Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Samuel 3:34

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

End of the line of Saul (3:2-4:12)

On becoming king of Judah, David followed the pattern of neighbouring kings by taking a number of wives (2-5). (For the more important people of David’s family and relatives see the appendix at the end of the commentary on 2 Samuel.) Meanwhile Abner became so powerful among Ishbosheth’s supporters, that Ishbosheth accused him of trying to gain the throne for himself. (According to an eastern custom, one way a person signified his claim to the throne was by claiming the king’s harem; see 12:8; 16:22.) Angry and frustrated, Abner saw that Israel could not be rebuilt on the weak foundation of Ishbosheth. He therefore decided to join forces with David, and in that way help strengthen and unify Israel (6-11).

David accepted Abner’s offer of support on the condition that Michal, David’s first wife and Saul’s daughter, be returned to him. Having Saul’s daughter as wife would further strengthen David’s claim to Saul’s throne (12-16; cf. 1 Samuel 18:20-27; 1 Samuel 25:44). Most of Israel’s leaders readily joined with Abner in transferring their allegiance to David. Only Saul’s tribe, Benjamin, needed a little extra persuasion (17-21).

Joab, however, was not pleased to see Abner join David’s army, for it meant he now had a rival for the post of commander-in-chief. Treacherously he killed Abner, giving the excuse that he was taking revenge on behalf of his dead brother. But David clearly considered it to be murder (22-30; cf. Numbers 35:19-28). David publicly showed his disapproval of Joab’s deed, and regretted that one of the nation’s finest leaders should die in such a manner. But David took no action against Joab (31-39; cf. 1 Kings 2:5-6,1 Kings 2:32).

With the death of Abner, Ishbosheth’s kingdom collapsed, Ishbosheth himself being murdered. The royal rule of Saul’s family had come to an end, as forecast by Samuel (see 1 Samuel 13:13-14). All that remained of the line of succession through Jonathan was one badly crippled child (4:1-8). David, as in the previous case of murder, showed his disapproval (for Ishbosheth had done him no harm), but this time he ordered the murderers to be executed. As always, he wanted to make it clear that he would not gain Saul’s throne through murder (9-12).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

DAVID, THE CHIEF MOURNER AT ABNER'S FUNERAL

"Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, "Rend your clothes, and gird on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner." And King David followed the bier. They buried Abner at Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented for Abner, saying, Should Abner die as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound, Your feet were not fettered; As one falls before the wicked you have fallen. And all the people wept again over him. Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, `God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else until the sun goes down.' And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as everything that the king did pleased all the people. So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's will to slay Abner the son of Ner. And the king said to his servants, `Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? And I am this day weak, though anointed king; these men, the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. The Lord requite the evildoer according to his wickedness.'"

Here David exerted himself mightily to dissociate himself from the crime of Abner's treacherous assassination; and Willis was of the opinion that, "The north Israelites were convinced of David's sincerity."John T. Willis, p. 300. However, we have some reservations in agreeing with this. There was some reason why it took an additional five years to unite all Israel under David's authority. And it seems to us, that had Abner lived, that objective might have been achieved much sooner. Some reluctance on the part of northern Israel must surely have followed the death of Abner.

"These sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me" Young noted that, "Although David dealt harshly with the Amalekites, put to death the Amalekite who claimed to have killed Saul, and ordered the execution of the men who murdered Ishbosheth, David failed to act in the case of the misdeeds of Joab. He washed his hands and left the family of Joab to the judgment of God."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 394.

"I am this day weak, though anointed king" This is the sad truth with many a man in high office. He is bound by the prejudices, vices, and ambitions of his subordinates, upon whom, in many instances, he is dependent for the continuation of his authority. So it was with David here. He could not afford to order the execution of Joab to whom the army most certainly was loyal. Furthermore, without the ability and loyalty of Joab, David's kingship might have been endangered. Only the providence of God could have brought out of this situation the glorious Israel that later developed.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Thy hands were not bound ... - This thought prepares the way for the solution; Abner had been treacherously murdered by wicked men.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 3

Now there was a long war [Verse, chapter three] between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David became stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul became weaker and weaker ( 2 Samuel 3:1 ).

Now David began to display a weakness that ultimately led him to that terrible sin for which he received so much notoriety. He began to add wives and concubines. So we have here a list of six sons that were born to him while in Hebron, and all six of them by different wives. So he just started taking wives and women into his harem, so to speak. Of course, his son Solomon carried this thing to ridiculous extremes, but David started multiplying wives.

Now that was one of the things that the kings were not to do according to the commandment of God in Deuteronomy. "When you set up kings, they're not to multiply wives," and so forth. But David started doing that, and it shows a weakness in David's flesh that ultimately led him to that great sin with Bathsheba.

Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah ( 2 Samuel 3:7 ),

Saul of course had done the same thing. He had wives and concubines. This one concubine Rizpah had borne Saul two sons.

So Ishbosheth said to Abner, Why have you gone into my father's concubine ( 2 Samuel 3:7 )?

Now this evidently was a false charge. It was a grievous charge. Actually, to go into another man's concubine, even though the other man was dead, it was symbolic of taking over his authority and his rule.

You remember later on in David's career when Absalom his son rebelled against him, and David fled from Jerusalem as Absalom was moving up from Hebron with his troops. David deserted from Jerusalem. When Absalom came into the city, he went into David's concubines there in the sight of all the people, went into where David's concubines were, which was equivalent to ascending to David's place and taking over David's place.

So the accusation, "You've gone into my father's concubine. Why did you do that?" was equivalent of saying, "What are you trying to do? Take over my father's place."

And Abner became [extremely upset with this false allegation, and he was] very angry with Ishbosheth, and he said, Am I a dog's head, which against Judah do shew kindness this day unto Saul thy father, and to his brothers and friends, and have I not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou chargest me today with a fault concerning this woman? ["And I've not delivered thee into the hand of David. Look what I've done for you and yet you're making this stupid allegation."] So do God to Abner, and more also, except, as the LORD hath sworn to David, even so I do to him ( 2 Samuel 3:8-9 );

Now notice, he knew that the Lord had sworn to David, that David should be the king. In spite of the fact that he knew that the Lord had sworn to David that he should be king, yet he had gone against that in establishing Ishbosheth upon the throne. So it was something that he knew was wrong and yet he did it.

[So I swear to David] to translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba ( 2 Samuel 3:10 ).

Now Dan is up in the furthermost northern part of Israel, it's where the Jordan River comes right out of the ground and begins its course southward. Beersheba was on the southern extreme, just on the border of the wilderness from which area south, it was just desert wilderness area. So it sort of circumcised the northern and southern borders of Israel from Dan to Beersheba.

And Ishbosheth could not answer Abner a word again, because he was afraid of him. So Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying also, Make a league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with you, to bring about all Israel to you. And he said, Well; I will make a league with you: but one thing I require of thee, and that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except you first bring me Michal Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face ( 2 Samuel 3:11-13 ).

Now Saul had of course done a dirty deal to David and he had promised David his daughter as a wife because of the killing of the Philistine. He promised, "Whoever kills the Philistine giant can marry my daughter." He gave his daughter Merab to another fellow, and then he heard that Michal was in love with David, he said, "Ah, she's a little vixen; she'll fix him, so I'll let him marry her." He was really planning to let her just be an irritant to David. Probably a self-willed, strong little gal, and he figured she'd really give him a bad time. So he allowed David to marry Michal, but when David fled from Saul's presence, then Saul gave Michal to another man, Phaltiel, and he became her husband. But this other guy was really crazy about her.

David sort of is not-a lot of David I admire, and there's some that I don't admire, and this is one part that I really don't admire. He almost is vindictive at this point. He's just wanting almost to just prove something, which he really doesn't need to prove. When Abner sent the message, "I'd like to make a league with you. I'll turn all Israel into your hands."

He said, "That's fine, I'll be glad to, but you can't see my face unless you bring Michal," who was his wife. Now as I pointed out, he had already taken a bunch of wives in Hebron, a bunch of concubines and wives, and it wasn't really because of some sexual deprivation or whatever that he was wanting this gal. It was just to prove some kind of an ego point or something.

So David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul's son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which was espoused to me for [a dowry that he had given to Saul for her.] And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish. And her husband [This is a sad scene because evidently he liked her.] and he went after her weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, Go, and return. And he returned. And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, You sought for David in times past to be the king over you: Now then do it: for the LORD has spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies. [So he knew that David had been anointed of God, and that God had declared that through David they would be delivered.] And Abner also spake in the ears of the tribe of Benjamin: and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and seemed good to all the house of Benjamin. So Abner came to David to Hebron, twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast. And Abner said to David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, and they will make a league with thee, that you may reign over all that your heart desires. And David sent Abner away; and he went in peace. And, behold, the servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a troop ( 2 Samuel 3:14-22 ),

Now at this time Joab was gone when Abner was down here, and there was this bitterness that was being harbored in Joab's heart against Abner because Abner killed his brother. So when Joab came back the guys said, "Did you know that Abner was here, and he made a league with David?" Joab said, "No, you sure?"

"Yeah."

So Joab sent men after Abner saying, [Come on back there are some further things to discuss.] So Abner returned, and Joab met him in the gate and said, I want to talk to you, and took him in to a place and ran him through the heart, through the fifth rib, [Which is where the position of your heart, so he smote him under the fifth rib.] and he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother. Now when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever for the blood of Abner the son of Ner: Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on his father's house ( 2 Samuel 3:26-29 );

Now here David actually curses Joab and his house for this deed, it's cruel, it's vindictive, it's wrong, and David acknowledges the wrongness of it. He curses the house of Joab. Horrible curse.

let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falls on the sword, or that lacks bread ( 2 Samuel 3:29 ).

