1 Kings 14:13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave… I. THERE IS "SOME GOOD THING" SPOKEN OF "TOWARDS THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL." I suppose that all who spiritually read their Bibles will acknowledge, by this "good thing" is not to be understood any mere external good thing, such as rank, title, influence, or his prospects. We cannot say these are good things; only as they are sanctified to us, they become good things. It is evidently a description of a righteous man. This young man was one that feared God and loved God; he knew God savingly. Nothing else can come up to the expression of there being "some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel"; nothing short of that can be a "good thing toward the Lord God of Israel." It must be the new creation in the soul; it must be the principle of grace in the heart. II. BUT THIS "GOOD THING" WAS FOUND IN A PLACE WHERE IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BUT LITTLE EXPECTED. It was found in a place little calculated for its nourishment. If there is a spot on earth uncongenial to the life of God in the soul, it is within the precincts of a palace. The self-importance, the self-indulgence, the self-deception, the want of honesty so mark it. Yet here was the grace of God displayed. I see too the sovereignty of God's grace in it. I see too the invincibility of His grace. Here is everything to impede, the most unlikely of all situations. One might as reasonably expect to find the most beautiful flower that seems to require great depth of earth, growing on the bare rock, as one might expect to find one of the Lord's lilies growing in such a soil as this. Yet what can the grace of God not achieve? what can it not conquer? III. WHO IT WAS THAT NOTICED IT — who took notice of this "good thing"! Observe, it is spoken of as "some good thing." Our translators have been so honest as to put the word "some" in italics; but there being no other word between "found" and "good thing," the sense is this, "some good thing," "a good thing." When the Lord says "some good thing," it gives one this idea. It might have been a very feeble work. Here was but " some good thing," a good thing; and that too was in a child; yet God the Spirit noted it. Why did He? Because it was His child; jeroboam's child, Jeroboam's after the flesh — His by adoption and by grace. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. |
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