Expositions of Holy Scripture

A >> Alexander Maclaren >> Expositions of Holy Scripture

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II. The three heroes' devotion.

These three rough soldiers, lawless and fierce as they were, had been
so mastered by their chief that they were ready to dare anything to
pleasure him. Who would have looked for such delicacy of feeling and
such enthusiastic self-surrender in such men?

They stand as grand instances of the height of devotion of which the
rudest nature is capable, when once its love and loyalty to the Beloved
are evoked.

How such deeds ennoble the lowest types of character, and make us think
better of men, and more sadly of the contrast between their habitual
characteristics and the possibilities that lie slumbering in their
ignoble lives! There are sparks in the hard cold flint, if only they
could be struck out. There is water in the rock, if only the right
hand, armed with the wonder-working rod, smites it.

Let us not judge men too harshly by what they do and are, but let us
try to bring their sleeping possibilities into conscious exercise.

Let us remember that love and self-sacrifice, which is the very outcome
and natural voice of love, ennoble the most degraded.

But these heroic three may suggest to us a sadder thought. They were
ready to die for David; would they have been as ready to die for God?
These noble emotions of love, leading to glad flinging away of life to
pleasure the beloved, are freely given to men, but too often withheld
from God, We lavish on our beloveds or on our chosen leaders, a
devotion that ought to shame us, when contrasted with the scantiness of
our grudging devotion and self-surrender to Him. If we loved God a
tenth part as ardently as we love our wives or husbands or parents or
children, and were willing to do and bear as much for Him as we are
willing to bear for them, how different our lives would be! We can love
utterly, enthusiastically, self-forget-tingly, absorbed in the beloved,
and counting all surrender of self to, and the sacrifice of life itself
for, him or her a delight. Many of us do love men so. Do we love God
so?

But these heroic three may suggest another thought. Their self-
sacrificing love was illustrious; but there is a nobler, more
wonderful, more soul-subduing instance of such love. They broke through
the ranks of the Philistines to bring David a draught from the well of
Bethlehem. Jesus has broken through the ranks of our enemies to bring
us the water of which 'if a man drink, he shall live for ever.' If we
would see the highest example of self-sacrificing love, we must turn to
look, not on the instances of it that shine through the ages on the
page of history, and make men thrill as they gaze, and think better of
the human nature that can do such things, but on the Christ hanging on
the Cross because He loved those who did not love Him, and giving His
life a ransom for sinners.

III. David's reception of the water.

The chivalrous devotion of the three touched an answering chord in
their chivalrous chief. His heart filled at the thought of what they
had risked, and revolted from employing what had been thus won for no
higher use than to gratify a piece of sentiment in himself. The
sparkling water was too sacred to be taken for any baser use than as a
libation to Jehovah. And who can doubt that the three were more fully
repaid for their devotion, as David poured it out unto the Lord, than
if he had drunk it eagerly up? His feeling and his act indicate
beautiful delicacy of instinct, and swiftness of perception of how to
requite the devotion of the three.

We may separate into its two parts the generous impulse which sprang as
one whole in David's breast. There was the shrinking from using the
water to slake his thirst merely, and there was the resolve to pour it
out as a libation to God. Both parts of that whole may yield us
profitable thoughts.

To risk their lives for the water was noble in the three; to have
quaffed it as if it had been drawn like any other water from a well,
would have been ignoble in David. There are things that it may be noble
to give and ignoble to accept. There are sacrifices which we are not
entitled to allow others to make for our sakes. Gratifications which
can only be procured at the hazard of men's lives are too dearly
bought.

Would not a civilisation, that draws much of its comforts and
appliances from 'sweated industries,' and is languidly amused by seeing
men and women performers peril their lives nightly, and lose them too,
for its gratification, be the better for copying David's recoil from
drinking 'the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives'? Is
there not 'blood' on many a woman's ball-dress, on many an article of
luxury, on many an amusement?

