The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 226

when God. loved. Solomon (see 2 Sam. xii. 24; 1 Kings x. 9; Neh. xiii. 26). Severe is the fall from the height of a throne. From a vastly greater elevation is the fell of one cast from the bosom of God. (4) Behold how sin works ruin I It ruins individuals, families, nations. The anger of God is expressed-2. With the mitigations of mercy. (1) For the sake of David his father these judgments were not to come upon Solomon in his day. We little know the benefits or the evils entailed upon us by our forefathers. We should see that we entail not evils but benefits upon our descendants. (2) " For David's sake I" David, the beloved, was a type of Christ, for whose sake the entail of infinite mischief is cut off from his sons, and they are made heirs of inestimable blessings. (8) Even Rehoboam was to reap the benefit of the faithfulness of David. One tribe, the most im- portant, was to be retained to him. The promises respecting the true son of David must be fulfilled. (4) "For Jerusalem's sake,'' also, mercy must rejoice upon judgment (ver. 18). The temple was there. The shechinah was there. Kingdoms a.re spared the severity of judgments in respect to the interests of religion in many ways little dreamed of by statesmen and rulers.-M. Vers. I-8.-Solomon's Sin. I. THE sm. 1. Its natwre. He not only aided. his wives to continue their idolatrous worship, be himself participated in it. He went after strange gods, seeking their favour and observing their ordinances. The worship of Jehovah was not discarded, but delight in the true God was gone, and the flame of that loving zeal for God's commandments died away: his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. The worship now offered in the temple wa.s the lingering tradition of a brighter past, a thing of custom and outward necessity, and the heart was given to baser worships, sensuous and sensual The soul had ceased to drink at the fountain of living waters, and was drinking at the fountain of death. Is our heart perfect with the Lord, our delight in His love, our hunger after His righteousness as deep as in the past ? Do we offer a cold and formal worship to Him, while our heart warms into living interest and strong desire only at the world's shrines? 2. Its guilt. (1) God had given Solomon unparalleled wisdom, wealth, and power, and all were now turned against his Benefactor. All that fame and influence were used to glorify idolatry and lessen zeal for God's service. How often are God's gifts thus turned against Him I (2) The sin of Solomon became the sin of Israel (ver. 83). The responsibility of parents in regard to their children's attitude toward God-the responsibility of the leaders of thought and of society, of ell of us, as to how we influence men in their attitude toward the things unseen and eternal. 8. Its aawness. It was his last work, the sin not of youth but of old age. The light which God had kindled did not flame out into eternal glory, but went out in eternal night. The seeds of sin and disaster were sown among his people, his life a wreck, his memory not a star to guide the wanderer in the darkness, but a warning beacon on the waste of death ! The story of many a life besides : will it be the story of thine ? ' II. WHAT LED TO IT. 1. U111Tegulated affections. The wisdom of marrying only in the Lora. The danger of worldly alliances and worldly friendships. 2. The despising of God's commanu1menta (see ver, 2, and Deut. xvii. 16, 17). The counsels of God were lightly esteemed. Many commands of God are to-day held to be antiquated and are quietly ignored. The directions of Scripture in regard to what are deemed minor things are set aside. The spirit of unbelief is there. For individuals and for churches it must prove a seed of sin aud spiritual disaster. 8. The human love displaced the Divine. The spirit of disloyalty needed only a strong enough inducement to go further, and it found it here. To please his wives, altars to their gods were built on Mount Olivet, and then his own soul was taken in the snare of their abominations. The testimony which we are called to lift up in the face of all life away from God is safety for our own soul. It is hard to do it, but there is life in it for ourselves and, it may be, for others also.-U. Vere. 9-18.-God'a Anger. L SINS ARE BET IN THE LIGHT OJI' PA.ST IIIEROIEB, 1. 80"/,om,on', i®Zatrg ia contraatea with the advantages con/e'T'l'ed upon kim, OH, XI. 1-18,] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 229 --------------------------- The Lord had appeared to him twice. The reality of God's existence and His personality had been engraven upon Solomon's soul. 2. With the comnnanilnnent given. The Lord '' had commanded him concerning this thing." The rebellion and ingratitude are both marked. Our sins are judged not only in themselves and their effects, but also in the light of what God has done and said to us. There is a baseness and an enmity in sin that will yet crush the sinful heart. Do we weigh sine in this way? Does otll' repentance read them thus? God's juclgment will: " Forasmuch as this is done of thee," &c. II. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. 1. Hopes frusfll"ated. Solomon may have excused hie sin to himself because it conciliated neighbouring princes and nations and so strengthened his kingdom. But while he fancied himself building up, he was iu reality casting down. Forgetfulness of God is forgetfulness of one's own good. 2. Pride abased. The dominion is given to a servant. There is not only loss but shame. There are first that will be last, and last first. 3. Punishment reflects sin. Solomon's rebellion and ingratitude a.re punished by rebellion and ingratitude. The kingdom is rent from him by a subject, and by one whom he had trusted and advanced (ver. 28). "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." As the wicked have shut out God, God will shut out them. III. THE DIVINE MERCY. In God's chastisements there is ever a gateway of kindness through which we may pass up into His forgiveness and love. 1. The judgment is delayed. It was a heavy judgment that the kingdom should be rent from bis son, but it would have been an added bitterness had his own day set in disaster and shame. 2. The whole will not be taken even from his son. His seed will still reign in J erusa.lem. 3. There is humbUng even in the mercy. It is done for David's sake and for J erusa.lem's sake. Pride is crushed beneath God's mercy as well as beneath His judgment. We are pardoned for Christ's sake and His name's sake. In the midst of rebuke for iniquity there is mercy 11,Ild life for lowly faith.-U. Vers. 9, 10.-The Downfall of Solomon. The fall of Solomon has appeared to some commentators incredible. As to the fact itself, however, there can be no doubt. Nor is his fall so exceptional as many suppose. Others beside this king have had pious parentage, a religious education, a promising youth, extraordinary intellectual endowments, frequent warnings of their danger, and yet have failed and come short of the glory of God. Give examples. It is noteworthy that God saw Solo- mon's danger and warned him of it on the evening of that da.y upon which hie religious devotion appeared most intense. The dedication of the temple we.a at once the zenith of the nation's glory, and of their king's highest attainments. Describe the Feast of Dedication ; the song of the people-'' Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, &c.; the prayer of Solomon that this might be so; and the manifestation of the Divine Presence. Contrast this scene with the silence of the following night, in which the message of the Lord came, bidding him beware lest the emotion and resolve of the day should be evanescent (ix. 2). Our times of religious excitement are not our safest hours. Enthusiasm ha.a its perils as well as its powers. Refer to Pater's eager protestation, and the Lord's word of caution, " Simon, Simon, behold, Satan ha.th desired to have," &c. (Luke xxii 31). The sins which consti• tuted Solomon's decadence-against which, through him, we are warned-appear to have been these: I. ~ENSOALITY. His base self-indulgence grew upon him, as it does on any man. The life he lived was degrading to his manhood. Love became debased to lust, because it was divorced from purity. Physically, as well as morally, he became a wreck, and though not 60 years of age when he died, he was already weary, broken, and old (ver. 4). Some light may be thrown upon his downward progress by the books which bear his name, and which, if not written by him, were declarations of the experience he knew. If the Song of Solomon represents his bright youth, when love, though passionate, was undefiled, the book of Ecclesiastes is the out- ory of his age, when all seemed "vanity and vexation of spirit," and when he tried onoe more painfully to lay the old foundation of the shattered fobrio of his life  230 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ CH. XI. 1-18.