The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 280

He took advantage of the sacred associations of Bethel and Dan, as if the plaoe would hallow the proceeding. (4) Ho instituted a priestly order as a substitute for the Levites. (6) He ordained festivals that should rival tl1ose of Judah and Jerusalem. In all this, while affecting to do honour to the traditions of religion, he struck a fatal blow at the religious unity and integrity of the nntion, turning the highest sanctities of its life into an occasion of sin. How forcibly are we reminded that iniquity assumes its most hateful form when it prostitutes to its own ends things sacred and Divine. Satan is never so Satanic as when he wears the garb of "an angel of light." The most detestable of all vices is hypocrisy. More deadly injury bas been done to the cause of religion by its false friends than its biUerest enemies could ever inflict. III. THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. Jeroboam's -n;cked policy perpetuated and multiplied in Israel the evils of which the rending of the kingdom at first had been tLe penalty. With few exceptions all the kings thnt followed him "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and the record of their reigns is little else than a story of crime and bloodshed and misery. Moreover, the leprosy of idolatry spread from the throne down through all classes of the people until the kingdom of Israel was completely overthrown and the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria. Such are the woes that fall on a land when its princes are corrupt and reprobate. So true is it that "they that sow to the wind shall reap the whirl- wind,"-W. EXPOSITION. CHAPTER X.IlI. 1-10. Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (2 Chron. ix. 29), it cannot have been, for he survived to THE TESTIM0:1,'Y 01!' GOD AGAINST THE the reign of Abijah, and indeed wrote a CALF WORSHIP.-We have in this chapter, " story" (Heh. Midrash, i.e., Co=entary) which some co=entators consider to be of that reign, whereas this man of God died forthwith. For a similar reason, we cannot derived from a di:fferent sonrce from the believe it to have been Shemaiah, the his- narratives which precede and follow it- torian of the reign of Rehoboam (2 Chron. the expression of ver. 32, " the cities of xii. 5, 15)] out of Judah [whither, as a rule, Samaria," according to them, proving it to both priests and prophets would seem to be of a later date, while the style and have retreated (2 Chron. xi. 14, 16). It is clear, however, that the migration of the colouring of t1e story Sllggest that it em- latter was not so general as that of the bodies a tradition current in the time of former. In ver. 11 we find a prophet at the compiler-an account of certain circum- Bethel ; in eh. xiv. Ahijah is still at Shiloh, stances of profound significance which and at a later day we find schools of the marked the inauguration of Jeroboam's first prophets at Bethel, Jericho, &c. (2 Kings ii. 3, 5). Stanley says with truth that "the great feast-for the close connexion with prophetical activity of the time . . . is to eh. xii shows that it is " the fifteenth day be found in the kingdom, not of Judah, but of the eighth month" that is here described. of Israel," but omits to add that it was be- The chapter divides itself into two sections, cause the northern kingdom more especially the .first (vers. 1-10) containing the public needed their ministry. It was just for this reason that Ahijah and others remained at testimony of the prophet of Judah against their posts.] by [Heh. in, same word as in the schismatic worship, the second (vers. vers. 2, 9, 17, 20, 32, &o. Similarly, 1 Sam. 11-32) his subsequent perversion and hie iii. 21. The :1 is not merely instrumental, tragical death. but, like the lv of the N. T., denotes Ver. 1.-And, behold, there ea.me a man the ephere or element. " By the word" of God [see on eh. xii. 22. The " man of would imply that he had received a Divine God" is throughout carefully distinguished communication; "in the word," that bis from the "prophet." Josephus calls the message possessed him, inspired him, was former Jadon, probably the Grecized form "in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones" (Jer. xx. 9)) the word of of Iddo, i"I~, which appears as i1V.: In.'do, the Lord unto Bethel [It is worth remem- iu lh1, Keri of 2 Chron. ix. 29. Iddo, how- bering that the new sanctuary at Bethel ever, notwitbsta.nding his "visions against would probably be visible from the temple Ott. XIII, 1-10.] 'tHE F1RST BOOK OF KINGS. 283