THE REIGNS OF ABIJAM, ASA, NADAB, AND BAASHA
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 15:1. Abijam—Original form of his name was Abijah (2 Chronicles 12:16), the sacred terminal “jah” being connected therewith. But, probably on account of his evil reign, his name was altered to Abijam.
1 Kings 15:2. Maachah, daughter of Abishalom—i.e., Michaiah, daughter of Absalom; more properly, granddaughter of Absalom, by Uriel and Tamar, who was Absalom’s daughter (vide 2 Chronicles 13:2).
1 Kings 15:4. Give him a lamp in Jerusalem—An Oriental figure of speech. Having a lamp in the house indicates the continuance of the family name.
1 Kings 15:6. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, &c.—i.e., rancorous rivalry, and consequent frequent border skirmishes. A mistake to think that “Rehoboam” is a scribe’s blunder for Abijam, as given in end of 1 Kings 15:7. The feudal autagonism is reasserted here, having been already stated in chap. 1 Kings 14:20. The two records respecting Rehoboam (1 Kings 15:6) and Abijam (1 Kings 15:7) simply denote that the hostile feeling between Israel and Judah continued through the reigns of both father and son.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 15:1-8
THE PERMANENT INFLUENCE OF A GOOD EXAMPLE
1 Kings 15:1. That a good example is acquired by a life of obedience to the Divine commandments. “David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life” (1 Kings 15:5). David became the pattern and model to all kings of right conduct towards Jehovah. Great and many as were his defects and failures, he was never guilty of idolatry, nor did he permit it to exist under his rule. A good example is not formed by aiming at it as a distinct object, but by quietly and faithfully doing the duty of the moment, without reference to ulterior results. The beautiful is unconscious of its own beauty, the sublime knows not its own sublimity; so the obedient and the good are unconscious of the impressions made by their upright example. It is always safest and best to obey God.
1 Kings 15:2. That a good example may be marred by serious blemishes. “Save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (1 Kings 15:6). This was David’s great crying offence, which drew down on him the judgments of God, and is ever mentioned to his shame. But he was guilty of other sins: as the neglect to properly disciplining his sons, the primal cause of Absalom’s and Adonijah’s ruin; his falsehoods before Achish (1 Samuel 27:10); and his fin in numbering the people (2 Samuel 24:10). But all these are, in comparison with his guilt in adultery with Bathsheba and in the murder of Uriah, as sins of infirmity and ignorance. Lange points out’ that “the sin of David against Uriah was great indeed, but, apart from the fact that he repented of it bitterly, it was not one which broke the fundamental law of the theocracy, the covenant and its chief commandment, and it did not, therefore, undermine the foundation of the Israelite nationality.” David is not held up as a perfect example of goodness; it is only the Sinless One who can be so considered. How often does it happen that in great natures, great virtues and great vices are unhappily commingled! Their sins are beacons to warn; their virtues indicate the possibilities of goodness to which human nature may rise.
III. That a good example is not always imitated.
1. Because of the feebleness of the religious principle. His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father (1 Kings 15:3). Yet Abijam prepared precious offerings for the temple service (1 Kings 15:15), probably to replace vessels which Shishak had carried off, and in his war with Jeroboam professed himself a faithful servant of Jehovah (2 Chronicles 13:10; 2 Chronicles 13:12). Many boast of their profession of godliness who are strangers to the power of it, and plead the truth of their religion who yet are not true to it. He seemed to have zeal for the worship of Jehovah, but he lacked sincerity: he still sanctioned idolatry. In order to have the courage to follow a good example, we must have deep and forceful religious convictions: these are to the soul what the ballast and the driving power are to the steamship. What is wanted is a strong, deep, faith-compelling conviction of the awful truth and saving power of the Divine Word.
2. Because of the demoralizing influence of a bad example. “He walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him” (1 Kings 15:3). It is easier to copy a bad example than a good one, especially when bad examples are abundant and are continually before us, and when good examples are so rare. Amid the prevalent idolatry of Israel there was only one Abijah in whom was “found some good toward the Lord God of Israel.” Iniquity is a common weed: goodness is an exotic. One evil example has many imitators, and its pernicious influence is long continued. It aggravates the sin of a degenerate seed that they fare the better for the piety of their ancestors, and owe their blessings to it, and yet will not imitate it.
