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T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November 1924
ELEMENTARY Mrs. S. W. Barrett Scripture: 2 Kings 16:10-18; 2 Chronicles 28 21-25; 29. 1-8-24; 2 Kings 18:4. Memory Verses: Rev. 3: 20; Ephesians 3:17 ( first clause). If you went into your house and locked the door, where would the key be? On the inside! If I wanted to come in I would have to knock, wouldn’t I? And then you would unlock the door and open it. Do you know the Lord Jesus
(4) Had God warned them against the subtle sin of idol atry? (5) What were they commanded to do with the idols and images of the nations? (Ex. 34:13.) ( 6 ) Are Christians commanded to keep themselves from idols? (7) Is it possible to stay the judgment of God for sin? (Jer. 15:1.) V. 7. When Israel was rescued out of Egyptian bondage, they became God’s covenant people, and pledged themselves to obey Him. The fact of this great and signal deliverance stands at the head of the covenant law (Ex. 20:2), and is always cited as the chief and fundamen- COMMENTS tal act of the Divine favour (Lev. 11:45 : FROM THE Josh. 24:17; 1 Kgs. 8:51; Psa. 81:10; COMMENTARIES Jer. 2 :6). Thediscipline of the wilder- V. V. Morgan ness and the awful displays of the Divine power and majesty, were intended to divest them of the remnants of heathenism that still clung to them, and to instruct them in the knowledge and wor ship of thé only True God. Every relapse into idolatry was a loss of moral stamina, weakened the bonds of obligation and made obedience more difficult. We have need to be on our guard every moment against the seductive lures of idolatry— all the more dangerous because there is so much in us ever ready to respond to its bewitching overtures.-—- Horn, Com. Would that men, when they read such passages, would stop and think, and would enter upon a comparison between the people of God at that time and of this, and would thus make application of the lesson of history. The people of Israel were hardly as wicked’ as the Christians of today. The responsibility of today is far greater, for they were called to righteousness under the old law, we under the Gospel of free grace.-—Lange. V. 9. The fact that Israel did these things “ secretly” did not hide them from the eye of Jehovah (cf. Psa. 139:1-12; Heb. 4:13; Prov. 28:13).— Torrey. V. 10. A word uniformly translated* “ grove” in the American version, but a grove of trees would not be brought out of the temple (2 Kgs. 23:6). It was something upright made of wood (Ex. 34:13 ), originally, perhaps, the trunk of a tree with the branches chopped off, and was regarded as the wooden symbol of a goddess of abounding fertility (Ex. 34:13 R. V. margin). It was erected beside the altar of Baal (Judg. 6:25, 28, R. V.).-—-Davis,-Bible Diet. V. 11. Four words sum up the situation: “ As did the heathen.” And the professing Church today is doing as does the world.— Torrey. V. 13. Israel was not allowed to drift to her fate unchecked and unwarnéd; the most gifted prophets of the Hebrew school were sent to instruct and admonish the peo- ple.-rr-Hom. Com. V. 17. The Bab Belu or Bel, (‘Lord” , was the title of the supreme god among the Canaanites. In Babylonia it was the title specially applied to Merodach of Babylon, which in time came to be used in place of his actual name. The Bab Bel-Merodach was a Sun-god, and so too was the Canaanite Baal, whose full title was Baal-Shemaim, “ lord of heaven.” As the Sun-god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and destructive. On the one hand, he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on the other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself brought into being. Hence human victims were sacrificed to him in order to appease his anger in time of plague or other trouble, the victim being usually the first born of the sacrificer and being burnt alive. In the O. T. this is euphemistically termed “ passing the victim through the fire” (2 Kgs. 16:3; 21:6l|glift. Bib. Enc. V. 18. The kingdom of Israel had nineteen kings, and not one of them was truly pious. Wonder not at the wrath, but at the patience of God in that He endured their evil ways for many hundred years, and at their ingratitude that they did not allow themselves, by His long-suffering, to be brought to repentance. Is it any better now-a-days?— Lange. He had just cause to be, and He has just,cause to be, very angry with the professing Church today, and He is; and He has just cause to be very angry with thé world that refuses to accept His own Son whom He gave to die for them on the cross of Calvary (John 3:16-19).— Torrey.
says: “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me.” Rev. 3:20. That means the Lord Jesus knocks at the door of your heart and wants to come in and live with you— but the key is on the inside and you have to open the door. Our Bible story today is: Doors That Were Shut—And How They Were Opened There was a little prince in the King’s palace at Jerusalem, named Hezekiah. His mother taught him to love God and the beautiful Temple where God lived with His people. Little
Prince Hezekiah often wondered why his father, King Ahaz, prayed to the golden images of Baal and other heathen gods when the true God, Jehovah, commanded that there should be no other gods before Him. But every time King Ahaz visited the kings in strange countries he would bring back images of their gods and pray to them. One day, after Prince Hezekiah had grown to be a young man, his heart was very heavy for King Ahaz had gone to visit another king in the city of Damascus, where they worshipped the- Thunder-god. While there he saw a most beautiful altar which the heathen King had made for his god. King Ahaz sent the pattern of the altar and the de scription of it to one of the priests in the Temple and com manded that an altar be made exactly like it, to stand in front of the House of God. Prince Hezekiah, as he watched the men at work on the new altar, thought with sorrow that his father had found another heathen god to worship, but did not dream what was to happen when King Ahaz returned. The new altar was completed when the King returned from his visit, and when he saw it standing in front of the Temple of God, he went up and examined it. It was indeed made exactly like the beautiful altar he had seen in Damas cus. He was greatly pleased and ordered the priests to offer all the morning and evening sacrifices on the new altar in stead of in the Temple of God. King Ahaz took some of the gold and silver from the House of God and sent it as a present ,to the King of Damascus. Then, determined to wor ship the same gods as the heathen King, he gathered all the things from the Temple, the vessels of gold and silver which King Solomon had made so long ago, took them all and broke them up in pieces, and shut up the doors of the Tem ple of God so the priests could not go there to worship, for he did not want the true God to live with His people. The King built altars on every corner in the whole city of Jerusalem and in all the cities throughout the land of Judah, and the people began to worship the heathen idols, for they could not go to the Temple where the doors were shut. The people became so wicked that they worshipped all sorts of idols: they even set up the brass serpent which Moses made when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness (review) and which had been kept as a mem-
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