There are sacrifices which we have no right to accept from others. The
three had no right to risk life for such a purpose, and David would
have been selfish if he had drunk the water. Do not such thoughts lead
us by contrast to Him who has done what none other can do? 'None of
them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give his life a ransom
for him'; but Jesus can and Jesus does, and what it would be
impossible, and wrong if it were possible, for one man to do for
another, He has done for us all, and what it would be base for a man to
accept from another if that other could give it, it is blessed and the
beginning of all nobleness of character for us to accept from Him.
David would not drink because the cup seemed to him to be red with
blood. Jesus offers to us a cup, not of cold water only but of 'water
and blood,' and bids us drink of it and remember Him.

The generous devotion of the three kindled answering emotions in
David's breast. It would be a churlish soul that was not warmed into
some faint replica of such self-sacrifice, and most of us would be
ashamed of ourselves if we were unmoved by such love. But does the
supreme example of it affect us as much as the lesser examples of it
do? How many of us stand before it like the peaks of the Alps that
front full south, and lift an unmelted breastplate of snow to the
midday sun! How many of us have lived all our lives in presence of
Jesus' infinite love and self-surrender for us each, and never have
felt one transient touch of answering love!

The other part of David's impulse was to offer to God what was too
precious for his own use. That is the fitting destination of our most
precious and prized possessions. And whatever is thus offered becomes
more precious by being offered. The altar sanctifies and enhances the
worth of the gift. What we give to God is more our own than if we had
kept it to ourselves, and develops richer capacities of ministering to
our delight. It is so with our greatest surrender, the surrender of
ourselves. When we give ourselves to Jesus, He renders us back to
ourselves, far better worth having than before. We are never so much
our own as when we are wholly Christ's. And the same thing is true as
to all our riches of mind, heart, or worldly wealth. If we wish to
taste their most delicate and refined sweetness, let us give them to
Jesus, and the touch of His hand, as He accepts them and gives them
back to us, will leave a lingering fragrance that nothing else can
impart. Was not the water from the well of Bethlehem sweeter to David
as he poured it out unto the Lord than if he had greedily gulped it
down?

THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS

DAVID APPOINTING SOLOMON

'Then king David answered and said, Call me Bath-sheba. And she came
into the king's presence, and stood before the king. 29. And the king
sware, and said, As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of
all distress, 30. Even as I sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel,
saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall
sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day.
31. Then Bath-sheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence
to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live for ever. 32. And
king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. 33. The
king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and
cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to
Gihon: 34. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him
there king over Israel: and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save
king Solomon. 35. Then ye shall come up after him, that he may come and
sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead: and I have
appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. 36. And Benaiah
the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen; the Lord God of
my lord the king say so too. 37. As the Lord hath been with my lord the
king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the
throne of my lord king David. 38. So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the
Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David's
mule, and brought him to Gihon. 39. And Zadok the priest took an horn
of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the
trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon.'--1 KINGS i.
28-39.

The earlier part of this chapter must be taken into account in order to
get the right view of this incident. David's eldest surviving son,
Adonijah, had claimed the succession, and gathered his partisans to a
feast. Nathan, alarmed at the prospect of such a successor, had
arranged with Bathsheba that she should go to David and ask his public
confirmation of his promise to her that Solomon should succeed him, and
that then Nathan should seek an audience while she was with the king,
and, as independently, should prefer the same request.

The plan was carried out, and here we see its results. The old king was
roused to a flash of his ancient vigour, confirmed his oath to
Bathsheba, and promptly cut the ground from under Adonijah's feet by
sending for the three who had remained true to him--Nathan, Benaiah,
and Zadok--and despatching them without a moment's delay to proclaim
Solomon king, and then to bring him up to the palace and enthrone him.
The swift execution of these decisive orders, and the burst of popular
acclamation which welcomed Solomon's accession, shattered the nascent
conspiracy, and its supporters scattered in haste, to preserve their
lives. The story may be best dealt with, for our purpose, by taking
this brief summary and trying to draw lessons from it.

