2 Chronicles 28:1-27

EXPOSITION

This chapter is paralleled by 2 Kings 16:1-20. There is a great deal gained in this case by addition on the two accounts, however. Our chapter contains the wickedness by idolatry of Ahaz, the severe punishment thereof by the King of Syria, the Syrian captivity of Judah, and the release of the latter so unexpectedly (2 Chronicles 28:1-15); other punishments by war of Ahaz, his hardened heart, greater sins, and end (2 Chronicles 28:16-27). The united unsuccessful 'attacks of Syria and Israel, under Rezin and Pekah respectively, on Jerusalem, and attempt at the siege of Ahaz there; the Syrian recovery of Elath, and expulsion of the Jews thence, and the Assyrian taking of Damascus (2 Kings 16:5-9), are, though so full of interest, all omitted from our chapter.

2 Chronicles 28:1

Ahaz. The signification of this word is "graspng." Isaiah (Isaiah 7:1, Isaiah 38:8), Hosea, and Micah were contemporaries of Ahaz, whoso reign may be set down at B.C. 744-728. His name shows in the Assyrian tablets, Jahukhazi, or Jehoahaz.

2 Chronicles 28:2

Molten images; Hebrew, מַסֵּכוֹת. This was a characteristic sin of Israel, but Judah had not been guilty of making molten images during late reigns.

2 Chronicles 28:3

Burnt incense … Hinnom. The sin of Solomon (1 Kings 11:7, 1 Kings 11:8) is reproduced. For the valley of the son of Hinnom, which curved round the south-west and west of Jerusalem (Ge Ben-Hinnom), see Conder's 'Handbook,' ch. 7. pp. 330-332. Burnt his children (see Le 2 Chronicles 18:21); but there cannot be any doubt that Ahaz's practice here stated was an incident of the Moloch-superstition and horrible cruelty (see the parallel in its 2 Chronicles 28:3, 2 Chronicles 28:4).

2 Chronicles 28:5

The King of Syria. The name of this king (Rezin) does not appear in this chapter, but it does in the parallel, 2 Chronicles 28:5, 2 Chronicles 28:6, 2 Chronicles 28:9. They smote him. A previous unsuccessful attempt of Rezin and Pekah is apparently passed over in our chapter (2 Kings 16:5), while the contents of our present yeas must be understood to have its place just before the last clause of 2 Chronicles 28:5 in the parallel, and to be significantly confirmed by the contents of its following verse. They smote … carried away … brought. These plurals strongly indicate the dialocation of sentences in compiled matter. They probably came from original sources, where the conjoined names of Rezin and Pekah had been the antecedents (see on this history, Isaiah 7:1-25; Isaiah 8:1-22; Isaiah 9:1-21.). Brought them to Damascus. The mode of the first introduction of the name of Ahaz in connection with Damascus in the parallel (2 Chronicles 28:10) is a suggestive illustration of how these parallel but very various narratives proffer to piece themselves, and in a wonderful manner clear their, whole subject of any possible taint of the "cunningly devised fable." A great multitude of Judah's people had been carried captives and "brought to Damascus." When the King of Assyria (parallel, 2 Chronicles 28:9) came to the help of Ahaz, he struck a fierce and evidently decisive blow against Damascus and Rezin, and to Damascus," to meat" Assyria's king, Tiglath-Pileser, the very next verso tells us, Ahaz. went—little doubt to pay his bills, over which a decent veil of silence is thrown. He was also delivered into the hand, etc. The form of this sentence, with its "also," and with its evidently tacked-on appearance, coupled with the conjunction "for" with which the following verso is dragged in, seems to give great probability to the idea, first, that the latter half of 2 Chronicles 28:5 and all of 2 Chronicles 28:6 find their real place before (say) the word "Damascus;" and secondly, that they are strictly and conterminously paralleled by the former part of 2 Chronicles 28:5 parallel.

2 Chronicles 28:6

(See foregoing note.) An hundred and twenty thousand. The number is large, but, the uncertainty of very many of these figures notwithstanding, it is impossible absolutely to pronounce it incredible. Because they had forsaken. The now frequent refrain of the writer.

