Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Episode 594: In this episode, hosts Jeff and Chris explore First Kings chapter 14. They discuss the story of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, and the dire consequences he faces due to his disobedience to God. Jeroboam's wife disguises herself to seek a prophecy from the prophet Ahijah regarding their sick son, Abijah. Ahijah, however, reveals that God has pronounced judgment on Jeroboam's family for their idolatry and wickedness.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Jeff, Jeff, Chris. Yes, welcome to the Bible Guys. And we are, of course, Jeff and Chris, and we just want to say thank you for tuning in. If this is your very first time. We have five hundred and ninety three other episodes in our archive that you can go back and listen to. Wow, five hundred and ninety three, We're about that six, We're about to six hundred next week, Yes, next Friday. Yes, it needs to be a wild party next time. The Oh yeah, it'd be wild and crazy up here at the Bible Guys podcast. I'm going to bring wild cherry life because that's how wild. That's right, that's crazy. Might choose some bubble gum. Okay, So, Chris, I have a big one for you today because everybody knows our longtime listeners know you're. A big movie Have we ever done this moment? No, this is a new segment, new segment, but everybody knows you're a big movie buff. I am a big movie. Yeah. See Chris, Chris lives for movies. It's it's his main purpose in. Life for Jesus, Jeff. Oh, yes, that's what I meant to say. What did I say? Yeah? Yeah, which is not true. So so for today's segment, I'm going to read off songs. I'm gonna read off song titles, okay, and you need to say which movie it's from as fast as you can. Okay, and I have eleven of them. I'm not sure why we have eleven. Goodness, it's very great fun. No, it's very fast. Okay, Okay, I'm gonna read the title. Then, A whole new. World, A whole new world, don't you dare? Aladdin? There you go. I can't believe it took me that long to get Aladdin. There you go. Okay, ready, here he goes. Ever ever after enchanted, I would have never known that. Yeah, oh, come on, that's okay. That's when you wish upon a star, Pinocchio under the Sea, Little Raid, once upon a Dream. I know you, Si, Beauty, Portobello Road. Road. I know this is a movie, not a not a. I have no idea. Bed knobs and broomsticks. Oh I saw bed knobs and broomsticks in the seventies. Yeah, okay. Fact hey, by the way, side note, h the charm of making at the end of bed Knobs and room Sticks went when all those night the knights come to life? Yes, yes, there, yeah, I. Still remember the spell tragoona mccoity's Tregor and satis d okay, great. I hope you didn't just say something evil to me. No, aubstitute, so I know. That's okay. Bed Knobs and Broomsticks is where it's from. Yes, okay, here's ready. So that was a number six. This is number seven. Yep. Colors of the Wind, Poconnas. I would have never known that you'll be in my heart. You'll be in my heart, Yes, you'll be in my heart. I had no idea. Tarzan Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. To be fair though, that really never hit. It was an Elton John song, right, yeah, I don't be in my heart. I don't know. It's all full and saying that. Okay, I don't know. It did never really get ready reflection may Molan. A dream is a wish your heart makes. The dream is a wish your heart makes. Cinderella, Cinderella, that's right. Someday my prince will. Come some snow White. Snow White and the seven Doors. That's right, God helped the outcasts. God help the outcast. I would I would have this one. I would have known this. You would have known this one. Yes, God helped the outcast. Sounds like the Island of Misfit Toys. I have no idea. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Oh yeah, I never liked that one. I think I've only seen that twice. Okay, and then should I worry? Why should I worry? Yeah? Why? I have no idea. Oliver and Company, Oh yeah, I have only seen that once. There you go. Okay, so you got eight out of eleven. All right, that's impressive, Chris. There you go, there you go. So we're gonna give you ten thousand points apiece. Nice for the ones that you got. Nice, So you got, you got eighty thousand points, and for the if we had any any of our listeners that got the ones that you missed, we're gonna give me a hundred thousand points apiece. And if you trade all that in at a Chuck E. Cheese store, that will buy me a fruit loop. Nothing it will get you nothing is what I get you. So congratulations, Yes, very impressive, and I'm delighted by the fact that she chose all Disney songs. Oh they were all Disney. Yeah, yeah, it's all Disney. Okay, yeah, which is right up your alley? Sure? Sure, well you know we watched Disney. Huh. Although ben Outs and Broomsticks was a stretch and Portabello Road, I still have no idea what that means. That sounds like an opening song or something. Right, Portobello is a is a mushroom? I know it is roads or vehicles or places where you travel on. Why why are you why are you? You said you don't know what Portobello Road means. I'm saying there, it's obviously the name of a road, yes, right, And so it sounds like an opening song or something. Oh it must be. Yeah, I don't know which. Who the heck? That's not famous? Why did you choose that song because she had a Google something? Right? Google sent it? Yeah, Google send it to her. Okay, Well, hey there you go. Thank you so much, Desiree for putting Chris in his place, right right? I think eight out of eleven is bad. No, it's beyond impressive. I only knew like three of them, so really, I would have known. Uh, I would have known under the sea. I could by the way I could sing everyone that I knew. Yeah, I would have. I would have known under the sea. And I would have known when you wish upon a star, and I would have known God helped the outcasts. I wouldn't known any of the others. You would have known God helped the outcast. Wow, Okay, how's it go. I'm not going to sing it. Just give me the chorus. I'm not gonna sing it. Why I