Lasting Repercussions: The Fall of the House of Jeroboam

[0:00] 1 Kings chapter 14. As we've been going through here, the transitions as Israel's been walking through those things as we've seen as transitioning from the stability of Saul and David and Solomon.

[0:18] And then at the end of Solomon's reign, we learned that God had divided the kingdom between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And because of Solomon's sin at the end of his life, and it caused God to allow the kingdom to be divided.

[0:38] And we saw last week as we began looking here, we're going to talk this week about repercussions. Because your decisions always have repercussions. And those things play out.

[0:50] And we saw some of those last week even. Because as we see here, as Jeroboam received a very stern warning from the prophet of Judah. He had seen his hand withered and then healed.

[1:03] The altar opened up. You know, all the things being fulfilled that God had said. And a warning from God to turn from worshiping those false gods and turn to him.

[1:16] And we saw last week that was rejected by Jeroboam. In other words, God did some things that, you know, have you ever read through some of these Old Testament accounts? And you're thinking, why wouldn't they?

[1:28] You know, if you saw that, wouldn't it change your mind? You know what the reality is? It reveals the hardness of men's hearts. Even though God is gracious, God is merciful, the hardness of their hearts still holds on to those things in rebellion against God.

[1:52] And Jeroboam is a great example. Because when you consider what, as we saw last week in chapter 13, something very important to consider, when it comes to what God was giving the example to Jeroboam of what Jeroboam ignored.

[2:10] You know, put your finger where you are, but go back into 1 Peter. Let's go to the New Testament for a moment. 1 Peter chapter 4. Because I want you to realize that what God did here for Jeroboam was give him an example.

[2:25] Let him see the reality of things. Because 1 Peter chapter 4, look down at verse 17. As we look here tonight, notice what it says. For the time has come that judgments must begin where?

[2:37] At the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? Now remember, what happened last week, as we talked about there in chapter 13, is you had the prophet of God that didn't obey God's word, and God judged him.

[2:54] Judgment began at the house of God. And Jeroboam saw it, witnessed it, and said, if God holds his own to this account, he failed to realize that if God will hold those that are his, his children to account, God will so much more hold those that have rejected him.

[3:13] And we're going to see this play out here, because as we saw at the end of chapter 13, look at that statement here that we see here.

[3:24] Look at verse 33 of chapter 13 here back in 1 Kings. It says, Instead of repenting, we're going to find here that Jeroboam instead doubles down.

[3:38] You know, the reality is sometimes we can be pretty hard-headed about the things of God, of what God has told us, what God has instructed. And we can be pretty hard-headed about things, and we're going to see here tonight that those things have repercussions when we reject what the Lord has said.

[3:55] It was not long after that one of Jeroboam's sons became ill. Because God moved it from just somebody else outside, or even Jeroboam itself.

[4:06] But I tell you what, if you have kids, things that happen to your children are different to you. It impacts you differently. When your children are struggling or things, and it became very personal to Jeroboam at this point.

[4:22] And this is where we're going to find that it was a short time after that the prophet had seen God's prophet that had come and prophesied and how God had held him to account.

[4:33] Because you remember last week about the donkey and the lion? You know? And that they were there alongside the road for a while before the other old prophet came and got them. And the scene that was there, and people were talking.

[4:47] But we see here, as Jeroboam today, as we're going to begin looking at this, as his child became sick, and it was a dire illness.

[4:59] Because you say, how do you know it was a dire illness? Well, number one, his child dies at the end. Number two, he thought it important enough that he was going to send his wife to go talk to the prophet.

[5:11] It tells you it was a pretty tough situation. And so we're going to look here tonight, as we begin looking here, that remember that Ahijah had come to him years earlier to reveal the opportunity that God had given to him.

[5:25] How he would become, Jeroboam become king over the ten tribes of the kingdom that was going to be separated. And that all the promises God gave to him, there's going to be a lasting kingdom if he would but obey him.

[5:37] And keep his commandments. That was God's simple thing. He says, hey, trust me and obey me, and I will bless you. Jeroboam had that there. So let's look tonight, as we begin here at the inquiry that was happening, as he begins to inquire at these things.

[5:54] Look here at verse 1 of chapter 14. It says, And at that time, Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh.

[6:10] Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and crack nails, and the crews of honey, and go to him, and he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.

