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16. So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, 1 What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.

17. But 2 as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

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they work out their own sentence and condemnation, they become reluctant servants of him with whom they are fighting. Deep and unfathomable mystery! the key to all the puzzles of history, the comfort and consolation amid overwhelming evils. The wrath of man has praised him, and will always praise him. Sin and death and hell must do him continual homage now, and will be led as his victims and grace his triumph. But neither now nor then will they ever be shown to have their origin in him, or be known as anything but the contradictions of his nature. - Maurice. That he might perform his saying. See above, under Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26-39). Ahijah the Shilonite. That is, belonging to Shiloh. We have two remarkable prophecies of his extant, one, 1 Kings 11: 31-39 (here referred to), the other delivered in extreme old age to Jeroboam's wife, in which he foretold the death of the king's son. These prophecies give a high idea of the prophet's faithfulness and boldness. Hervey.

V. The Result, — the Kingdom Divided. — Vers. 16, 17. 16. So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered (Hebrew, brought back word to; probably after some consultations amongst themselves) the king, saying, What portion have we in David? Same expression as 2 Sam. 20: 1. The words, interpreted by this passage and 2 Sam. 19 43, mean, "Since we have no kindness or fairness from David's seed, what is his house to us? Why render homage to his son? We receive nought from him, why yield aught to him?" Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. That is, his tribe is not ours; his interests are not ours. To your tents. "Disperse to your homes (see chap. 8: 66; and cf. 2 Sam. 18: 17; 19:8; 20: 1), and prepare for war." This cry- the Marseillaise of Israel - probably had its origin at a time when the people dwelt in tents, viz., in the march through the desert (see Josh. 22:4; Num. 1:52; 9: 18; 16: 26). — Pulpit Com. With the house of David, Israel flung aside the great promise (2 Sam 7:10-16; 23:5) which depended on that house. Lange.

17. As for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah. By "the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah," we must understand, not the tribe of Judah itself, but the Israelites proper, or members of the other tribes who happened to be settled within the limits of the tribe of Judah. These Israelites quietly submitted to Rehoboam. "Israel," through this chapter and throughout the rest of Kings, designates ordinarily" the ten tribes," and is antithetical to "Judah.” - Cook. Kiepert calculates that the territory occupied by the twelve tribes at the time of Solomon's death was 12,810 square miles. Of the division, Israel occupied 9375 square miles of this territory, and Judah 3435, about half the size of Massachusetts.

LIBRARY REFERENCES.

The Pulpit Commentary, by Canon Spence and others; Old Test. Com. for English Readers, ed. by Ellicott; The Bible Commentary, by Canon Cook; Commentaries by Lange, Keil, Whedon, Pool, Henry, Clark, Wordsworth; Green's Kingdoms of Israel and Judah; Smith's Student's Old Test. Hist.; Lessons in Old Test. Hist., by John Watson; Stanley's Jewish Church, vol. 11; Palmer's History of the Jewish Nation; Cowle's Hebrew History; Geikie's Hours with the Bible, vol. 4; Ruskin's Modern Painters, vol. 5, last chapter.

PRACTICAL.

1. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and that by the operation of so-called natural laws.

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The mother has the marring or the making of her child in her hands. Factious spirits will never want something to complain of, and the greater the pros perity the more frequent and intense the complaints are apt to be.

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6. It is wise to take counsel of the experienced. It is wiser still to make good use of their advice.

7. The source of the best advice is the Lord of wisdom himself, who gives liberally to all who ask him.

8. When you receive conflicting counsels from men, apply to both the test of God's Word (Ps. 19:8; 119: 104 sq.).

9. The readiest way for young men to be ruined is to follow the advice of their gay companions, and reject the counsel of the more wise and experienced (ver. 14). — Orton. Io. Pride and selfishness make men blind even to their own interests.

II.

12.

He who tramples on the rights of others will lose his own.

It is a blessed thing that God can and does overrule the plans and counsels of men. What hope or comfort would there be in this world, if bad men and rulers had the management of it?

13. God does the best things possible for each nation and individual, considering their character. Things very evil for the good are the best that can be done for those that are imperfect, as this division, as denominations in the church.

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15. God has offered each of us a better kingdom than he did to Rehoboam. We too have wise and foolish counsellors, drawing us to the good choice or tempting us to the evil. 16. They that lose the kingdom of heaven throw it away, as Rehoboam did his, by their own wilfulness and folly. - Henry.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

FIRST a very brief account of the Books of the Kings.

Then REVIEW briefly the kingdom as it was under Solomon. The date of his death, and his natural successor.

