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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘The child shall die.’
1Ki_14:12
What was to happen? Ahijah is explicit. After repeating the story of Jeroboam’s iniquity he adds: ‘Arise thou, therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave’—every one else will be slaughtered—‘because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.’
I. Here we have a striking instance of a child daring to be an exception.—There are children that are brought up in pious homes whose subsequent career is exceedingly sad. There are others who have been brought up in ungodly homes who have been marvellously preserved and sustained. They have breathed impure atmospheres, morally and spiritually, from their earliest days, and yet from their very childhood it seems that they have been pure, noble, and self-denying. We have such an instance here: ‘There is found some good thing in him toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.’ So much grander an attainment to have any good thing left in him with such a father as Jeroboam. Thank God, a child’s possibilities, though his surroundings may be infinitely sad and infinitely depressing, in God’s wise Providence are not always conditioned by the circumstances of home. Oh! the house of Jeroboam is not a veritable hell yet. There is an element of heaven there. It is not a house of total darkness yet. There is a gleam of light in that little child’s face that marks him out as an exception.
II. But observe, the house of Jeroboam in this case is not permitted to keep that lad.—That is one of the penalties of inquity when it has filled up its measure that the talent that is left is taken away; that the good that remains is put out. The house of Jeroboam was not good enough for that child to remain in it, though he had been born in it. He shall die. How often it is that the best die out of a family in life as well as in stories. It is one of the mysteries of Providence that the best should be taken away. The child of Jeroboam died while Jeroboam lived on. But by death that child was saved from evil days. Death was a great reward to him. To have remained in the house of Jeroboam, and to have shared the calamities which were to befall the nation as the result of Jeroboam’s sin, would have been a terrible experience for that child; therefore God took him out of the way. ‘The child shall die.’ He took him aside so that he should witness none of these things. Oh! there is mercy sometimes in taking a child away from evil surroundings. Death is far sweeter than some lives, and in such a case the child is taken away from temptation which might have been overpowering. Thus this is a striking instance of a home which has forfeited the privilege of keeping a choice and pure spirit. The family of Jeroboam must cease. It shall not be honoured by such a life as this. It shall not find a respite in godly descendants. It is a sad thing for any community or nation when, as the result of its sinfulness or its iniquity, it is deprived of its most promising youth.
Thank God, one of the hopes of England is in the rising race! One shudders when we are untrue to our privileges lest the penalty of Jeroboam befall us—that we shall not be privileged to rear up a far grander race than we have been.
Illustrations
(1) ‘She looked at the lovely Tirzah, she saw the city-gate. She looked again: the city was the New Jerusalem, the gate was a Gate of Pearl. Thus far, and thus far only, may the mother accompany the child on the journey on which he too had set out. The tones of her husband’s voice recall her to consciousness.’
(2) ‘He told me, sad at heart, my lord, the king,
How when I reached the city’s gates again,
There came a breath and blew in on his cheeks—
For it had thundered, as I dreamt, and rained,
And all the lattice was refreshed with rain—
And he had turned toward it … smiled … and slept—
And as I entered still he slept … and smiled.’
(3) ‘Jeroboam in sending to Ahijah, though he has faith in his knowledge of Ahijah, that he would predict the right thing, yet played the fool. He thought that Ahijah, who could see the future, would not know who it is that goes to him. There is always a weak point in the armour of the godless man. The criminal plays the fool somewhere; a murderer is sure to be out with it, however clever he has been in the plan of the murder; and sin persisted in is sure to betray a man sooner or later. Just think of it; a man of Jeroboam’s keen insight, and masterly mind, was such a poor fool as to think that Ahijah, who could tell him all about his boy, whether he would live or die, would be imposed upon by a poor woman’s dress and head-gear, even though “his eyes were set by reason of his age.” Thus Jeroboam betrays the trickster even when better memories come back to him. It is the old diplomatist that we have here; and that is one of the dangers of State, that a man may become a diplomatist, and only a diplomatist. There is a diplomatic reserve, or a hiding of personality, here inconsistent with honesty.’
(4) ‘The Angel of the Lord stood by,—
Watching, methought, to see what I would think
Of this his blessed Home. He took my hand
And pointed to the city,—“Beautiful
For situation, joy of all the earth,
Is God’s fair Zion! Thou shalt rise and come
(Even with joy) within this dreaded gate
Of Tirzah; for what time thy weary feet
Do pass across this city-gate, the child
Shall cross that threshold, and behold the face
Of God in peace.” ’