IV. THE PROGRESS. Shishak captured all the fenced cities of Judah in which Rehoboam trusted (eh. xi. 6-9), e.nd encamped his army before the walls of Jerusalem. Vain, after all, h11d been Rehoboam's confidence. His garrisons and soldiers had yielrled to the first assault. The props on which men lean often prove broken reeds. The shelters to which sinners run in the day of calamity mostly turn out refuges of lies (Isa. xxviii. 17). LESSONS. 1. The certainty of sin being soonel' or later overtaken by retribution (Numb. xxxii. 23). 2. The weakness of all defences, whether for nations or for individuals, when God is not within them (Ps. cxxvii. 1). 3. When God has a Rinner to chastise he can easily find an instrument wherewith to do it (Isa. L 5).-W. Vera. 5-8.-Two messages from Jehovah. I. A MESSAGE OF' WARNING. (Vera. 5, 6.) 1. By whom sent. Shemaiah the prophet, or man of God (eh. xi. 2). When Jehovah has a message for any age, people, or individual, he can always find a messenger to bear it-a Moses to go to Pharaoh, a Samuel to speak to Saul, a Nathan to send to David, an Elijah or a Micaiah to warn Ahab, a. John the Baptist to preach to Israel and testify against Herod. The hour never comes without the man. When a Paul or a Polycarp, an .Athanasius or an Augustine, a Calvin or a Luther, a Knox or a Wesley, is needed in the New Testament Church, he appears at the moment when most required. 2. To whom addressed. To Rehoboam and the princes of Judah whom Shishak's invasion had caused to convene in Jerusalem. They had come together to consult about the safety of the capital; they had not called Jehovah to the council. They had not realized that in such a crisis as had arisen "vain was the help of man," and "through God alone could they do valiantly" (Ps. l.x. 11, 12) ; that unless God kept the city, they the watchers would watch in vain (Ps. cxxvii. 1). Yet they seem to have discerned that their best efforts would prove ineffectual, and they were filled with fear. Happily Jehovah thought of them, though they forgat him. 3. In what terms it ran. (1) It intimated a fact: "Ye have forsaken me." This showed that Jehovah had been cognizant of all that had taken place since Rehoboam got his garrisons erected, had witnessed the idolatries and unspeakable abominations of the faithless king and his coward princes, though perhaps they had reasoned that, as God was in the height of heaven, he could not know what transpired upon the earth (Job x:xii.12-14). But though they had not seen him, he had observed them (Prov. xv. 3; Amos ix. 8). (2) It announced a consequence: "Therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." Thus did Jehovah signify that it was he himself even more than Shishak that had come up against Rehoboam and his princes; Shishak had not appeared before their gates without his permission; and without his assistance nothing they could do would prevent them falling into Shishak's hand. Jehovah, indeed, could avert that calamity. He could put a hook into Shishak's nose and lead him back by the way he came, as he afterwards did to Sennacherib (2 Kings xi.x. 28; Isa. :uxvii. 29); but in the mean time, as they had left him for the calves of Egypt, he had left them to be the prey of Egypt's lord. 4-. What effect it produced. (1) Contrition, or at least seeming contrition: "They humbled themselves." To be sure, their penitence, like their previous reformation, was only skin deep. Nevertheless, it had the semblance of reality, and God accepted it as such. (2) Confession: "They said, The Lord is righteous," i.e. in punishing them as he had done; in which was implied an acknow- ledgment that they had sinned. This the design of all God's chastisements, whether national or individual, to excite personal humiliation and hearty recognition of the holiness and justice of God (Deut. viii. 5, 16; Ezek. xx. 37, 43; Hos. v. 15). Only confession may be on the lip where no real contrition is in the heart. II. A MESSAGE OF' MEROY, (Vera. 7, 8.) 1. Its occasion. The success of the first message in the ~at least seeming) penitence of the king and his princes. "God speaketh once, yea twice' (Job xxxiii. 14), to men, even to his people, who often fail to under- stand his first voice (l Sam. iii. 4; Dan. xii. 8; Mark ix. 32; John xi. 13), or under- stand but refuse to bear (Isa. !xv. 12), though occasionally also they listen and submit (Jonah iii. 6); In the first case, his second speaking may be nothing more than a repetition of the first, or an explanation of its contents; in the second, it commonly o.ssumes the form of increased warnings and severer threatenings; iu the third, it is UBually a. voice of mercy following on a voice of judgment, It was so witb 150 THE SECOND :13OO:lt OF 'l'H~ CllltONtCLlr.S. ton. :l.tr. 1-HJ,
Reboboam and the princes of Jnde.h. 2, Its contents. (1) Their humiliation had been obser,•ed and accepted: "They have humbled themselves," So God still sees and regards with favour all who abase themselves before him (Jer. xxxi. 18; Ps. ix. 12, x. 17; 1 Kings xxi. 29). (2) A degree, at least, of clemency would be extended towards them : " I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance and my wre.th she.ll not be poured out upon Jeruse.lem by the hand of Shishak." S; God delights to meet the :first advances of returning penitents with such forete.stee of mercy as will lure them on to desire its foll fruition. (3) Nevertheless, a measure of correc- tion would be laid upon them. Though Shishak should not be suffered to work his will either upon them or their city, they would, nevertheless, fall into his hand. '!'hey should be his servants, either as captives or as tributaries; and would lee.rn the difference between J ehovah's rule and the domination of foreign kings. So God still deals with his people-forgives them, but permits them to reap the temporal fruits of their transgression, that they may know what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake God (Jer. ii. 19), and how much more easy is Christ's yoke (Matt. x:i. ~9, 30) than that of sin (Lam. i 14). Learn: 1. The omniscience of God : "All things a.re ne.ked," etc. (Heb. iv. 13), 2. God's compact with the soul: "The Lord is with us," etc. (eh. xv. 2). 3. 'l'he mercifulness of God: he is "long-suffering, and slow to wrath" (Exod. xxxiv. 6; Ps. lxxviii. 38). 4. The misery of sin: it ever entails sorrow (Ps. xxxii. 10). 5. God's ability to execute his own sentences : "It is a fearful thing," etc. (Heh. x. 31) • "Though hand join in hand," etc. (Prov. xi 21).-W. '