The story begins with a sick child, Abijah the son of king Jeroabom.
At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. 1 Kings 14:1Jeroboam was worried about his son, so he told his wife to go ask the blind prophet Ahijah what will become of him.
And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself ... and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people ... He shall tell thee what shall become of the child. 1 Kings 14:2-3(Why did Jeroboam tell his wife to disguise herself? Would it matter much to a blind prophet?)
So she went to Ahijah's house.
And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. 1 Kings 14:4aBefore her visit, God came to tell Ahijah that Jeroboam's wife would be coming to visit. God told him what he planned to do.
But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.1 Kings 14:4b-5So when Jeroboam's wife arrived, Ahijah told her he had some bad news.
And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. 1 Kings 14:6He said that God made Jeroboam king, but that Jeroboam wasn't perfect like God's servant David was. (See here for some of the perfect acts of David.) In fact, Jeroboam had acted worse than anyone who had ever lived up to that time. (God loves to exaggerate!)
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods. 1 Kings 14:7-9So to punish Jeroboam, God would kill all of Jeroboam's sons (or, as God put it, all those "that pisseth against the wall").
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall ... 1 Kings 14:10aAnd dispose of Jeroboam's family as though they were pieces of shit.
... and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. 1 Kings 14:10bThen he'll feed whatever is left of them to the dogs, if they lived in the city, or to the birds, if they were country folk.
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it. 1 Kings 14:11And finally, God will kill Jeroboam's sick son. As soon as the mother of the sick boy returns home, her son will die.
Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 1 Kings 14:12After hearing the words of God from his prophet Ahijah, Jeroboam's wife returned home. And God killed the sick boy the moment his mother entered his room.
And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; 1 Kings 14:17Could anyone love the God of the Bible after reading this story?
God's next killing: Jeroboam's family
19 comments:
This is why the Bible is not as good as other myths. If this were a Greek myth, the mother would have gone a-wandering in a bid to allow her son to have a full life and then she would have fallen ill and been brought to the city by someone who didn't recognise her. On meeting her son, he would drop dead. In the Bible, God just smites everyone - dull dull dull.
G*d loves. Loves to kill.
Despite the fact I own a Bible, I never read this passage. Thanks for your work.
This is why one is better off calling a doctor who is an atheist than a god who is psychotic.
I'm beginning to think that the simplest form of birth control isn't condom use, abortion or abstinence, but angering Yahweh.
What was Jeroboam thinking or hoping for by sending his wife in disguise? Wouldn't he have expected the prophet to see through it?
(1 Kings 14:9,17) Shouldn't this be in the contradictions "Are we punished for the sins of others?" as well as 14:16?
What is 1 Kings 14:13-14 all about?
So Jeroboam can't take a hint (1 Kings 13:33)? Why doesn't God just have a "sit down" talk with Jeroboam?
I find it little humorous that cracknels (1 Kings 14:3, only occurence) is also defined as fried pork fat. Did it have that meaning during KJV translation?
God moves in mysterious ways. Who are we to understand why he sometimes seems to be cruel ? It must be love that motivates God, so we have to try and understand his meaning - even when it is challenging.
We also have to understand the very different culture/time of the book of Kings.
Debating with a fundamentalist nut the other day, he was just accepting that its a fact people deserved to die due to their fathers/grandfathers sins, as a 'law' I guess.
This is a good example of sin by associationg. The mere fact that you are in association, in any way, shape or form with a sinner, makes you a sinner that is apparently also punishable by death.
Such a loving and caring fellow our Yahweh is!
Shanksta - we do understand god & that times were different.
Any improvement in culture is due to humanity moving out from under the domination of religion & its god.
Busterggi,
Any evil in this culture of death is because we're moving away from the one true religion and the one true God.
Abortions, for example, wouldn't be nearly as safe (and thus, encouraged by the pro-abortion "choice" group) as they are now, if not for misguided doctors.
If not for the bible, how else would you get morals?
Abeille - morals were around in all cultures before the bible was written.
Considering how Yahweh acts I'd say he's a damn poor example of good morality.
Abeille said...
Busterggi,
Any evil in this culture of death is because we're moving away from the one true religion and the one true God.
