disciplinarian. He sees and He loves. He doesn’t want you to face the consequences of your sin. The ultimate consequences of our sin He has already paid for, on the cross. But we still do have consequences in this life, and He doesn’t want us to have to go through the pain of consequences. He won’t stop it, though, because it is more important to Him that we grow in our relationships with Him than it is that He prevent pain in our lives. How much better, though, to know that the Lord sees and loves, and to live knowing this, than to act like fools and pay the necessary price for our foolishness! So let us see how the foolishness of Jeroboam plays out.

So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news. Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back. – I Kings 14:6-9

So much for that disguise. So much for fooling the Lord. And what a statement! “You have done more evil than all who lived before you.” And the image of thrusting God behind your back, as if you want to have the limelight over him – you want to be the one people adore. How often this is true of those who start false religions!

"'Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The Lord has spoken!' – I Kings 14:10-11
"As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good. – I Kings 14:12-13

The prophet also told her that the Lord would raise up a king over Israel who would cut off the family of Jeroboam and, ultimately the Lord would uproot all Israel from the land. Now when Jeroboam’s wife went back home, what the prophet said would happen did happen: the boy Abijah died at that very moment, and all Israel mourned for him.

The story continues with Rehoboam and Judah.

Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. – I Kings 14:22-24

These Asherite poles were for worship to a Canaanite goddess; people even said that she was the wife of God, El, and that people were wrong about the Law and about who God was. Perhaps one of the only things worse than worshipping false gods was to defame the true God – but this is exactly what Judah did.

Now as for what happened next, I am going to use the description in II Chronicles, because it provides more details.

Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. – II Chron. 12:2-4

There is some history with Shishak. If you recall, Solomon later in his reign had troubles from an internal rebellion by one of his officials, Jeroboam, the very Jeroboam who was now king of Israel. Solomon had tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to Egypt and lived for years as a favorite “adopted son” of, yes, Shishak. All Israel and Judah knew this history, so when Shishak came to attack, you can bet there was much blame cast on Jeroboam, driving Israel and Judah even further apart.

Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, "This is what the Lord says, 'You have abandoned Me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.'" The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, "The Lord is just." – II Chron. 12:5-6

On our sheet of kings, Rehoboam is described as “bad mostly” – this is where the “mostly” comes in. This humbling is genuine, the real thing. The leaders of Israel and Rehoboam were not defiant or angry at the messenger, as so many other leaders were throughout Israel’s history; instead, by saying “the Lord is just,” they were agreeing with the Lord! This is always the first step in repentance. They weren’t just saying “sorry” so as to try to get out of punishment – something we all tend to want to do – but they were saying, you know, the punishment fits. We deserve this. And by “this,” I mean the eventual loss of the entire kingdom. This is how things were going, and it certainly looked like the leaders would all be captured and killed (or worse). So it really was a powerful statement to say, “The Lord is just.”

When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: "Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kings of other lands." – II Chron. 12:7-8

I am struck by the symbolic meaning here and how it applies to us. Why is it that, as a general rule, bad behaviors are addictive but good ones aren’t? Do you ever think about this? Yes, we can develop good habits, such as praying every day, spending time in the Word every day, and so on, but as often as we do it, as much of a joy these practices become, they never become truly addictive. Bad behaviors, however, easily become truly addictive. They enslave us. They physically make us hurt for more of the bad behavior, whatever it is. Science tells us that in many cases they even rewire our brains. Why is this?

I believe it is because when we turn to these bad, addictive behaviors, we are learning what it means to be led by a king other than the Lord God. Indeed, we are told in Scripture that Satan is the prince of this world, and giving in to these behaviors is to learn what it is like to serve this “king of other lands.” It is not pretty – happiness is used as a short-term tool to make us give in to bad behaviors, but as addiction sets in, even the happiness is taken away and all that is left is enslavement and misery. Our God does not use these tactics. He does not enslave us. He gently, lovingly, calls us. And we can choose to follow Him or we can choose to go our own way. If we are born again, sealed with His Spirit, He will eventually call us back to Him, but He may let us spend some time learning what it is like to serve this king of other lands. May we all learn this lesson quickly, or never have to learn this lesson at all. Now returning to Shishak:

