1 Kings 15:1-34 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Bible Comments

1 Kings 15:4. For David's sake; for the sake of the covenant which God had given to David. Forgetful children may for a time have their father's mercies. David was indeed the light and joy of Israel.

1 Kings 15:12. He took away the Sodomites out of the land. That is, he put them to death, though Jeroboam had spared them: 1 Kings 14:24. If the magistrate fail in this duty, heaven will not fail in laying the sin at his door. These men being consecrated, were guilty of the indecent rites performed to Priapus their god.

1 Kings 15:13. She had made an idol in a grove, Astarte or Venus. Ashtaroth is the plural. See Joshua 23:7.

1 Kings 15:17. He built Ramah, north of Anathoth; a key to all the north roads, and only a half stage from Jerusalem.

REFLECTIONS.

Rehoboam reigned not half the time of his fathers. He distinguished himself by nothing but folly and weakness. Abijam's reign was also wicked and short. The Lord took him away, that he might elevate the righteous Asa in compassion to his people: and a good king is among the best gifts of heaven to a favoured nation. The first act of this prince was to rase to the ground the houses of wickedness. This was a wise and sacred step. Vice unmans a whole nation, and arms heaven with vengeance against it. The measure was highly politic; for when the wicked have long been permitted to commit iniquity with impunity, they not unfrequently venture to offend against the state, and against the public, deluded by hopes of the same impunity. Yea, and those who languish and pine away with disease, breathe curses on their country, that houses of infamy were suffered to exist.

He purged religion also of idols, and degraded his own mother for having an idol in a grove. Her crime was the greater because of her influence and birth; and though kings should not interfere with God's prerogative in matters of faith; yet they have an undoubted right to punish crimes in the ministers of religion with peculiar severity, and to compel their people to a due attendance on public worship. Asa, notwithstanding his zeal, left the groves uncut down. It would be pleaded that they were retiring places to the cities, ornaments to the hills, and that Abraham had planted a grove for the shady and retired worship of the Lord. It is true, the groves, when the idols were destroyed, did no harm; yet it is safest rigorously to obey God, and with our sins to cut off all the occasions of relapse. With these views, Constantine the Great, demolished the stately temples, that the church might rise secure in righteousness and truth.

The Lord preserved this faithful prince, conformably to his covenant, from the wicked designs of Baasha, though he was a military man, strong in forces, and popular in the army. This Asa did partly by force, and partly by claiming the alliance which had long subsisted between the house of David and Benhadad king of Syria. This was a mark of the want of faith in God, as he had a strong army; and he is justly blamed for sacrilege in sending this king the specie from the Lord's house.

This bloody Baasha, probably taking occasion by some military blunder of Nadab, his young master, while besieging Gibbethon, had availed himself of his popularity to induce the army to declare him king. Then, as Jeroboam had conceived his safety to exist in preventing Israel from going to the temple, so this man thought his diadem insecure, if a single branch of Jeroboam's house remained alive. They were all massacred, and their bodies treated with indignities beyond a name. Hence this man, acting solely for his own safety, fulfilled Ahijah's prophecy against the house of Jeroboam: 1 Kings 14:11. Lord, how vain are all attempts to seek a refuge out of thee: and how sure are the men who obstinately depart from thee, to meet with death in the error of their way.

Related Commentaries of 1 Kings 15:1

1 Kings 15:1-34

1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah.

2 Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah,a the daughter of Abishalom.

3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

4 Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lampb in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:

5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

8 And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.

9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.

10 And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother'sc name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyedd her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.

14 But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.

15 And he brought in the thingse which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels.

16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

17 And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

18 Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying,

19 There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; come and break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may departf from me.

20 So Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

21 And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah.

22 Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted:g and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

23 The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

24 And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoshaphath his son reigned in his stead.

25 And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years.

26 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin.

27 And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.

28 Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in his stead.

29 And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite:

30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years.

34 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin.