The Church a Mother

The Church a Mother

(No. 2776)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 27, 1902.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPELS SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, DURING
THE SPRING OF 1860.

"The children you willhave, after you have lost the others, willsay
again in your ears, The place is too small for me; give me a place
where I may dwell. Then will you say in your heart, Who has begotten
these for me, since I have lost my children, and am desolate, a
captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up?Behold,
I was left alone; but these, where were they?" Isaiah 49:20,21.

I NEVER like to look upon the Bible as merely an old Book, a relic of
the past. I like to read it and think of it as a new Book and one
applicable to the present time. And I am continually compelled to
regard it as such, for I find that it relates to the things passing
around me–it deals with my present sorrows, my present doubts and my
present joys. It is not merely a record of the saints in olden
times–it is a Book of Direction for the saints of the present
generation. It not merely gave consolation to those who received the
promise centuries ago, but the same promise comes home fresh and sweet
to us and we look upon it as being a new and present Revelation from
Heaven to us. At least there are times when the Spirit takes of the
words of Scripture and makes them as fresh and new to us as though an
angel had just flown from Heaven and, for the first time, uttered the
gracious words by whispering them in our ears! And the passage which I
have read bears to me, just now, though it may not to you, all the
freshness and sweetness of a passage made for the occasion. If this
Book had been written yesterday, I am sure it could not contain truth
more applicable to myself–no, if I had to have it, as Mahommed's
followers had the Koran, chapter by chapter, just as they required it,
I could not have a Bible more adapted to my daily experience and my
daily needs, for so does the Holy Spirit continually take of the things
of Christ and not simply apply them unto us, but, apparently, He seems
to adapt them to us, or else He brings out to our mind's eye that old
original adaptation which God had placed in them, foreknowing for what
purpose they would be used in later days.

I propose to comment upon this text somewhat pointedly and I hope that
the remarks I shall make upon it may be the means of leading others to
take the passage as a subject of profitable meditation. I shall begin
by observing that the Church is a mother When I have dwelt upon that
idea, I shall notice that, like other mothers, the Church has,
sometimes, to be bereaved. Then, in the third place, I shall observe
that she has another trouble which mothers in England do not have–God
grant they never may–she is sometimes, herself, a captive–she wears
bonds and fetters, and groans in slavery. And then I have to notice, in
the fourth place, the promise of the text, that this mother, despite
her bereavement, despite all her captivity, shall see her family
multiplied to a most extraordinary degree, so that she shall be
overwhelmed with amazement and, lifting up her eyes, shall say, "Who
has begotten these for me, since I have lost my children, and am
desolate, a captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought
these up? Behold, I was left alone; but these, where were they?"

I. Well now, first of all, notice that THE CHURCH IS A MOTHER. She has
always stood in that relationship to all her members. Take each member
of the Church individually, he is a child. Take us altogether, we make
up the mother, the Church. The Church of Rome professes to be a mother
and what a mother she has proved to be! Let the Inquisition tell how
tenderly she has nursed her babes! Let conventual torture chambers tell
how her little infants have been cared for! Let the stakes that once
stood on Smithfield. Let the gallows and the fires all stand up and
tell the story of that ten-

der and pitiful mother! Ah, but the Church of Christ is a true mother.
Even when she is not continually using the name, yet is she a tender
and affectionate nursing mother to all her offspring. I shall begin
here very briefly to speak about this mother.

The Church is a mother because it is her privilege to bring forth into
the world the spiritual children of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church
is still left in the world that she may bring out the rest of God's
elect that are still hidden in the caverns and strongholds of sin. If
God had willed it, He might have brought out all His children by the
mere effort of His own power, without the use of any instrumentality.
He might have sent His Grace into each individual heart in some such
miraculous manner as He did into the heart of Saul, when He was going
toward Damascus. But He has not chosen to do so. He, who has taken the
Church to be His spouse and His bride, has chosen to bring men to
Himself by means. And thus it is, through God's using the Church, her
ministers, her children, her works, her sufferings, her
prayers–through making these the means of the increase of His
spiritual Kingdom–she proves her right to take to herself the title of
mother.

