Monday, January 8, 2024

1 Kings 14:1

1 Kings 14:1 says, At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.  At this time, which I would assume was shortly the prophet of God had denounced his idolatry, Jeroboam's son fell sick.   People in power are not exempt from sickness themselves or in their families.  Verse two adds, 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: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.  Jeroboam told his wife to disguise herself and go to Shiloh where the prophet of God, Ahijah, lived.  Ahijah was the one that told him he would be king, so he may have put more faith in him since this came to pass.  Still, he had all his false prophets with him, so he must not have put much faith in them.  I believe that instead of sending his wife in disguise, he should have gone openly to Ahijah himself confessing his sins and repenting and seeking God's forgiveness.  Of course, he should have confessed his sins to God first and personally asked his forgiveness.  If we are out of God's will or if we have never accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord to start with, we must go to Him personally, confess our sins, and ask His forgiveness.  Verse three continues, And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.  Jeroboam told his wife to take some gifts for Ahijah with her.  I don't know if he was doing this in an attempt to get Ahijah to give him a good answer about his son or not, but it seems that he might have been.  I do know that we should never attempt to bribe God or His appointed leaders in order to get what we want.  Verse four states, 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.  Jeroboam's wife did as he asked and came to Ahijah.  I am sure that she was concerned about the son as well, so this may have motivated her even more.  We should always be concerned about the sick people our family, including our spiritual family, but we need to go not just to a church leader to seek their healing but to God Himself.  Ahijah was old and blind by this time.  His physical sight might have been gone, but that doesn't mean that his spiritual sight was.  Physical limitations should never stop us from serving God.  Verse five adds, 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: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.  As just stated, Ahijah's physical sight may have been gone, but spiritually his spiritual sight was still good.  If we as followers of Christ are following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we should never be deceived by anyone.  God also told Ahijah what he as to say to Jeroboam's wife.  Whatever we tell people today, it should be based on the truth of God.  Verse six continues, And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.  Ahijah told her to come in, acknowledging that he knew that she was the wife of Jeroboam.  He asked her why she was pretending to be someone else, and then told her he was sent to her with heavy tidings.  He was following God's instructions to him, and so must we today.  Like Jeroboam's wife, it will do us no good to pretend to be someone or something that we aren't when we come to God.  

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