The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 284

whomsoever spoken, wonld have had but little weight without "signs following,'' the message straightwny receives the confirmation of a miracle. That the man of God " crune from Judah " was in itself reason enough why the men of Israel should not listen to him, unless he compelled their attention by prodigies. "A partizan," they would say, "perhaps a hireling of Rehoboam, it was naturo.l snob o. one would prophecy e,il of the Northern Church and kingdom," n.nd so his words would have been unheeded, even if his life had been spared. Besides, one who professed to come a.s he did, "in the word of the Lord," they had a right to ask for bis credentials, and those credentials could only be miraculous. Had not Moses and Aaron" wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh and all bis servants'!" Had not Samuel, too, supported his message by o. portent? (1 Sam. xii. 18.) If the denunciation of the schism, consequently, was not to be inoperative, he must "gi.e a sign" the same day. And to these '' two witnesses"-" the " sure word of prophecy'' and the '' sign following "-the rashness and impiety of Jeroboam procured the addition of a third, or rat.her of two more-silent, but eloquent attestations, each of them, that the prophet had not spoken in his own name. For, enraged at this bold, this most unwelcome nnd sinister interruption of his ritual, and fearing the effect of this brave protest on his audience and the thousands of Israel to whom the news would ultimately come, and forgetting at the moment the sacred character of the speaker and the unseen panoply which protected him, he stretches forth his hand intuitively, as if to detain the prophet, and thunders his commands to the attendant soldiery to arrest him. But that hand, really raised against the Most High, suddenly becomes rigid and power- less, and he must needs stoop to beg the prophet's prayers that it may be restored to him again. And so it came to pass that the heretic king furnished in bis own person, much against bis will, two powerful proofs that the "man of God" did indeed speak the word of God and was supported by the power of God. It is thus that God makes the wrath of man to praise Him. Such, then, was the PROTEST, in word and deed, which marked the first great service of the schismatic Church. But that was not all, The protest was to be followed by an INTERDICT. The man of God was commissioned at the same time to put the city and inhabitants of Bethel under a ban. He was to treat them as lepera, ns so tainted with heresy, so polluted and unclean in the sight of God, that he could neither eat of their bread nor drink of their cup. For this was clearly the object of the injunction, " Eat no bread nor drink water there ; " it was to show that all who participated in this unhallowed worship were thenceforward to be treated by Divine command as heathens and publicans, And to the children of the East this public disclaimer of fellowship, this practical excommunication, would have a significance such as with our altered conditions of society we can hardly conceive, though the "Boycotting" of our own time may help us to under- stand its operation. Every citizen of Bethel, every worshipper of the calves, would feel himself branded as unclean. The "scarlet letter" which the Puritans of New England printed on the bosom of the adulteress hardly involved a greater stigma. It was for this reason, therefore, that when the king bade the man of God to his palace and promised him a royal recompense for the service he had rendered him, the latter flung back his invitation in hie face, and swore that half the king's house would not tempt him to eat of hie dainties. Jeroboam, and bis people through him, should learn that if they would persist in their wanton defiance of Divine law; if they would have two churches and three sanctuaries where God had decreed there should in either case be but one ; if they would sacrifice before the works of their own hands, and by ministers of man's ordaining, and at times of man's devising, then the pious Hebrews who preserved inviolate the ancient faith should wipe their hands of them, and treat them as renegades and aliens from the common- wealth of Israel The lessons of this history are manifold. Two, however, occupy a position of pre-eminence above the rest. I. That corruptiom of religum are not to be conaummated without PROTEST on the pwrt of the Church. That Christianity, as well as Judaism, should have its CB, XIII, 1--10.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 287