But when these little ones are born, the Church's business is, next, to
feed them. It is not enough that she has brought them to Christ. It is
not sufficient that through her agency they have been quickened–and
begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. It is her work to feed them. She gives to them the
unadulterated milk of the Word of God. Through her ministers, through
her servants, through the different agencies which she employs, she
endeavors to satisfy their longing souls with the Bread of Life. She
gives them food convenient for them–she feeds them by her doctrine, by
her ordinances–she bids them come and eat and drink at her table and
it is her earnest desire and effort to supply all their spiritual needs
by feeding their understandings, their affections, their hearts. The
Church labors to feed every part and power of the mind and soul.

Nor is she content with feeding–it is her endeavor to train up her
children. There are some professed churches of Christ that seem to do
nothing whatever in the way of training up the young in their midst.
These churches, if there are any sinners converted, scarcely ever hear
of it. If children are born, there is no rejoicing over them. Their
names are not written in the family register–the church book. They are
not asked to come forward and be recognized as children of God by being
baptized–they are permitted to come up, perhaps, to the church's
house, but if they should offer to join her number by profession of
their faith, they would be at once told that they were not yet fit to
be numbered with her right royal children! But the true nursing
Churches do not act thus. They look out for every babe in Christ that
they can find and then they seek to instruct these babes–and when they
are instructed, the Church receives them into her arms and she takes
them to be hers, to be trained up for future deeds of usefulness. She
trains up some of her sons to be captains in the Lord's host. She puts
the Sword of the Spirit into their hands and bids them use it in
fighting their Master's battles. She trains up others of her sons and
daughters to teach still younger ones and these she puts into her
schools. She trains up all her children, some by one means and some by
another. She says to some, "Go abroad, my children, and labor for your
Lord in His far-off fields and extend His Kingdom wherever you can."
Thus does the Church well deserve the name of mother, when she brings
up and fosters, and nurtures the children of God.

Nor is this all the Church can do. She will be always ready to nurse
her children when they become sick, for, alas, in the Church's family,
there are always some sickly ones, not only sick in body, but sick in
spirit. And never does the Church appear so truly a mother as she does
to these! Over these she will be, if she is what she should be,
peculiarly watchful and jealous. Though the strong shall have her
attention, yet the weak shall have double. Though those who are
standing up shall be helped, yet those who are cast down shall he
helped still more. If there is a weak lamb, if there is a wandering
sheep within the Church, she opens wide her eyes and it will be her
endeavor to watch most over these. She knows her duty is like her
Lord's–to bind up the broken in heart and comfort those who mourn–so
she continually bids her ministers bring forth sweet things out of the
storehouse. She says to her servitors, "Set on the great pot, and put
in the precious Doctrines of the Gospel, and let all these be set
a-simmering, that there may be food for all my children." "And," she
says, "take care that you bring forth the wines on the lees well
refined, the fat things full of marrow, for I have some weaklings in my
family who will not be strong to labor unless they have the rich
cordials of the Gospel continually given to them."

Ah, and when the Church is in proper order, how she will nurse the
weak! Do you remember what she did in Paul's days?–for what Paul did,
the Church did. He says, "We were gentle among you, even as a nurse
cherishes her children." So will the Church do, through her ministers,
her officers and, indeed, through all her members if they act up to
their

duty. She will be watching for the souls of men, especially for those
souls that are the saddest and the most cast down, and the most subject
to temptation and to trial. She will watch over them and nurse them.
And she will never be happy, let me add, until she brings all her
children up to her Husband's house in Heaven! She is expecting Him to
come, by-and-by, and when He comes, it will be her joy to meet her
Husband leading her daughters with her. And she will say, "Come forth,
you daughters of Jerusalem, and see Him who is greater than King
Solomon crowned with the crown which his mother crowned him on the day
of his espousals." And, at last, when she and her Husband shall be safe
in the glory kingdom in Heaven, then will she say, "Here am I, and the
children which You have given me, and have nursed for You; but by Your
help have they been kept, by Your Grace have they been preserved–and
it has been my loving duty, as their tender mother, to nurse, and
cherish, and nurture them–and bring them up for You."

