WE FOLDED OUR TENTS AND WENT HOME LAST SESSION AFTER READING ABOUT KING JEROBOAM OF ISRAEL UTTERLY ABANDONING YAHUAH BY MEANS OF CREATING AND WORSHIPPING GOLDEN CALF DEITIES AND TELLING HIS SUBJECTS THAT “THESE ARE NOW YOUR ALAHIMS WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT, O’ ISRAEL!” IN OTHER WORDS HE RENOUNCED HIS ALLEGIANCE TO YAHUAH AND SWITCHED IT TO THESE CALF-IDOLS.
BUT JUST REMEMBER … JEROBOAM’S RENOUNCING YAHUAH DID NOT MEAN THAT HE HAD QUIT BELIEVING IN HIM … OR THAT HE WOKE UP ONE MORNING AND CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT YAHUAH DIDN’T EXIST. HE CERTAINLY CONTINUED TO BELIEVE IN YAHUAH - HE JUST DIDN’T TRUST AND OBEY HIM AS HIS OWN ALAHIM AND MASTER ANY LONGER AND TURNED INSTEAD TO THINGS THAT HE CONTRIVED IN HIS OWN MIND AND HEART - THINGS THAT BETTER SERVED HIS AGENDA AND PURPOSES. YAHUAH CALLS THIS ABANDONING HIM.
JAMES 2:19
“YOU BELIEVE THAT "ALAHIM IS ONE"? GOOD FOR YOU! THE DEMONS BELIEVE IT TOO- THE THOUGHT MAKES THEM SHUDDER WITH FEAR!”
EVEN DEMONS BELIEVE IN YAHUSHA, THEY JUST GIVE THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO SATAN, NO MATTER HOW IRRATIONAL THAT MIGHT SEEM TO US. SO WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT IN YAHUSHA’S EYES, ABANDONING HIM IS NOT JUST ABOUT COMMITTING SINS AND IT’S ALSO NOT ABOUT BECOMING AN ATHEIST EITHER. ABANDONING YAHUSHA, RENOUNCING HIS POSSESSION OF OUR LIVES, MEANS THAT WE HAVE DETERMINED TO WALK AWAY FROM OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AND CHOOSE OUR OWN WAYS AND MINDSETS INSTEAD.
SO JEROBOAM, KNOWING ALL THAT HAD HAPPENED (WITH HIS WITHERED HAND AND THE MAN OF ALAHIM'S DEATH), STILL REFUSED TO GIVE UP THE CALF-WORSHIP AND REPENT. HIS HEART WAS NOW HARD AND IMPENETRABLE TOWARDS YAHUAH. AND THIS WAS EVEN AFTER HIS YOUTHFUL TRAINING IN KNOWING AND WORSHIPPING THE ALAHIM OF ISRAEL AT THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM. SO HE WAS WITHOUT EXCUSE ... THIS IS WHERE CHAPTER 14 PICKS UP.
THINGS BEGIN TO SPEED UP FROM HERE ON IN THE BOOK OF KINGS. UP THROUGH THE FIRST 13 CHAPTERS THE ENTIRE TIME HAS BEEN DEVOTED TO MAINLY DEALING WITH SOLOMON, ONLY A LITTLE MORE THAN A CHAPTER WITH DAVID, AND JUST IN THE LAST FEW PASSAGES REHOBOAM AND JEROBOAM. THE TIME PERIOD COVERED SO FAR IN THE BOOK OF KINGS IS PERHAPS ONLY 50 YEARS. BUT DURING THE NEXT 8 CHAPTERS (THAT COMPLETES THE 1ST BOOK OF KINGS) WE WILL COVER AROUND 80 YEARS AND MEET SEVERAL MORE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH. BY THE TIME WE COMPLETE THE 2ND BOOK OF KINGS ABOUT 250 MORE YEARS WILL HAVE PASSED UNTIL THE LAST KING OF ISRAEL MAKES HIS APPEARANCE.
