I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 15-17.

    The passage tells us that Rehoboam’s son, Abijam, committed the same sins which Rehoboam had committed. Further it tells us that Abijam was not faithful to God. However, the passage also tells us that Abijam’s son, Asa, did what was pleasing in God’s sight. Asa banished the shrine prostitutes from the land and destroyed the royal idols, including the one sponsored by his grandmother. However, there is one thing which it says that I have always overlooked, “He brought into the Temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated.” So, despite his failings, Abijam had tried to worship God. As a result, Abijam raised a son who did what was pleasing to God. It is important that we note how God blesses even our failed attempts to serve him. Abijam was unable to resist the pressure to idolatrous worship which came from his upbringing and his mother (the passage mentions that she sponsored an Asherah pole), but he raised a son who was.

    Meanwhile, the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) continued to follow the example of Jeroboam and encourage the worship of the gold calves he had constructed. Again I noticed something here which I had not noticed before. Jeroboam had built the calves for the Northern Tribes to worship in order to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to worship God. It seems likely to me that neither he nor the kings who followed his example believed the calves were gods. They encouraged their worship for purely political reasons. However, when Ahab took the throne in Israel, he began worshiping Baal, the god of the Canaanites. Ahab appears to have genuinely worshiped Baal.

    I debated stopping after what I wrote above, but the story of Elijah and the widow is too important not to comment on. When God sent Elijah to the widow, she had barely enough food for one last meal for herself and her son. However, she believed Elijah’s promise that if she used the last of her food to feed Elijah she would not run out of food before the famine ended. If we seek first to do God’s will, all of our other needs will be met.