Every time I give the right hand of fellowship to a new member,
especially to those just brought in from the world, I think I hear
Christ's voice speaking to me and saying, "Take these children and
nurse them for Me, and I will give you your wages." I say this is said
to me, but I mean it is said to the entire Church–I merely speak, of
course, as the representative of the body. We have, whenever members
are given to us, a great charge, under God, to nurse them for Him and,
instrumentally, to advance them in the road to Heaven. But in all this
the Church is a poor mother if her God is not with her. She can do
nothing in bringing forth, nothing in nurturing, nothing in training,
nothing in preserving and nothing, at last, in bringing her children
Home, unless the Holy Spirit dwells in her and sends her strength to
accomplish

all.

When we speak of persons joining the Church, we mean that they are
added to the company of God's people. We believe that the Church does
not consist alone of the preachers, deacons and elders, but that the
Church is a company of faithful men and women, banded together
according to God's holy rule and ordinance for the propagation of the
Truth of God as it is in Jesus. And Betsy, the servant-maid is as much
in the Church as any Very Reverend Doctor or Dean is! The Church,
then–by which I mean the great company and body of the faithful–that
Church is a nursing mother.

II. The second remark which I proposed to make upon our text is that
THE CHURCH IS SOMETIMES BEREAVED. Ah, there must be coffins in every
house. There must be shrouds in every family and so is it in the
Church.

The Church has to lose some of her children. "After you have lost the
others," I read here. Some of her nominal children she loses by
spiritual death, but the reason of this is because they are not really
her children at all. They are those who crept in and pretended to be
hers–and they looked so much like hers that she could hardly tell them
apart. For a little while she nursed them but, afterwards, they turned
out to be the offspring of Satan–and then they went away from her. But
even when they go away, she is such a loving mother that though she
feared they were not her children, yet she did not like to lose them. I
heard some of her children singing, the other night, after one of these
false brethren had been found out–

"When any turn from Zion's way, Alas, what numbers do! I think I hear
my Savior say, 'Will you forsake Me too?"'

The Church does not like to lose even those who are not her children.

Then, next, she loses many of her children–I mean, they go away from
her–by temporal death. Many of the Church's children are taken up
above and, somehow, though she is glad to know they are in their
Father's bosom, yet she does not like to miss them. The Church regrets
to see the vacant seat of her dead–and especially if it has been one
of her children who has been very dutiful and has strived to serve her
much. She will weep plenty for such. When she lost her son Stephen, do
you remember that a whole company of her children followed him to the
grave? For it is said devout men carried him to his burial and made
great lamentation over him. Though the Church does not sorrow as one
that has no hope–though she is glad to know that her children are well
provided for and taken up to dwell in their Father's House–yet it is
no small suffering to see her ministers taken away, and her church
officers and members removed, one by one, even while in their various
spheres of usefulness–and while faithfully serving their Lord and
Master.

Then, again, the Church loses her children, sometimes, by a trying
Providence. Many churches, as well as ourselves, are in that position.
We have lost our children. We have lost many simply from the fact of
their having to remove to a distance–in this way our congregations are
necessarily scattered. Some of those who used to sit under our ministry
Sabbath by Sabbath, who came up with our great company and kept holy
day, cannot now be seen in our midst. And I, even

if you do not, feel this as bereavement. I cannot bear to miss the face
of a single one from the members of the church! There is a sort of
sacred bond of union that binds us all together and I do not like
anyone to go away, except it is, now and then, when some grow
dissatisfied–and then I feel it is better for them to go somewhere
else–it is certainly not worse for their minister. But those who have
been loving, tender children have had to leave the Church–those who
have strived for her good. It is a sad thing to see them separated from
us and that has happened to this church over and over again. As often
as the minister has been removed from her midst, some of her children
have been lost. The church book is a very checkered book to look at. As
I look back upon the record of the past, I see the membership increase
rapidly. A certain minister dies and then the church is diminished and
brought low. Again another comes and a fresh company is gathered
together, but as soon as he removes, away they go! And thus the church
suffers bereavement. Her children are removed–not into the world, let
us hope–but, alas, this does happen, even with God's own
children–after losing their early love in some one church, they go on
wandering here and there, scarcely caring to unite themselves in church
fellowship again, living unhappily, bereaved and alone, desolate and
without companions!

I think I have said enough upon this point. The Church, like every
other mother, has sometimes to lose her children and suffer
bereavement.

