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1 Kings Chapter
Twelve
1 Kings 12
Chapter Contents
Rehoboam's accession, The people's petition, His rough
answer. (1-15) Ten tribes revolt. (16-24) Jeroboam's idolatry. (25-33)
Commentary on 1 Kings 12:1-15
(Read 1 Kings 12:1-15)
The tribes complained not to Rehoboam of his father's
idolatry, and revolt from God. That which was the greatest grievance, was none
to them; so careless were they in matters of religion, if they might live at
case, and pay no taxes. Factious spirits will never want something to complain
of. And when we see the Scripture account of Solomon's reign; the peace,
wealth, and prosperity Israel then enjoyed; we cannot doubt but that their
charges were false, or far beyond the truth. Rehoboam answered the people
according to the counsel of the young men. Never was man more blinded by pride,
and desire of arbitrary power, than which nothing is more fatal. God's counsels
were hereby fulfilled. He left Rehoboam to his own folly, and hid from his eyes
the things which belonged to his peace, that the kingdom might be rent from
him. God serves his own wise and righteous purposes by the imprudences and sins
of men. Those that lose the kingdom of heaven, throw it away, as Rehoboam, by
wilfulness and folly.
Commentary on 1 Kings 12:16-24
(Read 1 Kings 12:16-24)
The people speak unbecomingly of David. How soon are good
men, and their good services to the public, forgotten ! These considerations
should reconcile us to our losses and troubles, that God is the Author of them,
and our brethren the instruments: let us not meditate revenge. Rehoboam and his
people hearkened to the word of the Lord. When we know God's mind, we must
submit, how much soever it crosses our own mind. If we secure the favour of
God, not all the universe can hurt us.
Commentary on 1 Kings 12:25-33
(Read 1 Kings 12:25-33)
Jeroboam distrusted the providence of God; he would
contrive ways and means, and sinful ones too, for his own safety. A practical
disbelief of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our departures from
him. Though it is probable he meant his worship for Jehovah the God of Israel,
it was contrary to the Divine law, and dishonourable to the Divine majesty to
be thus represented. The people might be less shocked at worshipping the God of
Israel under an image, than if they had at once been asked to worship Baal; but
it made way for that idolatry. Blessed Lord, give us grace to reverence thy
temple, thine ordinances, thine house of prayer, thy sabbaths, and never more,
like Jeroboam, to set up in our hearts any idol of abomination. Be thou to us
every thing precious; do thou reign and rule in our hearts, the hope of glory.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 12
Verse 1
[1] And
Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
Were come —
Rehoboam did not call them thither, but went thither, because the Israelites
prevented him, and had pitched upon that place, rather than upon Jerusalem,
because it was most convenient for all, being in the center of the kingdom; and
because that being in the potent tribe of Ephraim, they supposed there they
might use that freedom of speech, which they resolved to use, to get there
grievances redressed. So out of a thousand wives and concubines, he had but one
son to bear his name, and he a fool! Is not sin an ill way of building up a
family?
Verse 3
[3] That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of
Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,
They sent —
When the people sent him word of Solomon's death, they also sent a summons for
him to come to Shechem. That the presence and countenance of a man of so great
interest and reputation, might lay the greater obligation upon Rehoboam to
grant them ease and relief.
Verse 4
[4] Thy
father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of
thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve
thee.
Grievous — By
heavy taxes and impositions, not only for the temple and his magnificent
buildings, but for the expenses of his numerous court, and of so many wives and
concubines. And Solomon having so grossly forsaken God, it is no wonder if he
oppressed the people.
Verse 7
[7] And
they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this
day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then
they will be thy servants for ever.
This day — By
complying with their desires, and condescending to them for a season, till thou
art better established in thy throne. They use this expression, fore-seeing
that some would dissuade him from this course, as below the majesty of a
prince.
And answer —
Thy service is not hard, it is only a few good words, which it is as easy to
give as bad ones.
Verse 8
[8] But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and
consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood
before him:
Young men — So
called, comparatively to the old men: otherwise they were near forty years old.
Verse 10
[10] And
the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt
thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our
yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My
little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.
Shall be thicker — Or
rather, is thicker, and therefore stronger, and more able to crush you, if you
proceed in these mutinous demands, than his loins, in which is the principal
seat of strength.
Verse 15
[15]
Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the
LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the
Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
From the Lord —
Who gave up Rehoboam to so foolish and fatal a mistake, and alienated the
peoples affections from him; and ordered all circumstances by his wise
providence to that end.
Verse 16
[16] So
when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered
the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in
the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David.
So Israel departed unto their tents.
In David — In
David's family and son; we can expect no benefit or relief from him, and
therefore we renounce all commerce with him, and subjection to him. They named
David, rather than Rehoboam; to signify, that they renounced not Rehoboam only,
but all David's family.
Son of Jesse — So
they call David in contempt; as if they had said, Rehoboam hath no reason to
carry himself with such pride and contempt toward his people; for if we trace
his original, it was as mean and obscure as any of ours.
To your tents —
Let us forsake him, and go to our own homes, there to consider, how to provide
for ourselves.
Verse 17
[17] But
as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam
reigned over them.
Judah —
The tribe of Judah; with those parts of the tribes of Levi, and Simeon, and
Benjamin, whose dwellings were within the confines of Judah.
Verse 18
[18] Then
king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him
with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to
his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.
Sent Adoram —
Probably to pursue the counsel which he had resolved upon, to execute his
office, and exact their tribute with rigour and violence, if need were.
Verse 19
[19] So
Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
Rebelled —
Their revolt was sinful, as they did not this in compliance with God's counsel,
but to gratify their own passions.
Verse 20
[20] And
it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they
sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel:
there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
Was come —
From Egypt; which was known to them before who met at Shechem, and now by all
the people.
Was none —
That is, no entire tribe.
Verse 24
[24] Thus
saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the
children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me.
They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart,
according to the word of the LORD.
From me —
This event is from my counsel and providence, to punish Solomon's apostasy.
Verse 25
[25] Then
Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from
thence, and built Penuel.
Shechem — He
repaired, and enlarged, and fortified it; for it had been ruined long since, Judges 9:45. He might chuse it as a place both
auspicious, because here the foundation of his monarchy was laid; and
commodious, as being near the frontiers of his kingdom.
Penuel — A
place beyond Jordan; to secure that part of his dominions.
Verse 26
[26] And
Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
Said, … —
Reasoned within himself. The phrase discovers the fountain of his error, that
he did not consult with God, who had given him the kingdom; as in all reason,
and justice, and gratitude he should have done: nor believed God's promise,
chap. 11:38, but his own carnal policy.
Verse 27
[27] If
this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then
shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam
king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
Will turn —
Which in itself might seem a prudent conjecture; for this would give Rehoboam,
and the priests, and Levites, the sure and faithful friends of David's house,
many opportunities of alienating their minds from him, and reducing them to
their former allegiance. But considering God's providence, by which the hearts
of all men, and the affairs of all kingdoms are governed, and of which he had
lately seen so eminent an instance; it was a foolish, as well as wicked course.
Verse 28
[28]
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto
them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Calves — In
imitation of Aaron's golden calf, and of the Egyptians, from whom he was lately
come. And this he the rather presumed to do, because he knew the people of
Israel were generally prone to idolatry: and that Solomon's example had
exceedingly strengthened those inclinations; and therefore they were prepared
for such an attempt; especially, when his proposition tended to their own ease,
and safety, and profit, which he knew was much dearer to them, as well as to
himself, than their religion.
Too much —
Too great a trouble and charge, and neither necessary, nor safe for them, as
things now stood.