When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom. – II Chron. 12:9-11

This is just a sad statement of affairs in Judah. The gold shields were originally an outward expression of the inward reality that the Spirit of the Lord inhabited the Temple – they were to say that “our God is here.” God does not feel the need to defend outward signs of Him – He is Who He is, and He needs no such outward symbols. So He allows Shishak to take away from the worldly glory of the Temple and make it something much more plain. The picture above is from Egypt – it is Shishak’s own list of all his accomplishments – the cities he ransacked in Israel.

And so Rehoboam replaces them with much less costly bronze shields. But who are these shields really for? Are they for God? Or are they for Rehoboam? I understand that they couldn’t leave them permanently outside anymore because Shishak’s people would just take them as they had taken the gold ones. But now they only are brought out when the king is there? If the purpose were to honor God, maybe have them displayed at holy festivals, or when the priests come in, or something. But not the king! This just speaks volumes about the kind of person Rehoboam really was. And yet, the Lord did spare Rehoboam from Shishak, because he and his officials did humble themselves. This speaks even greater volumes about the depths of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Rehoboam died 5 years before Jeroboam, and his son succeeded him as king. The name of his son is very interesting – and I am sure it was especially interesting to Jeroboam. The name of the new king of Judah was… Abijah. Does that name sound familiar? It was the name of the child of Jeroboam who died that we read about earlier. I’m not sure how that happened – they may have named their children independently – it may have been a “God thing.” Regardless, I think these two kings, Jeroboam and Rehoboam, had extensive personal hatred for one another that never abated. II Chron. 12:14 says that “there was continual warfare between Jeroboam and Rehoboam” – it mentions them personally by name, as opposed to saying between Israel and Judah. I may possibly be reading too much into this, but I don’t think so. Both these men were dictatorial in their leadership, and with all their bad history, including the son’s names, Shishak, the rebellion against Solomon, and so on, I just think it was intensely personal.

Here is what I Kings says of Abijah, king of Judah:

He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been. - I Kings 15:3

Abijah was, as our summary sheet says, “bad mostly.” The “mostly” comes from a key battle against Jeroboam, described in 2 Chron. 13. Abijah, outnumbered two to one, made a strong speech across the battlefield, correctly condemning the false religion of Jeroboam. Meanwhile Jeroboam sent troops to surround them from both front and rear. The good thing Abijah and Judah did happened next:

Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the Lord. The priests blew their trumpets and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. – II Chron. 13:14-16

Jeroboam’s armies were greatly weakened after this, and he never again was a serious threat to Judah. A few years later Jeroboam died, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king of Israel. He was also an evil king, like his father, and only two years into his reign he was murdered by Baasha, who became the next king of Israel. Baasha also killed the entire family of Jeroboam, fulfilling the prophet Ahijah’s prophecy to the letter. Baasha was also an evil king, and he reigned 24 years. When he died, his son Elah became king. Because of Baasha’s evil, a prophet pronounced judgement would fall on his family much like Baasha had done to Jeroboam’s family. And this is what happened. Elah was killed by Zimri, one of Baasha’s former officials, and Zimri proceeded to kill off the entire family of Baasha. Zimri did this immediately after becoming king.

However, the other Israelites were not very happy about this. And so they did something about it: they picked Omri, the one who had been leader of Elah’s army, as the new king, and Omri and his army went after Zimri. The result was that Zimri died after only being king seven days. So what you had here was much like a modern military coup. And the results were also like a modern coup in that the people were split on whether this was a good thing. I Kings 16 says that half supported Omri, and the other half wanted someone named Tibni for king. The situation was very unsettled. If you look at the sheet of kings, it shows that Tibni was king for about 5 years. In a way, you could say that during this time, no one was really king in Israel. So at this point we have gone from a united Israel including Judah, to a split between Israel and Judah, and now to a point where not even Israel is unified in leadership.