2 Chronicles 28:7

The king's son. This can scarcely mean the child of Ahaz, considering Ahaz's age; some think a brother of the present king, son of Jotham, may be intended. We have also to fall back upon the use of the phrase, "king's son," for some special official of the king or court (see note on 2 Chronicles 18:25; and its parallel, 1 Kings 22:26). The governor of the house; Revised Version, ruler. We have probably a sufficient clue to this designation in 1 Kings 4:6; and the designation itself, 2 Chronicles 18:3; 2 Kings 18:18; 2 Chronicles 19:11. Next to the king; Hebrew, מִשְׁנֵה הַמֶּלֶךְ; literally, therefore, the next of the king, the general meaning of which expression cannot be doubtful, but the exacter scope and functions of the person under the kings of the divided kingdom thus designated is less certain. It is naturally to be supposed his place may have been king's deputy in councils in his absence, or in and over the city itself, when he was at a distance with an army.

2 Chronicles 28:8

To Samaria. While the Syrian king carried his captives to Damascus (2 Chronicles 28:5), the Israel king carried his to Samaria. The numbers in this verse, with the added hundred and twenty thousand whom Pekah slew (2 Chronicles 28:6), may be compared with the military strength of the kingdom in Uzziah's time, as given in 2 Chronicles 26:13.

2 Chronicles 28:9

The very interesting contents of this and the following six verses are not found in the parallel. A prophet of the Lord … Oded. We do not know any particulars of this prophet; for his name and its possible identity with the name Iddo, see notes on 2 Chronicles 9:29; 2 Chronicles 15:1, 2 Chronicles 15:8. The growingly frequent references to the interposition of the prophets is much to be noticed, and their dignity, courage, fidelity, are brought into grand relief. They are very typical of the moral presence of which no national history, a.s centuries solemnly flow on, gives the slightest symptom of a slackening need. The very same may be said alike of the truth and those qualified and commissioned to bear it, of the message and the messenger. Before the host; i.e. in very face of the host, somewhat too mildly rendered "to meet" the host, in 2 Chronicles 15:2, etc. In a rage that reacheth up unto heaven. To the wonderful life of this figure, that must strike every reader, must be added the force that comes of its moral rather than merely material suggestion—a moral suggestion that reminds us of that of the sentence of far greater antiquity, and from the sacred lip of the Inspirer of all prophets, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." The rage had not been that on which the sun did not go down; it had been so fierce that upon it the sun ought never to hare been required to look. See for interesting particulars and then more general references, Jeremiah 51:9; Ezra 9:6; Psalms 38:4; Genesis 18:21; Genesis 28:12; Job 20:6. The expression of the text, however, "reacheth," or "toucheth," cannot be understood to reproduce as a perfect equivalent the older above-quoted one of "crieth." In other words, the magnitude of the rage is the first thing set forth, and the particular language in which it is set forth well postulates the inference of its abominableness in God's sight.

2 Chronicles 28:10

For bondmen and bondwomen unto you. The denunciation of Deuteronomy 28:68 may be instructively compared with the emphatic prohibition of Le 25:46. The moral thread of ordinance that runs everywhere through the divinely established economy of the Old Testament Judaism should be devoutly observed. The verse, in the position of its words, furnishes an example of almost classical pattern: And now persons who are children of Judah and Jerusalem, ye are resolving within yourselves (literally, saying) to subdue into bondmen and bondwomen for yourselves.

2 Chronicles 28:11

The fierce wrath; i.e. not unannounced, for Oded means to say, "You are doing contrary to the Law and the Prophet Moses," as just quoted.

2 Chronicles 28:12

Oded's appeal, and forcible but most temperate and pertinent argument of the previous verses, was addressed to those who led the returning army, flushed with victory and haughty with their captives led in triumph, and, as 2 Chronicles 28:15 shows, cruelly, and with every deprivation of clothes and of shoes, etc. It now, however, fortunately meets with most welcome practical support from those (certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim) who had not had a hand in what had been done, and now stood by, in some measure like umpires. They, at any rate, are convinced, partly perhaps in that their blood was not hot with the battles that had been. We do not know particulars of these four worthier men, whose names, with their fathers', are here "expressed" (2 Chronicles 28:15). They were evidently conscious of their past sins, had fear toward God, were not of those who, sinning, hastened to sin yet more; but they wished to flee from the wrath to come, the "fierce wrath," already impending. Ephraim (see note on 2 Chronicles 25:7).