Behold thy gods —
Not as if he thought to persuade the people, that these calves were that very
God of Israel, who brought them out of Egypt: which was so monstrously absurd
and ridiculous, that no Israelite in his right wits could believe it, and had
been so far from satisfying his people, that this would have made him both
hateful, and contemptible to them; but his meaning was, that these Images were
visible representations, by which he designed to worship the true God of
Israel, as appears, partly from that parallel place, Exodus 32:4, partly, because the priests and
worshippers of the calves, are said to worship Jehovah; and upon that account,
are distinguished from those belonging to Baal, 1 Kings 18:21; 22:6,7, and partly, from Jeroboam's design in
this work, which was to quiet the peoples minds, and remove their scruples
about going to Jerusalem to worship their God in that place, as they were
commanded: which he doth, by signifying to them, that he did not intend any
alteration in the substance of their religion; nor to draw them from the
worship of the true God, to the worship of any of those Baals, which were set
up by Solomon; but to worship that self-same God whom they worshipped in
Jerusalem, even the true God, who brought them out of Egypt; only to vary a
circumstance: and that as they worshipped God at Jerusalem, before one visible
sign, even the ark, and the sacred cherubim there; so his subjects should worship
God by another visible sign, even that of the calves, in other places; and as
for the change of the place, he might suggest to them, that God was present in
all places, where men with honest minds called upon him; that before the temple
was built, the best of kings, and prophets, and people, did pray, and sacrifice
to God in divers high places, without any scruple. And that God would dispense
with them also in that matter; because going to Jerusalem was dangerous to them
at this time; and God would have mercy, rather than sacrifice.
Verse 29
[29] And
he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
Beth-el, … —
Which two places he chose for his peoples conveniency; Beth-el being in the
southern, and Dan in the northern parts of his kingdom.
Verse 30
[30] And
this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even
unto Dan.
A sin —
That is, an occasion of great wickedness, not only of idolatry, which is called
sin by way of eminency; nor only of the worship of the calves, wherein they
pretended to worship the true God; but also of the worship of Baal, and of the
utter desertion of the true God; and of all sorts of impiety.
To Dan —
Which is not here mentioned exclusively, for they went also to Beth-el, verse 32,33, but for other reasons, either because
that of Dan was first made, the people in those parts having been long leavened
with idolatry, Judges 18:30, or to shew the peoples readiness
and zeal for idols; that those who lived in, or near Beth-el, had not patience
to stay 'till that calf was finished, but all of them were forward to go as far
as Dan, which was in the utmost borders of the land, to worship an idol there;
when it was thought too much for them to go to Jerusalem to worship God.
Verse 31
[31] And
he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people,
which were not of the sons of Levi.
An house — Houses,
or chapels, besides the temples, which are built at Dan and Beth-el; he built
also for his peoples better accommodation, lesser temples upon divers high
places.
Of the lowest —
Which he might do, either, 1. because the better sort refused it, or, 2. because
such would be satisfied with mean allowances; and so he could put into his own
purse a great part of the revenues of the Levites, which doubtless he seized
upon when they forsook him, and went to Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 11:13,14, or, 3. because mean
persons would depend upon his favour, and therefore be pliable to his humour,
and firm to his interest, but the words in the Hebrew properly signify, from
the ends of the people; which may be translated thus, out of all the people;
promiscuously out of every tribe. Which exposition seems to be confirmed by the
following words, added to explain these, which were not of the sons of Levi;
though they were not of the tribe of Levi. And that indeed was Jeroboam's sin;
not that he chose mean persons, for some of the Levites were such; and his sin
had not been less, if he had chosen the noblest and greatest persons; as we see
in the example of Uzziah. But that he chose men of other tribes, contrary to
God's appointment, which restrained that office to that tribe.
Levi — To
whom that office was confined by God's express command.
Verse 32
[32] And
Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the
month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So
did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed
in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
A feast —
The feast of tabernacles. So he would keep God's feast, not in God's time,
which was the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and so onward, Leviticus 23:34, but on the fifteenth day of the
eighth month. And this alteration he made, either, 1. to keep up the difference
between his subjects, and those of Judah as by the differing manners, so by the
distinct times of their worship. Or, 2. lest he should seem directly to oppose
the God of Israel, (who had in a special manner obliged all the people to go up
to Jerusalem at that time,) by requiring their attendance to celebrate the
feast elsewhere, at the same time. Or, 3. to engage as many persons as possibly
he could, to come to his feast; which they would more willingly do when the feast
at Jerusalem was past and all the fruits of the earth were perfectly gathered
in.
Fifteenth day —
And so onward till the seven days ended.
Like that in Judah — He
took his pattern thence, to shew, that he worshipped the same God, and
professed the same religion for substance, which they did: howsoever he
differed in circumstances.
He offered —
Either, 1. by his priests. Or, rather, 2. by his own hands; as appears from
chap. 13:1,4, which he did, to give the more
countenance to his new-devised solemnity. Nor is this strange; for he might
plausibly think, that he who by his own authority had made others priests might
much more exercise a part of that office; at least, upon an extraordinary
occasion; in which case, he knew David himself had done some things, which
otherwise he might not do.
So he did — He
himself did offer there in like manner, as he now had done at Dan.
Verse 33
[33] So
he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the
eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and
ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar,
and burnt incense.
Devised —
Which he appointed without any warrant from God.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
Some Counterfeits (v.26~33)
1.
Counterfeit God (v.28)
2.
Counterfeit Priesthood (v.31)
3.
Counterfeit Sacrifice (v.32)
4.
Counterfeit Worship (v.32)
5.
Counterfeit Feast (v.33)
--
F. MCI.
12 Chapter 12
Verses 1-5
Verses 2-20
When Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was in Egypt heard of it . . . they
sent and called him.
The kingdom divided
1. This chapter reveals one of the turning-points in Israel’s
history, for it is as true in the history of Israel as in that of any other
people that there are periods comparatively insignificant, and hours as well, that are full
of great events.
2. It had seemed to be one of the chief purposes of God to make
Israel a great nation. That is the promise made to Abram. The nation seems to
have been essential to the carrying out of God’s purpose in giving a revelation
and establishing His kingdom in the world. Truth does not gather momentum while
it is propagated by an occasional teacher or prophet. Great institutions,
educational, civil, and religious, such as can be developed only in a great
nation, are necessary to make truth mighty, to give it power among the masses,
and that volume which sets it moving over wide areas. The revelation, which had
been sporadic in Israel throughout patriarchal times, now by means of the great
civil and religious institutions of Israel as a nation--prophecy and the school
of the prophets, the priesthood and the great religious festivals--gathers
momentum and moves grandly on toward the fulfilment of the promise made to
Abram.
3. But by this Scripture we are introduced to a condition of things
that is startling. The very chosen instrument essential to the carrying out of
God’s purpose to bless and save the world--the Israelitish nation--is
threatened with destruction. There is something violent in the very tones of
the cry, “To your tents, O Israel.” Where now is the nation through which God
is to bless the world? Can His purpose be accomplished by these fragments?
4. A study of the actual course of history among these tribes would
show that there were many natural causes leading to this division of the
kingdom. Rehoboam was weak and wicked. He who will rule others must first learn
to rule himself. The young men, probably sons of Solomon’s chief officers, who
had been trained at the royal court and were designed to be the officers of the
succeeding king, had inherited the bitter hostility that had long existed,
especially between the tribes of Judah and Ephraim; thinking themselves strong
under the new king, they were ready to advise and help to carry out rash
measures. There was no lack of occasion for dissension on the side of Rehoboam.
On the other hand there can be little doubt that the taxes exacted of Israel
were oppressive. Ephraim had always been jealous of and restive under Judah’s
rule. “To the house of Joseph--that is to Ephraim, with its adjacent tribes of
Benjamin and Manasseh--had belonged all the chief rulers of Israel, down to the
time of David: Joshua, the conqueror; Deborah, the prophetess; Gideon, the one
regal spirit of the judges; Abimelech and Saul, the first kings; Samuel, the
restorer of the people after the fall of Shiloh. It was natural with such an
inheritance of glory that Ephraim always chafed under any rival supremacy.” And
when “the Lord refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of
Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah,” the old jealousy was intensified and
ready to burst forth on any pretext. Jeroboam had once lifted up his hand
against King Solomon, and Solomon had attempted to kill him, and had driven him
into Egypt. Weakness, wilfulness, and impetuosity on the part of the king and
his advisers, all of which served to intensify an inherited jealousy of
prerogative, were the influences at work on the one side. On the other a
powerful people fired with a sense of injustice, with a powerful, ambitious,
and unscrupulous leader--these certainly afforded causes for a disruption deep
and irremediable.
