SUBJECT—IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL.
BY REV. G. E. STROBRIDGE, D. D.
GOLDEN TEXT.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" (Exod. 20:4).
INTRODUCTION.
Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years, beginning in the year 975 B. C. The extent of his territory was larger than that of the kingdom of Judah, over which Rehoboam ruled after the division. Jeroboam's portion, called the Kingdom of Israel, and comprising the northern portion of the land, was about the size of the State of New Hampshire.
Rehoboam first made an attempt to recover the allegiance of the revolted tribes, and sent his representative to take tribute from them, but he was promptly killed. Rehoboam then made preparations for war; but he was admonished to pursue this course no longer by the prophet Shemiah (1 Kings 12: 21-24).
Rehoboam then turned his attention entirely to his own kingdom, and for three years left off his former wild and sinful ways, and seemed to give promise of becoming a good monarch (2 Chron. 11: 17). He busied himself in fortifying his kingdom by a circuit of fifteen walled cities, thus protecting it on the south and west.
Three years of this devotion to a wise care of his kingdom was about all this young man could stand, and he went back to his dissolute ways, and the bad blood of his heathen mother manifested itself.
Continuing thus for two years, he was then attacked by Shishak, the King of Egypt, who was a friend of Jeroboam. Judah was invaded, and the thousand shields of gold which Solomon had made for the display of his wealth and power, and other treasures of the temple, were carried off. These shields Rehoboam replaced with shields of brass.
There was a war, on a larger or smaller scale, all the time between the two kingdoms, until in the reign of Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, Jeroboam was severely punished by an overwhelming defeat.
JEROBOAM'S FORTIFICATIONS.
"Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel."
Jeroboam did not build Shechem. There had been a town there from the earliest times, but the meaning is that he rebuilt it, enlarged it, beautified it, and made it the capital city.
It was especially adapted for this, as it was right in the centre of the territory of the ten tribes and the leader of the revolt. It was the most ancient sanctuary in the land, and the ancestors of the Israelites had worshiped there long before they became a nation.
In 1 Kings 14: 17, we are informed that after a time Jeroboam left Shechem, and set up his capital in Tirzah, where he built a palace and other buildings on so grand a scale that the place became even a rival of Jerusalem (Sol. Song 6: 4).
After having established himself in Shechem, he began to give attention to the outlying territory, and, in order to protect it, he built a fortification at Penuel. The name of this place means "the face of God." It received this name from the meeting here of Jacob with the angel, and his wrestling with the angel (Gen. 32: 24-32). It is located on a little stream called Jabbok, and is twenty miles east of the Jordan. It was an important point, as it was situated on the road over which all the caravans passed first to Damascus and then on east to the countries of Babylon and Nineveh.
A fortress here would defend the kingdom of Israel from the attacks of Assyria on the east and north, and from Judah on the south.
THE KING'S APPREHENSION.
"And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.
"If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam, King of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah."
Now that Jeroboam is king, his troubles begin. Having settled the matter of protection against invasion by the building of the strongholds as just noticed, a more serious danger arose before him. It would seem that the people had no thought when they separated from the government of Rehoboam that they would also give up their religion. It was expected that Jerusalem should be still the religious capital, and the temple the place for all the people of both nations to worship.
But Jeroboam reasoned with himself that if the people of his kingdom went up to Jerusalem three times a year, as the law directed (Deut. 16: 16), to worship there, they would by this become alienated from him as their ruler, would learn to reverence the king who was of David's line as more rightfully their sovereign, and the result would be not only that they might change, such was the fickle temper of people in the east, but they might expel him and perhaps take his life.
It was a very natural course of reasoning, but he should have trusted in God. In I Kings 11: 38, the promise had been expressly made to him that on condition of his obedience, he should be protected and his throne should be firmly established. But he forgets this and goes on in the foolish fashion of all doubt and unbelief.
FALSE GODS SET UP.
"Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, oh, Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,
"And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan."
