Tag Archive | Prophets

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 176

Jun25

Day 175.  Reading 1 Kings 15 and 2 Chronicles 13 – 16

 
Read Today’s Scriptures.
We now begin to read through the history of the reigning kings of the North and South. It can be confusing. Here are two helps.
1.) Check out (and maybe print) the list I posted yesterday of the kings and when they reigned.
2.) If you mark in your Bible, use a colored highlighter to mark the kings of the North, and a different color for the Southern kings.

1 Kings 15.

In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam (north), King Abijah/Abijam began to reign over Judah (south).  He reigned for three years. He walked in the sins of his father before him – his heart was not wholly true to the LORD, as the heart of David.

  • “Nevertheless, for David’s sake, the LORD gave him a ‘lamp’ in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”  (I love this promise!)

.

2 Chronicles 13.

Now there was war between Abijah (south) and Jeroboam (north). Abijah, with 400K soldiers VS Jeroboam with 800K (who were positioned in front and behind Judah in an ambush stance.

But, although Abijah was not a good king, he had some good words to the Northern army that day.

  • “Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel. Ought you not to KNOW that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons? Yet Jeroboam – a servant of Solomon – rebelled and, because Rehoboam was young and irresolute, took the northern tribes to reign over them. 
  • “And NOW you think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David?  Because you are more in number and have golden calves???   AS FOR US, the LORD is OUR God, and we have not forsaken Him. We have priests ministering to Him, the sons of Aaron, and the Temple of God.
  • “Behold, God is with us at our head.  O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, because you cannot succeed.”

A bold proclamation, for sure, but then Judah noticed the 400K soldiers in front of them and the 400K behind them, ready to ambush. They “cried to the LORD, and the priests blew the trumpets, and the men of Judah raised the battle shout.”  And when Judah shouted, GOD defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and all Judah!  WHOA! And the men of Israel fled before Judah, who struck down 500K of Israel.

Why this massive victory?  “Because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.”

Jeroboam (north) did not recover his power in the days of Abijah (south). And the LORD struck him down, and he died.  But Abijah (south) grew mighty.

.

2 Chronicles 14.

Abijah (south) died and was buried in the City of David. His son, Asa, reigned in his place, and the land had rest for ten years.  “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God,”  taking away the foreign altars, the high places, and the Asherim pillars. He also commanded the people of Judah to “seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and keep the law and commands.”

The kingdom had rest under him. He had no war in those years, for the LORD gave him peace.

But then…

  • “Zerah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots!  WHOA!
  • And Asa cried to the LORD his God.  “O LORD, there is none like You to help between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on You, and in Your Name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.”
  • So the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah. And they fled.  Asa and Judah pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell … until NONE remained alive. (a million!!!)  And Judah carried MUCH PLUNDER back to Jerusalem.

.

2 Chronicles 15.

Then the Spirit of God came on the prophet Azariah, and he took a message from God to King Asa (south), to Judah, and to Benjamin.

  • “The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”  “But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”

And what was the “work” they had to do?  Clean out the land of all the detestable idols.  And as soon as Asa heard the prophet’s message, he took courage and put away the idols from Judah and Benjamin.

He also gathered those people from the northern tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel (north) when they saw that the LORD was with him.

All these, and Judah entered into a covenant to seek the LORD the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul.  They rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire … and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.

And King Asa removed his mother, Maacah, from being queen mother, because she had made a detestable image for Asherah.   The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days. 

And there was no more war …. until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

.

2 Chronicles 16.

In the 36th year of Asa’s reign (south), the (northern) king Basha went up against Judah.  He built a fort so no more of his people could leave him and go to King Asa. 

NOTE: Instead of crying to the LORD his God, King Asa took money (gold and stuff from the treasuries of the LORD) to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria in Damascus, and paid him to fight King Basha (north) so he would withdraw from King Asa (south).

Ben-Hadad agreed and sent commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel (north), and they conquered Dan, other cities, and all the territory of Naphtali. The northern king Basha heard of it and withdrew from building the fort against Judah. 

But…

This was NOT what King Asa should have done. The prophet Hanani said to him,

  • “Because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of Syria has escaped you. (He could have battled them and won!)  
  • Were not the million Ethiopians a huge army, yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand. The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him. 
  • YOU HAVE DONE FOOLISHLY IN THIS. From now on, you will have wars.

Well, that did not make King Asa (south) happy.  In a furious rage, he took Hanani and put him in stocks in the prison!

“Did that help, Asa???  I think not.  Accept your sin! Repent! Ask forgiveness!!  But he didn’t. In fact, “he inflicted cruelties on some of the people at the same time!”

Three years later, “King Asa (south) was diseased in his feet (did he think about those prison stocks??) and his disease became severe. EVEN THEN, he did not seek the LORD, but went to doctors.  Sheesh!

He died two years later and was buried in a tomb that he’d cut for himself in the city of David.  Curiously, the people filled his casket with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer’s art.  (YIKES, did his feet smell THAT bad???)  They made a very great fire in his honor.

