The process of Israel's. trial under prophet rule was exceedingly short. Many priests had been in this high position, only one prophet. For their failure under the rule of Samuel was worse than any previous, and necessitated a complete change in the manner, or mode, of the connection between Jehovah and Israel. They had spoken against God while in the wilderness, they had previously rebelled in the land; but now it is open and deliberate rejection of God as King. God showed the true character of their act when He said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Sam. 8:77And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (1 Samuel 8:7).) But this, too, is but a means for God doing His own will. The immediate occasion was the unrighteous ways of Samuel's sons, whom be had made judges. The real and deep-rooted cause was their idolatry. To desire a king, like the nations, what was it but desiring to serve their foes, to be like them in all things. Like them in idolatry, they would be like them in having a king. The visible emblem of Jehovah's presence was lost to them; for awhile in possession by the Philistine, but when they were afraid to keep it any longer, it was brought to the house of Abinadab (1 Sam. 7:1, 21And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. 2And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. (1 Samuel 7:1‑2)), and remained there for twenty years; and during that time, when the regular service of the ark was interrupted, no wonder if the people sank deeper in idolatry. It was reserved for the king, the man of God's choice, to restore the ark to its propel place, as, on an infinitely greater scale, will Messiah do, whom David typified. (2 Sam. 6:1717And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. (2 Samuel 6:17).)
At the beginning of Samuel's rule there shone out a gleam of hope. They lament after Jehovah, and Samuel said, “If ye do return unto Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto Jehovah, and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” It was vain to pretend to serve God while strange gods were among them. Their lament was not because they were beginning to hate idolatry, but because they were oppressed by the Philistines. The God of all mercy heard it, and sends Samuel with a message and a promise of deliverance. There is the appearance of repentance, they put away Baalim and Ashtaroth-right and necessary as an outward act. But with Samuel there is reality, and be would make them as real as himself. Their immense gathering at Mizpeh met have been a striking testimony to the surrounding nations, to whom, no doubt, the Israelites were a riddle. Samuel prays, and a whole nation is gathered to pray, in response to his call. As an outward act it was pleasing to God. It was while thus engaged, while Samuel was offering the burnt-offering, that the Philistines dared to attack them. They had heard that all Israel were come to Mizpeh, perhaps thought they were gathered for war, or, if aware of the occasion, thought it a favorable opportunity to attack them. They had before smitten them when the ark was with them, yea, had taken the ark. Why should they hesitate now, even though they were praying, and the prophet interceding? Had they not proof that Jehovah ceased to protect Israel? Ah, they knew not the immense difference between Israel with a superstitious and fleshly confidence in the presence of the ark, and Israel bowed down before God, crying for deliverance. Jehovah thundered upon the Philistines, and taught these despisers that if He chastened and humbled His people when they rebelled, He also knew how to deliver when they prayed. God is showing Himself by deed as He declared by word, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” &c. (Ex. 34:6,6And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, (Exodus 34:6) &c.) But as we glance through the process, the truth is confirmed on every page of holy writ, that the heart of man is fully set in him to do evil. Nothing short of the direct power of God upon his soul can effect the necessary changes change so radical that the old nature is condemned as past all cure, and a new nature is given.
When Samuel was old he made his sons judges. It was according to divine order that Eli's sons should be priests, but what warrant had Samuel to make his sons judges? A father's partiality is seen in, and blinded them both. Even Samuel, blessed as he is, is not perfect. The elders complain that his sons walk not in his ways, and propose a remedy, but not according to the way of God. It was not His mind that they should desire a king, although it was His will to give them one. It was making the covetous ways of Samuel's sons an excuse for doing far worse. To make one sin an excuse for another is a thing that man has frequently done. God allows them to have their desire. Satan would have them like other nations in having a king, that he might use them as a means of farther estrangement from God, and sink them deeper in idolatry and corruption. And this he effected, as we find in their history under the kings. Satan's purpose was that God might destroy Israel as He had the Canaanites, and then where would be the Seed that was to bruise his head? But God foils the devices of Satan by making them defeat their own end. And besides the turning of Satan's arts against himself, we see the responsibility and failure of man wonderfully entwined in the working out of God's counsels of blessing.
