Christ Is God's Power and Wisdom

¹⁸ The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. ^19 (A) As God says in the Scriptures,

^20 (B) What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? ^21 (C) God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.

Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. ²² Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. ²³ But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. ²⁴ Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. ²⁵ Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else.

²⁶ My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

²⁸ What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important. ²⁹ God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to him. ³⁰ You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. ^31 (D) So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord.

Jeroboam's Son Dies

14 About the same time, Abijah son of Jeroboam got sick. ^2-3 Jeroboam told his wife:

Disguise yourself so no one will know you're my wife, then go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives. Take him ten loaves of bread, some small cakes, and honey, and ask him what will happen to our son. He can tell you, because he's the one who told me I would become king.

⁴ She got ready and left for Ahijah's house in Shiloh.

Ahijah was now old and blind, ⁵ but the Lord told him, “Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask about her son. I will tell you what to say to her.”

Jeroboam's wife came to Ahijah's house, pretending to be someone else. ⁶ But when Ahijah heard her walking up to the door, he said:

Come in! I know you're Jeroboam's wife—why are you pretending to be someone else? I have some bad news for you. ⁷ Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: “Jeroboam, you know that I, the Lord, chose you over anyone else to be the leader of my people Israel. ⁸ I even took David's kingdom away from his family and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed me and did what was right.

⁹ “You have made me very angry by rejecting me and making idols out of gold. Jeroboam, you have done more evil things than any king before you.

^10 (A) “Because of this, I will destroy your family by killing every man and boy in it, whether slave or free. I will wipe out your family, just as fire burns up trash. ¹¹ Dogs will eat the bodies of your relatives who die in town, and vultures will eat the bodies of those who die in the country. I, the Lord, have spoken and will not change my mind!”

¹² That's the Lord's message to your husband. As for you, go back home, and right after you get there, your son will die. ¹³ Everyone in Israel will mourn at his funeral. But he will be the last one from Jeroboam's family to receive a proper burial, because he's the only one the Lord God of Israel is pleased with.

¹⁴ The Lord will soon choose a new king of Israel, who will destroy Jeroboam's family. And I mean very soon.^{[a] 15} The people of Israel have made the Lord angry by setting up sacred poles^[b] for worshiping the goddess Asherah. So the Lord will punish them until they shake like grass in a stream. He will take them out of the land he gave to their ancestors, then scatter them as far away as the Euphrates River. ¹⁶ Jeroboam sinned and caused the Israelites to sin. Now the Lord will desert Israel.

¹⁷ Jeroboam's wife left and went back home to the town of Tirzah. As soon as she set foot in her house, her son died. ¹⁸ Everyone in Israel came and mourned at his funeral, just as the Lord's servant Ahijah had said.

Jeroboam Dies

¹⁹ Everything else Jeroboam did while he was king, including the battles he won, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ He was king of Israel for 22 years, then he died, and his son Nadab became king.

King Rehoboam of Judah

(2 Chronicles 11.5—12.16)

²¹ Rehoboam son of Solomon was 41 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled 17 years from Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen to be worshiped. His mother Naamah was from Ammon.

²² The people of Judah disobeyed the Lord and made him even angrier than their ancestors had. ^23 (B) They also built their own local shrines^[c] and stone images of foreign gods, and they set up sacred poles^[d] for worshiping the goddess Asherah on every hill and in the shade of large trees. ^24 (C) Even worse, they allowed prostitutes^[e] at the shrines, and followed the disgusting customs of the foreign nations that the Lord had forced out of Canaan.

^25 (D) After Rehoboam had been king for four years, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ^26 (E) He took everything of value from the temple and the palace, including Solomon's gold shields.

²⁷ Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe. ²⁸ Whenever Rehoboam went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. But they always took them back to the guardroom as soon as he was finished.

²⁹ Everything else Rehoboam did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰ He and Jeroboam were constantly at war. ³¹ Rehoboam's mother Naamah was from Ammon, but when Rehoboam died, he was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem.^[f] His son Abijam then became king.

Locusts and an Enemy Army