1 Kings 14:17, 18 And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;… Following the order of events as they appear in the Hebrew text rather than in the Septuagint, we regard this as the first of the calamities that befell the house of Jeroboam, until it became extinct on the death of Nadab (1 Kings 15:29), as the penalty of his transgression in violating the religious unity of the nation. So soon was he made to feel that he was in the grasp of a Power that could not be mocked or trifled with, and against which it was vain for him to rebel The narrative is full of touching interest, and has many points of moral teaching. It illustrates - I. THE TENDERNESS OF NATURAL AFFECTION EVEN IN A BAD MAN. We have no reason to doubt that genuine parental feeling prompted both Jeroboam and his wife in their appeal to the prophet. One cannot but sympathize with them in their distress at the fatal sickness of their child. Human nature in its deepest degradation is not altogether lost to the touches of tender emotion. The thrill of parental love may be found in hearts so debased and hardened that nothing else can move them. The most ferocious savage will defend his own, and "barbarous people" are capable of "showing no little kindness" even to strangers (Acts 28.) But in many cases there is no real moral worth in these affections and amenities. They can scarcely be called "redeeming qualities." Parental feeling is often little else than an animal instinct. It may exist side by side with the most grovelling passions and the most complete moral obliquity. Jeroboam loved his child, and yet, in proud self-will and impious defiance of the Divine authority, he could secure his own carnal ends at the cost of the utter spiritual degradation of the people. II. THE BLINDNESS OF A SINFUL INFATUATION. The king flies in his distress to the prophet whom he has long slighted and ignored. He sought no counsel from him in the setting up of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. But now, as if he had himself fulfilled all the conditions of the Divine promise, he thinks to get from the prophet a word to confirm his hope of a "sure house" (1 Kings 11:38). Such is the folly of human nature. When the shadow of adversity falls on men they try, with something like a superstitious impulse, to get consolation from religious sources which, in the time of their prosperity, they neglected and despised. But what could Jeroboam expect from the oracle of a God whom he sinned against so grievously but "heavy tidings" respecting his child? He bids his wife "feign herself to be another woman;" but how could he dream that a prophet, who had power to read the future, would not be able to penetrate the false disguise? Thus, when men's hearts are "set in them to do evil" do they resort to vain subterfuges, and flatter themselves with a delusive hope. Thus do they often rush blindly on their own condemnation and ruin; provoking, and even antedating, the very calamities they have so much cause to dread. III. THE CURSE OF SIN ON THE SACRED RELATIONSHIPS OF LIFE. It is terribly expressive of the hatefulness, in God's sight, of Jeroboam's impiety that the very flower and crown of his house should be thus stricken - the fairest and the best, the one who seemed likely to justify his name Abijah ("Jehovah is my Father") - because already in his young heart there was found "some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel." So is it often in the course of human history. The evil men do comes back to them, not only in divers forms of retribution, but often in the form of penalties that pierce them in the tenderest part. The dearest ties of life are broken. Or they see their own moral deformity reflected in those whom they would fain shield from its bitter consequences. Or their brightest hopes are withered at the root, and that which might have been, and was intended to be, the source of the purest earthly joy becomes the occasion of keenest sorrow. IV. THE BLENDING OF AN ELEMENT OF MERCY WITH GOD'S SEVEREST JUDGMENTS. We see here how the innocent suffer with the guilty. The iniquity of the fathers is visited upon the children (Exodus 20:5). Yet to the child himself, in this instance, it was a gracious visitation. (1) He was emphatically "taken from the evil to come." (2) His incipient piety was recognized and crowned by this translation to happier sphere. (3) It was his special privilege to die a natural and not a violent death - the only one of the house of Jeroboam who should "go to the grave in peace." Thus in the darkest Divine judgment there is a gleam, of mercy. There is "light in the cloud." It has a "silver lining." The sufferings of innocent children, and the fact that so large a proportion of the human race die in infancy, are dark mysteries to us. But even here we see the dispensation of an all-wise Love, remembering Him who said, "It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish" (Matthew 18:14). "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). - W. Parallel Verses KJV: And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; |
    |