5. But the prophet expressly tells us that this division is of God.
6. What was the real cause? The record makes it plain, and reveals at
the same time God, the long suffering and the holy One. It was not that the
king had fleeced them, as Samuel a century earlier had told them he would (1 Samuel 8:11-17). It was that they
had rejected God, as God told Samuel they had, when they asked a king (1 Samuel 8:6-8).
What are the lessons to be learned?
1. God gives opportunities to individuals and to nations even though
He knows that they will not improve them. Jeroboam was justified in taking
possession of the Ten Tribes. It was part of the Divine plan. He had been so
instructed. But Jeroboam departed from God, and he has gone down in the sacred
history as the man that made Israel to sin. Rehoboam had his opportunity also
both before and after the division of the kingdom. He wasted it wickedly.
Whether we use or abuse our opportunities they come to us, and God with and in
them all, to work out His righteous will through us if we will, and, if not, to
abandon us and to find a way for His will and purposes through others.
2. We may learn also that, however essential an institution may seem
to be for carrying forward the purposes of God, if it fail it is doomed. The
Israelitish nation, in order to express the Divine will and be a revelation of
Jehovah, must be conscious of its dependence on Him. But this Israel had lost.
There is no trace of the
confidence or of the sense of dependence that appears in the song of.Moses at
the Red Sea. The spiritual hold on Jehovah has relaxed.
3. God works in the actual condition of things. It is a mistake to
suppose that God must wait for either the ideal man or the ideal nation. The
ambitious Jeroboam and the weak Rehoboam are alike His agents. The revelation
which shapes the conditions under which the kingdom of God cannot flourish may
be as important as that which shows the conditions of its prosperity. “To your
tents, O Israel: see to thine own house, David,” is violent language. Jehovah
will find other means for propagating and perpetuating His truth. “The Arabian
traditions relate that in the staff on which Solomon leaned, and which
supported him long after his death, there was a worm which was secretly gnawing
it asunder.” The worm--idolatry--has done its work. (B. P. Raymond.)
The kingdom divided
God was in Israel’s history, but he is equally in all history. He
guided Israel with a very special purpose, yet no more truly or constantly than
He guides us. If from the study of this ancient record we learn to interpret
our own lives and the lives of all men and all nations in the spirit in which
the sacred historian wrote of Israel and Judah, we shall have learned its main
lesson: God rules in this world of ours. He exalts one, casts down another, and
makes the very wrath of man to praise Him.
1. Israel’s secession “was from the Lord.” From terrible, relentless,
persistent tyranny, after due but vain remonstrance, subjects have a Divine
right to free themselves by revolution. “The powers that be are ordained of
God,” but no particular form of polity is so. Rulers exist for subjects, not
subjects for rulers. The government of a nation at any time presumably deserves
respect and support; but it may forfeit all claim to both by ceasing to fulfil
its function as a blessing to the people.
2. Observe the pusillanimity of pride. Pride seems a source of
strength: it is rather a source of weakness; it prevents one from acting
according to his best light. Rehoboam must in his first calm moment have felt
convinced of the superior wisdom of the course urged by the older counsellors.
But the words of the younger men appealed to his pride and momentarily blinded
him to their folly.
3. Consider how expensive such senseless pride may become. It cost
Rehoboam far the best part of his dominions. Israel rather than Judah fills the
chief place in the history of the next few centuries. Henceforth until the fall
of Samaria Israel is ever upon the historian’s page. Judah occupying a
subordinate place. The history of Israel is that of a nation--Judah consisted
of but a single great and splendid city. Rehoboam’s pride was an expensive
luxury--it cost him the richest jewels in his crown.
4. Mark the peril of disregarding the wisdom of age. Had Rehoboam
consulted only his seniors, he would have taken the right course. This his
pride forbade. Was he not king? Old men, fogies, the Bismarcks and the
Gladstones, had carried on the State long enough. Like William of Germany, he
would show what wonders fresh blood and brain could do. Besides, was he not
getting all the light he could inquiring of all rather than of few? Many a
youth has thus cheated himself into the belief that he was proceeding with
great prudence, when in fact he merely wished an excuse for some darling folly.
5. Notice, that serving is the only way to win true fortunes. How
numerous are the applications of this principle in the household in the
workshop, in society, in government! If employers only treated their employees
in this spirit, how it would assuage the friction between the two, to the
advantage of both! If labourers always acted in this temper of love, what added
strength it would assure to labouring men’s organisations! How perfectly did
the course of our Divine Lord and Saviour illustrate this! He came to win the
world. How was it to be done? Had He been a mere man, He would never have
sought to attain His end in the way He did. Instead of appearing as a grand
monarch, ministered unto, courted, and flattered, He came as a servant,
ministering ever unto others. Instead of being rich, He had not where to lay
His head. Instead of courting the great and wise, He sought the poor and lowly.
And He has in this world a Name which is above every name, at whose mention
millions of hearts rise and millions of heads bow in loving adoration. (J.
B. G. Pidge, D. D.)
Revolt of the Ten Tribes
The son of Solomon began his reign with a blunder, assuming that
the throne was his by Divine right of succession and ignoring the ratification
of the people. In this particular he is a good type of many young men at the
present day, who think they see in the wealth and social position of their
parents the claim to society’s unquestioning homage to themselves. Real
kinghood is personal. The true king, as Carlyle put it, is the canning--the man
who can. The endorsement of a wealthy parent may carry a son’s cheque; it will
not carry him. Society recognises drafts on personal deposits only. Rehoboam
fancied that the son of Solomon could pass to the throne unchallenged. Not so
thought the proud and jealous Ephraimites; not so thought nine other tribes:
and the young aspirant’s self-complacency was, rudely checked by the refusal of
these tribes to come to Jerusalem and pay him homage, by their summoning him to
Shechem, the tribe-centre of Ephraim, and by their meeting him there, not with
submission, but with a bill of rights. This very check was an opportunity for
Rehoboam to show whether he was made of true kingly stuff. The crisis which
exposes a man’s mistake often develops his wisdom, if he has any. The crisis
proved him to be lacking in one of the prime qualifications of a king. “He
lived,” as one has remarked, “in a fool’s paradise, blind and deaf to what
would have arrested the attention of a sensible ruler. At any rate, the
emergency was one which he could not meet alone, and therefore he sought
counsel. There are, however, different motives for asking advice. That a man
consults with others does not disprove his self-conceit. Men often seek advice
only to have their own opinion or their own course confirmed, and consequently
choose their advisers from among their sympathisers; and a sympathiser is not,
usually, the best adviser. Decency required that Rehoboam should advise with
the old counsellors of his father, but he evidently did so merely for
propriety’s sake. In the first place, the old counsellors clearly discerned the
issue in Rehoboam’s mind. It was between two ideals of sovereignty, the
despotic and the paternal. Should sovereignty mean being served or serving?
Evidently, as the result showed, Rehoboam’s ideal was the former. Christ rules
more than Caesar because He put Himself at the world’s service. The world’s
real rulers are invariably those who have served it. The world’s thought is
that power absolves from obligation; Christ’s thought is that power emphasises
obligation. One of the most impressive pictures of history is that of the young
Edward the Black Prince of England, after the victory of Poitiers, serving the
captive king of France at table and soothing the mortification of defeat with
praises of his bravery and with kindly assurances; and the spirit of that scene
is condensed into his favourite motto interwoven with the faded ostrich-plumes
about his tomb at Canterbury, “Hen mout; Ich dien:” “High spirit; I serve.”
Well says Dean Stanley, “To unite in our lives the two qualities expressed in
this motto--high spirit and reverent service--is to be indeed not only a true
gentleman and a true soldier, but a true Christian also.” Liberty is
essentially a social principle, and every social principle imposes limitations on
the individual. Love brings the two ideas of liberty and service into their
true relation. Love uses its free choice to choose service, and so makes
service the very highest expression of liberty. The young king could not
appreciate this lofty ideal of sovereignty. He could not read in service any
higher meaning than servility. This advice appealed to a packed jury. He wanted
encouragement rather than counsel, and therefore, having satisfied the
proprieties of the occasion, he turned to another and more congenial class of advisers, the
young men that were grown up with him--young men as proud, as shallow and as
hot-headed as himself. There is nothing uncommon in chat. It is a fact of our
time no less than of Rehoboam’s--a fact that carries with it a strange
inconsistency, for one does not always nor often reject what is ripe.