Man, he really wiped them out. You know, "Let there be a plague upon his house. Let them be crippled, let them fall by the sword, let them become beggars, let them be destitute."

So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner, because he had slain their brother in Gibeon. And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And David followed the casket. And they buried Abner there in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all of the people wept with him. And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so you fell. And all the people wept again over him ( 2 Samuel 3:30-34 ).

So David is giving a public demonstration of his disapproval of Joab's deeds. So that everyone knew that David disapproved of the thing that Joab did. Cursing Joab and Joab's house for it, and putting on a big demonstration at the funeral, and lamenting over the death of Abner.

And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, till the sun goes down. And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them: and whatsoever the king did pleased all the people ( 2 Samuel 3:35-36 ).

Now David was behaving himself very wisely, and allowing God to work, to establish the kingdom with him. In other words, though he knew that he had been anointed by God to be king over Israel, he figured, "If God anointed me king, and God wants me to be king, God is able to work out the circumstances." So David isn't in there trying to work things out for himself. He's letting God take care of all of these things. He's behaving himself very wisely and prudently and the people are noticing it, and are really being attracted and drawn to David because he shows that he does have a heart, and he does desire the right thing. He's not really out promoting himself.

Now in one of the Psalms we are told, "Promotion comes not from the east or the west, but promotion comes from the Lord"( Psalms 75:6 ). David really believed that. He wasn't out trying to exalt himself, and promote himself; he was just waiting for God to do it.

That's an important lesson. It would be good if each of us would follow the same thing. It seems that so many people are out to hype themselves, and to hype their programs. The world is filled with big hypes, everybody trying to hype everybody else. But David was not seeking to promote himself. He was just waiting upon God and letting the things fall, and letting God do it. Having that kind of confidence in God, "If this is what God wants, this is what God is able to bring to pass."

How beautiful it is to have a commitment to the purposes of God knowing that if I just stay open and yielded, God is able to work His purposes out in my life, and not try to push things, or press things, because I know that this is what God wants. I know that this is what's right. So I get in and I push and press. I can actually push myself ahead of God and out of the will of God. It is better if I just kick back, "All right God, if that's what You want, I'm open to it, I'm ready for it, but I'm gonna let You work the thing out." It is so much better when God does the promotion.

I look at what God has done here, without any full-page ads in the paper, and radio ads, and the big hypes and all. Look what God has done. It's absolutely phenomenal. Years ago when we were still over in the other church, God was pouring out His Spirit and blessing us. So many at that time of the hippie kids were coming in and receiving Christ. It was sort of a novelty, as far as the news media was concerned. Of course, CBS had been down and done a story, and Look Magazine had done a story, and there had been a lot of-Reader's Digest did a story, and there was just a lot of publicity going out, BBC, the German broadcasting system, magazines in Europe, magazines in South America, everybody.

In fact I was in Israel a couple of weeks ago and a French man came up to me, and he said, "You wouldn't happen to be Chuck Smith would you?"

I said, "Yes."

And he said, "Oh praise the Lord. Oh brother, this is exciting." He said, "I read about you ten years ago in a magazine in France, and I saw your picture. I thought I recognized you."

I thought, "All right. Ten years ago and you still recognize me."

So all of this publicity and we weren't out beating bushes, or trying to, you know, it was there and of course people were coming then to see the "hippie church," and the "Jesus people," and all of that.

Well, I read in Time magazine, they had a big write up on Blacks Beach down in San Diego. Twenty kids stripped to the buff and went swimming. It made this big article in Time of these young people in California, the drug scene, and nude bathing and all this kind of stuff, nude public bathing and the whole thing. It was a big splash because there were twenty kids down at Blacks Beach in San Diego that swam in the buff. Well it so happened that we were having a baptismal coming up at Del Mar. There were about a thousand kids to be baptized. I thought to myself, I ought to call the religion editor of Time magazine, and tell him that other things are happening in the beaches of California than just a few kids swimming in the nude. That's some exciting thing. I mean, if you got twenty kids swimming in the nude, but you've got a thousand kids who are getting baptized, committing their lives to Jesus Christ. If twenty kids swimming in the nude were worthy, the article in Time and all, space and Time, surely ought to be worthy a little article in Time magazine also. Sort of as a contrast kind of an article.

As I was driving home, I was thinking about, "Well, I just need to call the religion editor of Time Magazine and let him know what's going on because he could maybe send a reporter out, and cover the story, and it would just make a good, good story for Time." As I was thinking this, driving home, the Lord spoke to my heart, and He said, "Who has been your publicity agent up till now?"

I said, "Well, You have Lord."

He said, "Aren't you satisfied with the job that I'm doing? You've been in Look Magazine, you've been in Reader's Digest, you've been on CBS, and NBC. Aren't' you satisfied with the job I'm doing?"

I said, "Oh Lord, forgive me. How stupid of me of thinking to call somebody to try to get some publicity to what is happening here." I just repented and asked the Lord to forgive me for even thinking of trying to publicize what God was doing.

I got home and there was a stranger in my living room. It was rather unusual in those days. So my wife said, "Honey this fellow is a reporter from Time Magazine and he's been sent out here to do a story on the Jesus people."

So the fellow introduced himself, shook hands, he said, "Do you have anything like a baptism or something coming up that we could-"

I said, "Oh Lord, You're just always a step or two ahead." You don't have to get out and hype something. You don't have to get out and promote, and you don't have to get out and spend a lot of God's dollars in advertising. God is able to do His work. How good it is for us to rest in God.

Now when a person strives to attain a goal, and you've achieved and attained your goal by great strivings, big hypes, publicities, and all this kind of stuff, when you strive to attain, then you must strive to maintain. You got this big ball rolling, but now you've got to keep pushing to keep the thing rolling. It's a constant striving, constant effort, and the ministers are just dropping off with heart attacks, and everything else, because so much push, so much pressure. But when you don't strive to attain, then you don't have to strive to maintain. You can just kick back, go to Hawaii once in a while. God's gonna keep the thing you know, if He wants to, and if He doesn't then all of our efforts isn't gonna keep it anyhow.

The work of the Lord, the purposes of God, He is fully able to accomplish. David had this as a deep consciousness. "God is able to accomplish His purposes, I don't have to get in and push, I don't have to get in and strive, God's able to do it." He was using real wisdom just letting the things fall as God directed, rather than getting in and striving. Thus, we can learn much from David's example in these things. So everything that David did was pleasing the king. He was behaving himself properly.

And all of the people throughout all of Israel understood that it wasn't David's desire to destroy Abner. And the king said to his servants, [These are beautiful words.] Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel? And I am this day weak, though I'm the king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah they're too much for me: may the Lord reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness ( 2 Samuel 3:37-39 ).

So Joab and his brother Abishai, David said, "They're just too much for me, may God take care of them." Well, David took care of them later. We'll get to that as we move on in Samuel. David got Joab ultimately. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. David’s acceptance of Abner 3:6-39

Abner was the strong man in Israel; Ish-bosheth was simply a figurehead (2 Samuel 3:11). Abner’s loyalty to the house of Saul is clear from his actions so far. However there was conflict between Ish-bosheth and Abner. In the ancient Near East the king’s concubines were his means for raising up heirs if the queen could not bear children, or even if she could. Ish-bosheth regarded Abner’s act as a sign of disloyalty. He seemed to be trying to have an heir by a royal concubine who could have, according to custom, become king one day (cf. 2 Samuel 16:22; 1 Kings 2:22). We do not know whether this was Abner’s plan or not. He implied denial of that motive but not the act. In any case, this incident resulted in Abner shifting his support from Ish-bosheth to David. Perhaps it was the last straw for Abner, who had recently suffered a devastating defeat by David’s men, and who must have seen that he could not win. "A dog’s head" (2 Samuel 3:8) seems to mean a worthless dog (cf. 2 Kings 6:25).

"It was the exclusive right of the successor to the throne to cohabit with the concubine of the deceased king, who came down to him as part of the property which he inherited [according to ancient Near Eastern custom, not according to the Mosaic Law]." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, pp. 301-2.]

"It may be that Abner, as de facto ruler of all Israel, offered David his allegiance in exchange for the position of sar saba’ [commander of the army], the equivalent of his office in Eshbaal’s army and the post currently held by Joab. 2 Samuel 3:12 suggests something of the sort when it speaks of a personal deal between these two men." [Note: James Vanderkam, "Davidic Complicity in the Deaths of Abner and Eshbaal: A Historical and Redactional Study," Journal of Biblical Literature 99:4 (1980):531-32.]

The fact that Michal was Saul’s daughter was clearly part of the reason David requested her (2 Samuel 3:13). Reunion with her would have tied David in to Saul’s house and made him more acceptable to the northern tribes.

"By making her his queen he would divide the loyalties of citizens in the north: did loyalty to Saul’s memory mean that they should be the subjects of his son, Ish-bosheth, or of his daughter? By such means David could weaken his opponent without killing a single Israelite soldier and without causing any resentment at all." [Note: David F. Payne, I & II Samuel, pp. 168-69.]

It was contrary to God’s will for David to remarry Michal (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). God graciously blessed David in spite of his disobedience (2 Samuel 3:2-5; 2 Samuel 3:12-16), but this sin undoubtedly weakened David.

Abner lobbied for David with Israel’s leading men (2 Samuel 3:17) on the basis that they had previously favored David. Perhaps Abner and Ish-bosheth had blocked their efforts. He also did so because David was the Lord’s anointed king (2 Samuel 3:18). The Benjamites needed special courting since Saul was a Benjamite. Abner may have expected an appointment in David’s administration for his efforts.