III. Now I come to the third head, which is this–THE CHURCH HAS
SOMETIMES TO BE CARRIED AWAY

CAPTIVE.

How often has this happened to the Church of God in the olden times!
The Church has been carried into foreign countries, taken from her
much-loved house at Jerusalem and compelled to sit down by the waters
of Babylon and weep while she remembered her ancient habitation. Her
children have hung their harps upon the willows and, when their enemies
came and required of them a song, they have said, "How can we sing the
Lord's song in a strange land?" She has been a captive, indeed, in more
modern times! Since the days of Christ, the Church has been a captive
in another sense, namely, that sometimes she has been cruelly
persecuted. Kings have sent forth their bloody edicts against her and
then the tender nursing mother, the Church, has been obliged to house
her children in the dens and caves of the earth. They have worshipped
in catacombs, by the light of candles, or perhaps with no light
whatever. Her dearest sons have been compelled to administer the
ordinance of Christ in the vaults among the dead. When the living were
too unkind, then has death found them a shelter. The earth has helped
the woman and in the catacombs have her children been brought forth.

Often, too, has the Church been compelled to seek a refuge in foreign
countries. You know how she went far into Africa and how, again, she
sought a lodging place in the fastnesses of the Alps–there, amidst the
snow-clad mountains, she found some little shelter from the
blood-thirsty hounds of Hell. And in still more modern times, the
Church in this land has had to flee across the waters and there, in
America, the Pilgrim Fathers have become the founders of mightier
churches than those they had left behind! Those were the times of the
Church's captivity. We cannot tell in this age what griefs they were
that wrung the hearts of the first passengers in "The Mayflower." When
they left England and went to America, they went forth not knowing
where they went. They could not meet together for worship–it was death
if they ventured to preach the Gospel–but they went where they could
among the red men, to be free to worship their God. Ah, those were days
of wandering to and fro! Then the Church wept and said, "I am desolate,
I am a captive, I am driven far away from my former habitation."

The same thing has sometimes happened to the Church, also, not in days
of persecution, but in days when deadly sickness has seized upon her
limbs, when, all of a sudden, her energies have been dampened, her
power lessened and she has no more brought forth children, or even
nursed them tenderly. Days of slumber and heaviness have come over the
Church, yes, and days of heresy, too, when her ministers were no more
shining lights, but, like the flax when the light is gone out, they
were an offensive stench. When her fountains have no more gushed forth
with living waters but a black, turbid, and putrefying stream. When,
instead of the Bread of Heaven, her children have had to eat husks.
When, instead of the pure Word of God, it was anything but the Truth of
God–the lies of Satan and the inventions of Hell.

IV. I will say no more of the Church's captivity, but will just
observe, in the last place, that when the Church has lost her children,
and when she herself has been made captive and removed to and fro, she
has said, "Ah, me! Ah, me! My God has forgotten me, the Lord has
forsaken me! I have become a widow. I will sit in the dust, I will
sorrow even to the end, I will groan even in the bitterness of my
spirit. Like Rachel, I will weep for my children and I will not be
satisfied or com-

forted, because they are not." And here comes this last point–even
then THE CHURCH HAS HAD A MARVELOUS INCREASE AFTER ALL HER
CAPTIVITIES–and all her bereavements have always worked for her good!

Never has the Church lost her children without obtaining many more. You
remember when the Jewish nation seemed to be once and for all cut off
from the Church? When the Apostle said, "Seeing you judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles"? The Church
might have sorrowed and said, "I have lost the Jews." But she found the
Gentiles! Where she lost one, she found thousands! The day of her
sorrow was the day of her increase! And, do you know, whenever the
Church has lost a martyr, she has always, soon afterwards, found her
numbers increased? Gathering round the stake, idle bystanders have
marked the patience of the man of God–they have seen him when his
beard was being singed by the flames. They have watched him as his very
bones cracked in the fire. They have seen him lift to Heaven his
burning hands and clapping them, cry, "God is with me in the fire!"
Struck with amazement, they have asked, "What is this that makes the
man rejoice in a death so terrible?" And they have gone home and they
have retired to pray. And the next day has found them knocking at the
door of the Church, entreating to be admitted into the sacred number of
her children!