Crudeness, in most eases, is a reproach. One wants ripe fruit on his table and
seasoned timber for his house or his carriage. One does not trust a law student
with the management of a fortune, nor put his child’s life into the hands of
yesterday’s graduate in medicine. Youth seems to prefer the route through the
shoals and rocks to that through the open sea to which ripened wisdom stands
ready to direct it. Those shoals are strewn with wrecks. How few escape! The
Bible, it is to be noticed, will not let the old past entirely lose its hold
upon us. Enoch and Abraham and Moses appear as counsellors of the nineteenth
century, which in so many respects is far in advance of them; and for the
reason that they represent principles of life and character which are eternal.
The consequences of Rehoboam’s decision are familiar. We are indeed told that
the cause was from the Lord, and that the catastrophe came about in fulfilment
of his promise to rend the kingdom from Solomon’s house; but it was in
Rehoboam’s power to have escaped all responsibility for that terrible result.
God’s decrees never relieve us of the duty of obedience. And this is a fair
ground of appeal. The popular proverb is profoundly true: “A man is known by
the company he keeps.” Only let us be sure and emphasise the last word, “the
company he keeps.” We keep only what we like. The man is not truthfully indexed
by the company in which he happens to be found at any particular time, not by
the accidental contact of society, not by the circle into which he may have
dropped in order to satisfy some conventional demand or to win some social
prestige. That kind of company he does not keep; he only touches it. (M. R.
Vincent, D. D.)
Revolt of the Ten Tribes
The fault of the prince lay not in consulting younger men--for
they are often most favourable to progress--the error was in allowing his
action, as a ruler, to be governed by private considerations. The young man’s
failing was a kingly one, but also a very common one. The great landowner
cannot see the advantage of yielding his game-preserve to the uses of
hard-worked tenants. The manufacturer does not frequently pay the sowing-women
he employs more than the market price for their labour. Power and wealth men
are as slow to give up as Pharaoh was the Israelite slaves.
I. An early
illustration of an attempt to adjust difficulties by conference. Though the
people might not have remained for a long period loyal to the house of David,
they made an attempt to adjust the difficulties between them and their
hereditary prince. They did not go into open rebellion. They asked that their
rights and their complaints might be considered Kings who exercise despotic
power, and their defenders, are wont to base their claims on the authority of
the Bible. As Englishmen, we point with pride to the Barons at Runnymede as
they demand the Great Charter from King John. This right of petition, exercised
by Israelites and Englishmen, is not one that has always been conceded. Charles
II. endeavoured to secure the passage of a bill limiting this right of his
subjects so late as 1680. In early Bible times we find free speech, free
petition, and methods of arbitration. This right of petition must be conceded
before any adjustments can he made between sovereigns and their subjects, or
between men and their fellows. We must be willing to hear men’s causes and
defence, before any result can be obtained that will be satisfactory. Before
conference can begin, there must be this openness of discussion. There is one
phase of this matter that is very practical. Do we not often condemn persons
before giving them any opportunity to explain their action? We nurse fancied
wrongs and bear ill-will toward those who ought to be dear to us. Have we ever
told them of our grievances? Are we sure they are aware of fault or sin? We say
too often, “Let them find out for themselves.” Thus friends are alienated and
homes made unhappy. Christ emphasised the adjustments of wrongs between men as
individuals. In the Old Testament, we have the same duty enforced by example
and precept. We have, also, an illustration of a proper method of righting
public wrongs. This lesson is for labourers and capitalists, for servants and
masters, as well as for kinsfolk and friends.
II. The inevitable
transfer of power from him who serveth not, to him who will, serve the
interests of others. The power of the house of the beloved David must be
diminished when his descendants no longer served the people. Jeroboam, the rival claimant for the
throne, was a man of few good qualities, but he professed to be willing to
serve the people. He certainly attempted to please them, though he finally
degraded them, as is seen in the subsequent chapter. Even into the hands of
demagogues, power will often pass, with God’s permission, from selfish and
despotic princes. God calls the world to witness the humiliation of greatness
that is supported by injustice. There is continually a redistribution of power
and wealth that goes on in the world with the Divine sanction. Where men may
gamble and become suddenly rich, they may as suddenly lose their wealth. A
house or family founded on unrighteousness has in it the elements of its own
destruction. Drink may ruin the son of the millionaire. His wealth goes to
strangers. Often the transfer of power is sudden, and proud men in their own
lifetime behold their sceptre “wrenched by an unlineal hand, no son of theirs
succeeding.” Power that has not lifted the world’s burdens will pass.
III. Great revolutions
may take place under God’s guidance without violence. We are told that this
revolt was of the Lord. The people failed in their conference, but they
succeeded in accomplishing a great change quietly. They had begun right to end
well. Thenceforth the cause was in God’s hands. Prayer is one of the means by
which great changes are accomplished silently. God is always on the side of the
earnest prayer, and any good that results is from Him. The history of the
revolutions wrought by prayer must remain unwritten till the great day of
revelation. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Tribal causes of schism
The first cause of the schism to be noted, from the human
point of view, was the deep cleft between the northern and southern tribes. It
arose from geographical and economical differences, accentuated probably by
longstanding tribal jealousies. From the days of Deborah, at latest, the cleft
had been visible, and the unity which had been achieved, largely under the
pressure of the Philistine wars, that crushed the loose organisation into a
more compact whole for self-preservation, and held the kingdom together under
Saul and David, would have been hard to keep up, even with skilful and
beneficent kingship. Both America and England know how deep the gulf between
“North” and “South” may be, and how hard it is to cast the encircling bond of a
common nationality round them. England and Scotland are not perfectly fused
together even now, and there are other broad lines of separation than “the
colour line” on the other side of the Atlantic. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Verses 6-20
Verse 7
If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day . . . then
they will be thy servants for ever.
A royal servant
These words are of deep-reaching import, and contain a principle
of universal application. They especially apply to starts in life. When the son
leaves the parental home for his new calling, for foreign land, to make his way
in the world, our text contains a sentence which the father may, at the last
moment of departure, whisper in his ear as an expression of the deepest
thoughts in his heart for the guidance of the young beginner. To fulfil these
words beautifies life, to have fulfilled them softens death. They contain a
prescription which one can never repent of following.
I. The folly of
Rehoboam. In the ancient, town of Shechem, a town that recalls to the Israelite
memories of patriarchal limes, a king is about to be crowned. Solomon the Great
has gone the way of all his fathers, and by right of succession the crown falls
to Rehoboam his son. All Israel assembled at Shechem to make him king. For ages
that old city had retained traces of its ancient dignity, just as Rheims, the
old capital of France, continued to be the scene of coronations long after it
had ceased to be the national capital. There was a time when Amsterdam was
threatened to be deprived of its right of Royal Coronation, but since the
severance of Belgium and Holland, the New Church here holds that honour
undisputed. Shechem was full of representatives from all parts of the country.
The king came down in royal state from Jerusalem. No opposition was offered to
Rehoboam’s succession. He was the only son of Solomon, and the people were prepared
to receive him as such. They had, however, many grievances which they wished to
have redressed. Solomon had not been everything that a king should be.
II. The prerogative
of service. A wise king would have at once acceded to such a request. But
Rehoboam, although the son of a wise father, had not the common sense to do so.
Wisdom is not inherited. “Who knoweth whether his son will be a wise man or a
fool?” He was the king. The people had no rights but what he chose to give
them. They were his servants, not he their servant. His will was their law. He
knew nothing and would hear nothing of the rights of the individual. According
to the mind of Jesus, he is the greatest who renders the greatest service to
others. “They assert that the strength
of a monarch’s throne is service for and sympathy with his people.” A throne
built on such a foundation will last unshaken for ever. Oh, happy king to have
such counsellors! Oh, foolish man to turn aside from them! The consequence of
this incredibly foolish reply was such as might have been expected. “The work
of two generations was undone in a moment.” Under the leadership of Jeroboam,
who promised them the reforms they wanted, the Ten Tribes revolted.
