1 Kings 16:21-34

Change without improvement.

I. OMRI 'S INDEBTEDNESS TO DIVINE GOODNESS .

1 . His success against Zimri ( 1 Kings 16:15-25 ). The traitor fell before him almost without a struggle.

2 . Against Tibni . Israel was equally divided, yet his life was preserved and the kingdom given to him. Men pass up to place and means and influence through a pathway which, if it is only looked back upon and considered, is full of power to touch the heart and bow it under the will of God. I) o we read the story of our past, and let it touch us with the tale of God's marvellous mercy?

II. HIS SIN .

1 . His hardness of heart . Not only was he blind to God's mercy. He passed up unawed through the midst of the terriblest judgments and the most marked fulfilment of God's threatenings. Neither the goodness nor the severity of God was allowed to touch him.

2 . He " did worse than all that were before him ." He was a man of energy and worldly wisdom. Both were bent to strengthen his power. He went further than Jeroboam, who seduced Israel, for he seems to have compelled them (see the mention of Omri's statutes, Micah 6:16 ) to sacrifice before the calves. Great talents, if joined to a selfish, hardened heart, only carry men further away from God.

III. HIS SIN 'S FRUIT ( 1 Kings 16:29-34 ).

1 . In his son's character and reign .

2 . In the people's contempt of Jehovah . Hiel's act was done in the face of Israel, yet it was not forbidden; its commission awakened no fear. The man was left childless, yet judgments so harrowing and fulfilments of prophecy so marked had no effect upon his own soul. The legislation that blots out God's ordinances delivers a people over to darkness and judgment.—J.U.

HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD