The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 308

to onr sonl, 11 Tnke thine ee,se; '' but always, and everywhere, must listen to the command," Watch, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." 2. Lingering near Bcenes of temptation may imperil us fataUy. Had the prophet not rested he might not have been overtaken, but would have crossed the border line of the two king- doms. As the moth flutters round the candle, so do some hover about sin, They read of vices which they think they would never commit, and choose e.ssooiates unlike what they mean to be, and yet dare to pray, 11 Lead us not into temptation." He who "standeth in the way of sinners," as one half inclined to join them, may at last "sit in the seat of the scorners," as one who has united with them. "Avoid it, pass not by it," &c. (Prov. iii. 15). III. THAT A TRIVIAL ACT OF DISOBEDIENCE WAS A GREAT SIN. It seemed a Blllall offence to go home with a brother prophet; but observe that he was in no doul;t as to the will of God. He was not really deceived by that lie about the angel's message. He knew that he was forbidden to ent.er any house, and that the reason for that inhibition was weighty : he knew further that God would not contradict Himself, or alter His command, yet his sensuous wish for food and rest pre,ailed. An act me.y seem trifling, but the principle involved in it may be momentous. So it was in Eden. To eat the fruit, or to leave it untouched, might appear a question of small consideration ; but man's decision of it, " brought death into the world, and all our woe." It is in trifles that we test the willingness ot our children's obedience. If they refuse to do an unimportant act because to do it would be to disobey us, we are more satisfied with their sensitive loyalty than if the act were notoriously evil. To sin for the sake of a passing pleasure is morally worse than to sin for the sake of a kingdom, for the temptation is less. IV. THAT A TRAGIC PUNISHMENT WAS INFLICTED. (Read vers. 23-25.) Note the points which marked out this event as the result of God's displeasure, and not of accident; e.g., that it was foretold (vers. 21, 22), and that the lion did not kill the ass, nor eat the dead body. Show how Jesus Christ used the judgments of God, as recorded in the Old Testament, for purposes of moral and religious instruction. Sin merits punishment. " We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth, against them which commit such things,'' &c. (Rom. ii. 2-5). In the conscioueness of frequent disobedience let the prayer arise, " God be merciful to me a sinner," -A.R. Vers. 20-22.-The Disobedient Prophet. The" old prophet,'' though here em- ployed as the medium of e. Divine message, had acted falsely towards his "brother'' (" he lied unto him," ver. 18). The fact that he we.s content to remain in the land under the rnle of Jeroboam was against him. As the Levites had been supplanted by a base priesthood, so the prophets in Israel would seem to be a degenerate race. It must have aggravated the bitterness of the remorse the "man of God" felt, that the prophet who had dealt so treacherously with him should be commissioned to pronounce the Divine sentence on his transgression. His case seems altogether e. harcl one. How shall we explain it '/ What lessons does it teach '/ I. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF A DIVINE COMMAND. The com.mancl had been given clearly and positively (ver. 9), and He who gave it had in no way revoked it. The reasons for it remained as they were. The man of God greatly erred in giving more weight to the report of an angelic message delivered to another than to the clear voice of "the word of the Lord" in his own soul. " God is not a mnn, that ·he should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent" (N um. xxiii. l!J), ancl His com- mands can be nbrogated only by others that are equally explicit and authoritative, II. THE DANGER OF PARLEYING WITH THE TEMPTER. The integrity of the man of God was imperilled as soon as he began to listen to the persuasion that would lead him astray. The first deliverances of conscience are generally right, and we run great moral risk when we begin to question them. Ho who had resisted the allure- ments of the king yields to those of the seeming prophet. Moml evil is always most fascinating when it assumes a sacred disguise, and the false " prophet " is the most plausible and dangerous of all tempters. III. THE GUILT OF DIBOB:U:DIEN0E, " To oboy is better than saorifioe," &o, OD, XllI, 11-84.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 811