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2 Samuel
Chapter Eighteen
2 Samuel 18
Chapter Contents
Absalom's army defeated. (1-8) He is slain. (9-18)
David's over-sorrow. (19-33)
Commentary on 2 Samuel 18:1-8
(Read 2 Samuel 18:1-8)
How does David render good for evil! Absalom would have
only David smitten; David would have only Absalom spared. This seems to be a
resemblance of man's wickedness towards God
and God's mercy to man
of which
it is hard to say which is most amazing. Now the Israelites see what it is to
take counsel against the Lord and his anointed.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 18:9-18
(Read 2 Samuel 18:9-18)
Let young people look upon Absalom
hanging on a tree
accursed
forsaken of heaven and earth; there let them read the Lord's
abhorrence of rebellion against parents. Nothing can preserve men from misery
and contempt
but heavenly wisdom and the grace of God.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 18:19-33
(Read 2 Samuel 18:19-33)
By directing David to give God thanks for his victory
Ahimaaz prepared him for the news of his son's death. The more our hearts are
fixed and enlarged
in thanksgiving to God for our mercies
the better disposed
we shall be to bear with patience the afflictions mixed with them. Some think
David's wish arose from concern about Absalom's everlasting state; but he
rather seems to have spoken without due thought. He is to be blamed for showing
so great fondness for a graceless son. Also for quarrelling with Divine
justice. And for opposing the justice of the nation
which
as king
he had to
administer
and which ought to be preferred before natural affection. The best
men are not always in a good frame; we are apt to over-grieve for what we
over-loved. But while we learn from this example to watch and pray against
sinful indulgence
or neglect of our children
may we not
in David
perceive a
shadow of the Saviour's love
who wept over
prayed for
and even suffered
death for mankind
though vile rebels and enemies.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Samuel》
2 Samuel 18
Verse 5
[5] And
the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai
saying
Deal gently for my sake
with the young man
even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king
gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.
Deal gently — If
you conquer (which be presaged they would by God's gracious answer to his
prayer for the turning of Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness
) take him
prisoner
but do not kill him. Which desire proceeded
from his great indulgence
towards his children: from his consciousness that he himself was the
meritorious cause of this rebellion
Absalom being given up to it for the
punishment of David's sins; from the consideration of his youth
which commonly
makes men foolish
and subject to ill counsels: and from his piety
being loth
that he should be cut off in the act of his sin without any space for
repentance. But ''what means
says Bp. Hall
this ill-placed mercy? Deal gently
with a traitor? Of all traitors with a son? And all this for thy sake
whose
crown
whose blood he hunts after? Even in the holiest parents nature may be
guilty of an injurious tenderness. But was not this done in type of that
unmeasurable mercy
of the true King of Israel
who prayed for his murderers
Father
forgive them! Deal gently with them for my sake!" Yea
when God sends an
affliction to correct his children
it is with this charge
deal gently with
them for my sake: for he knows our frame.
Verse 8
[8] For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and
the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
The wood —
More people died in the wood
either through hunger
and thirst
and weariness:
or
by the wild beasts
whereof great numbers were there
which
though they
were driven away from the place of the main battle
yet might easily meet with
them when they fled several ways: or
by falling into ditches and pits
which
were in that place
verse 17
and probably were covered with grass or
wood
so that they could not see them till they fell into them: and especially
by David's men
who pursued them
and killed them in the wood: and the wood is
rightly said to have devoured them
because it gave the occasion to their
destruction
inasmuch as the trees
and ditches
and pits
entangled them
and
stopped their flight
and made them an easy prey to David's men
who followed
them
and slew them in the pursuit.
The sword — In
the main battle: the sword being put for the battle
by a common figure.
Verse 9
[9] And
Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule
and the mule
went under the thick boughs of a great oak
and his head caught hold of the
oak
and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that
was under him went away.
The servants of David — Who
according to David's command
spared him
and gave him an
opportunity to escape.
His head — In
which probably he was entangled by the hair of the head
which being very long
and thick
might easily catch hold of a bough
especially when the great God
directed it. Either he wore no helmet
or he had thrown it away as well as his
other arms
to hasten his flight. Thus the matter of his pride was the
instrument of his ruin.
Verse 15
[15] And
ten young men that bare Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom
and
slew him.
Slew him —
The darts did not dispatch him
and therefore they smote him again
and killed
him.
Verse 18
[18] Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar
which is in the king's dale: for he said
I have no son to keep my name in
remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto
this day
Absalom's place.
A pillar — To
preserve his name; whereas it had been more for his honour if his name had been
buried in perpetual oblivion.
Verse 24
[24] And
David sat between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof over the
gate unto the wall
and lifted up his eyes
and looked
and behold a man
running alone.
Gates —
For the gates of the cities then were
as now they are
large and thick; and
for the greater security
had two gates
one more outward
the other inward.
Here he sat
that he might hear tidings when any came into the city.
Verse 33
[33] And
the king was much moved
and went up to the chamber over the gate
and wept:
and as he went
thus he said
O my son Absalom
my son
my son Absalom! would
God I had died for thee
O Absalom
my son
my son!
Over the gate —
Retiring himself from all men and business
that he might wholly give up
himself to lamentation.
My son —
This he might speak from a deep sense of his eternal state
because he died in
his sins
and because David himself had by his own sins been the occasion of
his death. But it seems rather to be the effect of strong passion
causing him
to speak unadvisedly with his lips.
18 Chapter 18
Verses 1-18
Verses 1-17
And David numbered the people that were with him.
The fatal fight
This chapter is a narrative of that fatal fight wherein Absalom
the son
fought with David his father for the kingdom of Israel.
I. The antecedents
of the battle.
1. David mustered all his forces
which Josephus reckons but four
thousand
yet Comestor computes them to be seven thousand (2 Samuel 18:1)
but ‘tis probable
they were many more from these cogent reasons.
2. David’s offering himself to hazard his royal person with his army
in the field-battle (2 Samuel 18:2.)
3. The armies’ refusal of his royal offer (2 Samuel 18:3)
which they did not
out of any contempt of the king to cross his kingly power and pleasure
but out
of the highest veneration to his royal person
which made them so careful and
conscientious for his personal preservation
and they grounded their laudable
refusal of his offer upon solid reasons:
4. David’s prudence to the people
and his indulgence to his
rebellious son (2 Samuel 18:4-5.)
II. Now come we to
The concomitants of this fatal fight.
1. The place where the battle was fought
‘tis called the wood of Ephraim
(verse 6)
though it was certainly beyond Jordan
so not in that tribe
but
called so either because it was over against Ephraim
or because of forty
thousand Ephramites lost their lives there ( 12:5-6).
2. David’s victory: (verse 7) The battle was soon determined.
Absalom’s army (consisting of raw
inexperienced men in martial matters) stood
not the first shock of David’s old soldiers.
3. “The wood devoured more than the sword” (verse 8.):Behold
here
David’s policy and Absalom’s infatuation to fight in so fatal a place as the
wood of Ephraim which had been so fatal to Oreb and Zeeb in Gideon’s time ( 7:25; 8:3)
and to the Ephramites also ( 12:5-6.) The routed rabble
running from
death
ran to it while they ran into the wood to hide themselves; some fell
upon stubs that did beat the breath out of their bodies when they had spent the
most of it by their hasty running away; some for haste plunged themselves into
pits and ditches which were in the wood (verse 17)
and which either they saw
not (being covered with the rubbish of the wood)
and so their violent flight
hurried them in at unawares. So dreadful a thing it is to provoke the Lord of
Hosts
who call arm all things to destroy us
etc.
4. Absalom was hanged by the neck upon the forked bough of an oak in
this same wood (verse 9).
5. The dialogue between General Joab and the soldier that
first saw Absalom hanged in an oak (verse 10
11
12
13.)
6. Joab’s slaughter of Absalom (verses 14
15.)
The battle and its issue
1. Before the battle
David does not bear prosperity well. He shines
best in trial. He is greater when fleeing from Saul than when in the palace.
His flight without his crown reveals his real kingliness. Surely David is in
much communion with God. He is pressed with sorrow
but then his character like
as myrrh is most fragrant. He is most restful. Fear has gone. He pillowed his
head on the truth
that ever drives fear away. Such a calm restfulness would be sure to
give indications of God’s nearness
and we find many signs of Divine guidance.
How discreet he is! How they are blundering at Jerusalem! How wise to make
Mahanaim his headquarters
though most probably his choice was made all
unconscious of its splendid adaptability to the necessities of the hour. He was
led by a “Hand Divine.” Did David pray for wisdom? Surely such quiet
restfulness in God’s guidance is ever accompanied by prayerful fellowship! The
Father of light gives to those who ask: how far wiser should we be if we asked!
Was it this hallowed experience at Mahanaim which evoked his impressive charge to Solomon? (1 Chronicles 22:12; 1 Kings 3:9.) So passed the week
before the battle.
2. Concerning the battle itself
as to details of conflict
we know
little. Probably Absalom has been three months king. According to the counsel
of Hushai
he heads the army. The first shock decided the fortunes of the day
as indeed is still common in Eastern warfare
and Absalom’s army flees in
confusion. David’s army is victorious
and ere the evening came all Israel and
Judah knew that David had conquered.
3. After the battle. David is sitting between the two gates (2 Samuel 18:24) waiting for the
news. The watchmen upon the wall are gazing anxiously
and yet more anxious is
the expectation of the king. All is so graphically told. His hope when he hears
the bearer is Ahimaaz
the parent-heart asking for his son amid the news of
victory
the falsity of the messenger when face to face with the agitated king
(2 Samuel 18:29)
the quickened hope
so bluntly quenched by the less cautious Cushi
and then the wail
that has
been echoed from so many hearts since: “O my son Absalom! would God I had died
for thee
O Absalom
my son
my son!”
David and Absalom
1. The first thing that strikes us in chap. 18
is the “reward of
faithfulness” in the appointment of the three captains. (Luke 22:28-30.)
2. The charge concerning Absalom (v. 5; Romans 12:19; Galatians 6:1)--a lesson for us in our
treatment of others. The Lord is ever saying
“Deal gently with my rebels.”
“The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” We are too like Joab
so indignant against the sinner that we forget our own weakness
and yet he
followed Adonijah! And we too generally find when we are very indignant against
soma one else
we are pretty sure to go away and commit the same sin.
3. The fate of Absalom. Two things are said to have contributed to
his fate--his ostentation in going into battle on a mule instead of on foot
as
David and all warriors did
and his vanity in wearing his hair long (though it
does not follow that this caused his death
as we are only told that he was
caught by his head
probably his helmet). The heap of stones--disgrace. (Joshua 7:26.)
4. The king’s grief. (Luke 19:41; Romans 5:7.) A beautiful contrast between
type and antitype “Would God I had died.” “I lay down my life for the sheep.” (R.
E. Faulkner.)
Absalom: a character study
I. The first
suggested point in this Old Testament character study is
that of a royal
father and son in deadly antagonism. The ground of this antagonism was
Absalom’s attempt to usurp the throne. He sought by intrigue to dethrone his
father
and to seize the kingdom and crown for himself. There is another
antagonism of a more momentous character raging to-day between the Royal Father
in heaven and the rebel Absaloms in our midst. An antagonism spiritual in its
nature
gigantic in its proportions
fearful in its tendencies
tremendous in
its issues. It is hostility between the creature and his Creator
the subject
and his Sovereign
the recreant son and his loving
all-compassionate Father.
Wonder
O heavens
and be astonished
O earth! Can the finite contend with the
Infinite? Can the worm: strive with his Maker? Can man fight with God? “Woe
unto him
” says the prophet
“that striveth with his Maker.” “Woe to the
rebellious children
saith the Lord
that take counsel but not of Me
and that
cover with a covering but not of My spirit
that they may add sin to sin.” “The
Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like a man of
war. He shall cry yea
roar. He shall prevail against His enemies.”
II. The second
practical suggestion of this Old Testament character study is
that the means
used to escape from the king’s servants brought defeat and death. Absalom
depended on the fleetness of his mule for safe and speedy flight
which
had it
been on the unobstructed highway instead of the untrodden
perilous forest
path
might in all human probability have been accomplished. As it was
the fleeter the animal
the greater the danger of becoming entangled among the
trees of the wood. So it is to-day with the modern Absaloms who have formed
conspiracies against goodness
purity
justice
right; who are subtly or openly
assailing the kingdom of truth
the throne of God
the kinghood of the
Nazarene
doing their utmost to wrench the sceptre of authority from His grasp
and to dash the diadem of divinity from His kingly head
they are getting the
worst of the contest. Absalom-like
they are trying to evade the King’s army
to escape the King’s pursuing servants
but ere long they will find the giant
oak of Divine retribution in the way
which will grasp them between its mighty
arms
while their fleet-footed “mules” will go suddenly from under them.
1. Some have mounted the “mule” of intellectual pride
and are
posting off into the wood of scepticism
rationalism
deism
agnosticism
secularism
atheism. Much learning is generally conceit
and conceit is turning
men intellectually and morally insane. “Advanced thought” is but the synonym
for advanced alienation of the heart from the living God
and “advanced
thought” is only the modern form of unbelief. Pseudo-philosophy is weaving a
shroud for the burial of truth. Men to-day glory in what they do not rather
than in what they do know. Ignorance seems bliss. Doubting is emphasised and
glorified. Believing and knowing are childish. Thus the advocates of doubt
the
spastics of unbelief
the boastful know-nothings
have exiled from their little
world the Creator
and enthroned blind chance or arrogant-reason. They have
struck out from their sky the blazing sun of truth
and are groping their way
amid the shadows and uncertainties of a scholarly scepticism or an ignorant
know-nothingism! In a word
they have mounted the mule of intellectual vanity
imagining thereby to escape God
who pursues them on the line of their
intuitions
moral instincts
inner consciousness
and crushed but not
extinguished spiritual nature
not knowing that there is a mystic tree of
judgment
whose giant branches shall seize their haughty heads and swing their
spirits back to the God who gave them.
