Thursday, August 8, 2019

Abijah and Ahijah

Chapter 14 of 1 Kings starts with Jeroboam and ends with a recap of Rehoboam.  Jeroboam's son, Abijah, gets ill, and he sends his queen out in disguise to Ahijah the prophet to ask about Abijah.  The king did not want the prophet who made him king to know that he had sent his wife.

But when she approached the door of Ahijah's house, he said, "Why is the king's wife in disguise?"  He told her that he made Jeroboam king, but Jeroboam has done nothing but betray the Lord with his false idols and golden calves.  He tells her that when she gets home, her son will die and that his dynasty will end.  The passage also says that Jeroboam's son actually followed the true Lord.

When we consider Abijah and That Guy who got eaten by the lion in the previous passage, we wonder why God took them away from this earth so soon.  There are no truly good people on earth except for Jesus, but there are people God redeemed from their sins who do follow him to the best of their ability although not perfectly.  Why did God take the one good son of this treacherous king away so young, and why did he have That Guy killed so soon when he committed the one sin of eating with someone before he got home?  Also, why did my faithful mother die of cancer at age 50 and why did the thirteen-year-old son of one of our pastors get killed in a car wreck many years ago?

It's like God has mercy on some of his faithful people by taking them home at a young age.  They don't have to live to see further corruption in our society, and they are taken before they can be corrupted themselves.  Although we who are still living grieve them, they are happy in the arms of Jesus and will never cry again.

Meanwhile, the wicked people live on and on, and unless God rescues them from themselves, this is the only heaven they will know.  In the end, it is much better for the faithful ones who live short, but impactful lives on earth, then for the ones who live long but only waste their potential.

I will finish with Rehoboam in the next post.

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