CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 14:21-31. From incidents associated with the kingdom of ISRAEL, the historian now turns to JUDAH.
1 Kings 14:28. Naamah an Ammonitess—Sept. reads: “Daughter of Ana [Hanun?] son of Naas [Nahash], king of the Ammonites. Her heathen extraction is marked as indicating her natural alienation from the religion of Jehovah. As queen-mother, she had great influence in the Government.
1 Kings 14:23. Images and groves—On “groves,”vide Note on.
1 Kings 14:15. supra. Here מַצְּבַה, “images” or pillars,” from נָצַה, to he firmly set, or made fast; probably stone pillars, or monumental idols, representing the male deity, Baal, as the Ashterahs, wooden idols, represented the female deity.
1 Kings 14:24. There were also sodomites in the land—הַקְּדֵשִׁים. These were vicious paramours, detestable persons who practised, as a religious rite, a vile self-desecration. They were male prostitutes, and are ranked in Scripture with harlots (Deuteronomy 23:17).
1 Kings 14:25. Shishak, king of Egypt—On the Karnak basrelief this Sheshonk (as he is named in Egyptian monuments) is represented as dragging Jewish captives.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 14:21-31
IDOLATRY AS A CAUSE OF NATIONAL DECAY
I. That idolatry is a degradation to the holiest place. “Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there” (1 Kings 14:21). The spot was hallowed as the dwelling-place of Jehovah and by manifold revelations of His glory. It was no slight degradation that this holy city should be debased by the idolatrous rites of the heathen. Idolatry pollutes everything it touches. “There was no visible church upon earth but here; and this what a one! O God, how low dost thou sometimes suffer thine own flock to be driven! what woful wanes and eclipses hast thou ordained for this heavenly body. But the gloomy times of corruption shall not last always, the light of truth and peace shall at length break out, and bless the sad hearts of the righteous.”
II. That idolatry is the originator and patron of the most abominable vices.
1. It corrupts a whole nation. “And Judah did evil above all that their fathers had done” (1 Kings 14:22-23). It is no longer the individual monarch who is blamed, but the people; the evil practices have become national. One sinner destroyeth much good; one false officer may corrupt an entire army; an idolatrous king is a curse to a country. The mother of Rehoboam was an Ammonitess (1 Kings 14:21), a bad wife for a king of Israel; and her son soon partook more of the temper of Ammon, the idolater, than of the spirit of Abraham.
2. It sanctions the most abominable vices (1 Kings 14:24). What a strange incongruity is this—Sodom in Jerusalem! idols in Judah! Surely debauched profession proves desperate; admit the idols, you cannot doubt of the sodomy. If they have changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, it is no marvel if God gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves. They dishonoured God by one sin, and God left them to dishonour themselves by another. The most outrageous sins have been committed under the sanction of idolatrous worship.
3. It is specially offensive to God. “They provoked Him to jealousy with their sins” (1 Kings 14:22). This expression is a metaphor which views the relation of God and His people as the marriage covenant, in which the people are represented as a faithless wife. No act of infidelity can be so secret as to elude the eyes of God. “Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord.” What emotions must arise in the heart of God as He is a silent and invisible Spectator of the sins of His people!
III. That idolatry destroys the bravery of a nation.
1. It is powerless to repel the invasion of an enemy (1 Kings 14:25). It may be that Jeroboam incited the Egyptian king to make war against Judah; but it is a revelation of the condition of weakness into which the kingdom had sunk that Jeroboam saw his rival would become an easy prey to the Egyptian army. How great a change was this to the vigour and bravery of the days of David, when the surrounding nations were kept in awe by his victorious sword, and the Jewish kingdom acquired the position of a first-rate military power! Idolatry emasculates the manhood of a people, and it becomes demoralized and cowed in the presence of an enemy which before it had confronted with bravery.
2. It reduces a nation to poverty (1 Kings 14:26-28). Religion promotes the wealth of a nation and guards it from spoliation. While Rehoboam and his people walked in the fear of God (2 Chronicles 11:17), the accumulated riches of Solomon remained undisturbed; but when they forsook the Lord (ib. 1 Kings 12:1), then Shishak, the instrument of Divine retribution, was permitted to invade Jerusalem and carry away its immense treasures. And now, instead of the golden shields which glittered in the presence of Solomon on great state occasions, Rehoboam is glad enough to substitute brass—an emblem of the degeneracy of Judah. How soon the mention of the profusion of gold in the age of Solomon is succeeded by this mention of brass in its place! Such are the evanescent vanities of this world’s riches! Idolatry will bring the most prosperous nation to beggary.
IV. That idolatry is a fruitful source of fraternal enmity. “There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days” (1 Kings 14:30). Not merely a feeling of hostility, but frequent wars. We are not to suppose that the Word of the Lord by Shemaiah (1 Kings 12:24) was any more observed in the later history of Rehoboam than it was by his sons. Of all quarrels, those between people of near kindred are the most bitter and disastrous. Where true religion is ignored, the bond of unity and brotherhood is destroyed. Idolatry encourages a restless strife after an unholy and tyrannical supremacy, rather than contends for the honour of God and the supreme authority of His law.
V. That idolatry hurries its votaries to an untimely and dishonoured grave (1 Kings 14:31). Brief as was the reign of Rehoboam, that of his son and successor was briefer still (chap. 1 Kings 15:2). Sin shortens human life, robs it of many pleasures, and surrounds its close with gloom and misery. Even the pious are impressed with the brevity of life. “Alas!” was the touching lament of Grotius, “I have lost my life in doing nothing with great labour!” What can be said of the close of a life wasted in folly and in wicked opposition to God?
