Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me now run and carry the king news, how Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.”
Joab said to him, “You must not be the bearer of news today, but you must carry news another day. But today you must carry no news, because the king’s son is dead.”
Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen!” The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.
Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said yet again to Joab, “But come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite.” Joab said, “Why do you want to run, my son, since you will have no reward for the news?”
“But come what may,” he said, “I will run.” He said to him, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.
Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone. The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth.” He came closer and closer.
The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper, and said, “Behold, a man running alone!” The king said, “He also brings news.”
The watchman said, “I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.” The king said, “He is a good man, and comes with good news.”
Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, “All is well.” He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king!”
The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what it was.”
The king said, “Come and stand here.” He came, and stood still.
Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, “News for my lord the king, for Yahweh has avenged you today of all those who rose up against you.”
The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is.”
The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33 Hebrew, judged.
Hebrew, judged.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–33 2Sa 18:19 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok,…
2Sa 18:19 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the LORD hath avenged him of his enemies.
Ver. 19. And bear the king tidings.] Who could not but much long to hear the issue of the battle.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33 And thou shalt not be a messenger of evil…
And thou shalt not be a messenger of evil tidings, which will be unwelcome to him, and prejudicial to thee.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v19 Absalom's business is done; and we are now told,
Absalom's business is done; and we are now told,
I. How David was informed of it. He staid behind at the city of Mahanaim, some miles from the wood where the battle was, and in the utmost border of the land. Absalom's scattered forces all made homeward toward Jordan, which was the contrary way from Mahanaim, so that his watchmen could not perceive how the battle went, till an express came on purpose to bring advice of the issue, which the king sat in the gate expecting to hear, Sa2 18:24.
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1. Cushi was the man Joab ordered to carry the tidings (Sa2 18:21), an Ethiopian, so his name signifies, and some think that he was so by birth, a black that waited on Joab, probably one of the ten that had helped to dispatch Absalom (Sa2 18:15) as some think, though it was dangerous for one of those to bring the news to David, lest his fate should be the same with theirs that reported to him Saul's death, and Ish-bosheth's.
2. Ahimaaz, the young priest (one of those who brought David intelligence of Absalom's motions, Sa2 17:17), was very forward to be the messenger of these tidings, so transported was he with joy that this cloud was blown over; let him go and tell the king that the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies, Sa2 18:19. This he desired, not so much in hope of a reward (he was above that) as that he might have the pleasure and satisfaction of bringing the king, whom he loved, this good news. Joab knew David better than Ahimaaz did, and that the tidings of Absalom's death, which must conclude the story, would spoil the acceptableness of all the rest; and he loves Ahimaaz too well to let him be the messenger of those tidings (Sa2 18:20); they are fitter to be brought by a footman than by a priest. However, when Cushi was gone, Ahimaaz begged hard for leave to run after him, and with great importunity obtained it, Sa2 18:22, Sa2 18:23. One would wonder why he should be so fond of this office, when another was employed in it. (1.) Perhaps it was to show his swiftness; observing how heavily Cushi ran, and that he took the worse way, though the nearest, he had a mind to show how fast he could run, and that he could go the furthest way about and yet beat Cushi. No great praise for a priest to be swift of foot, yet perhaps Ahimaaz was proud of it. (2.) Perhaps it was in prudence and tenderness to the king that he desired it. He knew he could get before Cushi, and therefore was willing to prepare the king, by a vague and general report, for the plain truth which Cushi was ordered to tell him. If bad news must come, it is best that it come gradually, and will be the better borne.
3. They are both discovered by the watchman on the gate of Mahanaim, Ahimaaz first (Sa2 18:24), for, though Cushi had the lead, Ahimaaz soon outran him; but presently after Cushi appeared, Sa2 18:26. (1.) When the king hears of one running alone he concludes he is an express (Sa2 18:25): If he be alone, there are tidings in his mouth; for if they had been beaten, and were flying back from the enemy, there would have been many. (2.) When he hears it is Ahimaaz he concludes he brings good news, Sa2 18:27. Ahimaaz, it seems, was so famous for running that he was known by it at a distance, and so eminently good that it is taken for granted, if he be the messenger, the news must needs be good: He is a good man, zealously affected to the king's interest, and would not bring bad news. It is pity but the good tidings of the gospel should always be brought by good men; and how welcome should the messengers be to us for their message sake!
4. Ahimaaz is very forward to proclaim the victory (Sa2 18:28), cries at a distance, "Peace, there is peace;" peace after war, which is doubly welcome. "All is well, my lord O king! the danger is over, and we may return, when the king pleases, to Jerusalem." And, when he comes near, he tells him the news more particularly. "They are all cut off that lifted up their hands against the king;" and, as became a priest, while he gives the king the joy of it, he gives God the glory of it, the God of peace and war, the God of salvation and victory: "Blessed be the Lord thy God, that has done this for thee, as thy God, pursuant to the promises made to uphold thy throne," ch, Sa2 7:16. When he said this, he fell down upon his face, not only in reverence to the king, but in humble adoration of God, whose name he praised for this success. By directing David thus to give God thanks for his victory, he prepared him for the approaching news of its allay. The more our hearts are fixed and enlarged in thanksgiving to God for our mercies the better disposed we shall be to bear with patience the afflictions mixed with them. Poor David is so much a father that he forgets he is a king, and therefore cannot rejoice in the news of a victory, till he know whether the young man Absalom be safe, for whom his heart seems to tremble, almost as Eli's, in a similar case, for the ark of God. Ahimaaz soon discerned, what Joab intimated to him, that the death of the king's son would make the tidings of the day very unwelcome, and therefore in his report left that matter doubtful; and, though he gave occasion to suspect how it was, yet, that the thunderclap might not come too suddenly upon the poor perplexed king, he refers him to the next messenger, whom they saw coming, for a more particular account of it. "When Joab sent the king's servant (namely, Cushi) and me thy servant, to bring the news, I saw a great tumult, occasioned by something extraordinary, as you will hear by and by; but I have nothing to say about it. I have delivered that which was my message. Cushi is better able to inform you than I am. I will not be the messenger of evil tidings; nor will I pretend to know that which I cannot give a perfect account of." He is therefore told to stand by till Cushi come (Sa2 18:30), and now, we may suppose, he gives the king a more particular account of the victory, which was the thing he came to bring the news of.
5. Cushi, the slow post, proves the sure one, and besides the confirmation of the news of the victory which Ahimaaz had brought - The Lord has avenged thee of all those that rose up against thee (Sa2 18:31) - he satisfied the king's enquiry concerning Absalom, Sa2 18:32. Is he safe? says David. "Yes," says Cushi, "he is safe in his grave;" but he tells the news so discreetly that, how unwelcome soever the message is, the messenger can have no blame. He did not tell him plainly that Absalom was hanged, and run through and buried under a heap of stones; but only that his fate was what he desired might be the fate of all that were traitors against the king, his crown and dignity: "The enemies of my lord the king, whoever they are, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is; I need wish them no worse."
II. How David received the intelligence. He forgets all the joy of his deliverance, and is quite overwhelmed with the sorrowful tidings of Absalom's death, Sa2 18:33. As soon as he perceived by Cushi's reply that Absalom was dead, he asked no more questions, but fell into a passion of weeping, retired from company, and abandoned himself to sorrow; as he was going up to his chamber he was overheard to say "O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! alas for thee! I lament thee. How hast thou fallen! Would God I had died for thee, and that thou hadst remained alive this day" (so the Chaldee adds) "O Absalom! my son, my son!" I wish I could see reason to think that this arose from a concern about Absalom's everlasting state, and that the reason why he wished he had died for him was because he had good hopes of his own salvation, and of Absalom's repentance if he had lived. It rather seems to have been spoken inconsiderately, and in a passion, and it was his infirmity. He is to be blamed, 1. For showing so great a fondness for a graceless son only because he was handsome and witty, while he was justly abandoned both of God and man. 2. For quarrelling, not only with divine providence, in the disposals of which he ought silently to have acquiesced, but with divine justice, the judgments of which he ought to have adored and subscribed to. See how Bildad argues (Job 8:3, Job 8:4), If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away in their transgression, thou shouldst submit, for doth God pervert judgment? See Lev 10:3. 3. For opposing the justice of the nation, which, as king, he was entrusted with the administration of, and which, with other public interests, he ought to have preferred before nay natural affection. 4. For despising the mercy of his deliverance, and the deliverance of his family and kingdom, from Absalom's wicked designs, as if this were no mercy, nor worth giving thanks for, because it cost the life of Absalom. 5. For indulging in a strong passion, and speaking unadvisedly with his lips. He now forgot his own reasonings upon the death of another child (Can I bring him back again?) and his own resolution to keep his mouth as with a bridle when his heart was hot within him, as well as his own practice at other times, when he quieted himself as a child that was weaned from his mother. The best men are not always in an equally good frame. What we over-loved we are apt to over-grieve for: in each affection, therefore, it is wisdom to have rule over our own spirits and to keep a strict guard upon ourselves when that is removed from us which was very dear to us. Losers think they may have leave to speak; but little said is soon amended. The penitent patient sufferer sitteth alone and keepeth silence (Lam 3:28), or rather, with Job, says, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–33 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok,.... To Joab;…
Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok,.... To Joab; for it seems he stayed with the army when he with Jonathan brought the message from Hushai to David:
let me now run, and bear the king tidings how that the Lord hath avenged him on his enemies; which he thought would be very acceptable to hear of as soon as possible; and to be a messenger with tidings of a victory, as it was honourable, so likewise profitable then as now; though perhaps Ahimaaz might have no respect to the reward, as indeed none could be expected, since the death of Absalom would be so disagreeable to the king; but was desirous of it, that the king might be acquainted with the event of the battle as soon as might be.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv24, 33 Gates - For the gates of the cities then…
Gates - For the gates of the cities then were, as now they are, large and thick; and for the greater security, had two gates, one more outward, the other inward. Here he sat, that he might hear tidings when any came into the city.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv21, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32, 33 Verse 21. Tell the king what thou hast seen]…
Verse 21. Tell the king what thou hast seen] At this time the death of Absalom was not publicly known; but Joab had given Cushi private information of it. This Ahimaaz had not, for he could not tell the king whether Absalom were dead. To this Joab seems to refer, 2Sa 18:22: "Thou hast no tidings ready."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv19, 22, 24, 25, 27, 32 2Sa 18:19-20. Let me now run — Ahimaaz wished…
2Sa 18:19-20. Let me now run — Ahimaaz wished to be made the messenger of this good success to the king; but Joab, who loved him, and knew how disagreeable the account of Absalom’s death would be to David, refused to let him be the bearer of such unwelcome news. Thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king’s son is dead — Thou shalt not be a messenger of evil tidings; they will be unwelcome to the king, and procure no good to thee.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv19, 21, 23, 28, 31, 33 Ahimaaz was a well-known runner 2Sa 18:27. Speed was…
Ahimaaz was a well-known runner 2Sa 18:27. Speed was a heroic virtue in those simple times (compare 2Sa 2:18). In Hezekiah’s reign 2Ch 30:6, 2Ch 30:10 we find an establishment of running post-men; and the same name (“runners”) is given Est 3:13 to the Persian posts, though at that time they rode on mules and camels.
