1 Kings 5:7-12

compared with 1 Kings 16:1-34 :81 and 1 Kings 18:4 . Tyre and Israel—a lesson on personal influence. Twice in the history of Israel were its relations with the neighbouring kingdom of Tyre close and intimate. Twice did the Phoenician race exercise an important influence on the Hebrew people. In the days of Solomon the subjects of Hiram furnished men and materials to build a house to the name of the Lord. The Phoenicians were not only idolaters, but they belonged to the accursed races of Canaan, yet we see them here assisting the holy people, and furthering the interests of the true religion. But in the days of Ahab these relations were reversed. Then the kingdom of Ethbaal furnished Israel with a princess who destroyed the prophets of the Lord and sought to exterminate the religion of which the temple was the shrine and centre. In the first case, that is to say, we see Israel influencing Tyre for good; we hear from the lips of the Tyrian king an acknowledgment of the goodness of the Hebrew God; we see the two races combining to bring glory to God and to diffuse the blessings of peace and civilization amongst men. In the second case, we see Tyre influencing Israel for evil. No longer do the skilled artificers of Zidon prepare timber and stones for the Lord's house, but the prophets and votaries of Phoenician deities would fain break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers. So tar from rearing a sanctuary to Jehovah, they would root up His worship and enthrone a foul idol in the place of the Divine Presence. Such have been at different times the relations of Tyre and Sidon to the chosen race and the true religion.

Now why was this fatal difference? Why was the influence in one age so wholesome, in another so baleful? It may be instructive to mark the causes of this change. But observe, first—

I. IT WAS NOT THAT THE PHOENICIAN CREED WAS CHANGED . In its essential features that was the same B.C. 1000 ( temp. Solomon) and B.C. 900 ( temp. Ahab). It was always idolatrous, always immoral, always an infamous cultus of the reproductive powers. The gods of Hiram were the gods of Ethbaal, and the rites of the latter age were also the rites of the former.

II. IT WAS NOT THAT THE LAW OF THE LORD WAS CHANGED . The idolatry which it forbade at the first period, it forbade at the second. It never tolerated a rival religion; it always condemned the Phoenician superstition. That is, semper eadem.

III. IT WAS NOT THAT HIRAM WAS A PROSELYTE . This was the belief of the divines of a past age, but there is no evidence in its favour.

We see then that it was no change in either of the religious systems. No; it was a change of persons made this difference. It was brought about by the personal influence of three or four kings—of Solomon, Jeroboam, Omri, Ahab. But before we trace the influence they respectively exercised, observe—

I. THE WHOLESOME RELATIONS BETWEEN HIRAM AND SOLOMON , BETWEEN TYRE AND ISRAEL , i.e; WERE DUE TO THE PIETY OF DAVID . "Hiram was ever a lover of David." The timber he supplied for the temple was not the first he had sent ( 2 Samuel 5:11 ). The league between the two kings ( 1 Kings 5:12 ), and their joint undertakings ( 1 Kings 5:18 ; 1 Kings 9:27 ), were the fruits of David's righteous dealings.

II. THE RELATIONS CONTINUED WHOLESOME AND BENEFICIAL SO LONG AS THE LAW OF THE LORD WAS KEPT . During David's reign, and the earlier part of Solomon's, the commerce of the two nations was to their mutual advantage. Then the Jew came into contact with idolatry unhurt. The soil was not ready for the baleful seed. At a later period (see Homily on 1 Kings 10:22 ) it was otherwise.

III. THE LAW WAS NO SOONER VIOLATED THAN THE INFLUENCE OF TYRE BECAME HURTFUL . The Zidonian women in Solomon's harem were a distinct violation of the law ( 1 Kings 11:1 ), and that trespass bore its bitter fruit forthwith ( 1 Kings 11:7 , 1 Kings 11:8 ). The principal factors, consequently, in the change were these—

I. THE INFLUENCE OF SOLOMON . If he built altars for his Tyrian consorts, what wonder if the people learnt first to tolerate, then to admire, and at last to practise idolatry. Who can tell how much the frightful abominations of Ahab's days are due to the example of wise Solomon, to the influence of the builder of the temple?

II. THE INFLUENCE OF JEROBOAM . The cultus of the calves, though it was not idolatry, paved the way for it. That violation of the law opened the door for departures greater still. It was no great step from the calves to the groves, from schism to utter apostasy.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF OMRI . Nations, like individuals, do not become infamous all at once ( Nemo repente turpissimus fuit ) . They have their periods and pro. cesses of depravation. Omri carried Jeroboam's evil work a step further; possibly he organized and formulated his system ( Micah 6:16 ). He exceeded all his predecessors in wickedness, and so prepared the way for his son's consummation of impiety.

IV. THE INFLUENCE OF AHAB . A second violation of the Jewish marriage law opened wide the gates to the pestilent flood of idolatries. The son of Omri weds the daughter of a priest of Astarte; and Phoenicia, once the handmaid of Israel, Becomes its snare. Now the ancestral religion is proscribed, and the elect people lends itself to unspeakable abominations ( 1 Kings 16:32 ; cf. 2 Kings 10:26 , 2 Kings 10:27 ; Revelation 2:20 ). It may be said, however, that all this was the work of Jezebel, and due to her influence alone ( 1 Kings 21:25 ; cf. 1 Kings 18:13 ; 1 Kings 19:2 , etc.) That may be so, hut it was only the example of Solomon, the schism of Jeroboam, and the apostasy of Omri made this marriage possible, or enabled Jezebel, when queen, to do these things with impunity. Hence learn—

I. THE POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE . An idle word may destroy a kingdom. The Crimean war sprung out of the squabbles of a few monks over a cupboard and a bunch of keys. "There is not a child… whoso existence does not stir a ripple gyrating onward and on, until it shall have moved across and spanned the whole ocean of God's eternity, stirring even the river of life and the fountains at which His angels drink" And our responsibility is increased by the fact that—

II. THE EVIL THAT MEN DO LIVES AFTER THEM . They go on sinning in their graves. Though dead, their example speaks. Witness Solomon and Jeroboam.

III. THE EVIL THAT KINGS DO AFFECTS WHOLE COUNTRIES . Their own kingdoms, of course, and neighbouring kingdoms too. It has been said that "the influence of one good man extends over an area of sixteen square miles." But who shall assign any limits to the influence of a wicked prince? It may plunge a continent into wars, and wars that shall last for generations, or it may steep it for ages in sensuality and superstition. Its issues, too, are in eternity. It is because of the influence of kings that we are so plainly commanded to pray for them ( 1 Timothy 2:2 ; cf. Ezra 6:10 ; Jeremiah 29:7 ).

IV. IN KEEPING OF GOD 'S COMMANDMENTS IS GREAT REWARD . The perfect piety of David procured the friendship and help of Tyre. The disobedience of Solomon, Jeroboam, and Ahab led to the decay and dispersion of the nation and the destruction of their families.

V. TEMPTATION DISCIPLINES THE FAITHFUL SOUL , BUT DESTROYS THE SINNER . David took no harm from his commerce with Hiram, nor did Solomon in the days of his piety. A good man will choose the good and refuse the evil in a corrupt system. But the wicked will choose the evil and refuse the good. Ahab's relations with Tyre were altogether to his hurt. In David's loyal heart the evil seed found no lodgment; in Ahab's it found a congenial soft, and took root downwards and bare fruit upwards.