Abortions, for example, wouldn't be nearly as safe (and thus, encouraged by the pro-abortion "choice" group) as they are now, if not for misguided doctors.
To be fair Abeille, I don't think pro-choice advocates actually ENCOURAGE abortion.
They merely (and foolishly) insist that mankind has the right to practice as many abortions as God does.
As for your first point - of course you are correct !
I don't really understand what you mean by "this culture of death", but it's SO OBVIOUS that it IS only since we moved away from the one true faith that humanity suffers.
Luckily you and I are devout Catholics, so we're lucky that WE KNOW the one true faith and are saved.
What is wrong with you, skanksta? Get off your high-horse, man; what Mr. Yahweh does in the Bible is indefensible. Even I know this, and I'm a former Catholic!
Also, Ray? Had the Bible writers had any real creativity, they'd have thought to cook up such a myth about Abijah's mother; alas, alas...
@Blanchette
I was lucky enough to grow up in a country where believers stay in the closet for fear of ridicule and my mother took me to Dawkins lectures at a young age.
I just miss Brucker and think the blog lacks something without some unfortunate believer wrestling with their conscience trying to justify this appalling barbarism.
Filling in as an apologist, till a real one turns up, but as you can see, I'm not very good at it. Only seem to manage the bigoted fundie type defence :(
@Ray - You crack me up.
I love that God and His son is my Saviour. Mike.
Ask God for understanding and you Just might get real wisdom. God is not done killing yet, but we have no understanding why God does what He does. Why did He kill the Caanites and all the rest He ordered Joshua to extinguish? It had to do with genetics, something that God did not create in the first place (which takes further inquiry or research)besides the satan's plan to spoil the genetic line of our Savior's gene pool, they would also lead Israel astray. Genetics played a big part in why God rid the earth of many groups, it started pre-deluge. You have to do a bit more than read the words to even begin to understand why God does something. We will never get the full understanding of God. If you created a work of art and by and by a so called self proclaimed artist, came and added or erased a part of your work and this happened by different persons over time. You would not be happy. You would see that what you were trying to project through this work's message was unrecognizable. You would not be happy whatsoever. It is your work and you can do what you see fit with it, so can God, His work is much greater and He is only trying to preserve His message and project His perfection through man and the rest of creation. He is not cruel, He knows what is best, though in our arrogance, more so know, we think we know better and see Him s a killer. I used to wonder about that, until I decided to ask Him, He is and has been leading me to the truth. I did not like to read the OT because I did not understand the reasoning behind what was going on. I love to read it now, because I know know God is not cruel, he can't be nothing but loving. We know better than God the message of this world, but I choose God in His wisdom, what seems unreasonable to us is really ignorance of Who God is and I do not blame Him for His righteous anger. I love and serve Him and proud and know in my heart, in eternity I will have no regrets, unlike so many that will or surely will have regret. That regret will last forever, but we can choose better and if you are not sure, ask Him, He will respond as only you can recognize as Him. That is what is so great about Him, He cares and answers. No matter what one believes it does not negate God's truth, He is not going to slink out like a dog with his tail between his legs because someone says He is not real or they hate Him. He is not going anywhere. He is not one of the little gods of mythology, which I believe have some truth to them, they needed worship, because they were nothing to admire. God would like it but He doesn't need it from those who refuse, He gives us choice. I can't help but Admire Him immensely. One can say the air is not there, but in reality, if it was not, you would not exist. I love to defend My God, but He needs none to defend Him.
Jeroboam instituted a counter religion to the one God had commanded. God's displeasure with him had already been made manifest, yet he refused to repent and institute the necessary reform. When his son fell ill, he decided to consult with a prophet. We have record of two direct encounters he had with prophets. One was Ahijah, who had previously delivered to him a positive prophecy, and the other, unnamed, delivered the death knell, as it were, for him and his kingdom. Jeroboam may have felt, of the two, Ahijah might be most sympathetic, but, in order to defend against any likelihood of Ahijah calling him out on his sinful rebellion, might the king devised the plan of sending his wife, and sending her in disguise so as not to open himself up to more unfavorable prophecies?
Post a Comment