The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 402

Vel'II. 22, 28.-The riA o/ acu11ting Divine honours. The explanation of thla incident is given in the exegetical portion of this Commentary, Several points of interest come out upon comparison of the Scripture narrative with that given by Josephus. The Jewish historian is fuller on the adulation offered to Herod than le St. Luke. He notioes the remarkable silver garment which Herod wore on the occasion, and the effect it produced on the people, adding that " presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place and another from another, though not for his good, that he W88 a god. And they added,• Be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto reverenoed thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee \l,S superior to mortal nature.' Upon this the king did mither rebuke them nor t·~ject their impious flattery." St. Luke distinctly makes the same charge, stating that ho was smitten because he gave not God tM glory. He permitted himself to listen to and accept the flattery, and failed to see that in so doing he openly and publicly insulted the Divine majesty, This God never will permit. He is jealous-in the high sense of that term-of his sole and sovereign rights, and immediately punishes all who dare to claim the honour which is due alone to him. Flattery of the creature may never rise to this height. Man can commit no sin so heinous as that of assuming Divine honours and rights, The most striking illustration is that of Nebuchadnezzar, whose pride swelled to a claim of Divine power and honour, and was, immediately upon his boastful utterance; smitt.en of God with a most humiliating disease. It is said that Antiochus the Great, because he sinned in a similar high-handed way, was brought low by a disease like that which afflicted Herod. We may consider some of the reasons why there is such jealousy of the Divine rights, and why Jehovah's honour he will never give to another. L THE BOLE OLA.Dl OF Gon IS ESSENTIAL TO OUB BIGHT RELATIONS WITH Hlll. we are required to love God with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. We cannot unless he be indeed the one and only God. We a.re to recognize our relations with him u Creator, e.nd to admit the claims which this relationship brings. But wa cannot conceive of two Creators ; he bath made us, e.nd he alone. Our life •is to be under his present gracwus lead; in all our ways we are to acknowledge him, and to feel that he directs onr patb.s; but only confusion can come into our thought and life if onr daily alle,,uie.nce is to be in sny sense divided. Sin only gains its heinousness in our eight when it is thought of as committed against the one supreme will, and redemption has no point if it be not our recovery to the harmony of that one will. Illustrations may be taken from the confusion created by dualistic and polytheistic systems. Men never could be quite sure that they had propitiated the right god, and a constant anxiety wore away the hearts of even the sincerely pious, II. THE BOLE CLAIM OF Gon IS THE FOUNDATION OF MORALS. The connection between the two tables of the Law needs to be carefully considered. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" is an injunction without force save as it follows on the great command to "love God with all our heart." The life of morality is love to the one living God. The spirit of sonship is the inspiration of brotherhood. If a man truly loves God he will love his brother also. Illustrate from the uncertainty of all moral systems associated with polytheism. Some of the gods became even the patrons of impurity and immorality. Our one Goel being the "ideal of goodness," his service must be wholly pure. fil THE CLAlll OF MAN TO DIVINE HONOURS REVEALS HIS UTMOST DEGRADATION, The claim has been made again and again, but only by men utterly abandoned, mastered by pride and self-conceit, and only after the crushing down of all reverence. Self-will may go great lengths and keep within human limits ; it becomes Satanic when it dares to rival God and claim for itself Divine rights. When such heart• baseness is declared, the man mW1t come under the immediate and awful judgments ot God, even as Herod did.-B. T. Ver. 24.-2'7ie growingB of tM Word. The terms used here indicate a continuous expansion. "Grew and multiplied" is a blending of figures, and does not easily fit into the term. "Word of God." Probably St. Luke associated the word with our Lord's parable of the "sower ; " and thought of it as seed, growing up and bringing forth its hUDdredfold. Two things are suggested by the sentence taken as a text. 1. St. Luke noticee, as a reuiarkable thing, that, in spite of aU the pereecutlou11 and OR, 111, 1-25,] THE AOTB OF THE APOSTLES. 899