1 Kings 15:12-15 Heart was Loyal to the Lord!

 “And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the Lord all his days. He also brought into the house of the Lord the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.”

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭12‬-‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. He banished the perverted persons from the land: These state-sanctioned homosexual idol-temple prostitutes were introduced into Judah during the reign of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:24). Asa’s father Abijam didn’t remove these perversions and idols, but King Asa did.

b. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah: This demonstrates the thoroughness of Asa’s reforms. He was able to act righteously even when his family was wrong, in particular his own grandmother. “It is in a man’s own family circle that his faithfulness is put fairly to the test” (Knapp).

i. “Maacah was apparently the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah (2 Chronicles 13:2) and Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27), hence the granddaughter of Absalom, David’s rebellious son.” (Patterson and Austel)

ii. By the Brook Kidron: “The Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem was then the city’s main rubbish dump” (Wiseman).

iii. An obscene image: “This image is described as ‘obscene’ in our English translation, but the Hebrew word is closer in meaning to ‘frightening,’ ‘horrible,’ or ‘abominable.’ Some commentators believe it was some sort of phallic symbol consistent with the fertility cult of Asherah” (Dilday).

iv. “From the whole, it is pretty evident that the image was a mere Priapus, or something of the same nature, and that Maachah had an assembly in the grove where the image was set up, and doubtless worshipped it with the most impure rites. What the Roman Priapus was I need not tell the learned reader; and as to the unlearned, it would not profit him to know.” (Clarke)

c. But the high places were not removed: 2 Chronicles 14:3 says that Asa did remove the high places, but it mentions these high places in connection with altars of the foreign gods. Therefore, Asa removed the high places that were dedicated to idols, but not the ones that were dedicated to the LORD.

d. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days: Asa’s loyal heart was shown in his reforms against idolatry and state-sanctioned perversion, and in his restoration of certain silver and gold utensils to the temple. (Guzik)

Heart was Loyal to the Lord!

When my days are over I pray my legacy is the same, that my heart was loyal to the Lord! 

I love this verse!

……“‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭13‬:‭22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

May our hearts stay loyal and may we be a man or woman after the Lords own heart seeking Him daily!

Blessings 

1 Kings 15:9-11 Eyes of the Lord!

 “In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David.”

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Asa became king over Judah: This great-grandson of Solomon took the throne of Judah at the end of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel, after his father’s brief reign.

b. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David: The kings of Judah were usually measured against David, the founder of their dynasty. In contrast to his father Abijah (1 Kings 15:3), Asa followed in the same heart as David.

i. The phrase his father David shows us that in Hebrew literature the word father canbe used of an ancestor in general, instead of strictly referring to one’s father. David was actually the great-great-grandfather of Asa. (Guzik)

Eyes of the Lord!

Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, which is probably why he reigned forty one years! 

I long to hear from Jesus when I meet Him face to face, “His Lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.’” Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I look forward to going home, do you?

Blessings 

1 Kings 14:29-31 Precipitous Decline!

 “Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then Abijam his son reigned in his place.” I Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭29‬-‭31‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam: 2 Chronicles summarized Rehoboam like this: And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD.(2 Chronicles 12:14) This speaks to the lack of his personal relationship with the LORD.

i. “He was born of a heathen mother, and begotten of an apostate father. From such an impure fountain could sweet water possibly spring?” (Clarke)

ii. “The account ends with the note that Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Is this not the writer’s way of reminding us that it was Solomon’s marriage to foreign wives that started the precipitous decline in the first place?” (Dilday)

b. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days: These two were very different. Rehoboam governed as a tyrant, started bad and humbled himself to God towards the end of his life (2 Chronicles 12:6-7). Jeroboam governed as a populist, started with great promise but ended terribly. (Guzik)

Precipitous Decline!

Instead of a precipitous decline like Rehoboam I hope and pray to finish like Paul!

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Have you considered how your finish will be?

Blessings 

1 Kings 14:27-28 The Fall and Rebellion of Rehoboam!

 “Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.”

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place: The replacement of gold with bronze is a perfect picture of the decline under the days of Rehoboam. The dynasty of David went from gold to bronze in five years.

i. “They wished to emphasize how far Rehoboam fell in a mere few years. He had inherited an empire; five years later, master of a small state, he could protect his capital itself only by denuding his palace of its treasures. Solomon’s court had despised silver; his son’s court had to be content with bronze!” (Payne)

b. And committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard: In the days of Solomon, the gold shields hung on display in the House of the Forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 10:16-17). Under Rehoboam, the replacement bronze shields were kept in a protected guardroom until they were specifically needed for state occasions. (Guzik)

The Fall and Rebellion of Rehoboam!

Let this be a lesson for us all! The Lord had left Rehoboam because of his rebellion, he forsook Him for other gods and with that his kingdom fell, was raided and declined!