He reasoned that if there were to be two kingdoms, there must also be two religions: at least, the citizens of one kingdom should not get their religion from the worship and service held in another kingdom. On the face of it this looked like the very essence of wisdom. It was worldly wisdom, but it was religious folly because it was putting policy above principle.
After he had thought this matter over for some time, Jeroboam took some of his friends and counselers into the secret of his reflections, and they agreed with him. Thereupon he proceeded to establish home rule in religion as in everything else, and his whole course is an exhibition of great shrewdness. It is a pity that so bright an intellect had not been united with a better heart.
He set up objects of worship and established shrines for them at two places in his kingdom, Bethel and Dan.
Bethel was located in the tribe of Benjamin's territory, but had been taken as part of the land embraced in the revolt of the ten tribes. The name meant the house of God, and was so called by Jacob at the time of his vision (Gen. 28: 11-19.)
As long ago as Abraham's time, an altar had been built here (Gen. 12: 8.) Samuel had also judged Israel here (1 Sam. 7: 16.) It was, therefore, shrewdly selected, for the people of those days were readily and deeply impressed with the sacred associations of places, especially old places.
The other place, Dan, was in the extreme northern part of the land, so that the expression from Dan to Beersheba means from one end of the land to the other, north to south.
There was no city here at this time, but at a spot about four miles from where the city of Dan was afterwards located, there is a remarkable cave in one of the ridges at the base of Mount Hermon. This cave had been a sanctuary or place of worship from the earliest times (Gen. 14: 14.)
Having thus selected the localities, Jeroboam set up there the objects for their worship. It was not his intention so much, perhaps, to teach the people the worship of images—he would hardly have ventured to do that in its bald form—but it was his intention that these calves or oxen should be the symbols representing the presence of God just as the ark and the cherubim did in the temple.
They were made of wood and covered with plates of gold. The ox was an old object of worship. Aaron had set it up in the wilderness, and Jeroboam used almost the very words of Aaron so long before (Ex. 32: 4).
The Israelites were made familiar with this image in the decorations of the temple of Solomon, including colossal cherubim. Also the great molten sea of brass was supported upon oxen of the same material.
THE DAMAGING RESULTS.
"And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
"And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi."
It was hardly to be expected that any other result than that of sin would come from this course. It was, to begin with, a violation of the second commandment, and if Jeroboam did not intend to teach Israel the worship of false gods, this was the result of it, and repeatedly he is spoken of in the Scriptures as the one that did cause Israel to sin.
So completely were the people carried away with this bad current, that they preferred to get as far away from Jerusalem as possible, and went even to Dan to engage in their idolatrous practices.
At both these places where he had set up the calves, he built houses for them. Originally and commonly houses of worship were built upon high places, so that this expression "high places" came to be a description of the house itself.
It is not a fortunate translation to state that Jeroboam made priests of the lowest class of the people. It would have been poor policy, and would have brought his movement into disrepute.
The literal rendering of the Hebrew is "from the ends of the people," and means, as in the Revised Version, "from all the people."
Jeroboam would have been glad to have the priestly tribe, Levi, furnish him his priests, but they were loyal to God and the true worship and would not assist the king in his schism, so he had to get priests where he could from all the people and from any tribe.
In 2 Chron. 11: 13 it is said that the Levites in a body went over to Rehoboam. This greatly strengthened the king of Judah and tended to keep the religion of that part of the people pure.
NEW FEASTS APPOINTED.
"And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is In Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
"So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense."
Jeroboam was the more anxious to get his religious enterprises established because the time for the feast of the tabernacles was coming on and many of his people would be going up to Jerusalem.
He therefore, as a part of his scheme, very shrewdly appointed a counter feast, putting it on the same day of the month, the fifteenth, because that was the time of the full moon, but he changed the month.
The right time was the seventh month, corresponding with our October and November, and it was the most joyous of all the festivals celebrating the gathering of the harvest.
He could plead a good reason for putting his feast a month later, because the harvest was slower ripening in the northern part of the kingdom than in the southern, and the change of time would be an accommodation. The law fixing the seventh month is given (Lev. 23: 34,39,41).
