Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1915-08-11
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Text Of the Lesson, Kings xii, $3.50.
Memory Verses, %, 2e-Goiden Text,
Elk. Xxx, 4, 5a-commentary Prepared
by Rev. .. M. Stearns.

/
| When we hear Jeroboam saying In
his heart, Now shall the kingdom re-
turn 10 the house Of David, they
shall Kill rae and go again 10 Reho-
boam. king OF judah" verses &c, 20,
and remember that God had said TO
him If he would walk in His ways and
Go right in His sight, He would be with
him and build him a sure house xxi. 81,
3S). we cannot see any evidence In
jeroboam of any faith In God or any
heart for Him. When he took counsel
and made the calves Of gold and set
/ them up at Bethel and Dan for Israel
| TO worship, saying. Behold thy gods.
o Israel, which brought thee up out OF
| the land of Egypt VERSES 2S, 29), he
proved himself an idolator and liar
and true child of the devil. He pre-
ferred his own way TO Gods way.
darkness rather than light, the service
of the devil rather than that of God
| His sacrifices and his feasts, his altar
! and his incense, were all the device
Of his own heart Verse 33), and II is
written Of him again and again through
oil the story Of the ten tribes, Zero
boam, the son of Nebat, who made
| Israel to sin" lie never turned from
his evil way, but did worse and worse
and after reigning twenty-five years he
died and was succeeded by his son
| Nadab, who followed IN his fathers
footsteps xiv, 20; XIV, %, 90. Reho-
boam reigned IN Judah seventeen
! years, but he also did evil in the sight
of the Lord. and led the people into
| idolatry and into all the denominations
| of the nations which the Lord cast ont
| before the children of Israel xiv, 2l
"a.
This is story OF long ago, but is be
ing repeated on all sides before our
eyes today, and as truly as the time
came when both the ten tribes and the
two tribes went into captivity for their
sins, so the time will come, is even
now drawing near, when the Lord will
spue out of His mouth the processing
church because Of her sins aud set up
His kingdom Of righteousness and
peace on this earth REV. iii. l4-22)
The church. the company of believers,
is expected TO represent Jesus Christ
on this earth, as Israel was expected
to represent the Lord God Of Israel;
to walk in His ways and do right In
His sight. From the beginning God
has wrought by His Spirit and His
word and His own power Thus He
created all things in the beginning and
thus He restored all things after the
catastrophe Gen. 1, 1; If. 8; rs. xxxiii.
@. In all the history of Israel He re-
deemed, He fed, He guided. He said
TO His apostles. 1T is not We that
speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you" Matt X, 20l.
1t Is written of Stephen. "They were
not able TO resist the wisdom and the
Spirit by which he spake" (Acts vi, 10l.
When we consider the worldly abom.
nations which are found In the
churches Of our day and the false
teaching, such as the denial of the vir-
gin birth, the deity of Christ, His
vicarious atonement QHis suffering for
our sins In our stead, His literal resur-
rectlon from the dead, present ministry
of intercession for His people. and
coming again for His own and later
with His own to set up His kingdom,
does it not seem as If many Of the
leaders of our day are, with their in
creased light, worse in their idolatry
and unbelief than were Jeroboam and
Rehoboam? In all ages God has had
His own faithful ones, though always
only few comparatively. One day as
Jeroboam stood by his altar at Bethel
to burn incense there came a man of
God out Of judah with a message from
the Lord, and he said that one would
come from the house David, called Jo-
siah, who would burn the bones OF the
false priests upon that altar; and as a
sign that 1t would be so the altar was
then rent and the ashes scattered.
Jeroboam attempted to lay hold Of
the man Of God, but his hand dried
up, and he could not draw Ii back
again until the man of God prayed for !
him. Then he asked the man of God |
to go home with him that he might re-
fresh him with food and give him n
reward; but he replied that he was
charged by the Lord not to do this. |
Shortly after this an old prophet Of
Bethel, who had been told by his sons
Of this incident, saddled his ass and !
found the man of God sitting under
an oak and invited him home, but the !
man Of God replied as he did to Zero
boam. Then the old prophet said that |
an angel had told him to come for
him and TO bring him home. but the !
old man lied.) To this the man of God I
yielded and went home with the old |
prophet. AS they sat at table a strange
message came through the old prophet. /
which was fulfilled when the man Of /
God left HIS house, for lion met him !
and killed him, but did not eat him
and did not harm the ass on which he
rode. This story Is fully recorded IN
Kings kill The fuldIlment of the
man OF Gods prpdiction Some 400 |