The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 366

the heart. (2) To encourage this is man's highest wisdom. Godliness has promise of this life-of that to come. 2. False religion ia supreme folly. (1) It is in some respects even worse than no religion. It is more than a. negation in respect to truth; it is pertinacious a.ntagonism to truth. (2) It is folly in relation to the highest interests of man. It demoralizes in the proportion of its ascendancy. It forfeits the heaven it professes to seek. It aggravates the hell it professes to avoid. (3) It expresses itself in vanity. What more vain than the idola of the heathen? The very forms of those idols evince the monstrosity of folly. Witness a. monkey or an onion for a God; a fish with a. man's head; a satyr; a. griffin I (see Deut. x=:i.i. IU; Isa. xli. 29.) 8. Of such folly was the lwn,gdom of Israel flagrantly guilty. (1) The calves with which they so deeply sinned were introduced by the kingcra.ft of Jeroboam. (2) They are mainta.ined by the kingcraft of all his successors, of whatever dynasty. Even Zimri, who only reigned seven days, and in those days was occupied in extermina.ting the house of Baa.aha, yet found time to pronounce himself in their favour. (3) What a. substitute for the Lord God of Israel who brought them up out of the land of Egypt I II. RESTLESSNESS. 1. Witnessed infrequent dynastic changes. (1) The house of Jeroboam lasted twenty-four years. This ga.ve place to that of Baasha, which lasted twenty-six. Zimri wore the crown seven de.ye. Then came a four years' struggle for it between Omri a.nd Tibni. At length "Tibni died and Omri reigned." 2. These changes represented strong passions. (1) There was the impatience of the rule of the house of David which resulted in the revolution in favour of Jeroboam. Yet so little did they benefit by the change, tha.t when Baa.aha destroyed that house they accepted, without a. murmur, the rule of the regicide. (2) But when Zimri treated the ho1J.Be of Baa.aha. as Ba.e,sha. ha.d trea.ted tha.t of Jeroboam, they did not a.ccept the second regicide. They now evinced some sense of right and wrong; but it was 11, wa.yward sense. There was no inquiry after the will of God. The army set up Omri, their genera.I; but the civilia.ns, a.pparently, chose Tibni. H11re was a con- fusion which la.sted until the death of one competitor. 8. These commotions were sanguinary. (1) The division of the na.tion into two kingdoms induced civil wa.r. (2) Civil war a.lso a.ttended the tree.son of Zimri. For the army we.a occupied with the siege of Gibbethon when the news of this tree.son reached them, which deter- mined them to ra.ise the siege and invest Tirza.h instead. The capture of Tirzah wa&' not unbloody. A desperate character like Zimri would not tamely yield, when, ra.ther than fall into the ha.nde of Omri, he burnt the pa.lace over his head and perished in the fie.mes. (3) The competition for the crown between Omri and Tibni protracted the civil war four yea.re. Omri is not said to he.ve resigned until the "thirty, first yee.r of A.ea., wheree.s Zimri's treason occurred in the twenty-seventh yee.r of A.sa," upon which Omri we.a chosen by the e.rmy. (Compare vers. 15 and 23.) The difference here is a.bout four years. III. CRlllE, 1. Foremost under this head iB idolatry. (1) We mentioned this under the head of "folly," but it is not thereby removed from the category of " crime.'' !dole.try is the grossest a.nd most direct insult to the living God. (2) Hence no crime is in Scripture more hee.vily denounced a.nd more signe.lly obnoxious to punishment. 2. Ne:r:t comes the capital crime of murder. (1) A£, idolatry is the highest affront to God, so is murder the greatest offence against man. (2) The crown of Isra.el was deeply stained with the blood of murder-with tha.t of the house of Jeroboam; with that of the house of Bao.she.. (3) Suicide also disgraced these violent times. And the note is significant that in his suicide Zimri perished "for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in walking in the wa.y of Jeroboam, e.nd in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin" (vers. 18, 19). Note: Men with their own hands may punish their sin. What a. contra.at is the kingdom of God I Its principles are pea.oe, righteo1J.BDess, and joy. Of this those have the earnest who in heart e,coept Jesus as their Melchisedeo.-J, A. M. Vere. 21-84.-0hangB without improv111nBnt. I. OMIU's INDEBTEDNESS TO DIVINE aooDNEBB. 1, His success against Zimri (vers, 15-25). The traitor fell  372 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oB. xv. 25-xvr. 28.