[6:28] And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age.

[6:43] So we see here, he sends his wife to make inquiry to the prophet Ahijah, who had been there. Jeroboam devises a plan about finding out the fate of his child.

[6:56] You know, he was concerned, and we can say here, you know, this is pretty normal parent stuff when it comes to this. I mean, when you realize he was concerned about what was going to be the outcome of his son. But he puts in place a deception.

[7:11] You think about the deception that he set forth. As this plays out here, he knows there's a man of God that had the ability, because God was with him, to tell him what he needed to know.

[7:24] But instead of going, and inquiring, and returning to God, what does he do? He sends his wife. He doesn't just send his wife, because consider what he does, the deception here, is that he was going to be rejected, because he says, I don't want anybody to know that you're my wife when you go.

[7:43] He says, disguise yourself. You know, remember, Jeroboam had rejected all that God had revealed to him. He had seen God's plan from Ahijah there, tell him everything he needed to know what was going to happen.

[7:58] How God was going to give him the kingdom, how those things were going to take place. He'd seen it all come to pass. All those things had been put together. He had seen those things come true before him, and as we see here tonight, we see his response was one of deception.

[8:15] And we understand that he had been, maybe he was despondent at this point, because remember, what got him in trouble the most was what? He set up a false religion. He set up his own gods.

[8:28] Remember, he built the two calves that he put at Dan and at Shiloh, or at Bethel, to say, here Israel, here's your gods. And he set up to make offerings unto them.

[8:41] That was the problem, the reason the prophet came, as we saw earlier, as he met him at that altar there where he was worshiping false gods, and his response might have been because his gods didn't answer.

[8:54] I imagine he'd probably made many sacrifices there to his gods for his son. But he got to a point where he said, hey, I need to do something different. And he understood that there was a God in heaven that might make a difference, but he wasn't willing to turn to him.

[9:13] You know, I want you to understand, you can recognize God is there, but there's a difference of turning to him and trusting him and having a focus upon what he has established.

[9:24] We don't know all the backstory behind it, but we do know that somehow now he decides he's going to send his wife to get the answer. I think partly he sends his wife because he knows he's under condemnation.

[9:37] He's thinking, well, if I send my wife, maybe we'll have some mercy from God. You know, there's a lot of things we could read into this as people to understand the implications of what's happening, and we can definitely empathize with Jeroboam in the circumstance that he's in.

[9:58] But he knew because of his wickedness that God had placed him and under condemnation that things were going to happen. But he sends his wife and she might not get recognized.

[10:11] And you say, why did he have her disguised? Well, he said, well, maybe I can trick God. If I just do this, maybe I'm in desperate need. Maybe God will answer this time for something good.

[10:23] And so we see here that he sends his wife to deceive Hyjio, and the account really gives a kind of a, I think it's kind of like the side humor in it. He disguises his wife to go to a blind man.

[10:37] You know? I sometimes like the irony contained in Scripture. You know, that he says, go disguise yourself and go to a Hyjian, not knowing that a Hyjian couldn't see her anyways.

[10:52] And so we see here that he also sends her with some things. He sends her, you might say, with a bribe, you know. He says, well, I know I need to send something. So he sends his wife with this modest gift to the prophet, hoping to gain a positive outcome.

[11:07] You know, people are the same today. I've been pastoring long enough that I see people show up. I know when they show up that something's happened in their life. Because that's the only time they show up at church.

[11:19] They'll show up for a couple of months as they work through a problem or want God to resolve something for them. One day I pray that they really get a, God gets a hold of their heart or they surrender their heart to the Lord and say, I need to get serious.

[11:33] But you know, it's no different today. People treat God the same way. They come and they say they're going to make, they make an offering to the Lord and they pray and, you know, we need to get back to God.

[11:43] And they'll show up for a few months and things will get smoothed out and then they'll move on down the road again. And a year or so later when they show back up, you say, well, yep, okay. You think it in your mind, but in your heart you're thinking, maybe this time they'll be serious.

[11:55] Because I want you to understand that the Lord is never fooled by our actions because He already knows the thoughts and intents of your heart. We can put on a show for everybody else, but you know, God knows your heart.

[12:08] God's the one that knows whether you're serious. We can try to make outward judgments, but ultimately it's up to God. You know, I want you to understand we just can't offer something to Him to make up the difference because you cannot feign your love for God by sacrifice.