III. Selfish
autocracy. It is the old story of the consequence of selfish and inconsiderate
autocracy. It is a lesson which makes but slow progress in the minds of men.
The old heathen idea of forcible dominion is still largely the governing one of
politics--that to be great is to receive much service, not to render it. Politics
has too often been a game of ambition rather than a sphere of service. (W.
Thomson, M. A. , B. D.)
The king as a servant
The honour of service is emphasised by Solomon in the title
he gives to his father. He speaks of him by a more honourable name than that of
king--“Thy servant David.” Solomon recognised that he owed his exalted.position
entirely to God. The most universal function in nature is that of service.
Nothing in creation is serving itself, but every element is intended to serve
some other. The flowers bloom in beauty, but soon serve us by
transformation into seed. The winds purify the earth. The clouds carry moisture
across all regions. The sun is regal in majestic splendour, but this monarch of
the planets is, in reality, far more their servant, as their light and heat
bearer. Above all, the idea of service is ennobled by Jesus, who as minister to
His disciples was “servant of all.” So are we to seek to serve God and man. (Christian
Commonwealth.)
Verses 10-14
My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
Rehoboam’s foolish answer
These were the words of an infatuated fool--a fool led on
to his own destruction by the “irony of destiny.”
I. Wisdom is not
hereditary. The question is often asked, as this kind of phenomenon comes under
notice, how does it happen that great men seldom have great children? Does
genius wear itself out? We incline to think that the gross neglect which
geniuses manifest towards their children has much to do with it. Still, it
cannot be denied that the descendants of many of our greatest men have been
little better than “drivelling idiots.”
II. Curse of evil
company. We could not find a more painful instance than the one under
consideration, either in profane or sacred history. It was fraught with
terrible consequences.
1. It is a curse to the man himself. Do evil, unholy, foolish
companions make a person happy? Does it not rather bring trouble, sorrow,
regrets, and present inconvenience? It is expensive, humiliating, degrading.
2. It is a curse to the man’s influence. Character is assimilated
with those with whom we associate. And even if the evil influence does not
produce evil results, the name of the evil clings to him who mixes with it.
3. It is a curse to his future. It will ultimately bring him ruin. No
person was ever yet
strong enough in his integrity to resist the united influence of boon
cornpardons. Their influence sows a seed which will ultimately produce an
abundant harvest.
III. Stupidity of
despotism. A despot uses his power for the mere sake of using it, and not to
effect any good purpose, or to bring about any desirable end. There are many
minor despots in the world--persons put into little offices, who love to
manifest and to parade their brief authority.
IV. The overruling
power of God. He maketh even the wrath and the folly of man to praise Him. Had
Rehoboam acted wisely, we do not know whether the Judgment might not have been
still further postponed; but as it was, this act precipitated God’s wrath and
effected His purposes. (Homilist.)
The character of Rehoboam
I. The
circumstances in which Rehoboam commenced his reign were unusually hazardous.
II. The manner in
which this demand on the part of the people was met by the king.
III. The final reply
of Rehoboam to the demand of his people. It was nothing else, we cannot but
say, than downright infatuation.
IV. The cause was
from the Lord. And this is one among many proofs of God’s absolute predestination,
and of the perfect freedom of human actions. The division of the kingdom from
Rehoboam was absolutely certain; it was determined by God; it was positively
predicted by a prophet of God.
V. Those points in
the character and history of rehoboam, which may be calculated to convey
suitable instruction. And let me remark:
1. Talent and piety are not inherited by birth. No part of Solomons
far-famed wisdom descended to his son. He was even more than usually deficient
in common prudence, and in the capacity for government. A father may convey to
his heirs the riches he has accumulated; but there is a nobler wealth, which
cannot be bequeathed, and which cannot be transferred. Knowledge, mental
opulence, talent--these are the result of individual application, of laborious
industry, and of perseverance. Without these, no fancied gifts of nature can
avail; and with these there is scarcely any extent of acquisition, which it is
not possible to secure. But it is yet far more important to notice, that true
piety does not descend by birth: Religion is a personal and individual thing;
it is not transferred like property, it does not descend like any civil
privilege. Religion is an individual matter; it is a change wrought upon the
individual’s mind; it is a living principle and energy within the individual
heart and the individual nature. Talent and piety are not inherited by birth.
2. The king’s rejection of wise counsel. The aged are not always
wise, and they are often too cold and too calculating to be safe guides; and
sometimes also their manner is unfortunate and repulsing; they are unamiable, they are
irmpatient of the habits and feelings of youth, and they pronounce too
magisterially to be very easily borne. But these are exceptions, and beyond all
doubt, a multitude of years should teach wisdom. It was one of the laws of
ancient Sparta (a heathen State), that whenever an old man appeared, the young
in the assembly should rise up in token of their reverence. Reverence for age
lies at the foundation of a sound moral character; it is not only becoming, it
is not only beautiful, but it is essential; and where it is wanting in measure,
it shows there is something utterly wrong, utterly unsound, in the moral
constitution.
3. His arbitrary disposition. Instead of soothing, and gradually
quenching the spirit of revolt, Rehoboam sought to cut down the clamours of his
subjects, by arbitrary measures. The saying of the wise man cannot be too often
repeated, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”
4. Rehoboam’s imprudent choice of his associates. We cannot question
that the ruin of this prince is to be ascribed to those whom he selected as his
companions. Had it not been for the young men who grew up along with him, the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah bad been undivided, and he had retained the crown.
And, in connection with this, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” There
is nothing, so far as personal piety is concerned, so far as the salvation of
the soul is concerned, of so much importance as the choice of your associates.
(J. Young, M. A.)
Dangerous counsellors of James II.
But there was at the court a small knot of Roman Catholics whose
hearts had been ulcerated by old injuries, whose heads had been turned by
recent elevation, who were impatient to climb to the highest honours of the
State, and who, having little to lose, were not troubled by thoughts of the day
of reckoning. These men called with one voice for war on the constitution of
the Church and the State. They told their master that he owed it to his
religion and to the dignity of his crown to stand firm against the outcry of
heretical demagogues, and to let the Parliament see from the first that he
would be master in spite of opposition, and that the only effect of opposition
would be to make him a hard master. (Macaulay’s England.)
Verses 21-23
Verse 24
This thing is from me.
This thing is from me
I. Some events are
specially from God. God is in events which are produced by the sin and the
stupidity of men. This breaking up of the kingdom of Solomon into two parts was
the result of Solomon’s sin and Rehoboam’s folly; yet God was in it. God had
nothing to do with the sin or the folly, but in some way, which we can never
explain, God was in it alL The most notable instance of this truth is the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ; that was the greatest of human crimes, yet it was
foreordained and predetermined of the Most High, to whom there can be no such
thing as crime, nor any sort of compact with sire How, then, was “this thing”
from God?
1. First, it was so as a matter of prophecy.
2. And, secondly, “this thing” was from God as a matter of
punishment. God setteth evil against evil that He may destroy evil, and He uses
that which cometh of human folly that He may manifest His own wisdom.
II. When events are
seen to be from the Lord, they are not to be fought against. Rehoboam had
summoned his soldiers to go to war against the house of Israel; but, inasmuch
as it was from God that the ten tribes had revolted from him, he must not march
into the territories of Israel, nor even shoot an arrow against them.
1. The thing that is happening to you is of the Lord, therefore
resist it not, for it would be wicked to do so. If it be the Lord’s will, so may it
be.
2. But, next, it is also vain, for what can we do against the will of
God?
3. Next, it would be mischievous, and would be sure to bring a
greater evil upon us if we did resist.
III. This general
principle has many special applications. I believe it often happens that events
are most distinctly from the Lord, and when it is so, our right and proper way
is to yield to them.
1. A case in which this principle applies is when severe afflictions
arise.
2. Sometimes, also, we are troubled by certain disquieting plans
proposed by our friends or our children.
3. A very pleasant phase of this same truth is when some singular
mercy comes. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Tracing events back to the final cause
The scribe is more properly said to write than the pen, and he
that maketh and keepeth the clock is more properly said to make it go and
strike than the wheels and poises that hang upon it, and every workman to
effect his works rather than the tools which he useth as his instruments. So
the Lord, who is the chief agent and mover in all actions, may more fitly be
said to bring to pass all things which are done in the earth than any
subordinate causes, as meat to nourish, clothes to keep us warm, the sun to
lighten us, friends to provide for us, etc., seeing that they are but His
instruments. (T. Downame.)