2. Again
there are others who are trying to escape from their
convictions of right
duty
and personal responsibility to humanity and God on
the “mule” of alcohol. Such foolish Absaloms I have known. Some of them men of
broad intellect
wide reading
and splendid parts
but weak on one side of
their nature in more senses than one. For years there has been hostility to
God
the will running counter to the Divine Will
the actions contrary to the
Divine Commands
the heart opposite to the Divine Spirit. They have
defied the Divine Almightiness
trampled in the dust the Divine Law
and flung
insult and injury on the Divine Heart of Love. Thus have they tried to get away
from conscience
remorse
God! But what folly. True
they may drown conviction
for a time
but only for it to come back with tenfold force. I can conceive of
no infatuation greater than that of a man resorting to drink in order to drown
trouble
quell fear
or quiet conscience. As well attempt to extinguish debt by
burning the creditor’s bills
or to ease pain by plunging the hand into the
fire
as to evade trouble
remorse
God
by fleeing to the gin palace or the
beershop. In reality this method is only adding fuel to the fires of
conscience
poignancy to the stings of remorse
terror to the recurring thought
of God and eternity. It is heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. Absalom
never intended riding rote the jaws of death
but he got there. Once seized by
the iron grip of the drink appetite
and it clutches a man most insidiously but
surely; there is little or no chance of release from its fatal consequences.
3. Once more
others in society to-day are making the effort to
escape from their convictions of right
duty
God
on the “mule” of absorbing
worldliness. They have plunged into business
and are
driving bargains and
speculations furiously. They have invested all their capital
their energies
talents
attention
interests
being
with its wealth of possibilities
in
pushing trade to a golden success. Principle has to do homage to policy
morality to bow to fraud or the ordinary so-called “tricks of trade” in order
to pile up a pyramid of gold and to rank as merchant princes. It is business
nothing but business; bargains
nothing but bargains; the muck-rake of mammon
and nothing else
until they become walking icebergs of materialism. But
conscience lifts up its thunderous voice and pours forth a whole valley of
warnings
threatenings
alarms. Its voice is unpleasant. Its constant speakings
are distracting and offensive. To get beyond its condemnatory voice they spur
on their “mule” into the denser wood
the more perilous forest of worldliness
oblivious of the Nemesis of retribution which will seize their sordid soul
and
swing them into eternal poverty with a Dives and a rich fool.
4. Another
as the representative of a large class
has saddled the
“mule” of worldly pleasure. He rides in search of carnal amusement
delight of
the senses
spurning religion which holds the true secret of abiding happiness
by fixing itself within the man. He hurries hither and thither
seeking job:
from without
rootless joy
and all he gets proves false
precarious
brief.
Like gathered flowers
though fair and fragrant for awhile
it speedily withers
and becomes offensive. Whereas joy from within
rooted in God
is akin to
drinking in aroma from the rose on the tree; it becomes more sweet and
beautiful; it is enduring; it is immortal. To live in the realm of sense is to
die in the realm of sorrow I Believe me
there is no pleasurist of this world
without his Eve
no Eve without her serpent
and no serpent without its sting.
“The wages of sin is death.” “The sting of death is sin.” I tell you
you
cannot get away from all God’s servants. If you escape pinching poverty
blasting pestilence
drivelling insanity
torturing affliction
painful
bereavement
there is one servant that will overtake you
“the pale horse and
his rider.” That horse of untiring strength and unpausing celerity is teeter of
foot than your “mule.” (J. O. Keen
D. D.)
Bush warfare
This district appears to have resembled the bush of Australia and
the jungle of India. It was not a dense forest
but consisted of rocky ground
covered with prickly shrubs and tangled underwood
having stout oaks and other
trees as well as precipitous glens to increase its terrors and perils. Such a
place of thickets and thorns was called in Bible times “yaar
” and now is known
as “waar.” It would give a certain advantage to a smaller force of experienced
warriors like David’s in resisting the onset of a larger but less disciplined
array such as followed Absalom. Probably
too
many of the latter were more
accustomed to the bare wadies (or valleys) and limestone rocks of Western
Palestine
while the loyalists were not unfamiliar with bush warfare
British
troops have often had to encounter difficulties and dangers similar to those
which aided to defeat Absalom on this occasion. During the war of 1755
several
of King George’s best regiments were nearly annihilated in a thick wood near
Pittsburgh
in Pennsylvania. Embarrassed by the brushwood and irregular trees
they could not perceive their Indian foes
who
keeping out of sight
discharged their muskets
with horrible yells more disconcerting than the
weapons. (Sunday Companion.)
Verse 3
Thou art worth ton thousand of us.
What are you worth
King David was loved doubtless as much for the amiability and
manliness of his character as for the throne on which he sat.
I. True worth
should be reckoned by character and not by money. In the civilised world
money
is an idol served by many people. If a man possess plenty of gold
he carries a
key which unlocks doors that are closed against one that is poorer but more
worthy. The world
of course
respects honour and genius
bug it loves money.
When you ask
“What is that man worth?” people do not say that he possesses an
amiable yet manly character
or a vain and cowardly nature; they tell you he is
worth so much a year
or that he is somebody’s son. A man is valued from what
he has
rather than for what he is. An Atheist one day said to me
“You talk of
Christian people being true friends! Why
the best friend anybody can have is a
five-pound note; and my aim is not to get religion
but to get money; for if a
man can always have a few of these handy
he will find friends on whom he can
rely in every time of need!” Money
in itself
is a gift of God; for it is not
money that is the root of evil
but the love of it that harms men and ruins
women.
II. Do not be too
anxious to possess that wealth which is not your true worth. Our trade is
suffering from the madness of people who
in their eagerness for money
have
speculated recklessly
and brought themselves and others to ruin. Some people
try to get money at all hazards. Have any of you obtained money in a wrong way?
If so
I am sure your experience has been that such ill-gotten gains never
blesses you. It is “easy come
easy go.” An angler employs many kinds of bait
and fishing tackle. The trout is a sharp
suspicious
and dainty fish
and to
catch it the angler uses a very fine silk line which cannot be seen in the
water
and chooses his sharpest hook
baiting it with the greatest care; and
the trout
seeing the bait only
swallows it and the hidden hook. So
when you
grab at money wrongfully
the devil is angling for you skilfully with the rod
and line of covetousness
baited with “great wealth
” “sudden riches
” “worldly
honour
” and other tempting flies to catch gudgeons.
III. Seer the true
riches of contentment and manhood. Do you say you are poor and in trouble?
Well
you can exhibit the highest qualities in your poverty. When trees are
planted they are often protected with a prop; but when each tree has grown a
little
the prop is taken away
and it stands firmly amidst the storms. So God
would have you who are trees of His planting to stand firmly in your simple
manhood. Why do you need the prop of gold
or the fence of possessions? Stand
firmly grounded in Gospel righteousness. Men and women
what are you worth? Be
possessed of Jesus Christ and His Spirit; be possessed of pardon
holiness
and
heaven. May God give us these true riches. Amen. (W. Birch.)
Verse 5
Deal gently for my sake with the young man
even with Absalom.
Grace for the graceless
Bishop Hall thus descants on this--What means this ill-placed
love? This unjust mercy. Deal gently with a traitor. Of all traitors
with a
son? Of all sons with an Absalom? that graceless darling of so good a father?
And all this
for thy sake
whose crown
whose blood
he hunts after? For whose
sake must he be pursued
if forborne for thine? Must the cause of the quarrel
be the motive of the mercy? Even in the holiest parents nature may be guilty of
an injurious tenderness
of a bloody indulgence. But was not this done in type
of that immeasurable mercy of the true King and Redeemer of Israel
who prayed
for his persecutors. “Father
forgive them. Deal gently with them for my sake.”
When God sends an affliction to correct his children it is with this charge
“Deal gently with them for my sake”; for He knows our frame.
Verse 10
I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.
Glory: Human and Divine
I. A man’s glory
is his doom. For although in a strict sense the custom does not fit with the
fashion of the age
there are men to-day who
figuratively speaking
cannot cut
their hair without weighing it. In plain language
there are men whose whole
attention is directed to the contemplation of their endowments and the worship
of their powers. And
just as with Absalom
these very endowment may lead to
their destruction; they may be “in at the death.”
1. New
in the first place
let the proposition be accepted that man
must glory. By his very nature he attaches himself to something either external
or personal to himself
in which he takes a lively interest and manifests a
palpable pride. Every man is
more or less
what is vulgarly called a
“Faddist.” He takes hold of something
and makes it the centre of his
existence
the object of his aims and desires. Or else that something lays hold
of him
and keeps him a bondman to its service. It may be personal
or social
or municipal
or political
or religious
but there it is
embedded in the
soul
or laying its grasp upon the mind. It comes out on any and every
occasion. It is made manifest in the thought and in the life and in the work.
And seldom indeed is its power found either to diminish or to die. Or
to vary
the figure
each life has its Sun. And here
of course
the moral
the
spiritual law
diverges from the natural
which knows of only one centre. Round
this sun the life-planet circles
kept in place by its influence
partaking of
its light
and reflecting its radiancy with more or less brilliance
according
to what may be called the atmospheric conditions which prevail. Without that
sun
the life falls from its place and loses its power. The sun’s light may
have a greater or a less intensity
its attraction have a greater or a less
force. It may range from the lowest to the highest extreme. It may glimmer as a
fad
or it may shine brightly as an ideal: but still it is there
necessary to
all existence
indispensable to all true life. For we are all of us in a sense
mirrors; very often
God knows
scored and imperfect and dull
but in some
measure reflecting a borrowed glory
catching rays from the unknown and the
infinite
and throwing them at very different angles upon the world. In short
the rays of one life--of various colours as they must ofttimes be--when
gathered together will generally be found to have one common source. That is
its glory
that is its sun.
II. Death lies in
human glory. To reason from the particular to the general directly is not
consistent with the canons of logic and the forms of thought. Because a thing
happens in one case there are no grounds for declaring that it must happen in
all. But if it can be shown by the evidence of illustration and instances that
there are few
if any
exceptions
then we may
with some show of reason
claim
recognition for the rule. What was said a little ago of the unit of humanity
man
supplies with equal truth to men in the mass. A living organisation
an
aggregate of thinking men
is also a reflection of a glory. Here is a country
whose glory has a human source. Two thousand years ago
looking from her seven
hills across the subjugated lands Rome stood
the proud and pompous mistress of
the world. Along her ringing thoroughfares there rolled the chariot of war. By
Tibet’s bank the sentry trod his everlasting round. President of the council of
her gods sat Jupiter
the king of heaven
to whom the war-shout of the
conqueror and the sacrifice of the sword ascended as a sweet savour. Tribe by
tribe the inhabitants of the known world passed beneath the yoke
and power
became the one object in the national outlook. Raising it to the place of
deity
they tendered it the honour and the praise. “Triumph! triumph!” was the
cry that rent the Roman air. “Number the captives and measure their land! Ours
is the brave heart
ours the mighty arm
and great indeed is our glory!” Ay!
two thousand years ago. But the day of downfall was at hand. The oak caught
Absalom by the hair. Into collision with the eternal oak of God’s will and
purpose came the blind and boastful glory of the Empire. “Thus far and no
further” was the stern decree. And on swept the steed of History
leaving its
Rome behind.
2. Here is a church whose glory
too
has a human source. Its Bible
is the morality
the etiquette
the fashion of the age. Its teaching is laid on
the basis of what is proper rather than what is right. Its creed runs thus--“I
believe in well-cushioned pews
wealthy communicants
and a respectable record
of missionary zeal
so long as that calls for no work of mine.” Through the pillars
and arches of its buildings there floats the breath of sweetest music
and the
silver tones of “the snowy-banded
dilettante
delicate-handed priest.” And
from an aesthetic point all is sweet to hear and fair to see. But where is God
in that church? Where is the “glory due unto His name?” Left out of account! It
glories in its exclusiveness; in what it calls its culture
its high tone. But
high tone and culture of that kind fall foul of the hard judgment of a stern
world. The entanglement comes; and on goes religion heedless of its loss while
enemies arrive with their darts of disestablishment and popular clamour to
thrust into the useless body. In its glory there lies its death.
3. Here is an individual whose glory too
has a human source. He
believes in himself to the exclusion of all else. He takes some attribute or
characteristic of his own
and says
“This is what I am by the grace of my own
endeavours.” He owns allegiance to human nature
to the tendencies of the age
until
like Wolsey
he is forced to the bitter cry
“Had I but served my God
with half the zeal I served my king
He would not in mine age have left me
naked to mine enemies!” And not infrequently I should say this: “Show me that
in which a man prides himself
and I shall know one thing at least that he is
not.” Let me take you back to the survey of that image of the sun; and let me
ask you to observe one such as I have mentioned
whose sun has nothing but an
earthly effulgence and a human light; who circles
for example
about pride
or
riches
or merely worldly wisdom; who is content to live in the light of these
and to take the glory of his life from them. And there you have the most
terrible of all spectacles
the most ghastly of all weird pictures--a heart
without God. A world without its sun! A heart without God! A heart with nothing
but its own cherished glory! And that very pride
these very riches
that very
worldly wisdom brings him at last under the power of God. On goes eternity
and
the wretched man is left behind to realise the truth of these awful words
“It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
III. Life lies in
divine glory. It is a far cry from the Jewish prince to the Gentile preacher
but pass with me to St. Paul. A man “of like passions with you
” he
too
must
glory in something; nor
humanly speaking
had he far to seek for a cause. “If
I must glory
” he says
“if I must have my one life-support
if I must look
somewhere for a spiritual dynamic--then God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ah! there he finds the proper source
the real
centre
the bright sun. From over Calvary’s hill there steal the roseate rays
of the Sun of Righteousness--and these he seeks to reflect. To glory in a
cross--a cross! the badge of infamy--the stamp of shame! Now I see that St.
