CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 15:12. The sodomites—vide Notes on 1 Kings 14:24. All the idols—גִּלּוּלִים, a word for despicable things. The Rabbins render it mud-gods; Ewald renders it doll-images; Gesenius, idol-blocks.
1 Kings 15:13. An idol in a grove—This is a word of far different meaning from that in 1 Kings 15:12. מִפְלֶצֶת means horrendum, as from the verb פלץ, to terrify, horrify. It Is conjectured that this was an obscene figure, a phallus image, a symbol of the productive powers of nature, specially (according to the Rabbins) revolting to the Hebrews. “In a grove, may read, unto Asherah; but this “grove” was one of similar scenes of licentious indulgence practised in the name of religion.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 15:9-15
RELIGIOUS REFORM
I. That religious reform is a commendable work, in which even a monarch may engage. As the evil which had debased the nation originated from the throne, it was fitting that the remedy should issue from the same potent source. Asa was the first monarch who made a bold and determined stand against the prevalent idolatry. The sin of the nation had grown into colossal proportions, and it required no ordinary courage and strength of will to attack it. Asa threw all the authority of the crown on the side of reform, and was himself the zealous leader of the movement. The king can do himself no greater honour, nor confer upon his people a greater good, than by making the interests of true religion his chief care. If persons in the highest rank refuse to use their influence in the removal of acknowledged abuses, the Lord will raise from obscurity an agent who will faithfully and effectually do the work. The humble peasant may be raised up to rebuke the careless and unfaithful monarch.
II. That religious reform is inspired by a desire to do the right. “Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days” (1 Kings 15:11, comp. with 1 Kings 15:14). The need of reform is suggested by the wide divergence observed in the actual state of things from the inner consciousness of right. The man who studies the law of God, and conscientiously strives to keep its commandments, cannot fail to have a sense of what is right; and this sense of right will be the guide and inspiration of all his actions. This was the case with Asa, though the standard of perfection by which we are to measure the perfect ones of the Old Testament history is not the fulness of spiritual light and religious attainment which is set before us in the New Testament. It is rather a singleness and earnestness of pious purpose to obey God and maintain the honour of His name and worship. “All these were noble and excellent acts,” writes Bishop Hall concerning the reform of Asa: “but that which gives true life unto all these is a sound root. ‘Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.’ No less laudable works than these have proceeded from hypocrisy, which, while they have carried away applause from men, have lost their thanks with God. All Asa’s gold was but dross to his pure intentions.” Holiness—a perfect heart towards God—is the strongest motive to work, and imparts a courage which no difficulties can daunt.
III. That religious reform aims at the suppression of the most glaring forms of public vice.
1. It uproots gross immorality (1 Kings 15:12). In a time of reformation the most flagrant abominations are the first to fall; the rising tide of righteous indignation sweeps them away. No prince or people can prosper while the festering pest-houses of immorality are suffered to exist.
2. It destroys idolatry (1 Kings 15:12-13). Asa removed all the idols, demolished their temples, and devastated their groves; and doubtless many of the idol worshippers would take part in this work of destruction. When the mind is once undeceived, its anger against the instrument of its deception is sometimes terrific and unbounded. During the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands, in the sixteenth century, a spirit of fury suddenly arose in Antwerp and elsewhere against the images used in the Romish worship: the cathedrals and churches were dismantled, the images and religious relics broken to shivers, and yet not a single coin of the church treasures was appropriated; the destructive mania was wholly confined to objects of idolatrous worship. Terrible, indeed, is the vengeance which will, ere long, overtake the idols and their worshippers (Isaiah 2:18).
3. It purifies the court (1 Kings 15:13). Maachah was deposed from being queen-mother because of her idolatry, and the disgusting image to which she did homage was burnt, and its ashes cast into the river. “The idols which his fathers had made” were all destroyed. All respect for flesh and blood must be subservient to the duty we owe to God. A good king who would promote religion among his subjects must begin by discountenancing all wickedness at court. A pure court is a great safeguard to a nation.
IV. That religious reform is not always thorough and complete. “But the high places were not removed” (1 Kings 15:14): such as were set up for the worship of God; for as for those that were set up in honour of idols, he removed them. But he should have done both, as did afterwards zealous Hezekiah and Josiah. It is with the saints as with Jonathan’s signal arrows, two fell short, and but one beyond the mark; so where one shooteth home to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, many fall short.—Trapp. Reformation often proceeds slowly and under great difficulties. It may leave untouched institutions that may become a snare and a source of corruption to future generations. Vested interests in a superstitions system are hard to slay.
