1. In the infatitation of his son. Was there ever a political crisis so wofully mismanaged as that which marked Rehoboam's accession'/ A few pacific words, a graceful concession, and all would have gone well. But his brutal non possumus precipitated his downfall. It was enough to make Solomon turn in his grnve. But it is for us to remember that "his mother's name was Nao.mah, an .Ammonitess" (eh. xb-. 21, 31). And this is the result of multiplying wives. 2. In the dismembe1·ment of his kingdom. The vast empire which Solomon h1ul founded 'l>ith so much care and pains, how short a time sufficed to tear it asunder. What a cou Lrast betweeu the " one tribe" with its barren territory, and the descrip- tion of eh. iv_ 20, 21- How had he spent his strength for naught, or rather for his sl:we Jeroboam, who iuherited all the fairest and wealthlest portions of the realm. And this was the end of his land-hunger-that he was left with the desert of Judah. 3. In the invasion of Shishak. For he had not long slept with his fathers when the vast treasures which he had lavished on the palace ot the Lord and his own palaces were carried away to Egypt. All the precious metals whlch David had accumulated, all the acquisitions of Solomon's fleets, all the royal offerings of the queen of Sheba and of tributary kings-gone to the sons of the stranger, to the swart. children of Ham. He had amassed prodigious wealth, but it was for aliens and enemies. Not only the shields and drinking vessels, but the candlesticks, bowls, and the Yery laminae which had glorified the sanctuary, all fell to the invader. What a case of Sic vos non vobis I What would Solomon have said could he have foreseen Rehoboam's " Brum.me.gem" shields, and the punctilious ceremony with which they were paraded and preserved? And this was the end of multiplying silver and gold to himself. He had put it all into a bag with holes (Haggai i. 6). 4- In the demoralization of his people. For the idolatries of Judah, the images, the groves, the Sodomites (eh. xiv. 23), were but the continuation and development of the idolatries which Solomon had inaugurated. His son did but reap the crop which himself had sown. Nay, so exact is the ka: talionis that we presently find a queen of Judah erecting o. " horror " for the most shameful of rites (see note on eh_ XV- 13)- And this was the result of building altars for his queens and princesses "on the hill that is before Jerusalem," that within a few years the Lord's people, whose wo.s the law and the temple, &c., built them high places, &c.," on every high bill and under every green tree" (eh. xiv. 23). 5. In the captivity of the nation. For the dispersion and enslavement of the Jewish people, though only consummated some four centuries later, and though it was the retribution of a long series of sins, was nevertheless, in o. sense, the result of Solomon's sin. That is to say, his sin was (as eh. ix. vers. 6, 7 show) the first beginning of that ever-deepening apostasy from the Lord, of which the captivity was, from the first, denounced as the punishment. Other princes no doubt followed in his steps and filled up the measure of iniquity, but the G-rand Monarque of their race had first showed them the way. And so the people who had held sway even to the Euphrates were carried beyond the Euphrates, and those who had seen subject kings in their land became subjects in a foreign land (cf. Jer. v. 19). How full of instruction and warning is it that the captivity which Solomon foretold (oh. viii. 46) he should have done so much to precipitate, He predicted, i.e., both his own and his nation's downfall. 6. But the multiplication of horaea, that too, like the other sins, seems to have brought its own peculiar NemesiB. For whence, let us ask, came the army that pillaged Jerusalem, a.nd carried off the treasures of the temple ? It came in the footprints of the horses. First, the invasion of Solomon, and then the invasion of Shisbak, "with twelve hundred chariots and threescore thousand horsemen'' (2 Chron_ rii- 3). And what came of the horses supplied to the Tyrians and Hittites'/ See eh- xx. 1 (" horses and chariots;" cf. ver. 25) ; eh. xxii. 31; 2 Kings vi. 15; vii. 6, &c. It is extremely probable that the cavalry he supplied to forei_gn kings became an instrument in their hands to scourge his own people. Nor is it wholly unworthy of notice that the murderer Zimri was "captain of half the chariots" (<>h. xvi. 9). Assuredly, that unhallowed trade did not go unpunished. Such, then, is the principal moral of this history· "'l'h.eir so"fl'ows shall be m~• CB, XI, 14-48.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS.
tiplied that hasten after another god " (Pea. xvi. 4). And among the e.dclitione.l lessons which this subject teaches are these: (1) That where much is given, much will be required ; (2) That judgment begins at the house of God; (3) "He that knew hie lord's will and did it not shall be bee.ten with many stripes; " (4) " Every tre.negreeeion and disobedience shall receive its just recompense of reward;'' (5) "II God spared not the natural branches,'' &c.