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1 Kings Chapter
Twenty-two
1 Kings 22
Chapter Contents
Jehoshaphat makes a league with Ahab. (1-14) Micaiah
predicts the death of Ahab. (15-28) Death of Ahab. (29-40) Jehoshaphat's good
reign over Judah. (41-50) Ahaziah's evil reign over Israel. (51-53)
Commentary on 1 Kings 22:1-14
(Read 1 Kings 22:1-14)
The same easiness of temper, which betrays some godly
persons into friendship with the declared enemies of religion, renders it very
dangerous to them. They will be drawn to wink at and countenance such conduct
and conversation as they ought to protest against with abhorrence.
Whithersoever a good man goes, he ought to take his religion with him, and not
be ashamed to own it when he is with those who have no regard for it.
Jehoshaphat had not left behind him, at Jerusalem, his affection and reverence
for the word of the Lord, but avowed it, and endeavoured to bring it into
Ahab's court. And Ahab's prophets, to please Jehoshaphat, made use of the name
of Jehovah: to please Ahab, they said, Go up. But the false prophets cannot so
mimic the true, but that he who has spiritual senses exercised, can discern the
fallacy. One faithful prophet of the Lord was worth them all. Wordly men have
in all ages been alike absurd in their views of religion. They would have the
preacher fit his doctrine to the fashion of the times, and the taste of the
hearers, and yet to add. Thus saith the Lord, to words that men would put into
their mouths. They are ready to cry out against a man as rude and foolish, who
scruples thus to try to secure his own interests, and to deceive others.
Commentary on 1 Kings 22:15-28
(Read 1 Kings 22:15-28)
The greatest kindness we can do to one that is going in a
dangerous way, is, to tell him of his danger. To leave the hardened criminal
without excuse, and to give a useful lesson to others, Micaiah related his
vision. This matter is represented after the manner of men: we are not to
imagine that God is ever put upon new counsels; or that he needs to consult
with angels, or any creature, about the methods he should take; or that he is
the author of sin, or the cause of any man's telling or believing a lie.
Micaiah returned not the blow of Zedekiah, yet, since he boasted of the Spirit,
as those commonly do that know least of the Holy Spirit's operations, the true
prophet left him to be convinced of his error by the event. Those that will not
have their mistakes set right in time, by the word of God, will be undeceived,
when it is too late, by the judgments of God. We should be ashamed of what we
call trials, were we to consider what the servants of God have endured. Yet it
will be well, if freedom from trouble prove not more hurtful to us; we are more
easily allured and bribed into unfaithfulness and conformity to the world, than
driven to them.
Commentary on 1 Kings 22:29-40
(Read 1 Kings 22:29-40)
Ahab basely intended to betray Johoshaphat to danger,
that he might secure himself. See what they get that join with wicked men. How
can it be expected that he should be true to his friend, who has been false to
his God! He had said in compliment to Ahab, I am as thou art, and now he was
indeed taken for him. Those that associate with evil-doers, are in danger of
sharing in their plagues. By Jehoshaphat's deliverance, God let him know, that
though he was displeased with him, yet he had not deserted him. God is a friend
that will not fail us when other friends do. Let no man think to hide himself
from God's judgment. God directed the arrow to hit Ahab; those cannot escape
with life, whom God has doomed to death. Ahab lived long enough to see part of
Micaiah's prophecy accomplished. He had time to feel himself die; with what
horror must he have thought upon the wickedness he had committed!
Commentary on 1 Kings 22:41-50
(Read 1 Kings 22:41-50)
Jehoshaphat's reign appears to have been one of the best,
both as to piety and prosperity. He pleased God, and God blessed him.
Commentary on 1 Kings 22:51-53
(Read 1 Kings 22:51-53)
Ahaziah's reign was very short, not two years; some
sinners God makes quick work with. A very bad character is given of him; he
listened not to instruction, took no warning, but followed the example of his
wicked father, and the counsel of his more wicked mother, Jezebel, who was
still living. Miserable are the children who not only derive a sinful nature
from their parents, but are taught by them to increase it; and most unhappy
parents are they, that help to damn their children's souls. Hardened sinners
rush forward, unawed and unmoved, in the ways from which others before them
have been driven into everlasting misery.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 22
Verse 2
[2] And
it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down
to the king of Israel.
Came down, … — It
is strange, that so good a man would be so closely connected with a king
revolted from the worship of God! But he appears to have been of too easy a
temper, which betrayed him to many inconveniencies.
Verse 3
[3] And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead
is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?
Is ours —
Belongeth to us by right. both by God's donation, and by our last agreement
with Ben-hadad, chap. 20:34, which yet he refuseth to deliver up.
Verse 5
[5] And
Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of
the LORD to day.
Enquire — A
good man, wherever he goes, will take God along with him, will acknowledge him
in all his ways, and look to him for success. And wherever he goes, he ought to
take his religion along with him: and not be ashamed to own it, even among
those who have no kindness for it.
Verse 6
[6] Then
the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and
said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear?
And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
The prophets —
Doubtless his own false prophets, or the priests of the groves; who yet gave in
their answer in the name of Jehovah; either, in compliance with Jehoshaphat, or
by Ahab's direction, that Jehoshaphat might be deceived by them, into a good
opinion of the war.
Verse 8
[8] And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man,
Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him;
for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said,
Let not the king say so.
One man — In
this place, for whom I can speedily send: for there were also other prophets
elsewhere in the kingdom, but these were not at hand.
Micaiah —
Not one of the twelve prophets, who lived about a hundred and fifty years after
this time, but another of that name.
Let not, … —
Let us neither hate his person, nor despise his message; but first hear it, and
then do as we see cause.
Verse 9
[9] Then
the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son
of Imlah.
Micaiah — It
seems, he had imprisoned him; for verse 26, he bids the officer carry him back, namely
to the place where he was before. Probably this was he that had reproved him,
for letting Ben-hadad go: And for that, had lain in prison three years. But
this did not make him less confident, or less faithful in delivering his
message.
Verse 14
[14] And
Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I
speak.
Said —
What answer God shall put in to my mouth. Bravely resolved! And as became one
who had an eye to a greater king than either of these.
Verse 15
[15] So
he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against
Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and
prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
Go — Using the very words
of the false prophets, in way of derision. Micaiah's meaning is plainly this,
because thou dost not seek to know the truth, but only to please thyself, go to
the battle, as all thy prophets advise thee, and try the truth of their
prediction by thy own experience.
Verse 17
[17] And
he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a
shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to
his house in peace.
I saw — In
the spirit, or in a vision.
The hills —
Upon the mountains of Gilead, nigh Ramoth, where they lay encamped by Ahab's
order.
As sheep — As
people who have lost their king.
Return —
Discharged from the war: which was fulfilled, verse 26.
Verse 18
[18] And
the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would
prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?
Evil —
Nay, but what evil was it, to tell him, what would be the event, if he
proceeded in his expedition, while it was in his own power, whether he would
proceed, or no? The greatest kindness we can do to one that is walking in a
dangerous way, is to tell him of his danger.
Verse 19
[19] And
he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on
his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on
his left.
He said — I
will give thee a distinct and true account of the whole matter, in God's name
and presence.
I saw — By
the eyes of my mind: for he could not see the Lord with bodily eyes.
The Host —
The angels, both good and bad, the one possibly on his right, the other on his
left hand. Nor is it strange that the devils are called the host of heaven; if
you consider, first, that their original seat was in heaven. Secondly, that the
name of heaven is often given to all that part of the world which is above the
earth, and among the rest, to the air, and where the devil's residence and
dominion lies, Ephesians 2:2, and that both Michael and his
angels, and the Dragon and his angels, are said to be, and to wage war in
heaven, Revelation 12:7, either the air, or the church.
Verse 20
[20] And
the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at
Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
Who shall —
This is not to be grossly understood, as if God were at a loss to find out an
expedient to accomplish his own will; but only to bring down divine things to
our shallow capacities, and to express the various means which God hath to
execute his own designs.
Verse 21
[21] And
there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade
him.
A spirit — An
evil spirit came, and presented himself before the throne.
Verse 22
[22] And
the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be
a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt
persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
He said — I
will inspire a lie into the minds and mouths of his prophets.
Thou shalt — I
will give them up into thy hands, and leave them to their own ignorance and
wickedness.
Go — This is not a
command, but only a permission.
Verse 24
[24] But
Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and
said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee?
Zedekiah —
The chief of the false prophets, who was much in the king's favour.
Which way — In
what manner went it? Forasmuch as I and my brethren have consulted the Lord,
and have the same spirit which thou pretendest to have.
Verse 25
[25] And
Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an
inner chamber to hide thyself.
Hide thyself —
Probably he went with Ahab to the battle, after which he was glad to shelter
himself where he could.
Verse 27
[27] And
say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with
bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
Bread, … —
With a very course and sparing diet, whereby he may be only supported to endure
his torment.
Verse 31
[31] But
the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his
chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king
of Israel.
Save only —
This he ordered, truly supposing this to be the best way to put an end to the
war: and by the providence of God, which disposeth the hearts of kings as he
pleaseth; and inclined them to this course, that they might, though ignorantly,
accomplish his counsel. Perhaps Ben-hadad only designed to have taken him
prisoner, that he might now give him as honourable a treatment, as he had
formerly received from him.
Verse 34
[34] And
a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the
joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine
hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.
The joints —
Where the several parts of his armour were joined together. The only place
about him where this arrow of death could find entrance. No armour is proof
against the darts of divine vengeance. Case the criminal in steel, and it is
all one: he that made him, can make his sword approach him. And that which to
us seems altogether casual, comes by the determinate counsel of God.
Verse 37
[37] So
the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.
Died —
Finding too late the truth of Micaiah's words; and Zedekiah's horns of iron,
pushing not the Syrians, but himself, into destruction.
Verse 39
[39] Now
the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he
made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Ivory house —
Not that it was made of solid ivory, but because the other materials were
covered, or inlaid with ivory.
Verse 41
[41] And
Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab
king of Israel.
Of Ahab —
Who reigned twenty two years; therefore he reigned about eighteen years with
Ahab.
Verse 43
[43] And
he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing
that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were
not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high
places.
High places — He
took them away, but not fully; or not in the beginning of of his reign.
Verse 44
[44] And
Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
Made peace —
With Ahab first, and then with his son. This is noted as a blemish in his
government, 2 Chronicles 19:2, and proved of most
mischievous consequence to his posterity.
Verse 47
[47]
There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.
A deputy —
Sent, and set over them by the kings of Judah, from the time of David, until
the days of Jehoram, 2 Chronicles 21:8.
Verse 49
[49] Then
said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy
servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.
