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A. In process of time he forgot his great obligations to God; he took wives and concubines in multitudes, and that out of the idolatrous nations; and by them his heart was so far led away after other gods, that he built places of worship for them very near Jerusalem, and offered sacrifices to them.

1 Kings xi. 1-9.

14 Q. How did God punish him for it?

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A. He stirred up several enemies against him, and particularly Jeroboam, his own servant. See 1 Kings xi. 14, 23, 26.

15 Q. What was Jeroboam's own pretence for disturbing the government?

A. The building of some expensive palace for Pharaoh's daughter, who was his queen, and the raising heavy taxes for that and other buildings, 1 Kings, ix. 24, xi. 27. xii. 4.

Note, Jeroboam doth not appear to charge Solomon with promoting idolatry, or with breaking the laws of God in divine worship; for he himself did so afterwards when he was king of Israel, which was a high provocacation in the eyes of God, both in Solomon and Jeroboam.

16 Q. And how far did God encourage Jeroboam in this opposition to Solomon ?

A. Ahijah the prophet, being sent of God, caught hold of Jeroboam's garment when he met him in the field, and rent it into twelve pieces, and gave ten of them to Jeroboam, 1 Kings xi. 29, &c.

17 Q. What was the meaning of this?

A. The prophet told him, that God had given him ten of the tribes of Israel, and had left the posterity of Solomon one tribe, that is, Judah and Benjamin, which were afterwards united into one, under the name of Jews, 1 Kings xi. 31. and xii. 20, 21. and 2 Chron. xi. 12.

18 Q. Was this fulfilled in Solomon s day?

A. No; for it pleased God to withhold these ca

lamities from the house of Solomon till the days of his son, 1 Kings xi. 12.

19 Q. Did Solomon ever repent of his sins that provoked the anger of God against him?

A. It is generally supposed that the book of Ecclesiastes is a sort of proof that Solomon repented, because he there describes the vanity of every labour and every enjoyment under the sun, and sums up all in the "fear of God and keeping his commandments, as the whole duty and chief interest of man," Eccles, i. and ii. and xii. 13, 14.

20 Q. How long did Solomon reign.

A. Forty years; and though he had such a shame ful number of wives and concubines, yet he had left but one son behind him, whose name was Rehoboam, to succeed him in the kingdom of Israel, 1 Kings xi. 3, 42, 43.

21 Q. What was the character of Rehoboam ?

A. Though Solomon had written so many excellent lessons of morality and piety for his son in the book of Proverbs, and given him so many warnings, yet he followed evil courses; and Solomon himself seems to intimate it in the book of Ecclesiastes, c. ii. 19, "Who knoweth whether his son will be a wise man or a fool ?"

22 Q. What further occasion did Rehoboam give for the revolt of the tribes of Israel from him?

A. Upon the death of his father, and his accession to the throne, he despised the counsel of the old men, and harkened to the advice of rash young men; he threatened the nation of Israel, to "make their yoke heavier than his father had done, that is, to lay heavier taxes upon them, 1 Kings xii. 8, &c.

23 Q. What followed upon this threatening of king Rehoboam ?

A. All the tribes of Israel, except Judah and Benjamin, made Jeroboam their king; and thus the nation was divided into two kingdoms, which were afterwards called the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel, 1 Kings xii. 15, 20, 2 Chron. xi. 11, 12.

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CHAPTER XI.

OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL.

1 Q. How many kings reigned over Israel after they were separated from Judah ?

A. These nineteen, and not one of them was good; Jeroboam the first, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Žimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam the second, Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Peka, and Hoshea.

2 Q. Who were the most remarkable among these kings of Israel?

A. Jeroboam the first, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehu, Joash, Pekah, and Hoshea.

3 Q. What was the chief character and crime of Jeroboam?

A. Instead of worshipping God, who dwelt between the cherubs in the temple at Jerusalem, he made two golden images which are called calves, and set them up in two distant parts of the land of Israel, namely, Dan and Bethel, and taught the people to worship before them, 1 Kings xii. 28-30.