In an external way they were putting a wider interval between God and themselves; for the priest connected the people with God in a more intimate way than the king. The prosperity of the nation was not said to depend upon the faithfulness of the priest in the time past, but all for the future did depend upon the king. And this is also according to the wise purpose of God, for when the true King comes, all their blessing will come through Him. But kingly rule must be tested in luau first, so that the Lord Jesus might be manifest as the only Man that could have the government upon His shoulders, and that because His name is the Mighty God. The king is the nation's representative before God. If he did evil, or if he did good, so did the judgment or the blessing of God rest upon the nation. Under this aspect the king had a higher and more responsible position than the priest, though forbidden to intrude into his office. The coming Seed will be a Priest upon the throne. All glory will unite in Him. Both links will be in His person. Man is seen in both, and fails in both, so that God's Man-the Man of His right hand (Psa. 80:1717Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. (Psalm 80:17))-may be seen as the only One that can perfectly maintain both.
The first king is chosen, the priest ceases to be the first man, and the manner of their relationship with God is modified. Yet the reign of Saul was only a time of transition, during which they reaped the consequences of rejecting God as their King, and choosing to have a man. When the right time came, God had the right man ready.
It is because there is so great a change from the rule of the priest to that of a king that the Holy Spirit in Matthew marks off all the preceding time, down to David, as one great division in their history. Two other periods are also given, each broadly distinguished from the others, each a term of fourteen generations-two sevens-a perfect witness of God's long-suffering, and of man's failure. Why, we may inquire, is the family period included with the first term of their national existence? I apprehend, not merely because of the twice seven generations, but also because, both as a family and as a nation, they had to do with God as their King and Governor, and immediately connected with Him by the priest-link. At first the head of the family was priest, he offered the burnt-offerings; when the family became a nation, Aaron and sons, chosen from a particular tribe, performed the priestly function for the whole nation. So there is, first, the priest-link; then, from David to the Babylonish captivity, the king-link; and the third (as given in Matt. 1), no outward link, but under Gentile dominion, and “Loammi” written upon them. Idolatry marked them under the two former periods; hypocrisy is easily discernible in the third.
If Saul was simply a transition between the first two, as showing their sin, Samuel was no less so, as showing God's mercy. It was just that the people should feel the consequence of rejecting God, but He would not leave Himself without a witness, and raises Samuel, while preparing one to take the place His counsel had ordained. Saul not being the right man, there was a necessity for a prophet to be the channel of communication from God to Israel. The ark of Jehovah in the hand of the enemy, what could the priest do without it? The right man not yet called to the throne, there was a breach in their standing before God. Samuel is prepared of God to fill the gap. David, when anointed, took the prophet's place after his death. His birth, like that of Isaac, Samson, and the Baptist, is marked by the interposition of divine power and grace, singled out by it as a special servant for a special time. A prophet at no time could be a normal link between God and the people. His presence among them was a witness of their departure from their allegiance to God. Israel had broken the old link, grace had not yet brought, in the new; their condition at that moment was abnormal. But was not Saul a king? Yea, truly, but he never connected the people with Jehovah. The ark never came to its place in Saul's lifetime. He could not be the medium of blessing, nor in any way the representative of Israel before God, unless indeed that be a representative which is a living proof that they had rejected God, and chosen a man. Truly, as long as Saul lived, he was an index to their position. God did not acknowledge him as the right ruler, for Samuel judged Israel all His life. (1 Sam. 7:1515And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. (1 Samuel 7:15).) Before God it was Samuel, not Saul. He was on his trial during the life of Samuel, and though he showed the complete absence of faith from the beginning, the long-suffering of God is most plain. After Samuel's death it was with rapid and but few strides that he rushed to his miserable end. His army crushed, his people hiding themselves and leaving their cities to the Philistines, Saul himself only escaped the enemy's sword by using his own. Was this sore judgment upon Israel because Saul was a wicked king? Nay, it was the sure consequence of their sin in desiring a man when Jehovah was their King. (1 Sam. 12:1212And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king. (1 Samuel 12:12).) The thunder and rain in their wheat harvest was but a little sign of the coming judgment, but which even then would have been stayed by repentance. “But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.” How significant the words-” ye and your king!” He was not God's king. Not anywhere is there an exemplification of the, to man, incompatible truths-God's sovereignty, and man's responsibility as in his life.