THE THING THAT GETS A BIT DIFFICULT AT THIS POINT IS THAT WE HAVE TWO SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT ISRAELITE KINGDOMS TO DEAL WITH: THE NORTHERN ONE CALLED ISRAEL AND THE SOUTHERN ONE CALLED JUDAH. SINCE EACH WILL HAVE THEIR OWN KING, WE FIND THE COMING CHAPTERS WILL GIVE US INFORMATION THAT HELPS US TO SYNCHRONISE THE REIGNS OF THE NORTHERN KINGS TO THE SOUTHERN KINGS.
CORRUPT (1 Kings 14)
1At that time (AFTER THE BETHAL AFFAIR AND HIS WITHERED HAND) King Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. 2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh and see the Prophet Ahijah. He’s the one who said that I would become the King of Israel. Dress yourself so that people will not know that you’re my wife. 3Give the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son, and he will tell you.”
ALTHOUGH JEROBOAM DIDN’T REALISE IT, YAHUAH HAD ALREADY DECIDED TO RIP THE THRONE FROM HIM BECAUSE HE BROKE THE ONE CONDITION THAT HAD BEEN PLACED UPON HIM WHEN THE PROPHET ACHIYAH OF SHILOH
TOLD HIM THAT THE THRONE WOULD BE HIS AND HIS DYNASTY WOULD ENDURE IF HE WALKED IN YAHUAH’S WAYS. IN FACT THE CURSE THAT THE 'MAN OF ALAHIM' FROM JUDAH HAD PUT ON THE GROSS ALTAR OF BETHAL ONLY INCLUDED A VEILED IMPLICATION THAT THERE WAS A CURSE UPON JEROBOAM AS WELL - BUT JEROBOAM DIDN’T SEEM TO RECOGNISE THAT.
RATHER TYPICALLY FOR THAT ERA, JEROBOAM AND HIS WIFE SOUGHT TO LEARN IF THEIR SICK SON WOULD SURVIVE. SINCE MEDICAL CARE IN THAT ERA WAS BASED MORE ON SUPERSTITIONS THAN ANYTHING THAT ACTUALLY HAD A BENEFICIAL PHYSICAL EFFECT, THE ISSUE WAS NOT WHAT ACTIONS MIGHT BE TAKEN TO MAKE THEIR SON BETTER - RATHER, THE CONCERN WAS SIMPLY TO KNOW IN ADVANCE IF THEIR SON WOULD ULTIMATELY LIVE OR DIE. THEREFORE THE KING SENT THE BOY’S MOTHER TO A SEER TO INQUIRE .
4So the King’s wife did what he said. She went to the home of Ahijah the Prophet in Shiloh. Ahijah was very old and had become blind. 5But YAHUAH said to him, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son because he is sick. She will pretend to be someone else (AS THE KING WAS EMBARRASSED TO BE NEEDING HELP FOR A CALAMITY), but don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to say to her.”
6So when Ahijah heard her coming to the door, he said, “Come in! I know who you are. You are Jeroboam’s wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else?
I have some bad news for you. 7Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what YAHUAH the Alahim of Israel, says: ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the Israelites. I made you the Ruler of My people. 8David’s family was ruling the Kingdom of Israel, but I took the Kingdom away from them and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed My Commands and followed Me with his whole heart. He did only what I accepted. 9But you have sinned worse than anyone who ruled before you. You stopped following Me and made other false-deities for yourself. You made those statues to make me angry. 10So Jeroboam, I will bring troubles to your family. I will kill all the men in your family. I will destroy your family completely, like fire burning up dung. 11Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. And anyone from your family who dies in the fields will be eaten by birds. YAHUAH has spoken.’”
12Then Ahijah said, “Now, go home. Your son will die as soon as you enter the city. 13All Israel will cry for him. They will bury him, but he’s the only one from Jeroboam’s family who’ll be buried. This is because he’s the only one in Jeroboam’s family who pleased YAHUAH, the Alahim of Israel. 14Soon, YAHUAHwill put a new King over Israel who will destroy Jeroboam’s family. 15Then YAHUAHwill punish Israel. The Israelites will be so full of fear that they will shake like tall grass in the water. He will pull Israel up from this good land that He gave their ancestors. He will scatter them to the other side of the Euphrates River. YAHUAHwill do this because the people made Him angry when they built sacred Asherah poles. 16He will let the Israelites be defeated because Jeroboam sinned, and then made the Israelites sin.”