IV. That the influence of a good example is a permanent blessing to a nation (1 Kings 15:4, comp. with 1 Kings 11:36). For David’s sake, Jehovah did not utterly abandon Jerusalem, but, from time to time, provided a successor to the throne who should be as a light in the midst of surrounding darkness. Asa, the immediate successor of Abijam, was such a light. It was a promise made to David that his house should be made a perpetual light (Psalms 18:28; Psalms 132:17); and the history of God’s people records the fulfilment of the promise, notwithstanding much individual unfaithfulness and sin. The influence of a good man is immortal.
LESSONS:—
1. Every facility is provided for living a holy life.
2. A pious ancestry entails great blessing and great responsibility.
3. A good example does not always restrain from flagrant sins.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 15:1-8. The fruit falls not far from the tree. What the old sing, the young chirp. The parental house is, for the child, the preparatory school of life; what he there sees and hears is never forgotten through life. No example is so weighty and important as that of the parents. How great, then, is their responsibility! Abijam followed not after the example of David, great and glorious as it was; but after that of his father Rehoboam, which he saw immediately before him.—Lange.
The throne of David oft changeth the possessors, and more complaineth of their iniquity than their remove. Abijam inherits the sins of his father Rehoboam, no less than his crown; and so spends his three years as if he had been no whit of kin to his grandfather’s virtues. It is no news that grace is not traduced, while vice is: therefore is his reign short, because it is wicked. It was a sad case when both the kings of Judah and Israel, though enemies, yet conspired in sin. Rehoboam, like his father Solomon, began graciously, but fell to idolatry; as he followed his father, so his son, so his people, followed him. Oh! what a face of a church was here when Israel worshipped Jeroboam’s calves, when Judah built them high places, and images, and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree! On both hands God is forsaken, His temple neglected, His worship adulterate, and this not for some short brunt, but during the succession of two kings: for, after the first three years, Rehoboam changed his father’s religion, as his shields, from gold to brass; the rest of his seventeen years were led in impiety. His son Abijam trod in the same miry steps, and Judah with them both. If there were any (and doubtless there were some) faithful hearts yet remaining in both kingdoms during these heavy times, what a corrosive it must needs have been to them to see so deplored and miserable a depravation!—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 15:4. The idolatry of Abijam deserved the same punishment as that of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:10-14), of Baasha (1 Kings 16:2-4), or of Zimri (ib. 1 Kings 15:19), the cutting off of his seed and transfer of the crown to another family. That these consequences do not follow in the kingdom of Judah is owing to the faithfulness of David, which brings a blessing on his posterity. Certainly, few things are more remarkable and more difficult to account for, or more ground of human reason, than the stability of the succession in Judah, and its excessive instability in the sister kingdom. One family in Judah holds the throne from first to last, during a space but little short of four centuries; while in Israel there are nine changes of dynasty within two hundred and fifty years.—Speaker’s Comm.
—The blessing of pious, God-fearing forefathers often falls to the advantage of even degenerate children, through the mercy of God.
1 Kings 15:5. No human example, however glorious it may be, is perfect, for even the greatest and best are wanting in the sight of God, and miserable sinners. Therefore, we are referred to the example of Him who alone is sinless, and out of whose mouth proceeds no guile. He alone can say: “He who follows Me walketh not in darkness, but has the Light of Life” (1 Peter 2:21; John 8:12). The children of this world often quote and excuse their sins by citing the example of good and holy men who have fallen, but never take pattern after their repentance and humiliation, and refuse to know anything of the wrong and smitten heart of a David (Psalms 51:19), or of the tears of a Peter (Matthew 26:75).—Lange.
1 Kings 15:6-8. The enmity, strife, and war between the sister-kingdoms was the result of their broken covenant with the Lord God. Wheresoever, be it amid a nation, a community, or a family, the fear of the living God and the bond of union with Him is destroyed, there will ever be strife and discord; peace is only to be found where the God of peace reigns in the heart (Colossians 3:15). To go out of the world at enmity is not a blessed death.—Ibid.
1 Kings 15:7. Sharp wars by a just hand of God upon both those kingdoms for their idolatry. And for like cause the dissensions between England and Scotland consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer than ever quarrel we read of did between any two people of the world.—Trapp.