Our Bible Band | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 10, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 24.

Our Bible Band.

Schedule for Week Ending June 20.


Sunday	June 14	2 Chron. 7, 8	Proverbs 12
Monday	“ 15	“ 9, 10	“ 13
Tuesday	“ 16	“ 11, 12	“ 14
Wednesday	“ 17	“ 13, 14	“ 15
Thursday	“ 18	“ 15, 16	“ 16
Friday	“ 19	“ 17, 18	“ 17
Sabbath	“ 20	“ 19, 20	“ 18

Suggestive Notes.

Our lesson this week begins with the manifestation of God’s approval after the prayer of Solomon in sending down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices. The remainder of the chapter gives an account of the feast that was held, the finishing of the house of Jehovah, and God’s gracious message to the king.

Chapter eight records some of the various buildings erected by Solomon; his treatment of the Canaanites that were left in the land, incidents connected with his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh; and the appointments of the priests; also the fact that he had ships which were sent to the land of Ophir for gold. This Ophir is supposed by some to be in South Central Africa.

Chapter nine records the visit of the Queen of Sheba; the vast riches of Solomon, and the luxury and magnificence of his court, some of the very things which led him astray.

Chapters ten to twelve inclusive are a brief record of the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon; his foolishness in taking the advice of the young men instead of the old; the rebellion of ten tribes; the cities which he builded; the wives which he married, and his humiliation under Shishak, king of Egypt, the first one who despoiled the temple of the gold which Solomon had placed there. King Rehoboam put shields of brass in the place of the shields of gold; an evidence that the glory had already departed from Judah. Chapter thirteen is an account of the reign of Jeroboam in Israel, covering the reign of Rehoboam, and a part of the reign of Abijah. Between these kingdoms there was war in which Judah conquered.

Chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen record the acts of king Asa, one of the truly great kings of Judah, yet one who ended his days in foolishness, his wrath having been aroused by the prophet of God who reproved him. He died of sore diseases, the record stating that he sought not to Jehovah, but to the physicians. That he was loyal to God is evidenced in the character of the son who followed him, a greater king even than his father. The story of his reign is given in chapters seventeen to twenty. Jehoshaphat was truly a great king. He appointed teachers throout the land of Judah to teach the people the right way. The great mistake that he made was in entering into alliance with Ahab of Israel, for which he was reproved by the prophet. His loyalty and devotion to God show that when he was reproved he humbled himself under the reproof; when in trouble he sought to the God of his fathers. The twentieth chapter is a blessed record of victory by faith; a victory assured by faith before it was actually accomplished.

While Jehoshaphat was the best of kings, the great mistake that he made in allying himself with the house of Ahab was the means of the corruption of his own household. Jehoram, his son who followed him, as told in the 21st chapter, married the daughter of wicked Ahab and Jezebel. The beginning of his reign was signalized in the destruction of all his brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat. Edom, which had been subject to Judah, revolted under his reign, as did also Libnah. God could no longer impress upon the subject peoples His fear. He also led the people away from the worship of God to idolatry and finally died of an incurable disease after a brief reign of eight years. It is said that he departed without being desired. The people would not give him burial in the sepulcher of the kings. Ahaziah, his youngest son, followed him, beginning his reign at the age of forty-two, reigning one year only, following in the footsteps of his mother Athaliah, the grand-daughter of Omri. He was slain by Jehu, who found him with the king of Israel when he came to execute the Lord’s vengeance upon the house of Ahab. The fiendishness of his mother is manifest in the destruction of all the seed royal when she heard that her son was dead. She slew all the king’s sons with the exception of one infant which was stolen by his nurse and brought into the temple and nourished therein.

Our lessons in Proverbs are from the 12th to the 18th chapter inclusive. Intensely striking and practical are all these wonderful sayings, full of wisdom for every walk of life.