1 Kings 15:4

_NEVERTHELESS FOR DAVID'S SAKE DID THE LORD HIS GOD GIVE HIM A LAMP IN JERUSALEM, TO SET UP HIS SON AFTER HIM, AND TO ESTABLISH JERUSALEM:_ For David's sake did the Lord ... give him a lamp. "A lamp" in one's house is an Oriental phrase for continuance of family name and prosperity. Abijam was not rejected, only in consequence of the divine promise to David (see the notes at 1 Kings 11:13)....

1-8 Abijam's heart was not perfect with the Lord his God; he wanted sincerity; he began well, but he fell off, and walked in all the sins of his father, following his bad example, though he had seen the bad consequences of it. David's family was continued as a lamp in Jerusalem, to maintain the true worship of God there, when the light of Divine truth was extinguished in all other places. The Lord has still taken care of his cause, while those who ought to have been serviceable thereto have lived and perished in their sins. The Son of David will still continue a light to his church, to establish it in truth and righteousness to the end of time. There are two kinds of fulfilling the law, one legal, the other by the gospel. Legal is, when men do all things required in the law, and that by themselves. None ever thus fulfilled the law but Christ, and Adam before his fall. The gospel manner...

Verse 1 Kings 15:4. _THE LORD - GIVE HIM A LAMP_] That is, a son to succeed him; see 1 Kings 11:36....

TO SET UP HIS SON - The idolatry of Abijam deserved the same punishment as that of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14:10, of Baasha 1 Kings 16:2, or of Zimri 1 Kings 16:19, the cutting off of his seed, and the transfer of the crown to another family. That these consequences did not follow in the kingdom of Judah, was owing to the “faithfulness” of David (see the marginal reference), which brought a blessing on his posterity. Few things are more remarkable and more difficult to account for on mere grounds of human reason, than the stability of the succession in Judah, and its excessive instability in the sister kingdom. One family in Judah holds the throne from first to last, during a space but little

EXPOSITION THE REIGNS OF ABIJAM AND ASA, KINGS OF JUDAH. _The Reign of Abijam_. 1 KINGS 15:1 NOW IN THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR OF KING JEROBOAM, THE SON OF NEBAT, REIGNED ABIJAM [see note on 1 Kings 14:31. It is implied in 2 Chronicles 11:20-14 that he was not the firstborn among Rehoboam's twenty-eight sons, but the eldest son of the favourite wife. As he left behind him thirty-eight children ...

NEVERTHELESS, FOR DAVID'S SAKE DID THE LORD HIS GOD GIVE HIM A LAMP IN JERUSALEM,.... A kingdom there, as the Targum, splendid and glorious, to be continued in his posterity: to set up his son after him; in it: AND TO ESTABLISH JERUSALEM: to continue that in which the temple was, for the sake of which, and the worship of God in it, there was a succession of David's posterity on the throne of Judah....

3. ABIJAM AND ASA, KINGS OF JUDAH CHAPTER 15 _ 1. Abijam of Judah (1 Kings 15:1; 2 Chronicles 13)_ 2. Asa of Judah (1 Kings 15:9; 1 Kings 2 Chronicles 14-16) Abijam is called in Chronicles Abijah; in 2 Chronicles 13:21 he is called Abijahu. Abijam was undoubtedly the older form. It is possible that on account of his great address of rebuke to Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:4) they may have called him Abijah (Jehovah is my fat

ABIJAM AND ASA OF JUDAH, AND NADAB AND BAASHA OF ISRAEL. Abijam, called Abijah (2 Chronicles 13:1), had a short and evil reign. It would appear, notwithstanding 1 Kings 15:8, that he was succeeded by his brother Asa, as both are said to have had the same mother, Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. Josephus says the granddaughter of Absalom; see 2 Chronicles 11:20). Except that Asa could not remove the high places he is said to have done right during his long reign of forty-one years. Asa deposed Maacah from the position of queen-mother for her idolatry. She had made (1 Kings 15:13) an abominable image (Heb. a horror o

LAMP. See note on 1 Kings 11:36. Peculiarly used of David....

_a lamp_ Cf. above on 1 Kings 11:36. The LXX. gives κατάλειμμα here = a remnant, thus expressing the sense of the original, instead of translating. Similarly in 1 Kings 11:36 the rendering is θέσις = a position....