2 Chronicles 28:13

Hither. The returning army was, no doubt, on the outskirts of Samaria, though the exact site of this interesting scene is not written. For whereas we have offended against the Lord; Hebrew; לְאַשְׁמַת יְהוֹהָו עָלֵינוּ. Translate, For to the just cause of offence on the part of Jehovah with us, ye propose to add to our sins, and to the offence existing already with us; for great is that offence, etc. The genius of the word here rendered" offence," seems, from careful comparison of the eighteen times of its occurrence, to point to "guilt, sin," or "trespass," as the causes awakening offence in any one against these who do them. The repentant temper of these "heads of the children of Ephraim" was admirable, and indicated their distance from many, many others of their people and day, and Of Judah, who were either callous or reckless.

2 Chronicles 28:14

Before the princes and all the congregation; i.e. the four and those who were now congregated round them.

2 Chronicles 28:15

The men which were expressed by name; Revised Version, which have been expressed by name. This is the probable, yet hardly certain, meaning of the clause. My name should be "by names." And the meaning may be that "the men who were now specified by names for the work rose up," etc. Under any aspect, it was likely enough these would embrace the four who had already spoken so piously and seasonably (2 Chronicles 31:19; 1 Chronicles 12:31; 1 Chronicles 16:41). The captives; Hebrew, שִׁבְיָה; literally, the captivity; i.e. of course, the body of captives (Deuteronomy 21:11; Deuteronomy 32:42). Clothed … arrayed. These two renderings are both the same verb ( לָבַשׁ), and even the same (hiph.) conjugation. The undisguised, apparent repetition in the Hebrew text, veiled and disguised in both the Authorized and Revised Versions, may perhaps be owing to the intentness of the narrative on saying, first, that all who were literally naked were clothed from their own captive spoil; and then, secondly, that all whosoever (dusty, dirty, tired, footsore) were clothed, in the sense of being fresh dressed. The eleven particulars of this verso are uncommonly graphic in the Hebrew text brevity of description. The verse may read thus: And the men appointed by their names rose up, and took the captives by the hand, and all of the naked of them they dressed from the very spoil, and dressed them (all), and shod them, and fed them, and gave them drink, and anointed them, and carried upon asses all the feeble ones, and brought them to Jericho, city of palms, to the very side of their brethren, and … returned to Samaria. These made their own so far the blessedness of them of Matthew 25:34-36. Jericho; i.e. well within their own land, to a fertile and shaded spot of it, with plenty of water, and whence probably all might most easily wend their ways to their own district and town, Jericho lay on the border of Benjamin. See Stanley's most interesting account.

2 Chronicles 28:16

At that time did King Ahaz … kings of Assyria. The vagueness of this common formula, "at that time," would doubtless not have been apparent in the original sources. In the present instance we may fall back on our 2 Chronicles 28:5, 2 Chronicles 28:6 to give it distinctness; but see 2 Chronicles 28:5, 2 Chronicles 28:6, 2 Chronicles 28:7 of the parallel, which involve their own formula and the present in some little uncertainty. The kings of Assyria. The Septuagint and other versions show the singular number. Our plural may perhaps find an explanation in 2 Chronicles 30:6; 2 Chronicles 32:4.

2 Chronicles 28:17

The Edomites. So the work of Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:11, 2 Chronicles 25:14; 2 Kings 14:7) in reducing Edom was again undone (see also 2 Kings 16:7, where "Edom" should be read for "Aram").

2 Chronicles 28:18

The Philistines. These also had been subjugated again and again, and of late by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:6, 2 Chronicles 26:7), work that was now undone. The exultant relief to the Philistines, short-lived though it was, is referred to elsewhere, as in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 14:29, 81), the Psalms (Palm Psalms 60:8). Beth-shemesh. On the border of Judah (2 Chronicles 25:23, and our note there; 1 Chronicles 6:44). Ajalon, This was also on the border (1 Chronicles 6:54; 2 Chronicles 11:10). Gederoth. This was in the Shefelah (Joshua 15:41). Shocho; or, Socho, one of Rehoboam's cities, near the Philistines, and therefore selected for fortification (2 Chronicles 11:7). Timnah. This bordered on Dan (Joshua 15:10). Gimzo. Not elsewhere mentioned, but well known in the modern village Jimzu, its site on what would have been the border of Dan. They dwelt there. This expression is, of course, designed to indicate that the Philistines obtained successfully some foothold.

