The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 82

the half-tribe of Manasseh, and has spanned their history, though with many a gap in it, from the first up to their captivity. This last event approached, is not to bo recorded, however, without a previous and very distinct notification of what led to it. These causes, we well know, were the same with all the other tribes who were also taken into captivity, and in other parts of these genealogies correspondina allusion is made to the Captivity in respect o~ the other tribes as well. But the state~ents before us, for whatever reason now attached to the above-mentioned two tribes and a half, are emphatic. They invite us to take the opportunity of lingering awhile, and of asking what it is in their twofold shape they contain and suggest. The brevity of the solemn indictment will be helpful to us, and when we -have purposely departed awhile from that brevity it will be convenient to return to it again. Up and down the history of these two and a half tribes and of all the other tribes, the mournful facts, the miserable facts, are but too apparent during the successions of many generations. Yet we have the indictment almost formally drawn up(2 Kings vii. 7-17), and though but a summary, yet it reads with a fearful fulness and directness. The pointedness and exactness of the counts of the charge are such as to bespeak only too certainly their fidelity to facts. It seems necessary only in briefest outline t-0 rehearse them. "They feared other gods; walked in the statutes of the heathen, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made; did secretly those things not right against the Lord their God· built them high places in all their cities-from the tower of the watchman to th~ fenced city; set up images and groves in every hill, under every green tree; burnt incense in all the high places as did the heathen; wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger; served idols, whereof the Lord said, •Ye shall not do this;' would not hear; hardened their necks; rejected his statutes and his covenant with their fathers, and his testimony ; followed vanity ; became vain ; went after the heathen; left all the commandments of the Lord; made molten images, even two calves; worshipped all the host of heaven; served Baal; caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire; used divinations and enchantments; sold themselves to do evil." It is to be observed, then, that this thick succession of allegations of sin laid at the door of a people who might have been so blessed, is what underlies the two concise statements of the text, "They transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a-whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them." And these two statements describe one sin, the name of which is idolatry. We may inquire here- L IN WHAT THE BIN OF IDOLATRY CONBIBTB. Described briefly, it consists in per- mitting the creature-sense of dependence, of disposition to follow, of affection, and the creature-duty of service, to become supremely attachecl to any object lower than tho highest. Among all matters of possession and of material acquisition around us, that may be an admirable modesty and a moderation to be imitated which should exhibit a man, not grasping the utmost possible of attainment, not straining for the highest which might possibly be touched. But there are tendencies of affection, of obedience, of practical service, belonging to us as creatures, and which are bound to find their end in God alone, in none beneath him. True nature, the simplest dictates of grati- tude, reason itself, when unobstructed, proclaim the inherent right to these to lie in the Creator himself. He is the idolater who in these circumstances leaves the One absolute Highest and Best, in order to lean upon, to waste affection upon, to serve i;y8tematically, the lower. Once make this concession, once sacrifice this highest dictate of an intelligent nature, and the heart and life are laid wide open to every distraction, to the incursion of every disorder. The indictment already quoted above is the sufficient commentary, the ample illustration hereof. I!. \VHAT IT 18 IN HUMAN NATURE WHICH SEEMS IN ALL AOEB TO HAVE MADE IT BO READY A VICTIM TO THE BIN OF IDOLATRY. When the nature of the sin of idolatry is barely stated, as a seeming preference for the lower and the insecure and the temporary in comparison of the op_posites of these, it seems almost incredible that it should have had, should still have, so wide a sway. It were to ho.vo been supposed that men would know and would choose in the long run the best for themselves. Ono consideration by itself is sufficient to explain this; for idolatry is human nature's protest against living and walking by faith I It is the old battle, the battle also ever new, of sense against faith. And true as it is that faith is not less really a princi1de of huma11 OH, V, 1-26,] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 73