God’s overrule of national events
Those who care to watch the hand of God in history may soon
discern this truth in this incident. The attempts of France to acquire the
sovereignty of the British Isles, and the corresponding efforts of the earlier
English kings to become what their coins so long styled them, “King of France,”
have all been marvellously foiled by the Almighty Ruler of nations to the true
welfare of both. Sir A. Alison has described the scene on the French coast in
1804, when the first Napoleon surveyed the flotilla which was to carry an
invading army across the Channel, and saw them broken and dispersed by Him who
rules the waves. God will not suffer the might or the cunning of man to wrest
the sceptre from His hands.
God in history
The Old Testament “philosophy of history” regards all events as at
once the results of human forces and of God’s purposes, and finds no
contradiction in the double aspect. Rehoboam was no less a criminal fool,
Jeroboam no less a crafty traitor, because they were both working out God’s
purpose. The possible co-existence of freedom of action, necessarily involving
responsibility, and God’s sovereignty, is inexplicable, and as certain as it is
inexplicable. Metaphysicians and metaphysical theologians may fumble at, or cut, the knot till
doomsday, but it will not be untied or denied. Rehoboam ran the ship on the
rocks, but God willed that it should be wrecked. But another mystery emerges,
for the Divine resolve to shatter the kingdom was due to the thwarting of the
Divine purpose in establishing it. Sovereign as that Divine will is, man has
power to oppose it and to block its course, and lead to changes of its
direction, as we sometimes hear of an army of caterpillars stopping a train.
God’s methods vary, but His purposes remain the same. The ship tacks as the
wind shifts, but it’s always steering for the one port. The unifying of the
tribes into a kingdom, and the disruption of the kingdom, were equally in the
Divine plan, and were both, in a real sense, also the direct results of men’s
sin and opposition to God. Hence it follows that “the history of the world is
the judgment of the world.” The “natural” consequences of national acts are the
punishments or rewards of these acts. Solomon’s tyranny, Rehoboam’s folly, the
rebels’ indifference to the unity of the nation worked out the catastrophe,
which was both a political effect, produced by political causes, and a Divine
judgment, and was the latter just because it was the former. For nations, and
for individuals, God “makes whips to scourge” them of their “vices,” and in the
mighty maze of human acts, has so ordered the issues of things that “every
transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of reward.” So the
“undevout” historian “is mad.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Verses 26-33
And Jeroboam said in his heart.
Idolatry in Israel
“History is God teaching by example.” All history is that. But the
annals of the Hebrew race possess a peculiar interest, because in them the
divine tuition is divinely interpreted. In the historical books of the Old
Testament we have the record of a revelation rather than the revelation itself.
The real revelation lies in the national life, of which the books are partly an
account, partly an interpretation. Jeroboam became king. Born in humble
circumstances, he had risen by dint of his energy and genius to a place so
prominent in public affairs that he was suspected of aspiring to royalty. In
every age, in spite of custom, caste, or condition, the men who are determined
to rise will rise.
I. Opportunity.
Seated at last firmly on his throne, Jeroboam was face to face with the
opportunity of his life. It was a decisive hour in the young ruler’s career.
His future and the fate of a kingdom hung in the balance. Should he determine
to serve God, work righteousness, lighten oppression, promote religion--should
he prove strong to do all that Jehovah his God commanded--he might easily make
himself the mightiest monarch, and his people the foremost nation of the age.
God would then be with him. But if he disregarded these high ends, his kingdom
would come to nought, and his name be a hissing and a by-word. God would be
against him. Strange that Jeroboam did not comprehend this. No lesson was more
clearly taught in the history of his country. Jeroboam is not alone in this
fault. For nations and rulers to meet and lose such crucial chances is not at
all uncommon. Not
“once,” as Lowell hath it, but often-
To
every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In
the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.
Some
great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts
the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And
the choice goes by forever, ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
One
immortal precept Jeroboam’s case vividly illustrates--the only safe path is the
right path. Our salvation from failure and shame lies in being absolutely true
to our deepest convictions of right, unswervingly loyal to what we know of
God’s will.
II. Expediency
versus righteousness. Before his great opportunity Jeroboam failed. The causes
of his downfall were all the more seductive because they seemed to be justified
by the soundest maxims of governmental policy. It would never do, he reasoned,
to have the centre of the national religion in a foreign city, and especially
in the chief city of the country from which his subjects had just seceded. They
might as safely have the seat of government in the capital of a rival nation as
to have the seat of religion there. If the people continued to go up to the
prominent feasts at Jerusalem, there was danger of a revolution backward. The
old ties might prove too strong. Religious scruples knight overcome political
considerations. It was necessary to isolate the nation religiously as well as
governmentally. The secession must be complete. To this end Jeroboam now
devoted his energies. Having fortified some of the chief cities of his realm,
he set to work to create a public sentiment favourable to his scheme. “It is
too much,” he said to the people, “for you to go up to Jerusalem.” There was
plausibility in this plea. Devices to lighten the stress of duty, or give a liberal
interpretation to moral obligations, are apt to be popular. The new arrangement
seems to have sprung into general favour at once. Following up the advantage
thus gained, the king established two centres of worship--one at Bethel, a
place already sanctified by many sacred events; the other at Dan, on the
northern frontier. So, for mere political ends, the national connection with
the religion which God had ordained was broken off. Jeroboam had made a fatal
mistake. He had set politics before religion, chosen convenience instead of
duty, made expediency take the place of righteousness. Disastrous consequences
always follow a choice like that. Keen-sighted men are often short-sighted.
They see vividly, but only at close range, like those party leaders whose
foresight does not extend beyond the next election. But the immutable laws move
relentlessly on to exact in due season their last ounce of penalty. “They
enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin,” saith the
Delphic Oracle. Thousands of Esaus are all the time peddling their birthrights
for messes of pottage. For the sake of temporary gain, or the gratification of
a present desire, or to tide over an immediate crisis, they put in pawn their
manhood, purity, and honour, and mortgage their future to the Devil. This evil
tendency is greatly increased by current sentiments about success. Success is a
cardinal virtue with most of us. We worship the goddess of victory. Having
exalted to a superlative rank the matter of gaining our end, the severity with
which we criticise the means is inversely as the degree of success hoped for.
The great thing nowadays is to get ahead--by honourable courses if one can; but
to get ahead. Herein he is a warning to us. Whoever puts policy before
religion, chooses convenience before duty, or makes expediency a greater thing
than righteousness, has foredoomed his career to ultimate failure, and his name
to certain shame.
III. Idolatry. One
false step necessitates a second. Having adopted his policy, the new king must
needs devise suitable means for carrying it out. An evil aim and end calls for
evil devices. The results of Aaron’s experiment, however, would seem sufficient
to have deterred any one from imitating it. Common sense should have perceived
the advisability of making as few changes as need be, and of introducing
gradually such as were imperative. The religious sense of the worthiest classes
was sure to be shocked at any radical alterations in the established order. But
the king, having entered upon a wrong road, went rashly on. It is argued by
some commentators that this was not idolatry in the strict sense, but only the
worship of Jehovah under the form of a calf. And indeed the phrase may read,
“This is thy God, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Be
that as it may, Jehovah had expressly forbidden men to worship him in that
fashion, for the wise reason that worship by the aid of sensuous forms
invariably degenerates among the masses into actual idolatry. The making of
images results in the worship of false gods. Fifty years later, in the days of
Elijah the reformer, we find the nation wholly given over to idols. The worship
of Jehovah had almost entirely ceased. Baal, Astarte, and Moloch were the
reigning deities. ‘Tis ever thus. Idolatry involves also the sin of
disobedience. God had said, “Thou shalt not.” This Jeroboam well knew. He ought
to have remembered the hot displeasure with which in the history of his nation
infractions of God’s will had been punished. What a strange infatuation
possesses men who suppose that they can please God while doing the very things
which He has sternly forbidden! Yet men are guilty of this folly all the time.