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY of the two leading persons in the lesson, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. I THE CORONATION ASSEMBLY. Rehoboam is just entering upon his kingdom, and meets the people to receive their allegiance, and to be formally acknowledged as king. Note the place of meeting, its object, the request of the people, and the dangers threatening the kingdom. What were the burdens laid on the people, and why, in the most prosperous days they ever knew, they should complain. Note also what a grand opportunity is before Rehoboam, with such a kingdom, such ancestors, such hopes. In making his decision he applies - to two classes of advisers.

II. THE GOOD COUNSEL (vers. 6, 7).

III. THE RASH COUNSEL (vers. 8-11). Mark the danger of the advice of wild companions, and the blindness and folly of selfishness and pride.

Illustration. What you learn from bad habits and in bad society you will never forget, and it will be a lasting pang to you. I tell you in all sincerity, not as in the excitement of speech, but as I would confess and have confessed before God, I would give my right hand to-night if I could forget that which I have learned in bad society. J. B. Gough.

Illustration. The duty of the king is to serve his people. The motto on the coat-ofarms of the Prince of Wales is "Ich dien," "I serve." "He is most kingly who most truly serves his people," Ruskin says.

IV. THE FOOLISH DECISION (vers. 12-17) and the disastrous result.

V. APPLICATIONS. We find in this lesson for a subject, TURNING-POINTS IN LIFE. We have a greater kingdom of which we may be heirs (Luke 12: 31, 32). We have grander opportunities than Rehoboam had. We too must take counsel of the good, the experienced, the Bible, our conscience; or, of bad companions, worldly pleasures, evil desires, false ambitions. And we must decide. To decide aright is to gain a kingdom; to decide wrong is to lose it.

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LESSON II.

JULY 12.

IDOLATRY ESTABLISHED.

I KINGS 12:25-33.

GOLDEN TEXT.- Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

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Rehoboam reigned, B.C. 975-957, 17 years.
Invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt, 970.
Abijam, his son, 957-955, 3 years.

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KINGDOM OF ISRAEL.

Jeroboam I. reigned, B.C. 975-954, 22 years.
Nadab, his son, reigned, 954-953, 2 years.

PARALLEL ACCOUNT. - 2 Chron., chaps. 11 and 12.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS. During Jeroboam's reign in Israel, Rehoboam and his son Abijam reigned in Judah, and Asa began his reign. For three years Rehoboam busied himself with fortifying his kingdom, and left off his wild and wicked ways (2 Chron. II: 17). Many of the most religious of the Israelites, and the Levites all through the kingdom of Jeroboam, left his kingdom on account of his idolatries, and went to Judah (2 Chron. 11:13-16). Thus Rehoboam and his kingdom were strengthened, and he had another opportunity to be a good and prosperous king. But after three years he returned to his old habits, and his heathen blood prevailed. It is again mentioned that his mother was an Ammonitess, as if to account for his career. In his fifth year, for his punishment, Shishak, king of Egypt, and friend of Jeroboam, invaded Judah, and took away the temple treasures and the thousand shields of gold which Solomon had made. The expeditions of this king are sculptured on the wall of the great temple of El Karnak, in Egypt, Shishak being depicted as leading to the god a train of captives, with shields on their breasts containing the names of their respective nations. Amongst these the student can readily recognize certain well-known Scripture names, including the kingdom of Judah. The figure of the king, as large as life, surrounded by inscriptions as legible as if they were done but yester day (their real age being nearly 3000 years), presents a sight of no ordinary interest to the Biblical student. Green. The rest of Rehoboam's reign appears to have been uneventful. PRONUNCIATIONS. Abījăm; Běthěl; Dăn; Ephrăm; Jěrobo ăm; Lê vĩ; Na'dăb; Pěnu'ěl; Rehōbō'ăm; She chěm (she'kem); Shi'shǎk.

INTRODUCTION.

In our last lesson we saw the kingdom of Israel divided. Ten tribes left Rehoboam, and chose Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, for their king. Rehoboam first tested the sincerity of those who forsook him by sending the chief tribute gatherer to collect their taxes, but the Israelites stoned him to death. Then the king knew that they did not intend to return to their allegiance. Immediately he assembled his army of 180,000 soldiers to compel them to But God, through his prophet, forbade him to war against his brethren. Thus the new kingdom was established, whose beginnings we are to study to-day.

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25. Then Jeroboam 1 built Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built 2 Penuel.