“The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with His rescue, our sin with His salvation, our guilt with His grace, our badness with His goodness. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. Which means that the Bible is not first a recipe for Christian living but a revelation book of Jesus who is the answer to our 

un-Christian living.” Tullian Tchividjian

Do you believe Jesus is the answer?

Blessings 

1 Kings 14:25-26 He Took Away Everything!

 “It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.”

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam: This was not so far from the time of David and Solomon, years of strength and security in Israel. No foreign enemy ever did as much against God’s people during the time of David and Solomon as happened during this occasion during the reign of Rehoboam.

b. Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: Both 2 Chronicles and archeology confirm this account. The record in 2 Chronicles 12 gives many details that the writer of 1 Kings summarized. From 2 Chronicles 12 we learn:

· Exactly why this attack succeeded: When Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel along with him (2 Chronicles 12:2).

· That Shishak brought an allied army of nations against Judah (2 Chronicles 12:3).

· That Shishak took the fortified cities of Judah on his way to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 12:4).

· That as the enemy army approached Jerusalem, the Prophet Shemaiah led the leaders of Judah in genuine repentance (2 Chronicles 12:6).

· In response to their repentance, God allowed Jerusalem to remain - but as servants of Shishak, king of Egypt (2 Chronicles 12:7-8).

i. “Sheshonq I (Shishak) had founded the Egyptian (Libyan) Dynasty XXII (945-924 b.c.) and his raid into Palestine in this year (925 b.c.) is well attested on the Amon temple reliefs at Thebes (Karnak). From the one hundred and fifty place-names recorded there, his aim seems to have been to reassert Egyptian control over the main trade routes throughout Palestine and the Negeb.” (Wiseman)

c. He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house: Solomon left great wealth to his son Rehoboam, both in the temple and in the palace. After only five years, that wealth was largely gone.

d. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made: 1 Kings 10:16-17 mentions these 500 shields, 200 large and 300 small. These shields made beautiful displays in the House of the Forest of Lebanon, but they were of no use in battle. Gold was too heavy and too soft to be used as a metal for effective shields. This was an example of the emphasis of image over substance that began in the days of Solomon and worsened in the days of Rehoboam.

i. “Rehoboam made in their stead shields of bronze, and with these pathetically tried to keep up former appearances. It is like souls, who, when despoiled of their freshness and power by the enemy, laboriously endeavor to keep up an outward appearance of spiritual prosperity; or, like a fallen church, shorn of its strength, and robbed of its purity, seeking to hide its helplessness, and cover its nakedness, with the tinsel of ritualism, spurious revivalism, union, and anything that promises to give them some appearance.” (Knapp)

ii. According to Dilday, each large shield was worth about $120,000. The smaller shields were worth $30,000. $33 million was invested in gold ceremonial shields – and now in the hands of the Egyptians. (Guzik)

He Took Away Everything!

God used the king of Egypt to take away everything because Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord. 

I have seen this before with addictions, God allows addicts to hit rock bottom, taking away everything before restoring them and making them a new person in Christ. It’s the Potter at work molding the clay into a new vessel for his kingdom. Recently in the news there have been two actors arrested due to addiction who have been unable to cope in society, once famous and now struggling with their past, present and future. 

Will you join me in prayer for these two people?

Blessings 

1 Kings 14:21-24 Idols!

 “And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.” ‭‭I Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins: These sins provoked the LORD to jealousy because they were essentially sins of idolatry. Israel turned their back on the God who loved and redeemed them, and like an unfaithful spouse, they pursued spiritual adultery with idols.

b. There were also perverted persons in the land: This specifically describes prostitutes associated with the worship of idols. It is possible that the term perverted persons refers to both men and women cultic prostitutes. However, the term was used in Deuteronomy 23:17-18 in distinction to feminine cultic prostitutes.

c. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel: Considering the depth of depravity among the Canaanite nations, this is a strong statement. (Guzik)

Idols!

Our world today is full of idols that are distracting us from the Lord! Electronics, social media, politics, sexual and the like. 

I become easily distracted with the news when I should be in prayer talking to God or studying the Bible. 

Lord help us turn back to You and please bring a revival to our country, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

Will you join me in prayer for a revival?

Blessings 

1 Kings 14:19-20 Rested with his fathers!

“Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then Nadab his son reigned in his place.”

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. He rested with his fathers: 2 Chronicles 13:20 tells us that the LORD struck him, and he died. (Guzik)

“He died not the common death of all men, but by some remarkable stroke: beside the loss of five hundred thousand of his men in one battle with Abijah king of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:17)” (Trapp).

Rested with his fathers!

This is a polite way of saying he died when in fact the Lord struck him and he  died of a stroke. 

When my father died a friend told me, you are now mortal. Not knowing what he meant I asked and he replied, the previous generation is gone and you’re next. For some looking at our own mortality is difficult, but with me I look forward to going home to Heaven.

"Death is not the end, but the beginning of something far more glorious."

Billy Graham

Do you look forward to going home?

Blessings