would have known the title. I don't know the words, but I would have known the title. And the reason is I commented on it when we were at Notre Dame here just recently. Oh yeah, yeah, so you actually went yeah. So yeah. So, by the way, is it restored? Was it after Yeah? They just they just reopened it. Yeah. I haven't gone in yet. We were there the day before they reopened. That's how my life works. By the way, so we've been, I've been. I've been in Paris probably I don't know ten times in the last two years. Long layovers and so pop into the city, and we've been watching them rebuild Notre Dame. But I had commented then that you know, sanctuary using that that building to and the outcasts, and then it was God Save the outcasts. Is kind of the connection that I'd made there. So yeah, and then I kept looking for the gargoyles to sing, and they don't sing. Turns out right, turns out total jyp. Maybe they start singing once they reopened. Okay. So anyways, one Kings chapter fourteen, and. By the way, I was looking for all the right answers on that on that quiz, yes, and it turns out that a lot of Hyja has the right answers for Jurabom. Unbelievably right answers. Yes, this is really amazing. Okay, so you got to remember now the kingdom is divided. There's the North, that's the Ten tribes, and then there's the South Judah, the two tribes. Pretty good, You're doing pretty great this week, Chris, Yes, way better than me. I'm just not with it this week. Sorry, back to the real stuff, go ahead, yeah. Yeah, yeah, So the southern tribes Judah and Benjamin are divided from the northern tribes the other ten tribes of Israel. And by the way, Judah is very large, it's the biggest one, right, Yeah, by far, yeah, by far. And so when it sounds like, oh, it's only two versus is the ten? Yeah, just it's like a sixty forty split, Yeah, sixty. Forty split, yeah yeah, meaning that the forty the sixty is with the ten. Is with the ten. Yeah yeah, okay. So it says at that time, Jeroboam's son a Bijah became very sick. So Jeabohm told his wife, disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as my wife, and then go to the prophet Ahijah Abijah and a Hijah. You also have Jerebam and Raya Baum. Remember it really makes me angry, makes me right, right, So so these names are close. You have to pay close attention. So a Bijah is sick, and Jereboam tells his wife, disguise yourself so that no one will recognize your as my wife. And then go to the prophet a Hijah at Shiloh, the man who told me I would become king. Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and ask him what will happen to the boy. So Jerebaum's wife went to a Hija's home in Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. But the Lord had told a Hijah, Jerobome's wife will come here pretending to be someone else. She'll ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you. Wow. So when i Hida heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, come in, wife of Jeroboam, why are you pretending to be someone else? And then he told her, I have bad news for you. Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the Lord, the God of Israel. I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you rule over my people Israel. I riped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did whatever I wanted. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. Holy Chris, you have made other gods for yourself and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you've turned your back on me, I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free. Alike anywhere in Israel. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash, until it's all gone. The members of Jereboam's family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field to be eaten by vultures. The Lord have spoken Woo wow. Then I Haijah said to Jeroboam's wife, go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the Lord, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeoboam. In addition, the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. And this will happen today even now. Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord with the ashera polls they have set up for worship. He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made Israel sin along with him. So but Jereboam's wife returned to Terza, and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home, and all Israel buried him and mourned for him, as the Lord had promised through the prophet Ahijah. Yikes, this not messing around. This is definitely consequences. Yeah, paying the fiddler there you go. Yeah, well, so do you remember when a Hija originally came to Jereboam. He said, listen, if you do the right thing like David did, I'll establish your family forever. God literally is offering him the kingdom, and not only that, your descendants and your descendants after them will rule if you just follow God like David. Follow God. David wasn't perfect, right, We talked about that in the previous things. This guy had a temper, He was tempted sometimes, but his heart was to lead his people to keep following God. Hey, I'm not perfect at this, but let's keep pursuing God. Let's keep chasing God. Let's build a temple for God. Let's increase our commitment to God. Let's depend on God more. And so God said listen, Jereboam, if you will follow me like David followed me, I will establish your kingdom forever. And now God's saying I gave up on you there, Boem. You're never going to do it. You're never going. As a matter of fact, you've done more wicked than anybody else who's come before you. Yeah, anybody else who's come before you? Is does he mean combined? Because I'm telling you what that is an unbelievable statement. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. See, that's that to me feels like combined or you just mean every You read it as everyone, right, Well, I'm reading it that. All the other kings of the. Other kings, Okay, yeah, that could be true, yeah. Which which wasn't very many. It was Saul. Saul was was wicked. David did wickedness, but was pursuing God and kept repenting. Solomon started off good and then started building temples for his wives, but he was blending kind of this worship with God and a Sera and Astro well Astroth and Bail and Molek right, and then now jere Boehm has thrown it all off and created his own gods and thrown off God completely and God, so you're you're the worst of all of them so far. Yeah, yeah, and Holy cal So you know, again, it's just one of these things where when you get bad news, you know you have to accept both good and bad from God. So you know, didn't Job say that, right, I'm gonna accept good and not accept bad. And you know, in this case there's a justness to it. Right, So God is just and this is a very harsh penalty, but it's again, it's just the just execution of consequences. Well it shouldn't be a surprise though, right, right, because God, God littally said when we read at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses is giving the law and he's reminding them again because the law has already been established, you know, forty years before, eighty years before, whatever it was. Forty years the law was already established. But Moses, before he dies, gets back up in front of the people and restates it all again. I don't want you forget. You train your children when you walking by the way, when you're standing in, when you're sitting at breakfast, when you're lying down at night. It needs to be all over your house. Keep teaching your children or anything. And then he says, listen, I'm giving you a choice between life and death, between blessing and cursing. So the blessing isn't because of you, it's because of God. And the cursing isn't because of you, it's because of God. But both of those are a choice. So you can choose God's favor, choose life, choose blessing, or you can go against God, and then you're choosing the curse and death. This is exactly the same thing he did for Jereboam. It's not that God's unfair, it's that the roosters are coming or that the chickens are coming home to roost. You made your choice. I gave you the choice. If you remember, are the people who've been listening for a while, you remember we go back to the Jereboam thing. He said, I'm giving you a choice today, and now here we are late in his rule and God goes you chose the wrong way. It's not like it was confusing. Keep worshiping me, that's all you have to do. And instead what did you do? You went and made golden calves and led people to worship your golden calves. That's not a very confusing thing. It's not confusing. It's not like, oops, I accidentally made a couple of golden calves and began sacrificing for them. Right, that's not what he did. This isn't an oops. This is a full on rebellion. I don't care about you. Well, and yesterday's podcast, we talked about the old man and the prophet, right, and so here it says that the Man of God came, warned him, did a miracle in front of him, but with the altar miraculously splitting in two, in the ashes going on the ground, and his hand and his hand getting frozen. And so what does he do. He begs, the prophet, pray to your God, that might have be restored. He gets it restored. God chose the mercy just in that one simple thing. And then, as they say, it says, he did not choose to turn from his waist. He continued, He continued, So it's like, you know, God will give us warning, God to reach out, got to give us chances. Right, It's not as if God doesn't love us. It's not as if God isn't patient with us. That God gives us, you know, He gives us opportunity over and over to repent, to turn back to Him, to make things right, to make the right choices. And I don't really know too many situations where somebody makes a mistake and immediately you know, there's this massive judgment, you know, when they're you know, in today's day and age, we make choices, we live in those choices. I think that God gives us opportunity after opportunity, day after day, and usually when things come crashing down, it isn't in a moment's notice, it's after a long period of time. I have had a sense God does keep some people in short leashes. I've had that sense in my life that I see other people get away with stuff for a long time. And when I was a young person, I tried to get away something, I felt like I got caught, like the first time, over and over and over again. It was that way. So I do think He keeps people on some people in short leashes. But for the most part, the Bible says his mercy endurs forever. He's constantly extending forgiveness, he's constantly being he says in Peter that he's being patient for your sake. He's not moving slowly, he's just being patient for our sakes. But with Jerobohm, he's able to look into Jerbom's life and saying, Jerabom's never turning bag. He's he's gone past the point of return, right. So I think that there was God held out during this time. I think he sent the prophet to him earlier because I think Jerobomb still had an opportunity to choose, but then, like you said, he chose not to and now he's past the point of no return. And God goes, well, I'm done with you. I can't You're never going to change. So we're done, and it's going to hurt, right, But this is all that God had said was going to happen at the beginning. Yeah, God had said, this is the beginning, dude, you can have the kingdom forever, right if you just follow me. So I just understand this isn't you know. If you only read this story by itself, it goes like, Wow, God's kind of mean. But when you look at the fact that he had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, and he was a nobody, he was a supervisor for building the temple, that that was his job, and Solomon was like, this young guy's pretty sharp. Jerre Bohm's a sharp guy. I should I should put him in charge of more stuff. And then God sends a hija to say, hey, jereboam. As a matter of fact, God's going to put you in charge of the whole kingdom, right well, ten of the tribes. So he was just a worker and God elevates him to king and then suddenly he just and God says, the one condition is keep following me. And over a lifetime he rejected God. And the pain of rejecting God, it's