Bear tidings - The original word is used almost exclusively of bearing good tidings, and hence, is rendered in the Septuagint (though not always) εὐαγγίζεσθαι euangelizesthai 2Sa 4:10; 1Sa 31:9. In 2Sa 18:21, it is not “carry the good tidings,” but “tell,” simply “announce.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32, 33 Chusi: perhaps, of Ethiopian extraction. (Grotius)
Chusi: perhaps, of Ethiopian extraction. (Grotius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv19, 23, 24 Then said Ahimaaz . . . Let me .…
Then said Ahimaaz . . . Let me . . . run and bear the king tidings--The reasons why Joab declined to accept Ahimaaz' offer to bear intelligence of the victory to David, and afterwards let him go along with another, are variously stated by commentators--but they are of no importance. Yet the alacrity of the messengers, as well as the eager excitement of the expectants, is graphically described.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33 19. Then said Ahimaaz — This son of the…
19. Then said Ahimaaz — This son of the high priest had already performed valuable service as messenger for the king, (2Sa_15:36; 2Sa_17:21,) and thereby he had gained the confidence and esteem of David. 2Sa_18:27. He was also swift of foot, and had a burning desire to be first in bearing the tidings of this victory to Mahanaim.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33 19–32. The news carried to David
19–32. The news carried to David
19. hath avenged him of his enemies] Lit. judged him out of the hand of his enemies: pronounced a favourable verdict in his cause and delivered him. Cp. 1Sa_24:15; Psa_43:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32, 33 (20) Thou shalt bear no tidings.—Ahimaaz appears to have…
(20) Thou shalt bear no tidings.—Ahimaaz appears to have been in favour both with David (comp. 2Sa_18:27) and with Joab. Joab, therefore, well knowing how painful to David would be the news of the death of Absalom, refused to let Ahimaaz bear it. The word is used, with rare exceptions, of good tidings.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33 Vers. 19-33. The facts are:
Vers. 19-33. The facts are:
1. Ahimaaz being eager to convey tidings of victory to the king, is denied permission by Joab, who, however, sends Cushi.
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2. Persisting in his desire to run after Cushi, Joab at last allows him to go.
3. The watchman at the gate of the city reports to the king that a runner isin sight, followed by another, whereupon David takes courage, and hopes for good news.
4. On Ahimaaz being the first to arrive, he briefly announces that all is well, and then prostrates himself before the king, and blesses God for having brought victory to the king"s cause.
5. David, in his deep concern for Absalom, inquires after his safety, andreceives from Ahimaaz an evasive reply.
6. Just then Cushi comes in and announces tidings of victory, and, in answer to the question as to Absalom"s safety, bluntly makes known the fact of his death.
7. The king, overwhelmed with anguish, enters his chamber, and therepours out his soul in a most pathetic lamentation.
The relation of character to work.
The work recently accomplished by Joab now gave rise to another, which included elements of good and evil. He was keen enough to see that the communication of the fact of victory would be most welcome to David, but that a statement of the particulars would be most distressing; and, therefore, with his usual practical sagacity, he sought out for the work of conveying tidings to the king a man whose character would fit him for dealing with the evil side of the message very much as he himself would.
I IN CARRYING ON HUMAN AFFAIRS THERE ARE OCCASIONS REQUIRING THE PERFORMANCE OF DISAGREEABLE WORK. It was a pleasant thing to have to announce to David a great victory over his foes, but far from pleasant to have to tell him what had become of his son, and who had slain him. On a former occasion, when evil tidings, blended with news of the fail of a foe, was brought to him, it went ill with the bearer. (2Sa_1:13-16) In this case the disagreeable work arose out of the wrong deeds of Joab. One evil created another. Disobedience to absolute authority cannot but bring the transgressor into an awkward position and impose unpleasant obligations. The flow of human life is a flow of work. In consequence of transgression against God, and violation of social order, an immense amount of annoying work has to be done. The sons of Jacob, after the sale of their brother, found difficult work on their hands. The imperfect life in the Church creates the necessity of doing things that pain the tender heart, and which is more adapted to rough and hard men. Evil deeds create duties which always carry with them more or less of pain and sorrow.
II THERE IS A NATURAL AFFINITY BETWEEN CERTAIN CHARACTERS AND DISAGREEABLE FORMS OF WORK. The reasons for Joab"s rejection of Ahimaaz were probably these: fear lest he should so state the facts as to prejudice David against himself, and belief that his nature was too tender and sympathetic for what he regarded as the proper delivery of the dark side of the message. Joab was a hard and blunt man, and he wanted such a man for a work which, because disagreeable, had better be got rid of as quickly as possible. If David should be angry with the Cushite, and slay him, Joab would not care for that, provided, in the blunt and straight announcement of Absalom"s death, no tenderness was displayed and no effort made to compromise himself. Such men as he scorn tenderness as weakness. They abhor what they term "sentiment." Joab"s character fitted him to send the painful tidings so bluntly and unfeelingly announced by Cushi (vers. 31, 32). As a rule, character finds work in affinity with itself, and Joab was right in the adaptation he sought for his purpose. As character is often a prophecy of work that will be done when occasion arises, so work done is often a revelation of character. Not any one can be a hangman. Not any one can be a consoler of the sick and dying. Even in the Christian Church there are kinds of work for which a peculiar firmness and almost severity of character is most suited. Only an Ambrose could overawe an emperor. On the other hand, most departments of Church work give scope for men of the Ahimaaz stamp rather than that of Cushi.
III AN INJURED CONSCIENCE READILY ADAPTS ITSELF TO PAINFUL WORK ISSUING OUT OF FORMER VIOLENCE TO ITSELF. Joab had done violence to his conscience in positive disobedience to the king"s commands (vers. 12-14). As every wrong to conscience renders its testimony for right the feebler, it was comparatively easy to frame a blunt, unsympathizing message for the Cushite to deliver to the king. There was as real disregard for David"s feelings in the framing of the hard, unfeeling message as in setting aside his command to spare the life of Absalom. Thus it is seen that the human conscience has the wonderful and terrible power of adapting itself to the environment produced by its own abuse, and so of being continuously affected for evil. A "seared conscience" is another expression for the gradual deterioration of sensibility produced by the enforced habit of accommodating itself to deeds which are the natural outcome of former misdeeds.
Sympathetic enthusiasm.
The son of Zadok espoused the cause of David (2Sa_15:27, 2Sa_15:36) in spite of the attractions for young men of Absalom"s manners. (2Sa_15:1-6) It was a noble thing for this young man to hold to a right cause in the day of adversity, and to place the fleetness of his feet and the vigilance of his ears and eyes at the command of the exile. The zeal with which he offered his services to Joab to convey the news of success to the king, was in keeping with his past reputation, and, as the sequel shows, was blended with a tender regard for the king"s feelings. In contrast with the action of Joab and his servant Cushi in relation to David, that of Ahimaaz is an instructive example of the elements that enter into a commendable, sympathetic enthusiasm.
I A JUST AND GOOD CAUSE. There may be great enthusiasm, but it may be wicked because manifested in an evil cause. It was to the honour of the son of Zadok that all the force of his nature was devoted to the righteous claims of the Lord"s anointed. He had identified himself with the servant of Jehovah in the day of trouble. In the great conflict of his age he was on the right side. This is the primary consideration with us all in the exercise of our powers, whether the questions at issue be political, social, or religious. We can take no credit for enthusiasm, and indeed it will be otherwise our sin, unless we take pains to see that we side with what is essentially just and good. Energy spent in advocacy or encouragement of a party, a movement, a system, a belief, or a practice, is not of moral worth apart from conscientious motive. Especially in the supreme question of every age, the claims of Christ as against the demand on our submission and service of lower and often unholy claims, the question comes On which slide are we? Are we with the rightful King or with his adversaries?
II ENTIRE SELF-DEVOTION. Ahimaaz had deliberately identified the whole interests of his life with the cause of the exiled king. He was not a mere observer of the conflict. His very life had been at stake when he entered into the compact (2Sa_15:27, 2Sa_15:33) and sought out the banished monarch. He had gone out to fight the battle with Joab, and was most eager to render the choicest service on the close of the day of victory. Enthusiasm which consists of approval and delight in the season of prosperity, or in verbal admiration, is of no substantial worth. The men who crossed hill and dale and lake because of the bread they ate (Joh_6:24-27) were not the whole-hearted disciples Christ cared to have. Christ would have the entire life. (Luk_9:59-62)
III PROMPT ACTION IN EMERGENCIES. The reality of this young man"s enthusiasm appeared in his ready offer of the special powers with which he was endowed to the urgency of the hour. He laid his best and most cultivated gifts at the service of his king just when they were most required. It is a characteristic of entire absorption in Christ"s work that there is not only the primal and imreserved surrender of life and all its interests to him and his kingdom, but also, as time passes on, a quick perception of entire work is needed, and an instant readiness to use any aptitude possessed for doing the work. "Here am I; send me," is the feeling of true enthusiasm when any emergency arises. There are beautiful instances of the free and prompt devotion of special gifts to the service of Christ when occasions suddenly arise requiring them. Are men smitten with plague or sword? Nurses skilled in care of the sick are at hand. Does calamity come on a house or village? There are eager feet swift to carry gospel consolations.
IV TRUE SYMPATHY GUIDING ACTION. It was the deep and genuine sympathy of Ahimaaz with what he knew were the most tender and sacred feelings of the king"s heart that made him eager to go, and both gladden him with news of God"s deliverance, and at the same time gently break the news of his personal loss. This gave extra speed to his fleet steps, and this explains his reference to God"s goodness (ver. 28), and also his evident desire to prepare the king for sad tidings (ver. 29). He felt too much for that noble, generous heart to blurt out the intelligence which he knew would crush it. There is great value in a servant who understands and appreciates the most tender and cherished feelings of his master. This sympathy is a discriminating guide to words and actions. It is this intense sympathy with the heart of Christ, this power to enter more than others do into the very passion of the Redeemer for saving men, that accounts for the remarkable zeal and discriminating conduct in doing religious work which have characterized some of the noblest Christians. The nearer we get to the heart of Christ, the more true will our enthusiasm be. The natural gifts and aptitudes of body and mind then turn with zest to all wise devices for advancing the interests most dear to him.
Miscellanies.
