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1 Kings Chapter
Two
1 Kings 2
Chapter Contents
David's dying charge to Solomon. (1-4) David's charge as
to Joab and others. (5-11) Solomon reigns
Adonijah aspiring to the throne is
put to death. (12-25) Abiathar banished
Joab put to death. (26-34) Shimei is
put to death. (35-46)
Commentary on 1 Kings 2:1-4
(Read 1 Kings 2:1-4)
David's charge to Solomon is
to keep the charge of the
Lord. The authority of a dying father is much
but nothing to that of a living
God. God promised David that the Messiah should come from his descendants
and
that promise was absolute; but the promise
that there should not fail of them
a man on the throne of Israel
was conditional; if he walks before God in
sincerity
with zeal and resolution: in order hereunto
he must take heed to
his way.
Commentary on 1 Kings 2:5-11
(Read 1 Kings 2:5-11)
These dying counsels concerning Joab and Shimei
did not
come from personal anger
but for the security of Solomon's throne
which was
the murders he had committed
but would readily repeat them to carry any
purpose; though long reprieved
he shall be reckoned with at last. Time does
not wear out the guilt of any sin
particularly of murder. Concerning Shimei
Hold him not guiltless; do not think him any true friend to thee
or thy
government
or fit to be trusted; he has no less malice now than he had then.
David's dying sentiments are recorded
as delivered under the influence of the
Holy Ghost
2 Samuel 23:1-7. The Lord discovered to him the
offices and the salvation of that glorious personage
the Messiah
whose coming
he then foretold
and from whom he derived all his comforts and expectations.
That passage gives a decided proof that David died under the influence of the
Holy Ghost
in the exercise of faith and hope.
Commentary on 1 Kings 2:12-25
(Read 1 Kings 2:12-25)
Solomon received Bathsheba with all the respect that was
owing to a mother; but let none be asked for that which they ought not to
grant. It ill becomes a good man to prefer a bad request
or to appear in a bad
cause. According to eastern customs it was plain that Adonijah sought to be
king
by his asking for Abishag as his wife
and Solomon could not be safe
while he lived. Ambitious
turbulent spirits commonly prepare death for
themselves. Many a head has been lost by catching at a crown.
Commentary on 1 Kings 2:26-34
(Read 1 Kings 2:26-34)
Solomon's words to Abiathar
and his silence
imply that
some recent conspiracies had been entered into. Those that show kindness to
God's people shall have it remembered to their advantage. For this reason
Solomon spares Abiathar's life
but dismisses him from his offices. In case of
such sins as the blood of beasts would atone for
the altar was a refuge
but
not in Joab's case. Solomon looks upward to God as the Author of peace
and forward
to eternity as the perfection of it. The Lord of peace himself gives us that
peace which is everlasting.
Commentary on 1 Kings 2:35-46
(Read 1 Kings 2:35-46)
The old malignity remains in the unconverted heart
and a
watchful eye should be kept on those who
like Shimei
have manifested their
enmity
but have given no evidence of repentance. No engagements or dangers
will restrain worldly men; they go on
though they forfeit their lives and
souls. Let us remember
God will not accommodate his judgment to us. His eye is
over us; and let us strive to walk as in his presence. Let our every act
word
and thought
be governed by this great truth
that the hour is quickly coming
when the smallest circumstances of our lives shall be brought to light
and our
eternal state be fixed by a righteous and unerring God. Thus Solomon's throne
was established in peace
as the type of the Redeemer's kingdom of peace and
righteousness. And it is a comfort
in reference to the enmity of the church's
enemies
that
how much soever they rage
it is a vain thing they imagine.
Christ's throne is established
and they cannot shake it.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 2
Verse 2
[2] I go
the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore
and shew thyself a man;
I go the way
… —
Even the sons and heirs of heaven
must go the way of all the earth
of all who
dwell thereon. But they walk with pleasure in this way
thro' the valley of the
shadow of death. Prophets
yea kings must go this way to brighter light and
honour than prophecy or sovereignty.
Be strong —
For
to govern his people according to the law of God
requires great
fortitude
or strength of mind.
And a man — In
manly wisdom
and courage
and constancy
though thou art but young in years.
Verse 3
[3] And keep the charge of the LORD thy God
to walk in his ways
to keep his
statutes
and his commandments
and his judgments
and his testimonies
as it
is written in the law of Moses
that thou mayest prosper in all that thou
doest
and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
The law —
Which the prince was enjoined to transcribe and read
Deuteronomy 17:11
that be might govern his own
and his peoples actions by it.
Mayest profit —
Or
behave thyself prudently. Hereby he intimates
that religion is the truest
reason of state
and that all true wisdom and good success depend upon piety.
Verse 4
[4] That
the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me
saying
If thy
children take heed to their way
to walk before me in truth with all their
heart and with all their soul
there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the
throne of Israel.
Confirm his word —
Fulfil his promise
the condition upon which it was suspended
being performed.
Verse 5
[5]
Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me
and what he
did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel
unto Abner the son of Ner
and
unto Amasa the son of Jether
whom he slew
and shed the blood of war in peace
and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins
and in his
shoes that were on his feet.
To me —
That is
against me; in what he did against Abner and Amasa: whose death was a
great injury to David
as it was a breach of his laws and peace; a contempt of
his person and government; a pernicious example to his subjects
and a great
scandal to him
as if Joab had been only David's instrument
to affect what he
secretly designed.
And shed — He
slew them as if they had been in the state of war
when there was not only a
cessation of arms
but also a treaty of peace.
Put the blood —
This is added to note his impenitency
that although by his perfidious manner
of killing them when he pretended to embrace them
he stained his own garments
with their blood
yet he was not ashamed of it
but gloried in it
and marched
boldly along with the army
with the same girdle and shoes which were sprinkled
with their blood.
Verse 6
[6] Do therefore according to thy wisdom
and let not his hoar head go down to
the grave in peace.
Do therefore —
That is
what in reason and justice thou seest fit. For tho' I was forced to
forbear him
yet I never forgave him; punish him according to his demerits.
Verse 7
[7] But
shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite
and let them be of
those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of
Absalom thy brother.
For so —
With such kindness.
Verse 8
[8] And
behold
thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera
a Benjamite of Bahurim
which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but
he came down to meet me at Jordan
and I sware to him by the LORD
saying
I
will not put thee to death with the sword.
I will not
… —
The words are
The king said unto Shimei
thou shalt not die: and the king
sware unto him
2 Samuel 19:23. The oath
we see
was absolute.
It was not
"I will not put thee to death now." or
"I will not
put thee to death with the sword." But who can reconcile his charge to
Solomon with this oath? Surely
considering the time of that charge
this next
to the matter of Uriah
is the greatest blemish in all David's life.
Verse 25
[25] And
king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon
him that he died.
Benaiah —
For the execution of justice was not then committed to obscure persons
as now
it is; but to persons of great honour and authority. It is far from clear
that
Solomon did right herein
or that Adonijah had any ill design in asking
Abishag.
Verse 26
[26] And
unto Abiathar the priest said the king
Get thee to Anathoth
unto thine own
fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to
death
because thou barest the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father
and
because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
Because
… —
Thus Solomon shews respect to his sacred function. He mixes mercy with justice
and requites Abiathar's former kindness to David; hereby teaching princes
that
they should not write injuries in marble
and benefits in sand
as they have
been so often observed to do.
Verse 27
[27] So
Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might
fulfil the word of the LORD
which he spake concerning the house of Eli in
Shiloh.
Which he spake —
Concerning the translation of the priesthood from the house of Eli
and of
Ithamar
to that of Eleazar: which being threatened eighty years ago
is now
executed. So divine vengeance
though sometimes it be slow
is always sure.
Verse 30
[30] And
Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD
and said unto him
Thus saith the
king
Come forth. And he said
Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought
the king word again
saying
Thus said Joab
and thus he answered me.
He said
Nay
… —
For he supposed
either
that Solomon would not defile that place with his
blood
but would spare him for his respect to it
as he had done Adonijah: or
he had a superstitious conceit
that his dying there might give his guilty and
miserable soul some advantage.
Verse 31
[31] And
the king said unto him
Do as he hath said
and fall upon him
and bury him;
that thou mayest take away the innocent blood
which Joab shed
from me
and
from the house of my father.
Do
… —
Kill him
though he be there; take him from that place
and then kill him: for
Exodus 21:14
doth not command the ruler to kill
the murderer there
but to remove him thence
to take him from the altar
that
he may die.
Verse 34
[34] So
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up
and fell upon him
and slew him: and he
was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
Wilderness —
Places which have but few houses and inhabitants
are often so called in
scripture. He was buried privately
like a criminal
not pompously
like a
general.
Verse 36
[36] And
the king sent and called for Shimei
and said unto him
Build thee an house in
Jerusalem
and dwell there
and go not forth thence any whither.
Go not forth —
This Solomon ordered
both for his own security; and as a penalty for his
former wickedness.
Verse 37
[37] For
it shall be
that on the day thou goest out
and passest over the brook Kidron
thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon
thine own head.
Kidron — A
brook nigh Jerusalem
which he particularly names
because that was the way to
Bahurim
his former habitation: but this is not all
for the restraint was
general
that he should not go forth thence any whither.
Thy blood —
The blame and guilt of thy blood shall lie upon thyself only.
Verse 38
[38] And
Shimei said unto the king
The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said
so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
Is good —
Thy sentence is more merciful than I expected
or deserved.
Verse 39
[39] And
it came to pass at the end of three years
that two of the servants of Shimei
ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei
saying
Behold
thy servants be in Gath.
Achish — A
king
but subject and tributary
to Solomon. Permitted to enjoy the title and
honour of a king
but not the full power; whence it was
that Achish could not
keep these servants though they had fled to him for protection; but suffered
Shimei to take them away from his royal city.
Verse 40
[40] And
Shimei arose
and saddled his ass
and went to Gath to Achish to seek his
servants: and Shimei went
and brought his servants from Gath.
To seek his servants — By "seeking his servants
says Bp. Hall
he lost himself. These
earthly things either are
or should be our servants. How commonly do we see
men run out of the bounds set by God's laws
to hunt after them
till their
souls incur a fearful judgment."
Verse 44
[44] The
king said moreover to Shimei
Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart
is privy to
that thou didst to David my father: therefore the LORD shall
return thy wickedness upon thine own head;
Thine heart —
For which thine own conscience accuseth thee
and there is no need of other
witnesses.
The Lord —
God hath punished thee for thy former wickedness
by suffering thee to expose
thyself to thy deserved death.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
02 Chapter 2
Verse 1-2
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die.
Human equality
We have here the dying charge of an old and experienced king to a
young one.
I. That all men
are equal in the sight of God; because--
1. Kings even are not exempt from human mortality.
2. Nor from human frailty (1 Kings 2:2).
3. Nor from human responsibility (1 Kings 2:3).
II. That obedience
to the will of God inevitably issues in prosperity
in the best sense of the
word. (Pulpit Analyst.)