2 Chronicles 28:19

Ahaz King of Israel. So Jehoshaphat was called in 2 Chronicles 21:2 "King of Israel." If these two occasions are not merely cases of the writer's or of a copyist's easily imaginable mistake, they must be regarded as naming the king of the chief divided kingdom by the title of the whole kingdom or people. He made Judah naked; Revised Version, had dealt wantonly in Judah; or margin, Revised Version, had cast away restraint in Judah; Hebrew, הִפְרִיַע.

2 Chronicles 28:20

Tilgath-Pilneser (see 1 Chronicles 5:6, 1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 16:10, our parallel. See our notes in full on 1 Chronicles 5:6, 1 Chronicles 5:26). Gesenius dates his reign as King of Assyria as B.C. 753-734; others as about B.C. 747-728. Distressed him, but strengthened him not. This is in our writer's usual deeper moral and religious vein, and was no doubt most true. For all Ahaz paid and bribed out of the sacrilegiously employed treasure of the temple, out of the depreciating and partial dismantling of "the house of the king," and out of the begged contributions or taxes extortionately wrung "of the princes" (see the succinct account of next verse, and compare the parallel in its 2 Chronicles 28:8, 2 Chronicles 28:18), he bought a master for himself, servitude, tributariness, and the humiliation of disgrace itself. The temporary relief he obtained (and which the writer of Chronicles in no way means to deny) from one enemy rivetted round his neck the yoke of another and greater. And worse than this, he secured in his own heart the greatest adversary of all—a restless, implacable foe, which ever goaded him on to worse folly and deeper sin.

2 Chronicles 28:21

Add to references of last verse 2 Chronicles 16:2; 2 Kings 12:18; 2 Kings 18:15. But he helped him not. See the parallel in its 2 Kings 18:9 (2 Kings 16:1-20.), and note on our foregoing verse.

2 Chronicles 28:22

This is that King Ahaz. Expunge the words in italic type. Revised Version, this same King Ahaz. But the most literal rendering will be the most forcible: He, the King Ahaz.

2 Chronicles 28:23

He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him. The writer must be understood to speak from the point of view of Ahaz, in putting it, that it was the gods of Damascus who smote." The formula, all Israel, is a clear instance of how the name "Israel" is used as "Judah." The gods of Damascus were, of course, the same with those of Syria, of which Damascus was capital. Their names were Rimmon, Tabrim-men, Hadad, and some others. Perhaps no verse in Chronicles is more typical of the special moral aspects and aims of the writer.

2 Chronicles 28:24

This verse (completed, indeed, by the verse following) heightens to its climax the description of the guilt of Ahaz, which grew to madness. 2 Chronicles 28:17, 2 Chronicles 28:18 of the parallel enlarge our view of what Ahaz did in the way of destruction, relating his mutilation of the bases and laver and sea, after also the displacement of the brazen altar in favour of that the pattern of which he had sent from Damascus to Urijah the priest, who must have been a consenting party to the iniquity. Our 2 Chronicles 30:14 speaks of the time that came when these wicked steps of king and priest began to be retraced, and, with the previous verses of same chapter, are the sad but interesting reverse of the present passage. The modern Jews commemorate, by the observance of a fast, this mournful crisis of Judah's history.

2 Chronicles 28:26

The book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Parallel (2 Chronicles 28:19), "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah."

2 Chronicles 28:27

Slept with his fathers … buried … in the city,… Jerusalem … not brought into the sepulchres of the kings. Parallel (2 Chronicles 28:20), "slept with his fathers … buried with his fathers in the city of David." See our notes on 2 Chronicles 26:23 (parallel, 2 Kings 15:7); 2 Chronicles 24:25 (parallel, 2 Kings 12:21); 2 Chronicles 21:20 (parallel, 2 Kings 8:24).

HOMILETICS

2 Chronicles 28:1-27

This King Ahaz: the progress of a king literally devoid of religion.