At this feast Jeroboam himself approached the altar and served as a priest. He did this doubtless for two reasons—1, To give the royal sanction to the new religion; and 2, To show that he considered himself the religious as well as the civil head of the nation.
LESSONS.
1. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jeroboam forgot this rule and put the improvement and fortifying of his kingdom first—his secular affairs—and as a result made a fatal mistake.
2. How long and far a sin reaches! Solomon's idolatry bears fruit in the breaking up of the nation and the lapse of half of it into heathenism. What a disappointment to God, who had done and borne so much for this people!
3. Jeroboam needed to have no fear about the perpetuity of his kingdom. He had an express promise from God. (1 Kings 11: 38.) But his faith in God's word failed, and hence he sinned. Thus sin is always the fruit of unbelief.
4. Jeroboam also put policy before principle; for the sake of temporary success he turned aside from the strictly right course. This is always wrong, and because wrong is unsafe. Fasten the lesson deep in your heart; never for the sake of any apparent advantage depart in the least from the truth as conscience and God's Word shall make it known to you.
5. It is said in the lesson that Jeroboam devised of his own heart these religious departures which he forced upon the people. Here was another feature of his sin—that he presumed to depart from the explicit directions that God had laid down as to the times, places and manner of His worship, and gave the people instead inventions of his own. To say the least, he had no business to do this, and he exposed himself to the curse that comes upon those who take from or add to God's Word.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
"On mission ground there was once a prayer meeting held in an idol temple. A lamp was placed in the hands or lap of each idol around the room, so that the idols themselves held the light by which the true God was worshiped. So the sins of Jeroboam may light us to heaven." —Peloubet.
"Judge a religion by its god. Judge a people by the kind of god that will satisfy them. If a calf will do, what must be their intelligence? If nature will do, what must be their emotion? It science will do, what must be their moral sense? The Christian religion pays the highest tribute to human intelligence. It calls men to a God, infinite in every perfection." —Joseph Parker.
"It has been remarked that the two tribes in whose inheritance the calves stood are not found among the number of the sealed in Revelations. The names of Ephraim and Dan are missing from that list." —Waller.
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"Oh, God, our strength! to Thee our song, With grateful hearts we raise; To Thee, and Thee alone, belong All worship, love and praise. "And Thou, Oh, ever gracious Lord! Wilt keep Thy promise still, If, meekly hearkening to Thy word, We seek to do Thy will. "Led by the light Thy grace imparts, Ne'er may we bow the knee To idols, which our wayward hearts Set up instead of Thee." —Harriet Auber. |
[SIDNEY'S GOOD INTENTIONS.]
(A New Year's Story.)
BY FLORENCE HALLOWELL.
Sidney, did you leave that note at Mrs. Flynn's yesterday?" asked Mrs. Dent, as her eldest son came hurriedly into the sitting-room to get the pocket-knife which he had left on the table. "She hasn't come, and I don't know what I am going to do about the washing. Nora's arm is still so lame that she must not attempt to use it."
"Oh, mother, I am so sorry!" and Sidney looked mortified and contrite. "I fully intended to leave the note, but—"
"You forgot all about it," finished his sister Fannie, who was sewing at one of the front windows. "Of course! Mother ought to have known she couldn't trust you. Your intentions are always good, but that is as far as you go."
"It is a great deal easier to intend to do a thing than to do it—everybody knows that," said Clara, a girl of twelve, who had put down her book as her brother came in. "I suppose as long as we live we'll have to hear Sidney say, 'I fully intended.' I don't expect anything else."
And she laughed.
"I can't help being forgetful," said Sidney.
"Perhaps not," said his mother; "but you could go a long way toward carrying out your good intentions if you would only do promptly whatever is given you to do."
"I will go to Mrs. Flynn's now," said Sidney. "She can get here by ten o'clock, anyway."
"Very well," said his mother. "The sooner you see her, the better it will be for the washing. This winter sun will not last long."