There were many reasons why Joab disliked Abner. He hated him because he was the rival commander-in-chief and because he evidently had a superior character in some respects (cf. 2 Samuel 3:38). He also opposed Abner because he was a threat to Joab’s career advancement, if the alliance went through. Mostly Joab opposed Abner because Abner had killed his brother, Asahel, in battle (2 Samuel 3:30). Joab murdered Abner in a city of refuge, Hebron, where God had prohibited the taking of revenge (Numbers 35:22-25). Abner may have been too sure of his own importance in David’s eyes to suspect that one of David’s officers would dare to attack him. David was very careful to let everyone know that Abner’s murder was Joab’s doing and not his. If it had been David’s doing, he would have lost the support of the northern tribes.

"Rarely in the Old Testament has a narrator gone to such lengths, as has the writer of this passage, to preserve the good name of one of his characters. In one way and another, he assures us that neither David’s heart nor his hand was set against Abner: Joab acted on his own account." [Note: Gordon, pp. 216-17.]

Why did David not execute or at least punish Joab? The writer did not record the answer. However, we notice that David was characteristically too slow to discipline members of his own family when they deserved it (e.g., Joab, Ammon, and Absalom). Some interpreters of the Hebrew text believe what David wished on Joab’s descendants was that they would continually experience diseases, violent death, and poverty. This is what God promised to bring on those of His people who despised His will (cf. Deuteronomy 21:1-9). One scholar believed David meant that Joab would always count among his descendants men fit only for the occupations of women, since David referred to one "who takes hold of a distaff" (i.e., a spindle). [Note: S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, p. 251.] Another writer suggested that David prayed that Joab’s household would never be without a corvée-worker, namely, a person forced to work without pay. [Note: Steven Holloway, "Distaff, Crutch or Chain Gang: The Curse of the House of Joab in 2 Samuel III 29," Vetus Testamentum 37:3 (July 1987):370-75.]

"We need not doubt David’s genuine respect for Abner, but the funeral is also a media event. It is like a U.S. president with the returned body of a soldier from an unauthorized war. The president must lead national mourning, which is genuine, but at the same time must stage a media event designed to legitimate policy." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 230.]

For the first time the writer referred to David as "King David" (2 Samuel 3:31). The writer had referred to David as the king previously (2 Samuel 2:4; 2 Samuel 2:7; 2 Samuel 2:11; 2 Samuel 3:17; 2 Samuel 3:21-24), but he never used the title "King David." Now that the threat of the north had died with Abner, David’s throne was secure enough to warrant this title.

The description of Abner as "a prince and a great man" who had fallen that day in Israel (2 Samuel 3:38) has inspired eulogizers in funerals for generations. David’s good public relations were essential for support, but they would not avert divine discipline for his disobedience.

"Thenius (156) once noted that it is very surprising that David should openly confess his own weakness and fear of Joab and Abishai, yet this may be a possible explanation as to why David as king and judge failed to punish Joab. Alternatively, one could argue that in some way or other Joab’s deed had some justification: his brother’s blood had been shed and the killer was known. Even at a later time a manslayer could be killed by the avenger of blood if he did not reach the city of refuge in time (see Deuteronomy 19:6). Only after David’s death was Joab’s deed interpreted (for political reasons?) as crime worthy of death." [Note: Anderson, p. 64. His reference is to O. Thenius, Die Bücher Samuels, p. 156.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Thy hands [were] not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters,.... As malefactors are when they are taken up for any crime, and especially when proved upon them, and condemned for it, and brought forth to be executed. This was not his case, and had he been aware of the design against him, as his hands and feet were at liberty, he might have defended himself; or if he found he had too many to deal with, might have made use of his feet and fled:

as a man falleth before wicked men, [so] fellest thou; as a man being before bloodthirsty and deceitful men, falls before them, through treachery and deceit, privately and unawares, so fell Abner before Joab and Abishai; this David said in the presence of Joab, and before all the people, to declare the plain fact how it was, to express his detestation of it, and to show he had no hand in it; and Joab must be an hardened creature to stand at the grave of Abner, and hear all this, and not be affected with it:

and all the people wept again over him; over Abner, being laid in his grave; they had wept before, but hearing this funeral oration delivered by the king in such moving language, and in such a mournful tone, it drew tears afresh from them.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      22 And, behold, the servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a troop, and brought in a great spoil with them: but Abner was not with David in Hebron; for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.   23 When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace.   24 Then Joab came to the king, and said, What hast thou done? behold, Abner came unto thee; why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone?   25 Thou knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest.   26 And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, which brought him again from the well of Sirah: but David knew it not.   27 And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.   28 And afterward when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner:   29 Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread.   30 So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner, because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.   31 And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier.   32 And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept.   33 And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth?   34 Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him.   35 And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down.   36 And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.   37 For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the son of Ner.   38 And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?   39 And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.

      We have here an account of the murder of Abner by Joab, and David's deep resentment of it.

      I. Joab very insolently fell foul upon David for treating with Abner. He happened to be abroad upon service when Abner was with David, pursuing a troop, either of Philistines or of Saul's party; but, upon his return, he was informed that Abner was just gone (2 Samuel 3:22; 2 Samuel 3:23), and that a great many kind things had passed between David and him. He had all the reason in the world to be satisfied of David's prudence and to acquiesce in the measures he took, knowing him to be a wise and good man himself and under a divine conduct in all his affairs; and yet, as if he had the same sway in David's cause that Abner had in Ish-bosheth's, he chides David, and reproaches him to his face as impolitic (2 Samuel 3:24; 2 Samuel 3:25): What hast thou done? As if David were accountable to him for what he did: "Why hast thou sent him away, when thou mightest have made him a prisoner? He came as a spy, and will certainly betray thee." I know not whether to wonder more that Joab had impudence enough to give such an affront to his prince or that David had patience enough to take it. He does, in effect, call David a fool when he tells him he knew Abner came to deceive him and yet he trusted him. We find no answer that David gave him, not because he feared him, as Ish-bosheth did Abner (2 Samuel 3:11; 2 Samuel 3:11), but because he despised him, or because Joab had not so much good manners as to stay for an answer.

      II. He very treacherously sent for Abner back, and, under colour of a private conference with him, barbarously killed him with his own hand. That he made use of David's name, under pretence of giving him some further instructions, is intimated in that, but David knew it not,2 Samuel 3:26; 2 Samuel 3:26. Abner, designing no harm, feared none, but very innocently returned to Hebron, and, when he found Joab waiting for him at the gate, turned aside with him to speak with him privately, forgetting what he himself had said when he slew Asahel, How shall I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? (2 Samuel 2:22; 2 Samuel 2:22), and there Joab murdered him (2 Samuel 3:27; 2 Samuel 3:27), and it is intimated (2 Samuel 3:30; 2 Samuel 3:30) that Abishai was privy to the design, and was aiding and abetting, and would have come in to his brother's assistance if there had been occasion; he is therefore charged as an accessary: Joab and Abishai slew Abner, though perhaps he only knew it who is privy to the thoughts and intents of men's hearts. Now in this, 1. It is certain that the Lord was righteous. Abner had maliciously, and against the convictions of his conscience, opposed David. He had now basely deserted Ish-bosheth, and betrayed him, under pretence of regard to God and Israel, but really from a principle of pride, and revenge, and impatience of control. God will not therefore use so bad a man, though David might, in so good a work as the uniting of Israel. Judgments are prepared for such scorners as Abner was. But, 2. It is as certain that Joab was unrighteous, and, in what he did, did wickedly. David was a man after God's own heart, but could not have those about him, no, not in places of the greatest trust, after his own heart. Many a good prince, and a good master, has been forced to employ bad men. (1.) Even the pretence for doing this was very unjust. Abner had indeed slain his brother Asahel, and Joab and Abishai pretended herein to be the avengers of his blood (2 Samuel 3:27; 2 Samuel 3:30); but Abner slew Asahel in an open war, wherein Abner indeed had given the challenge, but Joab himself had accepted it and had slain many of Abner's friends. He did it likewise in his own defence, and not till he had given him fair warning (which he would not take), and he did it with reluctancy; but Joab here shed the blood of war in peace,1 Kings 2:5. (2.) That which we have reason to think was at the bottom of Joab's enmity to Abner made it much worse. Joab was now general of David's forces; but, if Abner should come into his interest, he would possibly be preferred before him, being a senior officer, and more experienced in the art of war. This Joab was jealous of, and could better bear the guilt of blood than the thoughts of a rival. (3.) He did it treacherously, and under pretence of speaking peaceably to him, Deuteronomy 27:24. Had he challenged him, he would have done like a soldier; but to assassinate him was done villainously and like a coward. His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords,Psalms 55:21. Thus he basely slew Amasa, 2 Samuel 20:9; 2 Samuel 20:9. (4.) The doing of it was a great affront and injury to David, who was now in treaty with Abner, as Joab knew. Abner was now actually in his master's service, so that, through his side, he struck at David himself. (5.) It was a great aggravation of the murder that he did it in the gate, openly and avowedly, as one that was not ashamed, nor could blush. The gate was the place of judgment and the place of concourse, to that he did it in defiance of justice, both the just sentence of the magistrates and the just resentment of the crowd, as one that neither feared God nor regarded men, but thought himself above all control: and Hebron was a Levites' city and a city of refuge.

      III. David laid deeply to heart and in many ways expressed his detestation of this execrable villany.

      1. He washed his hands from the guilt of Abner's blood. Lest any should suspect that Joab had some secret intimation from David to do as he did (and the rather because he went so long unpunished), he here solemnly appeals to God concerning his innocency: I and my kingdom are guiltless (and my kingdom is so because I am so) before the Lord for ever,2 Samuel 3:28; 2 Samuel 3:28. It is a comfort to be able to say, when any bad thing is done, that we had no hand in it. We have not shed this blood,Deuteronomy 21:7. However we may be censured or suspected, our hearts shall not reproach us.

      2. He entailed the curse for it upon Joab and his family (2 Samuel 3:29; 2 Samuel 3:29): "Let it rest on the head of Joab. Let the blood cry against him, and let divine vengeance follow him. Let the iniquity be visited upon his children and children's children, in some hereditary disease or other. The longer the punishment is delayed, the longer let it last when it shall come. Let his posterity be stigmatized, blemished with an issue or a leprosy, which will shut them out from society; let them be beggars, or cripples, or come to some untimely end, that it may be said, He is one of Joab's race." This intimates that the guilt of blood brings a curse upon families; if men do not avenge it, God will, and will lay up the iniquity for the children. But methinks a resolute punishment of the murderer himself would better have become David than this passionate imprecation of God's judgments upon his posterity.

      3. He called upon all about him, even Joab himself, to lament the death of Abner (2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 3:31): Rend your clothes and mourn before Abner, that is, before the hearse of Abner, as Abraham is said to mourn before his dead (Genesis 23:2; Genesis 23:3), and he gives a reason why they should attend his funeral with sincere and solemn mourning (2 Samuel 3:38; 2 Samuel 3:38), because there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel. His alliance to Saul, his place as general, his interest, and the great services he had formerly done, were enough to denominate him a prince and a great man. When he could not call him a saint or a good man, he said nothing of that, but what was true he gave him the praise of, though he had been his enemy, that he was a prince and a great man. "Such a man has fallen in Israel, and fallen this day, just when he was doing the best deed he ever did in his life, this day, when he was likely to be so serviceable to the public peace and welfare and could so ill be spared." (1.) Let them all lament it. The humbling change death puts all men under is to be lamented, especially as affecting princes and great men. Alas! alas! (see Revelation 18:10) how mean, how little, are those made by death who made themselves the terror of the mighty in the land of the living! But we are especially obliged to lament the fall of useful men in the midst of their usefulness and when there is most need of them. A public loss must be every man's grief, for every man shares in it. Thus David took care that honour should be done to the memory of a man of merit, to animate others. (2.) Let Joab, in a particular manner, lament it, which he has less heart but more reason to do than any of them. If he could be brought to do it sincerely, it would be an expression of repentance for his sin in slaying him. If he did it in show only, as it is likely he did, yet it was a sort of penance imposed upon him, and a present commutation of the punishment. If he do not as yet expiate the murder with his blood, let him do something towards it with tears. This, perhaps, Joab submitted to with no great reluctancy, now he had gained his point. Now that he is on the bier, no matter in what pomp he lies. Sit divus, modo non sit vivus--Let him be canonized, so that he be but killed.

      4. David himself followed the corpse as chief mourner, and made a funeral oration at the grave. He attended the bier (2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 3:31) and wept at the grave,2 Samuel 3:32; 2 Samuel 3:32. Though Abner had been his enemy, and might possibly have proved no very firm friend, yet because he had been a man of bravery in the field, and might have done great service in the public counsels at this critical juncture, all former quarrels are forgotten and David is a true mourner for his fall. What he said over the grave fetched fresh floods of tears from the eyes of all that were present, when they thought they had already paid the debt in full (2 Samuel 3:33; 2 Samuel 3:34): Died Abner as a fool dieth? (1.) He speaks as one vexed that Abner was fooled out of his life, that so great a man as he, so famed for conduct and courage, should be imposed upon by a colour of friendship, slain by surprise, and so die as a fool dies. The wisest and stoutest of men have no fence against treachery. To see Abner, who thought himself the main hinge on which the great affairs of Israel turned, so considerable as himself to be able to turn the scale of a trembling government, his head full of great projects and great prospects, to see him made a fool of by a base rival, and falling on a sudden a sacrifice to his ambition and jealousy--this stains the pride of all glory, and should put one out of conceit with worldly grandeur. Put not your trust in princes,Psalms 146:3; Psalms 146:4. And let us therefore make that sure which we cannot be fooled out of. A man may have his life, and all that is dear to him, taken from him, and not be able to prevent it with all his wisdom, care, and integrity; but there is that which no thief can break through to steal. See here how much more we are beholden to God's providence than to our own prudence for the continuance of our lives and comforts. Were it not for the hold God has of the consciences of bad men, how soon would the weak and innocent become an easy prey to the strong and merciless and the wisest die as fools! Or, (2.) He speaks as one boasting that Abner did not fool himself out of his life: "Died Abner as a fool dies? No, he did not, not as a criminal, a traitor or felon, that forfeits his life into the hands of public justice; his hands were not pinioned, nor his feet fettered, as those of malefactors are: Abner falls not before just men, by a judicial sentence; but as a man, an innocent man, falleth before wicked men, thieves and robbers, so fellest thou." Died Abner as Nabal died? so the LXX. reads it. Nabal died as he lived, like himself, like a sot; but Abner's fate was such as might have been the fate of the wisest and best man in the world. Abner did not throw away his life as Asahel did, who wilfully ran upon the spear, after fair warning, but he was struck by surprise. Note, It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as those do that in any way shorten their own days, and much more those that make no provision for another world.

      5. He fasted all that day, and would by no means be persuaded to eat any thing till night, 2 Samuel 3:35; 2 Samuel 3:35. It was then the custom of great mourners to refrain for the time from bodily refreshments, as 2 Samuel 1:12; 1 Samuel 31:13. How incongruous is it then to turn the house of mourning into a house of feasting! This respect which David paid to Abner was very pleasing to the people and satisfied them that he was not, in the least, accessory to the murder (2 Samuel 3:36; 2 Samuel 3:37), of which he was solicitous to avoid the suspicion, lest Joab's villany should make him odious, as that of Simeon and Levi did Jacob, Genesis 34:30. On this occasion it is said, Whatever the king did pleased all the people. This intimates, (1.) His good affection to them. He studied to please them in every thing and carefully avoided what might be disobliging. (2.) Their good opinion of him. They thought every thing he did well done. Such a mutual willingness to please, and easiness to be pleased, will make every relation comfortable.

      6. He bewailed it that he could not with safety do justice on the murderers, 2 Samuel 3:30; 2 Samuel 3:30. He was weak, his kingdom was newly planted, and a little shake would overthrow it. Joab's family had a great interest, were bold and daring, and to make them his enemies now might be of bad consequence. These sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him, too big for the law to take hold of; and therefore, though by man, by the magistrate, the blood of a murderer should be shed (Genesis 9:6), David bears the sword in vain, and contents himself, as a private person, to leave them to the judgment of God: The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. Now this is a diminution, (1.) To David's greatness. He is anointed king, and yet is kept in awe by his own subjects, and some of them are too hard for him. Who would be fond of power when a man may have the name of it, and must be accountable for it, and yet be hampered in the use of it? (2.) To David's goodness. He ought to have done his duty, and trusted God with the issue. Fiat justitia, ruat coelum--Let justice be done, though the heavens should fall asunder. If the law had had its course against Joab, perhaps the murder of Ishbosheth, Amnon, and others, would have been prevented. It was carnal policy and cruel pity that spared Joab. Righteousness supports the throne and will never shake it. Yet it was only a reprieve that David gave to Joab; on his death-bed he left it to Solomon (who could the better wield the sword of justice because he had no occasion to draw the sword of war) to avenge the blood of Abner. Evil pursues sinners, and will overtake them at last. David preferred Abner's son Jaasiel, 1 Chronicles 27:21.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

We have seen the sorrowful circumstances out of which arose the first desire to have a king in Israel, and the remarkable fact that, although it was a sin, God nevertheless did not put the people back into the condition in which they had been before they sought in this to be like the nations, but gave them a king after His own heart, as far as that could be, till He comes whose right it is. Now this is exceedingly instructive to my own mind, and the rather as in fact it is a principle in the dealings of God. So far is man's unfaithfulness from hindering God, that it only furnishes Him fresh occasion to glorify Himself, by proving and making known His supremacy over evil, and this invariably too by taking up the results of sin in order to make them the opening for the display of the resources of His wisdom and goodness. It was sin to have asked a king, but it was grace on God's part to give it.

But God was looking onward to a better than David; and now we have seen that, even after David was designated to the kingdom and anointed for it, God did not set aside at once the miserable consequences of man's choice. He allows the whole thing to resolve itself responsibly before the eyes of all men. He permits Israel to see, on the one hand, the ruin which the king of their own choice had brought in; but He lets them see, on the other hand, the weakness of the one He chose from among them to establish the kingdom according to His mind, a type, and only a type, of the good and enduring things to come.

There never was greater confusion than towards the end of 1 Samuel David among the Philistines seeking to fight Israel, Saul and Jonathan utterly worsted at last by the Philistines who slay them. What an awful issue for the king, with his sons, after consulting through a witch the dead prophet whom he had failed to heed whilst he was alive! Such was the fate of Saul and his house: what of the people? Whether they were on David's side or on Saul's, they proved altogether unequal to meet the difficulty, Saul's men fleeing before the enemy, and David's men ready to stone the true anointed of Jehovah! Had there ever been such a group of helpless ruin? And this was in the midst of God's people, where indeed, if things are according to God, they are the only things sweet on earth; if not so, wonder not if nowhere they look so deplorably ill. Nevertheless God's firm purpose stands; and now we are about to read in the second Book of Samuel how from this wretchedly low estate God raises up the man that He had chosen from the sheep-cotes to feed Israel like a flock, until he is established firmly by grace in Zion. It will be made plain, too plain, that he was not the true Beloved, but at best only a shadow of Him that was coming. Nevertheless, when it was painfully proved that David was but a sinful man, the bright promise of a better even of the Messiah shines through the dark patches of his history.

