the great central Sanctuary, and the descendants of David were to be the rightful occupants of the throne

until He came Who was David's greater Son.

God had linked the Son of David with His City and the Temple, so that the final destruction of the latter

marked the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the house of David. Thus gloriously did the promise

stretch beyond the immediate future, with its troubles and afflictions. Lastly, so far as regarded Jeroboam,

the promise of succession to the kingdom of Israel in his family was made conditional on his observance of

the statutes and commandme nts of God, as David had kept them (ver. 38). But Jeroboam was of far other

spirit than David. His main motive had been personal ambition. Unlike David, who, though anointed king,

would make no attempt upon the crown during Saul's lifetime, Jeroboam, despite the express warning of God,

"lifted up his hand against the king." The result was failure  173 and flight into Egypt.

Nor did Jeroboam keep the statutes and commandments of the LORD; and after a brief reign his son fell by

the hand of the assassin (1 Kings 15:28). Lastly, and most important of all - the Messianic beating of the

promise to David, and the Divine choice of Jerusalem and its Temple, were fatally put aside or forgotten by

Jeroboam and his successors on the throne of Israel. The schism in the kingdom became one from the

Theocracy; and the rejection of the central Sanctuary resulted, as might have been expected, in the

establishment of idolatry in Israel.

Nor did King Solomon either live or die as his father David. A feeble attempt - perhaps justifiable - to rid

himself of Jeroboam, and no more is told of him than that, at the close of a reign of forty years,174 he "slept

with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father."

So far as we know, in that death-chamber no words of earnest, loving entreaty to serve Jehovah were

spoken to his successor, such as David had uttered; no joyous testimony here as regarded the past, nor yet

strong faith and hope as concerned the future, such as had brightened the last hours of David. It is to us a

silent death-chamber in which King Solomon lay. No bright sunset here, to be followed by a yet more

glorious morning. He had done more than any king to denationalize Israel. And on the morrow of his death,

rebellion within the land; outside its borders - Edom and Syria ready to spring to arms, Egypt under Shishak

gathering up its might; and only a Rehoboam to hold the rudder of the State in the rising storm.