Paul is in the right
that he knows whom he has believed. For in that cross I
find the earnest of life eternal and undying love; through that cross I feel
the power of God and the wisdom of God; from that cross I see a light that
streams across the desert of life. Think of what it typifies and teaches; think
of all which led up to it
and all to which it leads
and say
has it not glory
sufficient for us to-day? It speaks of a self-renunciation; of a sacrifice
solemn and significant
which
while it can never in itself be repeated
may
still
thank God
be copied; and what though there be many a shortcoming and
many a fault? Lay yourself down before it in heroic martyrdom: cast away the
old
dull self: giving is getting with Jesus; and getting with Him is glory.
Make it the centre of your spiritual existence; make your life a reflection of.
Him who gives it at once its value and its power; and you can say to the
worldling
in full assurance of faith--“Death worketh in you; but life in us.”
(R. Barclay
M. A.)
The fallen prince
I. Absalom was the
beloved child of his parents. Exactly why he was the favourite son cannot
perhaps
be decided. All David’s children were beautiful in person
though
Absalom seems to have excelled them all in personal grace. It has been
suggested that his mother was a queen
and so he seemed more royal than the
rest of the princes.
II. Absalom was the
hope of a party in the nation. The country
in his day
was unsettled. Judah
had lost the supremacy it had gained during David’s reign in Hebron
and was
restless and jealous. David’s neglects were telling on the country
producing
discontent. And one great party was looking to Absalom
the affable and kingly
son. By his blandishment he stole the hearts of the people
and
on the first
favourable opportunity
the people bore him
with a sudden impulse
to the
royal throne.
III. Absalom bore
some of the penalty of his father’s sins. For the Divine penalties on
transgressions come in part by consequences
which are sure to reach beyond the
transgressor
and he is punished and wounded in the sufferings of others
often
of those nearest and dearest to him. Absalom bore some of the penalty of
David’s sin by his wrong-doing.
IV. And Absalom met
with a tragic end
A hasty ride through the woods; an overhanging bough; three
smitings of the darts; rude hackings of the young men’s swords; and a grave in
a pit. (R. Tuck
B. A.)
The circumstances of Absalom’s death
As the ruined gambler for a crown rode recklessly on in his fear
he was swept out of the saddle by being caught by the low
spreading branches
of a great terebinth tree
and the startled mule galloping away
was left
hanging there
unable to lift his arms so as to haul himself up. It is from
Josephus that we get the statement that Absalom was caught by his hair
which
is probable enough
but the lesson does not describe how he was entangled.
Perhaps his head was jammed between the forks of some great branch. At all
events
there he dangled
half throttled
and utterly incapable of releasing
himself. There is something of horror and ghastliness in so strange a fate
as
if this criminal was too bad to die by a common death. But there is a deeper
lesson in that figure swinging there
with his gay clothing all disordered. God
has plenty of instruments to punish evil-doers. “Thousands at his bidding
wait.” There is no need for a miracle. He works through the natural operations
of his creation. So all things are against the man who is against God
even as
all work together for good to those who love Him
and
when He wills
the leafy
beauty of the great tree shall be the gallows for the rebel Absalom. “The stars
in their courses fought against Sisera.” A frightened mule and an unconscious
tree bring Absalom to his death. There are no accidents in the great scheme of
things. God’s foes have foes in every bush and every beast. (A. Maclaren
D.
D.)
Caught in the maelstrom of vanity and pride
The “Road to Ruin
” taken by Absalom
may be illustrated by what
is known of the Maelstrom
a famous whirlpool off the coast of Norway. The
immense body of water forming it extends
in a circle
about thirteen miles in
circumference. A great rock stands in the midst thereof
against which the
tide
when ebbing
beats with inconceivable fury
instantly swallowing up all
things coming within the sphere of its violence. No dexterity of steering or
strength of rowing on the mariner’s part can accomplish his escape. The most
experienced sailor at the helm finds his ship beginning to move in a direction
opposite to his efforts and intentions; the motion at first is slow and nearly
imperceptible
but becomes every moment more rapid; the vessel goes round in
circles
narrowing each time
until
dashed against the central rock
it is
lost with all on board. Thus was Absalom borne onward in the ever-narrowing
circle of vanity
self-indulgence
and cruel treachery
until he perished in
the Maelstrom of Divine Retribution.
Verse 18
Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself a
pillar.
An infidel at the grave of Absalom
Dr. Eremete Pierrotti
a French scientist
architect
and
engineer
when an infidel
journeyed through Palestine with the avowed
intention of disproving the truth of the Bible. Visiting the heap of stones
over Absalom’s grave
an Arab woman came by with her little child
which she
held by the hand. In passing
she threw a stone upon the heap marking the tomb
of Absalom
and bade the child do the same. “What do you do that for?” “Because
it was the grave of a wicked son who disobeyed his father.” “And who was he?”
“The son of David
” she replied. The professor started as if a blow had struck
him. Here was an Arab woman
a Mahommedan
who probably had never seen a copy
of the Scriptures
and could not read a word of them; yet she held these
ancient facts
and was teaching her child to fling a stone at the monument
called by the name of a son who rebelled against his father. Dr. Pierrotti
Bible in hand
turned to the story of Absalom
and as he read it a new light
shone on him. This was the first of many convictions which so wrought upon him
that at length he embraced the faith he once attempted to destroy
and devoted
his life to the proof and illustration of the sacred Scriptures.
Monuments
“The man who deserves a monument never needs one
and the man who
needs one never deserves it.”
Verses 19-33
Verse 29
Is the young man Absalom safe?
When a young man is insecure
Beginning from the outside circle
and finding our way to the
centre
I am going to recount some of the dangers of young men.
1. “Is the young man safe?” No
certainly not; if he drinks. The
cold
stingy
selfish being
it leaves untouched; but
if there is a youth more
ardent
warm-hearted
high-spirited than the rest it marks him out for its
prey. The young man
we shall suppose
has everything to recommend him. Good
talents; pleasing address; excellent penmanship; comes from a good home; brings
capital testimonials; but it is whispered
“he drinks!” That is enough. He is
not “safe.” All his other advantages will not secure him.
2. “Is the young man safe?” No; if he gambles. It was only lately
that a well-known magistrate said: “I wish that the clerks in mercantile houses
of London would come to this court
and see what I see
and hear what I hear.
This is only one of a multitude of eases where prisoners in your position have
confessed that their robberies are entirely clue to betting. I regard it as a
curse to the country; because I see how young men are lured until they fall
into a state of misery and wretchedness.”
3. “Is the young man safe?” No; if he keeps bad company. Solomon
wrote many true things
but he never wrote a truer than this: “He that walketh
with wise men shall be wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.” I
have seen it again and again. I have seen as fine a fellow as I would ever wish
to grasp by the hand
by some evil chance thrown into acquaintanceship with a
loose
unprincipled character; and
from the day the intimacy began
there has
been a steady and sure degeneracy.
4. “Is the young man safe?” No! if he is idle. I am thankful to say
there are not many of you exposed to that danger. What a sight
to be sure
the
great inlets to the City present any week-day morning about ten o’clock! What
with the rattling of wheels on the Causeway
the shuffling of feet on the
pavement
and the humming of innumerable voices
the hive seems as busy as it
can be. But
haven’t you noticed
just once in s while
a man slouching along
carelessly about
his hands in his pockets and
vacancy in his eyes? That’s the
man the devil thinks he will have an easy job with.
5. “Is the young man safe?” No; if there is anything in his business
inconsistent with the strictest integrity. Don’t talk of being “safe
” if you
have every day to make a compromise with conscience
and smooth things over the
best way you can. I am grieved to say
the mercantile conscience at the present
day is not very sensitive. Are there not many houses of business where some of
the clerks or assistants might say
“I could tell some things if I would
but I
won’t. It’s not all straight and aboveboard. Customers don’t get all for their
money they think they are getting.” Are there not things you have to wink at
if you would keep your situation
and get a rise by-and-by? Well
let me assure
you of this--that
in the six thousand years of past human history
there has
never been so much as one occasion when it was either a man’s duty
Or his real
interest to sin against God. It can never be right to do wrong.
6. “Is the young man safe?” No; if he does not make conscience of
keeping the Sabbath-day. Apart from our spiritual or highest nature
man needs
his system demands
the rest of the Sabbath. He is not “safe” without it. A
celebrated merchant declared
“I should have been a maniac long ago
but for
the Sabbath. Really
you are not “safe” without it. The brain is not safe; the
intellect is not safe; the nerves--the muscles--the banes--the moral
nature--the immortal soul.
7. “Is the young man safe?” No; if he neglects his private devotions
What is that that Christ says? “Enter into thy closet
and when thou hast shut
thy door
pray to thy Father
which is in secret.” The man who knows nothing of
the closed door
and the bended knee
and the earnest breathing up to heaven
is no Christian; put that down for certain. Ah! you may have a nice room
pleasant look-out
clean-curtained windows
cheerful picture or two on the
walls; tidy bookshelf
with just a select dozen or two instructive volumes;
photographic album
which you often look at
with the faces of those you love
most on earth; soft and comfortable pillow to lay your head upon; but--if that
is all--O
there is a terrible want there. Can you not point me to the Bible
which you nightly study
to the chair at which you daily bend
as you pour out
your heart to God? If you can’t
let me tell you
you are not
“safe.” No man
can fight life’s battle successfully
and reach heaven in the end
who doesn’t
endeavour to spend a little while every day alone with God. Make
conscience-work of it. Make a point (as McCheyne used to say) of seeing God’s face
the first in the morning and the last at night. (Thain Davidson
D. D.)
A young man’s safety
I. The question of
the text is a most suggestive one.
1. Is the young man safe physically. Is his health safe?
2. Is the young man safe intellectually? What is the state of his
mind? Have his powers of thought been developed
or dwarfed and stunted? Is he
well informed? Is he capable of coming to a correct conclusion concerning any
ordinary matter which may be brought before him? Is his mind growing? without
which there can be no mental life.
3. Is the young man safe socially? Is his position a good one? Is it
likely to lead to a competency
or to sustain him respectably and supply his
various wants. Is he safe as regards his knowledge of his trade. Is he a
skilful
intelligent mechanic- or a judicious and successful mad of business?
These are inquiries which should not be despised. Then
are his companions welt
chosen? Are they likely to do him good? Are they on the Lord’s side? What about
that nearest of all relations
that dearest of all friends? Has he selected his
future wife? If so
has he made a safe venture? Will she prove a true helpmeet
to him? Will she sustain him in all his struggles
rejoice with him in his
success
weep with him in his trials? Will she make his home
however humble or
however splendid it may be
the dearest
sweetest spot in all the earth to him?
Will she help him in the path to heaven
or sink him down to hell?
4. Is the young man safe spiritually? In a word
is his soul safe? If
he were now to sink in death
what would be his eternal destiny? Has he been
accepted and forgiven through the Beloved One? Is his soul the temple of the
Holy Spirit? Is life to him Christ? Is his daily experience meetening him for
the brighter and better world? Has he determined to give up all things (if
necessary) that he may live in Christ and be found in Him? Is he striving to
live a divine life among sinful men? Is he endeavouring to put down sin in his
body
and to make all his members the servants of righteousness? If not
he is
not safe.
II. The question of
the text is a very practical one.
1. The first professes large things. He says he is fond of
investigating truth
but he will not subscribe to any creed. He will not join
any sect
lest his powers of thought should be weakened by contact with men of
narrow minds. He will think for himself
and doubtless all will be well at
last. Not that he is prepared to accept the dogmas (this is his favourite term)
of revealed religion. These may do for the very aged and for children
but not
for him. He must have something more reasonable
and more
intellectual--something that will expand and exalt his soul. This poor young
man may soon be dismissed. He is filled with pride
the condemnation of the
devil. He has not yet learnt that before he can enter the kingdom of heaven he
must become as a little child. He has no true conception of sin. The idea of
the atonement never enters his brain. He either assumes that he is perfectly
holy
or God is all merciful
and
therefore
will not bring his venial faults
in the judgment against him. Ah
what a mistake is all this!
2. The second is a young man of a totally different order. He is the
son of pious parents. He has not a word to say against the gospel
he admits
the vast importance of personal religion. He has often been under the influence
of the truth
but
alas
he makes no progress heavenward. He grants all you
demand
but he does not act upon his concessions. And why? It is his fond hope
that after his youthful days are past he will have a more favourable
opportunity for doing so than he now possesses. He thinks that the claims of
religion and of business would not
in his case
work harmoniously. He
therefore
waits
although persuaded. He postpones the great work of seeking
the Lord
although convinced of its last importance. He hopes to die the death
of the righteous
but he is not prepared to live his life. He trusts he will
reach heaven
but he cannot as yet give up earth. Is this young man safe? Alas
no! He is turned aside by a deceived heart. The devil is leading him captive at
his will.
3. The third young man resembles in some points both the second and
the first. He is intelligent and studious. He has also been brought under the
power of the world to come. He does not
however
satisfy his conscience by
saying
“Go thy way for this time
and when I have a convenient season I will
send for thee.” On the other hand
he endeavours to obtain peace by a diligent
observance of the precepts of the law. As far as outward deportment goes
he is
moral
amiable
loving
and kind. His friends unite in pronouncing him a most
unexceptionable personage. His praises frequently form the burden of their
conversation. They cannot understand why one go very young should be so very scrupulous.