Yet, to human eyes, who or what more promising than the son of Kish? He was just the man to attract and fix the eye of nature. “There was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” He was physically a magnificent man, of right royal appearance. God brings him to Samuel, and instructs the prophet, how to act. Saul is anointed, and has the assurance from God that he is to be king, and, by a series of events which “providential” would not accurately describe, God's word is confirmed to him. Notwithstanding this, when the moment came for his being presented to the people, he had “hid himself among the stuff.” To man this might seem to betoken modesty, a sense of unworthiness, and self-distrust, and therefore most desirable in one suddenly called to the highest station. But however pleasing the appearance, was it of faith in God's word, confirmed as it had been, to hide among the stuff at the very time when he ought to have been present before the people? If self had been forgotten, if simple trust in God, obedient to His call, there would have been no need to drag him out of his hiding-place. Diffidence of self would surely have been felt, but there would also have been confidence in God, and humble reliance. Saul failed at the beginning. There was no faith: proof from the first that he was not the right man. Outwardly all looked well; the sons of Belial despised him, “but he held his peace.” He gets the reward of this in a victory over Nahash, and God establishes him upon the throne. The people would put to death those who mockingly said,” Shall Saul reign over us?” But he would not allow one to be put to death, “for to-day Jehovah hath wrought salvation in Israel.” Not Saul, but Jehovah; there is the appearance of giving honor to Jehovah. It is beautiful blossom, but, alas! the fruit, like the apples of Sodom, are only ashes. It looks well to praise God in the hour of victory, what will he do when the Philistines gather thousands of chariots and horsemen, and people as the sand on the sea-shore in multitude; when his own people “hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits” in every conceivable place. So great was the terror from the Philistines. Even his army trembled; he had three thousand men-soon they dwindled down to six hundred. (1 Sam. 13:2, 152Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. (1 Samuel 13:2)
15And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men. (1 Samuel 13:15).) Samuel is late in coming, and the strain is too great for the semblance of faith, and the impatience of unbelief leads him to intrude into the priestly office. His excuse to Samuel is but the proof that true faith was not found in him. There was positive disobedience, and he pleads necessity. “I forced myself,” he said. But God reads the heart, and by the mouth of the prophet Samuel pronounces judgment. “Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah thy God.” It was all over with Saul; he had been put into the crucible, and there was no gold-only dross. God would have established his kingdom forever, but now it shall not continue. The succeeding test, when sent to destroy Amalek, only confirmed the judgment given already. The kingdom was rent from him, and given to his neighbor, who was better than he. Saul is both judged and forsaken of God, as chapter 14:37 shows, where also he proves himself, by his foolish prohibition of food, to be a hindrance to Israel's complete victory, and the cause of the people ravenously eating the flesh with the blood. Saul was the nation's ruin.
But mark here the omniscience of God. Saul would have been confirmed in the kingdom forever if he had obeyed. Will God permit a sinful man to prevent the development of His purpose? Nay, God foresaw the utter failure of Saul, and provides beforehand. So that, when Saul fell in Gilboa, David is brought forward as the man whom God had chosen. In this, as in many other recorded instances, how marvelously blended are reward for faithfulness in man as responsible, and the sovereign will of God, who does not permit man's inevitable failure to frustrate His purposes of grace. Therefore God, who had all Saul's course, from first to last, before His omniscient eye, provides for the necessities of grace, and calls David, and anoints him, long before the evil course of Saul is run. It is the connection of these two principles that human reason is incapable of grasping. Faith, where it cannot see, yet believes.
The succeeding events show a more rapid descent in evil. When David was anointed (chap. 16:13,14),the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” The servants know who sent the evil spirit, and seek to exorcise the demon by a skilful player on a harp. God overrules their act, and brings His anointed unto the king. Did David's harp allay the perturbed spirit of the king? At first it did (chap. 16:23), but Saul repented not, and more than once he tried to smite David to the wall with his javelin. The harp, which was afterward to sound in praises to God, was first used to soothe a wretched king. Like the deaf adder, he would not be charmed. David's skill does not eradicate jealousy and rancorous hate from Saul's breast. The youth had slain the giant that terrified the king and his army, and the women, in the song of victory, had ascribed to David ten thousands, only thousands to Saul. This stirred up hidden depths of evil in the king's heart, and he sought to kill David. He knew that the kingdom was given to David by God, and he hated him the more. It was rebellion against God, as well as hatred of David. It was the enmity of man's king against God's anointed-the same feeling that said, when Jesus, the true Heir, came, “This is the heir, come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.”
