1 Kings 9:1-9

The Second Appearance to Solomon.

"Behold the goodness and severity of God" ( Romans 11:22 ). To Solomon goodness, to Israel severity.

I. The GOODNESS OF GOD is manifested—

1. In revealing Himself to Solomon . The greatest favour God can show us is to show us Himself; the greatest gift is to give us Himself.

"Give what Thou wilt, without Thee I am poor,

And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away."

"I will love him and will manifest myself unto him" ( John 14:21 ). "I will come in to him and sup with him" ( Revelation 3:20 ). "We will make our abode with him" ( John 14:23 ). There are no richer promises than these. Well may we exclaim, " O altitudo! " ( Romans 11:33 .) "O why should heavenly God to men have such regard!"

Yes, the riches, honour, glory, etc; given to Solomon were of small account compared with the good thoughts and high aspirations bestowed upon him. Riches are such third-rate blessings that God bestows them indiscriminately on the evil and the good. But noble resolves and high purposes—"courtliness and the desire of (true) fame, and love of truth, and all that makes a man"—these He reserves for His children. Solomon's riches and glory proved his ruin; the revelations he received were the true source of his greatness.

2 . In warning Solomon . The very kindest thing a friend can do for us is to admonish us when we are going wrong. "Thou mayest be sure that he that will in private tell thee of thy faults is thy friend, for he adventureth thy dislike and doth hazard thy hatred" (Sir W. Raleigh). God showed this proof of love to Solomon. In the night watches, in the darkness and silence, away from the glamour and flattery of the court, the Divine voice was heard in his secret soul. And the plainness of the warning was a part of its mercifulness. The trumpet gave no uncertain sound ( 1 Kings 9:5-8 ). God set before him that day "life and good, death and evil" ( Deuteronomy 30:15 ). By one to whom such wisdom had been vouchsafed, warnings should have been unneeded. But they were needed—and they were mercifully granted. The good Shepherd goes "o'er moor and fell, o'er crag and torrent" to bring back the straying sheep.

II. The SEVERITY OF GOD is exhibited -

1. In the punishment denounced against Israel . "Cut off;" "cast out of my sight;" "a proverb and a byword;" "shall be astonished and shall hiss"—these are its terms. But observe:

2. In the punishment inflicted . For how literally have these words been fulfilled! What an evidence of the truth of God the history of Israel supplies! This, at any rate, is no vaticinium ex eventu . "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" ( Luke 4:21 ). "A proverb and a byword"—eighteen centuries at least testify to the truth of these words. "Cast out of my sight;" let the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem (see Joshua, B.J. 5. ch. 10-13, Joshua 6:1-27 . passim . "Never" he says, "did any other city suffer such miseries") explain to us these words. And there is not a country of Europe, there is hardly a city, in which the history of the Jew is not traced in blood, written within and without in" mourning and lamentation and woe." Claudius expelled them from Borne ( Acts 18:2 ); our Edward I. drove them out of Guienne and England. "Ivanhoe" gives some idea of their treatment in this country; but a romance could not record a tithe of the horrors of which Clifford's Tower in York or the Jews' house in Lincoln could tell. And yet it is allowed that they have always been treated more tenderly in England than in the rest of Europe. But even here, and down to the present day, the word "Jew" is too often a name of hate. In Servia, in Moldavia and Wallachia, they are still the objects of fierce, persecution and.not always unmerited obloquy. Even the "Anti-Semitic League, now being organized in Germany, is a part of the "severity" of God, a proof of the "sure word of prophecy." In Jerusalem, again, the metropolis of their race, they are accounted the filth and offscouring of all things. At the Greek Easter the refrain is often heard in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, "O Jews, O Jews, your feast is a feast of apes." What a commentary, too, is the Jews' "place of wailing" on this scripture I The "holy and beautiful house" a desolation, the temple precincts trodden under foot of the Gentiles I Conqueror after conqueror, pilgrim after pilgrim, has asked the question, "Wherefore hath the Lord done thus?" etc; while the "ever extending miles of gravestones and the ever lengthening pavement of tombs and sepulchres" answer, "Because they have forsaken the Lord their God," etc. ( 1 Kings 9:9 ; Jeremiah 22:8 , Jeremiah 22:9 ).

"Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,

When will ye fly away and be at rest?

The wild dove hath its nest, the fox its cave,

Mankind their country—Israel but the grave."

Application . Romans 2:21 . In the history of the Israelitish nation we may see the principle of God's dealing with individual souls But we may also read in it a warning for the Christian Church ( Revelation 2:5 ).

HOMILIES BY J. WAITE