always going to hurt. It's always going to hurt. So, yeah, anyways, that's a it's a sad thing for me. But at the same time, it's not unjust right God, God's doing the right thing and is doing the just thing. Yeah, and there's and there's all sorts of pagan worship here. You know. He set up, he says, for he angered the Lord with the astropolds that he'd set up for worship in addition to the golden cabs, right, yeah, and the astropoles. A lot of scholars believe those were phallic symbols because it was a sexual God and so it's just so there's this I mean, it's just weird and distorted, and it's you can even imagine, it's just all over the place. And so it's no wonder why you know, God's anger is coming down in the most fierce way. And what he's really saying is he's saying like he's not going to handle blasphemy. He's not going to handle It's one thing to you know, uh, you know the King David, King David, he definitely had his right he was. He was a bad parent, sure, you know, he indulged the flesh, Yeah. Indulge the flesh. He all that. But can you remember a single time in David's life where he did any type of false worship? No idle worship, no, no, never ever? Right, So he strayed from behaviors, you know. You know, just like we talked, had bad days, but his heart was chasing after God. Right, right, which is why you know God categorized him and even spoke about him and said you were not like you know, through his prophet said, you were not like my father, your father David, who always did whatever I wanted and always worshiped me. Right, So how does he talk about David. He talks about David as this man who always did all those things. He's not mentioning David's little sins. He's not mentioning, you know, the bad days or the big mistakes that David made in his life. Because David overall tried his very best and this you know, you know, he didn't do it perfectly to worship God. So I think that the blasphemy part, you know, there's there's just there's just a line that's going to be drawn here, and so God says, that's it. And by the way, what an unbelievable punishment. So C. S. Lewis in the he wrote a book called The Problem with Pain? Right? Do you ever read that one? Do you read Mere Christianity? Yes? Yeah, So Mere Christianity is one of my favorite books. And you know, with as with any theologian, I don't agree with every word every theologian writes, but I really like his thinking in Mere Christianity. Well, then he wrote a book talking about the problem of pain, and he talks about the y what feels like the unjustness of pain. Life is already hard and then pain comes along whatever, And in it he makes that famous statement and I don't remember the beginning of it. I don't remember exactly, so I'll summarize the beginning of it, but then the ending is consistent. He basically says that God whispers to us and our pleasures and in the good moments of life, but he shouts at us in our pain. And so sometimes it's those painful moments, those difficult confrontations as king you know this. You're a powerful person, You're an influential person. Is he whispers in our pleasures? Yeah, he whispers and our pleasures, yep, And he shouts to us in our pain. But you're a leader, you have influence, you have a certain amount of power over some people. One of the more difficult things, one of the more painful things for an influential leader, is to be confronted. Right, That's a hard thing to be confronted and go, okay, I've got to make some changes. And so God gave him that opportunity, that pain that came from that that prophet, that man of God should have been enough. Right, Hey, look at I cracked your your alter You're exposed. This is fake and I'm the real God, right right? And I froze your hand. I proved that I humbled you. You had to ask for my help, and then finally I took care of you, and you continue to rebel against me. And by the way I do this publicly, yes, you're embarrassed. Everybody knows, yes, right, that your gods are faults and that I'm the real God. So God shouts to us in our pain, and then sometimes we don't listen, and when we don't listen, everything falls down around Everything burns down around us. But when God is shouting to us and in our initial pain, we have a choice either run to him or from him. I was talking with a family who's going through some sad things right now, and I said, you know, all the young people in the room, I said, listen, in this moment, you have an opportunity to blame God or run to God. Right those are your only two choices. So when you're in the middle of pain, in your pain, you either run to Him or from him. And God says he is near to the broken hearted. He says, cast all your cares on me because I care for you. You can trust God with your pain. And it's not always that God's causing the pain, but God will use pain to get your attention, put you back. So when you run to him, then this is that where he offers this life of blessing or cursing. He's offering life or death. And so when you run to God, he will give you the good side of that. So he promises. It was the promise Jerobom always had, and he just threw it away. And then God tried to rattle his cage a little bit with a little bit of shame and embarrassment and pain. He didn't turn as God goes, okay, this is going to hurt, and it did. Right. So God's justice has poured out on him publicly. And the reason why God's pouring out is justice publicly on this king is because this king's whole life is public. He is the representative of the nation. God's not pouring out this kind of justice on you know, some little widow lady living down the street. It's on the king, who's the representative of all the people. Right, and you had all the benefits of being the king. Now you have the consequence of being the king. And He's trying now through the pain of the king, to get the attention of the rest of the people. Now you and I know, they don't turn back to God either, so there's a problem here. But yeah, yeah, all right. Well, hey, that's our time for today and so we will see you next time as we pick up tomorrow on the Bible Gush