[12:30] Remember we talked about this on Sunday. Look over to Mark chapter 12 again where we were on Sunday. Because remember the scribe that came to Jesus? Remember His conclusion? Here in verse 33 of Mark chapter 12, notice what He says, to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, with all the strength, and to love His neighbors Himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

[12:56] The reality is, if you don't love God, giving to God isn't going to buy God's love. You know, that's a misconception today that you find with people.

[13:08] They think if they just give enough, you know, if I do good things, or I give enough, or I do this for God, that God will love me, I want you to understand, God loves you, always going to love you right now. He's already provided everything that you need for you.

[13:21] But His wife, we see here, prepares herself and travels towards Shiloh, and the Lord is preparing the prophet for her arrival. Because this is another one of those intriguing things here.

[13:34] Look down at verse 5 with me tonight in the text, and look what it says, And the Lord said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son, for he is sick.

[13:47] Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her, For it shall be when she cometh then, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. You know? So here it is.

[13:58] God says, Hey, you might be trying to trick me, but God says, Hey, Ahijah, let me tell you what's going to be going on, even though you're blind and you can't see. I'm going to give you some spiritual insight to understand what's happening.

[14:12] I want you to understand that while she thought she was coming to plead with him, the opposite was actually true. Look at the end of verse 6.

[14:23] We'll get back to this. Look at that last line of verse 6 for a moment. Notice what that says. It says this, For I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. She came to him, but the prophet says, Hey, I've come to you with a message and tidings from God, and they're heavy.

[14:41] And we'll talk about those heavy tidings here in just a moment because it was some troublesome information. You know? This is information that I don't know.

[14:53] I guarantee you, Ahijah, the prophet wasn't said, Yeah, let's get him. I want you to understand that he was given insight into the situation and he had empathy towards it.

[15:04] It was heavy information that he was about to give. It was not easy information about what he was going to tell her. Because he was going to give some news to her, and that news was, Hey, at the end of the day when you go home, your son's going to die.

[15:18] That's heavy information. We ought not to never rejoice at somebody else's peril. You know, consider what God's Word has declared to us because as a believer, God guides us today.

[15:30] God helps you understand things that are going on. Psalm 25 in verse 9 tells us this. It says, The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.

[15:42] Psalm 73 verse 24 tells us, And thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. You know, he was here giving him wisdom and understanding of the circumstance.

[15:56] He understood the need and what was happening. But you see, Ahijah did not respond by how he might feel about the situation. You know, we know he had empathy towards the sick child.

[16:08] It's natural. It's good. But empathy never outweighs truth. But you can imagine here tonight, imagine the surprise. Ahijah is up there and he hears footsteps coming.

[16:22] Let's look at the text here as we see this. Notice this. It says in verse 6, Now think about what happened there.

[16:41] Because remember, what's the physical ailment of the prophet? He's blind. Now wouldn't it have been something to be the fly on the wall to watch her face at that moment? God used that to make a point to let her know that, hey, there's some seriousness here.

[16:56] There's a reality of these things. And the Lord has sent me to you, he tells her. You know, as you think about how do you deliver bad news to a desperate mom?

[17:07] Look over for a moment to Proverbs chapter 24. Because God gives us wisdom. He promises to guide us and direct us. But I want you to understand that no matter what happens, we need to keep in mind that people are still human beings and people.

[17:23] Look here in Proverbs 24, verse 17. The Word of God tells us this, Rejoice not when thy enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth.

[17:33] You know, I think this is good words for us today even. Because we live in a volatile climate of political dynamics and people's hostilities get up and it's almost like, well, they deserved it.

[17:44] Biblically, we need to guard our heart that we don't get the wrong attitude and the wrong spirit about things. Because somebody else's calamity, we ought not to rejoice.

[17:55] Think about what the Apostle Paul said over in 2 Corinthians. Turn over there, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. You know, when you read through the book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Paul had to deal with a lot of heavy topics.

[18:08] You know, he was dealing with a lot of things that we're not comfortable to deal with. I guarantee you made a lot of people pretty uncomfortable covering the topics he had to cover. And there was some repentance that took place.

[18:21] Some sincere change in people's lives through it. Notice what it says here in chapter 7 and verse 9. He says, Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance.