Would not — He
did join with Ahaziah before this time, and before the ships were broken: for
the breaking of the ships mentioned here, is noted to be the effect of his sin,
in joining with Ahaziah, 2 Chronicles 20:37. And Jehoshaphat being warned
and chastised by God for this sin, would not be persuaded to repeat it.
Verse 51
[51]
Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth
year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.
Ahaziah, … —
Ahaziah was made king by his father, and reigned in conjunction with him a year
or two before Ahab's death, and as long after it; even as Jehoram the son of
Jehoshaphat was made king by his father in his life-time, which possibly was
done in compliance with Ahab's desire upon marriage of his daughter to
Jehoshaphat's son; and it may be Ahab, to induce him to do so, give him an
example of it, and made his son his partner in the kingdom.
Verse 52
[52] And
he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and
in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made
Israel to sin:
In the way —
Which seems added, to shew, how little the example of parents, or ancestors, is
to be valued where it is opposed to the will and word of God.
Verse 53
[53] For
he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of
Israel, according to all that his father had done.
His father, … —
Most unhappy parents, that thus help to damn their own children's souls!
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
22 Chapter 22
Verses 1-40
Jehoshaphat
the King of Judah.
Character of
Jehoshaphat
In
Ahab we have an instance of a wicked man partially reclaimed, frequently
arrested, but yet finally hardened in his iniquity. In Jehoshaphat, again, we
have a still more affecting example. We see how a man, upright before God, and
sincere in serving Him, may be betrayed into weak compliances; and how
dangerous and melancholy the consequences of these compliances may be. The
general uprightness of Jehoshaphat, his sincerity in serving God, is expressly
acknowledged and commended by the prophet in the very act of condemning his sin
(1 Kings 22:3). The 17th chapter of Second Chronicles gives an account of his
piety and zeal at the beginning of his reign, and before the event to which the
prophet refers; and the 19th and 20th chapters prove the continuance of these
excellent dispositions, even after that most sad and untoward occurrence. Such
a prince, we might naturally imagine, opposed to all corruption in the worship
of God, would be especially studious to keep himself and his people separate
from the heathenism and idolatry of the adjoining kingdom of Israel. He could
have no sympathy with the spirit which animated that kingdom under the auspices
of the infamous Jezebel--no toleration for the abuses which prevailed after she
had secured the open establishment of the very worst form of paganism. Yet,
strange to tell, the besetting sin of this good man was a tendency to connect
himself with idolaters. The single fault charged against this godly prince is
his frequent alliance with his ungodly neighbours. Thus, in the first place,
Jehoshaphat consented to a treaty of marriage, probably at the beginning of his
reign (2 Chronicles 17:1). He “joined affinity with Ahab” by marrying his son to Ahab’s
daughter (2 Kings 8:18). This was the first overture towards an alliance. Then,
secondly, Jehoshaphat twice joined in a league of war with the King of Israel;
first, in the expedition against Syria which we have been considering; and
again, shortly after an attack upon the Moabites (2 Kings 3:7). Lastly, in the third place, Jehoshaphat consented, though
reluctantly, in the close of his reign, to a commercial alliance of his people
with the ten tribes. As to the sin itself with which Jehoshaphat is charged,
and the probable reasons or motives of its commission,--we cannot suppose that,
in forming an alliance with the ungodly, Jehoshaphat was actuated by fondness
for the crime, or by complacency in the criminal. We must seek an explanation
of his conduct rather in mistaken views of policy than in any considerable
indifference to the honour of God, or any leaning to the defections of apostasy
and idolatry. For this end, let us consider the relative situation of the two
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and the feelings which their respective kings,
with their subjects, mutually cherished towards one another. The first effect
of Jeroboam’s revolt with the ten tribes from the house of David, was a bitter
and irreconcilable hostility between the two rival kingdoms of the ten, and of
the two tribes. And, as if to widen and perpetuate the breach, each party in
turn had recourse to the expedient of calling in foreign aid against the other.
At the instigation probably of Jeroboam, Shishak, King of Egypt, who had
formerly been his patron and protector, invaded Judah. And again, by way of
retaliation, the King of Judah soon after invited the Syrians to ravage the
territory of the hostile kingdom
of Israel (2 Chronicles 16:1-14.). In course of time, however, when a generation or two passed
away, something like a change, or a tendency to approximation, began to appear.
The feelings of hostility had in some degree subsided, the memory of former
union had revived, and the idea might again not unnaturally suggest itself to a
wise and patriotic statesman, of consolidating once more into a powerful empire
communities which, although recently estranged, had yet a common origin, a
common history, a common name, and, till lately, a common faith,--whose old
recollections and associations were all in common. The manifest folly, too, of
exposing themselves, by intestine division, to foreign invasion, and even
employing foreigners against each other, might prompt the desire of bringing
the kingdoms to act harmoniously together, whether in peace or in war. Such
might very reasonably be the views of an able, enlightened, and conscientious
sovereign, pursuing simply, in a sense, the good of his country; and such,
probably, were the views of Jehoshaphat. His favourite aim and design seems to
have been, to conciliate the king and people of Israel; at least, he was always
ready to listen to any proposals of conciliation. Nay, we may believe that this
good man proposed, by the course which he adopted, to leaven them with the spirit
of a better faith, and ultimately bring them back again to the legitimate
dominion of the house of David, and the pure worship of the God of their
fathers. If so, his object was certainly not unlawful; but in the pursuit of
it, he was tempted to an unlawful compromise of principle. In his anxiety to
pacify, to conciliate, and to reclaim, he was tempted to go a little too
far,--even to the sacrificing of his own high integrity, and the apparent
countenancing of other men’s iniquities. And is not this the very sin of many
good and serious Christians, who manifest to the world, its follies and its
vices, a certain mild and tolerant spirit, and are disposed to treat the men of
the world with a sort of easy and indulgent complacency; justifying or excusing
such concessions to themselves by the fond persuasion, that they are but
seeking, or at least that they are promoting, the world’s reformation? No
doubt, it is your duty to conciliate all men, if you can; but there is such a
thing as conciliating, and conciliating, and conciliating, till you conciliate
away all the distinctive characteristics of your faith.
1. Thus, as to the first point, Jehoshaphat, when he consented to an
alliance with the King of Israel, no doubt contemplated the possibility of
doing him some good. Such was his hope. How in point of fact was it realised?
He has descended from his footing of unquestioned and uncompromised integrity,
and involved himself irretrievably in the very course he should be rebuking.
And so it must ever be. The very first step a good man takes from the eminence
on which he stands apart, as the friend of God and the unflinching enemy of all
ungodliness in the world, he compromises his authority, his influence, his
right and power of bold remonstrance and unsparing testimony against the
corrupt lusts and the angry passions of men. He gives up the point of
principle, and as to any resistance that he may make in details, men see not
what there is left to fight for. Is not this the natural, the necessary result
of such a conciliatory course? If you condescend to flatter men in their
vanities, will they listen to you when you gravely reprehend their sins? No;
they will laugh you to scorn. If you countenance them in the beginning of their
excess, will they patiently bear your authoritative denunciation of its end?
No; they will contemptuously reject it as a fond folly, or indignantly resent
it as an insult. If you go with them one mile, may they not almost expect you
to go two?--at least, you have no right to take it very much amiss if they go
the two miles themselves.
2. But, in the second place, Jehoshaphat not only failed to arrest
Ahab in his sinful course--he was himself involved in its sinfulness. Instead
of reclaiming this wicked prince, he was himself betrayed into a participation
in his wickedness he joined him in his unholy expedition. And be sure, we say
to all professing Christians, that you too, if you try thus artfully to gain
the advantage over the world, will find the world too much for you. For Satan,
the god of this world, is far more than a match for you in this game of craft,
and compromise, and conciliation. Beware how you step out of your own proper
sphere, as a separate and peculiar people. Then go not along with them at
all--no, not a single step: for a single step implies tampering, in so far,
with your religious and conscientious scruples; and when these are once weakly
or wilfully compromised, Satan’s battle is gained. The rest is all a question
of time and of degree. Stand fast, then, in your liberty. “All things are
lawful unto you, but all things are not expedient.” Be not yourselves “brought
under the power of any”; and consider what may “edify” the Church and glorify
God (1 Corinthians 6:12; 1 Corinthians 10:23), Stand fast in your integrity.
3. For, thirdly, see what hazard Jehoshaphat ran. Not only did he sin
with Ahab, but he was on the point of perishing with him in his sin. The King
of Judah was saved himself, as by fire; but his ally, his confederate, was
lost. And had he no hand, had he no concern, in the loss? Had he honestly
remonstrated with him? Had he fearlessly protested against him, and sharply rebuked
and withstood him? Oh! such wounds would have been kind and precious. But he had been too merciful;
he had been pitiful, falsely pitiful,--what a thought is this, that, in making
flattering advances to sinners, and dealing smoothly with their sins, you not
only endanger your own peace, but you accelerate and promote their ruin! You
may save yourselves by tardy yet, timely repentance; you may extricate
yourselves ere it be too late;--but can you save, can you extricate those whom
your example has encouraged, or your presence has authorised? (R. S.
Candlish, D. D.)
The King of Israel.--
The character
of Ahab
I. The king’s wilful purpose (verses 1-6). Ahab’s purpose is
announced in the beginning of the chapter. We find him, after three years of
peace, preparing to attack the Syrians. The Syrian king, whom Ahab had treated
with such ill-timed lenity, and with whom he had made so sinful a compromise,
has, as might have been anticipated, failed to fulfil the: stipulated terms of
ransom, and to restore the cities of Israel. Ahab, provoked at his own
simplicity in having suffered so favourable an opportunity to slip, through his
fond trust in the honour of a perfidious prince, and stung by the recollection
of the prophet’s rebuke, conceives the design of retrieving his error, and
compelling the fulfilment of the treaty, on the faith of which he had been
weakly persuaded to liberate the enemy whom God had doomed. In this Ahab acts
under the impulse of resentment and ambition. He burns with the desire of
avenging a personal wrong and insult, rather than of fulfilling the decree of
God. Had he consulted the will of God, he must have seen and felt that it was
now too late for him to take the step proposed. He had let the time go past.
When God gave him victory, and assured him of power over his enemy, then he
should have used his opportunity. This he had failed to do; and for his failure
he had been
reproved by God, and warned by the prophet that his people and his life were
forfeited. Certainly Ahab should have been the very last person to think of
rousing and provoking the very foe who, by the Divine sentence and by his own
compromise, had gained so sad and signal an advantage over him. But instead of
following so wise a course, Ahab blindly rushes into the opposite extreme from
his former fault; and because before he has been blamed for not going far
enough, with God on his side, he is provoked to go too far now, though God has
declared against him. He is not without his reasons, and they are very
plausible reasons, to justify the step proposed.