David in view of death
The setting of David’s sun was a gradual process
as is shown by
the words
“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die” (1 Kings 2:1). A very pathetic utterance
is found in the second verse
namely
“I go the way of all the earth.” From his
earliest days he had Been a favourite and a hero
and has it come to this
that
at the last he must simply take his place in the great world-crowd
and go down
to the common grave? God is no respecter of persons. Let us learn that all
earthly distinctions are temporary
and that many exaltations only show their
corresponding abasements the more conspicuously. Although the king is about to
take his journey into far country from which there is no return
he yet takes
an interest in the future of Israel and the immediate responsibilities of his
own house. His words to Solomon are the words of a soldier and a patriot: “Be
thou strong therefore
and show thyself a man.” There is no sign of death in
this high moral energy. We can hardly imagine the voice of the speaker to have
fallen into a whisper: it seems rather to resound with the force and clearness
of a trumpet tone. A noble motto this--“Show thyself a man.” Is it possible for
a man to do otherwise? All human history returns an answer which cannot be
mistaken. The man is not in the gender but in the character. By a “man” David
means king
hero
prince; a soul thoroughly self-controlled
fearless
above
all bribery and corruption
and vitally identified with the enduring interests
of the people. It must be observed that the charge delivered to Solomon by his
father was intensely religious in its spirit. Not only was Solomon introduced
to a throne
but the book of the law was placed in his hands
and he was simply
to peruse it
understand it
and apply it. Nothing was to be invented by the
king himself. He begins his monarchical life with the whole law clearly written
out before him. This is the advantage with which we begin our life
namely
that we have nothing to write
invent
suggest
or test by way of perilous
experiment; we have simply to consult the holy oracles
to make them the man of
our counsel
and to do nothing whatever which is not confirmed by their spirit.
Where
then
is originality? We must find the originality in our personal
faithfulness. It will be originality enough for God if He can find us acting
consistently with the knowledge we already possess
and embodying it in new and
sacrificial incarnations. Now we come to official words. From this point so
terrible is the charge which David delivers to Solomon that we must impress
ourselves with the fact that the charge is official rather than personal. We
must imagine David seated upon the throne of judgment and delivering sentences
as the messenger of God; this will save his speech from the charge of
vindictiveness and cruelty. It should be noticed also
in connection with these
judgments and sentences
that in every case a reason was assigned. That is a
vital point. Looking at Joab’s conduct to David
to the two captains of the
hosts of Israel
and to Abner
and to Amass
and unto Absalom
we cannot but
feel that the proportion between the guilt and the doom is measured by
righteousness. That David was not carried away by indiscriminate retaliation is
proved by the change of tone which he adopts when he comes to speak of the sons
of Barzillai the Gileadite: “Let them be of those that eat at thy table”; in
this ease also a reason is assigned for the judgment: “for so they came to me
when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.” Instances of this kind show how
clear was the mental vision of the king even in the near approach of death.
Nothing was forgotten. Judgment was meted out with discernment. David does not
forget that when Shimei came down to meet him at Jordan
he sware unto the
Lord
saying that Shimei should not be put to death with the sword. In Israel
all pardon ceased with the death of the king
and it was for his successor to
say whether this pardon should be renewed
or whether judgment should take
effect. David seems to refer to this law when
concerning Joab
he said to
Solomon: “ Do therefore according to thy wisdom” (1 Kings 2:6). These words would
seem
to open a door of possible escape. But Joab proved himself unworthy of
any protection
and brought his death upon his head with his own hand. So in
the case of Shimei
David said to Solomon
“Thou art a wise man
and knowest
what thou oughtest to do unto him
” so the judgment was not to be an act of
violence or mere triumph of might over weakness; it was to be marked by that
terrible calmness which adds to judgment its most awful elements of
impressiveness. David was now giving judgment according to the age in which he
lived: it was not a highly civilised age: the law had only reached a certain
point of development: David
therefore
must not be held responsible for the
law under which we ourselves live. David’s Lord said--“Ye have heard
that it hath been said
Thou shalt love thy neighbour
and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you
Love your enemies
bless them that curse you
do good to
them that hate you
and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute
you.” “So David slept with his fathers
and was buried in the city of David” (1 Kings 2:10). He died as it were in
the act of pronouncing judgment
and himself went to be judged by the Eternal
King. How near is that bar to every one of us; the final word is not spoken by
man; he can but give judgment according to his light
or to his immediate
understanding of the circumstances which appeal to him; there is one Judge who
will rectify all our decisions and readjust everything which we have thrown
into disorder. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The close of life not to be dreaded by the believer
Why should we be pensive and wistful when we think how near our
end is? Is the sentry sad as the hour for relieving guard comes nigh? Is the
wanderer in far-off lands sad as he turns his face homeward? And why should not
we rejoice at the thought that we
strangers and foreigners here
shalt soon
depart to the true metropolis
the mother country of our souls? I do not know
why a man should be either regretful or afraid as he watches the hungry sea
eating away his “bank and shoal of time” upon which he stands
even though the
tide has all but reached his feet
if he knows that God’s strong arm will be
stretched forth to him at the moment when the sand dissolves from under him
and will draw him out of many waters and place him on high
above the floods in
that stable land where there is “no more sea.” (A. Maclaren.)
Verse 1-2
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die.
Human equality
We have here the dying charge of an old and experienced king to a
young one.
I. That all men
are equal in the sight of God; because--
1. Kings even are not exempt from human mortality.
2. Nor from human frailty (1 Kings 2:2).
3. Nor from human responsibility (1 Kings 2:3).
II. That obedience
to the will of God inevitably issues in prosperity
in the best sense of the
word. (Pulpit Analyst.)
David in view of death
The setting of David’s sun was a gradual process
as is shown by
the words
“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die” (1 Kings 2:1). A very pathetic
utterance is found in the second verse
namely
“I go the way of all the
earth.” From his earliest days he had Been a favourite and a hero
and has it
come to this
that at the last he must simply take his place in the great
world-crowd
and go down to the common grave? God is no respecter of persons.
Let us learn that all earthly distinctions are temporary
and that many
exaltations only show their corresponding abasements the more conspicuously.
Although the king is about to take his journey into far country from which
there is no return
he yet takes an interest in the future of Israel and the
immediate responsibilities of his own house. His words to Solomon are the words
of a soldier and a patriot: “Be thou strong therefore
and show thyself a man.”
There is no sign of death in this high moral energy. We can hardly imagine the
voice of the speaker to have fallen into a whisper: it seems rather to resound
with the force and clearness of a trumpet tone. A noble motto this--“Show
thyself a man.” Is it possible for a man to do otherwise? All human history
returns an answer which cannot be mistaken. The man is not in the gender but in
the character. By a “man” David means king
hero
prince; a soul thoroughly
self-controlled
fearless
above all bribery and corruption
and vitally
identified with the enduring interests of the people. It must be observed that
the charge delivered to Solomon by his father was intensely religious in its
spirit. Not only was Solomon introduced to a throne
but the book of the law
was placed in his hands
and he was simply to peruse it
understand it
and
apply it. Nothing was to be invented by the king himself. He begins his
monarchical life with the whole law clearly written out before him. This is the
advantage with which we begin our life
namely
that we have nothing to write
invent
suggest
or test by way of perilous experiment; we have simply to
consult the holy oracles
to make them the man of our counsel
and to do
nothing whatever which is not confirmed by their spirit. Where
then
is
originality? We must find the originality in our personal faithfulness. It will
be originality enough for God if He can find us acting consistently with the
knowledge we already possess
and embodying it in new and sacrificial
incarnations. Now we come to official words. From this point so terrible is the
charge which David delivers to Solomon that we must impress ourselves with the
fact that the charge is official rather than personal. We must imagine David
seated upon the throne of judgment and delivering sentences as the messenger of
God; this will save his speech from the charge of vindictiveness and cruelty.
It should be noticed also
in connection with these judgments and sentences
that in every case a reason was assigned. That is a vital point. Looking at
Joab’s conduct to David
to the two captains of the hosts of Israel
and to
Abner
and to Amass
and unto Absalom
we cannot but feel that the proportion
between the guilt and the doom is measured by righteousness. That David was not
carried away by indiscriminate retaliation is proved by the change of tone
which he adopts when he comes to speak of the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite:
“Let them be of those that eat at thy table”; in this ease also a reason is
assigned for the judgment: “for so they came to me when I fled because of
Absalom thy brother.” Instances of this kind show how clear was the mental
vision of the king even in the near approach of death. Nothing was forgotten.
Judgment was meted out with discernment. David does not forget that when Shimei
came down to meet him at Jordan
he sware unto the Lord
saying that Shimei
should not be put to death with the sword. In Israel all pardon ceased with the
death of the king
and it was for his successor to say whether this pardon
should be renewed
or whether judgment should take effect. David seems to refer
to this law when
concerning Joab
he said to Solomon: “ Do therefore according
to thy wisdom” (1 Kings 2:6). These words would
seem
to open a door of possible escape. But Joab proved himself unworthy of
any protection
and brought his death upon his head with his own hand. So in
the case of Shimei
David said to Solomon
“Thou art a wise man
and knowest
what thou oughtest to do unto him
” so the judgment was not to be an act of
violence or mere triumph of might over weakness; it was to be marked by that
terrible calmness which adds to judgment its most awful elements of
impressiveness. David was now giving judgment according to the age in which he
lived: it was not a highly civilised age: the law had only reached a certain
point of development: David
therefore
must not be held responsible for the
law under which we ourselves live. David’s Lord said--“Ye have heard
that it hath been said
Thou shalt love thy neighbour
and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you
Love your enemies
bless them that curse you
do good to
them that hate you
and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute
you.” “So David slept with his fathers
and was buried in the city of David” (1 Kings 2:10). He died as it were in
the act of pronouncing judgment
and himself went to be judged by the Eternal
King. How near is that bar to every one of us; the final word is not spoken by
man; he can but give judgment according to his light
or to his immediate
understanding of the circumstances which appeal to him; there is one Judge who
will rectify all our decisions and readjust everything which we have thrown
into disorder. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The close of life not to be dreaded by the believer
Why should we be pensive and wistful when we think how near our
end is? Is the sentry sad as the hour for relieving guard comes nigh? Is the
wanderer in far-off lands sad as he turns his face homeward? And why should not
we rejoice at the thought that we
strangers and foreigners here
shalt soon
depart to the true metropolis
the mother country of our souls? I do not know
why a man should be either regretful or afraid as he watches the hungry sea
eating away his “bank and shoal of time” upon which he stands
even though the
tide has all but reached his feet
if he knows that God’s strong arm will be
stretched forth to him at the moment when the sand dissolves from under him
and will draw him out of many waters and place him on high
above the floods in
that stable land where there is “no more sea.” (A. Maclaren.)
Verse 2
Be thou strong therefore
and shew thyself a man.
Religion not unmanly
This is interesting in many ways
interesting as a picture
and as
a specimen of counsel. It is an old man speaking to a young one
a king to his
successor
an aged warrior to a
youthful man of peace
a man of action to a man of knowledge
a
dying man to a man on the threshold of his earthly career
one who had done
with earth to one who was entering on its fulness
a father to a son
a David
to a Solomon. When he advised Solomon to show himself a man
he attached no low
and feeble sense to the term. David was a judge of manliness. Yet to his advice
to Solomon to be manly he appends a description of character and of a course of
action
which therefore was in his estimation manly
or at the least not
unmanly. “Show thyself a man
” he says
“and keep the charge of the Lord thy God
to walk in His
ways
to keep His statutes
and His commandments
and His judgments
and His
testimonies
as it is written in the law of Moses.” Now all this is summed up
in one word
and that is religion. In the opinion of King David
then
religion
is manly. Religion then furnishes ample room for manly sentiments and manly
courses of action. Nay
it requires them and makes them necessary.
