{"id":62518,"date":"2019-09-05T15:03:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T12:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62518"},"modified":"2023-04-02T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T09:04:28","slug":"and-me-you-have-cast-behind-your-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/and-me-you-have-cast-behind-your-back\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd Me You Have Cast Behind Your Back\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[375,923,835,400],"acf":{"old_id":"62518","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"301","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Was he indeed worse than his three predecessors?","content":"

In the previous chapter, we heard the oracle pronounced by \u201cthe man of God\u201d condemning Jeroboam and his descendants to a fiery end because he promoted the high-places (<\/span>bamot<\/span><\/i>). Here, we begin to see its fulfillment. When Jeroboam\u2019s son took ill, he sent his wife to consult Ahijah, the very same prophet who had earlier chosen him to rule over the ten tribes. Although Jeroboam instructed her to travel incognito, Ahijah was forewarned by God of her approach and he greeted her with \u201cCome in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you disguised? I have a harsh message for you\u201d (6). Implicitly, Jeroboam feared that Ahijah would respond to him severely regardless of the actual inquiry, and that fear was confirmed. Even without hearing her question about the fate of the child, he warned her that his message would be \u201charsh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahijah then proceeded to enumerate God\u2019s charges against Jeroboam, who had been promoted to king in order to enhance the service of God. Instead:<\/span><\/p>\n

You have acted worse than all those who preceded you; you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to vex Me; and Me you have cast behind your back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who were \u201call those\u201d who preceded Jeroboam? After all, the total number of kings who had ruled over Israel by this point in time was three: Saul, David, and Solomon. Saul failed God in his inability to confront Amalek as instructed (1 Samuel 15), David sinned grievously in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12), and of Solomon we read:<\/span><\/p>\n

In his old age, his wives turned away Solomon\u2019s heart after other gods, and he was not as wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God as his father David had been. Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Phoenicians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was displeasing to the LORD and did not remain loyal to the LORD like his father David. (1 Kings 11:4-6)<\/span><\/p>\n

How could Jeroboam have \u201cacted worse\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect that the answer resides in the phrase with which we entitled these remarks: \u201cAnd Me you have cast behind your back\u201d (v. 9). The faith in God of Saul, David, and even Solomon never wavered, however susceptible to error they may have been. Jeroboam was of another type; he set God aside, as it were, and pretended He was not there. For the former kings, repentance and redemption were lively possibilities; for Jeroboam, they were dead letters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Anonymous Netherlands 1599, after Maerten de Vos, “Saul, David, and Solomon,” Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Gift of Belinda L. Randall from the collection of John Witt Randall<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62522,"id":62522,"title":"1kings14-Saul David Solomon","filename":"1kings14-Saul-David-Solomon.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings14-Saul-David-Solomon.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/and-me-you-have-cast-behind-your-back\/1kings14-saul-david-solomon\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings14-saul-david-solomon","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62518,"date":"2019-09-05 12:03:09","modified":"2021-12-08 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