I. It points anew the truth that 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap.' As Absalom, so Adonijah, had been spoiled by David's
over-indulgence (verse 6), and having never had his wishes checked, was
now letting his unbridled wishes hurry him into rebellion. Nor was that
fault of David's the only one which brought about the miserable
squabbles round his deathbed, as to who should wear the crown which had
not yet fallen from his head. Eastern monarchies are familiar with
struggles for the crown between the sons of different mothers when
their father dies. David had indulged in a multitude of wives, and his
last days were darkened by the resulting intrigues of his sons. No
doubt, too, Solomon was disliked by his brethren as the child of
Bathsheba, and the shame of David's crime was an obstacle in his
younger son's way. Thus, as ever, his evil deeds came home to roost,
and the poisonous seed which he had sown grew up and waved, a bitter
harvest, which he had to reap. Repentance and forgiveness did not
neutralise the natural consequences of his sin. Nor will they do so for
us. God often leaves them to be experienced, that the experience may
make us hate the sins the more.

II. The sad defection to Adonijah of such tried friends as Joab and
Abiathar has its lesson. The reason for Joab's treachery is plain. He
had been steadily drifting away from David for years. His fierce temper
could not brook the king's displeasure on account of his murders of
Abner and Amasa, and his slaying of Absalom had made the breach
irreparable. No doubt, David had made him feel that he loved and
trusted him no longer; and his old comrade in many a fight, Benaiah,
had stepped into the place which he had once filled. Professional
rivalry had darkened into bitter bate. Joab commanded the native-born
Israelites; Benaiah, the 'Cherethites and Pelethites,' who are now
generally regarded as foreign mercenaries. They were David's bodyguard,
and were probably as heartily hated by Joab and the other Israelite
soldiers as they were trusted by David. So there were reasons enough
for Joab's abetting an insurrection which would again make him the
foremost soldier. He wanted to be indispensable, and would prop the
throne as long as its occupant looked only to him as its defender.
Besides, he probably felt that he would have little chance of winning
distinction in a kingdom which was to be a peaceful one.

Abiathar's motives are unexplained, but if we notice that he had been
obliged to acquiesce in the irregular arrangement of putting the high-
priest's office into commission, we can understand that he bore no
goodwill to Zadok, his colleague, or to David for making the latter so.
Self was at the bottom of these two renegades' action. The fair
fellowship, which had been made the closer because of dangers and
privations faced together, crumbled away before the disintegrating
influences of petty personal jealousies. When once self-regard gets in,
it is like the trickle of water in the cracks of a rock, which freezes
in winter and splits the hardest stone. No common action for a great
cause is possible without the suppression of sidelong looks towards
private advantage. Joab and Abiathar tarnished a life's devotion and
broke sacred bonds, because they thought of themselves rather than of
God's will. Surely they must have had some pangs as they sat at
Adonijah's feast, when they thought of the decrepit old king lying in
his chamber up on Zion, and remembered what he and they had come
through together.

III. We may note the pathetic picture of decaying old age which is seen
in David. He was not very old in years, being about seventy, but he was
a worn-out man. His early hardships had told on him, and now he lay in
the inner chamber, the shadow of himself. His love for Bathsheba had
died down, as would appear both from her demeanour before him, and from
her ignorance of his intentions as to his successor. She was little or
nothing to him now. He seems to have been torpidly unaware of what was
going on. The noise of Adonijah's revels had not disturbed his quiet.
He had not even taken the trouble to designate his successor, though
'the eyes of all Israel were upon him that he should tell who was to
sit on his throne after him' (v. 20). Such neglect was criminal in the
circumstances, and brings out forcibly the weary indifference which had
crept over him. Contrast that picture with the early days of swift
energy and eager interest in all things. Is this half-comatose old man
the David who flashed like a meteor and struck swift as a thunderbolt
but a few years before? Yes, and a like collapse of power befalls us
all, if life is prolonged. Those who most need the lesson will be least
touched by it; but let not the young glory in their strength, for it
soon fades away; and let them give the vigour of their early days to
God, that, when the years come in which they shall say, 'I have no
pleasure in them,' they may be able, like David, to look back over a
long life and say, with him, that the Lord 'hath redeemed my soul out
of all adversity.'

