Jeroboam I's Child Dies

The event is selected to show the persistence of Jeroboam in his course of evil and the judgments that were to fall upon him and his house as a result. The name of the son, Abijah, means "Jehovah is my father," and is probably an indication that when the child was born, Jeroboam did not intend to forsake the worship of Jehovah. The coincidence of the name with that of Rehoboam's son, Abijam (v. 31), or Abijah (2 Chron. 12:16), is of interest. Possibly it is more than a coincidence, since the births of the two sons may have taken place at about the same time, when Jeroboam was in favor with Solomon.

Previously Ahijah had been sent to Jeroboam with the cheering words that he was to be king, and that if faithful, the Lord would be with him and give him a sure house (ch. 11:38). But Jeroboam had not obeyed the Lord's commands he had grievously sinned and had led Israel into sin. At a time when the king was looking for a word of hope, God could give him only a message of rebuke. Jeroboam had before him the example of Solomon's wayward life. Indeed he had received his kingdom because it had been taken away from Solomon's son, Rehoboam.

Jeroboam therefore stood without excuse before God and before all Israel. There had been sinners among the leaders of Israel before the days of Jeroboam, but none to equal Jeroboam in his gross iniquities. Jeroboam repudiated the God who had given him the kingdom, serving idols instead. The warnings that had been given, he contemptuously spurned. God's inheritance had been placed in his hands as a sacred trust, but he failed to be true. The people of Israel were deliberately led into sin, encouraged to turn their backs on the Lord, who had delivered them from Egypt and given them the Promised Land.

All the males of the family of Jeroboam were to be put to death, so that his house would perish. This was done by Baasha (ch. 15:29). The phrase used to denote males was a common expression of the period, from the time of David (1 Sam. 25:22, 34), through Baasha (1 Kings 16:11), to Ahab (1 Kings 21:21 2 Kings 9:8), and is a term of contempt applied to such males as are doomed to utter destruction. The prophet says their child shall die. Scarcely a message to comfort a mother's aching heart or for a father anxiously hoping for the healing of his child. The death of the child was to be to Jeroboam a type of the doom of his house, which, if he continued in his evil ways, would be utterly destroyed. Perhaps the death of this son might so touch the heart of the king as to bring him to reason and to God.