In such words, the significance of which no one can mistake, is the royal person who is the chief subject of this chapter pointed to (2 Chronicles 28:22). Ahaz is the bad son of a good father. He is a type of those who begin badly, who are untaught by experience, who grow worse by suffering and adversity, and who end by maddening themselves, to their own destruction! The career of his father Jotham is written, apparently, without a fault, and without a reflection to be cast on him; the career of this son is written, apparently, without one redeeming feature to be put to his account. The contents of this chapter look like a series of pictures, marking a royal progress in wrongness, and which, in the issue, led to a very insanity of irreligion! In this progress notice how the king—

I. FORSOOK THE RIGHT MODEL. To be not "like his father David" was at once to want the stamp of a true royalty. To be "like the kings of Israel," the schismatic line, was to be stamped with the stamp of a base and ungenuine royalty. This description (2 Chronicles 28:2) of "the ways" in which Judah's king "walked" was, indeed, on the other hand, a fearful characterization for that same schismatic line of Israel. For Ahaz, however, thus to be, and be described, as at the beginning of his reign, when he was already arrived at the twenty-fifth year of his age, was an evil, anyway, of that worst calamity, viz. hope for an altered future almost hopelessly shut out! The augury proved too true. Ahaz counts for nothing Moses, as well as "his father David." He systematically "framed mischief by" his own "law," and the law of heathendom. He flagrantly breaks, and teaches the breaking of, the first two of the ever-venerable ten commandments—that vital Heaven-graven foundation-code of legislation of his kingdom. Sacrilege, idolatry, and each most heathenish practice and rite of un-"natural religion" he honours and follows. He gets as far as it is possible to get from "fearing" and "loving" and "serving" the Lord God of his fathers "with all the heart, and mind, and soul, and strength." For a young man, for any man to forsake the right model, the one Example, is to leave himself to pick among many, uncertain in every direction, except in the one certainty of all being wrong! One only safe right rule is ours to follow; "If the Lord be God, follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). Examples abound, but absolute safety and rightness can be found in one only.

II. NEGLECTED WARNING. The warning which Ahaz neglected, with a long succession, to say nothing of all those who may have gone before, was not merely warning written, preached loudly and earnestly and with prophet's voice proclaimed, but it was that practical warning, the ultimatum of all, the warning of consequences. Defeat, and the captivity of many of his people at the hand of the King of Syria; defeat, and the captivity of many of his people at the hand of the King of Israel; the slaying of his son, of the governor of his house, and of the man that was "the second to him in the kingdom;"—all these judgments, offering to bring closer and closer home to him and to his conscience the facts of the case, of his own sins, and of the consequences of those sins, he is blind to, or, not blind, he nevertheless disregards them to the very point of infatuation. But, again, not only are the practical warnings of "wrath" thus set at nought. Providences of mercy compete with those of "wrath" In one of the most remarkable and pathetic passages of all history, startling us by its lifelike and more than dramatic reality—a very monograph of pathos—seven verses (9-15) here record this providence. They tell us how, by the side of Judah's king, who refuses to give ear, to repent, or to learn, "certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim in Samaria," listen attentively to the remonstrance and teaching of the Prophet Oded, are open to the impression of the justness of what he says, see in a moment the truth of things for themselves, and reason without delay with the people, producing salutary convictions in them; and then, even with the atoning addition of all tenderest ministrations (2 Chronicles 28:15), lead back their captives of Judah to Jericho, to the shade of that "city of palm trees," and to the yet kinder shelter of "their brethren." What a practical message that was for a hardened heart like that of Ahaz! What an appeal and suggestion for the better feelings, if any, of Judah's king! But this too, this species of warning was in vain!

III. IMPROVED ADVERSITY TO THE GREATER INIQUITY, AND TO THE REAPING OF GREATER PUNISHMENT AND DEEPER DEGRADATION FOR HIMSELF AND NATION, The Edomites have successfully "smitten" him; the harrying incursions of the Philistines are ever on him; they take village after village, and also so take them, that they are safe in taking up their abode in them, for they dwelt there (2 Chronicles 28:18), Ahaz does not repent, and does not for a moment "seek to the Lord." The strickennees of sin is on him; the persistence in evil is his disease; the fatal aggravation of folly and infatuation of obstinacy cloud his brain, eclipse his reason, "make gross" his heart. He seeks to the King of Assyria, and bribes him with the sacred things of the house of the Lord, with the precious things of his own palace, with the robbed things of his princes. And that king takes all, but gives no help—"he helped him not" (2 Chronicles 28:21); mocks his defencelessness; makes sport of his supplications to him! To one deeper depth, in his deafened despair, he descends. Ahaz vows for his own the gods of those who "smote him" (2 Chronicles 28:23). His logic is that the house too of "the gods of the kings of Syria" may possibly prove a house divided against itself! It was a last, cruel, hapless resort! The refuge was the refuge of ruin—"the ruin of him, and of all Israel" (2 Chronicles 28:23), He ends all by entreating for his memory loathing unqualified. He hacks to pieces the collected "vessels of the house of God;" but shuts up (by just so much too late) "the doors of the house" itself; rears every wild altar; profanes with "high places every several city of Judah" to burn there the "incense of abomination;" excludes his own bones from the sepulchres of the best of his ancestors; and leaves us one more fearful lesson, that none and nothing make so sure a mock as sin itself makes of the "fool, who makes a mock" at it!