1 Judges 9. 2 Judges 8:17. EXPLANATORY.

I. Bright Prospects for the New Kingdom. (1) Jeroboam was elected king of the ten tribes. He was the choice of the people. (2) He was a man of ability, accustomed to manage affairs, familiar with the plans pursued by Solomon. (3) God had made him special promises that he would bless him and strengthen his kingdom, on condition that he would serve and obey him. (4) He had a large, prosperous, wealthy people. He had all

he needed for great success.

II. Worldly Policy, - Doing Evil that Good may Come. - Vers. 25-27. The new king took measures to secure his position. These were both external and internal. The external means were the erection of fortresses; the internal, the provision of new sanc tuaries, priests, and ordinances. - Pulpit Com.

25. Then Jeroboam built. Enlarged, built up into a capital, with the palaces and public buildings needful. Shechem. See last lesson. This place was specially adapted

26. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:

27. If this people 1 go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

28. Whereupon the king took counsel, and 2 made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: 3 behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

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for the capital. (1) It was centrally located, and (2) in the midst of his own tribe, which (3) was also the most powerful of the ten tribes. (4) It was not only the chief town of Ephraim, but the most ancient sanctuary of Israel in Palestine. Mount Ephraim. A name applied to the hill country of Ephraim, extending from Bethel to the plains of Jezreel. It is nearly equidistant from the northern and southern boundary of the whole country, and is the richest and most beautiful part of the land. — Stanley. And dwelt therein. As his capital. And went out from thence. That is, when he had secured one fortified city, he extended his fortifications, and sent his workmen to build another. Penuel (face of God), so called from the incident of Gen. 32: 24-32, was about 20 miles east of the Jordan, on the stream Jabbok. It was on the great caravan road, which led through Gilead to Damascus, and thence past Palmyra, and along the Euphrates to Mesopotamia. It was probably on account of its situation that Jeroboam fortified it, to defend his sovereignty over Gilead against hostile attacks from the north-east and east. -Keil. And also to secure the territory beyond Jordan against any attacks from Judah. — Lange.

26. Jeroboam said in his heart. The expression implies deep thought, and profound, far-sighted consideration. — Pulpit Com.

27. If this people go up (to Jerusalem) to do sacrifice. His keen eye saw at once that the religious element in man's nature is a great power to be taken into account in politics. Cowles. Humanly speaking, Jeroboam's fear was, it must be confessed, well-founded. If Jerusalem continued to be the centre of religious unity, if the Levites from all parts of Palestine went up in their turns to conduct the temple service, and if the people continued to flock to the Holy Place three times a year, as the law commanded them, there could not but have been great danger of a reaction setting in, and a desire for reunion manifesting itself. His measures for counteracting the tendency to reunion with Judah were cleverly devised, and proved him "wise in his generation." The later history shows that they were effectual. Like all measures which involve a dereliction of principle, they brought certain evils in their train, and they drew down a Divine judgment on himself which he had not faith enough to anticipate. But they fully secured the object at which he aimed. They prevented all healing of the breach between the two kingdoms. They made the separation final. — Cook. With one religion, one sanctuary, one priesthood, there could not long be two kingdoms. — Pulpit Com. They shall kill me. Jeroboam supposes that his own subjects would put him to death in case they desired a reconciliation with Rehoboam, at once to facilitate the re-establishment of a single kingdom, and to obtain favor with the legitimate monarch. Cook. He who obtains rulership by the path of rebellion must always be in fear and anxiety lest he lose it again in the same way, for the populace which to-day cries Hosanna, will, on the morrow, shout crucify, crucify! Lange.

THE POLICY WAS FALSE. (1) By it he forfeited the favor and promise of God (1 Kings 11:38). (2) He cultivated irreligion among his people, and thus led to their moral deterioration. (3) While his policy was temporarily successful, it brought many evils in its train. (4) God could have secured the end Jeroboam desired in many different ways, — by intermarriage, or by securing the harmony of two friendly kingdoms, or in ways we cannot now conceive. Worldly policy that forsakes morality and God is always false, no matter how successful it may seem at first. - P.

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- the Result of the False Policy.

- Vers.