Let me take this opportunity, before passing on, of saying a little on the great central idea of these two Books. God's intention was to set up a king according to His own mind. It was an entirely new place; but even though those who were called of God to fill that place for the time were altogether short of what was in the divine purpose, one remarkable witness of Christ there was from the first attached to the kingly place in Israel: the priest was to fall into a secondary place, and the king be henceforth the immediate link between God and the people. We have already seen that in Saul's case this entirely failed; for God forsook him, when morally obliged to become the enemy of one who, despising His will and word, at last betook himself to the power of evil to enlighten and sustain him when consciously forsaken of God. There we behold complete failure; immediately after which he and his perish.

The king's place in Israel for all that was of no less, but rather of the deepest, interest and importance, and for this simple reason: had he gone right, all would have been right for and with the people. I am not at all speaking about the Israelites individually viewed. It is impossible that it should be well with any soul for eternity who is not right with God for himself. There must be individual and immediate links with God. There is nothing stable short of life in the soul. But we are speaking now, not of life, nor of eternity, but of the kingdom on earth; and I say that the prime idea, the chief central thought of that kingdom, was this and it is a grand one that if the one man, the king, had only stood firm and right with God, he had been always the means of blessing unfailingly and fully for the people of God. Is it to be supposed that God did not know what sort of stuff kings were? He knew right well what the ways would be, not merely of Saul, but of David. He knew perfectly of course what David's sons would come to. How comes it then that God sees fit to introduce such a principle as this, that the destiny of the people should turn on one person, even the king; that on his fidelity in glorifying God, on his standing true to Jehovah's name, should depend the well-being of Israel? Had the king of Israel been faithful in his office before God, there had always been an unfailing supply of blessing for the children of Israel as a people. It is no question simply now of his being a believer, or therefore of eternal consequences; but how are we to account for his astonishing public place in the early ways of God? Because the Holy Ghost is even here always thinking of Christ. When He comes, it will be so. And God, who is looking onward to this, had before His mind the one person who is the pivot on which turns our blessing, not only for eternity, but also for His people and all the earth in time.

This then is the great truth which is shadowed out by the throne of Jehovah in the midst of Israel; and this we shall see illustrated yet more in the Second Book of Samuel than in the first. In the first negatively we have seen the idea coming to a close, because it was a king that Israel chose according to their own heart, although even there God held the reins, as He always does. We have seen the type of the true king in anything but a kingly place the outcast most hated and feared by the king who then was in all the group of outcasts who surrounded him; for David was beyond doubt the one who, if he cast a halo around all, continually brought them all into danger. Such is the case where Satan governs, even though there may be the form of the kingdom of God It was exactly so under Saul. All outward order was around him. And this is the more striking, because that outward order was never to be disrespected.

Evil as Saul might be, and the path of faith assuredly far away from him, for all that the people that were most severed from Saul and most attached to the person of David were those that most felt for Saul and Jonathan when they fell. We see it in David himself. Nor was it the feeling of David exclusively, but shared by those that surrounded him; for they were but the reflex of his own mind and heart. The fall of king Saul in David's circle was a sorrow, and to himself a genuine one, as the Amalekite learnt to his cost; for he, judging simply from the feelings of the natural man, supposed that more welcome news could not be to the man designated for the kingdom. Nor was this unknown. It was evident that even the enemy knew it. It was everywhere diffused. The unhappy king spread the tale of his own fear and shame, of his own murderous hatred and jealousy of David wherever he went. And who was there in Israel that did not know it? And who was there out of Israel too, round about among the Amalekites or the Moabites or any others, who did not know that David was the one marked out for the throne, and that Saul, for this very reason, because he knew that his own house would fail before that of David, could not forgive such a loss and affront. But here we have the genuine feeling of the heart, as I have said not only of David, but of those who shared his sympathies and his thoughts not an expression of human satisfaction but of horror paid to the man that dared to lift up his hand against Jehovah's anointed. On his own showing therefore he fell, and fell too judicially under David's orders.

Nor was this by any means all. On the occasion the Spirit of God gives us one of. the most touching lamentations that ever broke from the heart of man. I am not forgetting, that God inspired it; but let us remember too that it was the genuine effusion of his affection. Faith can afford to be generous in a way and degree that puts the finest feelings of nature to the blush.

But the death of Saul and Jonathan by no means settled the question of David's succession to the throne. Nor does David for his part trouble himself about the issue. He walks in faith still. (2 Samuel 2:1-32) Instead of taking up measures of policy or violence with a view to the throne, he enquires of Jehovah, saying, "Shall I go up unto any of the cities of Judah?" This is admirable. He well knew that he was anointed, but he will not take a step without Jehovah. Any other would have had himself introduced at once with a flourish of trumpets. David could wait, and so much the more because he was anointed of Jehovah. He knew right well that Jehovah's purpose could not fail. For that reason he could afford to be quiet. If indeed we believe, beloved brethren, then do we with patience wait for it: the hope that we have is well worth the while. "And Jehovah said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up?" It was not merely the general fact, but he was led in the way in each particular part as well as in the main. And Jehovah directs him to Hebron, whither he goes. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

And this furnishes opportunity for another truth of some importance: even our blessed Lord Jesus will not take the entire kingdom all at once. There are many persons who suppose that, when the Lord returns, the fresh work of establishing Israel and of Himself as the true Christ in the rights of David's throne will be all brought about in a moment. This is a mistake. He has all rights as well as all power; but the Lord Jesus, divine person though He be, will act for some time transitionally after He returns. Before He returns, when He has received the heavenly saints to Himself, there will be a transition during which He will occupy Himself among other things in getting ready a remnant from the Jews. He will deal with their consciences as well as their affections; He will produce an earnest desire, not in "the many" but in the few, to hail Him as coming in the name of Jehovah. But after this another transition will follow, which is even less generally seen by those who occupy themselves with questions of the prophetic word, the transition that fills up the gap between the destruction of the antichrist, when the Lord Jesus shines from heaven and the judgment He will execute when acting from Zion against the leader of the nations of the world, more particularly in its north-eastern quarters where the masses of population are found, above all against the one called in scripture Gog, prince of Rosh. This is a considerable time after the destruction of antichrist. Does scripture tell us nothing of what the Lord Jesus will be doing then? There will be a settlement of all morally, according to God, in the hearts of Israel Judah first, and the ten tribes afterwards. Just as we find in the case of David in the second Book of Samuel. He does not become king over all Israel at once; and even when he does, there is still a work of putting down adversaries among the neighbouring nations.

It is altogether a mistake to suppose that the Lord Jesus will solve every question by a single decisive blow inflicted on His adversaries in the camp. It is probable that this is the idea that commonly prevails among the mass of those persons who look for the Lord Jesus; but it is not sound, because it is not scriptural. It is a human inference drawn from the fact of His divine glory. It is supposed that, because He is God, because He knows all the wickedness of every individual, therefore every wicked one is consumed in an instant; but these are not the ways of God. He could do so if He pleased, but as the rule He has never acted thus; and He will not do so at the time to which we are now referring.

And hence it is that this book is in my judgment a very full and exact type in its grand features, without straining any part of it, or pretending that everything has an answer in the circumstances of that day. At any rate it is far from me to set up for having the competency, if indeed any man could have it, to run the analogy with a closeness which is not warranted by the direct instructions of the Lord elsewhere. Still the great general principle that applied of old will apply yet more by and by. And for this we are not dependent on this Book taken typically without plain teaching of scripture which openly refers to it.

For instance, let us take the account that is given in the prophecy of Isaiah, where the Lord Jesus is seen returning from Bozrah. What means this? I do not anticipate that any one who hears me will be under the ancient and general error of ecclesiastics or other uninstructed souls, that it is a question here of the cross or atonement. But many conceive that it points to the Lord destroying the Roman beast and the false prophet with the associate kings of that company and day. Not at all. It is the Lord dealing with earthly things, not merely from heaven. It is the Lord Jesus, now associated with the people, who puts Himself at the head of Israel.

Again take the well-known picture of the day of Jehovah, Zechariah 14:1-21, where it is said that Jehovah shall go forth as in the day of battle and fight with those nations. It is granted that this does not fall in with ordinary pre-conceived notions, as to the manner of the Lord's future association with His earthly people here below. But the fact is that the faith in Christendom as to the judgment of the quick is vague, uncertain, and unreal. They hold the judgment of the dead, but in general merge in it that of the quick, which is to lose it. We must make room in our thoughts, my brethren; we must leave room rather for the truth of God's revelation as to all this. Here it is quite plain that the Lord will destroy one class of His enemies when He appears from heaven; equally plain is it that He will reign in peace over the earth; but there is a transitional period between the two. As its type, the second Book of Samuel is most valuable as showing that the grand distinctive principles which will exist under Christ were manifested in David.

Hence the application of what comes before us here. David is hindered for a time by the family of Saul; and more particularly we are told "Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; and made him king over Gilead." Now Ish-bosheth had no title whatsoever. Nevertheless we see great tenderness toward him on the part of David, and this the more because he knew his own title to be indisputable. When people are wrong, do not wonder if they are generally apt to be touchy; when they have the confidence of the truth of God, they can afford to leave things without anxiety or bluster. Here certainly David shows us this. Although the pretender might be exceedingly vexatious, and an injury to the people too, nevertheless violent methods would have ill become the king that God had chosen in grace. David therefore leaves all with Him. Ish-bosheth then reigned for a certain time. "But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months." Thus patience had then its perfect work in David. And this, it will be observed, not merely while suffering in the presence of Saul, but now even after he had as the anointed king been reigning in Hebron according to God's direction for him to go up thither. Indeed it was perhaps in a certain sense more trying now, because in Saul's case there was a title; in Ish-bosheth's there was none.Nevertheless in every way the anointed of the Lord was to triumph.