2 Chronicles 28:1-4

Spiritual rebound.

From Jotham to Ahaz, from the king who "made his ways firm before Jehovah" to the king who "made molten images for Baalim," and "burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen," what a terrible rebound, what a deplorable reaction! We may regard this as—

I. AN EVENT WHICH FREQUENTLY OCCURS.

1. Sometimes to the nation. We have a notable instance of this in the reaction from the Puritan strictness of the Commonwealth to the unbounded licence of the Restoration.

2. Sometimes to the Church. A sudden passing from the ardour of some fervent enthusiasm to the rigour of utter indifference and inactivity.

3. Sometimes to the family. When a godly, devoted, and useful parent is succeeded by a dissolute and mischief-working son (as in the text).

4. Sometimes in the individual. A man is led to the appearance (if not the reality) of piety and zeal; he worships regularly in the house of the Lord, and takes a prominent part in the activities of the Church; then with more or less of suddenness he declines; he abandons his religious convictions and his moral principles, and stands before society as a spiritual renegade, living to injure and destroy all he had appeared to love and had busied himself to promote.

II. ITS EXPLANATION.

1. Not in any law of human change. It may be contended that there is in the mind and in the history of man a constant ebb and flow as in the tides of the sea; that when a mental or moral movement has proceeded long and far in one direction, the time has come for a counter-movement in the opposite direction. But there is no reason, in the nature of things, why we should not move steadily on in the direction of wisdom and virtue. Such a tendency as this is not properly a law; it is only a generalization from a comparatively small number of particulars. Hence we also say:

2. Not in any inherent human fickleness. Man is more or less fickle; i.e. many men are very fickle, and some men are seriously so, and others slightly so. But other men are constant, faithful, loyal to the last. Man, as man, is under no necessity to change his course, to reverse his direction, to pursue what he has shunned, to pull down what he has built up. We find the explanation we seek:

3. Partly in the unwisdom of the good. Possibly Jotham may have been an unwise father in some material respects; he may have so acted, so ruled his royal household, as to present to his son an unattractive aspect of godliness; he may have failed to distinguish between the requirements of manhood and of youth. Certainly, if he did not, very many parents do, and this their folly is the account of the departure and defection of their sons. It is clear that the unwise austerity of the Puritans had much to do with the excesses of the following generation. Very often, indeed, the intemperate heats of some body of Christian or philanthropic men account, in a large degree, for the repugnance and retrogression of the community. Unwisdom in the good may be as mischievous in its results as the very transgressions of the wicked.

4. Partly in the shallowness of the piety or morality in question. When this is nothing more than mere habit, especially when that habit is of the body rather than of the mind, is fleshly rather than spiritual, it is not to be expected that loyalty will last; it is to be expected that the first strong wind of inclination, or of worldly interest, or of social pressure, will carry such a one away and bear him whithersoever it wills. The great lesson for parents, teachers, pastors, reformers, patriots, is this—dig deep if you would have your house stand. If you would not see your sons and daughters, your fellow-members or fellow-citizens swept round with the current, facing the wrong goal, exerting their influence for evil instead of for good, then do not be content with scattering seed anyhow and anywhere. Dig the deep furrow, sow the seed well; plant living convictions in the judgment and in the conscience of men. Get the whole nature on the side of truth and righteousness. If the man himself, and not only his external habits, not only his feelings and inclinations ― "if he himself, through his whole spiritual nature, gives himself to the service of Christ and of man, you need not fear the coming of an adverse tide; you need not fret about the fickleness of our kind; you will witness no painful and pitiable reaction; the path of those you serve will be one of continuous ascent; it will be "the path of the just, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."—C.

2 Chronicles 28:9-15

Divine and human pity.

