1 Kings 14:19, 20 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold… The text reminds us - I. THAT THE SEASON OF DEATH IS A TIME FOR REFLECTION. 1. In presence of a corpse the giddiest pause. (1) This is seen when an ordinary funeral passes along the streets, in the sombre countenances of the bystanders, if not in more special tokens of respect. It is more evident still when the deceased may have been an acquaintance or a relative. But most so in the very house of mourning, where the relies are seen shrouded in their pallor and immobility. (2) What trains of thought are started! (a) What a mystery is death! (b) What a mystery is life! (c) What a mystery is futurity! - the spirit world - the resurrection - the judgment - heaven - hell. (d) Are we prepared to encounter the inevitable? Who can forecast the moment? (e) Why should we defer the needful preparation? 2. When a monarch dies a nation thinks. (1) This is so under ordinary conditions. The social position occupied is so elevated that the event is conspicuous to all. What a leveller is death! In this article all claim kindred, the prince and the beggar (Proverbs 22:2). (2) But Jeroboam's death was by the stroke of God (2 Chronicles 13:20). Such a conspicuous judgment was fitting to the man of sin (see Isaiah 11:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:15). How alarmingly would such a death speak to workers of iniquity! (3) The demise of Jeroboam opened the succession to Nadab, who, without the genius of his father, followed in his iniquities. 3. But the virtuous only are lamented. (1) Jeroboam was buried. He did come to the sepulchre "with his fathers." And he may have had the formality of a family mourning. His household may have gone barefoot, wept, torn their clothes, smote on their breasts, lay on the ground and fasted, as the custom was. (2) But there was no national mourning. The public mourning for Moses and Aaron lasted thirty days, that for Saul seven (Numbers 20:29; Deuteronomy 34:8; 1 Samuel 31:13). For Abijah, a pious prince of the house of Jeroboam, there was a national mourning, though he never came to the throne; but for Jeroboam, after a reign of twenty-two years, no mourning! (Ver. 13.) (3) What a contrast - the apathy of the nation, now at the close of their experiment at king making, to the enthusiasm at its commencement (1 Kings 12:20)! How seldom do revolutionists adequately consider the end! They often anticipate a paradise and find a hell. II. THAT WE SHOULD, THEREFORE, SO LIVE THAT SUCH REFLECTIONS MAY PROVE GRATEFUL. To this end our policy should be - 1. Pure. (1) Such was not the policy of Jeroboam. When his people became restive under his rule, and he feared they would return to Rehoboam, instead of looking to God, he forsook Him and made Israel to sin. (2) The policy of purity is the policy of faith. Faith in God - in Christ - in truth. 2. Peaceable. (1) Peace is kin to purity (James 3:17). God made peace for Jeroboam before he had departed from Him (see 1 Kings 12:21-24). So does He still undertake for His people (Proverbs 16:7). (2) Wars are born of evil lusts (James 4:1). When Jeroboam forsook the Lord, then commenced an embroilment in hostilities from which he was never free. First with Rehoboam (ver. 30), then with Abijah (2 Chronicles 13). 3. So shall we avoid disaster. (1) By pursuing an opposite policy Jeroboam brought disaster upon himself. His body was smitten by God. There is no evidence of any repentance to the saving of his soul. (2) He brought disaster upon his family. The best of his sons died prematurely for his sin. Two years later he perished himself. Still two years later and his race became exterminated with violence. (3) He brought disaster upon his people. Impatient of taxation under Rehoboam, they made him king, but got no relief, having to build palaces and sustain wars. And by their complicity in his idolatry they filled up the measure of their iniquity and incurred the anger of God, which involved them in the miseries of foreign invasion and captivity. What profit is there in a crown that is retained by the policy of sin? The whole world is dearly purchased with the loss of the soul. - J.A.M. Parallel Verses KJV: And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. |
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