(17:1 – And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place.)

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 174

Jun22

   Day 174—We are in the 6th month of Bible reading.

 Day 174 – 1 Kings 12-14. (Rehoboam, the Royal vs. Jeroboam, the Jerk)

2 Kings 11:41-43 describes the last days of Solomon, claiming that even more about him and his wisdom are written in an unknown book, The Acts of Solomon.  King Solomon reigned for 40 years, as did his father, David.

Then, as all kings and paupers do, the king died. He was buried in “the City of David.”  And his son Rehoboam began his reign, heralding the beginning of the downfall of mighty and glorious Israel. 

1 Kings 12 tells of Rehoboam’s “folly.”

Obviously, he inherited NONE of his father’s wisdom and did not ask God for any.  At least he inquired of his father’s experienced advisors about how to rule the people. But he also asked the young men who’d been raised in the palace with him and who knew nothing about living as a common person in the labor force. Basically, it was either ‘be kind to the people and serve them’ or ‘be nasty to them, like a tyrant.’ 

Rehoboam chose tyranny, and the people rebelled.

Waiting in the wings was Jeroboam (the man about whom the prophet Ahijah said would rip ten of the tribes away from the kingdom and rule them).  He easily led the discontented ten northern tribes away from Rehoboam.  Rip-p-p-p-p!  Rehoboam immediately assembled 180K soldiers together to fight the departing tribes, but God said through the prophet Shemaiah. “NO! You shall NOT fight your relatives.”  And (incredibly) they listened to the words of God.

So the kingdom of Israel is now two parts, “Israel” (ten tribes in the north) ruled by Jeroboam, the Jerk, and “Judah” (two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south) ruled by Rehoboam, the Royal.  The northern tribes are also sometimes called “Ephraim.”

Here’s why I call Jeroboam “the Jerk.”  God had given him (and his offspring) the northern part of Israel to reign. He set up his capital in Shechem (about the middle of the northern tribes).  BUT he did not trust God and feared that the people – when they went to Jerusalem to worship three times per year – would want to go back to Rehoboam. He didn’t like that possibility, so he built TWO places for Israel to worship; one in Bethel and the other way at the northern tip of the land, in Dan. 

These were not approved worship places for the LORD. No, Jeroboam the Jerk followed the example of ole Aaron and made two calves of gold for the people, saying THESE were what brought you out of slavery in Egypt. WHAT????  He also made priests of anyone who wanted to be one. AND… chose another Feast Day from his own heart to sacrifice to these two idols.   JERK!

.

1 Kings 13 is kind of a weird chapter about some prophets of God. 

One (Prophet A) appeared and cried out against Jeroboam at the altar in Bethel while the Jerk was making sacrifices. This prophet said that a future Southern king named Josiah would tear the altar down after sacrificing the false priests upon it!  Whoa!

Jeroboam did NOT like this and tried to waylay the prophet.  But God had told him that under no circumstances was he to stop there, so he slipped away. 

Then another old prophet (Prophet B) stopped the first one who was heading back to Judah. And with a false prophecy, tempted Prophet A to come in for a snack. He did, but God was angry about his disobedience, and when he was finally on his way again, a lion killed him. (Didn’t eat him, just killed him and stood there along with the prophet’s donkey in the middle of the road!)

Well, Prophet B now got an actual word from God: “Prophet A died because he disobeyed Me and listened to you!” Well this prophet went, brought back the dead one and buried him. The town mourned him too. THEN, Prophet B made his sons promise to bury him when he died, in the grave with Prophet A, saying he was a true prophet.) I told you chapter 13 was weird.

..

Chapter 14 describes a young son of King Jeroboam the Jerk getting sick.

The king told his wife to disguise herself and go to another prophet, Ahijah, to learn what would happen to the boy. The disguise did not fool Abijah, even though he was nearly blind, and he immediately told the Jerk’s wife that the boy was going to die.

But there was WORSE news. God (through Abijah) told the woman a message to tell her husband. It was also the end of the house of Jeroboam – all the males would be cut off and his house burned up as a man burns up a dung pile. Why?

Because when God “exalted him from among the people and made him leader over His people, Israel, and tore it from the house of David (who kept God’s commandments and followed Him with all his heart) ….. he did evil and made for himself other gods and metal images, provoking God to anger, and he cast God behind his back.”

And, as the woman came to the threshold of her house… the boy died “because in him there was found something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel.” (He would not suffer his father’s judgment.)

Eventually, the Jerk died after a 22-year reign.

Rehoboam the Royal reigned for 17 years, and in his fifth year, the king of Egypt came up and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the king’s house.

Eventually, the Royal died too, and was buried in the City of David. His mother was an Ammonite, and during Rehoboam’s reign, high places and pillars and Asherim were built on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were male cult prostitutes in the land, and they did all the abominations of the nations living there before Israel.