I. It involves the
choice of a great object. It sets a man upon living for a great end
the
greatest end that he can live for. To see grown-up men occupying themselves in
petty concerns
suffering them to engross their thoughts and their time and
their powers
making them their all
concentrating upon them their energies and
their efforts
following them with a zeal
an earnestness
and a pertinacity
utterly disproportionate and exaggerated
it is a pitiable sight
ridiculous if
it were not also melancholy. This is puerile
boyish
effeminate. The things of
a child are very proper things for a child. There is fitness
there is beauty
there is use
in his devotion to them. But how unseemly
how contemptible
how
offensive
is such a devotion in a man. We judge of men by the elevation and
magnitude of their pursuits. We think a fop a puerile creature
who lives to
look pretty and smell sweet. And the man “whose God is his belly
” who lives to eat
and lays
out his mind on marketing and cookery
is another great child. Such men are
still busy with their playthings a little changed in form. But does any man
rise to the height of himself who lives for this world? Is there not in an such
living the same sort of dwarfing and disparagement of the true greatness and
dignity of human nature
the same sad incongruity and disproportion?
II. there is
manliness again in decision
firmness
and constancy of purpose. It is
characteristic of children that they do not know their own minds
that they are
the sport of whim and caprice
unsteady
vacillating
freakish
easily diverted
from their aim
easily discouraged by difficulties
deficient in persistency
resolution
and concentration. When we see a child more fixed and consistent in
the choice of an end than children are wont to be
we call him precocious
a
manly child; and if this quality is not so prominent as to be premature and
unnatural
we say it augurs well for the boy’s future. To see a grown man the
victim of fugitive preferences
impressions
and impulses
“a wave of the sea
driven with the
wind and tossed
” is wretched. We say then that fixedness
concentration
steadfastness
are attributes of a man
are essential to the development of a
truly manly character. And where are they so exhibited as in religion
if it be
genuine and true? What else so tends to form and foster them? What else so
draws the whole life as it were to a single focus?--so forces all its streams
to run into one reservoir? What else gives life such unity
coherence
and
connection of parts?
III. There is
manliness in independence; and this is emphatically a religious virtue. The
Christian must be singular
and pursue a path not trodden by the multitude. And
he must be content ordinarily to pursue it in the face of misconception
misconstruction
remonstrance
and derision. This is to no small extent “the
offence of the cross.” To be unlike others
to be looked upon with curiosity
to be thought affected or ostentatious
is trying. So
to keep a separate and
isolated position
to be one by one’s self
and stand an anomaly and exception
self-centred and self-sustained
without the ordinary props of human opinion
and usage
requires largely independence of character. Independence is a
quality of manhood. A child is a conformist and a copyist. It leans upon the
parent
and holds itself up by clinging to an older person
as the ivy hangs
upon the tree or wall It goes in leading strings
and looks timidly out for
examples and precedents and authorities. To think and act for himself
to mark
out his own line of action and pursue it
to have the reasons and the law of
his actions in himself
and not to swerve from his path at dictation or censure
or contempt
is to vindicate one’s maturity
to act the part of a man. Does not
religion then stand vindicated from the charge of unmanliness? And is not David
s counsel to Solomon his son justified and sustained--Be manly and be religious
be manly in your religion
and religious in order to be manly? Is not religion
successfully rescued from one of
the most effective and damaging aspersions
that is ever cast upon it--that it is unmanly
that it is a suitable thing for
the softer sex
and pretty in children
but not at all fit for robust
hardy
deep-thinking
bold-acting men? It is not in the slightest degree true. (R.
A. Hallam
D. D.)
.
Dignity of man
The dignity of man appears from his bearing the image of his
Maker. God has
besides
enstamped a dignity upon man by giving him not only a
rational
but an immortal existence. The soul
which is properly the man
shall
survive the body and live for ever. The dignity of man also appears from the
great attention and regard which God hath paid to him. God indeed takes care of
all His creatures
and His tender mercies are over all His works: but man has
always been the favourite child of Providence.
I. Man hath a
capacity for constant and perpetual progression in knowledge.
II. Man hath a
capacity for holiness as well as knowledge. His rational and moral faculties
both capacitate and oblige him to be holy. His perception and volition
in
connection with his reason and conscience
enable him to discern and feel the
right and wrong of actions
and the beauty and deformity of characters. This
renders him capable of doing justly
loving mercy
and walking humbly with God.
III. That man hath a
capacity for happiness
equal to his capacity for holiness and knowledge.
Knowledge and holiness are the grand pillars which support all true and
substantial happiness; which invariably rises or falls
accordingly as these
are either stronger or weaker. Knowledge and holiness in the Deity are the source of all his
happiness. Angels rise in felicity as they rise in holiness and knowledge. And
saints here below grow in happiness as they grow in grace
and in the knowledge
of holy and Divine objects.
IV. That man hath a
capacity for great and noble actions.
1. We may justly infer from the nature and dignity of man
that we
are under indispensable obligations to religion. Our moral obligations to
religion are interwoven with the first principles of our nature. And
as man is
formed for religion
so religion is the ornament and perfection of his nature.
The man of religion is
in every supposable situation
the man of dignity.
Pain
poverty
misfortune
sickness and death
may indeed veil
but they cannot
destroy his dignity
which sometimes shines with more resplendent glory under
all these ills and clouds of life.
2. This subject may help us to ascertain the only proper and
immutable boundaries of human knowledge: such boundaries of our knowledge as
arise from the frame and constitution of our nature
and not from any
particular state or stage of our existence.
3. This subject gives us reason to suppose
that men
in the present
state
may carry their researches into the works of nature
much farther than
they have ever yet carried them. The fields of science
though they have been long traversed by
strong and inquisitive minds
are so spacious
that many parts remain yet
undiscovered.
4. The observations
which have been made upon the nobler powers and
capacities of the human mind
may embolden the sons of science to aim to be
originals. They are strong enough to go alone
if they only have sufficient
courage and resolution. They have the same capacities
and the same original
sources of knowledge
that the ancients enjoyed.
5. We are under indispensable obligations to cultivate and improve
our minds in all the branches of human knowledge. All our natural powers are so
many talents
which
in their own nature
lay us under moral obligations to
improve them to the best advantage. Being men
we are obliged to act like men
and not like the horse or the mule which have no understanding. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Show thyself a man
On the sixth of March
in the year 1741
the brilliant statesman
William Pitt
afterwards Earl of Chatham
felt it necessary to apologise from
his place in the House of Commons for what he styled “the atrocious crime of
being a young man.” The sneers at youth which provoked this wrathful protest
are seldom heard to-day. In this more democratic age the value of young men as
a factor in human affairs is better understood. The elder Disraeli has pointed
out that “almost everything that is great in” the story of the race has been
done by youth
and Thomas Carlyle has taught us that the history of heroes is
the history of young men. We remember that in war the victories of Hannibal and
Alexander
of Clive and Napoleon
were the triumphs of young men; that Innocent
m. and Leo X.
the greatest of the Popes
had won the tiara before they were
thirty-seven
and that Martin Luther at five-and-thirty had achieved the
Reformation. We remember that Pascal and Sir Isaac Newton had written their
greatest treatises before they were thirty; that Raphael and Correggio among
painters; Byron
Shelley
and Keats among poets; Mozart
Beethoven
Mendelssohn
Schubert
and Bellini among musicians--these
and many more too
numerous to quote
had won their place among the immortals and died while they
were yet young men. We have come to recognise that the qualities which command
success--dash
courage
hopefulness
fertility of invention and resources--are
often more abundant in youth than in age; and knowing how largely young men
have made the world’s history in time past
we look to young men as the
history-makers of time present and to come. There is little peril to-day of our
despising young men on account of their youth; we rather need to be warned
against despising old men on account of their age. The position which young men thus
take in modem life adds a tone of deeper emphasis and keener urgency to the
ancient
familiar
and inspiring exhortation of my text. The injunction echoes
the words which Moses addressed to Joshua when he entrusted him with command. A
thousand years later we meet it again in Paul’s appeal to Timothy: “Thou
therefore
my son
be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus
” as also in
the exhortation to the Corinthians
when Timothy was coming amongst them:
“Watch ye; stand fast in the faith; quit you like men; be strong!” Again and
again in profane history
in the pages of Homer
Herodotus
or Xenophon
we
find great chieftains charging their followers in the same strain. Modem
history likewise takes up the call
Latimer in the fire exclaiming: “Be of good
comfort
Master Ridley; play the man!” Nelson at Trafalgar sounding the
war-cry: “England expects every man to do his duty.” Every mother who sends her
son into the world breathes the spirit of it.. The words imply an ideal. John
Trebonius
Martin Luther’s schoolmaster
always took his hat off to his
schoolboys. “Who can tell
” he would say
“what man there may be here? “There
was wisdom in the act
for among those boys was the solitary monk that shook
the world. Yet it is not every man who becomes all that we mean by a man.
Vanity emasculates some and they become--not men
but the show-blocks of their
hatter
the lay-figures and walking advertisements of their tailor. Indolence
destroys others
and they become--not men
but manikins dependent on the
charity of their relations
and parasites that live by suction. Vice is
the
degradation of others
until
sinking below shame
unworthy utterly of the
human form--erect
divine
” they become as swine in sensuality or as wolves in
brutal ferocity. But even if men escape these degradations they may still
remain immeasurably below the standard implied in this great word
“a man.”
Unless
above himself he can
Erect
himself
how poor a thing is man!
What
then
is this ideal? What is it that every woman puts into
her love and every man into his self-respect when we sound the challenge: “Show
thyself a man? What are the marks by which a sterling manhood may be known.
I. One mark of
manhood is strength. “Be thou strong
therefore
and show thyself a man.” In
the notion of an ideal man we all include the attribute of physical strength.
It is true that some have asserted their manhood in spite of bodily infirmity.
The Apostle Paul carried the Gospel over two continents
notwithstanding that
he was half blind and paralysed. Richard Baxter
the most voluminous writer and
most successful pastor of his day
was a lifelong invalid. Dr. George Wilson
was accustomed to deliver his lectures with a great blister on his chest.
Bishop Butler
who wrote the Analogy of Religion
and
James Watt
inventor of the steam engine
were both so harassed with bile and
consequent melancholy as to be constantly tempted to make away with themselves.
The lives of such men are notable illustrations of the triumph of mental energy
over bodily infirmities
and should encourage those of us who suffer from
constitutional debility; but they do not make physical weakness either natural
or desirable. Young men ought to be strong
ought to take pleasure in vigorous
exercises
ought to remember the ancient proverb: “The glory of young men is
their strength.” In this matter of physical culture I say to every young man:
“Shew thyself a man.” More
however
than either physical or mental strength
as sunlight is more than moonlight or starlight
is moral strength. In the high
firmament of ideal manhood
moral strength is the greater light that rules the
day. You must put the dement of conscience
you must put love for righteousness
and hatred of evil-doing into your conception of manly vigour
or you never can
truly say of any man what Marc Antony said of Brutus:--
The
elements were
So
mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And
say to all the world--this was a man.
