How Are You Building Your Kingdom? (1 Kings & 2 Chronicles)

Are you building something God can bless, or just asking Him to bless what you’ve built? Jeroboam shows how quickly pride turns to downfall.

How Are You Building Your Kingdom? (1 Kings & 2 Chronicles)

1 Kings 13 - 14; 2 Chronicles 11 - 12

Today's Scripture Passage

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Are you building yourself a kingdom?

You might not think of it in those terms, but maybe you’re building a career, a business, or a family based on certain ideals you think are essential. As you do so, it’s important to pause and consider how God would want you to oversee what you have.

1 Kings chapters 13 and 14 detail a series of prophetic warnings and judgments against the kings of Israel and Judah. Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel after the division of the united monarchy of Israel and Judah around 930 BC. In 1 Kings 13, a man of God from Judah is sent by God to Bethel to prophesy against King Jeroboam for his idolatrous practices at the altar. He predicts that a future king named Josiah will desecrate the altar. Despite King Jeroboam's attempt to seize him, the man of God's prophecy causes the king's hand to wither and the altar to split. “The splitting of the altar,” Iain Provan writes, “is a graphic illustration of the truth that God is not and cannot be under Jeroboam’s control.”[1]

After his hand is restored at the prophet's intercession, Jeroboam invites the man to dine with him, but he refuses, citing God's command not to eat or drink there. On his return journey, the man of God is deceived by an old prophet, disobeys God by eating at his house, and is subsequently killed by a lion as a punishment. His body is mourned and buried by the old prophet, who confirms the validity of his prophecies about the altar.

Chapter 14 shifts to King Jeroboam seeking a disguised prophecy about his sick son, only to receive a prediction of doom for his dynasty. Simultaneously, the chapter recounts Judah under King Rehoboam, highlighting the kingdom's decline into idolatry and its consequent suffering from Egyptian invasion and looting. Rehoboam was the first king of the southern kingdom of Judah following the split of the united kingdom of Israel after the reign of his father, Solomon.

His religious practices were inconsistent; while he did engage in the worship of God, he also allowed and sometimes participated in idolatrous practices, which included the worship of foreign gods and the setting up of high places, sacred pillars, and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree. This mixture of adherence and deviation from traditional worship led to a mixed legacy. Provan writes, “God had intended for Jeroboam to become a genuine spiritual “leader” (nāgı̂d, v. 7), but unfortunately Jeroboam’s attention to religious matters only led his people into all the evils of gross idolatry.”[2]

Despite this division, we still see God working in the hearts of his people. And we see both Jeroboam and Rehoboam pursue God, at least in word. In 1 Kings 13:6, Jeroboam says, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me.” However, a few verses later, in Verse 33, we read, “Even after this, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way.” Similarly, 2 Chronicles 12 shows a side of Rehoboam that seeks God after abandoning him, but 1 Kings 14:22 says that under his leadership, “Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.”

The first kings of Israel and Judah reveal how easy it is to be double-minded in our pursuit of kingdom-building. Like Jeroboam and Rehoboam, we might worship God in word but struggle to follow through in deed. We like the advantages of having God’s blessing on our career, finances, family, home, or any other form of kingdom we’re creating, but we struggle to do what he says.