Sidney went out, and, hurrying on his overcoat and cap, was soon on the way to the cottage of Mrs. Flynn.
He felt a little depressed, for the remarks of his sisters had hurt his feelings a good deal.
He wondered, as he walked briskly along, if Fannie and Clara never forgot anything.
Next to Mrs. Flynn's was a small, brown cottage a good deal in want of repairs. It had needed a coat of paint for many a year, and some of the blinds were broken. But at the window was a very pretty little girl, with golden curls, and Sidney paused a minute to nod and smile at her. He knew her quite well, for she was sister to one of the junior clerks in his father's warehouse.
The child smiled in return, and looked into the rear of the room, saying something Sidney could not hear. But a moment later the head of a pale, sad-faced woman appeared above that of the little girl.
She bowed to Sidney and then moved quickly away.
"How ill Mrs. Stewart looks!" thought kind-hearted Sidney. "I imagine Christmas did not bring many good things to this house. I remember now that I fully intended to send little Mabel a doll; but—"
And then he stopped and blushed hotly. Another good intention never carried out.
Fortunately, he found Mrs. Flynn in, and she promised to go to his mother at once. So he walked away, feeling that he had done his best to repair the neglect of the previous day.
His next stopping-place was his father's office, which was a room built on to the warehouse, and communicating with it by a single door.
There was another door which opened on to a side alley, and was kept always locked. It was the door used exclusively by his father for entrance and exit. But Sidney was a privileged person, and had been allowed a pass-key. So he entered the office now without having to go through the busy warehouse.
He was disappointed to find the room empty. His father had promised to give him some money to buy powder, shot and caps for the new gun he had received on Christmas Day, and, like all boys, he felt that time was very precious when he was going to buy anything of that sort.
"Now I suppose I've got to wait," he soliloquized, as he threw himself into the swivel-chair in front of his father's desk. "It'll be noon before I get a chance to try the gun, I dare say."
He played with a paper-cutter at first; but soon his attention was attracted by a letter on the desk, the superscription of which was in a familiar hand.
He picked it up at once, for his Aunt Susan Dent's letters were always public property at home. His father never failed to bring them home and read them aloud at the supper-table. So Sidney drew this letter from the envelope without hesitation.
He had always received a five-dollar bill every Christmas from his aunt, but this year the day had come and gone without the customary present, and he gave an exclamation of joy when, on unfolding the letter, a five-dollar bill fell out.
"For me, of course. Better late than never," muttered Sidney, as he hastily glanced over the letter.
Yes, his aunt intended the money for him.
She wrote that she had been too ill to write just before Christmas, but that Sidney would probably rather have the gift come late than not at all.
"Well, I should say so!" ejaculated Sidney. "And now I needn't wait for father. I can use this money to buy my ammunition, and tell him about it at dinner time."
He restored the letter to its envelope, and then let himself out at the alley door. In five minutes he was in the nearest hardware store, bargaining for his shot.
His mind was full of the sport he expected to have that afternoon in the woods with his gun, and when he reached home he sprang up the steps two at a time.
He was about to ring, with no gentle hand, when the door was thrown open by his sister Fannie.
"We've been watching for you, Sidney," she said, in some excitement. "Uncle Charles is here, and wants you to go home with him for two or three days. He says he can promise you a splendid time. You'll have to hurry, though, for the train leaves at twelve o'clock, and it is half-past eleven now. We were so afraid you wouldn't get back in time."
"Hurry, Sidney," said his mother, appearing at the parlor door. "Change your clothes as quickly as possible. I have packed your valise for you."
"No time to waste, my boy," said his uncle, from the dining-room, where he was snatching a hasty lunch, attended by Clara. "The train won't wait for us."
Sidney was soon ready, and, with a hasty good-by to his mother and sisters, hurried off with his uncle.
"And be sure you come back Friday night, Sidney," called out his sister Fannie, as she followed him to the front gate. "Don't 'fully intend' to do it, and then come walking in here on Sunday. You know you've got to make calls on New Year's Day."
"All right," answered Sidney. "I'll be here. You needn't worry."