But soon we find Abner and Joab coming into opposition and collision. Only now is the name of Joab first heard of during these sorrowful scenes in Israel. There does this politic and bold man begin to take a very leading part. There are only two occasions perhaps when Joab ever appears; one is when there was anything bad to be done, another is when there was anything great to be won. Joab was a man as far as possible from the faith of David, and to suffer the prominence and allow the influence of such a chief was one of the fatal weaknesses of David's kingdom that is, of God's kingdom in the hands of man, not merely man's kingdom in the presence of God's anointed, but, as has been remarked, God's kingdom confided to man, and there failing.

The wily Joab accordingly caused great distress to David, though without hesitation taking part with him. He was a man of sufficient penetration to know who would gain the day, not to speak also of a family connection with David, which naturally gave him a certain interest in his success. It is to be feared that a principle of nobler, of less selfish, character never wrought in Joab. At any rate we see him in a most unhappy light on this occasion; for the result was that, in the conflict that ensued, Joab gains the day by treachery and violence, accomplishing by murder the downfall of those whom he too was desirous to see put out of his ambitious way. He wished to stand without a rival in the day of triumph and glory which he well knew would soon come to king David.

In the chapter (2 Samuel 3:1-39) that follows the Spirit of God marks the progress of things. "There was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker." This gives occasion for showing out the end of Abner's history, as well as of Ish-bosheth's, in the next chapter. The continual fighting furnished at last what Joab had long wished for the opportunity to take Abner aside and speak with him quietly, thus lawlessly to avenge the blood of his brother, while he got rid of a great opponent disposed for peace with his master. But David bore witness in his fasting and tears how deeply he felt Abner's death, and how truly he judged Joab's iniquity, though alas! his power was not equal to his heart. Hence he could do no more at present than say "to Joab and all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier."

It was a fine feeling, and this, I am persuaded, from higher than human sources. But while his was a generous heart, there was that which, being of God, gave it its true direction, and sustained it in power spite of all circumstances. Clearly I speak now of where he was directly guided of God. "And the king lamented over Abner," just as suitably as he had before lamented over Jonathan and his father, "and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou." He judged truly even of his own commander-in-chief, as one may call Joab at least the one that was to be so formally before long. "And all the people wept again over him. And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down. And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them: as whatsoever the king did pleased the people. For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the son of Ner."

At the same time the king confesses what a sinful thing had been done, and his own weakness. "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel? And I am this day weak." How true! "I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: Jehovah shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness." A single eye is always full of light; and though David could not shake off those on whom indeed he was too dependent as the supports of his throne, nevertheless he does judge what was unworthy of the name of Jehovah, and what was abhorrent to his own soul. Weakness or worse must always be till Jesus take the throne.

But it is not only that we have the death of Abner, as I have said, but of Ish-bosheth also. This follows in the next chapter, and there again how truly men mistook the heart of the king. The murderers "brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and Jehovah hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed." How little unbelief ever learns! The lesson that was taught the Amalekite one might have supposed would have been remembered by the men of Israel that heard of the king's feeling. But unbelief, in its ignorance of God and its incapacity to discern those that are His, unfits itself to appreciate the ways of faith and of love, and hence it is that all was lost on them. "And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As Jehovah liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings: how much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed?" What can be finer than this? Here was a man that was a rival, and this too without a cause and without a title. But faith is more than upright, and can readily afford to be generous. Certainly so it was with king David, who hated any advantage taken even of his enemies. "How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed?" It was not that David shut his eyes to anything that was wrong. He did not mean that Ish-bosheth was righteous in everything, more particularly in disputing the throne given by God to himself. But he did not forget his life and general character, because of the grave mistake that opposed David and turned out fatal to himself. Therefore he adds, "Shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? And David commanded his young men, and they slew them."

The time was now come for the just place of the king. "Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and Jehovah said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel." Nevertheless it is solemn enough to observe that these men had known it all the time. It is not want of knowledge that hinders souls from acting according to God: I speak now of the general rule. But want of faith dulls the force of what we know, and makes it as if we knew it not. As long as there were those who acted on their nature, as long as it was a king of their own choice, or any one belonging to his family that seemed to have the smallest shadow of a title to the throne, their feelings wrought; their prejudices proved strong; their prepossessions were so deeply engaged that they forgot the word of the Lord. But now the Lord had put aside these different hindrances manifestly by His judgment, and had done it so much the more solidly for David as it was not by David. For David's hand was never lifted up against Saul or Jonathan; David's hand never got rid of Abner nor of Ish-bosheth. But now, whether by wicked men with David, or by wicked men against him, or by the open enemies of the Lord, in all these various ways God had wrought and disposed of the different men who laid claim to the throne one after another; and lo! the confession comes out, which must have been as true of the dead as of the living, that all through they knew well enough what the will of Jehovah was.

And so do we find now constantly. When souls are brought out of hindrances, when they are brought out of a false position, there is many a confession made which shows that the truth had pierced their consciences long before: only will, the world, the difficulties of family connection, a thousand snares, hindered fidelity to the Lord. But in truth, my brethren, we are entirely dependent on God Himself to give force to His own truth. Power is not in the truth simply. It is still less in a position, true as it may be. The grace of God alone gives the truth power. It is this that really works so as to deliver from hindrances, and therefore it is of such importance to our souls that the affections should be strong and rightly set. If the affections are kept vigorous and pure on the object of God, then the truth is seen in its real beauty and brightness; whereas if the affections are weak, or wandering after false objects, we may have all the truth in the Bible before us, but it makes little or no impression. This we see in the unconverted man fully; but the very same thing that ends in the ruin of the unconverted operates, if allowed, and in the degree it is allowed, to the hindrance and injury of those born of God.

At last, then, all the tribes of Israel come and make their common acknowledgment to the king. (2 Samuel 5:1-25) Now they could see that they are his bone and his flesh. Had they not been so before? Now they could remember how he led them in olden time. Was this again something new? Now they could remember that Jehovah said, "Thou shalt feed my people." Had this too only just then burst on them for the first time? "So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before Jehovah: and they anointed David king over Israel." Was there a reproach from David? I venture to answer there was not. No; there was a heart that loved them better than they loved him: there was one that sought Jehovah's glory for them, and who valued the throne because it was Jehovah's gift. I do not mean to say that he did not value it in itself, but I do affirm that it never entered the heart of David to seek the throne for himself. The first conception of it, the first presentation of the thought, was produced by God's own deed and gift. It was in no way the fruit of vaulting pride in the spirit of David. But God's call made it a duty to obey on his part as on Israel's. He consequently was the one who could use that throne in his measure for Jehovah's glory.

But if David and his men come to Jerusalem, the stronghold of Zion was still in the hand of the enemy, as it had hitherto been. Whatever might be the conquests of Joshua, whatever might have been achieved afterwards, in the very middle of the land, in the centre of Jerusalem itself, there frowned this stronghold held by the Jebusites; The time was come to mark a most important change. It was impossible that the kingdom could be according to God unless Zion were wrested for the king from the enemy who had thus daringly defied His people; and David felt this in all its force. He was keenly alive to the dishonour that was done to God by the very heart and citadel of the kingdom belonging to an accursed race of Canaan. There they proudly and at ease, by long possession in their fortress, laughed all assailants to scorn. Hence, when David comes before it, they say to him, "Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither." A most stinging taunt to the warrior king! The blind and the lame were sufficient to keep the stronghold against David and his men. That is, the place was so excessively strong by nature, perhaps also so fortified by the men of Jebus, that they had conceived it to be impregnable. "Nevertheless David," as the Spirit of God says so calmly "Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion: the same is the city of David. And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain." David was not only too sensitive to the taunt, but could not rise above it. All flesh is grass, and its glory as its flower. Generous as David was, he was wounded and resented the insult on those innocent of it. "Wherefore this day the blind and the lame shall not come into the house." We know how the grace of the Lord Jesus reversed this. The blind and the lame were just the people that did come into the house when He was there. But David was not Jesus. The king felt things after a too human sort. The Lord Jesus only and always went or came in a way perfectly suitable to God and His grace.

"So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David." This, though it be so briefly named by the Spirit, becomes ever afterwards an epoch and turning-point in the history of Israel. I do not know anything more striking in scripture, or a more remarkable characteristic of it than such a fact as this, slight as some may count it the quietness with which the Holy Ghost notices the completeness of the blow that was struck in the heart of the land at that which had been a constant challenge and triumph over all the efforts of Israel to that day. Now that David had wrested it from the Jebusites, this becomes the great fact that afterwards stamps its character upon Israel. Zion, in short, becomes a new name of the deepest moment the sign of divine grace in royalty the grace that took up the people in their lowest condition, and by that man whom God employed raised them up step by step to such a place of power and blessing and glory as never was before and never can be again till Jesus come and make this very Zion the centre of His earthly government with the blessing and glory due to His name.

Hence it is referred to in Hebrews strikingly, where it is said, "We are come to mount Zion." It is indeed the most characteristic spot in the whole earth as the sign of grace. Why should it be so? Why should it not be so? There are two mountains that have a place proper to them the mount of law and the mount of grace. Sinai, I need scarcely say, is the one, as Zion is the other. Sinai came into view when Israel were tried under law and all was favourable, the people having been brought out by the mighty power of God in the freshness of their youth. It was the beginning of their history, when all looked fair. They had entered upon it by a victory over the proudest king of the earth in that day; and what did they come to? Ruin, ever worse and worse, as each means successively tried proved the hopeless evil of man when fairly and fully put to the test by God.