After this period, Omri’s forces were able to overcome Tibni’s, Tibni was killed, and Omri became king. Of Omri, I Kings 16 says that Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him. I am actually kind of glad it doesn’t go into details – I’m not sure I’d want to know.
So during this period of about forty years, Israel has gone through six kings: Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Tibni (sort of), and Omri. They were described as bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and extra bad. Meanwhile, what was going on in Judah? I want to spend the rest of our time today talking about this.

During this whole time, Judah had one king: Asa. Asa was described as “good.” Finally! I don’t have only talk about bad kings! So let’s look at Asa and see what about him was “good.” Let me also warn you, though – good is “good”; it is not “the best.” Asa was far from perfect.

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands. He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest. – II Chron. 14:2-6

A subsequent part of this chapter describes one battle Asa did have. Zerah the Cushite marched out against them as it says “with a vast army.” Asa’s response was to seek the Lord.

Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is no one like You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You, and in Your Name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You." – II Chron. 14:11

There is something about this prayer that reminds me of what David said before fighting Goliath – this cry of “O Lord, defend Your Name.” And the result was much like David’s – the Lord provided a tremendous victory. On the heels of this victory, we have the following:

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them. – II Chron. 15:1-4

Does this remind you of a passage in the New Testament? How about this?

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. – Luke 11:9-10

God has not changed between testaments. In the New Testament we find the fulfillment of the old, the redeeming that is perfect and eternal, the final solution to our hopeless addiction to sin. But the plan was there from the beginning. God has always wanted people to seek Him. Continuing with the words of the prophet:

In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." – II Chron. 15:5-7
When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord's temple. – II Chron. 15:8

I cannot tell you how much I like that phrase, “he took courage.” Prophets are not only doom and gloom – they also encourage. God wants us to be encouraged and to be encouragers. He knows how our emotions can discourage us from action, can even make us give up or stop caring. This is a major purpose of the church – a body of believers – it is revealed again and again in the New Testament – we are to encourage one another. So what was Asa encouraged to do?

Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. – II Chron. 15:9

I just love this little detail. People were so encouraged by Asa that they moved! They had had enough of bad king after bad king. Moving was not a minor decision – remember these are two countries who hate each other. To move was like how a communist might defect to come to America.

The passage goes on to describe a giant assembly in Jerusalem, where they recommitted themselves as a people “to seek the Lord with all their heart and soul.” It says they “took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns.” I love it!

King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. – II Chron. 14:16

Speaking of things that required a lot of courage – that had to have been difficult. But Asa put the Lord even above family.

I wish I could stop there, but I have to say that Asa did not end well. Near the end of Baasha’s reign, Baasha attacked Judah. For reasons not stated, Asa did not seek the Lord as he had before, but instead made a treaty with the king of Aram, basically out-bribing him so that he would no longer support Israel but instead support Judah. This violated God’s instructions about making treaties with foreign nations. This plan was successful, but a prophet named Hanani came to Asa and told him he had not relied on God and had forgotten the past when he had trusted God. He went on to say this:

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war." Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. – II Chron. 14:9-10

Asa did not end well. Listen to this:

The events of Asa's reign, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. – II Chron. 14:11-12

What happened to Asa? Why did he stop seeking the Lord like he had when he was young? It is the nature of sinful man.

You may be thinking, if a godly man like Asa fell, what chance do I have? Well, in our own strength, we have no chance. But the Holy Spirit lives in us, and can help us even when we run out of our own strength – especially then. This is not to say that we should not heed the warning of Asa’s life, or that we should not continue to seek the Lord with all our heart. But we do not need to fear the future. We can finish well.

To wrap up, here were the main things about these passages that struck me as applications for my life. Those that strike you similarly, I would encourage you to write down and pray about.

1. The foolishness of hiding anything from God.

2. The wisdom of humbly agreeing with the Lord when confronted with your sin.

3. The terrible truth that God may teach us what it is like to serve the “king of other lands.”

4. The profound truth that there is no substitute for seeking the Lord.

Each one of these is so important! Each one is a life lesson. May we learn from those who have gone before us and not repeat their mistakes.