In connection with the main event referred to in the narrative, there are incidents and statements which suggest a variety of truths bearing more or less on ordinary life or finding their parallels therein. Briefly stated, these aye as follows.
I EAGER MEN AWAITING GREAT ISSUES. David and his followers at the gate of Mahanaim, looking out for news of the issue of the conflict then being carried on, sensible that interests more precious than life were involved, are but types of men still intent on learning the issue of undertakings in which they have embarked or in which they have an inexpressible interest. The disciples once awaited a wonderful issue when Christ was, during his trial and death, in conflict with powers of darkness. For forty days before Pentecost, men and women waited for signs of a great event. Often has the Church, in seasons of peril, waited in agony during the crisis. Men engaged in ordinary business know what it is to look out for the issue of great ventures; and in private religious experience there are times when the soul waits and watches more than those who watch for the morning. What great and momentous issues are being wrought out every day in this world for some of our fellow creatures!
II QUALIFIED OPTIMISM. "All is well," said Ahimaaz, to break the painful suspense of the watchers, and bring early consolation to the king"s heart. The words are few but wonderful. Taken in their strict sense, they meant to David more than could ever be expressed. Happy, indeed, is the man of whom and to whom these words can be unconditionally spoken. "All" is the term of widest range in human language; and "well" is the greatest and best affirmation that can ever be made. In David"s circumstances the phrase at least meant that his cause was triumphant, that God had come to his help. Ahimaaz was not insincere in saying what he did, knowing all the time that one event of the day would be most distressing to David. His optimism was qualified by a reservation, as is common in human life. There is a sense in which every good is qualified by a shade of ill. Even so great a boon as redemption bears on it the dark shadow of a Suffering One. The greatest victory of things is announced amidst the wail of widows and orphans. The possession of great wealth brings with it carking cares. Perhaps, in the final issue of all events, when Christ shall have put down all authority and power, (1Co_15:27) and the universe has gained its moral equilibrium after the long struggle between good and evil, it may be true in an absolute sense that "all is well;" but till then our optimism must be qualified.
III A PIOUS PARENT"S ABSORBING THOUGHT. David did not lose his character of parent in his character as king. As the anointed one he was intent on seeing his authority duly established, but as a father he was anxious for the safety of his rebellious son. By no process could he divest himself of his parental relation dim shadow is this of the fatherly relation which permeates all God"s regal relations to mankind! No one as he could pity the erring youth. He still yearned to have opportunity of bringing some influence to bear on his ungrateful heart. The direst thought to him was the possibility of life being cut short before such opportunity arose. "Is the young man safe?" This question has deep significance to multitudes as they think of their children out on the wide world, exposed to its deadly ills. It comes in the morning with the light of day; it intrudes amidst the busy thoughts of daily business; and it is often the last thought when sleep quiets the heart. It is also a question, in its spiritual application, above all questions of health and secular prosperity. To be "safe" in Christ is the prime concern; for usefulness to others and growth in moral good are then ensured, while at the same time the dreadful guilt of the past is covered.
The great lamentation.
On hearing of the death of his son, David retired into secrecy and poured out his soul in perhaps the most touching language to be found in the Bible. The strength and depth of feeling expressed were evidently in proportion to the interest which all along he had cherished in this abandoned child. Some writers have reproached David for yielding to what is termed "weakness" for a son whose just punishment ought to have been accepted with a calm acquiescence. But the criticism on his conduct is not really justified when all the facts are considered. He was a man constitutionally of strong, generous feelings kindly and tender in his bearing toward others. A father cannot forget that he is a father; and the more holy and generous his nature, the more powerfully will the fatherly feeling assert itself. As seen in our Saviour"s case, when he wept over Jerusalem already doomed because of sin against him, equal to, yea, worse even than, that of Absalom, the natural feelings of the heart may flow forth in most touching strains, while there is in the soul a most perfect accord with the righteous judgment of God. Nowhere does Scripture require men to suppress natural sentiments, or, in other words, require us to cease to be true human beings when we are brought face to face with the appalling judgments of God. Moreover, it is given to all parents to cherish hope of the most prodigal of sons while life continues, and David"s personal experience of the mercy of God was such as certainly warranted his cherishing hope of the renewal and salvation of even this wicked son; and if such a long cherished hope was suddenly crushed, and that, too, when care had been taken to prevent its being crushed (ver. 5), surely it was no sin for him, but an acceptable deed in the sight of God, when he vented his grief that now all hope of such a change was gone. There is no complaint against the wisdom and justice of God, no trace of a spirit of discontent with the administration of Divine love; it was pure sorrow for a ruined life. David"s humanity was not lost in his kingly office. The love of a father"s heart is not eradicated by a son"s ingratitude. The parable of the prodigal son is evidence of this and also of its Divine counterpart. And in the case of David, the remembrance of his own sad fall having possibly exercised a detrimental influence over Absalom, just in the most critical period of his life, could not but render both just and natural this great lamentation. Taking, then, this view of David"s conduct, we briefly notice the following truths.
I RELIGION INTENSIFIES AND PURIFIES NATURAL AFFECTION. Had not David been a very devout man, he would not have felt such deep sorrow over the death of Absalom. Religion makes a rather a true father; it renders love of offspring a more sacred thing. This follows from the more general truth that religion restores man to his normal state. Such affection has no relation to the sin of the child, except, perhaps, that the sin observed tends to render the affection more yearning and pitiful.
II WE ARE JUSTIFIED IN CHERISHING HOPE WHILE LIFE LASTS. David did, and had good reasons for it. The gospel encourages it; the revelation of the Father"s great lure to the "greatest of sinners" justifies it. Man is not a judge of what may be done either by the most guilty or for them. That many for whom parents pray and strive do, as far as we can see, perish in their sins, is no reason against hope while life continues. Thousands have been brought to God in the eleventh hour.
III THE DEATH OF OFFSPRING PRESUMABLY RECKLESS AND IMPENITENT IS THE GREATEST OF PARENTAL TROUBLES. To die is the common lot, and natural affection, though strong and pure, does not face death without consolations. But when death means the passage into eternity of a soul laden with guilt, and that soul once the object of delight and occasion of fondest hopes, then the most terrible of woes comes on a pious parent"s heart. The "Redeemer"s tears over lost souls," on which Howe has so wonderfully dwelt, are best understood by those who, like David, have wept over sons cut off in their sins.
IV ONE OF THE BITTEREST INGREDIENTS IN SORROW OVER THE LOST IS THAT OF REFLECTION ON PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION TOWARD BRINGING ON THAT CONDITION. David could not but think of the effect on his son"s views of life and tendencies of heart produced by his own great sin, and the months of alienation from God which ensued. How far parents are answerable for the character and destiny of their children is a grave question, but unquestionably a bad example in their early years cannot but tell perniciously on their future, and woe cannot but come on the father in darkest form when he connects his own misconduct with the hopeless death of his offspring. What manner of persons ought parents to be? Who knows what a turn a single lapse into sin may give to a youth"s destiny?
V IN THE PUREST HUMAN LOVE WE SEE A SHADOW OF GOD"S GREAT LOVE. David"s lamentation, Jeremiah"s wail over a ruined people, (Jer_9:1, Jer_9:2) the Apostle Paul"s anguish on account of his brethren, (Rom_9:1-3) and especially the Saviour"s sorrow over Jerusalem, (Mat_23:34-38) set forth, so far as we can know of such a mystery, the sorrowful feeling of the eternal Father (Joh_14:7-9) towards those who live and die in sin. God"s great love for us has been seen in this, that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom_6:6-10) He actually did what David longed to do for Absalom. Redemption in Christ embodies the best and noblest of all feelings, and transcends the human ideal.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv29, 32, 33 Is the young man Absalom safe?
2Sa_18:29
Is the young man Absalom safe?
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When a young man is insecure
Beginning from the outside circle, and finding our way to the centre, I am going to recount some of the dangers of young men.
1. Is the young man safe? No, certainly not; if he drinks. The cold, stingy, selfish being, it leaves untouched; but, if there is a youth more ardent, warm-hearted, high-spirited than the rest it marks him out for its prey. The young man, we shall suppose, has everything to recommend him. Good talents; pleasing address; excellent penmanship; comes from a good home; brings capital testimonials; but it is whispered, he drinks! That is enough. He is not safe. All his other advantages will not secure him.
2. Is the young man safe? No; if he gambles. It was only lately that a well-known magistrate said: I wish that the clerks in mercantile houses of London would come to this court, and see what I see, and hear what I hear. This is only one of a multitude of eases where prisoners in your position have confessed that their robberies are entirely clue to betting. I regard it as a curse to the country; because I see how young men are lured until they fall into a state of misery and wretchedness.
3. Is the young man safe? No; if he keeps bad company. Solomon wrote many true things, but he never wrote a truer than this: He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed. I have seen it again and again. I have seen as fine a fellow as I would ever wish to grasp by the hand, by some evil chance thrown into acquaintanceship with a loose, unprincipled character; and, from the day the intimacy began, there has been a steady and sure degeneracy.
4. Is the young man safe? No! if he is idle. I am thankful to say, there are not many of you exposed to that danger. What a sight, to be sure, the great inlets to the City present any week-day morning about ten oclock! What with the rattling of wheels on the Causeway, the shuffling of feet on the pavement, and the humming of innumerable voices, the hive seems as busy as it can be. But, havent you noticed, just once in s while, a man slouching along carelessly about, his hands in his pockets and, vacancy in his eyes? Thats the man the devil thinks he will have an easy job with.
5. Is the young man safe? No; if there is anything in his business inconsistent with the strictest integrity. Dont talk of being safe, if you have every day to make a compromise with conscience, and smooth things over the best way you can. I am grieved to say, the mercantile conscience at the present day is not very sensitive. Are there not many houses of business where some of the clerks or assistants might say, I could tell some things if I would, but I wont. Its not all straight and aboveboard. Customers dont get all for their money they think they are getting. Are there not things you have to wink at, if you would keep your situation, and get a rise by-and-by? Well, let me assure you of this--that, in the six thousand years of past human history, there has never been so much as one occasion when it was either a mans duty, Or his real interest to sin against God. It can never be right to do wrong.
6. Is the young man safe? No; if he does not make conscience of keeping the Sabbath-day. Apart from our spiritual or highest nature, man needs, his system demands, the rest of the Sabbath. He is not safe without it. A celebrated merchant declared, I should have been a maniac long ago, but for the Sabbath. Really, you are not safe without it. The brain is not safe; the intellect is not safe; the nerves--the muscles--the banes--the moral nature--the immortal soul.
