Abijah

 

    Learning about the characters of the Bible means looking deeper than just the surface.  It means looking at our favorites, the ones we don't like, and the ones that we may not know about.  It is part of understanding the big picture.

    Abijah was the son of Jeroboam.  His name means "God is my father".  He became very ill, so Abijah's mother disguised herself to go search for the prophet Ahijah.  She went to him to find out what would happen to her son.  She found him in Shiloh and offered gifts.  He was blind because of his age, but he was still expecting her.  He probably had cataracts, but that doesn't matter.  God still used him as a messenger.

    God wanted Jeroboam to listen to Him and rid himself of idols which were making God angry.  First commandment is not to put anything before God, so as the leader of the nation God needed Jeroboam to hear that message.  If it took a sick son to make him hear, then so be it.  His hard heart had caused him to lead in evil instead of following God.  The consequences was that God cursed all the males in his family.  

    When the mother returned home to give her husband the news from Ahijah, her son died as she entered the door.  He was mourned and the only one to be buried.  He got a respectable death and honorable funeral.  

1 Kings 14: 1-13, 15:1-8, & 2 Chronicles 13