II. A second mark
of manhood is sagacity. Milton asks: “What is strength without a double share
of wisdom?” and then he adds: “Strength is not made to rule
but to subserve
where wisdom bears command.” He that would show himself a man must couple
sagacity with strength; for we live in a world o| illusions
which are like
traps at a young man’s feet. You young men of this new generation are face to
face with what Carlyle described as “the Everlasting No.” To every precept of
heaven the devil brings a “No.” “Fear God and keep His commandments.” “No
”
says the devil; “indulge your passions.” “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and
enjoy Him for ever.” “No
” says the devil; “man’s chief end is to glorify
himself and enjoy his own way.” “He that findeth his life shall lose it
and he
that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.” “No
” says the devil; “let
every other man be damned
body and soul
and what does it matter to you? This
“Everlasting No” meets us at every call of duty
and has to be resisted and
foresworn once and for ever
or we cut ourselves adrift from every possibility
of achieving the ideal manhood. Thousands of men to-day are crippled and
emasculated by this negative of unbelief. Their loss is incalculable.
Themselves are stripped of blessing
and their influence is emptied of power.
To the devil’s “Everlasting No” do you oppose God’s “Everlasting Yes.” Be
positive and practical; add sagacity to strength.
III. A third mark of
manhood is saintliness. A saint is one who lives unto God
and in whom God’s
will is law. Here manliness completes itself. Man being created in the image of
God
we can regard none as attaining the ideal of manhood who does not in
thought
purpose
impulse
and deed reflect the God in whom he lives
moves
and has his being; and is not this what we mean by saintliness? Saintliness
includes honesty
for it accepts the golden rule: “Whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you do ye also to them”; and does not Pope affirm “ an honest
man’s the noblest work of God”? Saintliness includes the service of others; for
every saint is a follower of Him who “came not to be ministered unto
but to
minister and give His life a ransom for many.” And does not Lord Lytton remind
us--
That
man is great
and he alone
Who
serves a greatness not his own
For
neither praise nor pelf.
Content
to know and be unknown
Whole
in himself!
Strength
sagacity
saintliness--these three
and the greatest of
these is saintliness
if any one of us would show himself a man. (W. J.
Woods
B. A.)
Manhood
The last words of any one
as he takes his departure for the
eternal world
are always of interest to those left behind. Even the last
utterances of the criminal on the scaffold will be read by thousands
who would
not have listened to one word of his when he stood begging at their door. The
last words of great and good men
when spoken to those near and dear to them
are therefore of especial interest.
I. The charge of
the dying father. It is that of a king to his successor
who is soon to ascend
the throne of Israel. The position is so responsible
the charge will be long
and weighty. But no; how short the address
how few the directions--“Show
thyself a man” Be a man
that is all. Yes
but that is everything. Be a man
such as God made; not the distorted
crooked
perverted creature sin has made.
II. What is implied
in this charge. Vir was the word the Romans used for man
and from which
our word virtue comes. Virtue
too
with them meant courage
heroism. Whatever
therefore is virtuous is manly. Truthfulness is a virtue
and therefore manly.
God is truth. Man is most manly when most like God
for he was made in the
image of God. Honesty is paying our just debts
paying honour to whom honour is
due
exercising supreme love to God
and loving our fellow-men as ourselves (Matthew 22:27). Hence
a true man
a real
man
must be a Christian and a gentleman. Temperance
patience
kindness
gentleness
unselfishness
are all virtues
and therefore manly. The
gentleman’s code of honour is found in Philippians 4:8.
III. The foundation
of manhood is strength. Strength of purpose
will-power
determination
self-control
power to resist popular customs when wrong
prevalent vices that
have become aristocratic
fashions and habits of evil that have fastened on
people whom you consider above you in age
experience
and profession; power to
be called eccentric
odd
queer
to be sneered at. You need a courage that will
not dilly-dally with evil
but at the first solicitation say “no
” that will
“dare to do right
dare to be true.” Hence in this brief charge the very first accents are
“ Be
thou strong.” David knew it required strength.
IV. The source of
this strength is in God. Moses
Joshua
Paul
Luther
Wesley
were men of
mighty power
and they all found their strength in God.
V. The important
aim of this charge was the right development and formation of character. This
should be the first aim of every young man. This is the first aim of the
Gospel
now so often overlooked in this busy
bustling
noisy age. Paul’s
first; instruction to Timothy was
“Take heed unto thyself.” Deceit
falsehood
lust
etc.
are all intruders. Cast them out
show thyself. Let not the animal
reign
but the man. Be a man
and then you will be what every true man is--a
king. (G. H. Smyth.)
How men are made
To be a man requires a trinity of qualities: a strong body
a full-orbed mind
and a
spiritual nature.
1. Young men
it is your duty to cultivate your physical strength by
athletic sports
gymnastics
and other exercises that will help to fortify the
noble temple in which God has housed your mind and soul. It matters not how
valuable the possessions that are stored in a house
if the house is insecure
or the roof leaky. It is no credit to a man to be so careless about the house
in which the priceless treasures of mind and spirit are placed that the
building becomes worn out before its time. If you and I are going to do
efficient work in this the busiest age of the world’s history
if we are to
hold our own in the fierce competition of this the greatest of all commercial
periods
we will need sturdy muscles
stout lungs
healthy livers
and good
digestion. A man handicaps himself seriously in the race of life who pays no
regard to the rules of health. On the other hand
a man with a healthy body has
better chances of success
because health inspires him with hope and ambition.
Thomas Carlyle gave to the world a jaundiced view of many things because he had
a weak stomach. What misery he caused in his own home
and in the life of that
patient martyr-wife of his
has been revealed in the letters of Jane Welsh
Carlyle. Many a man who most sacredly keeps the Ten Commandments breaks with
impunity the laws of health.
2. The development of the body
however
is not all that makes up
man. A prize-fighter has a well-developed body
but his influence does not
count for much outside of the prize-ring. There is a mind to be cultivated and
a soul. The man who devotes himself entirely to physical development will be
apt to forget the needs of the other two parts of his nature. If all the energy
in a man’s nature is running to brawn
there will be nothing left to run to
brain. The men who have compelled the world’s attention have not been physical
giants hut men of mental and moral muscle. Napoleon
Wellington
and Grant were
not great in body. If the ideal of a perfect man consisted only in physical
qualities
we should be lower in the scale than certain animals. The ex
surpasses a man in muscular strength; the antelope in speed; the hound in
keenness of scent; the eagle in eyesight; the rabbit in acuteness of hearing;
the honey-bee in delicacy of taste; the spider in fineness of nervous energy.
So we cannot measure a man by his body
nor by his material possessions. We
have advanced beyond the age in which the world counted as its greatest heroes
Hercules
Ajax
Croesus
Miltiades. The world to-day is ruled not by muscle
but by mind and heart. The bravest are the tenderest
the loving are the
daring. A young man’s value to the world and to himself depends largely on the cultivation of his
intellect. Just as in the cultivation of the body you have to regard suitable
food and proper exercise
so in the development of the mind you have to
consider the kind of food. Every young man ought to mark out for himself a
course of reading in history
biography
poetry
and philosophy. Another thing:
As you would not knowingly take into your system diseased meat
or decayed
fruit or vegetables
in like manner you will not desire to poison your mind by
the reading of impure books. The quality of our thoughts determines the quality
of our character. Impure thoughts are worms which eat away the tissues of moral
character. The man who falls a victim to temptation is the man whose character
has become worm-eaten. Guard most sacredly the door of the mind
and keep it
closed against the entrance of evil thoughts. Had General Grant been a man of
weak will
he never could have carried the campaigns of the Civil War through
to success. Yet his memoirs reveal a man with a heart as tender as a girl’s
hating war and disliking the very sound of a gun
but possessed of such
self-command that to foresee a thing necessary to be done was to command
even
though he had to fight it out on one line all summer. Opposition
discouragement
difficulties
never can keep a man of will power down. The
party leaders at Rome thought they would get rid of the ambitious young Caesar
so they gave him a
commission which necessitated a prolonged absence from Rome and a difficult
expedition into the heart of an un-civilised and unexplored region of country.
They said: “Rome never again will hear of young Caesar.” But the young man
conquered Gaul
and returning after a campaign of ten years seized the sceptre
of imperial power. It is a sad thing to see a man in whom the will power has
gone to decay. Dr. Maudsley
the English scientist
says the beginning of
recovery from mental derangement is always a revival of the power of the will.
When an expert in an insane asylum finds a patient able to execute some new
plan of conduct
and to hold himself in the pursuit of it for hours at a time
he is apt to say that that man will soon go out of the asylum.
3. Let me now come to the final quality that goes into the makeup of
symmetrical manhood
and that is the spiritual nature. Physical strength is
good
but it is only the cellar foundation of the house. No one would be
content to live in the cellar
no matter how well stocked it might be with
provisions and other comforts. He would at least want to have another storey to
the building
and we have spoken of the intellectual development. But to stop
with that would be like dwelling in a library
or art gallery
and never having
any higher rooms where we might come into fellowship with the Creator
and with
His Son
our Saviour. To change the figure
lev me say that to neglect the
spiritual nature
as some men have done
equipping the physical and mental
natures with everything needful
is like building a splendid ship and leaving
off the rudder. The spiritual nature in a man is the rudder which controls his
thoughts and purposes. Sometimes a ship at sea is found flying the signal
“Not
under control.” That is a very terrible signal. The splendid athlete who can
win a boat race
or in the arena knock out his opponent
may be only a baby in his moral manhood. A
man with muscles strong enough to fell a horse may be weak enough to yield to
some subtle temptation. The secret is spiritual character. You remember what
men said of the noble Greek who governed his city by unwritten laws--“Phocion’s
character is more than the constitution.” The power of character in Lamartine
was such that during the bloodiest days in Paris he never bolted his doors
and
once when he rose to speak the one who introduced him said: “Sixty years of a
pure life are about to address you.” Emerson says there was a certain power in
Lincoln
Washington
and Burke not to be explained by their printed words. John
Milton said: “A good man is the ripe fruit our earth holds up to God.” If the
Roman youth were elevated in spirit by standing one day each week in a room
devoted to the statuary of great heroes
and making vows to their imaginary presence
how much more are we ennobled when we go into the presence of the infinite and
eternal Jehovah
who is able to impart to us the transforming influence of His
Holy Spirit. (D. H. Martin
D. D.)
Duty and privilege
This is the parting advice of a king to his son
whose right it
was to grasp the sceptre as it fell from the pallid hand of his dying father.
I. Be thou strong.
1. Not boastful severest conflict
when many are fainting.
2. How is this strength obtained? From God alone
through our Lord
Jesus Christ. How from Him? Repent of all sins. Resolve to break from all sins
and live a devoted Christian life. Cultivate personal trust in Christ as your
Saviour
and believe that God for His sake pardons and saves you.
II. Show thyself a
man. Lot it not be a mere inference
but a palpable fact; a demonstration.
“Show thyself.” Men put a value upon us according to how we show ourselves.
Don’t leave it to others to show that you are a man; do it yourself. Not an
angel
but a man. There is no instrument God can use in so many ways and
places
and with such wonderful success
as a devoted Christian who can show
himself a man--a man who has the tear of sympathy for the sorrowing
a word of
comfort for the bereaved
and a word of hope for the downcast and desponding. (Homilist.)
A son charged to be brave
The sword presented by the Emperor William to his little son
the
Crown Prince
on his tenth birthday
contains an inscription on its blade
of
which the following is a translation: “Trust in God. Be brave in combat to
preserve honour and glory. He who fights bravely
relying on the help of God
is never overcome. All your powers of body and mind belong to your country. To
my dear son William
May 6
1892.
