OMRI AND AHAB.

(1 Kings xvi:23-33.)

I. The Analysis.

1. God's judgment of prosperous evil (verses 23-27; see below).

2. The greater wickedness of Ahab (verses 28-33); see below).

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

In the first of our lesson the story of Omri, the deepest meaning is to be found in the contrast between God's judgment and man's. The contrast does not so much appear from the portion selected as from all that is said in Scripture of Omri. And yet enough is here.

From the human standpoint Omri's reign was brilliant and successful. In the judgment of men he was no doubt regarded as a constructive statesman. He was, in a sense, the Peter the Great of his time. Beginning in Tioga, as Peter in Moscow, he built a new capital city as Peter built St. Petersburg. Such a man would do other notable things. The "rest" of his acts, it appears, were recorded in the "chronicles of the kings of Israel," and the record has perished. We may imagine that a man so strong and aggressive would fill a large place in that chronicle.

But all the time a different chronicle was being written in heaven. Here it is only said that "he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord." What that evil was will appear in the great day when the "dead" shall be judged (Rev. xx:11, 12). In the days of Noah it was just the same. "There were giants in the earth in those days," "mighty men, men of renown." They builded, they bought and sold. Then, as now, the great "captains of industry" were flattered and envied. Never were earth's prospects more fair; never was there less apparent justification for forebodings. But just at that very time ''God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth." Never before have those days been more exactly paralleled than just now, and it may be well to remember that it is one of the sure signs of the coming of the Lord.

The one fact concerning Ahab upon which Scripture puts most emphasis is the fact of his bad marriage. It was not a bad marriage according to the ethics of the world. It was good politics for young Ahab to marry the daughter of the king who largely controlled his access to the sea. And, because Ahab was young and an oriental despot, we may be sure that Jezebel was as beautiful in person as she certainly was brilliant in mind and determined in character.

But that woman was Ahab's evil genius, and every wife is either the best or the worst element in her husband's life. Marriage, an institution divinely established in humanity, is precisely that human relationship which Scripture most sternly safeguards. Great as is the emphasis which the Bible puts upon parenthood, that holy relation is subordinated to marriage. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife."

Designed by divine love to afford both the highest happiness and the purest pleasure to humanity, it is, if misused, the most awful of life's curses. And no other human relationship is more vilely misused.

The recurring agitations for improved divorce laws are folly. No amendment of these could cure or even touch the real evil. Not easy divorce, but easy marriage, is the true crime. Never until Christians are taught the great and sacred meanings of marriage, so that the conscience will become more sensitive, if possible, to wrong marriage than to murder itself, will the great evil and sorrow of the social life of humanity disappear.