7. Is the young man safe? No; if he neglects his private devotions, What is that that Christ says? Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret. The man who knows nothing of the closed door, and the bended knee, and the earnest breathing up to heaven, is no Christian; put that down for certain. Ah! you may have a nice room, pleasant look-out, clean-curtained windows, cheerful picture or two on the walls; tidy bookshelf, with just a select dozen or two instructive volumes; photographic album, which you often look at, with the faces of those you love most on earth; soft and comfortable pillow to lay your head upon; but--if that is all--O, there is a terrible want there. Can you not point me to the Bible which you nightly study, to the chair at which you daily bend, as you pour out your heart to God? If you cant, let me tell you, you are not, safe. No man can fight lifes battle successfully, and reach heaven in the end, who doesnt endeavour to spend a little while every day alone with God. Make conscience-work of it. Make a point (as McCheyne used to say) of seeing Gods face the first in the morning and the last at night. (Thain Davidson, D. D.)
A young mans safety
I. The question of the text is a most suggestive one.
1. Is the young man safe physically. Is his health safe?
2. Is the young man safe intellectually? What is the state of his mind? Have his powers of thought been developed, or dwarfed and stunted? Is he well informed? Is he capable of coming to a correct conclusion concerning any ordinary matter which may be brought before him? Is his mind growing? without which there can be no mental life.
3. Is the young man safe socially? Is his position a good one? Is it likely to lead to a competency, or to sustain him respectably and supply his various wants. Is he safe as regards his knowledge of his trade. Is he a skilful, intelligent mechanic- or a judicious and successful mad of business? These are inquiries which should not be despised. Then, are his companions welt chosen? Are they likely to do him good? Are they on the Lords side? What about that nearest of all relations, that dearest of all friends? Has he selected his future wife? If so, has he made a safe venture? Will she prove a true helpmeet to him? Will she sustain him in all his struggles, rejoice with him in his success, weep with him in his trials? Will she make his home, however humble or however splendid it may be, the dearest, sweetest spot in all the earth to him? Will she help him in the path to heaven, or sink him down to hell?
4. Is the young man safe spiritually? In a word, is his soul safe? If he were now to sink in death, what would be his eternal destiny? Has he been accepted and forgiven through the Beloved One? Is his soul the temple of the Holy Spirit? Is life to him Christ? Is his daily experience meetening him for the brighter and better world? Has he determined to give up all things (if necessary) that he may live in Christ and be found in Him? Is he striving to live a divine life among sinful men? Is he endeavouring to put down sin in his body, and to make all his members the servants of righteousness? If not, he is not safe.
II. The question of the text is a very practical one.
1. The first professes large things. He says he is fond of investigating truth, but he will not subscribe to any creed. He will not join any sect, lest his powers of thought should be weakened by contact with men of narrow minds. He will think for himself, and doubtless all will be well at last. Not that he is prepared to accept the dogmas (this is his favourite term) of revealed religion. These may do for the very aged and for children, but not for him. He must have something more reasonable, and more intellectual--something that will expand and exalt his soul. This poor young man may soon be dismissed. He is filled with pride, the condemnation of the devil. He has not yet learnt that before he can enter the kingdom of heaven he must become as a little child. He has no true conception of sin. The idea of the atonement never enters his brain. He either assumes that he is perfectly holy, or God is all merciful, and, therefore, will not bring his venial faults in the judgment against him. Ah, what a mistake is all this!
2. The second is a young man of a totally different order. He is the son of pious parents. He has not a word to say against the gospel, he admits the vast importance of personal religion. He has often been under the influence of the truth, but, alas, he makes no progress heavenward. He grants all you demand, but he does not act upon his concessions. And why? It is his fond hope that after his youthful days are past he will have a more favourable opportunity for doing so than he now possesses. He thinks that the claims of religion and of business would not, in his case, work harmoniously. He, therefore, waits, although persuaded. He postpones the great work of seeking the Lord, although convinced of its last importance. He hopes to die the death of the righteous, but he is not prepared to live his life. He trusts he will reach heaven, but he cannot as yet give up earth. Is this young man safe? Alas, no! He is turned aside by a deceived heart. The devil is leading him captive at his will.
3. The third young man resembles in some points both the second and the first. He is intelligent and studious. He has also been brought under the power of the world to come. He does not, however, satisfy his conscience by saying, Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season I will send for thee. On the other hand, he endeavours to obtain peace by a diligent observance of the precepts of the law. As far as outward deportment goes, he is moral, amiable, loving, and kind. His friends unite in pronouncing him a most unexceptionable personage. His praises frequently form the burden of their conversation. They cannot understand why one go very young should be so very scrupulous. He must be right. He must be safe. Let us, however, test him by the Word of God. Have you not read of a young man who came to Jesus saying, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? Here we have a type of the class, one of which I have brought before you. And can we pronounce him safe? Far from it. His morality will not bear the Divine scrutiny. His works, performed as they are in a self-righteous spirit, are an abomination before God.
4. The fourth young man stands before us. Is he safe? Listen. Three years ago he had a dangerous illness. For some time his life trembled in the balance. Brought face to face with death, he felt that he was not prepared for its stroke. Though very young the thought of eternity filled him with terror. The sins of his youth weighed him down. Should he die he would be lost for ever. At this juncture a pious and judicious friend visited him and spoke of the great truths of salvation. The young man listened with eagerness to his description of the death of Jesus. Not that what he now beam was wholly new to him. He had heard it from his mother, as in early childhood he sat upon her knee. He had heard it from his Sabbath school teacher, he had heard it also from his father, as he knelt by his dying bed, to receive his last benediction; but now, it came to him with new and peculiar power. Thoughts and feelings were awakened which had before found no place in his bosom. Was there mercy for him? Would Jesus receive, forgive, and bless him? He would read the Gospel and see for himself. He did so, and before many days had gone by, he cried to Him who is able to save to the very uttermost, Lord, save me, or I perish. His earnest supplication was not in vain. The Saviour was exceedingly gracious to him at the voice of his cry. The burden of his sin was taken away. The peace of God filled his soul. He felt that from henceforth he was the Lords. Through the good providence of God his life was spared, and since his recovery he has carried out the resolutions which he made upon his sick bed. Resting upon Jesus himself, he has endeavoured to induce others to do the same, and not a few of his former companions can testify that his efforts have not been made in vain. Need I say that this young man is safe. No fears can be enter-rained on his account. He is safe because he is in Christ.
III. The question of the text is a very urgent one. There are some inquiries which we may postpone for a season without loss. It is not essential to our well-being that we should answer them at once. The one before us is, however, of a very different character. Is the young man safe? This is the most important question to which your attention can be directed; it demands and deserves your instant consideration-let me therefore press it upon you--young men, are you safe? Are the Saviours arms around and beneath you? Are you in the enjoyment of his love?
1. Your danger makes this question a very urgent one.
2. The greatness of the interest at stake makes this an urgent question. It may be that you have not realized your capacity. You do not know your value. Think what you may become even on earth. You may be a useful member of society--the delight, the joy, the blessing of your social circle. It is also in your power to do much for Jesus. You can so labour that many will rise up to call you blessed.
3. The necessities of the world make this an urgent question. Young men are wanted in every department of Christian agency. The cry is, everywhere, Give us men; give us young men. They are wanted in the Sabbath school. They are wanted in the mission field abroad. Young men, you live in important times. You are wanted. The church wants you. Christ wants you. Bending from his throne he says, Who will go for us? Will you not reply, Here am I, send me. Finally, whether we are old or young, let us gather around the cross; let us bow at the feet of Jesus. That is the most blessed spot in the universe. There is safety there! (H. B. Ingram.)
An anxious enquiry for a beloved son
How many there are at this present moment who have, no doubt, other very weighty businesses, but whose one only thought just now is, Is the young man safe? Is my son safe? Is my father safe? Is my wife safe? A vessel has gone down in the river with hundreds on board, and weeping friends are going hither and thither from place to place, hoping and yet fearing to identify the corpse of some beloved one; longing to find one who has not been heard of since the fatal hour, and trembling all the while lest they should find him or her among the bodies which have been drawn from the cold stream. The one thought uppermost with scores to-night is this one--Is my beloved one safe? Do you blame them? They are neglecting business, and forsaking their daily toil, but do you blame them? A hundred weighty things are forgotten in the one eager enquiry: do you, can you, blame them? Assuredly not. It is natural, and it is, therefore, I think, but right.
I. This question of anxiety--Is the young man Absalom safe?
1. And the first remark is, it is a question asked by a father concerning his son. Is he safe?
2. This was a question asked about a son who had left his fathers house. Is the young man Absalom safe?
3. It is the question of a father about his rebellious son.
4. The question of a parent concerning a son who, if he were not safe, but dead, was certainly in a very dreadful plight. Is the young man Absalom safe?
5. This was a question, alas! which was asked by a father about a son who was really dead at the time when the question was asked. It was late in the day to enquire for Absaloms safety; for it was all over with that rebellious son.
II. You have had the question; we are now to speak upon some occasions when that question would very naturally be used. Is the young man Absalom safe?
1. The question would be used, of course, in times, like the present, in reference to this mortal life. When a fearful calamity has swept away hundreds at a stroke such an enquiry is on every lip.
2. Times of disease, also, raise such enquiries. Well do I recollect some four-and-twenty years ago, when first I came to London, it was my painful duty to go, not only by day, but by night, from house to house where the cholera was raging; and almost every time I met the beloved friends at Park Street it was my sorrow to hear it said, Mr. So-and-so is dead. Mistress A. or B. is gone, till I sickened myself from very grief. It was then most natural that each one should say concerning, his relative at a little distance, Is he still alive? Is he still safe?
3. But sometimes we have to ask this question about friends and children, with regard to their eternal life. They are dead, and we are fearful that they did not die in Christ, and therefore we enquire, Is the young man Absalom safe?
4. Is the young man Absalom safe? is a more practical question when we put it about young people and old people, when they are still alive, and we are anxious about their spiritual condition. Is the young man Absalom safe? That is to say, is he really safe for the future--for this world and for the world to come?
III. The third point is to be the answers which we have to give to this question--IS the young man Absalom safe? This question has often bean sent up by friends from the country about their lads who have come to London--Is my boy Harry safe? Is my son John safe? Answer, sometimes: No, no. He is not safe. We are sorry to say that he is in great danger. I will tell you when we know he is not safe.
1. He is not safe if, like Absalom, he is at enmity with his father. Oh, no.
2. Is the young man safe? Well, no. We have seen him lately in bad company. He has associated with other young men who are of loose morals.
3. And he is not safe, because he has taken to indulge in expensive habits. Absalom prepared him, it is said, chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. This extravagance was a sign of evil. A youth who lavishes money upon needless luxuries is not safe.
4. Another thing. The young man Absalom is not safe, as you may see, if you look at his personal appearance. We read, But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. Let young men and women dress according to their stations; we are not condemning them for that. I recollect Mr. Jay saying, If you ladies will tell me your income to a penny, I will tell you how many ribbons you may wear to a yard; and I think that I might venture to say the same.