1. In the first place, it is in itself an act of patriotism and of
piety; at least it looks very like it, and may easily be so represented.
2. Secondly, it has received the countenance of a friend (verse 4).
And that friend is not a wicked man, but one fearing God, and acknowledged by
God as righteous.
3. And, thirdly, it has obtained the sanction of four hundred
prophets (verse 6). And these are not prophets of Baal. Looking, then, at the
act itself as an act of patriotic and pious zeal, encouraged by the consent of
his friend and the concurrence of the prophets, Ahab, we may think, might well
be misled. And we might pity and excuse him too, as one misled, did we not see
him so willing to be so. Is he not all the while deceiving himself, and that
too almost wilfully and consciously? O beware, ye pilgrims in an evil world, ye
soldiers in an arduous fight, beware of your own rash wilfulness, of the
weakness of compliant friends, and of the flattering counsels of evil men and
seducers, who in the last times--in the last and critical stage of individual
experience, as well as of the world’s history--are sure to wax worse and worse!
There is no design, no device, no desire of your hearts, which you may not find
some specious arguments to justify,
some friends to countenance, ay, and some prophets, too, to sanction.
II. The Lord’s gracious opposition (verses 7-23). The King of Israel
is satisfied with the oracular answer of the prophets. Not so, however, the
King of Judah. He suspects something wrong, missing probably among the four
hundred some one of whom he has heard. This Micaiah is supposed to be the
prophet who reproved Ahab formerly, on the occasion of his compromise with the
Syrian king; and it was probably his boldness on that occasion that caused him
to be imprisoned. And is not this the spirit in which good advice is too often
asked, and the word of God consulted,--when it is too late,--when a man’s mind
is already all but made up? You go when your conscience will not otherwise let
you alone, or when the remonstrances of pious friends trouble you; you go to
some man of God, to God Himself, by prayer and the searching of His word:--for
what? what is it that you want?--light for duty, however self-denying? or light
to justify your doubtful course? He stands before the princes, undaunted by
their royal state. First of all, he rebukes the prejudice of Ahab, by seeming
to flatter it (verse 15). The irony conveys a cutting reproof, and a merited
one; and with this the holy prophet might have left the prince to believe his
own and his flatterers’ lie. But the mercy of God and the sin of Ahab are to be
yet more signally brought out. Even to the last, in judgment God remembers
mercy. The very scene of judgment which the prophet discloses does not imply
any fixed and irrevocable design of wrath against Ahab;--with such a design,
indeed, the disclosure of the scene would be incompatible and inconsistent. The
sentence of final infatuation does not come without previous intimation.
However you may be deceived, or maybe deceiving yourselves, is there not a
voice of truth, or a prophetic warning, which you feel might keep you right--if
you wore but willing to be kept right?
III. The issue of the contest (verses 29-38). And here, in the first
place, let the expedient by which Ahab consults his own safety be observed. For
he does not feel entirely comfortable and secure; he cannot rid himself of the
uneasy apprehension which the prophet’s word has suggested. There is danger.
Ahab, knowing the hazard, cunningly proposes to resign the post of honour to
his ally: “And the King of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise
myself, and enter into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the King of
Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle” (verse 30). And what are we
to expect but that, false to his God, a man will be false to his friend also.
Let none trust the fidelity of him who is not faithful to his best, his
kindest, his most generous benefactor,--his Saviour, his God. Consult your own
conscience.
1. Beware of the beginning of Ahab’s evil course-his fatal compromise
with the enemy of his peace. See that you enter into no terms with any sin, and
that you be not hardened through its deceitfulness. When God in Christ gives
you the victory, delivering you from condemnation by His free grace, and
upholding you by His free Spirit; when, justified and accepted in the Beloved,
you see every sin of yours prostrate beneath your feet, stripped of all its
power to slay or to enslave you--be sure that you make thorough work in
following out the advantage you have gained--that you listen to no plausible
proposals of concession--that you suffer no iniquity to escape--that you
mortify every lust.
2. Beware of provoking a slumbering foe. If there be any enemy of
your peace to whom, by former compliances or concessions, you have given an
advantage over you, beware of invading his territories again. Be on your guard
against the very first beginnings of evil--of any evil especially that you have
ever, in all your past lives, tolerated, or flattered or fondled in your
bosoms, when you should have been nailing it, without pity, to your Saviour’s
cross.
3. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. The wiles of the devil are not
unknown to you. In a doubtful case, where you are hesitating, it is easy for
him to insinuate and suggest reasons enough to make the worse appear the better
cause. Generally you may detect his sophistry by its complex character. Truth
is simple; the word of God is plain.
4. Beware of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Beware
of a judicial hardening of your hearts, or of your being given over to believe
a lie. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Verse 3
Ramoth
in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the King
of Syria?
Unpossessed
possessions
I. What is ours and not ours. Every Christian man has large tracts of
unannexed territory unattained possibilities, unenjoyed blessings, things that
are his and yet not his. How much more of God you and I have a right to than we
have the possession of! The ocean is ours, but only the little pailful that we
carry away home to our own houses is of use to us.
1. How much inward peace is ours? It is meant that there should never
pass across a Christian’s soul more than a ripple of agitation, which may
indeed ruffle and curl the surface, but deep down there should be the
tranquillity of the fathomless ocean, unbroken by any tempests and yet not
stagnant because there is a vital current that runs through it, and every drop
is being drawn upward to the surface and the sunlight. There may be a peace in
our hearts deep
as our lives; a tranquillity which may be superficially disturbed, but is never
thoroughly, and down to the depths, broken.
2. What “heights”--for Ramoth means “high places”--what heights of
consecration there are which are ours according to the Divine purpose and
according to the fulness
of God’s gift! It is meant, and it is possible, and it is within the reach of
every Christian soul, that he or she should live, day by day, in the continual
and utter surrender of himself or herself to the will of God, and should say,
“I do the little I can do, and leave the rest with Thee”; and should say again,
“All is right that seems most wrong if it be His sweet will.”
3. What noble possibilities of service, what power in the world is
bestowed on Christ’s people! “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in
earth,” says He. “And He breathed on them, and said, “As My Father hath sent
Me, even so send I you” The Divine gift to the Christian community, and to the
individuals that compose it--for there are no gifts given to the community but
to the individuals that make it up--is of fulness, of power for all their work.
II. Our strange contentment in imperfect possession. Is not that
condition of passive acquiescence in their small present attainments, and of
careless indifference to the great stretch of the unattained, the
characteristic of the mass of professing Christians? They have got a foothold
on a new continent, and their possession of it is like the world’s knowledge of
the map of Africa when we were children, which had a settlement dotted here and
there along the coast, and all the broad regions of the interior undreamed of.
The settlers huddle together upon the fringe of barren sand by the salt water,
and never dream of pressing forward into the heart of the land. And so too many
of us are content with what we have got, a little bit of God, when we might
have Him all; a settlement on the fringe and edge of the land, when we might
traverse the whole length of it; and behold! it is all ours.
III. The effort that is needed to make our own ours. “We be still, and
take it not out of the hands of the King of Syria.” Then these things that are
ours, by God’s gift, by Christ’s purchase, by the Spirit’s influence, will need
our effort to secure them. And that is no contradiction, nor any paradox. God
does exactly in the same way with regard to a great many of His natural gifts
which He does with regard to His spiritual ones. He gives them to us, but we
hold them on this tenure, that we put forth our best efforts to get and to keep
them. His giving them does not set aside our taking. And we Christian people
have an endless prospect of that sort stretching before us. Oh, if we looked at
it oftener, “having respect unto the recompense of the reward,” we should find
it easier to dash at any Ramoth-Gilead, and get it out of the hands of the
strongest of the enemies that may bar our way to it. Let us familiarise
ourselves with the thought of our present imperfection, and of our future, and
of the possibilities which may become actualities even here and now; and let us
not fitfully use what power we have, but make the best of what graces are ours,
and enjoy and expatiate on the spiritual blessings of peace and rest which
Christ has already given to us. “To him that hath shall be given.” And the
surest way to lose what we have is to neglect the increasing of it. (A.
Maclaren, D. D.)
Privileges
unenjoyed
A young
fellow was in the habit of visiting the house of a rather wealthy lady. He
never got beyond the drawing-room, where he was received and entertained. The
drawing-room looked into the vinery, but the door between them was always
closed, and evidently locked. In after days he was adopted into the family, and
became heir to the house and estates. The friend who told me the story said to
him, when hearing of his adoption: “And what was the first thing you did when
you entered the house as heir?” He replied: “I opened the door into the vinery,
and I went and cut down a cluster of grapes.” When I heard the story I could
not but think of our inheritance in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have a right to
go to the vineyard and to eat of the King’s grapes. How few of us exercise our
privileges! How poor we are, when we might be passing rich! We live as though
we were strangers and sojourners instead of sons. We move about our estates
like visitors; we do not open the doors and the gates, and stride about like
the lord and heir. (Hartley Aspen.)
Possessions
unenjoyed
A
Scotch laird, who shortly after arriving at his majority set out for the
Continent, having ascended a certain mountain in the south of Italy, famous for
the magnificent
prospect which is enjoyed from the summit, struck with its beauty, inquired of
the guide who accompanied him if there was anything in Europe equal to what he
now beheld. “I have heard,” replied the guide, “that this prospect is excelled
by only one” “And where is that one?” eagerly demanded the traveller. “In the
kingdom of Scotland,” said the guide. “Indeed,” said the view-hunter, “in what
part?” From the top of a hill named----,“was the reply. “Why,” exclaimed
the traveller, “that is on my own estate; and I have never been there.”
Unappropriated
blessings
Niagara
has for ages been flowing, a mighty force in the world. Yet it is only just
being utilised as a motive power. And by tunnelling off but a portion, they
have such a mighty power that it is almost impossible to estimate it.
Electricity is to be supplied to cities, some far distant, from its motive
power, and mills and works for miles are to be worked by it. So in Christ is
untold wealth, power, love, waiting
to be appropriated. Let us not pass by these gifts through our unbelief. (The
Christian World.)
Verse 5
Enquire,
I pray thee, at the word of the Lord to-day.
Appeal to the
prophets in time of crisis
It
has been noted, that in ancient Grecian national affairs, when all theories
that are called practical break down, it is the once-despised and suspected
philosophers that come into strange public importance. If an important embassy
to a hostile nation is to be sent, it is to Xenocrates that they entrust it,
though the man was never seen in the assembly. If Antigonus wants a safe
officer to hold the Accorrinthus, he chooses Perseus the Stoic. When Alexander
in his despair at the murder of Clitus sits in dust and ashes, and will not eat
or drink, they send two philosophers to bring him to reason. The men whose
lives are devoted to thought are now regarded as peace-makers and politicians
above the ordinary level.