Nothing so excites enmity in man as seeing faith and obedience in another. The closest natural ties avail not to quench the burning hate of a soul impelled by Satan against those who bow in faith to the word of God. Jonathan knew that David was to be king, and he bowed in obedience to God. Naturally he was heir to the throne, but it was enough for him that God had spoken. But this brings upon him his father's hatred, and at him also the javelin is hurled; even Jonathan's mother escapes not the rage of Saul. “Thou son of a perverse, rebellious woman.” So the Lord Jesus said, of whom David was type, “A man's foes shall be they of his own household.” Jonathan's faith might not and did not lead him out of his father's house; yet by it, and his love for David, he gave him all the outward marks of being heir to the throne, he “stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.” (Chap. 18:4.) Mere love for David did not cause this self-sacrifice; it was faith and obedience to the sovereign will of God. It is a little pattern of what is now one of our greatest privileges, to “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service.”
Meantime God was preparing David for the throne. Through torrents of temptation and sorrow, but a needed process, that he might learn that all his dignity and exaltation was the free gift of God, and to know how to behave himself when he had it. During Saul's lifetime David was fugitive, his pathway to the throne was persecution and exile. But it was lack of faith which led him to seek an asylum among the Philistines. It brought him into great trouble, for it was there that his own people spoke of stoning him (chap. 30:6), and he certainly equivocated with Achish (chap. 30:10), and if God had not overruled, and not allowed the jealousy of the Philistine lords to break out, he would have been found fighting against Israel. David was never in so great danger as at that moment. How could he have ever sat upon the throne, if he had been numbered in the army of Achish? God watched over and delivered his failing servant from such a fatal position. He was in God's school, and there he was trained for his future position, his failure notwithstanding. Saul had no such training-it would have been wasted on him, for he had no faith to profit by it. Even the teaching of God is profitless unless there be faith. “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard.” (Heb. 4:22For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. (Hebrews 4:2).) All men that hear the word are proved by it; the word tries everything. Where there is faith, grace meets the believer, and brings him through every trial. Where there is no faith, man is left on the ground of his responsibility, and fails and perishes. Though David slipped more than once, he never forgot faith in God. In his deep distress his language is, “Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” All other aspects of his sin were as nothing in that he had sinned against God. However great the fall, true faith always makes confession to God, the greatest evil is against Him. When he sinned in numbering the people, he makes no choice of the three alternatives put before him, but simply puts himself into the hands of God. In his direst extremity he said, “Let us now fall into the hand of Jehovah.” Though conscious of his offense, his confidence in God is maintained. It was a divinely-given faith. Indeed there is no true faith but that which God gives; and the man born of God will always turn to Him, even if it be to receive chastening. The saint in communion with God naturally turns to Him in seasons of sorrow and distress from without; but there is no more certain evidence of new life than casting oneself upon God, even when conscious of failure, and of having grieved the Spirit of God. Every such failing one would say with Job, though not perhaps in his spirit, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (Job 13:1515Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. (Job 13:15).)
The school of affliction, where the best lessons of faith are learned, is necessary, because even God's saints do not learn in any other way-at least few learn deeply, save in that school. Man's nature being so inveterately evil, few lessons are learned without tears; the Father has to chasten every son He receives.
David was the first man raised to a throne by the direct appointment of God; and he was made king, not merely to be a new link connecting Israel with Jehovah, but also to be a type of his greater Son, whom God will soon set upon the now vacant throne. There will be a bond then between God and Israel, established by grace, which never can be severed. It was a bright theme for the prophets when denouncing Israel's sin, and telling of impending judgment, God Himself putting words in the prophet's month which surely tell us of His own delight in the future blessing of Israel. “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer.” (See Isa. 54:7-177For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. 9For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. 10For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. 11O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. 13And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 54:7‑17).) Israel is still waiting for that time. It was not for a mere man, though he be a David, to establish that eternal link with Jehovah-God; the Son of David will do that. David only gives a transient glimpse of the power of the coming One; and he, being only a man, passes away. But God, in giving us a picture of the future glory of Christ, joins Solomon with his father David. Solomon, born in the purple, carries on without a break the picture of the Messiah's kingdom. David is the warrior-king, subduing all his enemies. His life was wholly passed in war, with but few intervals of rest. The reign of Solomon was peace, the Gentiles paying tribute. The David aspect will be seen in Christ, as well as the Solomon splendor, but with the difference that must be between the shadow and the substance. No other king ever reached the magnificence of Solomon. But he, and all his bright display, will pale before the glory of Christ.
