"And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done" (1 Kings 14:22)
Both Rehoboam and Jeroboam sinned, and made Israel and Judah sin in building up idols (see 1 Kings 14:15-24). And perhaps Judah did even worse, for their sins were "above all that their fathers had done," and "they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel" (1 Kings 14:24). Leviticus 20:23-24 makes it clear that the sins of those nations included a host of sexual sins, from incest to beastality. Yes, God did want His covenant people casting Him aside for false gods, but in those days the "high places" and "groves" were accompanied by sexual sin as part of the pagan rites. I'm not going to go into it, but believe me, they just weren't worshipping trees. And, those were the religions that didn't do human sacrifice. And here Judah was, doing it all.
It has been what, a only a few generations since David and Solomon, since the temple, the glory of the God of Israel? How quick they were to fall. But then, I do that too. I'll have a spiritual experience, a real coming-to-Jesus-moment, and for a few months I'll be higher than I ever have been. But then I get caught up in shopping, and the love of material things. Of career and culture. And, if only for a short time, I forget my God. Or, at least, I don't remember Him as I should. That is why repentance is such a vital part of God's plan, and why God loves a repentant man.
Again, David is mentioned in this chapter: "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to thee [Jeroboam]: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only that which was right in mine eyes" (1 Kings 14:8). God is going to take away Jeroboam's kingdom from his son the way that David's kingdom was taken from his grandson, yet Jeroboam is nothing like David. David "followed [God] with all his heart," while Jeroboam "hast cast [God] behind [his] back" (1 Kings 14:9). Just another example that we cannot assume that what when the same bad things happen to two people it is because they committed the same sin, or even had sin at all. Now, Jeroboam's son dies much like David and Bathsheba's first son dies. Here, it is made very clear that the son was already sick and unlikely that God struck him down. Ahijah the prophet makes it clear that while Jeroboam's son will not be miraculously healed, "in him [the son] there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam" (1 Kings 14:13).
The son of Jeroboam was a "good thing" in the sight of the Lord. This is mortality, and it ends, for everybody. And, it is really sad. Beyond grief. But, it does not mean that someone sinned, that they were not good or accepted in the Lord's sight. In fact, Jeroboam's son teaches us that God sees death a different than we do. Death is not always a punishment. Jeroboam's son was counted unto his father as a "good thing towards the Lord." So, as the next chapters reveal wicked kings and idolatrous people, and death and destruction come, we need not assume that all are bad. Or that the Lord kills indiscriminately. He knows who He is taking home.
It is the beginning of the end for Israel. But for the individual citizens, for those who are a "good thing" in the Lord, death and civil unrest is only the beginning of their eternity. Just because Jeroboam makes "high places" do not mean that everyone worshipped there. There is individual agency. And yes, apparently a nation can commit a crime as a whole, but it does not mean that every person is stained with the blood of that generation. Keeping that in mind, let's have mercy in our judgement towards the ancient Israelites as we read further.
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