The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 528

largest share in all the_ four, and there_fore they received, as w~ shall see presently, by far the severer p11IDshment. But Just as the people worshipped at the shrines which the king supported, just as they practised the abominations which he bad introduced, so bad they approved his policy towards Ben-hadad-see the words of eh. xi.x. 42, "thy people for his people "-and the guilt of innocent blood, as we lwow (Num. xxxv. 33; Deut. xxi. 7; 2 Sam. :xxi) rested on the co=unity until it had been cleansed in blood. It is clear, then, that at the time when this chapter opens, king and people, though in very different degrees, were chargeable with the sins of schism, of idolatry, of unfaithfulness to God, of murder. It is now for us to observe how these things were expiated. . Now there are two principlea which underlie all God's retributive dealings with his ancient people. First, that sin is left, or made to bring its own penalties. Per quod quis peccat,per idem quoque plectitur idem. Secondly, that the penalty is ever correspondent with the sin. This latter is what we commonly call the lez talioni-s. We have had instances of the working of both of these laws, but especially of the latter, in the earlier portions of this history. We shall find the same laws in operation here. For consider-I. By what means Ahab was led to death and Israel to defeat. II. By what instruments these punishments were inflicted. III. In what way they were signalized as the chastisements of sin. I. In considering the INFLUENCES which moved Ahab to war, and which led to his destruction, we must assign the first place to- 1. The perfidy of Ben-hadad. No doubt it rankled in Ahab's breast that, after he had dealt so magnanimously with a. prostrate foe, after he bad treated an inso• lent invader with unexampled generosity, and after a solemn covenant had been made betwixt them, it rankled in his soul that a Syrian garrison, in spite of all em- bassies and remonstrances, should hold the Jewish fortress of Ro.moth-Gilead and thus offer a standing menace to Israel and Judah alike. But did it never occur to him that the conduct of Ben-he.dad was but the counterpart of his own? He too had forgotten his benefactor and delive1·er, to whom he we.a bound by solemn covenant ; he still maintained 11, garrison of idolatrous priests in the heart of Immanuel's land. Ben-hadad's breach of faith was no greater than his own. Probably, he never thought of this when he debated whether he should go up ago.inst Ramoth-Gilead. He would remember, however, that he had only himself to blame for this act of perfidy, and he would devoutly wish he had dealt with the oppressor as he ho.d deserved; he would perhaps think that it only served him right for his weakness and sin. We see, however, that he is paid back in his own coin, thnt the measure he has meted to God is measured to him again. The sin of three years before gave the first impulse to war and death. 2. The lies of thefalsepropheta. It is hardly likely that Ahab would have engaged in this war but for the unanimous verdict of the four hundred prophets in its favour. We see in Micaiah'e vision that a" lying spirit" was the principal means employed to procure his fall (ver. 22). But what were these prophets, and how came they to prophesy thus \I One thing is certain, thnt they were not prophets of Jehovah, and another thing is also clear, that whether they were prophets of Baal, or, as is most probable, prophets of the calves, the false system which Ahab hnd supported be- came through them a means of hie destruction. The schism or the idolatry, as the cae? may be, is bee.ring its bitter fruit. He has sown to lies, he renps to delusions. I~ 1s a conspicuous instance of the just judgment of heaven that Ahab is lured to his death by the impostors he had cherished and patronized. "He tllat hntee truth shall be the dupe of lies." The sin of the calves too brings its own retribution. But how was it, it is worth asking, that these four hundred sycophants came to counsel him thus \I Was it not that they took their cue from him, and prophesied what they knew would please \I They saw that the king llnd already made up his mind-for his resolution was tnlcen before they were summoned (vers. 4, 5), and they thought it wisest to swim with the stream. It mo.y be they wore guided by other and insorutnble impulses (ver. 23), and were constrained, they knew not how, to prophesy as they did j it may be they honestly mistook the voz populi  THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ OH, XXII, 1-58,