30 Amazing Bible Stories You May Not Know

#30 The Most Famous Prophet You've Never Heard Of

Dr. Randy White

According to Jewish Rabbinical tradition, there are seven men who span the entire history from the beginning of creation through Messiah (with a little fine print!)
- Elijah
- “life" stretches to the time of Messiah.
- “who's who" and we don't even know him.
With the exception of Ahijah, most of us could tell something about these men. But Ahijah is lost is obscurity.

Verses 1-5 -- Jeroboam returns from Egypt to inquire of the new King about the future.
Verses 6-11 -- King Rehoboam gets advice and chooses to abuse his people.
Verses 12-15 -- The King announces his decision, and the Bible announces why he made this decision: that the Lord might perform his word which he spake by the hand of Ahijah (v. 15).

Verse 28 -- Jeroboam rises in influence.
Verses 29-30 -- The prophecy of Ahijah given in illustration: the rending of the new garment.
Verses 31-36 -- Ten tribes prophesied to break away.
Verses 37-39 -- Jeroboam prophesied to have the Kingdom of Israel.

He was the grandson of Eli -- 1 Samuel 14:3
He was instructed by King Saul to bring forth the Ark of the Covenant in a battle with the Philistines, in order to instill fear in the enemy -- 1 Samuel 14:18
Under King David, he was placed in charge of the treasures of the house of God -- 1 Chronicles 26:20.
The scripture tells us that he wrote a book of the acts of Solomon. This book has now been lost to history - 2 Chronicles 9:29.

“Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: it might have been." -John Greenleaf Whittier
1 Kings 11:38 was an unbelievable promise to Jeroboam, who appears to be an unbelievably impressive young man.
Rather than follow the Lord, he set up places of pagan worship (including an idol of a golden calf) in Bethel and Dan. He used non-Levitical priests for this worship. Because of this, Ahijah's last prophecy was of the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. 1 Kings 14:1-16.

History forgets even very memorable men.
- Four books of the Bible mention him, in eight chapters, with over 20 references to his name.
- His lifespan is huge, spanning the entire united monarchy, with time on either side.
Live life for what you can accomplish, not for what you will be remembered for. One is a PR stunt, the other is real substance.
History could have gone a very different way. We will never know what would have happened if Jeroboam had been faithful to the Lord. Live your own life to change history for the better.