(4) And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. (5) The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
Observe, to what a daring height of impiety was the king arrived. Alas! how doth sin harden the heart. Think Reader! what effect must the sinew-struck hand of the king, and the pouring out of the ashes, with the altar's rending, have had upon the minds of the spectators. But we do not hear of any one act of conversion wrought by it. No! until the Lord turns the heart, the most awful signs lose their power. When our dear Lord on the cross bowed his sacred head, and with a loud voice, that all in heaven and hell might hear, said; It is finished; though not the altar only was smitten, but the vail of the temple divided, and rocks rent, and the graves opened, yet we read of no heart being rent, nor a soul, except the dying thief, converted. Oh! to what state of obduracy hath sin hardened the soul!