He must be right. He must be safe. Let us
however
test him by the Word of
God. Have you not read of a young man who came to Jesus saying
“Good Master
what good thing shall I do
that I may have eternal life? Here we have a type
of the class
one of which I have brought before you. And can we pronounce him
safe? Far from it. His morality will not bear the Divine scrutiny. His works
performed as they are in a self-righteous spirit
are an abomination before
God.
4. The fourth young man stands before us. Is he safe? Listen. Three
years ago he had a dangerous illness. For some time his life trembled in the
balance. Brought face to face with death
he felt that he was not prepared for
its stroke. Though very young the thought of eternity filled him with terror.
The sins of his youth weighed him down. Should he die he would be lost for
ever. At this juncture a pious and judicious friend visited him and spoke of
the great truths of salvation. The young man listened with eagerness to his
description of the death of Jesus. Not that what he now beam was wholly new to
him. He had heard it from his mother
as in early childhood he sat upon her
knee. He had heard it from his Sabbath school teacher
he had heard it also
from his father
as he knelt by his dying bed
to receive his last benediction;
but now
it came to him with new and peculiar power. Thoughts and feelings were
awakened which had before found no place in his bosom. Was there mercy for him?
Would Jesus receive
forgive
and bless him? He would read the Gospel and see
for himself. He did so
and before many days had gone by
he cried to Him who
is able to save to the very uttermost
“Lord
save me
or I perish.” His
earnest supplication was not in vain. The Saviour was exceedingly gracious to
him at the voice of his cry. The burden of his sin was taken away. The peace of
God filled his soul. He felt that from henceforth he was the Lord’s. Through
the good providence of God his life was spared
and since his recovery he has
carried out the resolutions which he made upon his sick bed. Resting upon Jesus
himself
he has endeavoured to induce others to do the same
and not a few of
his former companions can testify that his efforts have not been made in vain.
Need I say that this young man is safe. No fears can be enter-rained on his
account. He is safe because he is in Christ.
III. The question of
the text is a very urgent one. There are some inquiries which we may postpone
for a season without loss. It is not essential to our well-being that we should
answer them at once. The one before us is
however
of a very different
character. “Is the young man safe?” This is the most important question to
which your attention can be directed; it demands and deserves your instant
consideration-let me therefore press it upon you--young men
are you safe? Are
the Saviour’s arms around and beneath you? Are you in the enjoyment of his
love?
1. Your danger makes this question a very urgent one.
2. The greatness of the interest at stake makes this an urgent
question. It may be that you have not realized your capacity. You do not know
your value. Think what you may become even on earth. You may be a useful member
of society--the delight
the joy
the blessing of your social circle. It is
also in your power to do much for Jesus. You can so labour that many will rise
up to call you blessed.
3. The necessities of the world make this an urgent question. Young
men are wanted in every department of Christian agency. The cry is
everywhere
“Give us men; give us young men.” They are wanted in the Sabbath school. They
are wanted in the mission field abroad. Young men
you live in important times.
You are wanted. The church wants you. Christ wants you. Bending from his throne
he says
“Who will go for us?” Will you not reply
“Here am I
send me.”
Finally
whether we are old or young
let us gather around the cross; let us
bow at the feet of Jesus. That is the most blessed spot in the universe. There
is safety there! (H. B. Ingram.)
An anxious enquiry for a beloved son
How many there are at this present moment who have
no doubt
other very weighty businesses
but whose one only thought just now is
“Is the
young man safe? Is my son safe? Is my father safe? Is my wife safe?” A vessel
has gone down in the river with hundreds on board
and weeping friends are
going hither and thither from place to place
hoping and yet fearing to
identify the corpse of some beloved one; longing to find one who has not been
heard of since the fatal hour
and trembling all the while lest they should
find him or her among the bodies which have been drawn from the cold stream.
The one thought uppermost with scores to-night is this one--“Is my beloved one
safe?” Do you blame them? They are neglecting business
and forsaking their
daily toil
but do you blame them? A hundred weighty things are forgotten in
the one eager enquiry: do you
can you
blame them? Assuredly not. It is
natural
and it is
therefore
I think
but right.
I. This question
of anxiety--“Is the young man Absalom safe?”
1. And the first remark is
it is a question asked by a father
concerning his son. “Is he safe?”
2. This was a question asked about a son who had left his father’s
house. “Is the young man Absalom safe?”
3. It is the question of a father about his rebellious son.
4. The question of a parent concerning a son who
if he were not
safe
but dead
was certainly in a very dreadful plight. “Is the young man
Absalom safe?”
5. This was a question
alas! which was asked by a father about a son
who was really dead at the time when the question was asked. It was late in the
day to enquire for Absalom’s safety; for it was all over with that rebellious
son.
II. You have had
the question; we are now to speak upon some occasions when that question would
very naturally be used. “Is the young man Absalom safe?”
1. The question would be used
of course
in times
like the present
in reference to this mortal life. When a fearful calamity has swept away
hundreds at a stroke such an enquiry is on every lip.
2. Times of disease
also
raise such enquiries. Well do I recollect
some four-and-twenty years ago
when first I came to London
it was my painful
duty to go
not only by day
but by night
from house to house where the
cholera was raging; and almost every time I met the beloved friends at Park
Street it was my sorrow to hear it said
“Mr. So-and-so is dead. Mistress A. or
B. is gone
” till I sickened myself from very grief. It was then most natural
that each one should say concerning
his relative at a little distance
“Is he
still alive? Is he still safe?”
3. But sometimes we have to ask this question about friends and
children
with regard to their eternal life. They are dead
and we are fearful
that they did not die in Christ
and therefore we enquire
“Is the young man
Absalom safe?”
4. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” is a more practical question when
we put it about
young people and old people
when they are still alive
and we are anxious
about their spiritual condition. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” That is to
say
is he really safe for the future--for this world and for the world to
come?
III. The third point
is to be the answers which we have to give to this question--“IS the young man
Absalom safe?” This question has often bean sent up by friends from the country
about their lads who have come to
London--“Is my boy Harry safe? Is my son John safe?” Answer
sometimes: “No
no. He is not safe. We are sorry to say that he is in great
danger.” I will tell you when we know he is not safe.
1. He is not safe if
like Absalom
he is at enmity with his father.
Oh
no.
2. “Is the young man safe?” Well
no. We have seen him lately in bad
company. He has associated with other young men who are of loose morals.
3. And he is not safe
because he has taken to indulge in expensive
habits. “Absalom prepared him
” it is said
“chariots and horses
and fifty men
to run before him.” This extravagance was a sign of evil. A youth who lavishes
money upon needless luxuries is not safe.
4. Another thing. The young man Absalom is not safe
as you may see
if you look at his personal appearance. We read
“But in all Israel there was
none to be so
much praised as Absalom for his beauty.” Let young men and women dress
according to their stations; we are not condemning them for that. I recollect
Mr. Jay saying
“If you ladies will tell me your income to a penny
I will tell
you how many ribbons you may wear to a yard;” and I think that I might venture
to say the same.
5. And we are sure the young man Absalom is not safe
when he has
begun to be vicious. You recollect what Absalom did.
6. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” No
David
he is not
for the
last time we saw him he was in a battle
and the people were dying all around
him
and therefore he is not safe. How can he be safe where others fail? Yes
and I saw the young man come out of a low place of amusement late one night
and I thought
“No
the young man Absalom is not safe there
for many perish
there.” I heard of his betting at the races
and I thought
“The young man
Absalom is not safe
for multitudes are ruined there.” I saw him in loose
company one evening
and I said
“No
the young man Absalom is not safe: he is surrounded
by those who hunt for the precious life.” It is never safe for us to be where
other people fall; because if they perish
why should not we?
7. Now
the young man is here to-night who will answer to the next
description. He is a very nice young fellow. He is a great hearer and lover of
the gospel word
but he is not decided. He has never taken his stand with God’s
people
confessing Christ as his Lord. Is the young man safe? Oh
no. He is
very hopeful
God bless him! We will pray him into safety if we can; but he is
not safe yet. Those people who were almost saved from the wreck of the Princess
Alice were drowned; and those persons who are almost saved from sin are still
lost. If you are almost alive you are dead.
8. A pleasant task remains
I will now answer that question with a
happy
“Yes.” Yes
the young man Absalom is safe. Why?
Absalom: Spiritual insecurity
Absalom
like every man in to-day’s battle
was in danger. He was
not merely running risk in battle
but he had other risks. Of the chances of
battle only his father thought
but the young man was in danger from other
things. His own vanity was a danger. See how proud he was of those locks of
his. See how he yielded to the vanity of thinking himself fit to sway a
sceptre; and yet he was more fitted to handle brazen mirrors. See how to vanity
was added another danger
ambition--the sin by which the angels fell. This
formed the base of his character. Through this he even flattered those whom he
wished to win to his purposes. If any were drunken he could quaff wine with
them; if profane he could swear with them; if lustful he could match the worst
in sensual suggestions. See further
how he took bad advice from evil
associates. See
too
how a fancied inviolability endangered him. He had his
greatest foes within
His danger was in proportion to the badness of his
character--and we shall hardly find a worse in the whole Bible. And these risks
are for all in the battle of life. It is a hand to hand struggle. We know not
all the risks
for We cannot tell to what this life leads. We know not what
consequences may follow on neglect or defeat
and what on triumph. We know we
have to resist sin. It is sufficient for us to know that it must be conquered
or that it will ruin us. Sin will assume various forms
will assault now in
solid phalanx
now single-handed and alone from behind some shelter. It does
not use the same weapons with all With one it tries vanity
with another
ambition
with another indolence
or lying
or greed
and with another
sensuality
or inebriety. Some it allures into vicious company
others it
destroys by leading to the indulgence of a selfish isolation
a spirit that
will let none know their plans
share their pleasures or possessions--a spirit
that nourishes a self-complacency and self-righteousness--a spirit that perhaps
laughs at spiritual struggles
and seeks to dissipate the most sacred and
treasured truths by a bitter sneer. Sin is a treacherous foe. A man must beware
of thinking that because he has no temptation to steal
to swear
to waste
money
to rejoice in lewd company
to frequent places of bad repute
and to
imbibe strong liquors with the revellers
that
therefore
he is free from
danger. He may be in danger
from his thoughts when he sits alone
or when he
wanders alone m the streets; for as a young man said
“There is no place of
danger equal to the streets of a great city after dark” This witness is true.
2. The anxiety of David for that young man Absalom was as keen as his
love was unquenchable. It is remarkable that the king did not cast off all care
for one who was so unworthy. Though a king
he was a father. Absalom’s guilt
was deep
but his father’s love was deeper.
The four great passes
I propose to speak about the safety of young men.
I. The first great
pass in a young man’s life when he needs Divine help is when he chooses his
occupation or profession. It is a serious moment when a young man gets through
with his schooling
and perhaps leaves his father’s house
and says: “Now
what
shall I be?” Mechanism opens before him a score of trades
and professional
life opens before him seven or eight callings. He must choose between these
and must choose aright
for if he make a mistake here he is gone. I have a
friend who started life in merchandise. Then he went into the medical
profession. After awhile he crossed over into specific surgery. Then he entered
the ministry. Then he became a soldier in the army. After that he entered the
ministry again
and is now a surgeon. O! if he had only had God at the start to
tell him what to do.
II. The second
great pass in life when a young man wants Divine direction is when he
establishes his own household. When a man builds his earthly home
he decides
his eternity. I know that affiancing is usually looked upon as something to be
merry over
instead of something to be prayed about; but what step is there
fraught with such weal or woe? Is it not strange that an affair charged with
such temporal and eternal import should depend on a whim or a glance? I do not
think I put the ease
too strongly when I say that when a young man marries he marries for heaven or
hell! If he brings into his household the right kind of influences
the home
will be elevated and upward in its impulsions. If he bring the wrong kind of
influences into his house he will go down--he must go down. A minister of the
Gospel came into a home where there was great poverty and destitution
and it
was generally supposed that the poverty came from the fact that these people
had married too early; and after the minister had looked around upon the utter
want and destitution
and had rehearsed the misfortunes that had come upon the
household
he turned to the poor man and said: “Don’t you now regret your early
marriage? Don’t you think it was your great mistake in life?” And the man
halted for a moment
and his eyes filled up with tears
and he looked up at his
poorly-clad wife and said: “No
sir; she has been the same to ms all through!”
III. The third great
pass in life in which a young man wants religion is in the time of his first
success. You say: “Here I have money now of my own. What shall I do with it?
What investments shall I make? What house shall I buy? What wardrobe shall I
create? What shall I get? What charities
what philanthropies
shall I favour?”
That is the crisis where thousands of men upset. Some of them rush into
dissipations. A man wants the grace of Christ at that crisis to keep him
rightly balanced.
IV. The fourth
great pass in a young man’s life when he needs the grace of God is when he
comes to his first sorrow. It is preposterous for us to launch young men on
life with the idea that they are going to have it smooth all the way. There
will be storms. You want extra cordage. I know when our last war was over
some
people came back without a scratch or a scar
but that is not so in the great
battle of life: we get wounded in the hands
and wounded in the feet
and
wounded in the head
and wounded in the heart. No man escapes. But now
what
are you going to do with your first sorrow? The way you get through your first
sorrow will decide whether you can endure the other sorrows of life. (T.
