1 Kings 14 Bible study: Known at the door

"At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick" (14:1). Jeroboam doesn't go himself. He tells his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh" (14:2) (tap disguise). He sends her to the prophet who had given him the kingdom: "Ahijah the prophet is there, who said that I would be king over this people" (14:2). It was Ahijah who had torn his new garment in twelve pieces and said, "Take ten pieces" (11:30-31). She takes "ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey" (14:3). But "Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age" (14:4), and before she arrives the LORD tells him: "Behold, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick" (14:5), and "she will pretend to be another woman" (14:5). When he hears the sound of her feet at the door (14:6), he says, "Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news" (14:6) (tap pretend, heavy). The disguise hid nothing. The LORD had told his prophet before she came in.

1 Kings 14:5→leads toJohn 1:48

Ahijah could not see (14:4), but the LORD had told Ahijah, "Behold, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick" (14:5), and he greeted her at the door, "Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why do you pretend to be another?" (14:6). In John, "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him" (John 1:47). Nathanael asked, "How do you know me?" (John 1:48), and Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (John 1:48). Nathanael answered, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!" (John 1:49). Jesus doesn't cite 1 Kings 14, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject, a person known before they have said a word, not on a shared word. Some hear in it what the chapter shows of the LORD: in 1 Kings the LORD told his prophet who was coming (14:5), and in John Jesus himself says, "I saw you" (John 1:48). Others read each in its own setting: Ahijah's knowing came as the LORD's word to a prophet (14:5), and John's point is Nathanael's answer (John 1:49), and don't look from one to the other.

נָכַרnakarsay na-KHAR

Brown-Driver-Briggs lists two verbs spelled the same way: one meaning "regard, recognize", and one meaning "act or treat as foreign, or strange; disguise". Here it is the second, in its reflexive form, mitnakkerah. Strong's lists among its senses "feign self to be another". The LORD tells Ahijah she "will pretend to be another woman" (14:5), and Ahijah asks her, "Why do you pretend to be another?" (14:6). Genesis uses the same verb and form of Joseph with his brothers: he "recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them" (Genesis 42:7), where recognized is the first verb and acted like a stranger is this one. In 1 Kings this verb comes only in these two verses; the first verb comes twice: Obadiah "recognized him" (18:7), and "the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets" (20:41).