Bible Commentaries

Absalom

2 Samuel 14:25-26).

Absalom having been for a long time voluntarily or involuntarily exiled from the capital, came back again as the result of a very cunning intrigue on the part of Joab. But Joab would not come to see him. For two whole years Absalom was left to do what he could with his own society—he "saw not the king's face" ( 2 Samuel 14:28). He sent for Joab, but Joab would not come. Then what did he do? Here he showed that if he was without 2 Samuel 14:30-31).

Thus we get a taste of the quality of men. For two whole years Joab paid no attention to the returned son of David, but the moment his barley-field was set on fire he paid Absalom a visit of inquiry. It was crafty on the part of Absalom. Perhaps he looked upon it as a last resort and thought the end would justify the means. But there is a spiritual use of this incident which is well worth considering. We do not strain the text when we get out of it such spiritual uses. Is it not so that when we will not go to God lovingly, voluntarily, he sets our barley-fields on fire, saying, Now they will pray? We desert his church, we abandon his book, we release ourselves from all religious responsibilities; God calls, and we will not hear; then he sets all the harvest in a blaze, and we become religious instantaneously. Or he sends the cold east wind to blow upon the earth day and night, week after week; then we begin to consider whether we had not better appeal to his mercy and beseech the exercise of his clemency. Though Absalom had no such gracious intent in view, yet it is lawful to learn a lesson even from an enemy and from a man who turns the events of life to practical purpose. We are the richer if we have lost a barley-field, and found the God of the harvest. He will make up the barley-field to us, if so be we accept the providence aright, and say, This is God's thought concerning us—severe outwardly, a temporary loss, but concealing wondrous solicitude, expressing a purpose of love in a flame of fire; let us arise, and go to our father, and say to him across the blazing field, "Father, we have sinned." Those who will not come at the voice of love may be constrained to come at the bidding of terror.

We wonder how a man so beautiful as Absalom will deport himself in the practical affairs of life; and we are not permitted to wonder long, for in chapter 2 Samuel 15:1-6 the answer is given.

"And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him " ( 2 Samuel 15:1).

Where is personal beauty now? Mark the insidious progress. "Absalom prepared him chariots and horses," but we have seen that they were forbidden in Israel. Egyptians and Assyrians and the heathen nations might boast themselves of their iron chariots and their strong horses, but Israel was to have neither the one nor the other. This is the first time we read of chariots and horses in connection with Israel. This man is determined to make a very showy appeal to the public imagination. He will take that imagination captive. When the children of Israel see this innovation they will think it justified, because it was originated by the king's son; and there is something in men, including the children of Israel, that responds to great chariots, to rushing horses whose necks are clothed with thunder; and Absalom knows enough of human nature to know that this appeal will not be lost upon people who asked for a king that they might be like the other nations of the earth. They would have a king, and God says, You shall have enough of them! God sometimes over-answers the prayers of people. He says in effect: You want kings—or one king? The answer is: We want a king—one king. God says: You shall have a hundred kings; you shall have kings until you are surfeited with them; I will keep up the supply of kings, and ply you at every point. Verily, he gives men their desire and sends leanness into their souls.

"And Absalom rose up early" ( 2 Samuel 15:2). Ambition is not a long sleeper. A man who has made up his mind to conquer the world can easily conquer himself—so far as to get up quite early in the morning. This was a bid for popularity, as well as an expression of energy. We admire this. He means it. He is no sluggard. He does not begin his day at twelve o"clock: he looks out for the sun, and almost chides that rising light, saying,—I have been watching for thee: how long thou hast tarried! If men can get up early in the morning to do that which is traitorous, unholy, and unworthy, are the servants of the living God to be sleeping away their opportunities? "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down." Saith the sluggard, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." Thus his poverty comes as one that travelleth, and his want as an armed man. We should be more energetic, more passionate; we should recall enthusiasm; for religion dead, is irreligion. Let the cunning and crafty man for a time have his way; his policy is worthy of him, and is a thing to be admired for its astuteness and adaptation of means to ends.

"And it was 2 Samuel 15:2-4).

The eternal speech of the mere demagogue! Bad men have no originality; they are like their father, the devil, who has only one lie and keeps repeating it through all the ages: it is the same lame story; the same poor, earthly selfish appeal; the same base, narrow villainy; the same rag that is held out as if it were a purse that contained all earth's gold. And men run after it. Who has not misled the people by making them great promises which could never be redeemed? Have we not known man after man stand up as upon a pedestal and say, "Friends, what you want 2 Samuel 15:5).

Now came the open revolt; now the king left his palace and became a wanderer. David saw the day was darkening, and he hastened away, saying,

"Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom; make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword.... And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off" ( 2 Samuel 15:14-17).

See how David is beginning to suffer. He was told that the sword should never depart from his house because of the murdered man. The man was buried, but his grave reeked as a hidden furnace. We cannot bury murdered men, so that the soil shall lie quietly on their dead breasts and make no sign. It is well that the king should be thus punished. Banish him, strip him, smite him with rods of iron, O ye holy angels: for this is just. See what sin comes to:—

"And all the country wept with a loud voice; and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.... And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went up" ( 2 Samuel 15:23-30).

