The reigns of both the kings of Israel and Judah were marked by God’s disapproval of their governance. After the demise of Solomon, both the monarchs of Israel and Judah engaged in malfeasance that brought upon them the wrath of God. Jeroboam, the ruler of the northern kingdom, ignored countless warnings from the LORD and carried on in his evil ways. Jeroboam lost his son because of his stubbornness to change from his evil ways. While Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, brought idol worship and other detestable practices of the pagan world to Judah. In doing so, he brought an end to Solomon’s dynasty as God tore away the kingdom of Judah from their hands.
The Prophecy Against the House of Jeroboam
One day Jeroboam’s son, Ahijah, suddenly became ill to the point of death. Jeroboam tried everything but could not see any improvement in his son. So he asked his wife to disguise herself and cross the boundary into the southern kingdom and go to the town of Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lived. He probably feared that the men of Judah, finding out the identity of his wife would harm her or keep her hostage and thus wanted her to disguise herself. He also knew that he had strayed away from the path of God and was not the king that Ahijah had prophecied about. The disguise was an ill attempt to fool the prophet in hopes of getting a favourable response from the LORD.
Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. But the LORD had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.” So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.”
1 Kings 14:4-6 (NIV)
Similarly, when we want something from God after years of following our own path, we try to portray an aura of repentance without leaving our identity in the world to get what we want from the LORD. Jeroboam’s wife wore the disguise to fool the world but her lies that were meant to fool the man of God did not work. In the same way, our outer behaviour may fool the world but God who sees through our heart will not fall for the same lie.
You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me.
1 Kings 14:9 (NIV)
The LORD was going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, cutting from them every last male in Israel. The son of the king who was on his deathbed would surely die as soon as his mother returned to their city. While they would be mourning for this child, no such tears would be shed for anyone else belonging to the house of Jeroboam. Jeroboam’s wife got up and went back to Tirzah and as soon as she stepped on the threshold of the house her child died.
Even after seeing multiple signs from the LORD and seeing his son die because of his stubbornness, Jeroboam did not change his ways. He had accepted his state and valued the power and authority more than obeying the commandments of the LORD. When people are away from God for a long time, they start valuing the things of the world over Him. They forget the time they spent in communion with Him when they lacked nothing. The worldly authority and its possessions seem too difficult to part with when someone wants to return to the fold of God. What we don’t realise is that everything we have in this world is because of the LORD and nothing is apart from Him. Like Jeroboam, we too continue in our evil ways because we are afraid to lose our identity in this world.
The Fall of Judah
The state of Judah was no better than its northern counterpart under the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. During this period, Judah did very evil in the eyes of the LORD, stirring up His intense anger against them. They built high places for worship and set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, the king of Egypt, Shishak, attacked Jerusalem and took valuable items from the temple and the palace. He even took all the gold shields that king Solomon had made. King Rehoboam replaced these with bronze shields and gave them to the palace guards. The guards would carry the shields when the king went to the temple, and then return them to the guardroom. Such was the sorry state of affairs of the kingdom of Judah.
The Reigns of Jeroboam and Rehoboam
The reigns of both Jeroboam and Rehoboam are eerily similar with both of them leading their country away from the path of God. Both kings spent the majority of their reigns at war with each other. While Jeroboam was allowed to reign in Israel for twenty-two years, Rehoboam ruled in Judah for only seventeen years. Also, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam succeeded on his father’s throne but Rehoboam was the last ruler in the family of Solomon to rule over Judah.
There seem to be two different punishments carried out to these parallel kings of the northern and southern kings by the LORD. Jeroboam started creating his own religion to supplement the absence of the temple of the LORD in his kingdom. However, Rehoboam who still had the temple of the LORD and the prophets, did not see God’s guidance but adopted the practices of the pagan world around him.
We do not know the reason for God’s judgement on these two families but what we can say is that both of them angered the LORD beyond measure. However, what we can learn from these two parallel kings is that we must resist the urge to be one with this world and look for the guiding hand of God in every decision we make. No matter what our ancestors may have done, our walks with God are solely dependent on our faith. The more we walk with Him, the less we will be dependent on the world around us.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Jeroboam ask his wife to disguise herself when going to meet the prophet Ahijah?
- Even after the death of his son, why did Jeroboam not change his ways?
- Two parallel kings of Israel and Judah with mirrored characteristics in terms of abandonment of God’s principles to govern their nations. Why is there a contrast in the amount of time they were allowed to remain in the seat of power?
The Jordan Valley 
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