LESSONS:—
1. Religion it the secret of a nation’s greatness.
2. No nation can prosper when it forsakes God.
3. There is no limit to the abominations of a nation when it gives itself up to idolatry.
GERM N0TES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 14:21-30. The deep fall of Judah. I. Whence it came (Deuteronomy 32:15; Hosea 13:6; Proverbs 30:9). II. Whither it led (Romans 1:25; Romans 1:28). Amongst individual men, as in entire communities, cities, and nations, revolt against the living God results from haughtiness, over-prosperity, and carnal security, bringing, as inevitable consequences, poverty, ruin, and misfortune in war. High as stood Judah under David and Solomon, so deep in proportion did it sink under Rehoboam.—Lange.
1 Kings 14:21-22. Wherever God has a house, the Devil always builds a chapel close at hand. How often does it happen that cities and countries, whence it has been ordained by God that the light of His knowledge should shine forth, have become the seat alike of superstition and of scepticism, and thus infinitely sink below the level of those lands which have never heard His blessed Word.
1 Kings 14:22. The enormity of sin. I. Is not unnoticed by the Omniscient One. It is committed “in the sight of God.” II. Is a trial to the love of God. “They provoked Him to jealousy with their sins.” III. Is a flagrant evidence of faithlessness to the Divine Covenant. IV. Earns an unenviable notoriety. “Above all that their fathers had done.”
—Idolatry and immorality rather increased than decreased, and the fall of Judah seems to have been even deeper than that of Israel. However, the condition of Judah was not so bad as the condition of Israel in this respect; as in the latter the breach of the fundamental law had become the state religion and institution of the kingdom, the separate existence of which depended on the new worship; whilst in Judah the apostasy was only permitted, and the lawful worship of Jehovah had always a firm footing at the central sanctuary. Many good elements also still existed in Judah (2 Chronicles 20:12). Judah always repented as often as they fell into idolatry, and they continued to be the guardian of the law; whilst Israel, on the contrary, never completely returned to the right way.—Lange.
1 Kings 14:23-24. Wherever profligacy and fornication are in the ascendant, there is true heathendom, how many soever may be the churches. King Rehoboam, too, sinned grievously in this wise he, although not himself an idol-worshipper, yet failed as a servant of God, in that he did not oppose idol worship with all his might, and even regarded it as having equal rights with the service of the true God—even, alas! as we find Christian sovereigns who permit unbelief and revolt from the truth to rank upon a level with faith and confession of God in Christ.—Ibid.
1 Kings 14:23. One great object of the Mosaic dispensation was to maintain, in the persons of the Israelites, a living testimony against the polytheism which had overspread the nations; and whatever might directly or indirectly tend to the worship of many gods, or to the associating of other gods of man’s devising with the only real God, Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, was carefully guarded against and discouraged. When, in process of time, the high places and groves of primitive worship became consecrated to divers idols, the danger was that, in adopting the use of them, the Israelites should retain some lingering recollection of the God to whom they had been set apart; and this, gathering strength, would insensibly lead them into idolatry, and to the association of other gods with Jehovah.—Kitto.
1 Kings 14:25. Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together (Matthew 24:28). The chastisements of God are never delayed where immorality and godlessness prevail, but they do not always lead, as with Judah, to the humble confession, “The Lord is righteous” (2 Chronicles 22:6). Sovereigns are often only the instruments of God in their undertakings, although they do not or will not recognize the fact.—Calwer.
—So long as Rehoboam continued in a right course, the king of Egypt was restrained by the Lord from the measures he contemplated; but no sooner had the king, with his people, sinned against Jehovah, than the hands of this powerful prince were loosened, and he proceeded to invade the land with a mighty host. This was the first time the Egyptians had appeared in the sacred land with hostile purposes against the Hebrews; and it is probable that so formidable a body of chariots, horsemen, and infantry had never before invaded the country. The appearance of this new enemy, whose power and resources they well knew, must have filled the Judahites with dread—the rather, as their unfaithfulness had disentitled them to the right of looking to the Lord for his protection.—Kitto.
1 Kings 14:26. The true treasures of the Temple are the worship of God in spirit and in truth, prayer, faith, love, and obedience: these no thieves nor robbers can steal and without them all the gold and silver in temples and churches is vain and empty show. Golden or copper shields are alike in value if only we can say: “The Lord is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel our King.”
1 Kings 14:27-28. The pride of poverty. I. Descends to paltry imitations. II. Delights in pompous parade. III. Exaggerates the value of what it possesses.
—It is better to pray to our Heavenly Father in our closet, rather than to worship with pomp in church to be seen by men. Yet now there are many who ceremoniously frequent the churches, but neglect to maintain the fear of God, discipline, and good morals in their own houses and neighbourhood.
1 Kings 14:30-31. It is not to a man’s honour when, at his grave, these words are said: There was life-long enmity between him and his neighbour.—Lange.
1 Kings 14:30. Jealousy a fruitful source of mischief. I. Engenders hatred among the nearest kindred. II. Is the cause of the most horrible wars. III. Is very difficult to allay.
1 Kings 14:31. We are not to conclude that Rehoboam himself served idols; on the contrary, it is emphatically said, that in solemn procession, accompanied by his whole body-guard, he continually visited the Temple, and thus showed himself publicly to the people as a worshipper of Jehovah. But he forsook the law in so far that he did not obey its injunctions; he suffered idolatrous worship in Jerusalem, and did nothing towards exterminating it. This was the evil he was accused of: he continued Jehovah’s servant, but he wanted firmness and decision. Sometimes fiery and arrogant, sometimes yielding and weak, he was unstable, as he had shown himself in Shechem at the commencement of his reign. He seems also to have been under the influence of his idolatrous mother (1 Kings 14:31), and wife (chap. 1 Kings 15:13), and of his many wives (2 Chronicles 11:21).—Lange.