De Witt Talmaqe
D. D.)
The death of Absalom
Let us gather up some of the lessons of this narrative:--
I. God’s
restraining and over-ruling hand amid the plans of wicked men. Absalom was free
to act upon the sagacious (albeit cruelly unfilial) advice of Ahithophel; but
he rejected it. He was free to reject the plausible advice of Hushai; but he
chose to act upon it. “For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of
Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom.” But the
Lord’s appointment worked not counter to
but through
the free choice of
Absalom. Human freedom is a fact of individual consciousness. We know we are
free
and vet we also know
from the Scriptures of truth and the teachings of
history
that
in spite of all opposition
“the counsel of the Lord
that shall
stand.” Through the very folly and sin of men God is working out His own great
pure purpose
and yet man is none the less guilty.
II. Women’s work is
David’s preservation. A female servant--a woman can go unsuspected to En-rogel
the Fuller’s well--“went and told them.” She was a faithful messenger; quickly
silently went and returned
and kept to herself the matter. Presently the young
men were seen
suspected
and pursued by Absalom’s servants: tracked to the
man’s house in Bahurim
” where in a dry well they were hiding
and where
but
for the woman of the house
they had doubtless been detected. She “took and
spread a covering over the well’s mouth
and spread ground corn thereon; and
the thing was not known.” And with evasive answer she baffled and sent away the
pursuers. Had it been otherwise in the conduct of these women
it had been
doubtless greatly otherwise with David’s safety. Women have played no
unimportant part in the needed revolutions of nations; and
more valuable
still
in the extension of Christ’s kingdom. They ministered to the Lord of
their substance during His life on earth. When men were faithless they were
faithful to Him. In all time since they
loyal to His throne
have been
hastening His kingdom. How many are doing it to-day! Women
of whom the world knows
little if anything; mothers among their children; servants at their lowly toil;
within the narrow walls of home or but a little way beyond them
found
faithful
and so by every pure true word every kindly deed
speeding the
universal answer to their daily prayer
“Thy Kingdom come!”
III. The end of
wounded pride. That Ahithophel was a sagacious man is clear. That he was a
proud man is equally clear. But when preference was given to Hushai’s advice
his pride was cut to the quick. So home went the angry
bitter man. He “put his
household in order
” and then
the first of recorded suicides
“hanged
himself.” Stupendous folly to think more of the “order” of his
household--leaving all his affairs carefully arranged--than of the safety of
his soul. Unbidden
his sins upon him
he rushed into the presence of his
Maker. “Pride goeth before destruction”--in his case self-destruction. It must
be destroyed if the soul is to live.
IV. The doom of
un-filial ingratitude and rebellion. Sudden
irresistible
as bolt from clear
skies
came his doom. Such a doom l What thoughts must have thronged him in his
last awful moments! Alas for the young man Absalom! Let young men and women
remember that punishment for disobedience to parents is inevitable. Many today
axe bearing it in silent
unutterable remorse. Would that they could recall the
dead! Would that in some little way
by present love and tenderness
they could
show repentance for the unfilial past! But the dead come no more!
V. How parental
love appears in parental anxiety and sorrow! The heart of David is made bare to
us in this narrative. It is all tenderness towards Absalom. He sees him in the
light of many a beautiful memory. The child Absalom! The youth! The faultless
loveliness of form! The luxuriant and splendid locks that crowned him! The fond
words when the young prince had nestled in his arms! It all lives to David. His
one anxiety is for Absalom’s safety. Victory will be blurred into defeat if he
should perish. All day long waits the king for the battle-news; all the news
shrunken to this
“What
what of Absalom?” And when the news is known
the king
creeps out of sight of men
weeping
weeping as he goes
“O my son Absalom
my
son
my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee
O Absalom
my son
my son!”
Oh! the sad
sad cry! Heard
alas! to-day
where homes mourn over the lost
and
parents’ hearts break.
There
is no far nor near
There
is neither there nor here
There
is neither soon nor late
In
that Chamber over the Gate
Nor
any long ago
To
that cry of human woe
O
Absalom
my son!
From
the ages that are past
The
voice comes like a blast
Over
seas that wreck and drown
Over
tumult of traffic and town;
And
from ages yet to be
Come
the echoes back to me
O
Absalom
my son!
Somewhere
at every hour
The
watchman on the tower
Looks
forth
and sees the fleet
Approach
of the hurrying feet
Of
messengers
that bear
The
tidings of despair.
O
Absalom
my son!
But David’s voice dies into silence. We hear another--a
greater--the greatest of all. “I have nourished and brought up children
and
they have rebelled against me.” (G. J. Coster.)
Is the young man safe?
There may be very much put together in a small space. We have in
this Book a library in a volume; and we have in this one sentence s world of
meaning. Let us endeavour to realise this. “Safe!” This is a very short word
soon spoken; but how much solemn meaning is there in that one word! When is the
young man safe?
1. Not while he is in sin; not
while
like the unhappy Absalom
any
sin has dominion over him; not while the corruption of nature is unsubdued and
unconquered; not while religion is an appearance
and if not
as with Absalom
an actor’s mask
yet only an empty name
and a dead formality
2. What does make the young man safe? Is it to be never tempted? If
this be safety
then who is safe? We may flee from the gay and busy world
we may hide ourselves in
the secluded cave
we may shut ourselves in the lonely cloister. Will there be
no temptation there? Does memory cease there? Does busy fancy leave off painting
her airy pictures there? Does the corrupt heart not go with us into that
seclusion? “I have been dancing at Rome
” said one of old
“when I was shut up
in my cave in the wilderness.” Do barred doors shut out the spirit that tempts
man? or can man leave behind
him that nature which the prince of this world
when he comes
finds as tinder to catch his
sparks
as rotten wood for his fiery darts to lodge in? If that man only is
“safe” who is out of the reach of temptation
then none is safe at all
for all
are tempted. Is any one “safe
” then? Yes. Look at this young man. He is young;
life is bursting upon him; and who knows not the peculiar freshness of opening
life? The bright flowers of the early spring
the warm fresh breeze loaded with
the sweetness of the hawthorn
the fresh green grass
like a springing carpet
under his elastic tread
the glorious sea of blue above
with its floating
isles of cloud
give sensations of joy as intense
and pleasure as keen to him
as to any others. But he sees more than some in these sights
and he hears more
than others in these sounds. He sees the Maker in His works; he reads something
of the skill that planned
the Power that executed
the perpetual Presence that
works in all the things around. And he sees more. He sees a Father’s love at
every turn
strewing His children’s path with love and blessing. Thus
then
we
can answer the questions--What it is to be safe? and
when alone can we say
that the young man is safe? The Scripture answers
by telling us that then and then
only is the young or the old safe
when God has made the heart of man His own
habitation by the Spirit
and when Satan
and the world
and the flesh have not
to contend with poor weak
frail man
but with man aided
and assisted
and
governed by the eternal God. (W. W. Champneys
M. A.)
To young man
This is the question of the home. Like David
every parent should
be on the watch-tower of solicitude
to see whether it is “well with the
child.” Parents ought to watch how their children fight life’s battle
for they
have many foes and a hard conflict. This question of parental love asked in due
season will help and may save them: “Is the young man safe?” It is also the
question of the Church. Upon her battlements must be the watchtower
from which
words of warning should be uttered. The paths of youth are slippery. A young
man safe at thirty is
as a rule
safe for ever. All young men need the grace
of God and the wise counsel of their elders. Paul says
“Young men exhort to be
soberminded.”
I. Is he safe as
to his training? A question for home and school. Parents are the world’s
rulers. Children are imitators
living phonographs. What they see and hear they
reproduce. They will live the home life over again in the habits and characters
formed there. As to character
in a life of eighty years
the first twenty form
the bigger half. The first colours in the mind of a child are eternal. What
means the proverb
“Once a man
twice a child?” Not the weakness of old age
only
but that as the outward man perishes we return to the scenes of
childhood.
II. Is he safe as
to his calling? Is he suited to his calling? If not
he cannot be safe. He is
where he ought not to be; and if so
what chance has he for happiness or
success? What irreparable wrong is wrought when parents insist on their son
following trades or professions wholly distasteful to them! Nature’s providence
gives most men a genius for doing certain things easily and well. We should
follow those lines of least resistance. A gifted youth was tied to a trade he
loathed. He had to follow life on these lines of greatest resistance
and with
a sad result. That life was wrecked
through harsh and unwise treatment at the outset. Assistants like young Adam
Clarke have been asked to become partakers of their masters’ sins and to put
their hands to evil. If all practised the golden rule
trade and commerce would
soon pass out of the region of questionable methods. John Wesley used to tell
his helpers
“Be ashamed of nothing but sin; no
not of cleaning your own shoes
when necessary.”
III. Is he safe as
to his companions? Absalom was not. He mixed with a set of vain and worthless
flatterers
who made him as bad as themselves. He listened to them until they
fed his ambition and puffed him up. A youth is known by the company he keeps.
Woe be to the unwary who are beguiled by evil companions! Their steps lead to
the gates of hell. Dr. Stalker says there are two methods of meeting
temptation: one the method of restraint
the other that of counter-attraction.
And
like Ulysses
who was tied to the mast of his ship and saved himself from
the sirens
so there is many a cord by which young men may secure themselves.
Love of home
of church
of school
and of Christian work
is a silver cord to
keep them safe in willing bonds
bound yet free. And as Orpheus destroyed the
charm of the inferior music by his superior strains
so there are
counter-attractions by seeking which young men may be safe. Instead of evil
companions
seek good ones.
IV. Is he safe as
to his pleasures? He must have them. The bow cannot be always strung. Hobbies
and habits make life. It is true
as Mr. Gladstone says
that “change of labour
is to a great extent the best form of recreation”; but it must not be always
conscious labour That duty must be lost in the joy. To be always on duty
to be
ever hearing the wheels of life’s machinery
is to make life a treadmill. Such
a youth will lack imagination
enthusiasm
and faith. But do our pleasures
recreate? Do they give muscle to body
and force to mind? Do they send us back
to our task strong and glad? If so
they are true pleasures.
V. Is he safe in
his success? Some men can endure sorrow
but cannot stand success. In its
slippery paths they become giddy and fall. Sorrow and adversity brace them
and
they are brave and patient
and play the man; but prosperity--wealth
popularity
influence--enervates
and their strength becomes weakness. When the
world smiles
“pride compasseth them about
” and soon they fall. Men sometimes
fail at the strongest point; like Edinburgh Castle
which was once taken on the
rocky side
supposed to be impregnable.
VI. Is he safe in
the hour of death? Alas! Absalom was not. Here was the pathos of David’s
lament. “My son
would God I had died for thee!” The shafts of death strike
young and old. He who can face the grim monster is a man every inch of him. We
are only safe in the arms of Jesus. (Joseph Johns.)
The safety of the young
I. That the young
are exposed to special dangers.
1. Youth is a time of special susceptibility. While the grown tree
will sooner break than bend
the sapling may be trained any way.
2. It is a time of ingenuous trustfulness. Much of the folly of young
people may be attributed to their ignorance of the world. They see the flower
and have no suspicion of the serpent that lies concealed under it. No guilt can
be greater
no sin more diabolical
than that of him who trades upon the
unsuspiciousness of innocence.
3. It is a time of special impulsiveness. The young have fresh blood
coursing in their veins; and the freshness of their physical being is but a
type of that which characterises their whole moral and spiritual nature.
4. It is a time when new thoughts and opinions are most readily
received. In a certain sense men naturally grow more conservative as they grow
older. The very changableness of youth betokens the readiness with which their
minds can be guided into fresh and ennobling trains of thought. The great want
of youth is guidance: not restraint
but direction; not stern and repellant
commands
so much as counsel.
5. It is the time when life habits are definitely formed. It is then
the metal is poured into the mould
and the image stands forth through life
with shape of unsightly deformity or graceful beauty. The wax is soft; but will
soon harden under the impression of a Divine likeness or of one debased.
II. That the safety
of the young is a question for special inquiry. “Is the young man safe?” A question for--
1. Parents. What is the character of the home-influence? Parents must
take” their choice. They must either make the life and lessons--the love and
the pleasures--of home more attractive and winning than those of the street; or
they must pass through bitter experiences in the midst of which they need not
Wonder at the ruin of their sons and daughters.
2. Employers. What is the example in trade life? What are the
associations of the workshop and the warehouse? Are not assistants and
apprentices too often left as isolated atoms on the surging sea of life? “What
care they for the world that cares not for them?”
3. The Church. What is the Church doing? Are not Young Men’s
Christian Associations in some sense so many testimonies against the Church on
account of neglected duty.
4. Young men themselves. Humanly speaking
there is no help like
self-help. Dare to be men--to stand alone. Yet not alone; since Christ waits to
take you under His protection. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?”
(F. Wagstaff.)
The dangers of young men
When a youth has left his father’s house
and gums to mingle with
the world
to be exposed to its storms
its temptations
its deceitful
fascinations
it is just thus that his anxious parents question every one who
has come from the place of his abode
“Is the young man safe?”
I. The dangers to
which young men are exposed. There are
first
dangers incidental to their time
of life. Every one knows that there are certain stages of life fraught with
more importance
and consequently more perilous
than others. This is true
physically; for medical men will tell you
that when the child passes into the
boy
when the boy merges into the young man
when the young man bursts into the
full bloom of manhood
and again when the man
at what is called his grand
climacteric
crosses the boundary of old age--these are all critical times; and
that diseases which at any other period would be thrown of[ with ease
become
then dangerous
and often fatal. Now the same thing holds of the moral and
spiritual development of a man; arid there are stages of his soul-history which
are just as critical and momentous for his eternal interests
as those which I
have specified are for his physical.