28-33. (1) BY NEW SYMBOLS OF WORSHIP. 28. Whereupon the king took counsel. With his counsellors, or the heads of the nation who had helped him to the throne. — Keil. He then made them partakers with him. And made two calves of gold. Not calves like Aaron's (Ex. 32: 2). For Jeroboam could hardly be so short-sighted and unwise as delib

29. And he set the one in 1 Beth-el, and the other put he in 2 Dan. 1 Gen. 28: 19. Hos. 4: 15. 2 Judges 18: 29.

were

erately to re-introduce a worship which had provoked the "fierce wrath" of God, and had nearly resulted in the extermination of the Jewish race. And it is as little likely that the worship of the calves was derived from the worship of Apis, as practised at Memphis, or of 'Mnevis, the sacred calf of Heliopolis" (Stanley), though with both of these Jeroboam had recently been in contact. It would have been but a sorry recommendation in the eyes of Israel that the first act of the new king should be to introduce the hateful idolatry of Egypt into the land. There can be little doubt, consequently, that the "calves" imitations of the colossal cherubim of Solomon's temple, in which the ox or calf was probably the principal form (1 Kings 6:23). — Pulpit Com. The cherubim also guarded the mercy. seat over the ark of the covenant. In the description of the cherubim in Ezek. 1:10 (comp. 10: 1, 20), we find that one of the faces had the form of the ox. That this is the true view appears (a) from the fact that the Israelites would most easily be led to adopt as their own, objects of worship like those they were accustomed to in Jerusalem. (b) The whole history of Israel shows that Jeroboam did not intend to introduce idolatry or polytheism. — Lange. It appears from Ex. 32: 4, 5 and 1 Kings 22: 5, 6 that, in worshipping the calf, the Israelites did not regard themselves as worshipping the image or the Egyptian god, but professed to be worshipping Jehovah by means of the symbol. The calf-worship was not, therefore, wholly repugnant to devout worshippers of the true God. — Todd. But this visible representation was in direct opposition to the fundamental Mosaic law, which just as expressly forbids the making an image of Jehovah as the worshipping of other gods beside him (Ex. 20: 3, 4).- Lange. Such worship almost certainly leads to idolatry. Of gold. Hardly of solid gold. Possibly of wood covered with gold plates, i.e., similar to the cherubim (1 Kings 6: 23-28); probably of molten brass (see 1 Kings 14: 9, and cf. Psa. 106: 19) overlaid with gold; such images, in fact, as are described in Isa. 40: 19. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. The exact meaning of the original here is a little doubtful, but the bearing of the passage is clear. Jeroboam appeals to the people's love of ease, recalling to their thoughts the toil and trouble of constant journeys to Jerusalem, which they would now be spared. · Cook. It must be rendered here," It is enough," i.e., "you have gone long enough to a city which only owes its present position to the ambition of the tribe of Judah, and which is a standing testimony to your own inferiority; henceforth desist."Pulpit Com. Behold thy gods, etc. This is no new religion. But these are the symbols of the God who has been your God from the first. Jeroboam would have spelled the word with a capital G.

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(2) BY NEW SANCTUARIES. 29. And he set the one in Beth-el, etc. Bethel was on the southern, and Dan on the northern, boundary of the kingdom. There were two reasons for selecting these places. (a) Their situation explains why Jeroboam chose them. He wished to make things easy for the people; the northern tribes could readily reach one place of worship, and the southern tribes the other, and they would so much the sooner become habituated to the new regulation. Bethel, being near to Jerusalem, would intercept any who might be on their way there, and none of the people would live as near to Jerusa lem as to Bethel. Lange. (b) The other reason for the choice was that they were historic, familiar, accustomed places of worship. Beth-el. 12 miles north of Jerusalem; "house of God," Here Abraham built an altar (Gen. 12:8); here Jacob saw his vision, and named the place Beth-el (Gen. 28: 11-19); here Samuel judged Israel (1 Sam. 7:16). And the other put he in Dan. This was the most northern point in the kingdom; hence the proverbial phrase, "from Dan to Beersheba." The place referred to, however, is not the city of that name, which was of late date, but a natural and very remarkable cavern, about four miles from the city of Dan, in one of the ridges at the base of Mt. Hermon. It is from the mouth of this cavern at the foot of a precipice that the Jordan issues, a goodsized river at its birth. The mouth of the cavern is now choked up with rubbish, but the cave is described by ancient writers as very wonderful, vast in extent, having immense precipices within, and a body of motionless and fathomless water. This place was well known, even in the days of Abraham (Gen. 14: 14). It had, in fact, long been a heathen sanctuary. A colony of Phoenicians settled near, in the city afterward called Dan (Judg. 18: 28, 29), had set up in this cave the worship of the Phoenician god Adonis, who was supposed

a kind of monster, half man and half goat, who delighted in woods and caves.

to be

He was the

same as the Greek god Pan. When the children of Dan destroyed this Phoenician colony and settled there (Judg. 18), it became their place of worship. It was therefore sacred

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