[18:33] In other words, he says, I took no joy into seeing you suffer and go through those things. I rejoice because you repented and turned to the Lord. As they went through that, that's the right spirit, the right attitude.

[18:46] You know, that they were made sorry after a godly matter that you might receive damage by us in nothing. But we see here as he moves on, notice this, he says, I'm sent thief with heavy tidings.

[18:58] What he's given to them and we see the assessment that he gives. Notice here in verse 6, or excuse me, verse 7, it says, Go tell Jeroboam, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, for as much as I exalted thee from among the people and made thee prince over my people.

[19:15] Think about this, the assessment of the situation, he first talks about God's promotion. He says, Hey, go tell your husband Jeroboam that he's there because I put him there. You know, we talked about that on Sunday.

[19:26] Governments are what? God is the one who established government. God's the one that established Jeroboam. He's there because God put him there.

[19:37] God allowed him to be there. And he had a responsibility. He says, Remind Jeroboam who put him in that position. And the expectation, look at verse 8, And he rent the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to thee.

[19:54] And yet there has not been as my servant David who kept my commandments and who followed me with all his heart to do that only which was right in mine eyes.

[20:07] But thou hast done evil above all that was before thee. For thou hast gone and made thee other gods in molten images and provoked me to anger and has cast me behind thy back.

[20:20] You know, the prophet says, Hey, go tell Jeroboam and remind me of what my expectation was. God's expectation of Jeroboam was really a lot simpler than other expectations on other people.

[20:35] He said, I simply want you to obey my word. He didn't have any super special thing for Jeroboam to go do or he didn't have anything extraordinary for him to do.

[20:45] He says, Trust me and obey me, which is the same command he gives to you and I. To do those things and we see here this expectation was obedience to the Lord's command just as David did.

[20:59] You know, as we go through the kings here in the different transitions, you'll find two measuring rods that you're going to find here are the kings. The first one, they're going to be measured against David.

[21:10] Are they a person with a heart that's towards God? Are they going to be Jeroboams that rejected God? You know, both those men set a standard.

[21:21] One we ought to strive for, the other we ought to want to avoid because we see here that David did right in the eyes of the Lord. Now, when we hear that, we say, well, we know David sinned.

[21:33] Yes, he did. But, you know, you ought to go read Psalm 51 and see that David's response to his sin. David didn't try to continue to cover it up.

[21:44] He said, I want forgiveness. I want you to restore the joy of thy salvation. He said that he wanted God to deal with the circumstances, to deal with those things.

[21:57] The difference was David sinned and turned to God. Jeroboam sinned and said, let's go sin some more. That's a difference of direction because look at the end of verse 9.

[22:09] And has cast me behind thy back. Now, this is another one of those phrases that's interesting because to cast behind your back is to say, I want nothing to do with it.

[22:20] It's behind. It's to be left behind. Now, this phrase is also used in a positive sense later on in Scripture. Look over to Isaiah 38 for a moment.

[22:33] Isaiah 38 and verse 17. This gives us the context for that phrase when it comes to Jeroboam. The context to Jeroboam is Jeroboam put everything of God behind his back.

[22:45] He said, I don't care for anything that God has done. I'm putting it behind me. But look here in Isaiah 38 and verse 17. The Word of God says, Behold, for peace I have had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.

[23:01] And he's talking to God. He says, For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Now, aren't you glad that God, when you're saved, takes all your sin and puts it behind his back?

[23:12] The phrase is, God says, I'm walking away from those things that are behind. I have no connection with the things behind me. At the moment of salvation, God takes your sin and puts it behind his back.

[23:25] On the negative, Jeroboam said, God, you've done all this for me and I'm putting it behind my back. It's the same phrase with the same picture, but one is positive and one is negative. Ezekiel 23 verse 35 says, Therefore, soth they at the Lord God because thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back.

[23:43] Therefore, bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. You know, we have a choice of what we're going to do with the things of God. We either put them behind our back or let God take our sin and put it behind his back.

[23:57] And that happens when we come to the Lord just as David did. You know, think of the New Testament, 1 John. It tells us here in 1 John 1, 9 a verse we use quite often, but really it's the application here of what's the decision you're going to make.

[24:11] It says, if we confess our sins, he's what? Faithful and just to do what? Forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know what that verse says?