But the crowning iniquity of Jeroboam, for which more than for all else he was
condemned, was that he used the public power, the Divinely bestowed authority
of the state, for the furtherance of ungodliness. There is a warning here for
legislators who legalise a nefarious traffic, give respectability to lotteries
and gambling-dens, or load unjust taxes upon the poor and weak, and for rulers
who wink at bribery, theft, and other wickedness in high places.
IV. Doom. In his
procedure Jeroboam overlooked a universal law. Consequences are inevitable.
Effects follow their causes. Every road has its proper terminus, every seed its
peculiar harvest. Choose your course, and you will come to the end of it. Sow
your seed; you must reap the sort of grain which you have sown. Flesh and
corruption, wind and whirlwind, spirit and life, obedience and blessing, transgression
and ruin: these things go in these pairs. The two names in each pair are but
two names for the selfsame thing. In natural matters, in physical science, this
principle is everywhere respected; in spiritual it is almost universally
ignored. Since the foundation of the world men have been doing evil that good
might come, seeking blessedness by the way of the transgressor, sowing tares
and watching for wheat. (F. W. Ryder.)
Idolatry in Israel
I. The man--Jeroboam.
The man inaugurates the policy. The idolater precedes the idolatry. The sin
does not force itself into Israel, but is introduced by the king. Jeroboam was
the son of Nebat. Dean Stanley says his mother had been a woman of loose
character. The son had courage, ability, and industry. He held an important
office, under Solomon, and “was known as the man who had inclosed the city of David.”
II. The
people--Israel. The people followed their king. (There is a tradition that one
family held out against calf-worship.) The national conscience was not sensitive,
the national faith not vigorous, the sense of loyalty not strong, the spirit of
obedience not quick. The people, though knowing better, were easily led into
disobedience. They knew the law, and the history of Aaron’s golden calves.
Their eyes were open, but they lacked the moral fibre and high spirit that will
refuse to follow a false leader in his wrong plans. Many of them must have
surrendered conscience in following this apostate king. Let us not be too
severe in our judgment of them. Hosts of informed people are being led in evil
ways by modern Jeroboams. Men like him still frequently decide public policy,
even in matters of morals and religion, and the multitudes follow even into the
ditch. Conscience goes to the wall. The king, the government, or the party
chooses the policy, offering plausible excuse for violating God’s law, and the
people follow. The result is certain. A nation surrendering conscience loses
conscience. A people disobedient to God suffers His wrath. Israel did.
III. The sin--Idolatry.
This evil surrounded the Jews. They knew the nature and results. God was
training them for pure worship. The spiritual God was trying to get a spiritual
people. He had always to resist a tendency to idolatry. His word is full of
warnings against it and woes upon it. He knew its nature and deadly result.
Evermore He tries to prevent it, not in petty jealousy, but for the love of His
children. Worship is love. God does not so jealously guard mere forms and
ceremonies. He does guard the love of His people. Worshipping Him is loving
Him. And that is the deepest relation between God and man. His supreme
expression toward man is the utterance of His love. Man’s supreme response is
love. Love brooks no divided heart. Love needs no images. “God is a spirit.”
Love is spiritual. Worship, in its essence, is love. He “seeketh such to
worship Him as worship Him in spirit and in truth.” “For two hundred and
fifty-seven years this terrible indictment, ‘he made Israel to sin,’ follows
Jeroboam and his kingdom through all the pages of this sacred record, until the
kingdom was utterly destroyed and the Ten Tribes blotted from the map of human
history, even as Moses and the prophets had predicted.” Why does this result
follow idolatry? Because right relation to God is the root of character. If
that relation be wrong life itself is wrong. This is fundamental. Error or
fault here is fatal. There are not two centres to this circle. Men cannot keep
the first commandment and break the second. In idolatry men satisfy their religious
feeling by a false worship which pretends to be true. The essence of it is
disobedience; self-choice instead of self-surrender. It denies God by choosing
other ways than His. It looks religious; it is the essence of sin. It begins
with materialism and ends in polytheism or atheism. A close student has said:
“Idolatry does not begin as idolatry.
There is evolution down as well as up. The argument for image-worship is
specious, and it is always in essential spirit the same. Every tendency toward
materialisation is a backward tendency in religion. The golden calves which
Jeroboam sets up as a representation of God lead naturally and speedily to the
horrible pagan rites which come in with Ahab and Jezebel.” “Idolatry in the
ancient Church,” says the Britannica, “was naturally reckoned among
those magna crimina or great crimes against the first and second
commandments which involved the highest ecclesiastical censures.” The danger of
idolatry has not ceased.
St. John’s message is still to men: “Little children, keep yourselves from
idols.” The golden calf still exists in “covetousnesst the which is idolatry.”
It exists to destroy. (W. F. McDowell.)
Idolatry established
It is no less man’s highest duty than his supreme blessedness to
know and love and serve the true and living God: to know Him is life eternal;
to be ignorant of Him is death for evermore. The character of the God who is
worshipped reproduces itself in the characters of the worshippers; if He is
vile, His worshippers will be vile; if He is pure, they will be pure. The
essential nature of idolatry renders it, of necessity, one of the vilest and
most debasing of sins. The worship of false gods has been almost universally
associated with the use of idols, images, and pictures. Where you find the false
god you find his image, and where you find the image there also is the false
god; hence Jehovah forbids the use of material objects that have always been
used in connection with the worship of false gods. He is a spirit, and His
worship must be pure and spiritual. But the connection between worshipping the
true God by images and the worship of other gods than the Lord is most
intimate; and two generations later, and after Jeroboam had corrupted the
worship of Jehovah, Ahab, instigated by his wicked heathen wife Jezebel,
formally established the idolatrous worship of other gods, Baal, Ashtoreth, and
Moloch, in the capital of his nation. The enormity of Jeroboam’s sin is seen in
the light of Jehovah’s peculiar relations to him and to his people. God entered
into the most solemn covenant relations with them. He was to them not only
Creator and Lord and Judge, as He was to all other nations, but He was their
Friend, their Guide, their Protector. Had Jeroboam been pious as he was brave,
had he received the kingdom as a sacred trust from the Lord, had he ruled as
theocratic king, had he relied upon the promises and protection of Jehovah,
then indeed would the Lord have built him a sure house, and his kingdom would
soon have absorbed the two other tribes and have endured for generations; but,
alas! he took counsel of his own wisdom, not of the wisdom of God; he trusted
to human power rather than to the protection of Jehovah, and proceeded promptly
to organise and
consolidate his kingdom. Four important measures received his immediate
attention: a capital, a worship, a festival and a priesthood. He selected
Shechem in the great tribe of Ephraim, and built there a city as the capital of
his kingdom. But the worship of the people was the matter of greatest importance
in the establishment of his kingdom. The children of Israel brought with them
from Egypt many of the customs and idolatrous manners of their masters. During
the period of their sojourn and bondage they had become contaminated by their
daily contact with Egyptian idolatry, and the animal-worship of this ancient
and august civilisation had made on their minds a most profound and lasting
impression. So deeply rooted was this foul idolatry in the hearts of Israel
that in sight of Mount Sinai, and while Moses was receiving the law from God
and delayed to come down, the people gathered themselves unto Aaron and said,
“Up! make us gods which shall go before us,” etc. Jeroboam doubtless remembered
this incident in the history of his people; he had this venerable precedent for
his guide--a precedent established by the first high priest of Israel;
whereupon he took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said, It is too much
for the people to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. And this thing became a sin, for the people
went to worship before the golden calves, and it gave colour and direction to
the whole subsequent history of the northern kingdom of the ten tribes. And
thus idolatry was established by the king himself as the national religion of
the ten tribes, constituting the northern kingdom of Israel.
1. The wise Solomon saw the many abilities of Jeroboam, and made him,
when a young man, ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph; he was a
man of decision, discretion, industry and valour. But he was destitute of faith
and devoid of that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.
2. Jeroboam in thus establishing idolatry in order to strengthen the
throne and consolidate his kingdom ignored the living God as a potent factor in
the problem. The Divine element, which was the all-controlling one, found no
place in his plans, his calculations or his conduct.