The days of her bereavement have been the days of the increase of her
family and when the Church has been scattered and driven to and fro, it
has always been for her good–it has been like the scattering of seed.
There was once a time when there was a granary full of heavenly seed.
Satan knew this was destined to cover the whole earth with a glorious
harvest. He was exceedingly angry concerning it and he said, "What
shall I do to destroy this seed?" So he went down into the dark Pit and
brought up a legion of fiends. "Now," he said, "we will burst the
granary door open. We will take out that grain and we will cast it on
the waters, we will throw it to the winds of Heaven–we will throw it
all away–it shall not be kept here to make a harvest on the earth." So
they broke open the door and scattered the seed. Fool that he was–God
was making use of him to sow the fields and, lo, the harvest sprang up
and Satan was still more full of wrath to find that he had outwitted
himself! Instead of scattering the Church, he had increased it! The
little handful of corn on the mountaintop, when it was planted, grew
and shook like Lebanon, and made the fruit of the seed rejoice and
flourish like the grass of the earth! Yes, my Brothers and Sisters, you
will find, in every instance in the Church's history, whenever she has
been made captive, or has been bereaved, it has been for her good!

Now, just at this time, we are somewhat desolate. We have lost many of
our children. Our hearers are compelled to wander here and there,
instead of listening to the Church's voice, while we ourselves are like
a captive wandering to and fro from one place to another where we can
meet. And we have been apt to say, "This is a very sad thing and very
much to our hurt." But let us say that no longer–for mark, I take this
to be a personal promise, and I think it is a promise to the
Church–"The children you will have, after you have lost the others,
will say again in your ears, The place is too small for me; give me a
place where I may dwell. Then will you say in your heart, Who has
begotten these for me, since I have lost my children, and am desolate,
a captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up?
Behold, I was left alone; but these, where were they?" This shall be
the cry of the Church!

The first thing which astonishes the Church when she opens her eyes
after her captivity, is to notice the number of her children. She
formerly counted her children by the number of their graves. She said
they were all dead, but, all of a sudden, she found others coming round
her and calling her mother! Again she saw her house filled–they were
thronging about her and she was astonished to see so great a number.
Had there been but one or two, she would have thought they were the
residue spared from the hands of the enemy, but she saw the great
number, and was astonished! Now, sometimes, when we think of this
Church which God has so greatly enlarged that we number 1,500 souls, we
are apt to think, "What a number!" It astonishes us. "You shall see
greater things than these," and you shall find that our removal to
another place, and our apparent captivity shall increase the number of
converts, and we shall be astonished as, month by month, they come
before the Church and bear witness of what Grace has done for them! We
shall say, "Who has begotten these for me? Who are these that fly as a
cloud, and as doves to their windows?"

It was not merely their number, it was also their character that
astonished her, for she said, "Who has begotten these for me? I do not
know them. I have lost my children. These, where had they been? Who has
brought these up?" It is their character, as well as their number, that
amazes her. Often the Church finds her converts run in a certain
vein–a certain class of persons is brought to know the Truth of God.
But when the Church removes to and fro, there is another set brought
in. Do you remember what happened, once, in Exeter Hall? A young man
going, one Sunday morning, with his

skates in his hand, to the Serpentine, and passing Exeter Hall, saw a
crowd blocking up the path. He said, "What is this? There is something
special going on here." He joins the crowd and the mass behind pushes
him in–the minister preaches and the Words of God go home to that
young man's heart. They are quick and powerful–he is brought to know
the Savior and is converted! Many who are not accustomed to go to one
place, will go to another. Many who would not enter a place consecrated
to Divine Worship, may, nevertheless, step in to another building out
of idle curiosity or amusement. This has happened at the Surrey Gardens
and now, when we go to another place, another class, who perhaps have
never been to hear the Gospel, will be induced to come in and we shall
say, "Who has begotten these for me? These, where have they been?"

