Bible Commentaries

2 Samuel 19:18

According to old heathen mythology, there was a fabled river called Acheron, which the souls of the dead must cross. Its waters were muddy and bitter, and old Charon, who ferried them over, obliged each one to pay a sum of money for the passage. In this fable there is a remnant of sound belief in the existence of the soul, after it has left the body, in another state of being. The very river which the dead are represented as crossing has its counterpart in the language which Christians often use. Our notions of a ferry embrace convenient landing-places, boats for the conveyance of passengers, the payment of tolls, etc. It would not require much imagination to conjure up some of these in connection with the text.

There will come a moment in the life of each one of us when work, pleasure, folly, and wickedness will all be done with, and when we shall find ourselves on the shores of the river of death, with its dark, cold waters separating us from the better land. The golden city is on the other side, but the river must first be crossed. How are we to cross? The text will help us to understand. "There went over a ferry-boat to carry over the king's household." The ark of Christ's Church is only a safe "ferry-boat" because it is preserved and guided by our Divine Lord. As long as we remain in His holy keeping no harm can come to us.

J. N. Norton, The King's Ferry-boat, and Other Sermons for Children, p. 1.

Reference: 2 Samuel 19:31-37.—J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 100.

2 Samuel 19:31-40

(see also 2 Samuel 17:27-29; 1 Kings 2:7; Jeremiah 41:17; Ezra 2:61)

I. We have here a man who knows that he is old, but who is not distressed by the thought of it. There are old men who do not know that they are old, or who seek to suppress their knowledge of it. Few things in the world are so pleasant as the sight of such a conscious, cheerful, hopeful old age as that of Barzillai, certain that it has not long to stay, but interested to the last in the best things of life, in the cause of God and man and country and Church. We must prepare for such an old age as this: (1) by taking God with us early in the journey of life; (2) by providing beforehand the compensations which God is willing to give for everything that may be taken away by the changes of life.

II. We have here a man who is rich, but who is satisfied with his natural position. It is at the stage of prosperity that the dissatisfaction of many men begins. If Barzillai had been of the mind of many, he would have made his wealth buy wings for his vanity, and, old as he was, would have tried to flutter in the sunshine of the court. But he was a wiser man, and a happier, and stands in higher honour this day than if he had wronged his nature and finished his life with an act of folly.

III. We have a man of long experience, who has kept up his love of simple pleasures. We can infer this from the tone in which he speaks. He had reached an age when the love of sensational things fails in all but the most frivolous, yet the way in which he speaks of them puts them quietly aside, as not to his taste and never likely to have been so.

It is not a dream that man can keep the love of natural things in his heart and can call them up in fancy as he reads. If a man will but read his Bible with a fresh heart, he may walk with patriarchs in the world when it was young and green, may rest with Abraham under the shade of the oak of Mamre, and see the upspringing of the well to which the princes of Israel sang. He may sit on the mountain-top with Christ, among the lilies and the birds, to understand what they say and sing, and he may listen till he hears far off the final hymn which shall be a concert of nature round regenerated man.

IV. We have a man who is attached to the past, but who does not distrust the future. For himself he has grown up in the old way, and cannot change, but he thinks, "The new has its rights, and the world will be on. My son is here; the future is beaming in his face and beating in his heart; I give him into hands I can trust for leading him in the way of truth, of righteousness." If the old can thus pass over into the new, there is security in all changes.

J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 67.

References: 2 Samuel 19:33.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 150. 2 Samuel 19:33-35.—F. W. Hook. Parish Sermons, p. 119. 2 Samuel 19:34.—J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 486; J. R. Macduff, Good Words, 1861, p. 523; Bishop Thorold, Ibid., 1885, p. 67; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 237; New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 72. 2 Samuel 19:34, 2 Samuel 19:35.—D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3456. 2 Samuel 19:35.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 416. 2 Samuel 19:41 with 2 Samuel 20:1.—F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 457. 2Sam 19—W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, pp. 238, 252. 2 Samuel 20:9.—J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 119. 2 Samuel 20:16-22.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 337. 2 Samuel 20:21, 2 Samuel 20:22.—Scotch Sermons, p. 99. 2Sam 20—W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 252; Parker, vol. vii., p. 202. 2 Samuel 21:1.—F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 457; Bishop Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 210. 2 Samuel 21:1-14.—W. Hanna, Christian Press, Jan. 10th, 1878; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 82. 2 Samuel 21:8-10.—W. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, and Other Sermons, p. 90. 2 Samuel 21:9.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 3rd series, p. 168.