1 Kings 14:7 - Meaning and Application

When people set up idols and keep worshipping them, then go to ask the Lord for guidance, he answers them according to their idols, not their claim to be seeking him (Ezekiel 14:4). Jeroboam is answered that way here. The prophet sees the question coming about the child and first announces the ruin of Jeroboam’s house because of his evil. No one else would dare bring such a message. A servant might hide it, but no one would suspect his own wife of wishing him harm.

God speaks of himself as the Lord God of Israel. Even though Israel had turned away from him, he had not cast them off or given them a bill of divorce for their unfaithfulness. He is still Israel’s God, and so he will judge the man who did them the greatest harm, the one who led them into sin and away from God. Jeroboam is reminded of the great favor God had shown him by making him king, lifting him up from among the common people to rule over God’s chosen Israel, and taking the kingdom from David’s house to give it to him. God keeps a full record of his mercies, and if we are ungrateful, he can bring them back before us to our shame. If we are thankful, he does not bring them up against us.

Jeroboam is then charged with his sin, his turning away from God, and especially his idolatry: “You have done more evil than all who were before you” (1 Kings 14:9). Saul, though rejected by God, never worshiped idols. Solomon did it only at times, in his old age, and never led Israel into that sin as Jeroboam did. Jeroboam’s calves, though set up as if they honored the God of Israel who brought them out of Egypt, are here called other gods, or strange gods. That is because he worshiped God in the same way the heathen worshiped their false gods. He also changed the truth of God into a lie and made God seem different from who he really is. Many simple worshipers likely stopped at the image itself and never truly thought of the God of Israel.

Though the calves were made of gold, that did not make them pleasing to God. In fact, the richness of the metal only made the offense worse. Jeroboam meant to honor God, but he actually insulted him under the cover of worship. In this he had not followed David (1 Kings 14:8). David had faults, and some of them were serious, but he never gave up the worship of God or grew careless and cold toward it. His steady loyalty to God gave him this honorable name, that he followed the Lord with all his heart. He was set before later kings as an example. Those who did not do as David did did not do well. Jeroboam had also not set God before him, but had cast him behind his back, neglecting him, forgetting him, and putting his own plans before God’s commands (1 Kings 14:9).

Then the prophet foretells the total ruin of Jeroboam’s house (1 Kings 14:10, 11). Jeroboam thought his idolatry would strengthen his rule, but it cost him the kingdom and brought destruction on his family. Every male in the house, whether confined or free, married or single, would be cut off. It would be a shameful destruction. They would be swept away like dung, something foul that people are glad to remove. He had worshiped low, filthy idols, and God would remove his family like a heap of refuse. Even royal families are no better in God’s sight if they are wicked.

It would also be an unusual destruction. Their dead bodies would become food for the dogs in the street or the birds of prey in the field (1 Kings 14:11). Evil keeps after sinners. This was later fulfilled (1 Kings 15:29). The prophet also foretells the child’s immediate death (1 Kings 14:12, 13). In mercy to the child, God would take him before he could be infected by his father’s sin and drawn into the ruin of his house. The child is described as one in whom was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. He cared about the true worship of God and disliked the worship of the calves.

A person is good when there are good things in him toward the Lord God of Israel, such as good desires, good aims, and good feelings toward him. Even a little of that kind of goodness is noticed by God, who searches for it and is pleased with it. A small measure of grace goes a long way, especially in people of high rank. It is rare to find princes who care about religion, so when they do, they deserve special honor. Pious feelings are especially lovely in the young. The image of God, even in a small form, has a special beauty. And those who are good in bad times and bad places shine very brightly before God. A good child in Jeroboam’s house was a wonder of God’s grace. To stay unspoiled there was like being in a fiery furnace and coming out unharmed.

God also takes care to honor him. He alone, of all Jeroboam’s family, will die with honor, be buried, and be mourned as one who was beloved. Those marked by God’s grace are also marked out by God’s providence. This hopeful child dies first in the family, because God often takes early those whom he loves most. Heaven is the best place for them, for this earth is not worthy of them.

For the family, this was a sign of coming ruin. The one by whom they might have been reformed is removed. The righteous are often taken away from the evil coming on this world and brought to the good waiting in a better one. It is a bad sign for a family when its best member is buried away from it, when what was most valuable is taken out and the rest is left for destruction. It was also a present grief for the family and for the kingdom, both of which should have been improved by such a child. This made the mother’s sorrow worse, because she would not even make it home in time to see her son alive. “When your feet enter the city, the child will die.” This would be a sign to her that the rest of the warnings would also come true (1 Samuel 2:34).

The prophet then foretells that another family will rise to rule Israel (1 Kings 14:14). This came to pass in Baasha of Issachar, who plotted against Nadab, Jeroboam’s son, in the second year of his reign, killed him, and destroyed his whole family. But this did not happen far off. It was already near. God sometimes acts quickly with sinners, and he did so with Jeroboam’s house. It was less than twenty-four years from Jeroboam’s rise to the complete end of his family.

He also foretells the judgments that would come on Israel for following the worship Jeroboam had set up. If the blind lead the blind, both the leaders and the followers will fall into the ditch. It is here foretold (1 Kings 14:15) that they would never be settled or truly at rest in their land, but would keep being shaken like a reed in the water.

After the house of David split, the kingdom did not stay long in one family. One ruler kept pushing down another, and that brought great disorder and trouble on the people. This is one way sin ruins families and kingdoms, especially when leaders are wicked. Jeroboam sinned, and he led Israel into sin too. When people in power do wrong, they often pull many others into guilt and into the trap of the same sin. Such leaders do not go to ruin alone. They take many with them, and their judgment will be heavier because of the harm they spread.

Jeroboam’s wife had no answer against the word of the Lord, but she went home with a heavy heart to their house in Tirzah. Tirzah was a pleasant, beautiful place, and the name itself suggests beauty. Yet death can enter even the loveliest place, stain its beauty, and turn its joys bitter. She came there, and the story leaves her there, mourning for her son and facing the coming ruin of her family.

The child died (1 Kings 14:17), and all Israel had reason to mourn. They lost a prince who seemed full of promise, and they also lost the last barrier before even greater judgment. His death opened the way for more of God’s punishment to fall. Jeroboam himself died soon after (1 Kings 14:20). Second Chronicles says the Lord struck him with a severe disease, so that he died in misery after reigning twenty-two years. He left his crown to a son who soon lost both the throne and his life, and the rest of his family fell within two years.

For more details about Jeroboam, readers were directed to the records of his reign, kept by his own officials or in the public chronicles of the kings of Israel. Those records were not inspired by God, and they have long since been lost.