5. And we are sure the young man Absalom is not safe, when he has begun to be vicious. You recollect what Absalom did.
6. Is the young man Absalom safe? No, David, he is not, for the last time we saw him he was in a battle, and the people were dying all around him, and therefore he is not safe. How can he be safe where others fail? Yes, and I saw the young man come out of a low place of amusement late one night, and I thought, No, the young man Absalom is not safe there, for many perish there. I heard of his betting at the races, and I thought, The young man Absalom is not safe, for multitudes are ruined there. I saw him in loose company one evening, and I said, No, the young man Absalom is not safe: he is surrounded by those who hunt for the precious life. It is never safe for us to be where other people fall; because if they perish, why should not we?
7. Now, the young man is here to-night who will answer to the next description. He is a very nice young fellow. He is a great hearer and lover of the gospel word, but he is not decided. He has never taken his stand with Gods people, confessing Christ as his Lord. Is the young man safe? Oh, no. He is very hopeful, God bless him! We will pray him into safety if we can; but he is not safe yet. Those people who were almost saved from the wreck of the Princess Alice were drowned; and those persons who are almost saved from sin are still lost. If you are almost alive you are dead.
8. A pleasant task remains, I will now answer that question with a happy, Yes. Yes, the young man Absalom is safe. Why?
(1) Well, first, because he is a believer in Christ.
(2) The young man is saved, for he loves the gospel. He will not go to hear anything but the gospel.
(3) I know he in safe, for he is very humble, He is not perfect yet: he does not say that he is, nor boast of his attainments. He does not want to be the forehorse of the team, he is willing to he placed anywhere so that he can be useful. Moreover, he is very diffident of himself. He is afraid sometimes to put one foot before another for fear he should take a wrong step. He is always going on his knees to ask for direction; he waits upon God for guidance, and does not dare to do anything without the direction of the word and the Spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Absalom: Spiritual insecurity
Absalom, like every man in to-days battle, was in danger. He was not merely running risk in battle, but he had other risks. Of the chances of battle only his father thought, but the young man was in danger from other things. His own vanity was a danger. See how proud he was of those locks of his. See how he yielded to the vanity of thinking himself fit to sway a sceptre; and yet he was more fitted to handle brazen mirrors. See how to vanity was added another danger, ambition--the sin by which the angels fell. This formed the base of his character. Through this he even flattered those whom he wished to win to his purposes. If any were drunken he could quaff wine with them; if profane he could swear with them; if lustful he could match the worst in sensual suggestions. See further, how he took bad advice from evil associates. See, too, how a fancied inviolability endangered him. He had his greatest foes within, His danger was in proportion to the badness of his character--and we shall hardly find a worse in the whole Bible. And these risks are for all in the battle of life. It is a hand to hand struggle. We know not all the risks, for We cannot tell to what this life leads. We know not what consequences may follow on neglect or defeat, and what on triumph. We know we have to resist sin. It is sufficient for us to know that it must be conquered, or that it will ruin us. Sin will assume various forms, will assault now in solid phalanx, now single-handed and alone from behind some shelter. It does not use the same weapons with all With one it tries vanity, with another ambition, with another indolence, or lying, or greed, and with another sensuality, or inebriety. Some it allures into vicious company, others it destroys by leading to the indulgence of a selfish isolation, a spirit that will let none know their plans, share their pleasures or possessions--a spirit that nourishes a self-complacency and self-righteousness--a spirit that perhaps laughs at spiritual struggles, and seeks to dissipate the most sacred and treasured truths by a bitter sneer. Sin is a treacherous foe. A man must beware of thinking that because he has no temptation to steal, to swear, to waste money, to rejoice in lewd company, to frequent places of bad repute,, and to imbibe strong liquors with the revellers, that, therefore, he is free from danger. He may be in danger, from his thoughts when he sits alone, or when he wanders alone m the streets; for as a young man said, There is no place of danger equal to the streets of a great city after dark This witness is true.
2. The anxiety of David for that young man Absalom was as keen as his love was unquenchable. It is remarkable that the king did not cast off all care for one who was so unworthy. Though a king, he was a father. Absaloms guilt was deep, but his fathers love was deeper.
(1) David loved Absalom because he was his son. The ties of blood are strong.
(2) The king not only loved but made every excuse possible for his erring son. He tried to believe that Absalom was only the tool of one more skilful and bitter, Ahithophel. His son was a willing tool. Still it was like David to admit every possible extenuation of Absaloms guilt. And was he better than our Father? Does not God make every excuse for us? The cry of Jesus on the Cross, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do, is a revelation of the heart of God.
(3) David was anxious for his son because he knew something of the danger of being cut off in iniquity. The revelation to him was meagre, but enough. He knew that in the death of the sinner there was no hope. To the Cross, then. There the stain of ingratitude can be removed, there the look of Christ can melt the heart, there the peace of Christ can free the soul, there the power of Christ can sustain the soul, there can be given strength to resist in lifes battle, there the mystery of life can be solved, and the fret of life broken. There we, shall learn to avoid tampering with all sin. (F. Hastings.)
The four great passes
I propose to speak about the safety of young men.
I. The first great pass in a young mans life when he needs Divine help is when he chooses his occupation or profession. It is a serious moment when a young man gets through with his schooling, and perhaps leaves his fathers house, and says: Now, what shall I be? Mechanism opens before him a score of trades, and professional life opens before him seven or eight callings. He must choose between these, and must choose aright, for if he make a mistake here he is gone. I have a friend who started life in merchandise. Then he went into the medical profession. After awhile he crossed over into specific surgery. Then he entered the ministry. Then he became a soldier in the army. After that he entered the ministry again, and is now a surgeon. O! if he had only had God at the start to tell him what to do.
II. The second great pass in life when a young man wants Divine direction is when he establishes his own household. When a man builds his earthly home, he decides his eternity. I know that affiancing is usually looked upon as something to be merry over, instead of something to be prayed about; but what step is there fraught with such weal or woe? Is it not strange that an affair charged with such temporal and eternal import should depend on a whim or a glance? I do not think I put the ease too strongly when I say that when a young man marries he marries for heaven or hell! If he brings into his household the right kind of influences, the home will be elevated and upward in its impulsions. If he bring the wrong kind of influences into his house he will go down--he must go down. A minister of the Gospel came into a home where there was great poverty and destitution, and it was generally supposed that the poverty came from the fact that these people had married too early; and after the minister had looked around upon the utter want and destitution, and had rehearsed the misfortunes that had come upon the household, he turned to the poor man and said: Dont you now regret your early marriage? Dont you think it was your great mistake in life? And the man halted for a moment, and his eyes filled up with tears, and he looked up at his poorly-clad wife and said: No, sir; she has been the same to ms all through!
III. The third great pass in life in which a young man wants religion is in the time of his first success. You say: Here I have money now of my own. What shall I do with it? What investments shall I make? What house shall I buy? What wardrobe shall I create? What shall I get? What charities, what philanthropies, shall I favour? That is the crisis where thousands of men upset. Some of them rush into dissipations. A man wants the grace of Christ at that crisis to keep him rightly balanced.
IV. The fourth great pass in a young mans life when he needs the grace of God is when he comes to his first sorrow. It is preposterous for us to launch young men on life with the idea that they are going to have it smooth all the way. There will be storms. You want extra cordage. I know when our last war was over, some people came back without a scratch or a scar, but that is not so in the great battle of life: we get wounded in the hands, and wounded in the feet, and wounded in the head, and wounded in the heart. No man escapes. But now, what are you going to do with your first sorrow? The way you get through your first sorrow will decide whether you can endure the other sorrows of life. (T. De Witt Talmaqe, D. D.)
The death of Absalom
Let us gather up some of the lessons of this narrative:--
I. Gods restraining and over-ruling hand amid the plans of wicked men. Absalom was free to act upon the sagacious (albeit cruelly unfilial) advice of Ahithophel; but he rejected it. He was free to reject the plausible advice of Hushai; but he chose to act upon it. For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. But the Lords appointment worked not counter to, but through, the free choice of Absalom. Human freedom is a fact of individual consciousness. We know we are free, and vet we also know, from the Scriptures of truth and the teachings of history, that, in spite of all opposition, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Through the very folly and sin of men God is working out His own great, pure purpose, and yet man is none the less guilty.
II. Womens work is Davids preservation. A female servant--a woman can go unsuspected to En-rogel, the Fullers well--went and told them. She was a faithful messenger; quickly, silently went and returned, and kept to herself the matter. Presently the young men were seen, suspected, and pursued by Absaloms servants: tracked to the mans house in Bahurim, where in a dry well they were hiding, and where, but for the woman of the house, they had doubtless been detected. She took and spread a covering over the wells mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known. And with evasive answer she baffled and sent away the pursuers. Had it been otherwise in the conduct of these women, it had been doubtless greatly otherwise with Davids safety. Women have played no unimportant part in the needed revolutions of nations; and, more valuable still, in the extension of Christs kingdom. They ministered to the Lord of their substance during His life on earth. When men were faithless they were faithful to Him. In all time since they, loyal to His throne, have been hastening His kingdom. How many are doing it to-day! Women, of whom the world knows little if anything; mothers among their children; servants at their lowly toil; within the narrow walls of home or but a little way beyond them, found faithful, and so by every pure true word every kindly deed, speeding the universal answer to their daily prayer, Thy Kingdom come!
III. The end of wounded pride. That Ahithophel was a sagacious man is clear. That he was a proud man is equally clear. But when preference was given to Hushais advice his pride was cut to the quick. So home went the angry, bitter man. He put his household in order, and then, the first of recorded suicides, hanged himself. Stupendous folly to think more of the order of his household--leaving all his affairs carefully arranged--than of the safety of his soul. Unbidden, his sins upon him, he rushed into the presence of his Maker. Pride goeth before destruction--in his case self-destruction. It must be destroyed if the soul is to live.
IV. The doom of un-filial ingratitude and rebellion. Sudden, irresistible, as bolt from clear skies, came his doom. Such a doom l What thoughts must have thronged him in his last awful moments! Alas for the young man Absalom! Let young men and women remember that punishment for disobedience to parents is inevitable. Many today axe bearing it in silent, unutterable remorse. Would that they could recall the dead! Would that in some little way, by present love and tenderness, they could show repentance for the unfilial past! But the dead come no more!
V. How parental love appears in parental anxiety and sorrow! The heart of David is made bare to us in this narrative. It is all tenderness towards Absalom. He sees him in the light of many a beautiful memory. The child Absalom! The youth! The faultless loveliness of form! The luxuriant and splendid locks that crowned him! The fond words when the young prince had nestled in his arms! It all lives to David. His one anxiety is for Absaloms safety. Victory will be blurred into defeat if he should perish. All day long waits the king for the battle-news; all the news shrunken to this, What, what of Absalom? And when the news is known, the king creeps out of sight of men, weeping, weeping as he goes, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! Oh! the sad, sad cry! Heard, alas! to-day, where homes mourn over the lost, and parents hearts break.
