On September 25th, I discovered something profound in the Bible. A few days before, I had spoken to a brother in Christ. During the fellowship we had, I wanted to reference a story in the Bible to make a point.
The problem was that I could not clearly remember the story. I told the brother, “There is a story in the Bible where a certain king sent his wife to a prophet to ask what would happen to his son.”
At the time, I was guessing the prophet was Elisha. As for the king, I couldn’t guess who he was. I had read the story a long time ago, and most of the details were gone.
Eventually, despite the challenge of recalling the story, I managed to draw the lesson I wanted from the story.
After the fellowship with my brother, I had a meeting with myself where I asked myself, “How can you claim to be a man of God, yet you can’t recall a simple story from the Bible?”
I decided to revisit every story from the Bible whose details I had forgotten. Common sense dictated that I should begin with the story of the king who sent his wife to a prophet to inquire about his son.
Little did I know that the Holy Spirit would lead me to uncover something deeper from the passage.
I did a quick online search and discovered that the story is in 1st Kings 14.
As a good student of the Holy Spirit, I opened my Bible to read the story to get full details.
Immediately, I noted that the prophet was Ahijah, and the king was Jeroboam. This surprised me a bit because I was quite familiar with King Jeroboam and his wickedness. I couldn’t tell why I didn’t think it was him who sent his wife to the prophet of God.
As for Ahijah, I have to admit I had no clue that he was the prophet in this particular story. He is one of the less prominent prophets in the Bible, although his contribution is significant.
The details I knew about the story were that the prophet was informed by God that the king’s wife would come to him in disguise. I also knew that the prophet said the King’s son would die. Lastly, I knew that the son died as soon as the wife returned home, just as the prophet had said.
Upon reading the first few lines of the story, I noted that the son who was sick was actually named. His name was Abijah. I always thought the son was never mentioned until I read it in the Bible.
I also noted that Ahijah was the prophet who had anointed Jeroboam as the first king of Israel after the separation of Judah and Israel.
I knew Jeroboam was the first king of Israel after it separated with Judah, but I couldn’t tell who had anointed him king. Typically, when I’m reading the Old Testament, especially the Kings, I also pay attention to the prophets of their time.
This helps me link events a lot more easily. I know King Saul dealt with Samuel. King David dealt with Samuel, Nathan, Gad, and so on.
Back to the story…
After reading the first few lines, I got a question: why couldn’t King Jeroboam go to the prophet himself? Why send his wife? And also, why ask her to disguise herself?
But I quickly got a clue from the very words of Jeroboam.
You see, Ahijah the prophet had anointed Jeroboam as king. As you would expect, Ahijah expected Jeroboam to uphold the ways of the Lord.
But we know from the Bible that King Jeroboam was one of the most wicked kings of Israel. He competes for the top spot in wickedness with the likes of Ahab, whom we know was nothing short of the devil in human form.
Given that King Jeroboam had not walked in the ways of the Lord, it would explain why he wouldn’t want to face the prophet of God. He must have been afraid of being given a prophecy of doom.
For this reason, he decided to send his wife, but still asked her to disguise herself.
Ironically, Ahijah the prophet was blind, and the Bible tells us it was because of his age. At this point, I was thinking, how scared must King Jeroboam have been that he would send his wife to a blind prophet, and still ask her to disguise herself?
The guy was not taking any chances for sure.
This proved to me that King Jeroboam knew what he had done was evil. You don’t feel that level of guilt if you don’t know the wrongs you’ve done.
Also, I’m thinking, this man was a King. There is no way a king is going to fear anyone in his kingdom unless there is something seriously wrong.
I continued reading the story, and just as I knew before, the Lord revealed to Ahijah the prophet that King Jeroboam’s wife would come to him in disguise to ask about the fate of their sick son.
The prophet delivered the judgement of God on the house of Jeroboam without hesitation. Though the wife of King Jeroboam had disguised herself, the prophet called her out as soon as she stepped through the door.
Now, here is the important thing I want you to note about the prophecy of doom that Ahijah the prophet gave to King Jeroboam.
The Lord vowed to kill every male descendant of Jeroboam in Israel. He even went further to describe how they would die. The Lord said those who die in the city would be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the countryside would be eaten by birds.
That is brutal, very brutal. But I can understand, given the wickedness King Jeroboam had done.
However, the most intriguing thing about this judgement was the case of the sick son. Given that he was Jeroboam’s son, obviously, he would also suffer the punishment the Lord had declared.
Sure enough, just as I expected, the prophet said the son would die as soon as the wife of King Jeroboam returned home.
But what intrigued me the most was the little exception the prophet added concerning the son of King Jeroboam. The prophet said the son would be the only one in the house of Jeroboam who would be buried.
When I read that, I quickly asked, why the exception?
However, right after the exception is stated, the reason is given. The prophet said that the exception was because Abijah was the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord had found anything good.
This was very interesting to me. First, because I realized, God is very meticulous with his judgement. Though death had been declared on the son, God was careful with the manner of death for the son.
But by far the most interesting thing was the fact that the only person in the house of King Jeroboam in whom the Lord found anything good was the first one to suffer the judgement of God.
Upon this realization, immediately, I remembered what Isaiah 57:1 says:
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Though King Jeroboam’s son was not necessarily called righteous, at least, some righteousness was found in him. For that reason, God, in His careful consideration, decided to take away Jeroboam’s son first so that he wouldn’t live to see the atrocities that his father’s house would suffer.
Secondly, I remembered what is written in 1st Peter 4:17;
For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
From this, I understood that whenever God is executing judgement, He always starts from His house. In this case, the only godly person was the first to suffer God’s judgement.
I know this is the case because God wants to show that His judgement is fair. It is also a way of inflicting the wicked with fear.
Basically, the wicked should ask themselves, “If God can’t spare His own children who are not as wicked as we are, how much worse is it going to be for us?”
Lastly, by God starting the judgment on Jeroboam’s house with his son, who at least had something good in him, was a way for God to show just how sure His judgement was. In other words, if God could not spare a somewhat good person, what would make the wicked think they can escape the judgement?
Therefore, on September 25th, 2025, I learned that God’s judgement is fair, and it always begins in His house. This was a wake-up call for me to be more mindful of my actions.
I hope it is a wake-up call for you as well.
God bless you!