66
Prophets and Kings
vindicate his own disobedience. In the rent altar, in the palsied arm, and
in the terrible fate of the one who dared disobey an express command
of Jehovah, Jeroboam should have discerned the swift displeasure of
an offended God, and these judgments should have warned him not
to persist in wrongdoing. But, far from repenting, Jeroboam “made
again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever
would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the
high places.” Thus he not only sinned greatly himself, but “made Israel
to sin;” and “this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even
to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.”
Verses 33,
34
;
14:16
.
Toward the close of a troubled reign of twenty-two years, Jeroboam
met with a disastrous defeat in a war with Abijah, the successor of
Rehoboam. “Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days
of Abijah: and the Lord struck him, and he died.”
2 Chronicles 13:20
.
The apostasy introduced during Jeroboam’s reign became more and
more marked, until finally it resulted in the utter ruin of the kingdom of
Israel. Even before the death of Jeroboam, Ahijah, the aged prophet at
[108]
Shiloh who many years before had predicted the elevation of Jeroboam
to the throne, declared: “The Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken
in the water, and He shall root up Israel out of this good land, which He
gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because
they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger. And He
shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and
who made Israel to sin.”
1 Kings 14:15, 16
.
Yet the Lord did not give Israel up without first doing all that could
be done to lead them back to their allegiance to Him. Through long,
dark years when ruler after ruler stood up in bold defiance of Heaven
and led Israel deeper and still deeper into idolatry, God sent message
after message to His backslidden people. Through His prophets He
gave them every opportunity to stay the tide of apostasy and to return to
Him. During the years that were to follow the rending of the kingdom,
Elijah and Elisha were to live and labor, and the tender appeals of
Hosea and Amos and Obadiah were to be heard in the land. Never
was the kingdom of Israel to be left without noble witnesses to the
mighty power of God to save from sin. Even in the darkest hours some
would remain true to their divine Ruler and in the midst of idolatry
would live blameless in the sight of a holy God. These faithful ones