Today’s passage: 1 Kings 14:21-31
Helpful thoughts:
- After focusing on the northern ten tribes, our attention is turned back to Judah and King Rehoboam.
- Jeroboam built altars to prevent people from going to Jerusalem. But, they were worshiping false gods in Jerusalem as well!
- Just one generation after Solomon, allies had turned into enemies and the gold in Jerusalem was replaced with bronze.
- Solomon had been married to Pharaoh’s daughter. But, Shishak was the leader of a new dynasty in Egypt. Therefore, any family ties were now without any significance.
Questions to consider:
- What is so startling about the level of sin Judah was participating in? Why had God used Israel to drive the other nations out of Canaan? (e.g. Genesis 15:16)
- Why do you think Naamah the Ammonite is named at the beginning and end of this passage? What did Solomon’s marriages to all of the foreign women result in? (1 Kings 11:1-4)
- We belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. How has God called the Church to conduct themselves as a people who have been set apart? (Romans 12:2)