4 Q. What was the worship he appointed?

A. Something like the worship which God appointed at Jerusalem, with an altar, and priests, and sacrifices, and incense, ver. 32.

5 Q. Wherein did it differ from the worship at Jerusalem ?

A. Besides the forsaking of the temple and the place which God appointed, he also made priests of the lowest of the people, instead of the sons of Levi, and ordained feasts at a different time from that which God had appointed, and set up the images of calves to represent the presence of God, ver. 31, 32, and 2 Chron. xi. 14, 15, and xiii. 8, 9.

Note, Here it is not to be supposed that Jeroboam forsook the God of Israel, and taught the people to worship mere calves; but only that he devised of his own heart other times and places, and other forms and circum

stances of worship to be paid to the God of Israel; and that by images or idols, which were probably the figures of the cherubs on the mercy-seat where God dwelt, but the Scripture in contempt calls them calves. See chap. v. qu. 37. and chap. vii. qu. 3. And the wor ship is called idolatry, and "the worship of other gods." The prophet Hosea, who lived in the days of Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, perpetually rebukes this sin of idolatry, and inveighs against these idols, the calves. Hos. i. 1. viii. 3. 5. x. 5. and xiii. 2.

6 Q. For what end did Jeroboam do this?

A. He feared, if the people went up frequently to sacrifice at Jerusalem, they would be tempted to return again to Rehoboam king of Judah, 1 Kings xii. 26, 27, 28.

7 Q. What visible token of displeasure did God manifest against this worship which Jeroboam set up?

A. He sent a prophet to the altar at Bethel, who foretold that a son of the house of David, Josiah by name, should burn the bones of Jeroboam's priests upon the altar, 1 Kings xiii. 1, 2.

8 Q. What sign did the prophet give that this prophecy should be fulfilled?

A. The prophet foretold that the altar should be rent asunder, and the ashes poured out, both which were fulfilled immediately: and Jeroboam's hand withered when he stretched it out to lay hold of the prophet, ver. 3, 4, &c. though at the prayer of the prophet God restored it again.

9 Q. What other token did God give of his anger against Jeroboam?

A. God threatened Jeroboam and his family with utter destruction, so that none of them should find a grave, except Abijah his youngest son, because there were found in him some good inclinations toward the God of Israel, 1 Kings xiv. 13.

10 Q. Who was Omri?

A. The captain of the host of Israel, who was made king by the people when Zimri set up himself, 1 Kings xvi. 16.

11 Q. What is recorded concerning Omri? A. (1) That he besieged Zimri his predecessor closely in Tirzah, the royal city, that Zimri burnt himself and the palace together, and died. (2) That he built Samaria for the royal city on a hill. And (3) That he walked in all the sinful ways of Jeroboam, ver. 17-28.

12 Q. Who was Ahab, and what was his character ? A. Ahab was the son of Omri, who followed the wicked ways of his predecessors: he sinned against God and man grievously, and provoked God beyond all who were before him, ver. 29-33. and 1 Kings xxi. 25.

13 Q. How did God signify his displeasure against Ahab?

A. He sent Elijah the prophet to reprove him, and to foretell that there should be neither dew nor rain for several years, which accordingly came to pass, 1 Kings xvii. 1.

14 Q. How was Elijah himself fed during this famine?

A. He was appointed to hide himself by the brook Cherith, and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and the evening, and he drank of the water of the brook, ver. 5, 6.

15 Q. Whither did the prophet go when the brook was dried up?

A. God sent him to a woman of Sarepta, near Sidon, to be maintained by her, when she had only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, 1 Kings xvii. 9, &c.

16 Q. How could this maintain the woman, her son, and the prophet?

A. God wonderfully increased the oil and the meal, so that the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, till God sent rain upon the land, ver. 14, &c.

17 Q. What further miracles did Elijah work in this woman's family, to prove that he was sent from God?

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