Wilhelm R.”
In what manliness consists
True manliness is to stick to your principles if they be good and
right. When Garfield was a lad at Williams College
he climbed up Mount
Greylock one day with many of his companions
and spent the night on the
mountain top. Seated around a camp fire they sang college songs and told
stories all the evening. At length Garfield took a Testament out of his pocket
and said: “Boys
it is my custom to read a chapter before going to bed and have
a prayer. Shall we have it together?” And they all did. We admire the boy for
his courage.
Learning to be brave
Mr. Mortimer Mempes
in his World’s Children
gives some remarkable specimens of the Spartan training in courage that the
boys of Japan must all undergo. All kinds of games are played to test the
character in this particular of the children. They are told thrilling stories
of dragons and giants
and
when worked up to terror
each boy has to go into a
darkened room and bring out a strand of wick which is burning in a dish of oil;
and this
too
with a smiling face
absolutely unruffled. Another favourite
game is to gather in a lonely graveyard
under a tree
and plant flags in a
haunted spot. Then each boy is made to walk up the avenue alone
pull out a
flag slowly
with dignity
and without a nervous tremor. So
having borne the
yoke in his youth
his courage is believed to be equal to all demands upon it
in later life.
Play the man for God
On one occasion when Whitfield was surrounded by a mob
and began
to show symptoms of alarm as the stones flew in all directions
his wife
standing by his side
cried out
“Now
George
play the man for God.” We are to
play the man in the battle of life because God made us to be manly and not
unmanly; because the Son of Man came upon earth to show us how to suffer and be
strong; because if we fear God we shall have no other fear. (Quiver.)
Verse 7
Shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai.
Gratitude for kindnesses repaid
An old English story tells of Frescobald
an Italian merchant who
showed great kindness to Thomas Cromwell when he was in sore distress far from
home. The stranger was welcomed to the merchant’s dwelling
and sent back
safely to England. Years passed
and reverses came to Frescobald. He lost
wealth and friends
and wandered as a beggar to this country. One day he saw a
great crowd moving along the streets of London. The Lord Chancellor was going
in state to open the courts. To Frescobald’s delight
the central figure of the
procession was his old friend Thomas Cromwell The Italian merchant soon reaped
the fruit of his generous kindness in other days. Cromwell’s hospitality and
munificence quickly made him forget all his care and sorrow. (J. Telford
B.
A.)
Sympathy with monarch appreciated
Sympathy for those who are stronger
wealthier
healthier
more
influential
and higher in authority than ourselves
is not so easily rendered.
It does not often occur to us to extend the sympathetic hand or word to those
whom we look upon as in any way our superiors
and yet none need our sympathy
more than such as these. The minister is expected to feel for and with his
parishioners
but the truth is that the minister needs sympathetic
encouragement from them quite as much. So
too
of the physician and his
patient. One of Tennyson’s biographers quotes the Queen as saying of the
Laureate
“When I took leave of him I thanked him for his kindness
and said I
needed it
for I had gone through much
and he said
‘You are so alone on that
terrible height; it is terrible.’“ The sovereign appreciated kindness
consideration
and sympathy from her subjects
and the poet had a full
realisation of what it meant to be so high up as to be practically alone in the
world. We easily give our pity
our sympathy
and even our helping hand
to
those who seem to us in sore stress
but we are not so thoughtful about what
consolation and strength we might give to those who need it because their very
elevation isolates them
and cuts them off from those human relations to which
we all look for sympathetic aid. (Great Thoughts.)
Barzillai
Barzillai’s truly Highland courtesy
also
is abundantly
conspicuous in the too-short glimpse we get of the lord of Rogelim. For
how he
anticipated all David’s possible wants! How he put himself into all David’s
distressed place! How he did to David as David would have done to him! How he
came down from his high seat
with all his years on his head
in order with his
own hand to conduct the king over Jordan! And
then
with what sweetness and
music of manner and of speech he excused himself out of all the royal rewards
and honours and promotions David had designed and decreed to put upon him!
The
service and the loyalty I owe
In
doing
pays itself. Your Highness’ part
Is
to receive our duties; and our duties
Are
to your throne and state children and servants
Which
do but what they should
by doing everything
Safe
towards your love and honour.
The
rest is labour which is not used for you.
The humility
also
of that Old Testament hero is already our New
Testament humility in its depth and sweetness and beauty. In my spare hours
this winter I
have been delighting myself with Plutarch’s Lives in Thomas North’s
Bible English. But how often as I read one noble name after another have I
exclaimed
Oh
if some of those great men of old had only been among the Greeks
who came to Philip
saying
Sir
we would see Jesus! Had they only seen Jesus
or even heard or read Paul! Then what ornaments would they have been in all New
Testament nobleness and courtesy and humility. (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
Verse 8-9
And
behold
thou hast with thee Shimei
the son of Gera.
David and Shimei
David’s death-bed has never been without its own difficulties to
thoughtful and reverential readers. For Shimei with all his good and his bad
uses comes back again to David’s death-bed to tempt and to try David
and to
discover what is in David s dying heart. The death-bed sayings of God’s saints
have a special interest and a delightful edification to us; but David’s last
words to Solomon about Shimei--we would pass them by if we could. Three or four
several explanations of those terrible words of David have been offered to the
distressed reader by able men and men of authority in such matters. I shall
only mention those offered explanations
and leave you to judge for yourselves.
Well
some students of the Old Testament are bold to take David’s dreadful
words about Shimei out of David’s mouth altogether
and to put them into the
mouth of the prophet who has preserved to us David’s life and death. Those
awful words
they say
are that righteous prophet’s explanation and vindication
of the too late execution of Shimei by Solomon after his “reprieve
” as Matthew
Henry calls it
had come to an end with the death of David. Others again
and
they
too
some of our most conservative and orthodox scholars
say to us that
the text should run in English in this way: “Hold him not guiltless; at the
same time bring not his hoar head down to the grave with blood.” You will blame
me for my too open ear to such bold scholarship; and you will think it very
wrong in me to listen to such evil men. But the heart has its reasons
as
Pascal says
and my heart would stretch a considerable point in textual
criticism to get Shimei’s blood wiped off David’s death-bed. Another
interpretation is to take the text as it stands
and to hear David judicially
charging Solomon about a care of too long delayed justice against a blasphemer
of God and the king. And then the last explanation is the most painful one of
all
and it is this
that David had never really and truly
and at the bottom
of his heart
forgiven Shimei for his brutality and malignity at Bahurim
and
that all David’s long-suppressed revenge rushed out of his heart against his
old enemy when he lay on his bed and went back on the day on which he had fled
from Jerusalem. You can choose your own way of looking at David’s death-bed.
But
in any case
it is Bahurim that we shall all carry home
and carry for
ever henceforth
in our hearts. We shall have
God helping us
David’s
Bahurim-mind always in us henceforth amid all those who insult and injure us
and say all manner of evil against us falsely; and amid all manner of adverse
and sore circumstances
so as to see the Lord in it all
and so as to work out
our salvation amid it all. And the Lord will look upon our affliction also
and
will requite us good for all this evil
if only we wisely and silently and
adoringly submit ourselves to it. (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
The sins of godly men
There are three ways in which David may have been influenced in
giving this dying injunction to his son--
I. As the agent
unconscious or otherwise
of Divine justice. We cannot conceive this measure as
being the consummation of a Divine purpose
it had apparently so much about it
of human plan. The Almighty’s power
when exerted in support of justice
has
always been certain and direct in its action
without any reference to
contingencies. A man’s punishment
never precedes his crime
nor is inflicted
without one. With God it is all justice or all mercy; no half measures. No
sparing for a time in uncertainty or doubt as to our guilt
begetting in us a
sense of false security
till suddenly the knell of.doom sounds on our deafened
ears. How different from man’s punishment this. The very manner of Shimei’s
death is the greatest argument against its having been ordained by God (verses
36-46.) David’s conduct in giving this dying injunction to his son may have
been influenced--
II. By a
conscientious desire to administer human justice
according to the will of God.
David
we are told
was a man of God
one after His own heart. How; then
with
such clear perceptions of the Divine attributes
can we conceive of him as
acting in this matter conscientiously and with cool judgment
in the full
belief of the harmony of his decree with Almighty rectitude? To do so is to
dishonour the unswerving uprightness of God’s justice
or to depreciate David’s
experiences and knowledge of the Divine character. We would rather be left to
our final alternative in--
III. Regarding his
injunction as prompted by revenge. As a man he forgave Shimei at the time of
his crime
which
then
should have been utterly effaced from his memory.
Heavenly justice
if not satisfied
would have taken its own way of vindicating
itself
without further action on David’s part. With David as a man of God and
Israel’s law-giver
we must utterly disconnect this act
and attribute it
entirely to a flaw in his character
which
at the last
reasserted its natural
power in antagonism to Divine grace. In nothing
during life
do men differ so
greatly as at death. The weakest on earth often enter the gates of heaven
triumphant. While yet in the flesh
one foot is firmly planted on the threshold
of the mansion prepared for them. On the other hand
the spiritual giant now is
frequently then but as a timid and fearful child; often
indeed
appearing to
lose his entire spiritual existence in the fearful struggle which Satan and his
earthly nature keep up in endeavouring to wrest another soul from heaven to
people the wilderness of hell. (R. Liswil
B. A.)
Verses 10-12
So David slept with his fathers
Views of life and death
The view which is presented in the Scripture of the death of
saints is the exact opposite of that which is popular to-day.
You nearly
without exception
find death painted as a reaper coming with his
sickle. That is merely a human idea. What is God’s idea in the Word? Death is
not the reaper; death is the sower. That is a very different thing. It is not
death that comes and gathers in the harvest: it is death that sows the seed.
The agriculturist goes out with his basket of bare grain
and that is cast into
the earth and it is covered up and lost to sight; but it germinates because it
dies. It dies to live under the soil
and by and by there comes the rich golden
harvest. Death will lose half of its gloom if you view death
not as the
reaper
but as the sower. It is because we limit our idea of life to the brief
period we spend in this world
that we make death the terminator of life. It is
not so
but the true beginning of life. Death may take the beautiful form of
your loved one
and cast it in the ground; but it is all that death can do: Death sows the seed
but God reaps the harvest in the dawn of His coming. (R. Venting.)
Verses 13-46
Verse 19-20
Bathsheba therefore went unto King Solomon
to speak unto him for
Adonijah.
What mothers can do for their children
Nearly twenty times the Book of Kings makes mention of the names
of mothers as connected with the good or evil deeds of their sons. We are not
always told what was the character of these mothers
nor how far it was due to
their influence that their sons turned out as they did
but the introduction of
their names in such close connection with the good or evil
is sufficiently
significant. “His mother’s name was Jecholiah; and he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord.” The sacred penman adds no more
and yet we can
scarce restrain the natural exclamation of the heart
“Blessed art thou among
women!” so certain are we that the youth who honoured God had enjoyed the care
of a good mother. In contrast
what unenviable notoriety is given to Abijah’s
name when the mention of it is accompanied with the painful record
“he walked
in all the sins of his father” (1 Kings 15:2). Maachah
the mother
may have been a good woman herself
in spite of her husband’s evil ways; yet
what volumes are expressed in that embalming of her name--and only hers--in connection
with the wrong-doings of her son! Alas! the agonies of the wretched parent’s
heart
in this world and the next
concerning whose offspring the record must
be made
“he did evil all his life; he did evil because of his mother’s neglect
to teach him better!” St. Augustine
and Gregory of Nazianzen
are striking
examples
which cry aloud
“Christian mothers
pray on in faith!” Theodoret
and Basil the Great
and Chrysostom were instances almost as remarkable.