Verse 8
There
is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah.
Loyalty to
truth
In
all the course of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel, I never knew a man in
whose truth and justice I had a more lively confidence. In the whole course of
my communication with him, I never knew an instance in which he did not show
the strongest attachment to truth, and I never saw, in the whole course of my
life, the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated anything which he did
not firmly believe to be the fact. (The Duke of Wellington.)
Micaiah
prophesying evil
I. You are in danger of committing Ahab’s folly, in the choice of
your acquaintances and friends. You find some ready to give you countenance, by
their example and conversation, in all the evil which your heart desires;
willing, whatever be your besetting sin, to help you in excusing it to your
conscience; forward, however unholy be your enterprise, to say with the false
prophets of Samaria, “Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the
king” (Verse 6) There are others who warn you of evil, who recommend you to
desist from sinful courses, whose very example is a reproof to you, though
their tongue be silent; Now which sort of friends do you most highly esteem?
II. A lively warning against the unwise conduct of many persons in the
choice of their religion. But be ye well assured, that one kind of religion
only can be right; and that this must be one which prophesieth evil concerning
you, which tells you that you
are lost if you sin, and which bids you seek for heaven, not by show of piety,
not by dissension one with another, not by resorting to images, and saints, and
masses; but by secret wrestling with your own desires, by fervent spiritual
prayer, and by painful denial of yourselves, in the faith and by the strength
of Jesus Christ your Saviour.
III. To profess the right faith is one thing; to apply it rightly in
our practice is another. It may be you fall not into the error of running after
false systems of faith, and yet regard not as you ought to do the prophets of
the truth. And into this error you may fall, either in regard to the public preaching, or
to the private exhortations, of the ministers of religion. “He doth not
prophesy good concerning me, but evil,” is a reflection with which you often
probably return home from church. (C. Girdlestone, M. A.)
Standing alone
When
Archbishop Abbot was visited by one of James I.’s emissaries, who came to
persuade him to do evil to please the court, he stood boldly in defiance of the
royal request, and asked: “Shall I, to please King James, and to shelter and
satisfy his vile favourites, shall I send my soul to hell? No, I will not do
it!” So he stood alone in that unholy court, and sought to be true to the King
of kings. The price for becoming traitor to God is too great for us to afford (H.
O. Mackey.)
.
I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.--
The hated
prophet of evil
I. A guilty conscience makes men fear the truth. And yet, how
senseless and impolitic is this! Whatever the reality of things may be, is it
not better that we should know it, rather than live in a fool’s paradise of
flattering self-delusions, crying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace? It was a
wise and noble spirit that said, “I will seek after the truth, by which no man
was ever injured.” We have mastered one of the grandest lessons of life when we
have learnt to welcome the truth from whatever quarter it may come.
II. Fear of truth may often develop into personal hate of him who is
the messenger and minister of It. “I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good
concerning me, but evil.” There is nothing strange in this. A very subtle
connection exists between the conditions of mind here indicated. Fear leads to
hate, and is itself a form of hate. The feeling of aversion is readily
transferred from the thing dreaded to him who is the means of bringing it upon
us;.and when a man hates the light, he is not likely to have much love for the
human medium through whom it shines.
III. Divine laws and purposes are surely accomplished, in spite of
human fear and hate. The “lying spirit” in the pretended prophets may utter its
persuasive flatteries (verse 22); Zedekiah may add violence to falsity (verse
24); Micaiah may be imprisoned and fed with “the bread and water of affliction”
(verse27),--but the fatal decree has gone forth, and must be fulfilled. The
king shall return no more from Ramoth-Gilead. (J. Waite, B. A.)
Hostility to
truth lies in the will
Many
an objector to Christianity in our day, if he said out what he really thinks,
would say, “I disbelieve Christianity, because it does not prophecy good
concerning me, but evil; it makes such serious demands, it sets up so high a
standard, it implies that so much I say and do is a great mistake that I must
away with it. I cannot do and be what it enjoins without doing violence to my
inclinations, to my fixed habits of life and thought.” This, before his
conversion, was the case with the great Augustine. Augustine tells us in his Confessions
how completely he was enchained by his passions, and how, after lie had
become intellectually satisfied of the truth of the creed of the Christian
Church, he was held back from conversion by the fear that he would have to give
up so much to which he was attached. In the end, we know, through God’s grace
he broke his chains--those chains which held poor Ahab captive. In such cases
lasting self-deceit is only too easy. Men treat what is only a warp of the will
as if it were a difficulty of the understanding, while the real agent--ought I
not to say the real culprit?--is almost always the will. The will sees religion
advancing to claim the allegiance of the will, it sees that to admit this claim
will oblige it to forego much, and to do much that is unwelcome to flesh and
blood, and so it makes an effort to clog or to hinder the direct action of the
understanding. Its public language is, “I cannot accept religion because it
makes this or that assertion, which to my mind is open to historical or
philosophical or moral objections of a decisive character”; but, if it saw
deeper into itself, it would say, “I dislike this creed, for it doth not
prophesy good concerning me, but evil, while I continue to live as I do.” (Canon
Liddon.)
An unpleasant
view blocked up
“It
was an old joke against Lord Islay, who formerly lived at Hounslow, that
ordering his gardener to cut an avenue to open a view, the landscape disclosed
a gibbet with a thief on it; and several members of the Campbell family having
died with their shoes on, the prospect awoke such ominous and unpleasant
reminiscences that Lord Islay instantly ordered the avenue to be closed up
again with a clump of thick Scotch firs.” The amusing incident has a moral side
of it. Certain doctrines of the Gospel bear very heavily upon proud human
nature, and therefore many are determined to block up the view which they open
up. Curiosity impelled them to hear, but perceiving that the truth condemns
them they wish to hear no more. The preacher’s teaching would be all very well,
but it brings sin to remembrance and reveals the hell which will follow it, and
therefore the self-convicted hearer cannot abide it. It is, however, no joke to
block up our view of eternity. The gibbet is there even if the sinner refuses
to see it. (Sword and Trowel.)
Preachers for
the times
The
class of sermons which, according to Mr. Gladstone, is most needed, is the
class one of which so offended Lord Melbourne tong ago. He was one day seen
coming from a church in the country in a great fume. Meeting a friend, he
exclaimed, “It is too bad! I have always been a supporter of the Church, and I
have always upheld the clergy. But it is really too bad to have to listen to a
sermon like that we have had this morning. Why, the preacher actually insisted
upon applying religion to a man’s private life!” (Quiver.)
Truth most
required
The
truth which a man or a generation requires most is the truth which he or
they like least; and the true Christian teacher’s adaptation of his message
will consist quite as much in opposing the desires and contradicting the lies,
as in seeking to meet the felt wants of the world. Nauseous medicines or sharp
lancets are adapted to the sick man quite as truly as pleasant food and
soothing ointment. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Aim in
preaching
A sailor
just off to a whaling expedition asked where he could hear a good sermon. On
his return from the church his friend asked him, “How did you like the sermon?”
“Not much, it was like a ship leaving for the whale fishing; everything
shipshape; anchors, cordage, sails, and provisions all right, but there were no
harpoons on board.”
Dislike to the
preacher
One
excuse a man makes for not heeding the message is, “I did not like the man
himself; I did not like the minister; I did not like the man who blew the
trumpet, I had a personal dislike to him, and so I did not take any notice of
what the trumpet said.” Verily, God will say to thee at the last, “Thou fool,
what hadst thou to do with that man; to his own master he stands or falls; thy
business was with thyself.” What would you think of a man? A man has fallen
overboard from a ship, and when he is drowning some sailor throws him a rope,
and there it is. “Well,” he says, “in the first place. I do not like that rope;
I do not think the rope was made at the best manufactory; there is some tar on
it, too; I do not like it; and in the next place, I do not like that sailor
that threw the rope over; I do not like the look of him at all,” and then comes
a gurgle and a groan, and down he is at the bottom of the sea; and when he was drowned,
they said that it served him right. On his own head be his blood. And so shall
it be with you at the last. You are so busy with criticising the minister and
his style, and his doctrine, that your own soul perishes. Remember you may get
into hell by criticism, but you will never criticise your soul out of it. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Verse
13-14
Behold
now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth.
Prophets of
smooth speech
I. A certain fear of God is made to serve the selfish ends of worldly
men. Here is a wicked king, a pervert from the true faith, a patron of
idolatry, a man whose actions were only evil continually, a man buckling on his
armour for an unnecessary war, yet a man who will not move until he gets a sign
that the gods will take his part. Ahab is a religious man, although a man of
sin--a man who has his priests and prophets, as well as his warriors, and who
in doing wrong likes to fortify himself by the assurance that the heavens are
on his side. “Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear”
said the king. In form that was an inquiry; in reality it was an attempt to
blend religion with worldly designs, that thus he might the better compass
their fulfilment. There is much of this incongruous mixture in the conduct of
ungodly men among us now. There are few persons so worldly but that they have a
vein of the religious running through them; and generally they are shrewd
enough to somehow turn this element to their own advantage. Many persons going
to church on Sunday is done to keep their conscience quiet through the week of
questionable conduct. Religion is to some a refuge from uncomfortable thoughts,
and as much a means of keeping a man in face with himself as with his
neighbours. It is oftentimes a valuable auxiliary to a worldling’s temporal
progress, winning him the good opinion of his fellows as well as furnishing a
basis of self-confidence.
II. The wide prevalence of the demand for smooth-speaking prophets.
Ahab said to his assembled seers, “Shall I go, or shall I forbear?” There is
always a demand for prophets who tell us what we like. There is a good deal of
satisfaction to the man who all the week long is driving doubtful bargains,
indulging in sharp practices, and living by the world’s smart maxims rather
than the principles of Scripture--it is most gratifying to such a person when
he comes to church to find a man in the pulpit who dwells only on the brighter
side of human conduct, who seldom mentions people’s sins, who is too polite to
speak of hell, and who in general seems in favour of a “downgrade” in morals as
well as in theology. And this demand is always followed by an adequate supply.
If the pew clamours for smooth-tongued prophets it will not have to wait many
Sundays before one mounts the pulpit. The Christian Church has never been
without such men. As a rule, they abound.