God has given, if we may so say, an outline of the work and consequent glory of Christ, from His first presentation as the Paschal Lamb in the passover night in Egypt on to the figure of His glorious reign of millennial peace set forth by Solomon. All the worth of His person, all the value of His work, and His coming glory, have, by type and picture, been foreshadowed, and all further revelation of Him-up to His birth-is but the bringing out, in different circumstances, of what had been previously given. Indeed, we can look further back, and exclaim, How wondrous the combination of wisdom and power, of mercy and love, in all the way from creation, and surely will be until the final scene of glory, when universal praise shall ascend from a redeemed world to a Savior-God.
David and Solomon, having fulfilled God's purpose as types, pass away, and the process is carried on which brings out in every possible form the utter ruin of man, and the absolute necessity-if God would save man-that He Himself must be the Savior.
Apart from the typical teaching, we have the, old lesson again confirmed, that no position, however favored, can keep man faithful and true. Solomon's idolatry in his old age is but the outcome of previous failure. He had horses from Egypt, he had Gentile wives; both were forbidden. His wives seduced him into idolatry. (Cf. Deut. 17:14-1714When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; 15Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. 16But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:14‑17); 1 Kings 10:28; 11:3,28And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price. (1 Kings 10:28)
3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:3) 2 Chron. 9:2525And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 9:25).) His failure brought the first threatening against Israel as a kingdom. “Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which I commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.” “Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam.” How low he had fallen! He has become like Saul in this, that as Saul sought to kill David because God had given him the kingdom, so Solomon sought to kill his servant Jeroboam, because God had given him ten tribes. In both instances it was rebellion against the decree of God. The failure of Solomon is far greater than any found in David. All the training that David had was equally for Solomon, and God set David before him as the pattern for his walk. “If thou wilt walk before me as David, thy father, walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness,” &c. (1 Kings 9:44And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: (1 Kings 9:4).) Who, remembering that through David's sin the sword should never depart from his house, would have held him up as a pattern to his son? It was because, in his darkest hours, he always put his trust in God. It is this faith that God calls “integrity of heart.” And therefore, in Psa. 7:8,8The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. (Psalm 7:8) which, in its perfectness, can only apply to Messiah, subordinately is uttered by David. But in all this of David and Solomon, manifestly, the lessons of faith and glimpses of glory are distinct from the trial and failure of man which was going on at the same time. God's purpose and man's evil are both developed.
The failure of the kingdom marks another prominent point in the history of God's moral processes with man. The nation had already rejected God as their King, now they reject the family whom God had called, and the man He had set upon the throne. No doubt the rending away of the tribes was judgment for Solomon's transgression, for the failure was with him. But the rebellion of the ten tribes was morally their own act and deed, and it would, through Rehoboam's folly, have extended to all the tribes. The adhesion of Judah to Solomon's son was simply due to the overruling providence of God, which, according to His gracious word, reserved one tribe to the house of David, and that for the accomplishment of His purpose-the bringing in of His king. Judah retains the hill of Zion; though shorn of glory, they have still the temple and the city, are owned of God, and the kingly connection is maintained between Jehovah and the kingdom of Judah. With Jeroboam's kingdom there was no outward link. There was no regularly ordained priest; and the king was given in judgment. God did not yet give them up completely. He sent prophets to them, notably Elijah and Elisha, and He had a remnant in Israel. No such company is recognized in Judah, as publicly owned, while the mass was disowned. Judah, though in result worse than Israel, is still owned as a nation. All the symbols of worship ordained by God were with Judah, the ten tribes had not one of them. Jeroboam tried to make Samaria take the place of Jerusalem, and the two calves in Dan and Bethel a substitute for the temple. Idolatry was the established religion of Israel, in opposition to Jehovah; in Judah, not the open professed rejection, but rather like Aaron, who made a calf, and offered sacrifice to Jehovah, making a god before Him. But this was so much the worse, for it was, so to speak, insulting God to His face. Judah dared to put their idol in the temple of God. So it was Judah's nominal nearness to God that gave the power to commit the greater sin: Israel was now, like the nations, under the evil influence of idol-worship and wicked kings, save that God in mercy sent messengers to them. But all the kings, every successor to the throne, did evil in the sight of God. A righteous man could not be king of Israel, he would necessarily have gone to Jerusalem to worship, and in result the ten tribes would have returned to the house of David. But God took care that no righteous man should ascend Jeroboam's throne. He had a son, in whom some good was found (1 Kings 14:1818And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. (1 Kings 14:18)), and for that reason God took him.