One Year Bible, Wednesday June 15th "The Kings of Israel and Judah Continue to Decline" "Peter Invites a Gentile to Stay at His House!"
Ahijah’s Prophecy against Jeroboam
Today we are going to see Jeroboam's terrible decision making to worship other gods come back to haunt him. His son, Abijah was sick so he disguised his wife and told her to go and find out what would happen to him. He did not want the prophet to know it was his wife. But the Lord told Ahijah what was going to happen. The news was not good. Not only would the boy die, but the rest of Jeroboam's family would die too. The kingdom would be ripped out of his hands, just as it was ripped out of Solomon's hands. Jeroboam reigned for 22 years, and when he died his son, Nadab became the king of Israel.
Jeroboam sent his wife to discover the fate of his son. The bad news was that the child would die. Yet his death would be a demonstration of mercy, because at least he would be buried in honor and properly mourned. Such great judgment was coming upon the house of Jeroboam that all would see that by comparison, this son was blessed in his death. - Guzik
Rehoboam Rules in Judah
Things in the Southern kingdom were not any better than the Northern kingdom, and Rehoboam was just as bad of a leader as Jeroboam. Even King Shishak came and raided the temple and ransacked and stole from the temple treasuries and gold shields etc...
I hate to tell you things are not going to get any better with either the Northern kingdom (Israel) or the Southern Kingdom (Judah). If it were not for the covenant God had made with King David, you wonder what would have become of the Jewish people. But God kept his promises, because his plan was much bigger than what was happening in that generation.
Abijam Rules in Judah
Abijam ruled for three years in Judah. This showed that God did not bless his reign.
His heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David: This was the real problem with Abijam’s reign – his lack of a real personal relationship with God. David sinned during his reign, but his heart stayed loyal to the LORD his God. - Guzik
Asa Rules in Judah
We do see a bright light though in King Asa. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight. He got rid of shrine prostitutes and got rid of all the idols. He even had the intestinal fortitude to despose his grandmother because of the Asherah pole she had set up. He also brought back into the temple gold and silver items that his father had dedicated.
King Basha of Israel became afraid of Judah and tried to build walls to prevent Judah from growing and invading the towns of Israel. The fighting between Judah and Israel continued to the point where Asa made an alliance with King Ben Hadad of Syria to conquer the towns of Israel.
King Asa, one of the few good kings, was replaced by his son Jehoshapath as king of Judah.
The kings of Judah were usually measured against David, the founder of their dynasty. In contrast to his father Abijah (1 Kings 15:3), Asa followed in the same heart as David.
Cornelius Calls for Peter
Though Cornelius was not a believer, he was God-fearing. This is a common term in the bible. Oftentimes it was people outside of the Jewish faith. In Romans 1, Paul says what can be seen about God is obvious just by looking at the Creation. Looking at the sun, moon, stars, trees, and oceans points to a power greater than us.
We might say this person is a "seeker". In response to this man seeking God through his prayers and giving to the poor God sent him an angel to reveal more to him. In this case the angel told Cornelius to go find Simon, a tanner in Joppa. We know this to be the apostle Peter.
Meanwhile Peter was on the roof and received a vision of animals being lowered from heaven with the command, "Kill Peter and eat." These animals were considered unclean by the Jewish Law. Peter was told not to call "unclean" what God called "clean". Meanwhile Cornelius' men were coming to inquire of Peter.
When the men explained the vision of Cornelius Peter invited them in for the night. This story is the beginning of a huge paradigm shift for the gospel to move from the Jewish people only to the Gentiles.
Cornelius was in the category of what the Jews called God-fearers (one who feared God). These were Gentiles who loved the God of Israel; they were sympathetic to and supportive of the Jewish faith. Yet they stopped short of becoming full Jews in lifestyle and in circumcision.
Jewish people of that time respected and appreciated these God-fearing Gentiles, but they could not really share their life and homes and food with them, because they were still in fact Gentiles and not full Jewish converts. - Guzik
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