General Harrison
not long before taking his place at the head of the
Government
visited his old home in Virginia
and turned his steps at once to
his “mother’s room
” where
as he said
he had seen her daily reading her
Bible
and where she had taught him to pray. Fame and glory became dim before
him as the pleasant light burst forth from the scene of his earliest and best
impressions. Where is the son so wayward and so cruel
who would not promptly
answer
like Israel’s king
when besought by her who had nursed him in helpless
infancy
“Ask on
my mother
for I will not say thee nay”? “My mother asked me
never to use tobacco
” remarked Senator Thomas H. Benton
“and I have never
touched it from that time to the present day. She asked me never to gamble
and
I never have. She admonished me against hard drinking
and whatever usefulness
I have attained in life
I owe to my compliance with her pious wishes.” The
Christian mother who thus loves her children may be sure of their sincerest
affection in return. An old man
wasted with disease
was struggling feebly
with death. His family and friends stood by
rendering every kind office which
they could
but still there was one thing which he longed for
and which all
their tenderest affections failed to supply. He rolled his head in agony
and
faintly whispered
“I want mother!” She had been dead for fifty years! As a
child
he had carried his little sorrows to his mother
and she had always
proved his ready comforter
and now
after all this lapse of time
forgetful
for the moment
that wife and children and grandchildren were with him
he
remembered no one but his mother! A noted infidel was once suddenly brought
under religious influences
and cried aloud
in his agony
“God of my mother
have mercy on me!” When a lady once told Archbishop Sharpe that she would not
trouble her children with instruction about religion until they had reached the
years of discretion
the shrewd prelate answered
“If you do not teach them
the devil will!” (J. N. Norton.)
The power of mothers
The power of mothers is a fertile theme for contemplation and one
most fascinating. It has been said that “the greatest moral power in the world
is that exercised by a mother over her child.” Can you name any force which you
dare call equal to it? Is it not true
as Douglas Jerrold put it
that “she who
rocks the cradle rules the world”? In the first place
note the fact that--
I. The early years
of a child belong to the mother. These are the years which give shape and
colour to all the rest of life. And in these the natural guide and companion of
the child is the mother. Her presence and her varied teachings are the most
potent force brought to bear upon it in the fresh and dewy morning of its
existence. As soon as the child begins to comprehend language and to ponder
ideas it conveys
what priceless opportunities are the mother’s for inspiring
and leading it! It learns its words from her lips and pronounces them after her
methods. A mispronunciation acquired in childhood often clings to one
all his days. The child thinks its mother’s thoughts as well as speaks her
words. Its views of things are largely derived from her. She can teach the child to be
observant of what is within him and without him
upon notice of which wisdom so
largely depends. She can develop in it the habit of thought
which so enhances
the power of thought. She can elevate its thinking. She can teach it to be
affectionate
aspiring
loyal
and brave. In short
she can mould her child
well-nigh as easily as the sculptor shapes his plastic clay into the statue of
faultless beauty.
II. The example and
the teachings of the mother are permanent influences. This from their very
nature
not simply because she has the control of the years of youth. A
mother’s life is one of the regulating and animating forces of that of her
children as long as they live. There is a sacredness in that example which time
increases rather than lessens in the bosom of every right-minded child. Even
those who are wayward admit its power
and it is always one of the most
invincible agents in their restoration. The same is true of the precepts she
has given him. Not merely do they start him in the course he takes
they remain
with him as elemental factors of his being and his conduct. They were the
warrant of his early actions
and he unconsciously makes appeal to them all his
life. Charles Reade
the famous novelist
when near the end of his life
declared: “I owe the larger half of what I am to my mother.” And John Ruskin
nobly eminent as he is
cannot be disloyal to the memory of her who gave him
birth. He wrote in this strain: “My mother’s influence in moulding my character
was conspicuous. She forced me to learn daily long chapters of the Bible by
heart. To that discipline and patient
accurate resolve I owe not only much of
general power of taking pains
but the best part of my taste for literature.”
And this is the testimony of an author whose facile pen has traced some of the
most superb and exquisite sentences to be found in our English speech.
III. Affection for
mothers is enduring. It is this
in large measure
which lends power to their
example and instruction. Still
it is a force by itself beyond these
in all
the life of the child. If there is no love on earth like a mother’s love
it
calls forth in response an affection that many waters cannot drown. And this
affection is a
purifying
uplifting
gladdening element in the life of one who shares it. It
spurs him to labour and self-denial. It kindles patience
zeal
hope
courage.
It elevates
and quickens all his nature by its silent yet persuasive
influence. When he is
tempted
that love nerves him for victory. When he is despondent it clothes him
with fortitude. When he is weary he rests upon it. When he is lonely its sweet
presence enlivens his soul. When he is strong he rejoices for her dear sake.
When he is successful he exults because she will be happy. Said Lord Macaulay:
“I am sure it is worth while being sick to be nursed by a mother.” One of the
most pathetic elements in the sensitive spirit of William Cowper was his
affectionate regard for his mother
who died when he was in his sixth year. To
a niece who sent him her picture he wrote: “Every creature that bears an
affinity to my mother is dear to me . . . The world could not have furnished
you with a present so acceptable to me as the picture which you have so kindly
sent me. I kissed it and hung it where it is the last object that I see at
night
and
of course
the first on which I open my eyes in the morning.” Who
can doubt the healthful charm of that beautiful portrait over the life of the
son? A mother’s face--what beauty in its outlines
what sweetness in its
expression
what inspiration in its presence in the mind only! No wonder that
Napoleon said the greatest need of France was “mothers.” It does not appear strange that
in the early centuries of our era Christian matrons should have been held in
high esteem. The names of the mothers of not a few heroes of the Church are
inseparably linked with their own. Emmelia with Basil; Nonna
who died while
praying
with Gregory Nazienzen; Anthusa
whose noble character led the heathen
to exclaim: “Ah
what wonderful women there are among Christians!” with
Chrysostom
the golden-mouthed; Monica
who died in the arms of her son
with
Augustine
the great theologian; Aletta
of whom an eloquent orator has
recently said
“I cannot but feel that that saintly mother who died eight
hundred years ago in Burgundy has modified the civilisation of the age in which
we live--that she has left the touch of her hand immortal on your heart and
mine!” with Bernard of Clairvaux. And in modern times the mother of the Wesleys
is called also “the mother of Methodism
” such was her impress upon her sons.
John Quincey Adams doubtless gave utterance to the sober truth when he said:
“All I am
or ever have been
in this world
I owe
under God
to my mother.”
And there is no flower in all the field that owes as much to the sun aa
multitudes in the lesser walks of life owe to their mothers. The glory of
motherhood has been strikingly set forth by some one who said: “God could not
be everywhere
and therefore He made mothers.” Theirs is the post of honour in
the world. They sit upon thrones most regal. Sceptres of unbounded empire are
in their hands. O mothers
realise the proud eminence you have attained! Aim to
meet well its immense responsibilities
its limitless possibilities. Your
children are
in a large degree
at your own disposal. Charles Dickens did not
err when he thought that it must be written somewhere that “the virtues of
mothers should be visited
occasionally
upon their children as well as the
sins of fathers.” (A. W. Hazen
D. D.)
The king rose up to meet
her
and bowed himself unto her.--
A mother’s noble recognition
The story is told that not long ago President Loubet paid a brief
official visit to a town near his birthplace. A triumphal procession was formed
through the town
and the President
seated in the magnificent four-horse state
carriage
was driven between long lines of enthusiastic people towards another
part of the town
where his old peasant mother patiently awaited his coming.
She had a special seat
from which she could have an uninterrupted view of the
passing procession. When she caught sight of the magnificent carriage
approaching
surrounded by a brilliant cavalry escort
notwithstanding her
eighty-six years
she rose quickly to her feet in order to get a better view of
“her boy
” as she always calls the President. The latter
who had been
privately told where his mother was
noticed the movement. Seized by a sudden
impulse
he ordered the carriage to step
and
turning to the general in
attendance
said hastily: “For the moment I cease to be President of France
and become a son.” Then
springing quickly to the ground
Monsieur Loubet
hastened by the garden
which he well knew
to the little stand
caught the
quivering old mother in his arms
and embraced her long and silently
while
copious tears streamed down her wrinkled cheeks. The large crowd that witnessed
this scene of filial affection was so touched as not to be able at first to signify
their approval
and it was not till the President was in his carriage again
and the procession was moving once more
that the spell was broken
and the
people cheered the dutiful son as he deserved.
A ruler’s regard for his mother
President Roosevelt
in his life of Oliver Cromwell
tells us how
devoted the mother of Cromwell was to her great son
and how he loved her. When
he was young
he followed her counsel. When he became Dictator of England
he
placed her in the royal palace of Whitehall; and when she died
he buried her in Westminster Abbey.
This care for our mothers is one element of greatness which we may all possess.
Verse 26-27
And unto Abiathar the priest said the king.
Friends that fail us
In middle life--much more in old age--we may have many
acquaintances
but we have few friends. “If
” said an old man quaintly
“my
acquaintances would fill a church
my real friends could go in the pulpit.”
Socrates used to keep two chairs only in his house: “One for myself
and
another for a friend--when I find him!” How well then it is that there is a
Friend “who sticketh closer than a
brother”--a Guide and Comforter whom we cannot fail to find if we
look for Him with the eyes of faith! (Quiver.)
Verse 28
Joab had turned after Adonijah.
The peril of protracted temptation
Joab was David’s nephew
the second of the three sons of his
sister Zeruiah. His youngest brother
Asahel
famous for his swiftness in
running
was killed by Abner at the battle of Gibeon. The oldest
Abishai
a
brave
fierce
revengeful man
was always at his uncle’s side
and rendered him
invaluable service. But Joab
greatest in military prowess
as well as most
statesmanlike
reached the place of power next the king himself. He
treacherously killed Abner
partly in revenge for his brother’s death and
partly lest he should hold under David the same post of commander-in-chief that
he had held under Saul. The king was grieved and outraged at this act
and
compelled Joab to attend Abner’s funeral in sackcloth and with rent robe.