[24:22] It's the Old Testament equivalent of God saying, if you confess your sins to me, I'm going to take care of those and I'm going to put them behind my back. I'm going to put them away. But instead of wanting God to put his sin behind him, he says, I want to put God behind me.

[24:35] It's a rejection of the things of God and he's describing this. Now look at verse 10 of God's accountability. Notice he says, therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisses against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung till it all be gone.

[25:01] Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat for the Lord hath spoken it. You know, the accountability, the judgment of God will come.

[25:17] I want you to understand it might not be today. Have you ever noticed that people try to brush God off because he doesn't hold them immediately accountable? God sometimes has immediate effects and sometimes his judgment is long lasting.

[25:30] Now remember the picture last week that we saw God healed the wither hand and the altar was cracked open because he said that they were going to burn the bones of the prophets of the false prophets upon that altar later and God said first it's going to open up and all the ashes are going to pour out right now as a symbol do you understand that this other is going to come to pass too and we saw we read that it does come to pass.

[25:55] It wasn't immediate but it came to pass. Just as God said to the exact person God said was going to do it. God gives them those things and we see here that also notice as we look on down through here on the text look at verse 14 oh no excuse me verse 12 arise thou therefore and get thee to thine house and when thy feet enter into the city the child shall die.

[26:18] You know that was some pretty heavy news for the prophet to give. You know as I was thinking about that I'm thinking about you know even today as you might have a doctor or somebody come in and have to give somebody bad news or even chaplains that come and have to knock on the door and say hey that's heavy news to bring to somebody.

[26:32] The prophet of God had some heavy news to bring he said to the mom of a child he says but you get back home when you go in the door your child's going to be dead. That's some rough news.

[26:44] The judgment was set because Jeroboam has set his heart against the Lord. The reality is is God's going to hold people accountable. Look into the New Testament for a moment look into Romans chapter 1 Romans chapter 1 look at verse 32 because as we study through this you'll find that God always holds to account.

[27:06] Look at verse 32 of Romans chapter 1 who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them.

[27:18] God told Jeroboam because of his sin his house his lineage everything was going to be cut off. There's going to be no more. even the male descendants would be put to death.

[27:30] He said all your children all your descendants are going to be put to death. This happens just not long after this few years his son Nadab is on the throne is overthrown by Beshag and Beshag takes all his children and kills them.

[27:47] Every child gets killed and we know what happens it says those that are in the city are slain in the street and the dogs come and eat them. If they're slain in the field they're left to the birds. That's a very harsh representation.

[27:59] Nobody would mourn for them. They would not be buried. We could talk a little bit here about just the idea of what God put forth as the honor of burying somebody to memorial somebody to bury them and to have that time is important.

[28:16] It talks about the importance of that person's life and God says it's going to be as if you weren't even here because nobody's going to care. When we understand that what's happening here that he tells them these things and often times you might read through this with empathy and say well why did God kill the little child?

[28:32] God had mercy on the child. Notice what God tells them through the prophet here. It says and all Israel shall mourn for him that's the child and bury him for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

[28:54] Now I think if you study that out that's God's having mercy on a child that wasn't able to make a decision. He was not yet a participant in the sin of his father and God had mercy on him. That's hard for us to grasp but it's a reality of what's taking place.

[29:09] Notice verse 14 it says moreover the king shall raise him up a king the Lord shall raise him up a king over Israel who should cut off the house of Jeroboam that day but what even now for the Lord shall smite Israel with a reed is shaken in the water and he shall root up Israel out of this good land and he shall give it to their fathers and shall scatter them beyond the river because they have made their groves provoking the Lord to anger and he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who did sin who made Israel to sin.

[29:42] Now the consequences here we need to understand because the consequences the repercussions of Jeroboam's decisions played out not only in his family it affected millions of other people.

[29:54] You know sometimes we think our decisions only affect us but we have to keep in mind that your decisions have repercussions that shockwave out way farther. The decisions that you make the things you do the consequences here would be far reaching as the ten tribes will ultimately be exiled from the land.

[30:13] 300 years later you're going to find that God sends the Assyrian empire to put them in judgment and God tells them what's going to happen here but the entire time for the next 300 years God sends prophets and others to call them to repentance.