There is no far nor near,
There is neither there nor here,
There is neither soon nor late,
In that Chamber over the Gate,
Nor any long ago
To that cry of human woe,
O Absalom, my son!
From the ages that are past
The voice comes like a blast,
Over seas that wreck and drown,
Over tumult of traffic and town;
And from ages yet to be
Come the echoes back to me,
O Absalom, my son!
Somewhere at every hour,
The watchman on the tower
Looks forth, and sees the fleet
Approach of the hurrying feet
Of messengers, that bear
The tidings of despair.
O Absalom, my son!
But Davids voice dies into silence. We hear another--a greater--the greatest of all. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. (G. J. Coster.)
Is the young man safe?
There may be very much put together in a small space. We have in this Book a library in a volume; and we have in this one sentence s world of meaning. Let us endeavour to realise this. Safe! This is a very short word, soon spoken; but how much solemn meaning is there in that one word! When is the young man safe?
1. Not while he is in sin; not, while, like the unhappy Absalom, any sin has dominion over him; not while the corruption of nature is unsubdued and unconquered; not while religion is an appearance, and if not, as with Absalom, an actors mask, yet only an empty name, and a dead formality
(1) Do generous feelings make him safe? The lost Absalom had those feelings.
(2) Do ability and talent make the young man safe? Absalom clearly had these! He climbed to power by the exercise of the very same talents which have placed many in our own times and many in all times in the high places of the State; for the language of the aspirant to power is often Absaloms very words--Oh! that I were made judge; see what I would do if I were in power. Do religious education end training make the young man safe? Davids son had doubtless these. He who himself so loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where His honour dwelt, would not fail to take his children there, and try to make them also love it.
(3) Do power, riches, high rank, make the young man safe? Absalom had all these; yet power only created the thirst for more power; the princes coronet made him long for the kings crown; the rank he had raised him so near to what he wished to have, that he grasped at it, and fell off the stage into hopeless ruin.
(4) Do health, strength, or beauty make the young man safe? They were instruments to win admiration, to conciliate favour; but because their unhappy possessor was himself wrong, all these were only instruments of evil, and the beautiful mass of his curling ringlets only furnished a hangmans rope to execute their condemned possessor.
2. What does make the young man safe? Is it to be never tempted? If this be safety, then who is safe? We may flee from the gay and busy world, we may hide ourselves in the secluded cave, we may shut ourselves in the lonely cloister. Will there be no temptation there? Does memory cease there? Does busy fancy leave off painting her airy pictures there? Does the corrupt heart not go with us into that seclusion? I have been dancing at Rome, said one of old, when I was shut up in my cave in the wilderness. Do barred doors shut out the spirit that tempts man? or can man leave behind him that nature which the prince of this world, when he comes, finds as tinder to catch his sparks, as rotten wood for his fiery darts to lodge in? If that man only is safe who is out of the reach of temptation, then none is safe at all, for all are tempted. Is any one safe, then? Yes. Look at this young man. He is young; life is bursting upon him; and who knows not the peculiar freshness of opening life? The bright flowers of the early spring, the warm fresh breeze loaded with the sweetness of the hawthorn, the fresh green grass, like a springing carpet under his elastic tread, the glorious sea of blue above, with its floating isles of cloud, give sensations of joy as intense, and pleasure as keen to him as to any others. But he sees more than some in these sights, and he hears more than others in these sounds. He sees the Maker in His works; he reads something of the skill that planned, the Power that executed, the perpetual Presence that works in all the things around. And he sees more. He sees a Fathers love at every turn, strewing His childrens path with love and blessing. Thus, then, we can answer the questions--What it is to be safe? and, when alone can we say that the young man is safe? The Scripture answers, by telling us that then and then only is the young or the old safe, when God has made the heart of man His own habitation by the Spirit, and when Satan, and the world, and the flesh have not to contend with poor weak, frail man, but with man aided, and assisted, and governed by the eternal God. (W. W. Champneys, M. A.)
To young man
This is the question of the home. Like David, every parent should be on the watch-tower of solicitude, to see whether it is well with the child. Parents ought to watch how their children fight lifes battle, for they have many foes and a hard conflict. This question of parental love asked in due season will help and may save them: Is the young man safe? It is also the question of the Church. Upon her battlements must be the watchtower, from which words of warning should be uttered. The paths of youth are slippery. A young man safe at thirty is, as a rule, safe for ever. All young men need the grace of God and the wise counsel of their elders. Paul says, Young men exhort to be soberminded.
I. Is he safe as to his training? A question for home and school. Parents are the worlds rulers. Children are imitators, living phonographs. What they see and hear they reproduce. They will live the home life over again in the habits and characters formed there. As to character, in a life of eighty years, the first twenty form the bigger half. The first colours in the mind of a child are eternal. What means the proverb, Once a man, twice a child? Not the weakness of old age only, but that as the outward man perishes we return to the scenes of childhood.
II. Is he safe as to his calling? Is he suited to his calling? If not, he cannot be safe. He is where he ought not to be; and if so, what chance has he for happiness or success? What irreparable wrong is wrought when parents insist on their son following trades or professions wholly distasteful to them! Natures providence gives most men a genius for doing certain things easily and well. We should follow those lines of least resistance. A gifted youth was tied to a trade he loathed. He had to follow life on these lines of greatest resistance, and with a sad result. That life was wrecked through harsh and unwise treatment at the outset. Assistants like young Adam Clarke have been asked to become partakers of their masters sins and to put their hands to evil. If all practised the golden rule, trade and commerce would soon pass out of the region of questionable methods. John Wesley used to tell his helpers, Be ashamed of nothing but sin; no, not of cleaning your own shoes, when necessary.
III. Is he safe as to his companions? Absalom was not. He mixed with a set of vain and worthless flatterers, who made him as bad as themselves. He listened to them until they fed his ambition and puffed him up. A youth is known by the company he keeps. Woe be to the unwary who are beguiled by evil companions! Their steps lead to the gates of hell. Dr. Stalker says there are two methods of meeting temptation: one the method of restraint, the other that of counter-attraction. And, like Ulysses, who was tied to the mast of his ship and saved himself from the sirens, so there is many a cord by which young men may secure themselves. Love of home, of church, of school, and of Christian work, is a silver cord to keep them safe in willing bonds, bound yet free. And as Orpheus destroyed the charm of the inferior music by his superior strains, so there are counter-attractions by seeking which young men may be safe. Instead of evil companions, seek good ones.
IV. Is he safe as to his pleasures? He must have them. The bow cannot be always strung. Hobbies and habits make life. It is true, as Mr. Gladstone says, that change of labour is to a great extent the best form of recreation; but it must not be always conscious labour That duty must be lost in the joy. To be always on duty, to be ever hearing the wheels of lifes machinery, is to make life a treadmill. Such a youth will lack imagination, enthusiasm, and faith. But do our pleasures recreate? Do they give muscle to body, and force to mind? Do they send us back to our task strong and glad? If so, they are true pleasures.
V. Is he safe in his success? Some men can endure sorrow, but cannot stand success. In its slippery paths they become giddy and fall. Sorrow and adversity brace them, and they are brave and patient, and play the man; but prosperity--wealth, popularity, influence--enervates, and their strength becomes weakness. When the world smiles, pride compasseth them about, and soon they fall. Men sometimes fail at the strongest point; like Edinburgh Castle, which was once taken on the rocky side, supposed to be impregnable.
VI. Is he safe in the hour of death? Alas! Absalom was not. Here was the pathos of Davids lament. My son, would God I had died for thee! The shafts of death strike young and old. He who can face the grim monster is a man every inch of him. We are only safe in the arms of Jesus. (Joseph Johns.)
The safety of the young
I. That the young are exposed to special dangers.
1. Youth is a time of special susceptibility. While the grown tree will sooner break than bend, the sapling may be trained any way.
2. It is a time of ingenuous trustfulness. Much of the folly of young people may be attributed to their ignorance of the world. They see the flower, and have no suspicion of the serpent that lies concealed under it. No guilt can be greater, no sin more diabolical, than that of him who trades upon the unsuspiciousness of innocence.
3. It is a time of special impulsiveness. The young have fresh blood coursing in their veins; and the freshness of their physical being is but a type of that which characterises their whole moral and spiritual nature.
4. It is a time when new thoughts and opinions are most readily received. In a certain sense men naturally grow more conservative as they grow older. The very changableness of youth betokens the readiness with which their minds can be guided into fresh and ennobling trains of thought. The great want of youth is guidance: not restraint, but direction; not stern and repellant commands, so much as counsel.
5. It is the time when life habits are definitely formed. It is then the metal is poured into the mould, and the image stands forth through life with shape of unsightly deformity or graceful beauty. The wax is soft; but will soon harden under the impression of a Divine likeness or of one debased.
II. That the safety of the young is a question for special inquiry. Is the young man safe? A question for--
1. Parents. What is the character of the home-influence? Parents must take their choice. They must either make the life and lessons--the love and the pleasures--of home more attractive and winning than those of the street; or they must pass through bitter experiences in the midst of which they need not Wonder at the ruin of their sons and daughters.
2. Employers. What is the example in trade life? What are the associations of the workshop and the warehouse? Are not assistants and apprentices too often left as isolated atoms on the surging sea of life? What care they for the world that cares not for them?
3. The Church. What is the Church doing? Are not Young Mens Christian Associations in some sense so many testimonies against the Church on account of neglected duty.
4. Young men themselves. Humanly speaking, there is no help like self-help. Dare to be men--to stand alone. Yet not alone; since Christ waits to take you under His protection. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? (F. Wagstaff.)
The dangers of young men
When a youth has left his fathers house, and gums to mingle with the world, to be exposed to its storms, its temptations, its deceitful fascinations, it is just thus that his anxious parents question every one who has come from the place of his abode, Is the young man safe?
I. The dangers to which young men are exposed. There are, first, dangers incidental to their time of life. Every one knows that there are certain stages of life fraught with more importance, and consequently more perilous, than others. This is true physically; for medical men will tell you, that when the child passes into the boy, when the boy merges into the young man, when the young man bursts into the full bloom of manhood, and again when the man, at what is called his grand climacteric, crosses the boundary of old age--these are all critical times; and that diseases which at any other period would be thrown of[ with ease, become then dangerous, and often fatal. Now the same thing holds of the moral and spiritual development of a man; arid there are stages of his soul-history which are just as critical and momentous for his eternal interests, as those which I have specified are for his physical.
