History is something more than a mere record of events. Chronicles, strictly speaking, are the materials only of history. But this book contains, again and again, the Divine philosophy of history. It exhibits the action of the moral, the righteous Ruler of Israel and of mankind. In the history of the trans-Jordanic tribes we have an illustration of the working of great principles of Divine government.

I. THE OCCASION AND REASON OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE, Surrounded by heathen, they themselves largely lapsed into heathenism. This was all the more discreditable in them because they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who had done great things for their nation, and because they attached themselves to the worship of the deities of the very people over whom their God had given them victory and rule. Accordingly their conduct is represented as spiritual fornication, or adultery.

II. THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. Under Divine providence, Pul was permitted to make war upon the idolatrous tribes and lay them under tribute, and afterwards Tilgath-pilneser was permitted to carry the people away captive into Assyria. God always has instruments to effect his purposes; even the wicked are used by him to chasten and punish the disobedient and rebellious.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. It would be an interesting subject of inquiry why God thus chastened his chosen people again and again by way of captivity. This we know, that the exile in the East was the means of confirming the Hebrews in their monotheism, and that never again did they lapse into idolatry.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. As to sin, we are taught that its root, its essence, is in departing from God.

2. As to the Divine government, we are taught that God "will not clear the guilty," and that "the way of transgressors is hard."

3. And we have suggested to us the mercy of God in his provision of reconciliation and acceptance upon repentance, faith, and return to himself. - T.

I. If we turn to the Book of Kings we shall be surprised to find how the fatal sin of Israel was often of an intellectual kind, as distinguished from the baser iniquities which corrupt and overthrow the soul. There were three instances in which the intellectual sins of the people were conspicuous —

1. In the worship of the holy places.

2. In adoration of the heavenly bodies.

3. In the practice of magic and divination.There we find nothing of adultery, drunkenness, theft, or licentiousness of any kind. There are sins and sins. One man is simply a sinner of the coarse type, a criminal seen and known of all men and cast out by society; another man sins intellectually — that is to say he mentally deposes God, and more or less secretly endeavours to live without Him, never breaking any of the great social commandments, and thereby forfeiting social confidence, yet all the while committing the sin against the Holy Ghost. In this way men write their own bibles, invent their own deities, banish from the mind all the old orthodoxies, and in hidden vanity walk after the council of their own hearts.

(J. Parker, D. D.)