But now what a contrast begins to dawn, though only in type! They were taken up from the depth of ruin, and after that estate Zion was won. Thus it is the kingdom established in power after the people had been utterly ruined after they had gone through every phase of change calculated to help, yet every experiment only sinking them deeper into the dust. After all this was Zion won, and not till then. Now there is nothing that so beautifully shows grace; for it is not only great activity of goodness, but also perfect goodness displayed after all had been lost. This is grace, and such is precisely therefore the picture of the stage at which Zion comes before us in Jewish history. Therefore it is that in the epistle to the Hebrews, where the apostle is contrasting all that flesh boasted of in Israel Sinai and its ordinances, he takes up that name of Zion which they little felt and little thought of, giving it its real prominence and most striking superiority. The moment that it is named thus, how the heart recalls and turns over all the glorious things spoken of the mountain of grace, and remembers that Zion too was chosen by God for His holy hill that not only was David an object of divine choice, but withal Zion! Nor need we wonder, because God in this too was thinking of Christ as King. There had He anointed His Son. It He desired for Jehovah's habitation. "This," said He, "is my rest for ever; here will I dwell: for I have desired it." "There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." "Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." We shall see perhaps a little more as we go on.

Again, we hear next how David was owned by the Gentiles gradually. "And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house. And David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake." All this flowed in on the king after Zion was won.

But I am far from saying that we have more than a pledge as yet of good things to come, chequered alas' by the too evident fact that the first man is not the Second. Thus "David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammuah, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet." The law made nothing perfect. Christ, the true light, was not come; nor was even the believer, though born of God, the new creation yet, so as to say, "old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new."

Moreover we find, when the Philistines who heard of it came up, that David was still as dependent on God when on the throne as he had been whilst in the place of suffering. He "enquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines?" There was no confidence in his own powers, no presuming on past victories as easy a thing to slip into as it is dangerous. "And Jehovah said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand." And so he smote them, "and there they left their images, and David and his men burned them. And the Philistines came up yet again." David does not even then act, because he had before beaten them; nor does he satisfy himself for the fresh need with the answer God had given him for their former attack. He enquires again; and Jehovah exercises his obedience by an altogether new command: "Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall Jehovah go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so, as Jehovah had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer."

But now (2 Samuel 6:1-23) we have another and a totally different scene. It is no longer a question of the enemy, but of the ark; for how could David's spirit rest if the great symbol of Jehovah's presence in Israel was wanting? If David now is established king of Israel, could he but desire the establishment of the sign that the true God was there? Nevertheless it was not yet apparent, and there were many mistakes made in consequence. "And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God." It is instructive to notice that here at first he did not enquire. He evidently thought there could be no doubt of the matter. When it was a question of opposing the enemy, he felt that he needed the guidance of God; but when the point was the establishment of Jehovah's ark in its due place in Israel, how could it be necessary to ask Jehovah about it?

And so it is we often deceive ourselves. For in fact there is no occasion where we more need the sustaining of God than in His very worship. Have we not learnt this by experience, my brethren? Some of us are apt to think that, because this is a holy place, and because it is a holy work, and because we are by the grace of God "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," we may enter into it as a matter of course. And what is it that we prove when we do? Certainly not the power of God. There is no place where there is a greater danger of distraction on the one hand or of form on the other. Is this to us anything but the iniquity of holy things? No where do we more truly need the guiding and directing grace of God than in His own service and worship. Do not suppose that this is said in the slightest degree to encourage legalism, or in any way to sanction the morbid state of a Christian which would shrink from that which is due to the Lord and ought to be his deepest joy, and what most surely He looks for continually; but one may warn that there is no small danger of our taking it all as a matter of course, just as we find David did on this occasion. We do well therefore and wisely if we read the history of David before the ark as a serious admonition to our souls in all that concerns our drawing near to God.

"And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, crave the new cart." Where we have not the guidance of the Lord, and do not even look for it seriously, every step cannot but be wrong. Who told them to put it "upon a new cart?" Were they Philistines? Another Book told us of the Philistines doing so, and how God bore pitifully with these heathen who knew no better. But will He allow such a procedure in Israel? God deals with men according to the place in which they are, or He has put them. If He left the poor Philistines to the darkness of nature, only just illumined by whatever beams of light might from Israel break through the darkness from time to time, could it be that God's elect should surrender themselves to imitate the darkness of the heathen? What a wretched descent, beloved brethren, when those who are called into the light of God allow themselves to be swayed by the license taken by the world, even though it may be the religious world!

But let us pursue the tale. "And they brought the ark out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before Jehovah on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God." Surely this is very solemn for me, for any. God did not at once deal with the first departure from His word. They drove the new cart for a time without a sign of His displeasure. Then He allowed what might have seemed to be a mere accident of circumstances, by which He was pleased to try them, and in a single instance show signally His sense of their irreverence, though of course especially in one who went farthest in it. It is true that it was another act, and it was an aggravation of the evil.

Nevertheless on the outward surface of things it looked justifiable enough to guard the ark from a fall. The ark of God seemed in danger: why should not a Levite put out his hand to save it? Was not Uzzah, son of Abinadab of Gibeah, the most fit to do so holy an act? But the act involved going against the express word of God. What of this? It was not only a device that was taken up hastily in the first instance, and carried out independently of God's order for carrying the vessels of the sanctuary; here there was a direct failure in the respect due to God's ark when it seemed to need man's succour. The Lord had appointed who it was in Israel that should carry the ark, and how it must be done. Of this the Philistines knew nothing, nor were they responsible to obey such an ordinance; but Israel were as being under the law. They had His word in their hands, and were responsible accordingly.

So when Uzzah put forth his hand and took hold of the ark, for the oxen shook it, God was bringing the matter to a point in judgment. "The anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God." And David, instead of judging himself, instead of looking back and confessing how completely they had all acted without the guidance of Jehovah, was displeased because Jehovah had made a breach upon Uzzah. Displeased with whom? Oh, it is a sorrowful thing to say, he was displeased with the God of Israel. But do not think this so strange a thing either. When you murmur and complain of His chastening in your own case, what are you doing but expressing your displeasure at the Lord? Do you suppose, beloved brethren, that any trial which happens to you, whatever its character, is without Him? that afflictions "spring from the dust?" Do you suppose that anything, no matter what it may be, or by whatever instrument it come, even though it be what most of all pains you, is without His intention or His lesson to your soul? Certainly not. It may fall on you through ever such a wrong in another. But this is never a reason either to justify you nor the smallest excuse for being displeased with God.

The fact is that Israel had acted without God's word from the first even David himself; and if David was the one whom it least of all became, we must not be surprised if he also had the sorest feeling about the Lord. "And David was displeased, because Jehovah had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of Jehovah come to me? So David would not remove the ark of Jehovah unto him into the city of David: but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of Jehovah continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and Jehovah blessed Obed-edom, and all his household." What an answer to David's displeasure! "And it was told king David, saying, Jehovah hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings."

Now we have David righted in his soul, and Jehovah, instead of being dreaded, or being the source of displeasure, is the spring of gladness and thanksgiving. But it is holy joy. There is no brighter happier moment, as far as I can discern, in David's history as a king than on that day. "So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of Jehovah came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Jehovah; and she despised him in her heart." No wonder that the Spirit of God calls her Saul's daughter. Why, methought she was now David's wife. Yes, but what woman that day behaved less like it? She was "Saul's daughter" still. It was the genuine expression of her father. There was not a right feeling towards her husband in this transaction (and how near it was to his heart!), still less in her value for Jehovah's relation to Israel as witnessed by the bringing of the ark to Zion.

But "they brought in the ark of Jehovah, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Jehovah." They were undisturbed by any hindrance now. Their sense of the divine majesty was evident, their adherence to the word of the Lord unmistakable. All the offerings speak of thanksgiving in devotedness and fellowship. "And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah of hosts." It is clear that David was now enjoying in the very fullest sense the grace of God toward Israel and himself. "And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house."

Yet there was one person who had no sympathy with the festive joy of that great day in Israel, one soul who was as displeased with David now as he himself had once been with Jehovah. "And Michal the daughter of Saul [mark the significant repetition of the natural root] came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" But how dignified and withering was the rebuke of her husband! "And David said unto Michal, It was before Jehovah, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Jehovah, over Israel: therefore will I play before Jehovah." It was the service of faith. It was the king of Israel who, the more he was exalted and established of God, used all his exaltation as an offering to the Lord, and felt himself too so much the more exalted because God was everything to his soul. Nearness to God was greater in David's eyes at that moment than the throne that God had given him; and David rightly judged. And Michal, far from appreciating the Lord's grace in her soul, was thenceforth doomed to be far from a husband whom she failed to honour when he proved that his heart was set to treat all else as nothing so that he might honour the Lord.

In the next chapter (2 Samuel 7:1-29) we have the king before Jehovah. How different all that passed there, as we pass from Michal and the king to the king and Jehovah! "And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and Jehovah had given him rest round about from all his enemies; that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for Jehovah is with thee." But Nathan was wrong in this; he had answered hastily. The prophet is as much dependent on God for light as any other person, and it is an instructive thing that we should have the mistakes of a prophet, or it may be of a greater than the prophet: I speak of course even of an apostle himself; and, without entering on doubtful points, I do say it is perfectly certain that, great as was the apostle Peter, he made not only mistakes, but some of the most serious kind. I do not speak of what he did before he was brought into the highest place, and had the power requisite to fill it, but it is plain that God has recorded for our instruction that not even the very chief of the twelve apostles had wisdom except in what was given him. For experience will not suit in the things of God, nor any power in which a person may have previously wrought, unless there be also dependence on the Lord.