1. There is great peril springing out of the inexperience by which a youth is characterised. Everything is new and strange to him; and when, for the first time, he embarks upon the troubled sea of commercial life, not Columbus himself, as in fear and trembling he pushed on and on over the wide waste of waters, and
Was the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea,
was more: inexperienced in navigation than is he. He is out of sight of his old landmarks; he knows neither the dangers that encircle him, nor the currents in the midst of which his course is to be pursued. He has everything to learn, and everything to know.
2. But added to this inexperience, and, indeed, intensifying the danger that results from it, is that self-conceit, or self-confidence, by which every youth is pre-eminently distinguished. Though he knows so little, he imagines he knows everything; indeed, just because he knows so little, he fancies he is exceedingly intelligent; for the law is an invariable one, that the more a man knows the more he knows his ignorance; while, on the other hand, the greater a mans ignorance, the greater, too, is his ignorance of his ignorance.
3. But a third danger, incidental to the time of life at which a young man has arrived, rises out of that impatience of control which marks the time of transition between youth and manhood. Love of liberty is a good thing, but it Is apt to become, love of licence; and this is the danger of which we speak. Now, this ordinarily makes its appearance first in breaking through parental restraint.
II. A second class of dangers to young men spring from the place where their life is spent. Every locality has its own peculiar moral atmosphere, which is laden with its own poisons to the soul. The rural life has its peculiar tendencies, which you may see any day fully developed in the agricultural labourers of England, many of whom are, in almost every respect, very little above the level of the brutes they drive. Quiet provincial towns have also their own perils; and many a man who would have done well, if only kept hard at work, under a pushing master in a city, is lost for this life, and frequently also lost for eternity, from the dawdling, idling, tippling habits which in such places have so powerful sway. The ruin of many men, in such half-dead localities, is that they have not nearly enough to do, and Satan finds abundance of employment for their leisure hours.
III. Young men are exposed to danger also from the tendencies of the age in which their lot is cast. Whatever these tendencies may be, they are most powerfully felt by youth; because, from the position they occupy--being, in fact, the population of the future--they are all brought to bear upon them. I will simply mention two.
1. There is intellectualism. No one, who is at all conversant with the literature of the day, will deny that the tendency of the greater part of it is to place the intellect on the throne of the soul, and indeed also of the world. Religion is nothing; intellect is everything. The Bible is far behind the advanced thinkers of the age. It is antiquated, obsolete, effete. Its day is gone; and now intellect, not faith, must rule supreme. Now, intellect is good, very excellent good, but yet it is not God; and its province is to sit meek and believing at the feet of Jesus. I want intellect. I want the young men of our times to be sturdy thinkers, men of mind; men who can take a subject and resolve it into its elements, and reason it out to its remotest consequences. But I want them also to know and understand that the Bible is the most intellectual book in the world. Was Paul not intellectual? Is not his little finger thicker than the loins even of the stoutest champions of intellect in modern times? And if you look at the history of the world, man for man, I will bring you a more intellectual Christian, over against your most powerful and profound infidels. There is the erudite Leibnitz over against the pantheistic Spinoza; against the flippant Voltaire, we have the thoughtful Pascal, in any of whose suggestive fragments there is more mind than in all Voltaires books put together. Over against the sentimental Rousseau, we can put the mild, loving, John-like Fenelon. And where among the would-be pretentious intellectualists of to-day will you find the equal of Jonathan Edwards, John Foster, or Robert Hall? Be not blinded, my young friends, with the dust which these men would raise around you; depend upon it, the highest intellect will be found in meekest humility, sitting at Jesus feet.
2. But another danger assailing young men, from the tendencies of the age, is Mammonism. Every one must see that, especially in commercial centres like this, the prevailing idolatry is the worship of the golden calf. The maxim of the day is that held up to scorn by the old Roman satirist, Get riches, honestly if you can; but by all means, get riches; and the prevailing heresy is, the determination at all hazards to be wealthy. Young man, ask thyself this, What shall it profit me if I should gain the whole world and lose my own soul? (W. M. Taylor, M. A.)
Safety for young men
The fact is that this life is full of peril. He who undertakes it without the grace of God and a proper understanding of the conflict into which he is going, must certainly be defeated. Just look off upon society to-day. Look at the shipwreck of men for whom fair things were promised, and who started life with every advantage. Look at those who have dropped from high social position, and from great fortune, disgraced for time, disgraced for eternity. All who sacrifice their integrity come to overthrow. Take a dishonest dollar and bury it in the centre of the earth, and keep all the rocks of the mountain on top of it; then cover these rocks with all the diamonds of Golconda, and all the silver of Nevada, and all the gold of California and Australia, and put on the top of these all banking and moneyed institutions, and they cannot keep down that one dishonest dollar. That one dishonest dollar in the centre of the earth will begin to heave and rock and upturn itself until it comes to the resurrection of damnation.
I. The first safeguard of which i want to speak is a love of home.
II. Another safeguard for young men is industrious habit. Young man, you must have industry of head, or hand, or foot, or perish! Do not have the idea that you can get along in the world by genius. The curse of this country to-day is geniuses--men with large self-conceit and nothing else.
III. Another safeguard that i want to present to young men is a high ideal of life. Sometimes soldiers going into battle shoot into the ground instead of into the hearts of their enemies. They are apt to take aim too low, and it is very often that the captain, going into conflict with his men, will cry out, Now, men, aim high! The fact is that in life a great many men take no aim at all. The artist plans out his entire thought before he puts it upon canvas, before he takes up the crayon or the chisel. An architect thinks out the entire building before the workmen begin. Although everything may seem to be unorganised, that architect has in his mind every Corinthian column, every Gothic arch, every Byzantine capital. A poet thinks out the entire plot of his poem before he begins to chime the cantos of tinkling rhythms. And yet there are a great many men who start the important structure of life without knowing whether it is going to be a rude Tartars hut or a St. Marks Cathedral, and begin to write out the intricate poem of their life without knowing whether it is to be a Homers Odyssey or a rhymesters botch. Out of one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine have no life-plot. Booted and spurred and caparisoned, they hasten along, and I run out and say: Hallo, man! Whither away? Nowhere! they say.
IV. Another safeguard is a respect for the Sabbath. Tell me how a young man spends his Sabbath, and I will tell you what are his prospects in business, and I will tell you what are his prospects for the eternal world. God has thrust into our busy life a sacred day when we are to look after our souls. Is it exorbitant, after giving six days to the feeding and clothing of these perishable bodies, that God should demand one day for the feeding and clothing of the immortal soul?
V. The great safeguard for every young man is the Christian religion. Nothing can take the place of it. You may have gracefulness enough to put to the blush Lord Chesterfield; you may have foreign languages dropping from your tongue; you may discuss laws and literature; you may have a pen of unequalled polish and power; you may have so much business tact that you can get the largest salary in a banking house; you may be as sharp as Herod and as strong as Samson, and with as long locks as those which hung Absalom, and yet you have no safety against temptation. Your great want is a new heart, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I tell you so to-day, and the blessed Spirit presses through the solemnities of this hour to put the cup of life to your thirsty lips. Oh, thrust it not back r Mercy presents it--bleeding mercy, long-suffering mercy. Despite all other friendships, prove recreant to all other bargains, but despise Gods love for your dying soul--do not do that. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Self-indulgence does not get the most out of life
One of the most frequent pleas for self-indulgence is that life was given us that we might get the most out of it. We were born with so many capacities of enjoyment; would it not be foolish, not to say ungrateful, to leave them unsatisfied? The general principle to which appeal is here made is absolutely sound. God means us to get the most out f every gift of His providence. The question turns entirely upon the comparative merits of different means of attempting this. We do not get the most out of a two-hundred-pound piano if we use it for strumming dance music. We do not get the most out of a surgical instrument of finely tempered steel if we cut the leaves of a new magazine with it. We do not get the most out of a rapid newspaper-printing press if we set it to print post cards. In the same way, we should not get the most out of Mr. Edison by engaging him to repair motor cars, or out of Principal Fairbairn by placing him in charge of a class in a kindergarten. The only way to utilise either an instrument or a man to the full is to occupy that instrument or that man in the highest and most difficult service--a service limited only by the extent of capacity. From a merely business point of view, it is stupid policy to allow a high-grade apparatus to do a low-grade work. Such is the waste and such the degradation whenever a being, created in the image of God, surrenders himself to the temptation of the senses. He appraises himself at the minimum rate, not at the maximum. It is getting the least, not the most, out of life, to acquire only those things that perish with the using. (H. W. Horwill.)
I saw a great tumult, but I know not what it was.
Garbling the truth
The most delicate question in morals that people in general have to solve is, how far kindness justifies falsehood? How far may you veil or colour the truth in order to spare peoples feelings? In the short run, taking the one case by itself, tenderness seems better than truth. It seems more right to save your friend from pain than to tell him how things really stand. But in the long run, I fancy, pure truthfulness would give the most pleasure and save the most pain. Not, of course, that you need go about telling uncalled for truths; but all you do say shored be unswervingly straightforward. What comfort there is in a man or woman in whom you know there is no guile, in whose words you can wholly trust, without having to take off an unknown quantity that may have been put on to please you. On the other hand, people like the Irish, who are so kindly that they will be always garbling the truth into an agreeable shape--how they vex your soul--how you long for rough, homely truthfulness, instead of such making things pleasant. (Charles Buxton, M. P.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v19 2Sa_18:19-33; 2Sa_19:1-4.
CHAPTER X X I V.
DAVID'S GRIEF FOR ABSALOM.
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2Sa_18:19-33; 2Sa_19:1-4.
''NEXT to the calamity of losing a battle," a great general used to say, "is that of gaining a victory." The battle in the wood of Ephraim left twenty thousand of King David's subjects dead or dying on the field. It is remarkable how little is made of this dismal fact. Men's lives count for little in time of war, and death, even with its worst horrors, is just the common fate of warriors. Yet surely David and his friends could not think lightly of a calamity that cut down more of the sons of Israel than any battle since the fatal day of Mount Gilboa. Nor could they form a light estimate of the guilt of the man whose inordinate vanity and ambition had cost the nation such a fearful loss.