LET'S SUMMARISE: HERE IS THE GIST OF WHAT YAHUAH COMMUNICATED TO JEROBOAM THROUGH ACHIYAH:
1. YOU WERE A MERE COMMONER AND NOT OF A ROYAL LINE, BUT I ELEVATED YOU FROM AMONG YOUR PEOPLE AND MADE YOU KING OVER 10 TRIBES OF MY PEOPLE.
2. I DID THIS BECAUSE SOLOMON AND HIS BRANCH OF DAVID’S LINE PROVED TO NOT BE WORTHY OF RULING OVER THE ENTIRE KINGDOM ON EARTH.
3. I GAVE YOU AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY AND YOU FAILED. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE DAVID BUT INSTEAD YOU HAVE TAKEN THE MONARCHY OF ISRAEL TO NEW LOWS. IN FACT YOU HAVE ACTED MORE WICKEDLY THAN ANY ISRAELITE KING BEFORE YOU.
4. NOT ONLY DID YOU GO AFTER OTHER IDOLS, YOU CREATED YOUR OWN AND LED YOUR PEOPLE TO WORSHIP THEM.
5. YOU 'PUT ME BEHIND YOUR BACK' AND SHOWED ME THE GREATEST CONTEMPT.
6. THEREFORE IN CONSEQUENCE, THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM WILL BE TERMINATED. ALL THE INFLUENTIAL MALE DESCENDANTS THAT COULD HAVE RULED INSTEAD WILL DIE LIKE DOGS.
7. I SHALL CAUSE THE MALE DESCENDANTS OF JEROBOAM TO DIE VIOLENTLY AND THEIR REMAINS TO BE TREATED AS THOUGH THEY WERE EXCREMENT AND NOT HUMAN CORPSES TO BE DEAL WITH RESPECTFULLY.
8. THEREFORE ANY OF YOUR MALE OFFSPRING WHO DIES WITHIN CITY WALLS WILL BE EATEN BY PACKS UNCLEAN DOGS - ANY WHO DIE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY WALLS WILL BE EATEN BY UNCLEAN SCAVENGER BIRDS.
9. YAHUAH WILL ANOINT A NEW KING WHO WILL ELIMINATE THE RULE OF THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM.
10. BUT WORST OF ALL, BECAUSE JEROBOAM DID ALL THESE THINGS, HIS 10 NORTHERN TRIBES WILL BE TORN OUT BY THEIR ROOTS AND EXILED FROM THEIR LAND TO A FOREIGN PLACE BEYOND THE EUPHRATES.
17So Jeroboam’s wife went back to Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped into the house, the boy died. 18They buried him and all the people of Israel cried for him. This happened just as YAHUAH said it would through His servant, the Prophet Ahijah. 19The rest of what King Jeroboam did is written in the book, 'The History of the Kings of Israel'. It includes the wars he fought and the way he ruled. 20Jeroboam ruled as King for 22 years, then he died and was buried with his ancestors. Then his son Nadab became the new King.
A REASONABLE QUESTION IS: WHY WILL ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE 10 NORTHERN TRIBES BE EVENTUALLY EXILED TO (WHAT WILL TURN OUT TO BE) ASSYRIA? BECAUSE THEY HAVE, IN LESS THAN ONE GENERATION, TAKEN UP THE WORSHIP OF THE CANAANITES AND REJECTED THE WORSHIP OF YAHUAH. THEY HAVE ERECTED ASHERAH AND GIVEN THEMSELVES OVER TO THE FALSE CANAANITE DEITIES. AND WHY DID THEY DO THAT? WAS IT BECAUSE THEY WERE OPPRESSED AND FORCED TO DO SO? NO! IT WAS ALL BECAUSE OF JEROBOAM’S WICKED AND FAILED LEADERSHIP.
21Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, was 41 years old when he became King of Judah. Rehoboam ruled 17 years in Jerusalem, the city YAHUAH chose for his own. He chose this city from all the other Tribes of Israel. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite.
22The people of Judah did things that YAHUAH considered evil. They made Him angry with all their sins—more than any of their ancestors had ever done. 23They built high places, memorial stones, pillars and ashram poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 24There were also men who served other deities by selling their bodies for sex (as cult prostitutes). So the people of Judah were actually worse than the people who’d lived in the land before them, even though YAHUAH had taken the land away from those people to give it to the Israelites!
WHAT IS BEING REFERRED TO ARE SEXUAL ACTS THAT ARE SOMEHOW ASSOCIATED WITH WORSHIP RITUAL. THAT IS THERE WERE, SACRED, SET-APART PEOPLE WHO DID ABOMINABLE THINGS IN SERVICE TO THE TEMPLE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN FERTILITY RITUALS THAT INVOLVED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE - IT COULD HAVE BEEN PROSTITUTION AS A MEANS TO COLLECT MONEY FOR THE TEMPLE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. WHATEVER IT WAS IT WAS TERRIBLE IN THE EYES OF YAHUAH, IT WAS SOMETHING THAT THE PAGAN GENTILES DID AND THEREFORE YAHUAH’S PEOPLE SHOULD NOT DO IT, AND IT HAPPENED IN JUDAH AND IN CONJUNCTION WITH SUPPOSEDLY HONOURING YAHUAH.
WHATEVER OCCURRED WAS DONE IN THE NAME OF YAHUAH BY ISRAELITES WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE DOING A GOOD DEED. NO DOUBT THEY WERE SINCERE AND PROBABLY WANTED TO PLEASE YAHUAH. OF COURSE, AS 2ND CHRONICLES 12 EXPLAINS, THEY HAD ABANDONED YAHUAH’S INSTRUCTIONS AND SO FOLLOWED THEIR OWN HEARTS AND MINDS AND DID WHAT SEEMED GOOD TO THEM. THE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP AND ESTABLISHMENT OBVIOUSLY CONDONED IT (EVEN ENCOURAGED AND SUPERVISED IT), AND PROBABLY AT LEAST PARTLY BECAUSE IT BROUGHT IN REVENUE TO THE TEMPLE. THOSE INVOLVED CERTAINLY DID NOT THINK THEY WERE DOING WRONG - BUT BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T KNOW YAHUAH’S COMMANDMENTS VERY WELL, THEY HAD NOTHING TO MEASURE THEIR BEHAVIOUR AGAINST. WHAT WAS THE CONSEQUENCE FOR THIS APOSTASY?
25In the fifth year that Rehoboam was King, King Shishak of Egypt came to attack Jerusalem. 26He took the treasures from YAHUAH’S Temple and from the King’s Palace. He even took the gold shields that Solomon had made and put on the walls of Jerusalem. 27King Rehoboam made more shields to put in their places, but they were made from bronze. He gave them to the guards on duty at the palace gates. 28Every time the King went to YAHUAH’S Temple, the guards took out the shields and went with him.
After they were finished, they put the shields back on the wall in the guardroom. 29The rest of what King Rehoboam did is written in the book, 'The History of the Kings of Judah'. 30Rehoboam and Jeroboam were always fighting against each other. 31Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David (His mother was Naamah, an Ammonite.) Then Rehoboam’s son Abijah became the next King after his death.
REHOBOAM HAD REIGNED FROM 928 B.C. TO 911 B.C (A PERIOD OF 17 YEARS) AND HE WAS A RELATIVELY YOUNG MAN WHEN HE DIED (BARELY 40 YEARS OLD). ALSO JEROBOAM WAS STILL ALIVE AND IN POWER WHEN REHOBOAM DIED.