Still
induced
no doubt
by his pre-eminent fitness
he gave him Abner’s
place. Joab had fairly won this by accepting the challenge of David to scale
the rock of Jebus and thus capture the fortress that was to become the national
capital So far as defence and conquest are concerned he may be called the
founder of the kingdom. Joab was loyal to his sovereign through a long life. He
was loyal against many temptations to be otherwise. From the time of Abner’s
death David feared his impetuous
passionate nephews; indeed
he said at the
funeral
“I am this day weak
though anointed king; and these men the sons of
Zeruiah are too hard for me” (2 Samuel 3:39). Joab could not have
been uninfluenced by this fact; it is difficult for an inferior to retain
respect for a superior who he knows fears him
or whom he regards as in any
essential particular a weaker man than himself. Moreover
he was in the secret
of his master’s great crime--guilty
indeed
as an accessory
but not so guilty
as the principal
and so with another consciousness of superiority which worked
against his devotion. And monarchy was new in Israel. The king reigned more by
virtue of his personal power than of an established habit of obedience on the
part of his people. There were the incessant intrigues against the throne that
to this day mark all Oriental governments. A score of times Joab must have been
solicited to join the fortunes of this or that pretender
to accept anything
that he chose to ask
to escape the growing ill-will of his sovereign and
avenge the repeated slights that he had suffered. Against all solicitations he
had stood firm year after year. But now David is near his end--in fact
is
almost comatose. It is known that he has promised the succession to a younger
son
Solomon. The legitimist party
who favour the oldest son
Adonijah
determine not to wait for the king’s death
but to at once seize the throne. It
is particulariy odious treason against a dying and presumably helpless man. And
it is especially pitiful to find the aged Joab engaged in it. A few years
before he had resisted the pretensions of the fascinating and popular Absalom
and at the risk of his own life had put him to death
as he deserved. But
meanwhile his moral fibre has deteriorated. He lacks the robust virtue of other
years. Even the thought of his dying sovereign and of the great things that
they had passed through together cannot hold him to loyalty. So he “turns after
Adonijah
though he had not turned after Absalom.” The theory is commonly held
that old men and women are safe from temptation. We talk about character being
formed
settled
fixed. We speak of unassailable virtue. We devote all our
skill and energy to safeguarding the young
which is right; but we neglect to
throw any protection about the middle-aged
which is wrong. We treat ourselves
in the same fashion
assuming that
say
after middle life we are in small
peril of going astray. We accordingly subject our virtues to strain to which we
would not have thought of exposing them twenty or thirty years earlier. Hence
every community is frequently shocked by acts of amazing folly
vice
and even
crime on the part of those who were supposed to have outlived all temptation in
such directions. Hence we have the proverb
“Count no man happy until he is
dead”--until he has passed beyond the possibility of throwing away by one
stupendous blunder or sin the accumulated good reputation of three or four
score years. We say of such a man
“He was old enough to know better
” which is
in effect a confession that knowing better by no means carries with it the
strength to do better. Hamlet regards it as the gravamen of his mother’s
offence in her criminal marriage with the king
that she had passed the age
when she could plead the excuse of impetuous passions. History
literature
our
own observation unite to demonstrate that
while youth is imperilled by
temptation
age is not safe
and to give some countenance to the rather harsh
maxim that “there is no fool like an old fool.” The fact is
that the danger
that lurks in temptation is not a matter of age at all. Personality is of
course the main thing. We are tempted accordingly to our heredity
our
appetites
our constitutional or acquired weaknesses
our individual
proclivities toward this or that sin. These vary at different periods of life.
Hence some temptations are strongest in youth
others in maturity
others in
old age. There is a sense
too
in which youth is weaker to resist than
maturity or age. The moral fibre
like the physical
is not yet toughened.
Physicians tell us that the period of greatest peril to life
after infancy
is
from eighteen to twenty-five or thirty years. All vital organs have developed
rapidly; one looks most robust; he will quickly take high physical training in
any direction
and
if he endures it
gain marvellous power. But at the same
time
he lacks high efficiency to resist or throw off disease. Add to this such
imprudence as must accompany the unthinking conviction that nothing can harm
him--that he may eat and sleep and exercise as irregularly as he pleases--and
it is not marvellous that so many young men die.in their years of greatest
promise and apparently highest vitality. They are carried off by disease before
they have learned their own powers of endurance
or
knowing them
gained the moral
courage to live well within them. It is not an irrational solicitude
therefore
that parents feel for the health of their sons and daughters even
after they are old enough to be supposed to wisely care for themselves. Here
the moral and spiritual nature affords a close analogy to the physical. Time
brings to the soul certain qualifications to resist temptation that nothing
else can bring
such as an intelligent fear of doing wrong and an accurate
conception of its pernicious consequences. Especially it brings the habit of
resisting the wrong and doing the right. And it is to that settled habit more
than to anything else
except the
immediate grace of God
that we all owe our moral safety. But
whatever the age
the real peril of temptation lies in its being long
continued. It was not because Joab was old that he turned after Adonijah
while
a few years before he had not turned after Absalom
but because at that time
the temptation of disloyalty to his king had not been long enough at work to
undermine his powers of resistance. When
however
Adonijah raised the standard
of revolt and invited Joab to join him
the soliciting voice had spoken so many
times
and each time more alluringly
that his ability to say no had been
exhausted. He threw away reputation
honour
life itself
not because he was a
weak old man--for he was not that--but because he had exposed himself through a
series of years to the temptation that he had always hitherto been able to
master
but that now at last mastered him. The fact is--and herein lies the
reason for the young standing so grandly as they do--that few are swept away by
the first attack of temptation. The fortress of our instinctive love of the
right and our careful early training is not usually carded by assault
but by sapping
and mining. The bravest army ever marshalled cannot for ever stand such dogged
attacks from an enemy with resources sufficient to keep them up indefinitely.
Nor can the strongest human nature stand such attacks of temptation. No matter
how confident you and I are of the quality of our moral fibre
we will act
unwisely in subjecting it to too prolonged a strain. Indeed
this law holds
throughout all nature. We speak
for instance
of the life of a steel rail
meaning the period during which it can do its work. The incessant hammering on
it of locomotive and car wheels finally changes the relation of its molecules
until their coherence is so weakened that the strength of the metal is gone.
Suddenly there is an unaccountable railway accident. It means only that rail or
bridge or locomotive had been strained
not too hard
but too long. They stood
through Absalom’s day
but could not stand through Adonijah’s. Bacteriologists
say that the germs of many or most diseases exist in our bodies while we are in
good health; but we are able to resist them. There comes a time
however
when
such resistance is weakened by that clogging of the system that we call a cold
and we have
pneumonia; or when our foes are reinforced by impure water
and we nave typhoid
fever
we can withstand for a long time--a marvellously long time--the poison
of a foul atmosphere
but the most robust constitution will finally succumb to
it. We are horrified by stories of plagues and pestilences
as the yellow
fever
cholera
the black death. They sweep over a country with awful
devastation. But they pass by
and
after all
do not kill one where bad
ventilation and unsanitary drainage
with their endless persistence
kill tern
The mighty storms that sweep the Matterhorn throw down with awful crash only
the rocks that the constantly trickling and freezing rills of water have
through years or centuries insensibly crowded to the edge of the cliff. We may
be too proud to believe that we who have withstood so long can ever yield
but
this is the very “pride that goeth before destruction.” “I do not allow myself
to look at a bad picture
” said Sir Peter Lely
the artist
“for if I do my
brush is certain to take a hint from it.” The only safe way to treat a
temptation that has begun to meet us frequently is the way of this wise book:
“Avoid it
pass not by it
turn from it
and pass on.” And even this counsel
good as we at once recognise it to be
we will not heed unless we seek
Divine.grace. And that is ready: “God is faithful
who will not suffer you to
be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the
way of escape
that ye may be able to endure it.” Trust Him and you shall not
turn after either Absalom or Adonijah. (T. S. Hamlin
D. D.)
The vitality of sin
We sometimes think that we have done with a sin
because it is
dormant for a time. We think that it is dead
that under no circumstances can we
be troubled with it any more. But it is very often only in a state of suspended
animation Circumstances are against its showing its vitality
but that vitality
is there
and will show itself when circumstances are favourable. In a lump of
ice delivered to a restaurant lately there was embedded a frog. After having
been on exhibition for some time the ice was smashed
and the frog was like a
stone. It was put near the stove
and in two hours it was as lively as
possible. It had been ten months frozen up. Many a sin that we thought dead has
got near some stove--some warm temptation--and we have had sad experience of
its tenacity of life. (Quiver.)
Joab fled unto the
tabernacle of the Lord.--
Ineffective repentance
Joab had passed a proud and prosperous life
without submitting
himself to the authority
or seeking the favour of God. He was a cruel
revengeful
and imperious man. He suffered his own vindictive spirit to imbrue
his hands in causeless blood
in his long and prospered life
he might have
been the instrument of vast blessings to others. But the man who lives without
God cannot live as a blessing to his fellow-men. The blessing of God is not
with any thing that he does. Joab comes to old age
and his character remains
entirely unchanged. He engages with Adonijah in his unnatural rebellion against
the aged king
to whose cause he had been so faithful while the power was with
him
and thus prepares himself for the punishment which must in justice
overtake him. David delivers him over to Solomon his son
with the injunction
“thou knowest what Joab did to me
” etc. He fled to Gibeon
and concealed
himself for protection in the tabernacle of the Lord
and caught hold on the
horns of the altar. But there was no protection for impenitent guilt as the
altar. The Divine law was
in regard to the murderer
“thou shalt take him even
from Mine altar
that he may die.” And Joab
the aged rebel
perishes in guilt
even while he clings to the altar for protection. No desire for God led him to
the tabernacle. A fear of punishment drove him thither. He had no longing to be
a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. He would far rather dwell in the tents
of ungodliness. How very important is the admonition which is here furnished!
What multitudes
like Joab
attempt to compensate for a life of sin
by an
ineffectual attempt to return to God in the hour of death
and encourage
themselves to hope
that their wicked and persevering neglect of Him will be
wholly forgotten
if they ask His forgiveness
when they can rebel no longer!
Their hearts are in the world
and they will live to that. But their future
everlasting safety
can only be with God
and they will still endeavour to die
in peace with Him.
I. Such a running
at the last to the tabernacle is entirely deficient in the proper motive of
obedience. The distinguishing motive of an acceptable return to God
is a love
for His character
and a desire for His service. This must always be the
principle which guides a sinner in a true return of his soul to God. A godly
sorrow for sin respects the honour of God which is involved in transgression.
It sees the love sir Jesus
and the hatefulness of the sin which has repaid it; and turns back with
mourning
for that which has crucified the Lord of Glory.
II. Such an
apparent return to God in our last hours is ineffective
because it allows no
time to accomplish the important work. I do not speak now of the man who has
never heard the blessed tidings of a Saviour
until this late hour; but of the
man whose life has been passed amidst the full privileges of the Gospel
and
who has no new message to be delivered to him in the hour of his death. Such a
one has professed that he had no time to perfect this return to God in his life
and health
though he acknowledged it to be necessary; and he will
in fact
have no time to do it in the hours of sickness
and age
and death. It is vain
to say that God may then pluck him in a moment as a brand from the burning. So
He might have done at any previous time of his life. But He did not do it then;
and there is not the slightest ground for hope that He will
do it now.
III. This projected
repentance is ineffective for good
because it is itself an act of rebellion
against God. He has
in abundant mercy
opened a way for sinful men to return
to Him in peace. He gives them all the opportunities
all the means
and all
the assistance
which they need in order to perfect this return to His favour
and then solemnly warns them that it must be done in a limited and appointed
time. But what does the man do
who still looks for a more convenient season
for his reconciliation unto God
but directly contradict and falsify these
positive assertions of the God of Truth? And of what more positive act of
rebellion against God can man be guilty
than is involved in this determination
which says
man and his Creator. And what would be the effect of God’s
acceptance of this wilfully postponed submission to Himself
but giving
countenance to rebellion against Himself
and showing a fickleness of
government
the supposition of which is impossible?