It was not until he was in the train and half way to his destination that he thought of the five-dollar bill. He was provoked with himself that he had not spoken of it to his mother.
"But I'll write as soon as I get to Meadville," he thought; "and they'll get the letter to-morrow."
But there was a great deal to occupy him when he reached his uncle's home.
His cousins were fond of fun and were always ready for anything, and he was so hurried from one place to another and had so many calls on his time, that it was little wonder that the writing of that letter was postponed. He fully intended to write it, but it wasn't written.
Only the recollection of Fannie's parting words made him resist an invitation to a sleighing party and start for home on Friday. He knew how the girls would talk if he were not there to make those calls on New Year's Day.
He occupied himself while on the train with thinking on whom he would call and what he would talk about. His visit to Meadville would give him one subject, at least, for conversation.
It was nearly eleven o'clock at night when he reached home, but he found his father and mother and two sisters still up. They were finishing some preparations for the celebration of the next day.
"So you have actually come!" cried Fannie, as Sidney entered the room and went to the fire to warm his half-frozen hands and feet. "One good intention kept, at least. I'll score that to your credit, Sidney."
"It seems as if I had been gone a good deal longer than four days," said Sidney. "I've been in a perfect whirl of excitement ever since I left here."
"We've had some excitement, too," said Clara. "Father's discharged Harry Stuart."
"Yes, just think, Sidney, he stole five dollars," said Fannie.
"We merely suspected him of stealing it, my daughter," said Mr. Dent. "I did not accuse him of it; but I fear there is no room to doubt that he is guilty. He was the only one in the office while I was out."
"It is very hard to believe Harry Stuart a thief," said Mrs. Dent. "He had as open and frank a face as I ever saw, and every one says he is devoted to his mother; but then of course he was greatly tempted, needing the money as he did."
"Do you mean the five-dollar bill Aunt Susan sent to me, father?" asked Sidney.
He had grown very pale and his voice trembled as he spoke.
"Yes; how did you hear of it? The letter came the very day you left."
"Oh, father, I read the letter, and—and it was I who took the money! I fully intended to tell you, but—"
And there Sidney broke down utterly and could not go on.
"You took it!" repeated his father. "Oh, what trouble and sorrow you have brought upon an innocent person, Sidney, by not letting me know that sooner!"
"I intended to write from Meadville," faltered Sidney.
"But, as usual, you did not carry out your good intentions. Sidney, for the first time in my life I am ashamed of you—heartily ashamed."
By degrees they drew the whole story from Sidney; and, though they blamed him, they could not but feel sorry for him, so acute was his remorse.
"I hope this affair will be a lesson to you as long as you live," said Mr. Dent, as he dismissed the remorseful boy to his room.
Had it not been so late, Sidney would have gone that night to see Harry Stuart, but as it was, he was up the next morning by six o'clock, and in the cold, gray light of the first day of the New Year hurried to the little brown cottage.
He found Mrs. Stuart sitting by the bedside of her son, who, never strong, had been utterly prostrated by the trouble which had come upon him, and for two days he had been delirious with fever.
He did not recognize Sidney, and the latter could hardly repress his tears as he took the young man's hot hand in his own and looked down at his flushed face and unnaturally bright eyes, and heard him mutter incoherently his denial of the theft of which he had been suspected.
That was the only call Sidney made that day. All else was forgotten as he sat by Harry Stuart's bedside hour after hour, trying to atone for the pain and grief his carelessness had caused.
Harry got well at last and was restored to his former place with an increase in salary, and he and Sidney were firm friends for the rest of their lives; but Sidney never forgot the lesson he had learned and the good resolutions he had made that New Year's Day in the little brown cottage.
No one ever again heard him say, "I fully intended." To intend was to do with him at last.
[NEW YEAR'S EVE.]
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Ye bells! peal forth From south to north, No longer let your iron tongues be dumb: Up to the rafters swing, Make all the country ring An omen of a Happy Year to come, |
[This Story began in No. 2.]
Andy Fletcher.