WE CAN SEE THAT NO MATTER WHO YAHUAH SEND TO HIS PEOPLE TO HELP THEM, THEY ALWAYS REVERT BACK TO THEIR CORRUPT SINFUL WAYS - BECAUSE OF THE CORRUPT SEED THAT IS PLANTED WITHIN EVERY HUMAN AT THEIR CONCEPTION.
HEBREW UNDERSTANDING
" C O R R U P T " :
444 - to muddle, i.e. to turn, become filthy.
1605 - to chide, rebuke, reprove.
2610 - to soil, especially in a moral sense, defile, pollute, profane.
4167 - to jeer, to blaspheme:--be corrupt.
4743 to melt, to flow, dwindle, vanish:--consume away, dissolve, pine away.
2254 - to wind tightly (as a rope), i.e. to bind; specifically, by a pledge, to pervert, destroy; also to writhe in pain (especially of parturition), bring forth, deal corruptly, destroy, offend, lay and to (take a) pledge, spoil, travail, withhold, ruin, cast off.
SCRIPTURE UNDERSTANDING :
1 COR 15:33
“Don't be deceived! ‘Evil companionships corrupt good morals.’”
1 COR 15:50
“Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can't inherit the THE REIGN OF YAHUSHA; neither does corruption inherit incorruption”.
1 PETER 1:23
“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of Alahim, which lives and remains forever”.
2 COR 11:3
“But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Yahusha”.
2 PETER 1:4
“By which He has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust”.
2 PETER 2:19
“Promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him”.
GALATIANS 6:8
“For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life”.
MATT 7:17-18
“Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can't produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit”.
SUMMARY:
From the Hebrew word and the Scriptures above we can see that every human being born on this earth has a corrupt seed sown into their lives from the sin of Adam and Eve. Scripture explains this corruptness as a SEED …. which grows into a tree and bears fruit. That fruit is explained as wicked behaviour against “Yahusha’s Words”. Any person that hears the call of repentance and does not follow up going through immersion, and having the incorruptible seed planted in them, misses out on Eternal life. This is warning us to take heade of Heaven’s Instruction to every human.
Not only does the corruptible seed bear the fruits of wickedness it will decay and destroy the inner workings of the physical body, taking us to an early death. This is Satan’s plan for everyone of us to be destroyed.
Satan is profoundly jealous of Yahusha’s creation (men and women) because they are taking his place as being the closest to Yahusha. So he hates us! Satan wants us to never find out about the incorruptible seed that Yahusha plants in us on the day of our immersion, which will destroy and discard the corrupt seed or tree. Like the cuckoo bird in a nest, it throws out any other chicks.
The foolish part of the Bridal Company is against this teaching, trying to stop us from getting on the path and follow Yahusha. This foolish company wants to keep us with them, under the old teachings of the Jewish shadow-system. They want us to grow our beards (sometimes hair), wear tsittsith, change our name to Hebrew, learn Hebrew, bake special recipes for Sabbath meal, and many other foolish traditions, not realising that THE FEASTS AND SABBATHS ARE ALL ABOUT YAHUSHA and its Him we celebrate and worship, not foolish Jewish traditions.
The wise Bride needs to move on up the path, because these foolish carpet-baggers won’t take you there! Run the race to receive your crown of life, which brings you to perfection/maturity, so that you can do exploits in the supernatural power of Yahusha.
Be warned Brothers and Sisters, get yourself up that path, and be ready to meet your maker, otherwise Carpetbaggers will snared you and trap you in their web. That’s why Yahusha said “Come out of her (the foolish bride) My people, and be delivered from her corrupt poison”.
GETTING INVOLVED IN THE AFFAIRS OF THIS LIFE BRINGS YOU INTO THE VERY SAME IDOLATRY DISPLAYED BELOW...AND YAHUSHA HATES IT ALL!
THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BE TOTALLY
FRACKLED UP AT YAHUSHA'S RETURN, SO TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THIS ROCK OF CORRUPTION AND PUT YOUR EYES ON YAHUSHA - AND TRUST ONLY HIM.