III. However much smooth-speaking may abound, we can never get away
entirely from the intermingled voice of truth. Micaiah was not at first
summoned into the royal presence. No; Ahab knew he had a rasping voice and an
awkward honesty about him which would ill harmonise with the general
concurrence he expected. But somehow Micaiah was fated to appear. This world of
ours has never lacked true prophets, as it has never wanted false ones. Even in
the most unfriendly times there have been more of them than the prophets
themselves have thought. And, somehow, as in this case, bad men are obliged to
hear the prophet of the Lord sometimes. The jarring note will break in upon the
smooth current of man-pleasing doctrine. Despite men’s evasions, the rousing
voice makes itself heard above the sibilations of your religious parasites end
sycophants; the pure light flashes convincingly into the dark places of the
corrupt heart; and the word of the Lord moves right royally over men’s cowering
souls and crooked lives. In the providence of God it is always ordered that the
truth shall speak to evil men, “whether they will hear or whether they will
forbear.” If it speaks but seldom it makes up for it by compensating emphasis.
(J. J. Ingram.)
Enmity to truth
I. A man may deliberately set himself against god. This may appear an
improbable thing, as there must be an apprehension that the only clear issue to
such conduct is the defeat of the man, and the triumph of God.
II. A man may turn the faithfulness of God into a personal. Grievance.
This evidently Ahab did; and also the men of Christ’s day, who, resenting the
plainness of His speech, became His bitter adversaries. To be reproved when
wrong is meditated or pursued should be regarded as an advantage. Warning is an
indication of interest in one’s well-being when uttered by a friend, and ought
never to be thought of other than as a kindness.
III. A may come to regard what is truth as evil instead of its being
good. A man must have had his way for a long time before such a verdict may be
announced; but selfishness is not long indulged before he is upon this track.
IV. A man may never be taught by experience, but ever rush on to
destruction, well knowing what is before him. It was so with Ahab. No amount of
teaching or experience--and his life had not been without instruction--sufficed
to turn him from his set purpose and awaken him to the danger in which by his
conduct he was placed. (Homiletic Magazine.)
Resisting
conviction
John
Wesley tells us in his famous Journal that when he was about twenty-two,
before he knew by joyous experience the salvation of God, he read Thomas
Kempis’ Christian Pattern, and he began “to see that true religion was
seated in the heart, and that God’s law extended to all our thoughts, as well
as words and actions.” He says with brave frankness, “I was, however, very
angry with Kempis for being so strict!” This is an illuminating sentence. The
sense of guilt recoils in anger from that which exposes our sin.
Verse 19
I
saw the Lord sitting on His throne.
Council in
heaven
We
read elsewhere of “war in heaven.” The text suggests a different subject,
apparently connected with it, namely, “council in heaven.” Micaiah describes
what he saw as a vision. We are presented with one of the most imposing descriptions
of the heavenly conclave which Holy Scripture contains. It is one of those rare
occasions when we are permitted to learn how in the councils of heaven the
things of our earth are ordered. Men are unwilling to believe a Providence;
they trace out cause and effect, and this they deem sufficient. The text shows
that “cause and effect” indeed are but the results of God’s decree, and it
teaches us how He directs also even individual circumstances. In this way it
may be a natural effect of a natural cause which shall bring a plague within a
certain city or village, and yet God shall direct who shall fall by it, and who
escape, The cause of death may be natural; the individual application is
providential. You, then, are the subjects of Satan’s malignity, of the love of
God, and of the wonder and ministrations of angels t It may be, that at this
very hour a council is proceeding in heaven which may secure blessings of the
highest order for you or for our land. Not impossible but that our arch-enemy
too yet presents himself in that blessed assembly, and pointing to the many
national sins of our country, or to our individual transgressions, may be
prompt with a slander, followed by the suggestion, “I will go and deceive them
yet more, and so I will destroy them entirely!” St. Paul meant something when
he spake of wrestling not so much “against flesh and blood” as against
principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. (G.
Venables.)
A prophet’s
vision and a king’s blindness
(with
1 Kings 22:8):--Now in these two utterances, spoken by Ahab on the one hand
and by Micaiah on the other, you see the cause of the difference between the
two men. One man has a clear vision that leads to goodness, to pure life, to
holy character, and to undying courage; the other man is blinded by his sins so
that his vision is darkened, and he goes from folly to folly until he ends his
life in shame and ignominy, because he hates the truth and will not hear it nor
heed it. Here are some very important lessons for us as Christians.
1. The duties of life will not all be pleasant. We Shall sometimes be
required to do very unpleasant things; but if, like this brave prophet, we have
a clear vision of the Lord on His throne, and recognise that God has the first
claim to our service, then we shall be able to do unpleasant duties in a brave
and cheerful spirit, because we are pleasing God.
2. We are only fitted to do Christian work in the right spirit when
like Micaiah, we seek to please the Lord, having Him always before our eyes. I
have noticed that when I have witnessed the falling away in service on the part
of a Christian it has almost universally come from a lessening of true
devotion. A man ceases to pray with regularity; he becomes absorbed in business
or pleasure; sets his mind on material things, until his thought is taken away
from God. He does not see the Lord, and so he becomes indifferent to earnest
Christian effort.
3. The man who looks upon the Lord as his God, his Heavenly Father,
his Saviour, will feel that earthly affairs are of very small moment compared
to the importance of spiritual victories. He will feel that it is infinitely
more important to be good than it is to be rich. The man who has looked upon
the face of God in loving reverence before he goes forth to his work in the
morning will not be a fit subject to delude into taking bribes, or into
receiving fraudulent money either in business or in politics.
4. He who sees the Lord in daily communion finds God a present help
in every time of trouble. (L A. Banks, D. D.)
Verse 27
Put
this fellow in the prison.
Persecuting the
truth-teller
One
evening, at a small literary gathering, a lady, famous for her “muslin
theology,” was bewailing the wickedness of the Jews in not receiving our
Saviour, and ended a diatribe by expressing regret that He had not appeared in
our own time. “How delighted,” said she, “we should all be to throw our doors
open to Him, and listen to His Divine precepts! Don’t you think so, Mr.
Carlyle?” The sturdy philosopher thus appealed to, said, in his broad Scotch,
“No, madam, I don’t. I think that, had He come very fashionably dressed, with
plenty of money, and preaching doctrines palatable to the higher orders, I
might have had the honour of receiving from you a card of invitation, on the
back of which would be written, ‘To meet our Saviour’; but if He had come
uttering His sublime precepts, and denouncing the Pharisees, and associating
with publicans and lower orders, as He did, you would have treated Him much as
the Jews did, and would have cried out, ‘Take Him to Newgate and hang Him!’”
Imprisoned
conscience
Do we
not all know that honest friends have sometimes fallen out of favour, perhaps
with ourselves, because they have persistently kept telling us what our
consciences and common sense knew to be true, that if we go on that road we
shall be suffocated in a bog? A man makes up his mind to a course of conduct.
He has a shrewd suspicion that his honest friend will condemn, and that the
condemnation will be right. What does he do, therefore? He never tells his
friend, and if, by chance, that friend may say what was expected of him, he
gets angry with his adviser and goes his road. I suppose we all know what it is
to treat our consciences in the style in which Ahab treated Micaiah. We do not
listen to them because we know what they will say before they have said it. And
we call ourselves sensible people! Martin Luther once said: “It is neither safe
nor wise to do anything against conscience.” But Ahab puts Micaiah in prison,
and we shut up our consciences in a dungeon, and put a gag in their mouths, and
a muffler over the gag, that we may hear them say no word, because we know what
we are doing, and we are doggedly
determined to do, is wrong. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Verse 34
A
certain man drew a bow at a venture.
Providence in
accidents
I. The lord’s hand is concerned in those events which have the
appearance of being wholly accidental, and of happening by chance or luck. The
man who drew the bow by which the King of Israel received his death, drew it,
as our text says, “at a venture.” He took no aim whatever. Men talk of chance,
and luck, and fate, and accident, as if there was not a God that ruled the
world. And some even pretend to think that it is doing a kind of dishonour to
the Lord to suppose that He interferes in the events of life, beyond, perhaps,
a mere general oversight or superintendence. But what says the Scripture? What
says the Lord Himself of His own doings and appointments? He tells us that His
hand is everywhere. He tells us that not a sparrow falleth to the ground
without Him--that when “the lot is cast into the lap,” yet “the whole disposal
thereof is of Him.”
II. God is true to his own threatenings. Look back into the former
verses of this chapter, and you will find King Ahab was expressly warned of God
that he should fall at Ramoth-Gilead, and that he should not return at all in
peace. Men may “encourage themselves in an evil matter”; they may go on still
in evil courses, with a most assured persuasion that their sins shall be unpunished;
but true, nevertheless, is that word of the Lord which He hath spoken--“The
wages of sin is death.” “God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall
they be wounded.”
III. That there is no fencing ourselves against the stroke of God by
any efforts or devices of our own. Ahab, seeming, as he did, to hold God’s
threatenings cheap, yet had some apprehensions notwithstanding. “He who made
you can make His weapon to approach unto you,” and that all self-defences are
in vain! There is a spiritual arrow, very strong and sharp, which may be called
“the arrow of conviction,” and which consists in the bringing home a sense of
guilt and danger to the sinner’s conscience. Let us consider such a case as
this--a case where the arrow of conviction has come home to a man’s heart through
the power of the Holy Ghost. The spiritual wound which this poor sinner has
received is grievous. Blessed be God! it is not like that of Ahab, hopeless and
incurable. There is “balm in Gilead,” and there is “a Physician there.” That
very Lord who made the preaching of His law so sharp and piercing--who made the
arrow of conviction strike so deep, can heal as well as wound. He hath provided
in His gospel a cure for the transgression of His law. “To bind up the
broken-hearted,” to provide a precious remedy for dying sinners, was the errand of the Son of
God when He visited our world. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
A bow at a
venture
I. Where all is venture men act as if all were certain. Strong
probability is not certainty.
1. No parent is certain that his child shall live to need the
education he gives it.
2. No working man is certain that he shall require the provision he
has made for “a rainy day.”
3. No merchant is certain of reaching that “wealth with honour” for
which he toils. Yet the parent, the working man, and the merchant act as
reasonable and responsible agents. Still, we have no certainty as to the result
of any act viewed apart from its moral element. Thus viewed, however, all is
certainty.
II. Where all is certain men act as if all were venture.
1. As a man sows morally, so shall he also reap; not necessarily from
his fellow-men, but from God, in the harvest field of his own soul, etc.
Experience, etc.
2. The most wicked deed ever perpetrated was first a thought. The
accumulative force of moral evil is a certainty. Yet men lust as if lust would
never bring forth; and covet as if covetousness never issued in actual theft,
etc.
3. The Gospel is a certainty alike in its promises and its
threatenings.
III. Deduce some practical lessons.
1. Be not afraid to “draw a bow at a venture” for the sake of Christ.
2. Be careful of all bows at a venture which are not for Christ’s
sake. (The Study.)
Venture in
Christian work
There
is one recent example, vouched for by Miss Pratt of the Bible School, Yokohama.