1. There is great peril springing out of the inexperience by which a
youth is characterised. Everything is new and strange to him; and when
for the
first time
he embarks upon the troubled sea of commercial life
not Columbus
himself
as in fear and trembling he pushed on and on over the wide waste of
waters
and
“Was the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea
”
was more: inexperienced in navigation than is he. He is out of
sight of his old landmarks; he knows neither the dangers that encircle him
nor
the currents in the midst of which his course is to be pursued. He has
everything to learn
and everything to know.
2. But added to this inexperience
and
indeed
intensifying the
danger that results from it
is that self-conceit
or self-confidence
by which
every youth is pre-eminently distinguished. Though he knows so little
he
imagines he knows everything; indeed
just because he knows so little
he
fancies he is exceedingly intelligent; for the law is an invariable one
that
the more a man knows the more he knows his ignorance; while
on the other hand
the greater a man’s ignorance
the greater
too
is his ignorance of his
ignorance.
3. But a third danger
incidental to the time of life at which a
young man has arrived
rises out of that impatience of control which marks the
time of transition between youth and manhood. Love of liberty is a good thing
but it Is apt to become
love of licence; and this is the danger of which we
speak. Now
this ordinarily makes its appearance first in breaking through
parental restraint.
II. A second class
of dangers to young men spring from the place where their life is spent. Every
locality has its own peculiar moral atmosphere
which is laden with its own
poisons to the soul. The rural life has its peculiar tendencies
which you may
see any day fully developed in the agricultural labourers of England
many of
whom are
in almost every respect
very little above the level of the brutes
they drive. Quiet provincial towns have also their own perils; and many a man
who would have done well
if only kept hard at work
under a pushing master in
a city
is lost for this life
and frequently also lost for eternity
from the
dawdling
idling
tippling habits which in such places have so powerful sway.
The ruin of many men
in such half-dead localities
is that they have not
nearly enough to do
and Satan finds abundance of employment for their leisure
hours.
III. Young men are
exposed to danger also from the tendencies of the age in which their lot is
cast. Whatever these tendencies may be
they are most powerfully felt by youth;
because
from the position they occupy--being
in fact
the population of the
future--they are all brought to bear upon them. I will simply mention two.
1. There is intellectualism. No one
who is at all conversant with
the literature of the day
will deny that the tendency of the greater part of
it is to place the intellect on the throne of the soul
and indeed also of the
world. Religion is nothing; intellect is everything. The Bible is far behind
the advanced thinkers of the age. It is antiquated
obsolete
effete. Its day
is gone; and now intellect
not faith
must rule supreme. Now
intellect is
good
very excellent good
but yet it is not God; and its province is to sit
meek and believing at the feet of Jesus. I want intellect. I want the young men
of our times to be sturdy thinkers
men of mind; men who can take a subject and
resolve it into its elements
and reason it out to its remotest consequences.
But I want them also to know and understand that the Bible is the most
intellectual book in the world. Was Paul not intellectual? Is not his little
finger thicker than the loins even of the stoutest champions of intellect in
modern times? And if you look at the history of the world
man for man
I will
bring you a more intellectual Christian
over against your most powerful and
profound infidels. There is the erudite Leibnitz over against the pantheistic
Spinoza; against the flippant Voltaire
we have the thoughtful Pascal
in any
of whose suggestive fragments there is more mind than in all Voltaire’s books
put together. Over against the sentimental Rousseau
we can put the mild
loving
John-like Fenelon. And where among the would-be pretentious
intellectualists of to-day will you find the equal of Jonathan Edwards
John
Foster
or Robert Hall? Be not blinded
my young friends
with the dust which
these men would raise around you; depend upon it
the highest intellect will be
found in meekest humility
sitting at Jesus’ feet.
2. But another danger assailing young men
from the tendencies of the
age
is Mammonism. Every one must see that
especially in commercial centres
like this
the prevailing idolatry is the worship of the golden calf. The maxim
of the day is that held up to scorn by the old Roman satirist
“Get riches
honestly if you can; but by all means
get riches;” and the prevailing heresy
is
the determination at all hazards to be wealthy. Young man
ask thyself
this
“What shall it profit me if I should gain the whole world and lose my own
soul?” (W. M. Taylor
M. A.)
Safety for young men
The fact is that this life is full of peril. He who undertakes it
without the grace of God and a proper understanding of the conflict into which
he is going
must certainly be defeated. Just look off upon society to-day.
Look at the shipwreck of men for whom fair things were promised
and who
started life with every advantage. Look at those who have dropped from high social
position
and from great fortune
disgraced for time
disgraced for eternity.
All who sacrifice their integrity come to overthrow. Take a dishonest dollar
and bury it in the centre of the earth
and keep all the rocks of the mountain
on top of it; then cover these rocks with all the diamonds of Golconda
and all
the silver of Nevada
and all the gold of California and Australia
and put on
the top of these all banking and moneyed institutions
and they cannot keep
down that one dishonest dollar. That one dishonest dollar in the centre of the
earth will begin to heave and rock and upturn itself until it comes to the
resurrection of damnation.
I. The first
safeguard of which i want to speak is a love of home.
II. Another
safeguard for young men is industrious habit. Young man
you must have industry
of head
or hand
or foot
or perish! Do not have the idea that you can get
along in the world by genius. The curse of this country to-day is geniuses--men
with large self-conceit and nothing else.
III. Another safeguard
that i want to present to young men is a high ideal of life. Sometimes soldiers
going into battle shoot into the ground instead of into the hearts of their
enemies. They are apt to take aim too low
and it is very often that the
captain
going into conflict with his men
will cry out
“Now
men
aim high!”
The fact is that in life a great many men take no aim at all. The artist plans
out his entire thought before he puts it upon canvas
before he takes up the
crayon or the chisel. An architect thinks out the entire building before the
workmen begin. Although everything may seem to be unorganised
that architect
has in his mind every Corinthian column
every Gothic arch
every Byzantine
capital. A poet thinks out the entire plot of his poem before he begins to
chime the cantos of tinkling rhythms. And yet there are a great many men who
start the important structure of life without knowing whether it is going to be
a rude Tartar’s hut or a St. Mark’s Cathedral
and begin to write out the
intricate poem of their life without knowing whether it is to be a Homer’s
“Odyssey” or a rhymester’s botch. Out of one thousand
nine hundred and
ninety-nine have no life-plot. Booted and spurred and caparisoned
they hasten
along
and I run out and say: “Hallo
man! Whither away?” “Nowhere!” they say.
IV. Another
safeguard is a respect for the Sabbath. Tell me how a young man spends his
Sabbath
and I will tell you what are his prospects in business
and I will
tell you what are his prospects for the eternal world. God has thrust into our
busy life a sacred day when we are to look after our souls. Is it exorbitant
after giving six days to the feeding and clothing of these perishable bodies
that God should demand one day for the feeding and clothing of the immortal soul?
V. The great
safeguard for every young man is the Christian religion. Nothing can take the
place of it. You may have gracefulness enough to put to the blush Lord
Chesterfield; you may have foreign languages dropping from your tongue; you may
discuss laws and literature; you may have a pen of unequalled polish and power;
you may have so much business tact that you can get the largest salary in a
banking house; you may be as sharp as Herod and as strong as Samson
and with
as long locks as those which hung Absalom
and yet you have no safety against
temptation. Your great want is a new heart
and in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ I tell you so to-day
and the blessed Spirit presses through the
solemnities of this hour to put the cup of life to your thirsty lips. Oh
thrust it not back r Mercy presents it--bleeding mercy
long-suffering mercy.
Despite all other friendships
prove recreant to all other bargains
but
despise God’s love for your dying soul--do not do that. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Self-indulgence does not get the most out of life
One of the most frequent pleas for self-indulgence is that life
was given us that we might get the most out of it. We were born with so many
capacities of enjoyment; would it not be foolish
not to say ungrateful
to leave
them unsatisfied? The general principle to which appeal is here made is
absolutely sound. God means us to get the most out f every gift of His
providence. The question turns entirely upon the comparative merits of
different means of attempting this. We do not get the most out of a
two-hundred-pound piano if we use it for strumming dance music. We do not get
the most out of a surgical instrument of finely tempered steel if we cut the
leaves of a new magazine with it. We do not get the most out of a rapid newspaper-printing
press if we set it to print post cards. In the same way
we should not get the
most out of Mr. Edison by engaging him to repair motor cars
or out of
Principal Fairbairn by placing him in charge of a class in a kindergarten. The
only way to utilise either an instrument or a man to the full is to occupy that
instrument or that man in the highest and most difficult service--a service
limited only by the extent of capacity. From a merely business point of view
it is stupid policy to allow a high-grade apparatus to do a low-grade work.
Such is the waste and such the degradation whenever a being
created in the
image of God
surrenders himself to the temptation of the senses. He appraises
himself at the minimum rate
not at the maximum. It is getting the least
not
the most
out of life
to acquire only those things that “perish with the
using.” (H. W. Horwill.)
I saw a great tumult
but
I know not what it was.
Garbling the truth
The most delicate question in morals that people in general have to
solve is
how far kindness justifies falsehood? How far may you veil or colour
the truth in order to spare people’s feelings? In the short run
taking the one
case by itself
tenderness seems better than truth. It seems more right to save
your friend from pain than to tell him how things really stand. But in the long
run
I fancy
pure truthfulness would give the most pleasure and save the most
pain. Not
of course
that you need go about telling uncalled for truths; but
all you do say shored be unswervingly straightforward. What comfort there is in
a man or woman in whom you know there is no guile
in whose words you can
wholly trust
without having to take off an unknown quantity that may have been
put on to please you. On the other hand
people like the Irish
who are so
kindly that they will be always garbling the truth into an agreeable shape--how
they vex your soul--how you long for rough
homely truthfulness
instead of
such “making things pleasant.” (Charles Buxton
M. P.)
Verse 32
The enemies of my lord the king . . . be as that young
man is.
Cushi’s wish
I. a prophetical
prayer.
1. Prayer is of two sorts: for or against. As
II. A prophecy.
That so he wished: and that
as he wished
so he foretold: and as he foretold
so it came to pass. All that rose after
fell as fast as they rose.
III. Last of all
that this prayer or prophecy is not pent or shut up in David’s days: not to end
with him. It reacheth unto these of ours; hath his force and vigour still; hath
and shall have
unto the world’s end. God heard him praying
and inspired him
prophesying. As it came to pass in Absalom
so did it in those that rode after
him: that rose against David
that rose against many others since David
and
namely against ours. So it hath been hitherto: and so ever may it be. Cushi
not only a priest
to pray that so they be; but a prophet
to foretell
that so
they shall be. (Bishop Lancelot Andrewes.)
Verse 33
And the king was much moved
and went up to the chamber over the
gate and wept.
The wail of a broken heart
1. The first picture shows a glimpse of the battlefield
and brings
before us three men
each in different ways exhibiting how small a thing
Absalom’s death was to all but the heart-broken father
and each going his own
road
heedless of what lay below the heap of stones. The world goes on all the
same
though death is busy
and some heart-strings be cracked. The three men
Ahimaaz
Joab
and the Cushite (Ethiopian)
are types of different kinds of
self-engrossment
which is little touched by other’s sorrows. The first
Ahimaaz
the young priest who had already done good service to David as a spy
is full of the joyous excitement of victory
and eager to run with what he
thinks such good tidings. The word in 2 Samuel 18:19
“bear tidings
”
always implies good news; and the youthful warrior-priest cannot conceive that
the death of the head of the revolt can darken the joy of victory to the king.
He is truly loyal
but
in his youthful impetuosity and excitement
cannot
sympathise with the desolate father
who sits expectant at Mahanaim. Joab is a
very different type of indifference. He is too much accustomed to battle to be
much flushed with victory
and has killed too many men to care much at killing
another. He is cool enough to measure the full effect of the news on David; and
though he clearly discerns the sorrow
has not one grain of participation in
it. The Cushite gets his orders; and he
too
is
in another fashion
careless
of their contents and effect. Without a word
he bows himself to Joab
and
runs
as unconcerned as the paper of a letter that may break a heart. Ahimaaz
still pleads to go
and
gaining leave
takes the road across the Jordan
valley
which was probably easier
though longer; while the other messenger
went by the hills
which was a shorter and rougher road.
2. The scene shifts to Mahanaim
where David had found refuge. He can
scarcely have failed to take an omen from the name
which commemorated how
another anxious heart had camped there
and been comforted
when it saw the
vision of the encamping angels above its own feeble
undefended tents
and
Jacob “called the name of that place Mahanaim” (that is
“Two camps.”) How
chilling to Ahimaaz
all flushed with eagerness
and proud of victory
and
panting with running
and hungry for some word of praise
it must have been
to
get for sole answer the question about Absalom! He shrinks from telling the
whole truth
which
indeed
the Cushite was officially despatched to tell; but
his enigmatic story of a great tumult as he left the field
of which he did not
know the meaning
was told to prepare for the bitter news. The Cushite with
some tenderness veils the fate of Absalom in the wish that all the king’s
enemies may be “as that young man is.” But the veil was thin
and the attempt
to console by reminding of the fact that the dead man was an enemy as well as a
son
was swept away like a straw before the father’s torrent of grief.
3. The sobs of a broken heart cannot be analysed; and this wail of
almost inarticulate grief
with its infinitely pathetic reiteration
is too
sacred for many words. “Grief
even if passionate
is not forbidden by
religion; and David’s sensitive poet-nature felt all emotions keenly. We are
meant to weep; else wherefore is there calamity?’ But there were elements in
David’s agony which were not good. It blinded him to blessings and to duties.