IV. We note the flash of fire which blazed up in the dying embers of
David's life. The old lion could be roused yet, and could strike when
roused. It took much to shake him out of his torpor. Nathan's plan of
bringing the double influence of Bathsheba and himself to bear was
successful beyond what he had hoped. All that they desired was a formal
declaration of Solomon as successor. They knew that the king's name was
still dear enough to all Israel to ensure that his wish would settle
the succession; and they would have been content to have left the
actual entrance of Solomon on office till after David's death, so sure
were they that his word was still a spell. But the old king, shaking
off his languor, as a lion does the drops from his mane, goes beyond
their wishes, and strikes one decisive blow as with a great paw, and no
second is needed. Without a moment's delay, he sends for the trusty
three, and bids them act on the instant. So down to Gihon goes the
procession, with the youthful prince seated on his father's mule, in
token of his accession, the trusty bodyguard round him with Benaiah at
their head, and the great prophet Nathan, side by side with the high-
priest Zadok, representing the divine sanction of the solemn act.

It would take stronger men than the spoiled Adonijah and his revellers
to upset anything which that determined company resolved to do. The lad
is anointed with the holy oil which Zadok as high-priest had the right
to bring forth from the temporary sanctuary. That signified and
effected the communication from above of qualifications for the kingly
office, and indicated divine appointment. Then out blared the trumpets,
and the glad people shouted 'God save the king!' What thoughts filled
the young heart of Solomon as he stood silent there his vision in
Gibeon may partly tell. But the distant roar of acclaim reached
Adonijah and his gang as they sat at their too hasty banquet.

They had begun at the wrong end. The feast should have closed, not
inaugurated, the dash for the crown. They who feast when they should
fight are likely to end their mirth with sorrow. David's one stroke was
enough. They were as sure as Nathan and Bathsheba had been that the
declaration of his wish would carry all Israel with it, and so they saw
that the game was up, and there was a rush for dear life. The empty
banqueting-hall proclaimed the collapse of a rebellion which had no
brains to guide it, and no reason to justify it. Let us learn that,
though 'the race is not always to the swift,' promptitude of action,
when we are sure of God's will, is usually a condition of success. Life
is too short, and the work to be done too pressing and great, to allow
of dawdling. 'I made haste, and delayed not, but made haste to keep Thy
commandments.' Let us learn, too, from Adonijah's fiasco, to see the
end of a thing before we commit ourselves to it, and to have the work
done first before we think of the feast.

Nathan and Bathsheba and David all believed that God had willed
Solomon's succeeding to the throne. No doubt, the reason for their
belief was the divine word to David through Nathan (2 Samuel vii. 12),
which designated a son not yet born as his successor, and therefore
excluded Adonijah as well as Absalom. But, while they believed this,
they did not therefore let Adonijah work his will, and leave God to
carry out His purposes. Their belief animated their action. They knew
what God willed, and therefore they worked strenuously to effect that
will. We may bewilder our brains with speculations about the relation
between God's sovereignty and man's freedom, but, when it comes to
practical work, we have to put out the best and most that is in us to
prevent God's will from being thwarted by rebellious men, and to ensure
its being carried into effect through our efforts, 'for we are God's
fellow-workers.'

