CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 11:11. Forasmuch as this is done of thee; or, is purposed of thee.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 11:9-13
THE DIVINE ANGER AND HUMAN DISOBEDIENCE
I. That the Divine anger is a fact. “And the Lord was angry with Solomon.” It is the fashion with many to expatiate on the Divine benevolence while they ignore the Divine anger. But the fact of that anger is one of the plainest and most awful revelations of the Bible (Isaiah 13:13; John 3:36; Romans 1:18). Divine anger is no sudden burst of passion, no low and hateful motion of revenge, as human anger often is, and with which too many are prone to associate their idea of the Divine anger. It is rather the deep, eternal antagonism of holiness to sin, of truth to error, of right to wrong. However much God may love the human soul as such, if that soul cleaves unto sin, it must of necessity place itself along with the sin in enmity towards God, and so be exposed to the Divine anger. It requires a sound judgment and a heart of tenderest love to speak with profit on the subject of the Divine anger.
II. That the Divine anger is excited by human disobedience. “Because his heart was turned from the Lord” (1 Kings 11:9).
1. Disobedience is aggravated when committed against definite commands. “And had commanded him concerning this thing” (1 Kings 11:10; comp. 1 Kings 6:12; 1 Kings 9:6). When law is violated ignorantly it is still a sin, but is not so aggravated as when committed with the full knowledge of the prohibition. Princes who have dominion over others are apt to forget the Divine dominion over them, and while they exact obedience from their own subjects, to neglect on their part to render obedience to the Great Ruler of all. The mariner who disregards the lights and landmarks which define the path of safety is the more reprehensible when he wrecks his vessel among the treacherous shoals.
2. Disobedience it aggravated when committed notwithstanding repealed Divine manifestation. The Lord “appeared unto him twice” (1 Kings 11:9; comp. 1 Kings 3:5; 1 Kings 9:1-2). Good turns aggravate unkindnesses. It is a great privilege to receive the law through the lips of God’s ministers, but a greater still to hear it from the lips of God Himself. Solomon was singularly favoured with Divine blessings. His recalcitrance excited the greater displeasure, and merited the greater punishment. The Lord does not trifle with men in the declarations of His word, and He will not eventually allow men to trifle with Him.
III. That the Divine anger will manifest itself in some form of punishment (1 Kings 11:11). The threat to divide the kingdom was carried out: the subsequent repentance and restoration of Solomon did not prevent it. There are some things in which repentance comes too late. Repentance does not arrest the course of physical law. It must have been a bitter experience to Solomon to know that the magnificent empire it had been his life-work to build up must ere long be rent asunder and crumble into ruins. “Solomon had let go the sincere service of God by sharing himself betwixt Him and his idols; his servant therefore shall share the kingdon with his son, and bear away the better half from him.” The Divine anger is not a theological scare-crow set up to frighten timid souls, but a terrible reality, as the evil-doer will by-and-by discover to his dismay. Homer has given expression to a similar idea:—
Fast by the threshold of Jove’s court are placed
Two casks, one stored with evil, one with good.
To whom He gives unmixed
The bitter cup, He makes that man a curse,
His name becomes a by word of reproach,
His strength is hunger-bitten, and he walks
The blessed earth unblest, go where he may.
IV. That the Divine anger is ever tempered with mercy.
1. Mercy in delaying punishment. “Notwithstanding in thy day I will not do it” (1 Kings 11:12). Compare a similar mitigation of punishment promised to Josiah (2 Kings 22:20). Delay affords space for repentance. If the opportunity it presents is despised, the punishment will be the heavier, and the sufferer be without excuse.
2. Mercy in moderating the severity of punishment. “Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son” (1 Kings 11:13). Two tribes were really retained. The tribe of Benjamin seems to have been absorbed into the tribe of Judah, to which David belonged (1 Kings 12:21). This second mitigation of the sentence reveals the tender compassion of God, and His unwillingness to punish. Solomon did not at once turn from God: his defection was gradual; and Jehovah did not at once wrest the kingdom from him. This additional proof of the Divine mercy must have greatly affected Solomon; and there is room to hope that it led him to repent and retrace his wanderings. Kindness succeeds where a stern severity fails.