His son was dead; but his rebellion was dead with him
and that should have
been more present to his mind. His soldiers had fought well
and his first task
should have been to honour and to thank them. He had no right to sink the king
in the father
and Joab’s unfeeling remonstrance
which followed
was wise and
true in substance
though rough almost to brutality in tone. Sorrow which hides
all the blue because of one cloud
however heavy and thunderous
is sinful.
Sorrow which sits with folded hands
like the sisters of Lazarus
and lets
duties drift
that it may indulge in the luxury of unrestrained tears
is
sinful. There is no tone of “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good
”
in this passionate plaint; and so there is no soothing for the grief. The one
consolation lies in submission. Submissive tears wash the heart clean;
rebellious ones blister it. David’s grief was the bitter fruit of his own sin.
He had weakly indulged Absalom
and had spared the rod
probably
in the boy’s
youth
as he certainly spared the sword when Absalom had murdered his brother.
But there is another side to this grief. It witnesses to the depth and
self-sacrificing energy of a father’s love. The dead son’s faults are all
forgotten and obliterated by “death’s effacing fingers.” The headstrong
thankless rebel is
in David’s mind
a child again
and the happy old days of
his innocence and love are all that remain in memory. The prodigal is still a
son. The father’s love is immortal
and cannot be turned away by any faults.
The father is willing to die for the disobedient child. Such purity and depth
of affection lives in human hearts. So self-forgetting and incapable of being
provoked is an earthly father’s love. May we not read in this disclosure of
David’s paternal love
stripping it of its faults and excesses
some dim shadow
of the greater love of God for his prodigals--a love which cannot be dammed
back or turned away by any sin
and which has found a way to fulfil David’s impossible wish
in that it has
given Jesus Christ to die for his rebellious children
and so made them sharers
of his own kingdom? (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Anguish of parents at the perverseness of children
1. I would call to this subject the attention of every sinner
who
has a pious parent
or parents
still living. I wish to show such persons how
much anguish they occasion their parents by neglecting to prepare for death.
Every Christian parent in David’s situation would feel
in some measure
as
David felt. Every Christian parent feels a similar concern for the souls
the
eternal interests of his children.
2. I proceed now to press the subject upon the attention of pious
parents.
Absalom’s death
A loud cry always arrests attention. All understand the language
of sorrow in any age or race. The sobs of a little child
or of a strong man
affect mightily those that chance to hear. The roughest and most hardened can
rarely resist the appeal of tears
and often turn to brush away their own. The
Esaus and Rachels and Davids and Marys are kin to the multitudes
for whom
“Never
morning wore
To
evening
but some heart did break.”
Grief is a leveller
even as death is. It ignores distinctions
and makes great and small bold to ask of the other its cause
and proffer such
aid as may be. So this pathetic lament from the chamber over the gate of
Mahanaim impels us to inquire who the mourner is
and for whom or what does he
weep. After the Ruler
the Father issues his orders. He would slay the treachery
but spare the traitor. While every retainer might be put to the sword or
flight
and every weapon be struck from his hand
the king gives all the
captains charge to “deal gently for my sake with the young man
even with
Absalom.” It were to him no victory if the dead body of his son be brought back
in triumph; it were utter defeat. Such commission always hampers. A faint
stroke
the world has seen
prolongs the struggle
and imperils the end sought.
Rebellion must be stamped out of hand and heart
or
like the hydra’s heads
its shoots forth again as often as cut off. “You say you are praying
” writes
Abraham Lincoln
“for the war to end. So am I
but I want it to end right. God
only knows how anxious I am to see these rivers of blood cease to flow; but they
must flow until treason hides its head.” While the opposing forces have met in
the woody
tangled mountain passes
the eager king and father takes his seat
between the city gates to wait for tidings. The hours drag wearily away. His
fortunes are perhaps already determined
or may be at the moment wavering in
the balance. One word from him
one swing of his sword
one leap from the crag
might decide them
were he only at hand. How ready are we to say
“there was a
great tumult
but I knew not what it was.” The blow must not fall in all its
stunning power at once. Let the victim
at least
have time to kneel to receive
it. And so as he stood aside
the blunt and careless Ethiopian comes up and
confirms the first announcement
and exults over the slaughter of the foe and
son alike. It is the one dreaded word
converting the brief joy into a volume
of sorrow. Thus it ever is. What the friend is studying to soften
and by hints
prepare the bereft to imagine
the telegraph
the paper
some stranger or little
child declares
in its plain and overwhelming measure. There is no averting of
facts nor any defence against their meaning. What we have loved and trusted
when taken away
can neither be made to appear as though it still is ours
nor
the loss be breathed in modified degree. No generous nature can interpose to
break the shock. When it comes
it is with full force
as the cyclone bursts
upon the town. We may be given grace and patience
but not exemption from
grief. To such trial every life is subject. From such distress none can always
escape. Some day it must be told David
“Absalom is dead.” And who can bear to
look upon that stricken father
or listen to his agonising cries
or hear that
convulsive utterance
“O Absalom
my son
my son!” Around the wall
and near
the gateway at Mahanaim
the people clustered
gazing up at the window whence
the sounds of anguish came. With low voices they talked together of the
singular conduct of the king. Would he rather have had his armies routed and at
this moment be preparing for a siege? Would he have chosen that the infidel son
should madly and successfully assault himself and blot out what remained of his
realm? Was not the issue the very best possible for the nation? Ought they not
all to sing psalms of thanksgiving unto the Most High
“whose right hand had
found out all his enemies and swallowed them up in His wrath.” Yes! but there
is a secret which these observers have not discovered
and it is buried deep m
that father’s heart. Now and then he had almost disclosed it in these days of
adversity. Zadok might have divined it
when he answered
“If He thus say
I
have no delight in thee; behold
here I am
let Him do to me as seemeth good
unto Him.” Aishai
burning with indignation at the imprecations upon his master
might have suspected it
when David replied: “Let him curse
for the Lord hath
bidden him.” And these friends might have found that their ruler was under just
condemnation of heaven. He was but paying
in some form
the heavy penalty for
his sins. (Monday Club Sermons.)
David’s grief for Absalom
“Next to the calamity of losing a battle
” a great general used to
say
“is that of gaining a victory.” The battle in the wood of Ephraim left
twenty thousand of King David’s subjects dead or dying on the field. It is
remarkable how little is made of this dismal fact. Men’s lives count for little
in time of war
and death
even with
its worst horrors
is just the common
fate of warriors. Yet surely David and his friends could not think lightly of a
calamity that cut down more of the sons of Israel than any battle since the
fatal day of Mount Gilboa. Nor could they form a light estimate of the guilt of
the man whose inordinate vanity and ambition had cost the nation such a fearful
loss. But all thoughts of this kind were for the moment brushed aside by the
crowning fact that Absalom himself was dead. The elements of David’s intense
agony
when he heard of Absalom’s death
were mainly three.
I. There was the
loss of his son
of whom he could say that
with all his faults
he loved him
still. A dear object had been plucked from his heart
and left it sick
vacant
desolate. A face he had often gazed on with delight lay cold in death. An
infinite pathos
in a father’s experience
surrounds a young man’s death. The
regret
the longing
the conflict with the inevitable
seem to drain him of all
energy
and leave him helpless in his sorrow.
II. Absalom had
died in rebellion
without expressing one word of regret
without one request
for forgiveness
without one act or word that it would be pleasant to recall in
time to come
as a foil to the bitterness caused by his unnatural rebellion.
III. In this
rebellious condition he had passed to the judgment of God. What hope could
there be for such a man
living and dying as he had done?
IV. Two remarks.
A father’s remorse and a father’s forgiveness
The story of Absalom’s rebellion is the most exciting drama in the
Bible
and one of the guiltiest and saddest tragedies in human history. It is
given to us in some of the most powerful word-pictures which have ever been
painted. Clear
strong
and lifelike do the leading figures stand out.
I. In this cry of
anguish there was the torture of self-accusation. The sting of death is sin.
The sting of that death to David was Absalom’s sin
and alas! his own sin too.
We never know What the end of a sin may be. We never know how far the
consequences will reach
or whom they will affect. We cannot whitewash the
black pages by repenting of the deeds. David had repented in sackcloth and
ashes. He had been forgiven. But there in his children were the deadly fruits
and he would rather have laid down his life than brought this evil upon them.
There are things which God forgives us
but which we can never forgive
ourselves. There is no misfortune that is crushing unless some memory of guilt
is behind it. The poet says
“A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier
things.” Nothing of the kind. A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is the feeling that we
have brought it on ourselves.
II. We may take it
as a type of the divine fatherhood and of its unlimited forgiveness. David is
called the man after God’s own heart
and that word staggers us when we
remember some of his doings. But the word does not come amiss here. We feel
that it is true in such scenes as this. Kneeling in his chamber and uttering
that impassioned cry of pity
burning love
and forgiveness
we can see indeed
something of God’s own heart. In this great tribulation he is as one washed and
made white
and his face is like the tearful Christ’s
Godlike. His love for
this guilty
iron-hearted son was passing strange; it was almost more than
human. It was a love which gave a kiss for every blow
turned a forgiving face
to every insult and stripe
and prayed for the criminal who was crucifying it.
All this is what we rightly call Divine. It is a broken light of God. It is the
image of His Fatherhood. And through Jesus we preach to everyone a fatherly
God
a tearful God
a cross-bearing God
a God whose pity is beyond all our
measurement
whoso forgiveness is greater than man’s greatest sin. (J. G.
Greenhough
M. A.)
Absalom’s funeral
I. That god’s
dearest children are exercised with near and piercing crosses in this life. It
may seem to be no good congruity to say that David wept
that King David
mourned. For Christians to mourn being poor
or princes being wicked
it is no
strange matter: but when a man hath God for his friend in heaven
and a kingdom
on earth too
what should trouble him? Yet for such a one the Lord hath
crosses
and those sharp
those near
those cutting. Here are griefs
in his
familiars shall I say? nay
in his kinsfolks
his father
his wives
at Ziklag
his children
his Absalom. What might be the cause that God’s best children are
so sped? Is it their religion? Is it their profession? Not no
it is because
they are set with corruption
and therefore must be purged: for God’s best
children will sometimes venture on noisome meats
and hurtful poisons
they
will feed on the grosser sins
they will drink in every puddle
I mean
iniquity
and when the child hath so done
what should the father do? If David
will lie and commit adultery
and fall to murder innocents
what can God do
less for David than scourge him thoroughly? Is it not better he should lose his
sin than God his child? So
then
one cause why the Lord doth thus lay
load on his children here is
because they defile themselves with gross sins
and therefore must have much washing. As God lays many crosses on us
so we may
thank ourselves for many too: not only in that we do deserve them
but in that
we work them out of our own bowels: for many we draw upon ourselves by riot
idleness
unthriftiness
rage
etc.
and the most we make more heavy (that are
heavy enough already) through our own folly
and that is whilst we rake into our
wounds
looking no higher
and what with unbelief and impatience
do double the
cross on ourselves.
II. That God’s best
children are apt to grieve too much and to exceed in passion for outward
things: as in mirth
when once we are in
we are apt to forget ourselves; so in
sorrow
when once we yield unto it
we are in danger of surfeting upon it.
1. Now
this being so
that the best of us all are subject to
immoderate sorrow for outward things
we must not only learn to bear with one
another in this our common frailty
but further
every one for himself must
fence and mound his heart against
these absurd passions and excessive griefs.
2. Do God’s best children exceed sometimes in sorrow for outward
things? Then must we not be altogether discouraged
though we find our worldly
grief more than our spiritual sorrow; for this is a thing that may befall the
best; they may be immoderate in the one
when they are boo short in the other:
the best have many tears to bestow upon some outward things
when they cannot without
much travail weep for their many sins.
III. That God’s
children
who bear some crosses with great wisdom and moderation
are sometimes
foiled in other some
and fail in health. Who could behave himself better than
David in the matter of Shimei? Who worse
in the case of Nabal? How sweet his
carriage in many passages between Saul and him? How admirable his behaviour in
one child’s death? How absurd in others? Nay
how diversely affected with the
cause of one and the same Absalom? What gracious speeches did he once utter
when he fled from Absalom? What a bead-roll have we here at his death? Who
could more forget himself than here he doth
thus to take on at such a time
in
such a place
on such an occasion? How far was this from policy? How far unlike
his carriage in other places?
1. What might be the cause that these so worthy champions are thus sometimes foiled.
First
it pleaseth God sometimes to set on a cross
and make it stick by a man
either because the same party would look besides former crosses
or kick them
off too lightly; or else because he would let him see himself
and know what he
is of himself.
2. Sometimes we have not denied ourselves in some particular last
and then if a cross light there it soon enters and hats deep
because we ourselves
do give a sting unto it.
1. Let us not suffer it to pass without some use
though we be
briefer. Learn hence at least a double point of wisdom: the first respects our
brethren; them we must too lightly censure for their weakness and tenderness in
some crosses
though light; sith that cannot be light
which God will make
heavy; such that may be light to one which is a mountain to another; sith those
our brethren may manfully bear far sorer crosses than ourselves
though humbled
in some particular.
IV. What though
Absalom can forget David
yet David cannot forget him. What though he be a very
ungracious imp? Yet he is my child.
1. Do kind and godly parents so love their children that you may
sooner find too much carnal than too little natural affection in them? Then
shall they never make it good to their own or other’s souls
that there is any
goodness in them who bear no affection to their own children.
2. Here is somewhat for children also. Is the affection of godly
parents such that they cannot chose but love their children; and out of their
love grieve at their unkindness
weep for their impiety
mourn for their
sorrows
and take to heart their follies?