A YOUNG MAN'S WISE CHOICE OP WISDOM

'In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God
said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed
unto Thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked
before Thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart
with Thee; and Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou
hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7. And
now, O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my
father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come
in. 8. And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast
chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for
multitude. 9. Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to
judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is
able to judge this Thy so great a people? 10. And the speech pleased
the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11. And God said unto him,
Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of
thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern
judgment; 12. Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have
given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto
thee. 13. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked,
both riches and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings
like unto thee all thy days. 14. And if thou wilt walk in My ways, to
keep My statutes and My commandments, as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days. 15. And Solomon awoke; and, behold, It
was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace
offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.'--1 KINGS iii. 5-15.

The new king was apparently some nineteen or twenty years old on his
accession. He stepped at once out of seclusion and idleness to bear the
whole weight of the kingdom. The glories of David's reign, his brother
Adonijah's pretensions to the crown, the smouldering hostility of
Saul's old partisans, made his position difficult and his throne
unsteady. No doubt, 'the weight of too much dignity' pressed on the
youth, and this dream found a point of origin in his waking thoughts.
God does not thus reveal Himself to men who seek Him not; and the offer
in the vision is but the repetition of what Solomon felt in many a
waking moment of meditation that God was saying to him, and the choice
he makes in it is the choice that he had already made. He who seeks
wisdom first is already wise.

I. Note the wide possibilities opened by the divine offer. Our
narrative brings that gracious offer into connection with Solomon's
lavish sacrifice before the Tabernacle at Gibeon. 'God loveth a
cheerful giver' and because these thousand burnt offerings meant
devotion and thankfulness, therefore He who lets no man be the poorer
for what he gives to Him, and is honoured most, not by our givings to,
but by our takings from Him, comes in the quiet night, and puts the key
of all His treasures into the young king's hands. In a very real sense
this divine voice is but the putting into words of the fact as to every
young life. The all but boundless possibilities before every young man
and woman give solemnity to their position, which they too often do not
recognise till youth is past. The future lies blank before them, ready
to receive what they choose to write on its page. Once written, it is
indelible. They are still free from the limitations of habit and
associations. They have still the capacity and the opportunity of
choice. There are limits, of course, but still it is scarcely
exaggeration to say that a man may become almost anything he likes, if
he strongly wills it when young, and sticks to his resolve. When the
liquid iron flows from the blast furnace, it may be run into any mould;
but it soon cools and hardens, and obstinately keeps its shape, in
spite of hammers.

If young men and women could but see the possibilities of their youth,
and the issues that hang on early choice, as clearly as they will see
them some day, there would be fewer wasted mornings of life and fewer
gloomy sunsets. But the misery is that so many do not choose at all,
but just let things slide, and allow themselves to be moulded by
whatever influence happens to be strongest. For one man who goes wrong
by deliberate choice, with open eyes, there are twenty who simply
drift. Unfortunately, there is more evil than good in the world; and if
a lad takes his colour from his surroundings, the chances are terribly
against his coming to anything high, noble, or pure. This world is no
place for a man who cannot say 'No.' If we are like the weeds in a
stream, and let it decide which way we shall point, we shall be sure to
point downwards. It would do much to secure the choice of the Good, if
there were a clear recognition by all young persons of the fact that
they have the choice to make, and are really making it unconsciously.
If they could be brought, like Solomon, to put their ruling wish into
plain words, many who are not ashamed to yield to unworthy desires
would be ashamed to speak them out baldly. Let each ask himself,
'Suppose that I had to say out what I want most, dare I avow before my
own conscience, to say nothing of God, what it is?

Looked at from a somewhat different point of view, God's offer to
Solomon presupposes God's knowledge and approval of his wishes. He does
not give blank cheques to those whom He cannot trust to fill them up
rightly. When James and John tried to commit Jesus to a blind promise
'that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask of Thee,' their
answer was a question as to what they wished. 'Delight thyself also in
the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' God loves
us too well to let us have _carte blanche_ unless our wills run
parallel with His. He is a foolish and cruel father who promises
compliance with all his child's unknown wishes. Not such is our
Father's loving discipline. It is to those who 'abide in Christ,' and
have Him abiding in them, moulding their longings and prayers, that the
great promise is sealed: 'Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you.'