The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-08-11
SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Lesson vll.-Third Quarter, For
Aug. IS, 1915.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.

Text of the Lesson, Kings xii, 25- 80.
Memory Verses, %, 2e-GoIden Text,
Elk. Xxx, a, 5a-commentary Prepared
by Rev. D. M. Stearns.
When we hear Jeroboam saying in
his heart, Now shall the kingdom re-
turn to the house of David, they
shall kill me and go again to Reno
boam, king of Judah" verses &c, %,
and remember that God had said to
him If he would walk in His ways and
do right in His sight, He would be with
him and build him 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 %, 90, he
proved himself an idoIator and a liar
and a 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.
and his incense, were all the device
of his own heart verse 33), and it is
written of him again and again through
all the story of the ten tribes, Zero
bOam, the son of Nebat, who made
Israel to sim" He never turned from
his evil way, but did worse and worse.
and after reigning twenty years he
died and was succeeded by his son
Nadab, who followed in his fathers
footsteps xiv, 20; XIV, %, 26). 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 out
before the children of Israel xiv, 81
24.
This is a 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 and set up
His kingdom of righteousness and
peace on this earth (Rev. iii, 1922.
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. i. 1; Ii, 3; Ps. xxxiii,
| g.. In all the history of Israel He re-
deemed, He fed. He guided. He said
to His apostles, at is not We that
speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh. in you (AIatt K, 2O.
1t is written of Stephen, "They were
not able to resist the wisdom and the
Spirit by which he spake' (Acts vi, 1O).
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
yicarious atonement Oils suffering for
| our sins in our stead, His literal resur-
rection 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 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 it 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 it 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 a
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
| VI ILLS lnClueul, Stuulcu Ills ass anu
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
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 a 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 xiii. The fulfllment of the
man of Gods prediction some 300
years later is found in II Kings xiii
As to the death of the man OF God for
disobedience have often wondered
If Paul had 1t in mind when he wrote
Gal. 1, s. 0. According to those words
there are many who are under that
curse because they do not preach the
simple gospel We must hear only
what God the Lord has said Ops. lxxxv
b and be deaf to all else.