2 Chronicles 17:7-9 Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to Benhail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel… I. ITS PROMULGATION. 1. By whom? Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa and King of Judah. Kings and parliaments should care for the education of the people. No better means of promoting social order. 2. When? In the third year of his reign. Jehoshaphat postponed not a work so excellent, but assigned it a precedence, answering to its importance. Of greater consequence was it for the prosperity of his dominions and the peace of his reign that his subjects should be instructed, than that his armies should be drilled or his garrisons strengthened. 3. For what end? The religious improvement of the people. Under the Old Testament economy that formed part of the duty of the Hebrew state, because state and Church were then one. Under the New Testament economy, when state and Church are not coextensive, the obligation to provide religious education for both old and young rests exclusively upon the Church; the furtherance of secular instruction being the department that properly belongs to the state. If, however, the state is not required to directly furnish teaching in religion, it is not at liberty to hinder the Church, but is bound to afford her free scope for discharging the special work committed to her care. II. ITS CONSTITUTION. 1. Three orders of teachers. (1) Laymen of high rank - princes, of whom the names were Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethaneel, and Michaiah, but of whom nothing more is known. If they were "princes" in the sense of being related to the royal family, then to none could the work be more fittingly assigned; if heads of families or fathers' houses, the propriety of appointing them was still more evident; if governors of districts, it was not dimmed. (2) Levites, nine in number - Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah, all now equally unknown. (3) Priests, two in number - Elishama and Jehoram. 2. Three kinds of instruction. This at least probable from the appointing of three classes of teachers. (1) Civil law, and the constitution of the kingdom, were pro-sumably taught by the laymen. (2) Ritual law, and what pertained to the worship of the temple, by the Levites. (3) Moral law, with the nature and obligation of religion, by the priests. "Thus the nation became thoroughly instructed in their duty to God, to the king, and to each other" (Adam Clarke). III. ITS OPERATION. It was put in force: 1. Immediately. Good resolutions cannot be too soon carried out, or good schemes too quickly set on foot. Quite as many noble projects are ruined by procrastination as by undue haste. 2. Universally. The teaching deputies went through the land, visited the cities and villages, and left no part unblessed by their labours. 3. Earnestly. They taught the people; not simply opened schools, and read dry and uninteresting lectures on civil, ecclesiastical, and religious history, but saw that the people understood and practised what was taught. Learn: 1. The true glory of a king - to care for the welfare of his subjects. 2. The value of secular, but especially of religious, instruction. 3. The best spring of prosperity for a people-knowledge of the Law of the Lord. 4. The true function of a teacher - to cause the people to understand. 5. The ultimate end of education - obedience. - W. Parallel Verses KJV: Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to Benhail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. |
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