During the Chino-Japanese war a trainload of soldiers was passing the village
of Suzakawa, and one of them tossed a copy of the Japanese gospels into the
open window of a house. Through that single book, the owner of the house and
his whole family have become Christians. (T. H. Darlow.)
The joints of the harness.--
Joints of the
harness
We
have here suggested
the strength and the weakness of our defensive spiritual armour. We do not now
refer to what St. Paul meant by “the whole armour of God,” so much as to a
humanly framed defensive system of rules and principles and habits which is
necessary to protect us during this exposed earthly life.
I. We may arm ourselves against the world by placing restrictions
upon our intercourse with its social life. If specially susceptible to worldly
influences, we may wisely make it a rule to keep absolutely clear from all its
pleasant things in which any temptation can lurk; or we may allow ourselves
some degree of liberty, which, however, we restrict by some rule or clearly
drawn line beyond which we will not go. This is good defensive armour, but it
will not make us invulnerable. No formal, outward separation from the world can
absolutely shut out the spirit of the world. The armour of our restrictions may
keep out the world bodily, so to speak; but the very trust we place in such
armour may open the way for some arrow from the bow of the archer.
II. We may arm ourselves against the worldly influences which touch us
through our necessary intercourse with the world--as, for instance, in our
business relations with men--by joining regularly in religious services and
Christian work. In business hours our life is on the open ground, where we are
exposed to every temptation. But in the sanctuary of God what can harm us? It
is surely from the standpoint of the sanctuary that we get our true ideals of
life’s duties and aims, and that all the weak things about us are seen. It is
there that faith can see and realise Divine things most clearly, and heaven
seems so near, and the things of earth so small and poor. But religious
services and activities will not necessarily make us safe. The archer is
subtle, and has many devices.
III. We may further defend ourselves by an armour of religious habits.
There is great strength and protection in habits as distinguished from fitful,
varying acts. Let us keep our armour of defence as perfect as we can. Do not
undervalue it because it is dangerous to overvalue it. Let the sense of
weakness make us humble and watchful. Let us remember that there are places,
books, company, and habits which should be labelled “dangerous.” The wise man
will not court danger, but will flea from it. (Thomas Wilde.)
Verse 37
So
the king died.
The end of Ahab
1. Observe the madness of Ahab’s policy, and note how often it is the
policy which we ourselves are tempted to pursue. We suppose that if we do not
consult the Bible we may take licence to do what seems good in our own eyes,
and we imagine that by ignoring the Bible we have divested it of authority. We
flatter ourselves that if we do not listen to an exposition of the Divine Word we shall be
judged according to the light we have, forgetting the solemn law that it is not
according to the light we have that we are to be judged, but according to the
light we might have if we put ourselves in right relations to the opportunities
created for us by Divine providence. What is this ostrich policy, but one that
ought to be condemned by our sense as well as shrunk from by our piety? Our
duty under all critical circumstances is to go to the truth-teller, and to get
at the reality of things at all costs. Where the truth-teller disturbs our
peace and disappoints our ambition, we ought to learn that it is precisely at
that point that we have to become self-rectifying. The truth-teller is only
powerful in proportion as he tells the truth; officially, he is nothing; his
power is simply the measure of his righteousness.
2. Is it possible that there can be found any solitary man who dare
oppose such unanimous testimony and complete enthusiasm? The messenger who was
sent to call Micaiah was evidently a man of considerate feeling who wished the
prophet well. Seeing that the words of the prophets had all declared good unto
the king with one mouth, the messenger wished that Micaiah should for once
agree with the other prophets and please the king by leaving undisturbed their
emphatic and unanimous counsel. Thus the voice of persuasion was brought to bear upon
Micaiah, and that voice is always the most difficult to resist. Micaiah lived
in God, for God, and had nothing of his own to calculate or consider. Until
preachers realise this same spiritual independence, they will be attempting to
accommodate themselves to the spirit of the times, and even the strongest of
them may be betrayed into connivances and compromises fatal to personal
integrity and to the claims of truth.
3. Now came the critical moment. Now it was to be seen whether
Micaiah was to be promoted to honour, or thrust away in contempt and wrath. It
is easy to read of the recurrence of such moments, but difficult to realise
them in their agony. The martyrs must never be forgotten. Dark will be the day
in the history of any nation when the men who shed their blood that truth might
be told and honour might be vindicated, are no longer held in remembrance. In
vain do we bring forth from our hidden treasure the coins of ancient times, the
robes worn in high antiquity by kings and priests, the rusty armour of
warriors, if there is no longer in our heart the tenderest recollection of the
men who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented, that they might save the torch of truth from extinction and the
standard of honour from overthrow.
4. Away the kings have gone, and instead of relying upon the word of
the Lord, or taking refuge in the sanctuary of great principles, they invent
little tricks for the surprise and dismay of the enemy. The King of Israel
disguised himself, and Jehoshaphat made himself as the King of Israel, but all
their inventions came to nothing. So will perish all the enemies of the Lord.
Differences of merely accidental detail there will always be, but no honour can
mark the death of those who have gone contrary to the will of heaven, and taken
counsel of their own imagination. How long shall the lesson of history be
wasted upon us? How long will men delude themselves with the mad infatuation
that they can fight against God and prosper? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 41-50
Verse 48
Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish.
The shipwreck at Ezion-geber
I. This lamentable
disaster to King Jehoshaphat’s shipping. The Red Sea is a long and
comparatively narrow sheet of water, running in a north-westerly direction from
the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. Its extreme length, from the Strait of
Babel Mandeb to the Isthmus of Suez, is over 1400 miles, but at the northern end
it divides into two arms somewhat like the letter Y, which enclose between them
the peninsula of Mount Sinai. The left, or western arm, and the larger of the
two, is that with which we are best acquainted, and is called the Gulf of Suez;
the right arm runs in a north-easterly direction for upwards of 100 miles, and
is known as the Gulf of Akabah. At the head of this latter gulf is the site of
the ancient Ezion-geber.
II. The cause of
this disaster. It was a judgment from heaven.
III. The lesson
which it teaches.
1. Do not choose your associates amongst those who fear not the Lord.
The ill-matched fleet was hardly launched when disaster came, and the very
house of God was made
an “Ezion-geber.”
2. It is always safest to keep under Christian influences. A man is
rarely better than the company he keeps. Ungodliness is infectious: better
strengthen what is good in you than put it in peril. Never make a friend of one
who would destroy your faith; “go not in the way of evil men.” True sympathy of
hearts is the golden bond of friendship.
3. The lesson of the text bears upon all business alliances. You will
do well even to sacrifice a measure of financial interest and worldly prospect
rather than be associated in business with a man who is out of all sympathy
with you in religion. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.)
The peril of all mercantile enterprises apart from religious
principle
I. Covetousness
may lead us into forming forbidden alliances and entering upon unwarranted
speculative adventures. There can be no doubt that an inordinate thirst for
gold tempted Jehoshaphat into this ill-fated project; for we read that he had
already “riches and honour in abundance.” To obtain riches, indeed, there are
no dangers men will not risk, no toils they will not undergo, no perils they
will not brave. How often does it happen that a man of considerable capital,
from the desire to make much more, enters into partnership in some promising
speculation with persons of no piety, though professing godliness himself, and
constructs his schemes, and lays his plans, all upon their principles, entirely
forgetful that without the blessing of Heaven they can never prosper, and that
the blessing of Heaven can never rest upon an enterprise in which the
requirements of Heaven are disregarded. God has distinctly declared, that “a
companion of fools shall be broken”; and has warned us, that if sinners entice,
saying, “Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse; we shall find all
precious substance; we shall fill our houses with spoil,” we consent not, lest,
sharing in the sinner’s godless schemes, we share in the sinner’s disastrous
overthrow, and reap a righteous recompense, if not in actual bankruptcy, in the
wreck and ruin of our most costly equipments. Many, we are aware, are the
plausible pleas and excuses which may be urged by the man of merchandise, and
the adventurous moneymaker, who is greedy of gain, in justification of his
joint-stock schemes, and unions of interests in speculative enterprises with
men who have not the love of God in their hearts, nor “the fear of God before
their eyes.”
II. The peril there
is to the people of God in all mercantile enterprises apart from religious
principle. Be assured, that all alliances with the enemies of God, whether they
be in the master of marriage, where gold is often more looked to than goodness,
or whether they be in the partnerships of business, or in the undertakings of
speculative enterprise; or again, whether they be for the purpose of political
party, to prop up a ministry, and to gain strength, as is supposed, to a
government, they will assuredly, sooner or later, bring down disaster in the
desolating hurricane of Heaven’s displeasure. Over and over again have we seen
all such combinations broken up, and scattered to the winds, evincing, that
whatever is imagined to be strong through wickedness shall be made contemptible
for its weakness. No union can be strong in which God and truth are not the
uniting links. Or, to take another case: when oft-occurring calamities lessen
the resources of some wealthy company, and a firm in which all men placed
unquestioning confidence is overtaken by the desolating tempests of misfortune
upon misfortune, and their ships, which were heretofore to be found on every
sea, trading for gold, are scattered and wrecked, and bankruptcy is declared,
and creditors look blank with astonishment, is there not often reason to
believe that the AEolus of the mischief was some ungodly partner, who,
because be was thought to be powerful, was taken into the body, without any
regard being had to his religious principles. It is only when such alliances
are knowingly made that they can, perhaps, be considered criminal. But is there
no enterprise upon which man may enter, worthy of his immortal energies, and in
which there is no danger of indulging a destructive covetousness, nor of being
stricken clown by any desolating disaster. Ah! yes; there is a “merchandise
that is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine
gold”; and for this ye need not voyage to the land of Ophir. Jesus Christ says
to you, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest
be rich”--rich in justifying righteousness, rich in the gift of faith, rich in
sanctifying influences, rich in moral graces, rich in meekness for glory.
Heavenly “wisdom cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious
onyx or the sapphire.” (S. Jenner, M. A.)
The broken ships
Three places are mentioned in our text: Ophir, Tarshish, and
Ezion-geber. The first tells us of gold to be got; the second of ships built in
which to carry it; while the third speaks of the broken ships and the failure.
I. Ophir,
representing the desire. Where Ophir was we do not know with certainty;
probably in Arabia or India. It was a district noted for wealth, for Solomon’s
fleet used to go to Ophir every third year to bring back gold, ivory, and apes.