IV. Such a proposed
return is ineffective
because its allowed success would overturn all the
purposes of God in regard to men
for which the Gospel has provided. Its
acceptance by Him would altogether annihilate the design and operation of the
Gospel The great purpose of God
in the gift of His Son
is the restoration of
man frown sin to obedience; the cleansing of him from guilt and condemnation
that he may serve God in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of
his life. The proper and designed operation of the Gospel is to annihilate the
actual rebellion of the world; to reduce its living inhabitants into subjection
to their Creator
and thus to restore His dominion here
in perfect and eternal
peace. How foolish and false is that hope which can only stand upon the
annihilation of the very purposes and power upon which itself depends! Nay
which
can be indulged in fact and form only
because some others at least
are
supposed to be guided by better principles to a safer course! The very
expectation
therefore
which plans such a return to God
shuts up against
itself the avenue of mercy
destroys the design and usefulness of the Gospel
and
like the scorpion in his circle of fire
puts an end to itself. (S. H.
Tyng
D. D.)
Religion the last quest of the godless
During an epidemic of cholera I remember being called up
at dead
of night
to pray with a dying person. He had spent the Sabbath in going out
upon an excursion
and at three on Monday morning I was standing by his bed.
There was no Bible in the house
and he had often ridiculed the preacher; but
before his senses left him he begged his servant to send for me. What could I
do? He was unconscious; and there I stood
musing sadly upon the wretched
condition of a man who had wickedly refused Christ and yet superstitiously fled
to his minister. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Repentance unavailing
Of Antiochus
the great persecutor of the Jewish people
it is
told that during his last illness he vowed he would become a Jew himself
and
go through all the world that
was inhabited and declare the power of God
yet
continues the historian
“for
all this
his pains would not cease
for the just judgment of God was upon
him.”
Verses 30-34
Nay; but I will die here.
A warrior’s death
The circumstances in which Joab uttered the words
“Nay; but I
will die here
” were the outcome of a conspiracy which had been formed during
the latter days of David to prevent Solomon
his son
reigning in his stead.
I. Joab’s
character. Joab as a man was somewhat like Esau
belligerent from his youth. As
one of the sons of Zeruiah
of whom David complained that they “were too hard
for him
” he readily acquired the character of a reckless soldier
and a most
unscrupulous disposition. However brave or successful as a warrior
he was
never known to forget an insult or to forgive an injury. He always waited for
his enemies
real or supposed
as a bear robbed of her whelps
and would punish
them without mercy. In some respects he was more cruel and vindictive than
Nero
or any of the Roman Caesars. It was in cold blood that he assassinated
Abner
and slew Absalom with his own hand. These and similar acts of cruelty
instead of checking his career
or making him more thoughtful
only paved his
way for the commission of still greater crimes. He cared as little for the
king’s curse
on account of Abner’s assassination
as he cared for the king’s
grief over Absalom’s death. For years he had been guilty of shedding the blood
of innocents
and the king seems to have been powerless in checking him or
punishing him for his enormous crimes. But on his death-bed he charged Solomon
to deal with him
so that the “innocent blood which he had shed might be purged
from him and from his father’s house” (1 Kings 2:31). This was the
character of Joab
the man who fled in terror to the tabernacle of the Lord
and laid hold upon the horns of the altar.
II. Joab’s refuge.
Why did Joab
in his extremity
run to the tabernacle? As a drowning man is
said to catch at a straw
Joab ran to the tabernacle as his only hope of
safety. It was the hour of his desperation; the pressure of destiny was upon
his heart
the Nemesis of retribution had laid hold upon him; and rather than
die like Judas
he would lay hold upon the horns of the altar as his only means
of salvation. But he had no right to do so. He was one of those expressly
forbidden by the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 19:12) to enter the tabernacle
or to lay hold upon the horns of the altar. As a murderer--as a murderer “with
guile
” as a murderer with deliberate purpose--he had no right to take refuge
in God’s sanctuary
or to lay hold upon the altar with his defiled hands.
Solomon knew the law
and honoured it when he commanded Benaiah to drag him
forth from the altar and have him slain (Exodus 21:14). But what cares a sinner
who has lived all his days to outrage all law and order
when pressed by the
shadows or pangs of despair
whether he enters in by the door or climbs up some
other way? When he becomes
like Samson
a helpless creature--his eyes out
and
sport for the Philistines--he will dare the most terrible things
if only he
can be saved.
III. Joab’s
resolution. There he would die
and nowhere else. It has been said that
soldiers
as a class
are not greatly concerned for religion. It was alleged by
Dean Swift that “no class of men had so little sense of religion as English
soldiers.” It is said that Pope Gregory the Great tried hard at one time to
assure the Emperor that it was not a thing impossible to discover devout
soldiers in the army. Gibbon
the historian
records the ease of a Roman
general who as early as the year 398 a.d. spent most of his time in praying and
fasting
and singing Psalms. But he has evidently more satisfaction in telling
us of the soldier who
before some terrible battle
prayed thus
“Oh God--if
there be a God--save my soul--if I have a soul.” Perhaps we ought to regard
such men as Colonel Gardiner
Sir Henry Havelock
Captain Hedley Vicars
General Lee
General Gordon
and Gustavus Adolphus
as exceptions to what is
common in military circles. But there is nothing necessarily antagonistic to a
religious life in the army. It is not necessary that a soldier should be brutal
in his character or a murderer in heart and action. But Joab was so. He was
utterly regardless of human life
and lived far from God and righteousness. We
may regard Joab’s resolution as the outcome of nature
not of fear. “It is the
fashion of our foolish presumption
” says Bishop Hall
“to look for protection
under the pressure of necessity
when we have not cared to yield obedience.
Even a Joab clings to God’s altar in the hour of his extremity
which in his
prosperity ha regarded not. Necessity will drive the most profane and lawless
men to God.” When the Angel of Death comes to men in no unmistakable way
when
by ago or by accident
lingering sickness or the sorrows of bereavement
they
seem to hear it said
“Set thine house in order
for thou shalt die
and not
live!” or when
in some significant way
their doom is forecast
as
Belshazzar’s doom was written upon his palace wall
they will waken up and cry
out for a refuge in despair. But as there is a mirage in the spiritual as well
as in the natural world
they may find that the harvest is past and the summer
ended; they may find that prayers then extorted are in vain--the hour of mercy
pearl Those who are saved at God’s altar are drawn to it
never driven. (J.
K. Campbell
D. D.)
General Joab
1. Joab was a man of war. He delighted in battle
he scented it from
afar
the thought of it was in his heart. He never saw the tragedy--the madness
of it; or
if he did
he ignored it
as thousands of great soldiers have done.
He was a man of blood and iron
a lesser Napoleon
who climbed to greatness
such aa it was
over a hecatomb of corpses. He was never happy but amid tumult
and bloodshed; the sweetest music that over greeted his ear was the bugle call
to charge the enemy. Empire-making was his life-work
but
fortunately
David’s
ambition was limited to a small geographical area
and Joab had no standing
army at his beck and call
or the peace of the world would not have been safe
for a single day.
2. The havoc wrought by envy. Joab was David’s sister’s son
a fact
he never forgot himself
and never permitted others to forget. David’s brothers
never quite forgave him being greater than themselves. Abner and the rest
could
not forget that scene in the vale of Succoth
when David by one supreme act of
faith and courage became the nation’s idol. Saul’s was not the only heart which
felt the pang of jealousy that day. Envy
that black imp of hell
was dancing
in and out amid the troops of Israel
and he wrought great havoc in Jesse’s
household. Only great natures can rejoice at the prosperity of others. A man
had better take a nest of rattlesnakes into his bosom than envy into his heart.
But among those who stood staunch and true to David was his nephew
Joab. He
had his faults
but treachery was not one of them
and he was a courageous man
and could not only fight himself
but could inspire others; and he possessed
that dogged perseverance that never knows when it is beaten
but rises out of
the ashes of defeat to fight once more and to conquer. “The battle is lost
sire
” said a messenger to Napoleon one morning. “Then
” he said
pulling out
his watch
“there is time to win another.” And that was Joab
too
a very
glutton for a hard fight
who never admitted defeat
but just kept pounding
away
as Wellington said
until the enemy yielded. But Joab had the defect of
his qualities: he was selfish
ambitious
with a nature of stone and iron;
there was no light and shade in his character; he never suffered himself to be
thwarted
but bore all down by the violence of his temper. And David grew to be
afraid of this imperious
loud-voiced
combative nephew of his
and perhaps to
yield to him on occasions when it would have been better if he had not.
3. David plays the fool Joab was a great man
his own nephew
a very
useful man when the kingdom was threatened
and so David made a tearful speech
and let the culprit go. And Joab from that day thought himself indispensable
and acted accordingly. And the time came when David played the fool
as he now
played the coward. A beautiful woman bewitched him
and he fell so foully that
we stand and gape in astonishment at the deed of wickedness David did. The
saddest thing on earth is when a good man forgets himself
turns his back on
God
and shakes hands with the devil. “Do not mistake me
” said saintly Jacob
Behmen
the mystic
so beloved by Dr. Whyte
“for my heart is as full as it can
be of all malice
and all ill will. My heart is the very dunghill of the devil
and it is no easy matter to wrestle with him on his chosen ground. But wrestle
with him on this ground of his I must
and that the whole of my life to the
end.” “I have never read of a crime
” says Goethe
“which I might not have committed.”
And the lust of the eyes seized David
and he wrote a disgraceful letter to
Joab
who
when he read it
gave a hoarse
derisive laugh
and felt glad in his
heart
for there are hard
coarse natures who delight in the moral downfall of
a better man. If Joab had been the friend of David he would have torn that
letter into thousands of pieces
and he would have gone forth and remonstrated
with the king
for he is our best friend who cannot bear to see stain upon our
character
and who will risk giving offence rather than let us cheapen
ourselves in the eyes of the world. But Joab kept the letter as a precious
treasure
for use on another day.
4. Joab master of the situation. And Joab obeyed the letter
and put
Uriah in the front of the battle
and the brave soldier fell fighting for the
king who planned his death
and dreamt not that his general was the worst foe
that he had that day. It was as shameful a deed as ever was committed on a
battlefield. And from that hour Joab twisted the king round his little finger.
David never lost his conscience
and it is the man who has a conscience who
suffers. What a mental purgatory the spiritually minded man lives in who has
fallen from grace. Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter has shown us how a secret
sin eats like a cancer at the heart until confession becomes
not only a
necessity
but a relief. Joab could sleep as soundly as a child
and no vision
of the slain Uriah came to haunt him. But David could not. Through many a
sleepless hour he wailed out his broken-hearted penitence in psalm and prayer.
This man could not go through a mire of sin and be merry over it
he could not
forget
and forgetting is the sinner’s only refuge. Better a thousand times be
David
with his tear-smitten face turned Godward
hating himself for the wrong
done
than the sneering
self-complacent old warrior who found no place for
repentance. Such men as Joab make hell a necessity of the future if ever
justice is to be done
and right vindicated. Yes
I believe in hell
I cannot
but believe in it
or there is no such thing as justice. It is awful to see the
sinner when remorse has seized him. But I tell you what is far more awful
and
that is to see the sinner going on cursing
laughing
unheeding to his doom
as
indifferent as the fattened ox goes to the shambles. The best things in life
are tenderness
sweetness
graciousness; and Joab never saw them
never knew
them
but was always harsh
strident
and stern. (S. Horton.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》