3. Here is a word of instruction and consolation for all sorts
both
parents and children
high and low: Is the love of an earthly father (if godly)
so great? Does he take so much to heart the unkindness of his children? Is he
so sensible of their griefs? So wounded with their sorrows? What
then
is the
affection of our heavenly Father towards us? How tenderly doth he take
disobedience at our hands? and therefore how great should our mourning be for
our great and many contempts? How ought we to pour forth ourselves in tears
and to lament with a great lamentation. (R. Harris
D. D.)
Mourning for Absalom
I. For even a fond
parent
it is very weak to grieve more for a loss than foe the crime which
brought it on. This wild outcry of David is essentially mistaken in its
sentiment. That lie was patient was evident enough; but that he saw God’s hand
avenging wrongs done against God
and launching the retributions of the Divine
law upon an offender who had defied God
nowhere appears. The utterance of
grief he makes assumes only soreness and pain. Absalom was his favourite; this
downfall had come suddenly; the catastrophe was remediless. His boy had died in
the act of rebellion against his father and his king. But not even a word of
sorrow or shame or humiliation passes his lips. Sometimes mourning reaches so
supreme a height of personal grief as that it is mere egotism and tends towards
sheer selfishness.
II. It is better to
live honestly for one’s children than just to wish to die for them when their
retribution comes. The fact is
we miss the proper feelings of the occasion
here in David’s form of expression. His language is extravagant; it was very
rough to tell those soldiers
who had imperilled their lives again and again
that clay to sustain his kingdom
that he wished a gracious providence had
taken his life instead of that of the chief rebel they had fought. Think how
almost brutal it was to say that he would have died happy if only Absalom were
alive again! With that creature for a king
what would have become of the
kingdom? A mere sense of personal bereavement moved him. He became unmanly
unknightly
and inconsiderate. But our main trouble must be found with the
absence of every sort and measure of self-examination in David; he sends not
one glance of his eye backwards over those vast mistakes of the past which he had committed in
rearing that child. He makes no allusion to an offended God
except to point
his reckless asseveration with the mention of his name. One would think that
the king must have had
even in these successes
some misgiving now and then;
something like those thoughtful acknowledgments which history records in the
dying utterance of William the Conqueror: “Although human ambition rejoices in
such triumphs
I am nevertheless seized with an unquiet terror when I think
that
in all these actions of mine
cruelty marched with boldness.” We wish
David had lived always for Absalom’s instruction and mourned a little less for
his defeat.
III. Public duties
should check the indulgence of noisy personal griefs. We all admit that the
human feeling of the king in an instance so severe is pathetic and poetic. But
at that time an awful field of blood was wild with cries of desperate pain from
the dying and around the dead. Twenty thousand of Israel’s loyal soldiers lay
on the plain of battle; and all that David seemed to care about it was that his
boy Absalom was killed likewise. Once we saw in the palace at Amsterdam a
bas-relief representing the sternness of the ancient Brutus. Everybody recalls
the classic story of the Roman ruler whose two sons
Titus and Tiberius
were
among the conspirators that planned the overturning of the government. He sat
in judgment upon the enemies that had threatened the realm; or did he hesitate
to do the justice they deserved upon all alike. He caused those two sons “to be
scourged with rods
in accordance with the law
and then beheaded by the
lictors in the forum
and he neither turned aside his eyes nor shed any tears
over them
for they had been false unto their country and had offended against
the law.” And then the well-known dictum of his was pronounced
which these patriotic
Dutchmen have perpetuated in their king’s judgment hall: “A man may have many
more children
but never can have but one country
even that which gave
him birth.” David certainly had very little of that firm justice which made
Lucius Junius Brutus historic.
IV. The death of an
infant child may quite possibly become a greater comfort to its parents than
the rebellious life of another child who grows up to be a pain and a shame for
ever. The counsel was long ago given to bereaved Christians by one who
understood what it was to be in mourning: “Do not ask that the enveloping cloud
be ever entirely taken up from your home; it never will be; but it may become
so luminously transparent that you can see bright stars through it.” When
David’s little child in earlier times was stricken with death
he fell down
heavily sorrowing over the affliction before the Lord; but he said
in wise and
strong confidence of a submissive faith
“I shall go to him
but he will not
return to me.” But now he could only pour out hopeless wails of grief; for
Absalom appeared to have no future in which he could expect or in which he
wished to share. Many of us have seen in Westminster Abbey a beautiful
alabaster cradle
with an infant’s face just showing itself from beneath a coverlet
wrought in delicate stone apparently spread over the figure. It is the tomb
as
the inscription relates
of Sophia
daughter of James I.
who died when only
three days old
in 1607
and to that brief record is added this verse for an
epitaph:
“When the archangel’s trump shall blow
and souls to bodies join
Millions will wish their lives below had been as short as thine.”
V. There is a sad meaning in the words “too late.” Most of us wish
we could live parts of our lives over again
to make some corrections.
Especially we think of the example we set or the words we speak or the deeds we
do in the presence of our intimates
perhaps even of our children. David does
not help the case much with any behaviour of his in this story. But we begin to
feel
I am sure
that his wrong-doing had something to do in the formation of
Absalom’s character and in the fixing of Absalom’s doom. For we carry in mind
the truth of the old couplet:
“Who saws thro’ a trunk
tho’ he leaves the tree up in the forest.
When the wind casts it down
is not his the hand that smote it?”
But there comes a moment in which one feels that all regrets
arrive too late for any good to come forth from them: no hope now! (C. S.
Robinson
D. D.)
David’s lament over Absalom; or
the tears of parental love
I. The force of
parental love. Whatever could have induced David to have mourned the death of such a son as
this? All might have expected
that day
that the news would have fallen like
music on his ears. There are two circumstances which might have induced men to
have expected this.
1. The corrupt character of Absalom. In the short
strange life of
Absalom
we discover several most depraved and morally repulsive attributes of
character. There is revenge (see 2 Samuel 13:28-29); there is vanity
(2 Samuel 15:1); there is ambition (2 Samuel 15:4); there is meanness (2 Samuel 15:5); hypocrisy (2 Samuel 15:7-8). There is a
tendency in such attributes as these to destroy all love for their possessor.
Depravity in a wife is adapted to quench the love of a husband; depravity in a
monarch is adapted to quench the love of his people; depravity in a son is
adapted to destroy the love of the father. Yet David’s love was too strong for
this--it clung to the monster.
2. The filial rebellion of Absalom. He was not only corrupt in his
character
but he was a malignant opponent to his father
the man whom he ought
to have loved and obeyed. He had pledged himself to his father’s ruin. His last
purpose was n purpose to deprive his sire of his throne
his happiness
his
life. David had no greater enemy in Israel than Absalom. This force of parental
love indicates two things:--
II. The bitterness
of parental love. What bitterness is in this cry
“O Absalom
my son!” etc. Two
things would give bitterness to David’s feelings now.
1. The memory of his own domestic sins. The carnality
the
favouritism
the false tenderness
the want of thorough discipline
which he displayed
in his own family
were in themselves heinous vices
and prolific sources of
domestic misery.
2. His fear as to his future state. Of where is my son Absalom. Can
it be that my son is added to the number of the accursed? From this subject we
learn:
A remorseful lament
It is a terrible cry that comes out of the chamber over the gate
of Mahanaim that makes the name of Absalom so well known and so full of the
most terrible lessons to us. “O
my son Absalom
my son
my son
Absalo! Would
God I had died for thee
O Absalom
my son
my son!” Yes
that is love
no
doubt. That is the love of a broken-hearted father
no doubt. But the pang of
the cry
the innermost agony of the cry
the poisoned point of the dagger in
that cry is remorse. I have slain my son! I have murdered my son with my own
hands! I neglected my son Absalom from a child! With my own lusts I laid his
very worst temptation right in his way. It had been better Absalom had never
been born! If he rebelled
who shall blame him? I
David
drove Absalom to rebellion. It was his father’s
hand that stabbed Absalom through the heart. O
Absalom
my murdered son I
Would God thy murderer had been in thy place this day. And the king covered his
face
and the king cried with a loud voice
O my son Absalom
O Absalom
my
son
my son! (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
A lather’s grief over rebellious son
About 1189 Richard
son of the great Henry II.
joined the French
king
Philip II.
against his father. Three other sons were also rebels against
their father
and only his youngest son
John
remained at his court. Philip
and Richard took his castles
while Henry remained in a condition of unusual
supineness. He was now broken in spirit He yielded almost without a struggle to
the demands that were made upon him . . . Throughout these unnatural conflicts
he had rested his hopes upon his beloved John
to whom he had required his
seneschal to deliver his castles in the event of his death . . . He asked for
the names of those barons who had joined the French king. The first name he saw
was John. He read no more. The world and all its troubles and hopes faded from
his view. He turned his face to the wall
and exclaimed
“Let everything go as
it will.” . . . His great heart was broken. On the 6th of July
1189
Henry II.
was no more. (Knight’s Eng.)
David the afflicted man
It is not uncommon to read in the preface to works which good men
have left as legacies to the church
that their lives
passed amid quiet scenes
and in the routine of useful but common duties
furnished few materials for
biography. Such tranquillity and monotony were not features of David’s life.
I. David’s
afflictions. In the ills of poverty
the loss of children
the death of old
friends
the numerous infirmities of age
troubles often gather around the
prosperous in the decline
of life
like clouds about a setting sun. Happy for them if these are
sanctified. Alas for David! his home was the scene of his most painful trials.
Who can fancy David’s feelings when he looked on Tamar’s tears
and listened
with grief and consternation on his countenance
to a story that filled the
whole land with horror? But hardly has that earthquake-shock passed away when
another follows. Tragedy on tragedy! The crime a father allowed to go
unpunished her brother avenges. Biding his time
and when suspicion is lulled
drawing Amnon
the perpetrator of that monstrous wickedness
into his toils
Absalom gives the signal
and
smitten by his servants
his brother dies. He
has to drink still deeper “of the wine of astonishment.” Hardly has time
the
great healer
closed that wound
when Absalom
his favourite son
whom he had
forgiven
inflicts a deeper one; commits a crime of yet darker dye. In reading
how the Pope’s soldiers
to obtain speedy possession of their jewels
were wont
to sever the fingers
of Huguenot ladies from their bleeding hands
I have wondered at the savage
cruelty; but what cruelty
or crime
to be compared with his who
to possess
himself the sooner of his father’s crown
sought to sweep off his father’s
head? We have seen many a sad sight; but none to be compared to this aged
monarch
full of honours and of years
worthy of all filial love and public
veneration
who had no subject but should have fought
nor child but should
have died for him
flying with a few followers
under the cloud of night
to
escape the sword of his own son. And when tidings came of Absalom’s death
how
terrible his grief!
II. The cause of
his afflictions. It may seem a great mystery to some how so good a man should
have been so sorely tried. But it is no mystery. He reaped as he had sowed.
This retribution was still more painfully
and not less plainly exemplified in
the unnatural and monstrous rebellion of Absalom. It may be traced to his sin
in the matter of Bathsheba: It appears from one genealogy that Bathsheba was
the daughter of Eliam
and from another that her father Eliam was the son of
Ahithophel
the Gilonite
David’s counsellor. This near relationship between
Bathsheba and Ahithophel throws a flood of light on Absalom’s rebellion; for
what more likely than that through means of that
Ahithophel sought vengeance
for the wrongs which
in the double crime of adultery and murder
the king had
committed against him and his house? Revenge is a strong passion in all
but
especially in the bosom of eastern nations. If
like David
we are compelled to
trace our sufferings to our sins
what a weight does that add to the load l Let
us pray God that
while He forgives their iniquity for Christ’s sake
and takes
away their guilt through his blood
he would not visit us for our sins. If we
are to suffer
may it not be for sins
but for righteousness’ sake! A light
load that--a fortune we should neither greatly dread nor deprecate.
III. The use and
profit of his afflictions. When Queen Mary
by her marriage
was about to
plunge herself and the kingdom of Scotland into dark and bloody troubles
Knox
publicly condemned the step. For this she summoned the bold Reformer to her
presence
complained bitterly of his conduct
and saying
“I vow to God I shall
be revenged
” burst into a flood of tears. Waiting till she had composed
herself
he proceeded calmly to make his defence: It was triumphant; but
produced no other effect on Mary than to exasperate her passions. Again she
began to sob
and weep with great bitterness. While Erskine
the friend of
both
and a man of mild and gentle spirit
tried to mitigate her grief and
resentment by praising her beauty and accomplishments
Knox continued
silent--waiting with unaltered countenance till the queen had given vent to her
feelings. Then explaining how he was constrained to sustain her tears rather
than hurt his conscience
and by his silence betray the commonwealth
he
protested that he never took delight in the distress of any creature; and that
so far from rejoicing in her majesty’s tears
it was with great difficulty he
could see his own boys weep when he corrected them for their faults. In this
beautiful expression we see the feelings of every father; and in these a
faithful
though feeble
reflection of the kind heart of God. In no case does
He afflict His people
willingly; and always for their good. And how His gracious purpose was
accomplished in the Psalmist’s afflictions may be seen
for instance
in the
sorrow
and even horror
with which he regarded his saddest fall. His bitterest
enemies could not
have exposed
nor his dearest friends lamented
it more than he did himself.
Cast me not sway from Thy presence
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness
O God
thou God of my salvation!” The
greatest of all afflictions is an unblessed affliction. On the other hand
let the Holy Spirit
in
answer to prayer
turn them into the means of our sanctification
and there are
no greater mercies. How many
when they became poor in this world
have grown
rich toward God! How many have found life in the death of dear ones! How many
by being brought to weep over a broken cistern
have turned their trembling
steps to the fountain of living water! and when God sent storms to wreck their
earthly happiness
how many “on the broken pieces of the ship” have reached the
shore in safety! (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》