And Jehoshaphat deems his happiness incomplete; he must have the blessings of
Ophir added. He has a throne, but he must have gold. He has a crown of precious
jewels, won by David from the King of Ammon, but he must have gold; and he
tries to get it. And was there any great sin or harm in that? If there was,
then alas for us! for there are very few of us who would not like to fasten our
boat to one of Jehoshaphat’s ships, and follow in his wake to a prize so rich
and tempting. We should be quite ready to grant Jehoshaphat “liberty to tow” if
he would only throw out his hawser to us. And is this desire for gain wrong? Is
it inconsistent with a Christian profession? or injurious to a Christian life?
One thing is sure, it is a universal and instinctive desire. Go where you will,
you find men hurrying and striving; trapping the furs of the North, gathering
the fruits of the South; with careful, plodding industry seeking the treasures
of the mine, or the soil, or the sea. Scripture does not condemn the business.
It commends it. It approves of doing with our might whatever our hands may find
to do. It says the man who is “diligent in business shall stand before
kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” It rebukes sloth as well as too
much sleep, as it says: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and
be wise.” And what is it keeps these myriad wheels revolving? that makes the
world so busy, saving men from an indolence that would be fatal to all the
virtues? It is this same desire for gain, the wish to better one’s
circumstances, Go then to Ophir if you will, and if you can. Be diligent. Leave
no stone unturned that lies in your path. Increase your substance; but remember
to minister to Christ of that substance.
II. Tarshish, and
the design. Tashish was a busy emporium. Tarshish is still a busy place, and
shipbuilders are many. Thought is busy drawing out her plans, putting plank to
plank. And when our preparation is complete, we launch our little craft,
sending it afloat among that fleet of ventures which every day goes steering
out into the deep. And as we launch our ventures, what hope, what exhilaration,
what self-congratulation, as we set the ribbons streaming, and flags
fluttering, and wine dashing on the prow! How early in life we begin our
shipbuilding! Even in boyhood our hearts and hopes are away in the future. We
are building our phantom ships with shadowy sails; and, standing on our shadowy
deck, how near the shores of Ophir are! We can almost touch them! Others, many
others, have failed, but success to us is certain; at least it seems so to us,
for boyhood’s vision is chromatic, it likes to conjure up images. Now most of
us have lived some time in Tarshish; and somewhere on the great deep of
commercial life our ships are afloat to-day. Some are ordinary merchantmen,
whose sails catch the trade winds, and whose voyages are somewhat slow. Some
are a more colossal craft, a kind of steamer; your venture is among the
manufactures, with its larger capital and its quicker returns. And some have
neither of these; so they launch their little row-beat, and, trusting to the
skill and strength of their two hands, they hope for a cargo, though it be but
a small one And so Tarshish is left behind: Ezion-geber comes in sight.
II. Ezion-geber,
and the disappointment. This was a city on the shore of the Red Sea, used by
Solomon as a naval station, and as his seaside place of residence. Now in our
trading we like to give Ezion-geber a wide berth. We must pass by it, for there
is no way of reaching Ophir but by Ezion-geber. There is no success, but we
must venture something to gain it; there is no prize, but lies behind some
hazard. And how many of our ships have gone aground, and gone to pieces! Some
have returned, laden with a heavy, precious freight; but how many are now
overdue, how many lost! More ships reach Ezion-geber than reach Ophir. What
mean these broken ships?
1. Some are broken because they were built of light, flimsy material.
The strongest lasts the longest. A bubble is easily blown; it as easily bursts.
And some men are always floating bubbles. The gains of ordinary, legitimate
trade are safe, but slow; too slow for those who are making haste to be rich.
So they go into speculation. Here is a scheme that looks fair enough: it is to
do wonders. The prospectus is a perfect kaleidoscope; look into it and you see
gold, silver, pearls, villas, carriages, and all kinds of beautiful things! And
the bait takes. Without stopping to make inquiries as to the concern,--whether
there is anything substantial to back it, whether or not the names are painted
figure-heads,--they put their all in the venture. Soon their ship is broken,
and they wring their hands in bitter disappointment. But it was their own
fault. Their ship had no framework of solid timber. It was a paste-board ship,
with a thick coating of paint. Such people deserve to have broken ships. They
did not call in a surveyor, they trusted to a chance.
2. Again, some ships are broken because built of unsound timber. How
many have gone down to an unmarked ocean-grave because of rotten planks! And
many a vessel is built of worthless timber: men put into them planks
worm-eaten, sin-eaten. Can you expect these to succeed? Can you bring home
health and happiness in schemes that will not stand the light of the Word, or
the survey of conscience? Put sin into anything, and you put weakness in it.
Put sin into it, and you nail a curse to it. There is no real gain from
injustice or fraud.
3. But our ships are often broken because God breaks them. We put no
green wood into our ships; nothing but careful, long-seasoned thought. We
called in prudence and skill to draw out the plans, and to superintend the
building. We kept a good “look-out” at the prow; we watched the winds and
currents, and took frequent soundings. Yet we failed; our plans miscarried; our
well-equipped vessel ran aground at Ezion-geber. Why is this? why does God give
us now success, and then failure? why these frequent and sometimes bitter
disappointments?
Perhaps it may be to teach us wisdom in our partnerships.
1. Even in business it is not best to be yoked together with
unbelievers. A twin-ship may ride the sea more steadily, and perhaps carry
heavier cargoes; but if the prows do not point the same way, if you have two
sets of charts, and two compasses that do not agree, your craft may be where
the Alexandrian corn-ship was--in the place where two seas meet, the fore part
fast on the rocks, and the hinder part broken by the violence of the waves.
2. Again, they are broken in order to teach us humility. If every
plan of ours succeeded, we should be in danger; we should become vain, perhaps
boastful; like Nebuchadnezzar, chanting praises to ourselves, how our own hand
has gotten this wealth. And so He disappoints us.
3. Or God breaks them because He sees we have enough already.
Possibly larger wealth might only bring a barrenness of soul: for it is the
tendency of increasing wealth to damp and dwarf the spiritual life. Its increasing
cares push out holy thoughts; mind and heart are more and more given to
“earthly things,” until the whole life becomes metallic, and religion is simply
a creed, or a caricature. In going over the Alps you leave first the secluded
valley. Here everything is rich; nature is at her best, covering the fields
with corn, and the hillsides with the vines. You ascend and the vines leave
you. It is the walnut or the oak that shades your path, and tinkling bells of
goats and kine fall musically upon your ear. Higher, and vegetation gets more
scant; and instead of the broad leaves of the valley you have the needle-like
leaves of the pine and fix. Still higher, and you touch the snows. All is bare
and treeless. No fruit, no corn can ripen, for winter claims all the seasons
here. And how much is that like many lives! Down in the humbler, lowlier days
there was a wealth of heart, though there was poverty of purse. The life was
clothed with a beautiful foliage. Sympathies were generous and swift. Hands,
feet, and lips steered a glad though a lowly service. But fortune favoured
them, wealth poured in upon them. Personal service became more rare, they
learned to pay for substitutes, and to serve God by proxy, Rising financially
and socially, they declined spiritually. And what are they to-day? Icy Alpine
peaks, frowning out of their perpetual cloud, driving the song-birds away, and
making the venturesome traveller who calls for a subscription shiver with
frost.
4. Or God breaks our ships that we may lean more upon Himself. Our
losses after all often prove our truest, richest gains. Our night of failure
and disappointment brings the calmer morning, and as we sit down at the
Master’s feet, gazing in wonder and love upon Him, and taking from His hands
the Divine bread, our “hard toiling” and empty nets are forgotten! Let the Lord
give us as many failures as He will, so long as He gives us Himself. On the
bare, bleak rocks of Ezion-geber if He be with us, we shall say: “Master, it is
good to be here. It is better here with Thee than at Ophir without Thee.” Nay,
let the Lord break all our plans, dash upon the rocks all our prospects, all
our earthly hopes; what matter it, if only we get “safe to land!” “Fear not,”
sang the Roman sailor to his boat, “thou carriest Caesar and his fortunes.” So
let the storm beat, rocks threaten as they may, we still can sing: “Bear up, O
heart! Thou carriest, not Caesar, but Caesar’s King--the Christ, the perfect
Man, the Living God.” (H. Burton, M. A.)
Jehoshaphat’s wrecked ships
This subject has especial pertinence to business men.
I. Where one good
man may succeed another may fall. Solomon had done the very thing that
Jehoshaphat proposed. What Solomon did prosperously Jehoshaphat vainly
attempted. Why was this? The thing itself was right. God would not have one
nation isolated from another. He would have unbrotherliness broken down, and
men learn in the barter of commerce that “none of us liveth to himself.”
Countries differ in their productions, and each can furnish something to the
wardrobe, table, or adornment of the rest. The merchant has no philanthropy,
perhaps, moving him to his commercial ventures, but every ship in the foreign
market and bearing its honest freightage to our own is a herald of Him who came
to proclaim “goodwill to men.” Industry is provoked, and that is good; the poor
ore helped into comfort, the international sentiment is strengthened, the war
demon is fettered, and the separated parts of the earth are united by mutual
dependence and blessing. No one land is made for itself alone.
II. Jehoshaphat’s
ships were broken to separate him from a sinful partnership. Thus was ended his
alliance with an idolator. Very stringent was God’s word against such a union.
And now, the work broken, God’s rod expounded the word. And in the clearer,
wider times of Christianity, can we be careless about our partnerships? If
wrong for a king to join in shipbuilding and a commercial venture with a
worshipper of idols, can it be right in us, of choice, to yoke with the wicked
in the pursuits of business? Is it not written by Paul, “Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers.” Difficulties meet us here, as where, indeed,
do they not in the Divine life? Narrow is the way now as ever. A workman may
have comrades as spiritually distant from him--more spiritually distant than
the sundered roles. What is that Christian man to do? To cut himself
adrift from his occupation there because of those ungodly men around him? What
is the Christian merchant to do who has an unchristian partner in his firm? Must
that partnership be dissolved? How easily can questions accumulate upon us! And
what shall we say? We can but lay down principles to be applied to the
individual case by Bible-enlightened conscience. Any business, any business
transaction which cannot be undertaken as beneath God’s eye should not be
undertaken by God’s children. For a Christian man to choose association,
partnership with immoral men is presumption. He may do good, but how much more
likely to receive harm? He is but one, and his judgment may be overruled by the
verdict of others. Is God only for the Sabbath and sanctuary, the religious
meeting, and the dying hour? He is to be acknowledged in all our ways. Business
is to be transacted in his fear. We may be united to practices as well as individuals,
and these, though familiar by habit, may be a damage to the soul. Good
political economy may be very bad Christianity. Any infraction of the royal law
is that, whoever may be guilty of it.