3. Mercy shown on account of ulterior Divine purposes. “For David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:13). The line of the Messiah must be preserved. The prevailing lion must come out of the tribe of Judah: not only the tribe must be preserved, but the regal line and the regal right. All this must be done for the true David’s sake; and this was undoubtedly, observes Dr. A. Clarke, what God had in view by thus miraculously preserving the tribe of Judah and the royal line in the midst of so general a defection. As David was a type of the Messiah, so was Jerusalem a type of the true church: therefore the old Jerusalem must be preserved in the hands of the tribe of Judah, till the true David should establish the new Jerusalem in the same land and in the same city. And what a series of providences did it require to do all these things! The prosperous career of Solomon was only part of a great scheme for the benefit of the entire race; and the failure of even so great a man as Solomon must not be allowed to frustrate the Divine intention.
LESSONS:—
1. Man cannot sin with impunity.
2. The Divine anger is righteous.
3. The manifestation of the Divine anger it terrible.
4. God has more delight in showing mercy than in punishing.
5. He who most delights in mercy most resembles God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 11:9. Had not this man’s delinquency been strongly marked by the Divine disapprobation, it would have had a fatal effect upon the morals of mankind. Vice is vice, no matter who commits it. And God is as much displeased with sin in Solomon as He can be with it in the most profligate, uneducated wretch. And, although God sees the same sin in precisely the same degree of moral turpitude as to the act itself, yet there may be circumstances which greatly aggravate the offence, and subject the offender to greater punishment. Solomon was wise; he knew better: his understanding showed him the vanity as well as the wickedness of idolatry. God had appeared unto him twice. The promises of God had been fulfilled to him in a most remarkable manner. All these were aggravations of Solomon’s crimes, as to their demerit; for the same crime has, in every case, the same degree of moral turpitude in the sight of God; but circumstances may so aggravate as to require the offender to be more grievously punished: so the punishment may be legally increased where the crime is the same. Solomon deserved more punishment for his worship of Ashtoreth than any of the Sidonians did, though they performed precisely the same acts. The Sidonians had never known the true God: Solomon had been fully acquainted with Him.—A. Clarke.
1 Kings 11:9-11. The sin of idolatry.
1. Is a tendency of fallen humanity.
2. Is an insult to God.
3. Is a violation of the most specific prohibitions.
4. Is the cause of national disgrace and ruin.
1 Kings 11:9-13. The punishments that fell upon Solomon show us—I. The holiness and righteousness of God (Psalms 145:17; Jeremiah 17:10; Luke 12:47). II. His faithfulness and mercy (1 Kings 11:12-13). He knows how to punish so that His gracious promises remain firm (2 Timothy 2:13; Romans 3:3). God makes known to us His judgments through His Word, so that we may have time to repent and to turn unto Him (Ezekiel 33:2). If judgment fell specially on Solomon, notwithstanding the fact that the Lord appeared unto him twice in a dream, and he was honoured with distinguished grace, what judgment must we expect, to whom He has appeared tenderly in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30; Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 10:29). God knows how, in the proper time, to belittle him who abandons and forsakes the Lord and His cause in order to become great and distinguished in the eyes of the world (Daniel 4:34).—Lange.
1 Kings 11:12-13. In the midst of the horror of this spectacle, able to affright all the sons of men, behold some glimpse of comfort. Was it of Solomon that David his father prophesied—“Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand”? If sensible grace, yet final mercy, was not taken from that beloved of God. In the hardest of this winter, the sap was gone down to the root, though it showed not in the branches. Even while Solomon removed, that word stood fast: “He shall be my son, and I will be his father.” He that foresaw his sin, threatened and limited his correction (Psalms 89:31-33). Behold, the favour of God doth not depend upon Solomon’s obedience. If Solomon shall suffer his faithfulness to fail towards his God; God will not requite him with the failing of his faithfulness to Solomon: if Solomon break his covenant with God, God will not break His covenant with the father of Solomon, with the son of David. He shall smart; he shall not perish. O gracious word of the God of all mercies, able to give strength to the languishing, comfort to the despairing, to the dying, life! Whatsoever we are, thou wilt be still thyself, O Holy one of Israel, true to thy covenant. The sins of thy chosen can neither frustrate thy counsel, nor outstrip thy mercies.—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 11:13. One tribe remains to him—that is, of the Divine grace only a single part of the sovereignty over all Israel is left to him. This view is confirmed by the observation that even the standing distribution in the Old Testament of Israel into twelve tribes has its most proper ground, not in the fact that Jacob had exactly twelve sons, as after the recognition of Ephraim and Manasseh as separate tribes, the people properly formed thirteen tribes; but is to be sought in the import which this number had acquired in the remotest antiquity by the observation of the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the zodiac.—Keil.