V. That religions reform enriches the temple of God (1 Kings 15:15). The practical evidence of a genuine reformation is shown in costly free-willing offerings to God. The true riches of a temple are not the silver and gold and superb furniture, but the gratitude, praise, and devotion of which these are but the outward manifestations. The soul is only rich in what it really lays up in the treasury of God. We must not only cast away the idols of our iniquity, but cheerfully dedicate ourselves and our substance to the cause and glory of God.
LESSONS:—
1. Abuses will creep into the best organized religious systems.
2. The work of the reformer is one of great sacrifice and labour.
3. The monarch who is zealous for religious reform deserves the gratitude and support of his people.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 15:11. It is to be regarded as a merciful providence of God, when a son who has grown up with evil surroundings and the bad example of a father and mother, yet holds steadily to His word and commandments, and resists firmly all ungodly influences.
—The standard of right. I. Is the will of God. II. By it every act of man is unerringly estimated. III. Is but imperfectly represented by the best human examples.
—In vain should he have hoped to restore God to his kingdom, while these abominations inhabited it. It is justly the main care of worthy and religious princes to clear their coasts of the foullest sins. O, the impartial zeal of Asa! There were idols that challenged a prerogative of favour, the idols that his father had made. All these he defaces: the name of a father cannot protect an idol; the duty to his parent cannot win him to a liking, to a forbearance of his misdevotion: yea, so much the more doth the heart of Asa rise against these puppets for that they were the sin, the shame of his father. He doth not more honour a father than hate an idol. No dearness of person should take off the edge of our detestation of the sin.—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 15:12-13. Against sins of licentiousness no authority can be powerful enough, for where this evil has crept in, there comes a moral corruption which works destructively upon all relations of life. Authority being ordained of God, as the Apostle says, its duty and task is to oppose with severity all godless conduct, without fear or favour of man, and to vindicate the eternal Divine laws. Therefore it is that we have the church prayer for those in authority.—Lange.
1 Kings 15:13. There can be no queen-consort where there is more than one wife; and in the East, where there is no more than one, she is not a queen, she is simply the Zan-i-shah, the king’s wife—that is all. There is, however, in most cases, some one in the harem who, on one account or other, is recognised as the chief lady. There was one whose claim to be chief lady, or queen, was superior to all others, and that was the MOTHER of the king. The prevalent usage of the East assigns the first rank in every household, not to the wife of the master, but to his mother, to whom the wife merely becomes another daughter. And so the rank of the king’s mother was the nearest approach to the rank and dignity of a non-regnant queen.—Kitto.
—Nature is worthy of forgetfulness and contempt in opposition to the God of nature: upon the same ground as Asa removed the idols of his father Abijam, so for idols he removed his grandmother Maachah. She would not be removed from her obscene idols; she is therefore removed from the station of her honour. If all the world had been an idolater, he knew how little that precedent could avail for disobedience. Practice must be corrected by law, and not the law yield to practice. Maachah, therefore, goes down from her seat, her idols from their grove; she to retiredness, they to the fire, and from thence to the water. Woeful deities that could both burn and drown!—Bp. Hall.
1 Kings 15:12-15. True reformation.
1. Is wrought for the divine glory.
2. Is not to be hindered by family considerations.
3. Should be national in its progress and results.
4. Should destroy every vestige of corruption.
5. Is evidenced by practical generosity.
1 Kings 15:14. To remove deep-rooted and long-standing evils suddenly and completely is impossible, even for a well-intentioned and powerful ruler; for in that case he would bring about resistance to the good rather than further it.
—Yet, in 2 Chronicles 14:3, we read that Asa “took away the altars of the strange gods and the high places,” and in 1 Kings 15:5 that “he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images,” which would seem at first sight to imply that he entirely put down the worship. The author of Chronicles, however, himself afterwards allows that “the high places were not taken away out of Israel,” though the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. The explanation would seem to be, either that the idolatry was at one time put down, but crept back afterwards; or that, while Asa endeavoured to sweep it wholly away, his subjects would not be controlled, but found a means of maintaining it in some places—not, perhaps, in the cities, but in remote country districts, where the royal authority was weaker, and secresy more practicable.—Speaker’s Comm.
1 Kings 15:15. Hence noble and pious princes should bethink themselves of using their gold and silver, not only for worldly objects, but to enrich churches and schools, necessary to the accomplishment of godly designs.