III. Jehoshaphat’s
ships were broken to good purpose. The ships were built at Ezion-geber, and
there were they wrecked. A great loss this; all the outlay and the golden hopes
scattered in broken planks and beams and drift-wood upon the seashore. But God
was in this thing. “The Lord hath broken thy works,” said the prophet to the
king. The storm had done, as the Lord would have it, double duty--had broken
the merchantmen and Jehoshaphat’s alliance with his heathen neighbour. The loss
might have been greater. Troubles are mercies if they have with us similar result.
Better that a man’s possessions go down like a house of cards than that he go
down into spiritual destruction. Better than a man s projects be broken up like
those ancient Jewish ships, than that he made shipwreck of faith and a pure
conscience. Oh, many a man has wrung his hands amid the shattered prosperity of
life, and he has cried, “I am ruined,” while the clear-eyed angels have been
celebrating his deliverance from the maelstrom that sucks down into hell.
Welcome such losses! Blessed be such calamities! Let them be sudden and
violent! Shall the passenger sleeping in his cabin complain because the captain
has roughly aroused him to the fact that the vessel is in the swift, fierce
hands of there demon rushing from stem to stern? Better so aroused than to
sleep till escape is impossible. That can be no real calamity which wakes a man
to the peril of his soul, and flings him on a huge wave up upon the Rock of
Ages. A ship was settling down into the sea. Oh, the horror in every eye! “Then
shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave!” But lo, a vessel of rescue drew
near, and through speaking-trumpet the captain cried, as boats were launched
for their succour, “Come all on board with me!” To us comes in sight a shining
barque: angels man it, and: evening breezes wafting and lo! the Captain cries,
“My name is Jesus, My ship salvation, My haven heaven. Come all on board with
Me!” How wise to heed that voice! (G. T. Coster.)
The lessons of adversity
We have read of a ship departing from one of the New England ports
in the early period of the colony: she never reached her destination; she was
never heard of afterwards. The narrative went on to say that one pleasant
summer afternoon, long after, the New England people were standing by the sea
when they saw a vessel approach the shore which they knew by its build and
rigging to be the very missing ship. It drew nearer and nearer until every line
of rigging was visible, and even the faces of those on board. Then suddenly the
vision faded, the sails dissolved in cloud, the spars were lost in the
mist-lines of the sky, the hull disappeared beneath the waters, the
spectre-barque was no more. So years ago we made Treat ventures, cherished
great hopes, but to-day we know how many of these schemes have been dashed, and
the ships we sent forth with so much pride and joy are now melting away into
nothingness, like the apparitional ship of the legend. Our dreams of prosperity
have proved nothing more than dreams; our fond hopes have been confounded. The
ships of Jehoshaphat were not lost without a reason, neither are ours, and we
ought humbly to learn the lessons of adversity.
I. We view our
wrecked hopes in the light of rebuke. Our misfortune may be a rebuke for some
immoral principle that has found expression in our life. I believe that there
never was a period in the history of the world when morality was recognised in
trade as fully as it is to-day; but this granted, there is plenty of immorality
existent there still--much that is dishonest, unfair, selfish. The immorality
of trade accounts for many a stagnation, many a crisis, many a black Friday.
Our wrecked ships ought to call attention to the principles on which we have
sailed them, and if we find that we have entered into immoral partnerships,
brought into our business equivocal principles, made guilty concessions for the
sake of realising some coveted gain or pleasure, we need not wonder that our
ships have been broken, and we must be careful that the bitterest tears we shed
over them are tears of penitence. Our misfortune may be a rebuke to the godless
temper in which we have conducted our business. God stands at the back of the
natural world and the commercial world, acting with infinite freedom
throughout. There is a long chain of things, causes, forces, but the last link
of the chain is in the hand of God. Let us accept these catastrophics as
rebukes for our lack of religious thought and feeling in practical life. Our
misfortunes are blessed if they show us our errors and sins, and lead us into
truer pathways. There is no more awful thing in life than for a man to succeed
in immoral and godless ways; any blasting wind is good that saves us from that.
Thank God for disaster if it only opens our eyes and saves our soul.
II. We may view our
wrecked ships in the light of mercy. We often see men tried by success, and
they fail under the trial
ignominiously. God knows what each of His children can and ought to bear, and
He will not subject us to any unfitting or excessive ordeal. If your ships had
brought the treasure you hoped for, you would have lived in a larger house, you
would have ridden instead of walking as you do now, a great many more people
would have known you than know you now, you would have sat with Dives instead
of being the near neighbour of Lazarus.
III. We may view our
wrecked ships in the light of discipline. If we do not regard the frustration
of our hopes as
aiming immediately at the salvation of our soul, we may certainly regard such
disasters as designed to effect the development and enrichment of our soul. And
is not this
development and enrichment of the soul the grand end of life? Is not the top
prize of existence the crown of personal and immortal righteousness? God
perfects His people in very different ways; some through wealth, some through
want, making both in the end equally complete. The mountains of the earth are
all glorious, but, like the stars of the sky, they differ in glory. Up to a
certain point life is a course of victory and ever-increasing volume of power
and success; then, again, it is a story of frustration and failure; one voyage
the ships bring the gold, the next they are broken. But let us be sure that in
this way God designs to give us the fulness of perfection. The scientists tell
us that during the great southern Glacial Period many southern plants were
driven to northerly climates, and then again the glaciation of the northern
hemisphere drove northern plants to southerly climates; and so on the Organ mountains of Brazil
both Arctic and Antarctic plants are found commingled in strange brotherhood,
testifying to the alternate glaciation of the two hemispheres. Brethren, as by
the world’s changing climate the flowers of the two hemispheres have been
assembled on these Brazilian mountains, mingling their divergent beauty and
sweetness, so God, by alternations of health and sickness, success and failure,
joy and sorrow, brings together in the character of His children all the bright
graces of the moral universe.
IV. We may view our
wrecked ships in the light of prophecy. They may remind us of the coming day
when all our gold ships will go down in Jordan’s tide, leaving not a floating
spar for us to gather. Keep that before you. Some Colonial writer objecting to
Chinese immigration, says, “The Chinaman thinks more of a splendid coffin than
he does of an upright life.” What a strange charge to bring against a Chinaman!
Do not many Englishmen think more of a purple coffin than they do of a noble
life? Let us not live for a splendid coffin, but for a splendid character. Let
us live that we may be true and pure. Whatever this world has given us, it will
soon demand from us, just as the waves of the sea suck back the glittering
shells with which they first strewed the shore. Do not sail your soul in your
ships. Lay up treasure where moth and rust do not corrupt. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
Jeroboam
We have here--
I. A bad man.
1. He was low in origin. Son of one of Solomon’s servants, whom the
king, finding industrious, made a ruler. His evil character soon became
manifest.
2. He formed the ambitious design of usurping the throne. When his
design was discovered, he fled to Egypt.
3. At Solomon’s death he returned to Jerusalem, proclaimed himself
king, and was followed by the ten tribes.
4. He was, notwithstanding, a mighty man of valour. We have--
II. A bad man
raised up by God for a specific purpose. This purpose was the fulfilment of the
curse pronounced on David. Some of God’s most powerful agents are the wicked.
The grandest of His designs have been accomplished by the vilest of the earth.
III. An instrument
of God using his position for evil. “The son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”
This is the description always given to him afterwards. There is no more
terrible epithet to be applied to man. Fearful is the condition of him who
steps up to the height of his ambition on the blood of immortal souls.
IV. A crafty, wise
man profiting by the folly of another. Rehoboam and Jeroboam were both bad, but
Rehoboam lacked the craft and skill of his enemy. Had Rehoboam taken the advice
of the wise man, he might have held his position and his kingdom. He missed his
chance, and Jeroboam seized the opportunity. It is the tide taken at the turn
that enables the wise to surmount all difficulties. (Homilist.)
The extent of man’s responsibility for the sins of his neighbour
I. With respect to
parents. In the workings of God’s providence it shall be so arranged that
wicked parents shall entail on their children the consequences of their sins.
We see that it is the Divine economy that parents are, in a great measure,
accountable for the sins of their children. In a physical sense we have this
truth daily proved before our eyes; for we see the sad effects of disease
haunting, as it were, a family in consequence of the dissipation and wickedness
of a father or mother. We likewise see children reduced to poverty, and thrown
amid various temptations which, so to speak, do not properly belong to
them--would not have been theirs, that is, but for the evil course of parents,
who by extravagance, or worse, have made beggars of their children. Apply it
now practically to the courses of business and pleasure, and see where your
duty lies. In respect of business, it is clear that no parent must follow any
unlawful calling, because by this he is at all times setting before his
Children the examples of open wickedness. But he must also see that, in
choosing an occupation or business for his children, he choose one not only
lawful in itself, but which will not be the means of tempting the child to
commit wickedness. You are responsible to God for the education of your
children. If they grow up ignorant, who can be to blame but yourselves? And you
are responsible too for the right education of your children; not merely that
they shall be taught the simple rudiments of everyday instruction, but that
they be taught the “beginning of wisdom,” which is “the fear of the Lord.” You
are commanded in God’s Word to bring them up in “the nurture and admonition of
the Lord.” Then, again, in respect of pleasure, who but you are answerable that
you provide for your children proper amusements? If you lead worldly lives, and
lead your children into all kinds of evil gaiety and dissipation, who is
answerable? The providing of lawful amusements for young people--lawful, that
is, according to the Word of God--is a most important part of education; for
every one knows the soul-destroying evils which result from wrong amusements.
II. Masters. The
responsibility of the servant is very great that he obey his master; but, of
course, the responsibility of the master towards the servant is of a higher
degree, because authority is his; and it is in his power to use his influence
for good or evil. The servant is bidden to obey the master in all things
lawful. But servants are not always judges of what is lawful, and what not.
Masters have it in their power, with the greater number of their servants, to
make them do What is wrong. Then with respect to pleasure. Surely a master is
most responsible that his servants do not with his knowledge indulge in any
unlawful amusements. The servant under his roof is a part and parcel of his
family; and, while it s his duty to say with Joshua, “As for me and my house we
will serve the Lord,” he must take care that the Sabbath is not broken by his
servants taking unlawful pleasure on that day, any more than by doing their
business.
III. And now, apply
this subject to superiors. If one man by his influence, or his authority, of
whatever kind it may be, throws an obstruction in the heavenward way of his
neighbour, leads him astray by temptation, or deceives him by his conduct, or
compels him to do what is wrong, he then surely is in that most fearful
position of the man by whom an offence has come to his neighbour, and against
whom the woe of God is denounced. If in matters of business we in any way cause
others to do what is wrong; if by our example we indirectly make them commit
sin, or by Our precept say that in business honesty and truth are of little or
no consequence, or by our authority we make those under us tell lies for our
advantage, or do what is dishonest, we then put stumbling-blocks in our
neighbours’ way, and the woe of the Almighty is hanging over our heads. (R.
H. Davis.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》