So here Nathan has a corrective from the Lord Himself, as indeed it was needed. "Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith Jehovah, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?" Many an edifice of our proposal and making God had never asked of us. We ought not to run before Him. Faith waits on God, instead of anticipating in self-confidence, or in the desires of our own heart, let them be ever so simple. It is obvious that David was acting from his own thought and his own circumstances. It looked excellent, humanly speaking, and might even seem so for a man of God. In a certain sense the desire was admirable; but, beloved brethren, "to obey is better than sacrifice." Can we trust our desires? There is nothing so humble as waiting on the Lord, and quietly doing His will as God makes it known; nor is anything really so firm, although unbelief counts and boldly declares it the greatest presumption to know it.

But there is more than this. God deigns in grace to serve His people and to suit Himself to them. It would not answer to His feelings that they should be at work or war, and He in rest and peace. When they were wanderers in the desert, He dwelt in a tent in their midst; and He must settle them in the land before He would accept a temple or settled dwelling at their hands. Yea, He must also make David a house settled in the throne of Jehovah before his son could build Him a house. For such was His holy pleasure, that not David but David's son should build the house of Jehovah. The bearing is evident: the true Solomon, the Prince of Peace, is before the eye of God.

"Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people over Israel: and I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also Jehovah telleth thee that he will make thee an house."

Thus God must always have the first place, and always be the first mover. It would not consist with His glory to let David build Him a house till He had built David a house. Of this He proceeds to assure the king. "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son." It is true that David's seed should come under the righteous government of God. `' If he commit iniquity, I Will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men." It was not Christ yet. "But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.... So did Nathan speak unto David."

David goes in and sits before Jehovah, and pours out that wonderful answer to the expression of Jehovah's grace even in correcting David's hasty desire to glorify Him. "Who am I, O Lord Jehovah? and v hat is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord Jehovah; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord Jehovah? And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord Jehovah, knowest thy servant. For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord Jehovah: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel?" Could any words so well present this admirable feature of David's faith that he so much the more appreciated the people as Jehovah's people because he had appreciated Jehovah? For His grace to himself and his house he has now to bless Him.

It is granted that, where we are occupied with the people first, we are never right. Who could ever trust a man's love for the church until he is content with the love of Christ alone? But when you have got the sense of what Christ is, when you are filled with His glory and with His love, then not to enter into His feelings toward the church would be the most unnatural of all things. It is more than doubtful whether it is really possible, but there may be something like it occasionally. There is an ultra-spirituality which loudly professes that it cares for nothing but Christ, while it despises the testimony of Christ and the fellowship of saints. This I believe to be a most offensive thing in the sight of God; and it is shown by the person isolating himself in heart and ways from all that tries as well as exercises heart and conscience. It will be found contrariwise, my brethren, that the more truly you are isolated in the power of faith to Christ, the more precious the children of God become to the heart; but for this very reason you cannot endure their walking apart from the Lord's will. It deepens your judgment of the condition in which they may be practically; but then it strengthens your desire to see them really delivered out of it.

Something of this sort you may trace running through all scripture. It does not matter where we search; the darker the time, the plainer it appears. Take for instance Daniel. Did any one ever love Israel more than he did those in Babylon? Yet he assuredly felt the condition of the people more gravely than any other; and it was because the power of faith isolated him so truly to the Lord that he loved them, and this for God's glory in them. I do not doubt that practically he walked in the empire a lonely man: few there beyond the three companions of his youth could appreciate his feelings; but I am persuaded that he loved Israel so much the more because Jehovah was all to him.

Similarly, though in a comparatively good time and quite other circumstances, we find David now communing with the counsels of God. It was at the time of fresh power and blessing to Israel where the name of Zion, as it were, gives character to the period, and the putting forth of divine power and goodness by David makes it an epoch in Israel. But whether one look at Moses or David or Daniel, at the beginning or middle or end, after all the Lord is the same yesterday and today and for ever; and the effect is the same in the heart of those that love Him. It may be modified by our circumstances, and the state of the people of God of course; but it is the same principle always. It was David's portion then to enjoy Jehovah's love, and not merely to himself but to His people, yet to be the witnesses of His glory as enjoying it themselves.

Hence David launches out into praise. "What one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, Jehovah, art become their God. And now, O Jehovah God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and-do as thou hast said." Such grace was indeed a great thing to say and do, but not too much. What could be too much for God? It made David nothing; but for this very reason David's heart just forgets himself, and there is no true dignity that is not founded on self-forgetfulness. But the only thing which ensures its reality is the sense of the grace and the presence of the Lord. David enjoyed it most deeply at this very time. "And now, O Jehovah God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Jehovah God, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever."

In the next chapter (2 Samuel 8:1-18) we hear of wars, and the Philistines and the Moabites subdued. We read of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, smitten, and the Syrians who would succour him also put down. At the same time some of the Gentiles come to bless the king with presents, and all those rarities that befit the character of the kingdom; in short power, glory, and blessing fill the scene. Further, the Edomites are made subject to the throne. Lastly, the administrative order and government of David are brought before us in due season, as well as his own place as supreme. "And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people. And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder." The priests, and the scribes, and the various other officers are brought before us, each in his place.

Then in 2 Samuel 9:1-13 a different picture opens before us. The heart of David yearns now, not for subjecting others, but for the exercise of that grace that God had shown to his own soul. And so he thinks of the house of Saul. Were there any of them to whom he could show "the kindness of God"? On this most grateful scene we need not pause long. It is happily no strange tale to almost all of us, being the account of David's wonderful grace to Mephibosheth. "So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet."

After this another scene opens, in which David wished to show kindness, not to Jonathan's line of the house of Saul but to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father had shown kindness to David. (2 Samuel 10:1-19) This was completely misunderstood. The Ammonites could not appreciate the grace of David's heart, but only suspected mischief, as the wicked naturally do. "And the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun their lord, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it? Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away." The insult was told to David, who quietly met the matter; but at the same time it was committed to Joab; and certainly the vengeance taken was grateful to him. Joab took them, and, as we know, spite of the Syrians who sought to shield them. Resistance was vain. They were punished severely. The power of the throne of David was firmly settled everywhere.

The next chapter (2 Samuel 11:1-27) introduces the first dark shade since David came to the throne. "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah." There was a bitter vengeance. "But David tarried still at Jerusalem." I doubt that the soul of David was thoroughly with the Lord either in taking his ease, or in wreaking the vengeance that had been poured on the Ammonite. At all events the history that follows is too painful for us to dwell much on at this time. It need only be briefly touched on. His heart was ensnared, and sin soon followed the gravest sin, more particularly in such a one as David. It was followed, as sin usually is, by the worst efforts to cover all, and he who did the wrong with Bath-sheba tried ineffectually to conceal his sin by having home his faithful servant Uriah; and when this failed to gloss over his own wickedness, he devised the means by which Uriah should be brought to his grave. Thus did the fallen king still more pursue, and now without a check, the course of wickedness on which he had entered. Oh, what sin and shame for David!

The next chapter (2 Samuel 12:1-31) brings Nathan again forward, who comes and puts before the king the case of the two men in the city, the one rich and the other poor. "The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own Dock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him."

"And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man." Do not always trust people when they show indignation with vehemence. David even then could feel hotly enough about evil. Alas! there was no self-judgment, nor is there a single feature more terrible in the sin of David than the long time he gave himself up to it, apparently without a right feeling as to man, or exercise of conscience as to God; so that, even when it was plainly enough set parabolically before him, his anger was kindled only against another man's wrong. When Nathan came, David might well have had his ears open to know whether there was any word from God about such a sin as he had been guilty of; but not so. Let us not deceive ourselves, my brethren, or be deceived by others. The only thing that enables us to judge aright anything in others is self-judgment. If we are to see clearly the mote in a brother, let us not forget to take the beam out of our own eyes. David here stands as a solemn instance that he who is so quick to see sin in another may be utterly blind to his own grave and unjudged iniquity. Hence too he says quickly, "As Jehovah liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith Jehovah God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of Jehovah, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour."

Mark the solemn principle of retribution in this instance, so habitually found in fact as in scripture. Our sin always gives the form of our chastening. "I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour." And further, "Thou didst it secretly." Here comes in contrast, as before there was analogy, the one or the other characterising God's ways, as each would mark most impressively the deceitfulness of sin for man, and God's eternal abhorrence of it. "Thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said unto David, Jehovah also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." He had sentenced himself, but God in every sense is greater. "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." Nevertheless of that very mother of her who had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite did the grace of God raise up the heir to the throne of Israel, whom He made His firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth and type of Christ in peaceful glory, as David had been in suffering and warlike power the latter yet. to be fulfilled. Truly the ways of God are wonderful. Here again we see, whatever may have been the sin of gaining her as the king did, the sovereign grace of God did not blot out the tie that was formed, but deigned out of that connection, when the sin was thoroughly detected and judged, to raise up the chosen son of David, who sets aside the others that might have pleaded a prior claim after the flesh.

It is a chapter profitable for the soul to consider well and often, the bitter grief of David, his exercise of heart when the child was smitten, and his admirable conduct after God had taken away the child. Then it was that he hears his servants' entreaty, and is comforted. Just when affectionate men naturally would give themselves up to unrestrained and hopeless grief, in the wisdom which grace inspired his tears were stayed, his heart turned with confidence to the Lord, and he partook of the refreshment provided for him. What a warning, yet what consolation, for him! David, however low he had fallen, was a real man of God; not only the object of grace, but as a rule one deeply exercised and habitually formed by it. He returns therefore to the spring of his strength and blessing. Accordingly we shall find in the sequel that God had good things in store, in the midst of sorrow and chastening, for the penitent king of Israel.