August 1927
516
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K i n g ’ s
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God’s house unless the Lord Jesus Christ is the main object of our worship. He sees into our hearts. Words of Henry Drummond,—‘Were it mine to build a city, the first stone. I should lay there would be the foundation s t o n e of a church,” After every thing had been placed whëre it belonged, and the ark in the most holy place, the glory Of thé Lord filled the Temple. Every object in God’s house should have its place. In every true church the glory of the Lord shines forth. It shows in thé faces of the people, old and young ; in the fervor of the songs and prayers ; in the generosity of'their gifts; in thé Splen dor of their unselfish service. When we fail to get to God’s house we are dis pleasing Him, Prayer.
been ; left to urirestrained haughtiness— à youth so completely ■“struck with him-, sélf” ? Verse 15 informs us that thé Lord was back of all this. Does this mean that God put this folly into the king’s heart or inspired his senseless utterances? No, in deed ! God had decreed the rending of the kingdom because of idolatrous prac tices. He made use of the ,human plans, wise and unwisé, good and évil, in the carrying out o f this purpose. This, how ever, formed no possible excuse for the sinful acts of Rehoboam and' his com panions. The greatest crime in history turned out to be the accomplishment ' of God’s most merciful.,.purpose. Calvary’s cross is the all-embracing example of such in stances of God’s making the wrath of man to praise Him' and carry out His de signs. ; Rehoboam got an answer from the peo ple in the same tone, "What portion have we in D avidf" they retorted. “S ee to thine , own house, David In other words —“We are; through.” They re nounced all allegiance to him and his house. Rehoboam capped the climax, a little later, by sending as envoy to these exas perated tribes; a man who was most ob noxious to them&ihis father’s chief di rector of forced labor, Adoram. ' This was adding insult to injury. He didn’t get a boating. They stoned him to death. The king saw what was coming and fled to, Jerusalem. This marked the final sev- erancë of Israel from the house of David. , The separation was duë to sin on both sides. It led to much more sin. That is the worst of any sin—that it opens, the door to more, like a thief who crawls; through the window and then opens the door wide to his companions. Whatever our station' in life, we may well ask ourselves if we hâve, within us that true kingly spirit which heeds and practises the advice of aged men of God, which is always to serve, and help men and to be kindly and fair in our speech. This is the first principle of securing and re taining beneficent power with bur fellow- men in any sphere. Hé who has mastered this lesson, has a blessed magnetism that God uses in a marvelous way. Again, have we thoroughly learned that counsel, in order to be good,' must come from a reliable source? Surely a Chris tian will look to men who know his Lord experimentally, if he desires advice: If we must look to any human .being for help, let it be to someone known for god liness, integrity, honesty of purpose, un selfish and unbiased regard for truth. Alas ! Such counsel is riot -always to one’s liking, ,but in the erid, he who takes it will be thankful that he followed it. T o follow the foolhardy advice of inex perienced people,! is'ifo take steps which can never be retraced, whose mischief ad mits of no remedy. Seventeen years Rehoboam lived and tried to reign, but he lost out all along the line. He could not regain his lost do minions. He was doomed to defeat, and all because o f a determination formed, doubtless, on the spur of thé moment. Rehoboam’s career is a sad commen tary on Solorrion’s own words: “H e that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion o f fo o ls shall be destroyed "
F red S. Shepard’s Blackboard Outline
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OP’S ¡ ““ l O U S E 1 -L on o r The place where thine honor dwelleth. Psa. 26:8. books, pulpit furniture, lights, carpets, chairs, tables, etc. ' All should be handled reverently, as be ing a part of God’s house. The ark stood for the presence of God, and was the cen tral object, as it stood ini the heart of the Temple.' It will do us no good to be in
S eptember 18, 1927 The Kingdom Divided Lesson Text—1 Kings 12: 1-24
fulness, in their n eeds; so wilt thou make them willing servants and faithfu l sub- jects,ftg’% Let us note right here that in nothing is the true kingly and Christlike mind so much evinced, as in helpful service and kindly speech to. others. The King of kings Himself, camé; into the world, riot to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give-Ifis; life a ransom. He .who is in.àriy position of authority over others, whether in state or church, if he would :comrriand hearts, should know that he can do it only by consulting their best interests, : entertaining their grievances in a courteous manner, bear ing with their petularice, and dealing con siderately with them in. their burdens. But the young king, like many another over-stuffed youth, could not appreciate these lofty ideals.. He wanted to. be in the popular swim with the young “sheiks” of his day. Therefore he rejected the counsel1of the wiseheads. and turned “to the young men which stood before him” (v. 8). . . ■ , Their, advice, revëàled the same, selfish, and heartless character that is still seen among haughty “jazz artists” .of today. “Give it to them all the harder,” they advised. “Soak them with taxes, and if they can’t pay, we’ll get a lot of sport out of laying on the scorpion whip.” The kernel of their thought was —“YoU have power-—use it.” Thus inexperienced, con ceited and presumptuous young riten reason. Rehoboam took their advice. There is nothing uricoriimon about that. Many another young man is making the mis take of looking upon the older men as "old fogies," and following the advice of the “modern thinker." What will be their end? Watch! R u d e l y and scornfully, Rehoboam passed on his decision. An old comrrien- tafor says: “There is rio instance'in his tory wherein so vast and perinanent is sues depended upon a single decision, as this élection of foolish counsellors and adoption of uriworthy counsel by Sol omon’s most unwise sort.” But what could one expect of a son brought up as he had
rT'HE dosing verses of the previous chapter record the simple fact that King Solomon “'slept with his fathers and was buried in the city o f David.” His son
Rehoboam came into power immediately.. To sustain Solo mon’s prosperous but self-seeking r e i g n , many extra burdens had been¿neaped up on the people, es pecially the Northern
tribes. It was not strange that the old spirit of revolt sprung up in their midst again. The time of Rehoboam’s acces sion 'to power was deemed the opportune moment to air the grievances and seek better conditions. The impudent answer of Rehoboam to the requests of the people was the imme diate occasion of the final breaking off of the two tribes from the ten tribes of Is rael. The separate existence of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah has been abundantly confirmed by Assyrian in scriptions. Jeroboam was an able and ambitious man whom Solomon had appointed long before as the ruler over the tribe of Eph raim. Popular among his own and the other restless tribes, he soon aspired to’ royal state. 1 His designs had been dis covered by Solomon and he had fled to Egypt where he remained until the king’s death. Then, at the. call of the, disaffected tribes, he appeared to represent the ten tribes in their petition to Rehoboam. “Thy fath er made our yoke grievou s" he said to the new king, “therefore make the yoke lighter and we will serve thee." The king requested that he return in three days for the answer (vs. 4-5). Re hoboam then did the one wise thing re corded of him. “He. took counsel with the ,old men that stood before Solomon his fath er” (v. 6). As might be expected, these men of mature years and experience in dealing with men, advised the king to comply with the people’s, request and turn away their wrath by gentle words. “Serve thou this people,” they said, “by timely help-
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