3. In the establishment of idolatry he did not openly reject the
Jehovah of Israel, but corrupted His worship--with what far-reaching evil let
Israel’s shameful history and ignominious end proclaim.
4. The corruption of the people proceeded, pars passu, with
the corruption of the worship of God. The life of the nation began with
flagrant violations of the Divine law and with an idolatrous worship, and the
effects of these sins are seen in all the subsequent history of Israel. The
national life was polluted at its very fountain, for the religion and worship
of any people are the very innermost springs of being, development and
civilisation; and so Israel passed from bad to worse with frightful rapidity
and momentum, and her history is red with blood and dark with defilement.
5. Israel’s idolatry led not only to her decay, but to her death. The
wages of sin is death, no less for the nation than for the individual. The soul
that sinneth and the nation that sinneth shall die. (A. W. Pitzer, D. D.)
Ecclesiastical policy of Jeroboam, read in the light of our own
day
I. Jeroboam’s
difficulty. The difficulty was a religious one. In the northern kingdom which
he had founded there was no temple--no place consecrated for offerings and
sacrifices. The temple was the crowning glory of Jerusalem, the capital of the
southern kingdom, “Whither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the
testimony of Israel.” The only place of sacrifice, the only place in which the
highest religious duties could be discharged, was in the rival kingdom over
which Rehoboam reigned. The hour had not yet come when “neither in this
mountain nor yet at Jerusalem should men worship the Father.” It was the hour
in which every devout Jew felt compelled to offer the appointed sacrifices in
the appointed place. No provision could be found in Jeroboam’s kingdom for the
religious wants of the people. He had to rule a nation (which was nothing if it
was not religious--a nation which, in former times, had been ruled by Jehovah
without the aid of kings) without any of the signs of His presenced no ark, no
shekinah glory, no tables of stone, no altar, no priest, no temple. Jeroboam
knew full well that these were essential to the nation--that unless these
religious needs were met within his own borders the people would go up to
Jerusalem, they would be found within the temple of Solomon. He feared that
they would be fascinated by the glory both of the city and temple; that their
hearts would be drawn thither; that the rival kingdom of Judah would acquire
new glory in their eyes; and that, sooner or later, they would forsake their
allegiance to him and his throne, and return to the dynasty which they had so
recently forsaken.
II. Jeroboam’s
remedy. The difficulty was very evident. The remedy was not easily to be found.
It probably gave the king much anxious thought, and, when it was found, was of
the kind to be expected both from his character and antecedents. Altars were
reared, objects of worship were devised after the model afforded by the sacred
calf of Heliopolis. The cry heard long before beneath the granite crags of
Sinai was repeated: “These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of
the land of Egypt.” The feast times were altered to suit the later harvest of
the more northern climate. To borrow the felicitous historical illustrations of
Dean Stanley, just as Abder-rahman, Caliph of Spain, arrested the movements of
his subjects to Mecca by the erection of the holy place of the Zeca at Cordova,
or as Abdelmalik, because of his quarrel with the authorities at Mecca, built
the dome of the rock at Jerusalem, so Jeroboam sought to rear rival seats of
sacrifice in his kingdom to keep the heart, of the people from Jerusalem, and
bind them more closely to his person and his throne.
III. Lessons
suggested by this policy of Jeroboam.
1. The inconvenience of the State busying itself with religious
matters. The true policy of Jeroboam would have been to have left religion
alone. He had been called to the throne for political purposes. After all, the
root of the whole mischief is to be found in want of faith. Assuredly it was
thus with Jeroboam. On two distinct occasions, by symbolic but most expressive
methods, he had received the assurance that over the ten tribes he would be
called to be king. He knew that “the thing was from the Lord.” This religious
difficulty met him, it is true, at the very opening of his reign. Why could he
not leave it in Jehovah’s hands? Why could he not fill the throne assured that
God would provide for the Church? Why could he not believe that called to the
throne he would be preserved therein, although the people did go year by year
to sacrifice in the rival kingdom? It is thus in our day. Men are filled with
all manner of fear if this union be not preserved. Why cannot we believe that
God will provide for His Church, and that the more she trusts in Him and the
less in men, the stronger she will be for her work?
2. The evil of preferring policy to principle. Policy lay at the root
of Jeroboam’s mischief Although he hid lived in Egypt, he belonged to the
chosen race, and was ignorant neither of its history nor laws. Policy is a word
too often on men’s lips. The very commonness of its use is significant of the
prevalence of the thought. To many minds it is quite sufficient to dissuade
from a course of action to say it is not good policy. If right go with policy,
all is well; if right part company with policy, right pleads in vain. The men
who range themselves fearlessly under the banner of truth, who adopt the motto
of our great English orator and statesman, “Be just, and fear not,” are
regarded as dangerous men. The cry needs to be heard, “Let integrity and
uprightness preserve me, for I wait on Thee.” The conviction needs to take
strong hold of our spirit, “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” We need
to.listen to the words of our great Poet, words which sound like an echo of the
voice of prophet and apostle, words filled with the spirit of Him who came to
bear witness to the Truth--
To
thine own self be true,
And
it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou
canst not then be false to any man.
(W. G. Horder.)
Idolatry established
I. The king made
use of the church to serve his political ambitions. Historical illustrations of
success in a similar line to that entered upon by Jeroboam are abundant. The
Roman Church has this sad record to face, of its having been a support or cover
to all the personal ambitions that throb in a human breast. The important
thing, however, is that, under all forms of church establishment or order,
these influences are liable to manifest themselves. The dangers to the church
arise not merely from the desires of prominent individuals to exercise undue
control in ecclesiastical affairs; the false sentiments of men within and
without the church are the sources of peril. Pressure is brought to bear upon
the Christian community to declare itself positively on difficult or doubtful
questions. Political motives often mingle with those that are personal in
leading men thus to antagonise the church into a position favourable to their
views.
II. The people
sacrificed their religious principles to their love of ease. If a young man who
has been taught secret prayer neglects that duty and privilege till bedtime,
and delays still further till he retires, that prayer will not be a vital,
faithful prayer. Frederick W. Robertson used to say, “Begin the day with a sacrifice.”
He rose quickly. He engaged his mind, instead of allowing it to wander in the
precious morning hours. It was his habit to learn a verse of Scripture while
dressing. Some vigorous mental and moral effort is necessary to bring one into
a proper state for worship.
III. The
introduction of old errors made idolatry more acceptable. Jeroboam took
advantage of an incident in the early history of the people of Israel in
setting up the golden calves. The old sin of the tribes, in worshipping the
calf made by Aaron in the absence of Moses, was yet to bear fruit. The new
ritual is made more acceptable by being linked with an old sin. The people fell
again into the pit from which they were digged. The results, however, were
those that universally followed disobedience to God’s commands. Moab and
Damascus were soon as near as Bethel and Dan, and their worship as acceptable
to deceived Israel.
IV. A servile
priesthood aided in accomplishing the enslavement of the people. We need not
understand, by the lowest orders of the people, the worst of the population of
the ten tribes. The king chose his priests where it pleased him, outside of the
tribe of Levi. This would undoubtedly be a popular measure. Probably tile king
did not choose all bad men. It does not appear a matter of great importance to
many in this day that a man be called of God to the ministry; it is, however, a
most vital matter. If he does not recognise God’s call upon him, he will not
feel responsibility to God. He is only, or chiefly, responsible to men. We obey
the master that elevates us. The priests, out of the lowest, orders of tim
people, served the king. Men will treat lightly the word of God unless an
inward voice has declared to them its sacredness and their commission in regard
to it. The servility begotten of a feeling of responsibility to men expresses
itself in formalism. It recognises custom and tradition as tile law by which
men are to guide their lives. A ministry that the world calls will obey its
master. Let us have a consecrated and called ministry. (Monday Club Sermons.)
A Man-made religion
Jeroboam sought to satisfy the people’s longings.
I. Much of our
religion to-day is man-made. This is seen,
1. In work done in the churches from wrong motives.
2. In accepting doctrines which are merely pleasing to us.
3. In modifying God’s Word to suit the times.
4. In making our standard the standard for testing salvation.
II. But true
religion has God for its Author. Only the God-made religion
──《The Biblical Illustrator》