This comes of murdering Uriah! "The way of transgressors is hard." When we have wept our sympathetic tears over banished king David, let us go down to the grave of the valiant Uriah—the honest and ill-used soldier—and cry still more copiously over his dishonoured body. It is right that David's harp should be broken, that David's throat should be choked, and that for songs he should have groaning and distress. God takes care of his law; man cannot sin against it without being made to feel the penalty of justice.

And David weeps as he goes up by mount Olivet. We cannot but pity David now and again. He was a noble soul—he was a poet When the devil gave him breathing space he said beautiful things, and purposed charitable actions. Perhaps we may never pity David more than when his punishment took the form of humiliation ( 2 Samuel 16:5-14).

"And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came" ( 2 Samuel 16:5).

There may be dignity in some cursing. There we do not pity king David. But in the sixth verse a new phase is revealed of the bitterness of his humiliation:—"And he [Shimei] cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: ... and thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody 2 Samuel 16:7-8). This was right. Humble him still more; throw stones at him, spit upon him, mock him! It is right that society should thus take up the cause of dead men. David knew this. The people asked if they might not go over and take off the head of Shimei; but David said, "No; "let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David;" wait: this is right: by-and-by "it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day."" A man knows his punishment is just. So "Shimei went along on the hill's side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust;" and the object of all this violent derision was the darling of Israel! "The way of transgressors is hard." Do not tempt the living God; do not come within the sweep of his sword or within the rush of his thunder. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." This would be the end of sin upon the earth but for the great evangelical provision—but for the cross of Christ, the Saviour of the world. It is well to see what sin really comes to—to watch the black harvest grow, and to be made to go into the field with the sickle and begin to cut it down. But there is still mercy with God, but it is mercy through righteousness; there is compassion in heaven, but it is compassion that expresses law. God can now be just, yet the justifier of the ungodly. He can now forgive thieves, murderers, and the worst of men of every phase and type, but he can only do this because of the priesthood of his own Son. A mystery we cannot explain; but we feel our need of it when we feel the agony of sin and the justness of our punishment. This cross is not to be taken to pieces, and explained in literal words, and made easy to the common understanding: "Great is the mystery of godliness." Our intellectual eyes cannot see it, our vain imagination cannot bear the glory, but when we are stricken down because of sin, and penitent because we have felt its distress and abominableness in the sight of God, then something within us—yea, the very soul—catches a glimpse of the cross—the beginning of heaven, because beginning of pardon.

Whilst we must be severe upon David, and therefore upon ourselves—for David was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, only exceptionally sinful in the accident, not in the essence and reality of things—it is right also to turn in the other direction, and ask, Is there any pity in heaven? Is there any compassion in God? Is there any way of escaping the results of iniquity? And whilst we ask the question, a great voice, a voice as of many waters, sounds, and resounds, saying, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon;" 2 Samuel 14:14.

Is this an illustration of the kind of inspiration which is often granted to woman in contradistinction to the degree and quality granted to man?—We have two distinct views of life in this verse:—(1) There is the commonplace meditation upon human mortality, and a very simple but graphic figure of water spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again; as true as this is of water so is it of the body of man when he falls back into his elemental dust.—The decree of death is universal: God doth not respect any person; the old and the young die on the same day, and the weak man has as much security as the strong man against the fatal arrow.—(2) Yet here is a singular suggestion by which some hint of immortality is given; God devises means that his banished be not expelled from him: however many local and narrow meanings these words may have, the heart will not refuse to see in them some groping after the immortality of the soul.—That immortality does not fall within the scope of human conjecture, yet it comes within the range of religious faith: the woman remits the question to God; she knows what his resources are, and she pays to providence the tribute of being able to find means by which even death shall be vanquished.—What was a dim imagining to her instinct is a glorious truth to our Christian faith.—We have no doubt whatever respecting immortality, and we should act as if we had no such doubt; but on the contrary how often we act as if we had no prospect beyond the tomb.—We speak of those who die as poor creatures, we weep over them as if they had fallen into nothingness, we speak of them as mere shadows and memories; yet all the while by a most perverse irony we profess to believe in the immortality and blessedness of the righteous.—Thus we contradict our own faith, and expose our own theology to remorseless criticism and contempt.—Those who believe in Christ's view of the future should rejoice over death; or whatever mournfulness enters into their feeling and their tone should relate to themselves and not to the sainted and glorified dead.—Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light: the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.—Let us know the exact limit of death, and we shall find that it is restricted to the body, and has no reference whatever to the redeemed and sanctified spirit.—The destiny of that spirit is undertaken by Jesus Christ himself, and because he has triumphed, that spirit shall have triumph, and so long as he is enthroned that spirit shall have joy in ever-increasing and ever-blessed service.—Christians ought to be jealous lest pagans excel them in faith; that is to say, lest the conjectures of Paganism should be turned into more comforting realities than are the revelations of Christianity itself.—The New Testament saint should take care lest his faith be eclipsed by the trust of Old Testament believers.—The Church of today should be an advance upon the Church of every former day, in the clearness of its faith, in the intensity of its love, in the assurance of its appropriated blessings.—Grow in grace.