1 am not a Prophet, nor the son of a Prophet, but, before long, this
will come to pass–we shall see numbers converted to God that will
astonish us! And, besides that, there will be among them some
remarkable sinners and some remarkable saints–and when they are added
to the Church, they will compel us to say, "These, where have they
been? Who has begotten us these?" Then will you thank God that you ever
had to suffer. Then shall the Church rejoice that she was bereaved and
that she was removed to and fro. How do I know this? Well, I know it
simply because I know, if I know anything, that this passage has been
applied to my heart by the Holy Spirit! It has stuck so to me and
entered so thoroughly into my heart that I have not been able to get
rid of it, but have lived upon it, and have felt the sweetness of it!
And if this does not come true, then I am certainly deceived. But let
us take care that it does come true, for, while we believe the promise,
it is ours to be the means, in the hand of God, of fulfilling it!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, pray more than you have ever done! Wrestle
with God in prayer. Plead with Him that this may come true. For though
He gives the promise, He says, "I will yet for this be enquired of by
the house of Israel, to do it for them." I ask you this night–I cannot
get you each to say, "Yes"–but I ask you, as a personal favor to your
minister, and as an act of kindness to our loving mother, the Church,
as a proof of your affection to your Lord and Master–I ask you, at the
family altar, and in private tonight, and on till next Christmas, that
we meet together to plead with God for this particular blessing!

Turn to this promise in your Bibles. Read the passage at your family
altars, and then plead it–"Lord, You have made us to be, for a time,
desolate. We have lost some of our children. Now grant that the
children which we shall have, after we have lost these others, may cry,
Make room for us; the place is too small for us to dwell in." One of
our Brothers lately said to me, "You surely do not expect to see the
Tabernacle crowded down the aisles, do you?" I do, indeed! I expect to
see it as crowded as ever this chapel has been. I think we shall
oftenbe moved to say, "Who has begotten these for me?" God's arm is not
shortened that He cannot save, neither are His ears heavy that He
cannot hear us. We shall go on and conquer and never cease! The God who
has been with us in the past, will be with us in the future and, as it
has been, so shall it still be! God shall still be glorified in the
salvation of men.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 CHRONICLES 11:1-17; 12.

Let us read, for our instruction, part of the story of Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon.

2 Chronicles 11:1-4. And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he
gathered of the house of Judah and Benjamin an hundred and fourscore
thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against Israel, that
he might bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam. But the word of the LORD
came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam, the son
of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,
saying, Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up, nor fight against your
brethren. Return, every man, to his house: for this thing is done of
Me. And they obeyed the words of the LORD, and returned from going
against Jeroboam. So far, so good. There was some degree of the fear of
God in the minds of men when, at the bidding of a single Prophet, a
king would disband his troops and cease from war.

5-15. AndRehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in
Judah. He built even Bethlehem, andEtam, and Tekoa, andBethzur,
andShoco, andAdullam, and Gath, andMareshah, andZiph, andAdoraim,
andLachish, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are
in Judah and in Benjamin fenced cities. And he fortified the
strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of victual, and of
oil and wine. And in every several city he put shields

and spears, and made them exceedingly strong, having Judah and Benjamin
on his side. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel
resorted to him out of all their coasts. For the Levites left their
suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for
Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's
office unto the LORD; and he ordained him priests for the high places,
and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. No wonder,
therefore, that Rehoboam's kingdom was strengthened by the advent of
these men, who were, doubtless, the best men in the whole country–men
who feared the Lord–men who knew the Law of God and who knew how to
teach the people what they should do.

16. And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their
hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice
unto the LORD God of their fathers. ' 'Birds of a feather flock
together," so those in Israel who feared the Lord went where their
ministers had gone. This movement would bring about an emigration of
some of the best of the population to reside near the sacred shrine
where Jehovah was worshipped. And it must have tended still further to
the strengthening of Rehoboam's little kingdom.

17. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon, strong three years, for three years they walked in the
way of David and Solomon. That was well while it lasted; but, alas, it
did not continue long.

2 Chronicles 12:1. And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established
the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the
LORD, and all Israel with him. He was not able to endure the perils of
prosperity. He forgot the Lord who had caused him to prosper and, in
the pride of his heart, he turned aside to idols.

2. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam,
Shishak, king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had
transgressed against the LORD. That was not Shishak's reason for coming
up against Jerusalem. He had heard of the riches of Solomon and,
doubtless, he came for the sake of the spoil which the palace and the
temple would yield to him! But God often overrules, for the
accomplishment of His own purposes, the lower motives of men. "I girded
you," said He of Cyrus, "though you have not known Me." So did He gird
Shishak for the chastisement of Israel, though Shishak knew Him not.

