Bible Commentaries

2 Samuel 2:8.

Eccentric men there will always be in society. The word "But" marks Abner as taking a course of his own, and doing that which was pleasing in his own sight. He did not take the common course. Whilst David was being made king at Hebron, Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth and made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. The local limitations of the text are evident, but the moral suggestion is applicable to a large sphere of life. Eccentricity is not always to be blamed. There are some great enough, or small enough, to differ from everybody; they must always have their own course, their own idea, their own way of doing things. Let all workers go on together or separately, as may appear best to them, always remembering, however, that the judgment is at the end, and that the judgment is with God. Sometimes eccentricity is a great blessing in the Church; it destroys monotony, it stimulates inquiry, it rebukes the spirit of infallibility. In the end we shall know who is right and who is wrong. Much time is often wasted by those who differ from the general judgment, and yet that time, though lost, may not be wholly wasted. The majority should sometimes think of its own fallibility. Men are not necessarily right simply because they are parts of an overwhelming multitude. Sometimes the solitary thinker is entrusted with divine stewardship. Often, indeed, the minority has been right in history, and the majority has been wrong. Men should not be eccentric merely for the sake of singularity. That would be mere frivolity, sheer folly, and would end in mischief and disaster. No individual conscience contains the whole sense of righteousness. Conscience, like reason, is the better for friction. There is a quality of righteousness, there is a quality of 2 Samuel 2:26.

Here we have an inquiry which ought to be put under all circumstances that are doubtful, and especially under all circumstances that are marked by selfishness or disregard of the interests of others. The question never 2 Samuel 2:29.

We should remind ourselves of such events in order that we may see what has been accomplished by military discipline, by the subordination of merely personal whims and desires. Even conquerors have no easy time in life. We think of success, of triumph, of coronation, but we forget that before these things, and as necessary to them, there must be discipline, suffering, loss, trial of every kind. We read with glowing hearts the accounts of explorers, discoverers, adventurers, who have gone into regions unknown and undreamedof; and here, again, we forget the night watchings, the night marchings, the continual perils and difficulties of the road. The Apostle Paul makes use of all this aspect of discipline, saying, "They do it to obtain a corruptible crown," and his argument is that if men will do so much for a crown that must fade, what ought they to do who are struggling for a crown eternal? If men are so anxious to win the prizes of earth, what ought they to be to win the infinitely greater prizes of heaven? Self-denial is not confined to Christian experience. Whoever would be great in any department or relation of life must know the pain of self-mortification—must, in other words, achieve the mastery over himself—must, so to say, stand upon himself in an attitude of triumph. We cannot dream ourselves into heaven, nor can we dream ourselves into any form of greatness that is really worthy of realisation. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life,—into life of every kind, of eminence, of usefulness, of truest pleasure, and most lasting renown.