[30:29] You know what they do with all the prophets that God sends them? The same thing Jeroboam did. Put them behind their back. I want no part in it.

[30:41] I want nothing to do with God but the Assyrians would come and the kingdom or they're going to take and conquer the kingdom and take the children of Israel out of the land and meanwhile the kingdom in the meantime would have no stability.

[30:58] You know when you look and we're going to learn through here as we look at the kings of Israel the northern tribes they had very few times of stability from this point.

[31:11] Their kingdom was always in an upheaval. You got people you got armor bearers and other military men in charge killing kings and setting up their own kingdoms I mean you have all sorts of things it was shaking in the reed there was things moving all the time.

[31:25] There was no stability no matter all these things happening they held on to the false worship and the abominations that were in the land before they arrived. Look at verse 15 if you've never done a study on the groves that's a whole different dynamic because it wasn't good things that happened in the groves.

[31:45] We'll talk about that a little next week the groves had to do with some abominations. When God calls something an abomination it's like moving up the tiers.

[31:56] you know basically you're saying this there's things that God says are evil and then you have things that are an abomination. It's like evil magnified.

[32:10] In other words they're beyond nature or natural things that anybody ought to participate in. When you look at the things that God calls an abomination you know we see here that as he does this that they made their groves which provoked the Lord to anger.

[32:28] Now I want you to understand something important here because sometimes people say well God made them do that. I want you to tell you these people made a decision to do that. They chose the ramifications.

[32:42] God offered them mercy and repentance an opportunity to come to him. He offered them salvation he offered them grace instead they put them behind his back. Put them behind their back.

[32:54] God gave them up because their decision and sometimes people say well God doesn't judge people immediately so we shouldn't have to worry about and sometimes that's people's mind why don't you put God behind the back because it'll all be okay.

[33:08] They say God's talking about judgment and accountability secondary. Look over in the book of 2 Peter for a moment. 2 Peter chapter 3.

[33:19] I want you to see here this plays out even today because some people think well God's going to just give us a go we can go do what we want to do. 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 9 says the Lord is not slack concerning his promises as some men count slackness.

[33:35] You know some people say well God doesn't judge me right away so it's going to be okay and they say well God is being slack so God will let me by but they mistake it because it's that God is long suffering to us.

[33:50] Why is God long suffering? because he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. In other words the reality is this why does God not judge people immediately?

[34:01] Because God's merciful. If God judges immediately we wouldn't have an opportunity to turn to him. God's gracious. God's merciful towards us. You know but let's look at the implications of all this.

[34:15] Look at verse 17 it says and Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Zara and when she came to the threshold of the door the child died and they buried him and all Israel mourned for him according to the word of the Lord which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.

[34:41] You know the implications of all this began to become a reality before his wife could even return and tell what was going to happen when she stepped in the door the child died.

[34:55] That heavy news that the prophet brought came to fruition. The first part of the prophecy was fulfilled just as it had been declared.

[35:07] You say why would God do that? God said I want you to know that I'm going to do it. But in the meantime God's being merciful to say hey there's an opportunity. there's an opportunity there.

[35:18] There should be no doubt as to the other part being fulfilled. If God fulfilled the one part he's going to fulfill the other part. You know the reality comes in and is recorded for us over in 2nd Chronicles chapter 13 where the king of Judah comes and Abijah and his people slew them.

[35:37] Verse 17 in chapter 13 a great slaughter so fell down slaying of Israel 500,000 chosen men. Jeroboam end was soon after.

[35:49] Look back in our text there in 1st Kings and it says in verse 19 in the rest of the acts of Jeroboam how he warred and how he reigned behold they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel and the days of Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years and he slept with his fathers and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

[36:11] 2nd Chronicles chapter 13 and verse 20 tells us that God struck Jeroboam and he died. A man that had been given great promises but from God that God said I'm going to set you to do great things you're going to have a kingdom that's going to be likened to David's.

[36:28] if but you will obey me and Jeroboam goes no I'm going to put you behind my back. We need to realize that God's judgment's real. Just because he gives grace today doesn't mean he's not going to hold to account.

[36:42] We need to always be mindful of those things and we ought to be careful that we don't put his promises and what he tells is his commands behind our back. Hopefully your sins are behind his back and not his word behind ours.

[36:56] Important lesson to be learned from Jeroboam. Let's pray.