3, 4. With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen:
and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the
Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities
which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. How vain is man when
he boasts in the strength of his fortifications! These fenced cities
fell at once, like houses built of cards, before the power of the
mighty king of Egypt and the vast hordes that accompanied him! Rehoboam
had spent his strength in making these defenses, but how soon they were
proved to be worthless. "Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord,
and whose hope the Lord is." But, "cursed is the man that trusts in
man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord."

5, 6. Then came Shemaiah the Prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of
Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and
said unto them, Thus says the LORD, You have forsaken Me, and therefore
have I also left you in the hands of Shishak Whereupon the princes of
Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is
righteous. Now, that is the very essence of true humility–the
acknowledgment that God is righteous in whatever punishment He brings
upon us on account of our sin. It is a very short sentence, but there
is a great fullness of meaning in it–"Jehovah is righteous."

7, 8. And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of
the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves;
therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some
deliverance; and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the
hand of Shishak Nevertheless they shall be his servants that they may
know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. That
is a very instructive expression. I believe that when God's people go
astray from Him, He sometimes allows them to fall into great bondage in
order that they may realize the difference between His happy service
and the servitude in which they may be held by any other lord. All
masters, to whom we surrender our minds and hearts, will turn out to be
tyrants, except the blessed Prince of Peace! His yoke is easy, and His
burden is light, but all other yokes gall the shoulders sooner or later
and God has, sometimes, made His wandering people feel this so bitterly
that they have longed to get back to the service of their God!

9. So Shishak king ofEgypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the
treasures ofthe house ofthe LORD, and the treasures ofthe king's house.
He took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had
made. He did

not plunder the people–he was content with the loot of the temple and
the palace. These were comparatively easy terms for the conquered
nation and one wonders how such a powerful king as Shishak would have
been thus satisfied in those days. But God has the hearts of all men
under His control and even when He lets a powerful foe go forth against
His people, He still restrains him when He pleases. What a mercy it is
for us that when God chastens us, there is an end to it! It is always
in measure–He does not let loose the fullness and the fierceness of
His wrath, as He will upon the castaways in eternity–but when He lays
His rod upon us, He counts every stripe. Forty stripes save one was all
that an Israelite might have to endure and, surely, God often stops far
short of that number when He deals with us! However, Shishak humiliated
the king and his people by taking away the treasures of the temple and
the palace and, among the rest of his plunder, "he carried away the
shields of gold which Solomon had made."

10-12. Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and
committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard that kept the
entrance of the king's house. And when the king entered into the house
of the LORD, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again
into the guard chamber. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the
LORD turned from him, that He would not destroy him altogether: and
also in Judah things went well. Or, rather, "things in Judah even went
well." There was comparative prosperity–they were not altogether
prosperous, for they were not altogether right with God. But there was
a sufficient proportion of godly men, the Puritan party, the
Evangelical party was strong enough in the land for God to still look
upon it with favor, yet not unmixed with disapprobation, for the party
that worshipped idols, the party composed of the superstitious, the
party belonging to the world was still very strong.

13-15. So king Rehoboam strengthened himselfin Jerusalem, and reigned:
for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had
chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his
mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And he did evil, because he
prepared not his heart to seek the LORD. Now the acts ofRehoboam, first
and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the Prophet, and
of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? Where are those books now? It
is of no consequence, whatever, where they are! There are a great many
other books that have perished because they were not Inspired. They
were books of genealogies–valuable in their day, but if they had been
of any use to us spiritually, they would have been preserved. Now, as
other ancient books have evidently been lost, let us devoutly bless God
that the Inspired Books have been preserved to us. By what a continuous
miracle of Providence every Inspired letter has been continued in
existence, it would be hard to tell, but we ought to constantly praise
the Lord that out of the Book of this prophecy, not a line has been
removed.

15, 16. And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of
David: and Abijah his son reigned in his place.- [This sermon was
preached 42 years before it was published in 1902. The Metropolitan
Tabernacle was in the process of being built–the first sermon preached
in it was on March 25, 1861. There were more than 5,000 members of the
Metropolitan Tabernacle when Brother Spurgeon died in 1892–EOD]