The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 540

prophets and good men. They are made to serve as a dark background to show up to admiration virtuous qualities, and to be made themselves odious in the contrast. The principles of the wicked should only be studied to be shunned. So God brings good out of evil. (3) The sacred records have survived the secular. "The book of the clironicles of the kings of Israel" has long since perished. The sacred records have come down to our times. In these, after a. lapse of nearly thirty centuries, Ahab survives. But for these his name would not be known Note (a) the Providence which has preserved the Scriptures evinces their Divine authenticity. (b) Things are permanent as they stand related to the everlasting God. (c) The posthumous influence points to _the immortality of man.-J. A. M. Vers. 41-50.-Jehoshaphat. These words give a summary of the life of this king of Judah, and faithfully record, as the Scriptures do to admiration, the good and the bad, as these will be considered in the judgn1ent of the great day. Consider- I. THE PRAISE OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 1. He came of a good stock. (1) He was" of the house and lineage of David." The traditions of that house were in many respects a glorious inheritance. David was a "man after God's own heart.'' In no instance was he found inclining to idolatry. (2) He was the son of Asa. Of his mother we have this significant mention : "And his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shillli. And he walked in the ways of Asa his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord.'' This saggests the healthiness of his mother's moral influence. The reference here to Asa, too, is highly honourable. (3) The blessing of pious parents is inestimable. It works beneficially in example, in precept, in solicitude. This last is most effectual in prayer to God. Those who are favoured with godly parents should praise God evermore. Wicked children of pious parents are doubly culpable. 2. He improved his advantages. (1) He "walked in the ways of Asa his father." These were ways of righteousness. Let the children of godly parents now ask themselves whether they walk in the good ways of their ancestors. (2) He "turned not aside from it." He showed no favour to idolatry. The note which follows is no impeachment of the truth of this statement: '' Nevertheless the high places were not taken away ; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places." The high places that Jehoshaphat spared were those in which the true God was worshipped in accorda,nce with the usage of patriarchal times (see 2 Chron. xxxiii. 17). (3) He went farther tho.u Asa in the work of re!orma• tion :-" The remnant of the Sodomites which rema,ined in the days of Asa, his father he took out of the land." The parallel place to this in the Chronicles is: "And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord : moreover he took away the high plaoes and the groves (Cl 111!'~) out of Judah" (2 Chron. xvii. 6; xix. 3). By removing the Sodomites we understand that he demolished their shrines, their Asherim, their instruments of pollution. ,vhen the nests are destroyed the rooks fly. 8. This was to his praise. (1) Others, similarly placed, failed to make this good use of their advantages. Jehornm, his own son, may be mentioued in sad contrast to him. Several of his ancestors had scandalously departed. from the godly ways of their father David. Men will be justified or condemned in the light o! sue~ comparis?ns in the last great day (see Luke xi. 31, 82). (2) God rewarded Ju~ ~vith ]?rosper1ty (2 Chron. xvii. 4, 5). He had an army-probably an enrolled milt~1a-of 1,100,000 men. The Philistines, Arabians, and Edomites wero subject to 1nm. The note here, that " there was then no king in Edom : a deputy was king,': whioh prefaces the account of his fleet at Ezion-Geber, was designed to exp lam how J ~hoshaph?-t was able to have a fleet at a pod which belo!3ge,l to Edom (see eh. ix. 26), viz., because he appointed the viceroy in Edom which was tributary to him (see Gen. xxvii. 29, 87 ; 2 Sam. viii. 14). II. THE BLAME OF JEHOSHAPHAT. This seems all to have been connected with the "peac_e" which he ma~e "with the king of Israel." It appears to have com- menced w1tl~-l. _The marriage of his son. (1) Jehoram, the eldest son of J ehosha- phe.t, and with Ins consent, took Athalie.h, the daugllter of Ahab and. Jezebel, to be 556 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS, [ CII. xxn. 1-68,