A very striking and a most unusual incident is here related; it has very few parallels in the page of ancient history. The hand that struck down the enemy very rarely failed to strike him when he was down. Here we have a refreshing picture of human relenting; of men who had just presented the cup of woe putting to the lips of the suffering a cup of mercy. But first we have a picture of—

I. DIVINE PITY IN THE MIDST OF DIVINE PENALTY. It is clear that the people of Judah owed their defeat entirely to the fact that they had grievously sinned against the Lord (see 2 Chronicles 28:9). But there was a point beyond which justice did not demand that penalty should go. And at that point Divine pity might appear. There it did appear, and it arrested the hand of the cruel smiter. God sends judgment, but in wrath he "remembers mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2). He sends the serious sickness which brings pain and weakness, but at a certain point he sends the remedy and restoration. He brings down upon the guilty the strong indignation of their kind, but he raises up the compassionate and the considerate who visit the prisoner or the lonely with words of friendly sympathy and cheer. He brings the strong but rebellious kingdom to defeat and humiliation, but he causes it to grow up again to competence and power. He bruises, but he does not shatter; he lays low, but he raises up.

II. OFFICIAL FAITHFULNESS. Oded had a difficult and dangerous part to play on this occasion, but he bore himself right nobly (2 Chronicles 28:9-11). He did not flinch from words of energetic condemnation (2 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Chronicles 28:10), or from words of unpalatable advice (2 Chronicles 28:11). If God puts us into any responsible position, whether in the family, or in the Church, or in the city, or in the councils of the nation, we are most sacredly bound to play our part courageously. No man is fitted to occupy a post of trust and honour unless he is prepared, at times, to say and do that which is likely to be resented. Though we may not be called upon to face a triumphant army with words of remonstrance and command, as Oded did now, yet we are sure to be under obligation to say that which is unacceptable and to confront the dislike and disapproval of men. If we are not prepared to do that, we had better stand down at once, and take a lower place. Certainly we are not qualified to speak for God.

III. HUMAN INFLUENCE. We have two instances of human influence being exercised with remarkable success. The outspoken prophet persuades the princes, and they in their turn persuade the soldiers to release the captives and to abandon the spoil which they had taken. This was a truly remarkable success. To induce men who are flushed with victory to forego the advantages they have won with the sword is to accomplish a great feat. It shows what man can do with man; what influence a strong voice can exert upon the human heart.

1. It is always well worth while to interpose between men and the wrong they are meditating; we may save them from great guilt and others from great suffering.

2. We must be in downright earnest, and speak with entire fearlessness and frankness, as both prophet and princes did now, or we shall not succeed. We must speak as those who are perfectly convinced, as those who know what is right, and have no hesitation at all as to the course which should be taken.

IV. HUMAN PITY. Instead of slaughtering their prisoners, which in that age might have been done without pity or remorse, we have these soldiers of Israel showing all possible kindness to them (2 Chronicles 28:15). It is a common thing now for men to show a magnanimous kindness to their fallen enemy even on the battle-field. But the teaching of the Lord of love has done its work to some considerable extent, and has mercifully modified the cruelties of war. The scene of the text was something of an anticipation of the injunction, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." It is for us to illustrate the spirit then shown, on every opportunity. We should spare those who are in our power; it may be in the domain of business; it may be in the social circle; it may be round the domestic table; it may be in something so simple as a debate, so common as an ordinary argument. But wherever or whatever it be, to spare our opponent when he is down, to save him from the miseries Of defeat, to put him in the way of return to self-respect and honour, to "take back our captives to Jericho," is to do no more than these Israelites did on this particular occasion; it is to do no less than our Master requires of us at all times and under every circumstance (Matthew 5:43-48).—C.

2 Chronicles 28:17-19

Blow upon blow.

Ahaz was a very great transgressor, and he was (as we might expect he would be) a very great sufferer. He received blow upon blow from the righteous hand of that holy Ruler who by present and temporal visitations was educating his people in the ways of heavenly wisdom. First Rezin King of Syria defeated him, and carried away many captives to Damascus (2 Chronicles 28:5). Then Pekah King of Israel slew his army with a great and pitiless slaughter (2 Chronicles 28:6). Then the Edomites smote Judah, and went away with the usual spoil (2 Chronicles 28:17). Then the Philistines "invaded the cities of the low country," and took several important places (2 Chronicles 28:18). Thus "the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz.' One blow fell after another, until the land was thoroughly smitten and stripped, left "naked to its enemies" (2 Chronicles 28:19). We are reminded by these successive inflictions of—

I. THE ACCUMULATING PENALTY WHICH SIN ALWAYS PAYS.