The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 317

Witness Julian the Apostate, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Robert Owen, and man:, more. The Chinese people the air with demons and spirits of the dead. Infidel France thinks it unlucky to travel on a Friday. "There was never wicked man \hat was not infatuate" (Hall). 7. "His eyes were set" (ver. 4). Yet" having his eyes open" (Num. =iv. 4). Reason is "the candle of the Lord." Revelation is a "light to the feet, and a. lamp to the path." Inspiration is as "eyes to the blind." " Visions of the Almighty need not bodily eyes, but are rather favoured by the want of them" (Henry). Tho eye is but the instrument of vision. Eyes of flesh are not the organs of the spirit. 8. "I am sent to thee with heavy tidings" (ver. 6). Compare Ezek. xiv. 4. "I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols." Heavy tidings for heavy transgression. The sentence should be proportionate to the sin. 11 Whatsoever a man soweth," &c. 9. " I exalted thee from among the people" (ver. 7). It wae J eroboam's abuse of the singular favours he had received, and his forgetfulness of Divine benefits, that so much enhanced his sin. Cf. eh. xi. 9 ; 1 So.m. xv. 17 (" When thou wast little in thine own sight"); 2 Sam. xii. 8, 9 ; Psa. lxxiii 10 (" Took him from the sheepfolds," &c.); Luke :xii. 48 (11 Unto whomsoever much is given," &c.); ib., x. 15 (" Exalted to heaven, thrust down to hell"). It is well to remember the rock whence we were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence we were digged (Isa.. li 1). 10. " Other gods and molten images " (ver. 9). Men often disguise their sins under specious names. "Cherubic symbols" was perhaps J eroboam's name for his calves. He would not allow that they were images or idols. Josephus happily reproduces the language he held to his subjects: " I suppose, my countrymen, you know that every place hath God in it," &c. (Ant. viii. 8. 4). But God calls things as they really are. Longfellow truly says that" things are not what they seem." But they are what they seem to the Omniscient. 11. 11 And rent the kingdom away from the house of David," &c. Note the contrast between this languo.ge and the discow·se which Ahijoh held with Jeroboam once before. That meeting was full of promises; this messo.ge is full of upbraill- ings. Then God declared that He would rend the kingdom; here He complains tbat He has done so, and done so in vain. Then He proposed David as J eroboam's pattern-his name is mentioned six times-here He accuses the king of contemning that example. There He speaks of a II sure house;" here, of II taking away the remnant of the house," "as a man taketh away dung." Yet" the gifts and cr1lling of God are without repentance." It is Jeroboam's sin bus made this difference. 12. "I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off'," &c. Compare oh. xii. 27. "And they shall kill me." So tho very means which Jeroboam took to secure his throne procured its overthrow. "The engineer is hoist with his ow,1 petard." If he could but have trusted God his kingdom would have lasted. But he must needs prop it up himself, with rotten supports, and leaning on these ho brought it speedily to the ground. 13. " When thy feet enter into the city the child shall die " (ver. 12). For the second time does a prophet give Jeroboam a sign the same day. And the secoml sign was hardly less significant than the first. For the mother was, in some sense, the cause of her child's death. Her step on the threshold was the signal for tho severance of his" thin-spun life." It was not only a foretaste, consequently, of the doom awaiting the entire house; it was also a shadowing forth of the cause of tlmt destruotion. The sins of the father were visited upon the chihlren. 320 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ea. xrv. 1-20.