1 Kings 14:1 - Meaning and Application

How Jeroboam kept showing contempt for God and true worship is clear at the end of the previous chapter. Here we see how God dealt with him in this dispute. When God judges, he will win, and sinners must either bow or be broken before him.

Jeroboam’s child fell sick (1 Kings 14:1). It was likely his oldest son, the one expected to inherit the throne, since the whole kingdom later mourned his death (1 Kings 13:4). His rank as a prince, his youth, and even any favor he may have had with God could not keep him from dangerous illness. No one should feel safe in the continued enjoyment of health, but should use it well while it lasts.

At the same time, when Jeroboam was sinning openly by appointing priests from outside the tribe of Levi, his child grew ill (1 Kings 13:33). When sickness enters our homes, we should ask whether some special sin is being allowed there, and whether God is using the trouble to warn and correct us.

Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise to ask the prophet Ahijah what would happen to the child (1 Kings 14:2-3). The child’s sickness touched him deeply. The loss of this branch of the family may have been almost as painful to him as the loss of that other branch, his own hand, which had withered earlier (1 Kings 13:4). Natural love is strong, and our children are, as it were, ourselves at one remove.

His main concern under this trouble was to know whether the child would live or die. It would have been wiser for him to ask what should be done to help the child recover, what medicine should be given, and what care should be taken. But this story, along with others like Ahaziah and Ben-hadad (2 Kings 1:2; 2 Kings 8:8), shows how people often had a foolish idea of fate. If they thought the patient would live, they saw no need for means. If they thought he would die, they thought means were useless. They did not remember that duty is ours, but events are God’s, and the One who ordains the end also ordains the means.

It would have been more godly for Jeroboam to ask why God was contending with him, to seek the prophet’s prayers, and to cast away his idols. Then the child might have been restored to him, just as his hand had been. Most people would rather be told their future than their sins, or their duty.

Jeroboam sent to Ahijah, the prophet who lived in obscurity at Shiloh. Ahijah was blind from old age, yet still blessed with visions from God, and those visions did not depend on bodily sight. In fact, they were helped by the lack of it, since the eyes of the mind could then be more fixed and less distracted. Jeroboam did not ask him for advice about his golden calves or his false priests. He turned to him in distress, when the gods he served could give him no help. Trouble often reminds people to visit the ministers and praying friends they once ignored.

He sent to Ahijah because Ahijah had once told him he would be king (1 Kings 13:2). He likely thought, “He was a messenger of good news once, so perhaps he will be again.” But when people make themselves unfit for comfort by sin, yet still expect their ministers, simply because they are good men, to speak peace to them, they wrong both themselves and their ministers.

He sent his wife because she could ask the question without naming names, only saying, “Sir, I have a son who is ill. Will he recover or not?” Jeroboam trusted her to carry the message faithfully and bring back the answer. It seems he had no one among his advisers in whom he could trust as much. Even so, the sick child could ill spare his mother, since mothers are the best nurses. It would have been better for her to stay home and care for him than to go to Shiloh to ask about his future.

If she went, she had to go in disguise. She was to change her clothes, cover her face, and travel under another name. This was meant not only to keep people along the way from knowing her, as if such an errand were beneath her rank, but also to hide her from the prophet himself. She wanted only an answer about her son, not any mention of her husband’s sinful turning away from God. Some people still try to set limits on their ministers and want only smooth words. They do not want the whole truth of God, because they fear it may bring bad news about themselves.

Jeroboam had a strange idea of God’s prophet. He believed the prophet could certainly tell what would happen to the child, yet somehow could not discover who the mother was. Could the prophet see into the hidden future and yet not see through this thin disguise? Did Jeroboam think the God of Israel was like his calves, able to be shaped just as he pleased? People should not be deceived, God is not mocked.

God gave Ahijah notice that Jeroboam’s wife was coming, and even told him that she came in disguise, along with the exact words he should say to her (1 Kings 14:5). So when she came to the door, he called her by name, to her great surprise, and showed everyone there who she was (1 Kings 14:6). “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else?” He had no regard for her rank. She was a queen, but that meant nothing to him when he had a message from God, before whom all people stand on the same level.

He also ignored the gift she brought. It was common to bring a present when consulting a prophet, and prophets accepted such gifts without becoming mercenaries. She had brought a suitable country gift (1 Kings 14:3), but he did not feel bound by that to soften the message. He also ignored her effort to stay hidden. It is often polite not to point out people who wish not to be noticed, but the prophet was no court flatterer and gave no empty honorifics. Plain speaking is best. She would know at once what she had to face: heavy news was coming.

Those who think they can hide from God by disguise will be deeply ashamed when they are exposed at the day of judgment. Sinners may now appear dressed like saints and be taken for saints, but how they will blush and tremble when their false appearance is stripped away and they are called by their true name, as false-hearted hypocrites.

Why do you pretend to be someone else? The news that a person has a place among hypocrites will be a sad message indeed. God will judge people by what they truly are, not by what they appear to be.