But all thoughts of this kind were for the moment brushed aside by the crowning fact that Absalom himself was dead. And this fact, as well as the tidings of the victory, must at once be carried to David. Mahanaim, where David was, was probably but a little distance from the field of battle. A friend offered to Joab to carry the news - Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok the priest. He had formerly been engaged in the same way, for he was one of those that had brought word to David of the result of Absalom's council, and of other things that were going on in Jerusalem. But Joab did not wish that Ahimaaz should be the bearer of the news. He would not deprive him of the character of king's messenger, but he would employ him as such another time. Meanwhile the matter was entrusted to another man, called in the Authorized Version Cushi, but in the Revised Version the Cushite. Whoever this may have been, he was a simple official, not like Ahimaaz, a personal friend of David. And this seems to have been Joab's reason for employing him. It is evident that physically he was not better adapted to the task than Ahimaaz, for when the latter at last got leave to go he overran the Cushite. But Joab appears to have felt that it would be better that David should receive his first news from a mere official than from a personal friend. The personal friend would be likely to enter into details that the other would not give. It is clear that Joab was ill at ease in reference to his own share in the death of Absalom. He would fain keep that back from David, at least for a time; it would be enough for him at the first to know that the battle had been gained, and that Absalom was dead.
But Ahimaaz was persistent, and after the Cushite had been despatched he carried his point, and was allowed to go. Very graphic is the description of the running of the two men and of their arrival at Mahanaim. The king had taken his place at the gate of the city, and stationed a watchman on the wall above to look out eagerly lest anyone should come bringing news of the battle. In those primitive times there was no more rapid way of dispatching important news than by a swift well-trained runner on foot. In the clear atmosphere of the East first one man, then another, was seen running alone. By-and-bye, the watchman surmised that the foremost of the two was Ahimaaz; and when the king heard it, remembering his former message, he concluded that such a man must be the bearer of good tidings. As soon as he came within hearing of the king, he shouted out, "All is well." Coming close, he fell on his face and blessed God for delivering the rebels into David's hands. Before thanking him or thanking God, the king showed what was uppermost in his heart by asking, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And here the moral courage of Ahimaaz failed him, and he gave an evasive answer: "When Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was." When he heard this the king bade him stand aside, till he should hear what the other messenger had to say. And the official messenger was more frank than the personal friend. For when the king repeated the question about Absalom, the answer was, "The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is." The answer was couched in skilful words. It suggested the enormity of Absalom's guilt, and of the danger to the king and the state which he had plotted, and the magnitude of the deliverance, seeing that he was now beyond the power of doing further evil.
But such soothing expressions were lost upon the king. The worst fears of his heart were realized - Absalom was dead. Gone from earth forever, beyond reach of the yearnings of his heart; gone to answer for crimes that were revolting in the sight of God and man. "The king was much moved; and he went up to the chamber over the gate and wept; and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
He had been a man of war, a man of the sword; he had been familiar with death, and had seen it once and again in his own family; but the tidings of Absalom's death fell upon him with all the force of a first bereavement. Not more piercing is the wail of the young widow when suddenly the corpse of her beloved is borne into the house, not more overwhelming is her sensation, as if the solid earth were giving way beneath her, than the emotion that now prostrated King David.
Grief for the dead is always sacred; and however unworthy we may regard the object of it, we cannot but respect it in King David. Viewed simply as an expression of his unquenched affection for his son, and separated from its bearing on the interests of the kingdom, and from the air of repining it seemed to carry against the dispensation of God, it showed a marvelously tender and forgiving heart. In the midst of an odious and disgusting rebellion, and with the one object of seeking out his father and putting him to death, the heartless youth had been arrested and had met his deserved fate. Yet so far from showing satisfaction that the arm that had been raised to crush him was laid low in death, David could express no feelings but those of love and longing. Was it not a very wonderful love, coming very near to the feeling of Him who prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," like that "love Divine, all love excelling," that follows the sinner through all his wanderings, and clings to him amid all his rebellions; the love of Him that not merely wished in a moment of excitement that He could die for His guilty children but did die for them, and in dying bore their guilt and took it away, and of which the brief but matchless record is that "having once loved His own that were with Him in the world, He loved them even unto the end?"
The elements of David's intense agony, when he heard of Absalom's death, were mainly three. In the first place, there was the loss of his son, of whom he could say that, with all his faults, he loved him still. A dear object had been plucked from his heart, and left it sick, vacant, desolate. A face he had often gazed on with delight lay cold in death. He had not been a good son, he had been very wicked; but affection has always its visions of a better future, and is ready to forgive unto seventy times seven. And then death is so dreadful when it fastens on the young. It seems so cruel to fell to the ground a bright young form; to extinguish by one blow his every joy, every hope, every dream; to reduce him to nothingness, so far as this life is concerned. An infinite pathos, in a father's experience, surrounds a young man's death. The regret, the longing, the conflict with the inevitable, seem to drain him of all energy, and leave him helpless in his sorrow.
Secondly, there was the terrible fact that Absalom had died in rebellion, without expressing one word of regret, without one request for forgiveness, without one act or word that it would be pleasant to recall in time to come, as a foil to the bitterness caused by his unnatural rebellion. Oh, if he had had but an hour to think of his position, to realize the lesson of his defeat, to ask his father's forgiveness, to curse the infatuation of the last few years! How would one such word have softened the sting of his rebellion in his father's breast! What a change it would have given to the aspect of his evil life! But not even the faint vestige of such a thing was ever shown; the unmitigated glare of that evil life must haunt his father evermore!
Thirdly, there was the fact that in this rebellious condition he had passed to the judgment of God. What hope could there be for such a man, living and dying as he had done? Where could he be now? Was not ''the great pit in the wood," into which his unhonoured carcase had been flung, a type of another pit, the receptacle of his soul? What agony to the Christian heart is like that of thinking of the misery of dear ones who have died impenitent and unpardoned?
To these and similar elements of grief David appears to have abandoned himself without a struggle. But was this right? Ought he not to have made some acknowledgment of the Divine hand in his trial, as he did when Bathsheba's child died? Ought he not to have acted as he did on another occasion, when he said, "I was dumb with silence, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it"? We have seen that in domestic matters he was not accustomed to place himself so thoroughly under the control of the Divine will as in the more public business of his life; and now we see that, when his parental feelings are crushed, he is left without the steadying influence of submission to the will of God. And in the agony of his private grief he forgets the public welfare of the nation. Noble and generous though the wish be, "Would God I had died for thee," it was on public grounds out of the question. Let us imagine for one moment the wish realized. David has fallen and Absalom survives. What sort of kingdom would it have been? What would have been the fate of the gallant men who had defended David? What would have been the condition of God's servants throughout the kingdom? What would have been the influence of so godless a monarch upon the interests of truth and the cause of God? It was a rash and unadvised utterance of affection. But for the rough faithfulness of Joab, the consequences would have been disastrous. "The victory that day was turned into mourning, for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son." Everyone was discouraged. The man for whom they had risked their lives had not a word of thanks to any of them, and could think of no one but that vile son of his, who was now dead. In the evening Joab came to him, and in his blunt way swore to him that if he was not more affable to the people they would not remain a night longer in his service. Roused by the reproaches and threatenings of his general, the king did now present himself among them. The people responded and came before him, and the effort he made to show himself agreeable kept them to their allegiance, and led on to the steps for his restoration that soon took place.
But it must have been an effort to abstract his attention from Absalom, and fix it on the brighter results of the battle. And not only that night, in the silence of his chamber, but for many a night, and perhaps many a day, during the rest of his life, the thought of that battle and its crowning catastrophe must have haunted David like an ugly dream. We seem to see him in some still hour of reverie recalling early days; - happy scenes rise around him; lovely children gambol at his side; he hears again the merry laugh of little Tamar, and smiles as he recalls some childish saying of Absalom; he is beginning, as of old, to forecast the future and shape out for them careers of honour and happiness; when, horror of horrors! the spell breaks; the bright vision gives way to dismal realities - Tamar's dishonour, Amnon's murder, Absalom's insurrection, and, last not least, Absalom's death, glare in the field of memory! Who will venture to say that David did not smart for his sins? Who that reflects would be willing to take the cup of sinful indulgence from his hands, sweet though it was in his mouth, when he sees it so bitter in the belly?
Two remarks may appropriately conclude this chapter, one with reference to grief from bereavements in general, the other with reference to the grief that may arise to Christians in connection with the spiritual condition of departed children.
1. With reference to grief from bereavements in general, it is to be observed that they will prove either a blessing or an evil according to the use to which they are turned. All grief in itself is a weakening thing - weakening both to the body and the mind, and it were a great error to suppose that it must do good in the end. There are some who seem to think that to resign themselves to overwhelming grief is a token of regard to the memory of the departed, and they take no pains to counteract the depressing influence. It is a painful thing to say, yet it is true, that a long-continued manifestation of overwhelming grief, instead of exciting sympathy, is more apt to cause annoyance. Not only does it depress the mourner himself, and unfit him for his duties to the living, but it depresses those that come in contact with him, and makes them think of him with a measure of impatience. And this suggests another remark. It is not right to obtrude our grief overmuch on others, especially if we are in a public position. Let us take example in this respect from our blessed Lord. Was any sorrow like unto His sorrow? Yet how little did He obtrude it even on the notice of His disciples! It was towards the end of His ministry before He even began to tell them of the dark scenes through which He was to pass; and even when He did tell them how He was to be betrayed and crucified, it was not to court their sympathy, but to prepare them for their part of the trial. And when the overwhelming agony of Gethsemane drew on, it was only three of the twelve that were permitted to be with Him. All such considerations show that it is a more Christian thing to conceal our griefs than to make others uncomfortable by obtruding them upon their notice. David was on the very eve of losing the affections of those who had risked everything for him, by abandoning himself to anguish for his private loss, and letting his distress for the dead interfere with his duty to the living.
And how many things are there to a Christian mind fitted to abate the first sharpness even of a great bereavement. Is it not the doing of a Father, infinitely kind? Is it not the doing of Him "who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all"? You say you can see no light through it, - it is dark, all dark, fearfully dark. Then you ought to fall back on the inscrutability of God. Hear Him saying, "What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Resign yourself patiently to His hands, till He make the needed revelation, and rest assured that when it is made it will be worthy of God. "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." Meanwhile, be impressed with the vanity of this life, and the infinite need of a higher portion. "Set your affection on things above, and not on the things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
2. The other remark that falls to be made here concerns the grief that may arise to Christians in connection with the spiritual condition of departed children.
When the parent is either in doubt as to the happiness of a beloved one, or has cause to apprehend that the portion of that child is with the unbelievers, the pang which he experiences is one of the most acute which the human heart can know. Now here is a species of suffering which, if not peculiar to believers, falls on them far the most heavily, and is, in many cases, a haunting spectre of misery. The question naturally arises. Is it not strange that their very beliefs, as Christians, subject them to such acute sufferings? If one were a careless, unbelieving man, and one's child died without evidence of grace, one would probably think nothing of it, because the things that are unseen and eternal are never in one's thoughts. But just because one believes the testimony of God on this great subject, one becomes liable to a peculiar agony. Is this not strange indeed?
Yes, there is a mystery in it which we cannot wholly solve. But we must remember that it is in thorough accordance with a great law of Providence, the operation of which, in other matters, we cannot overlook. That law is, that the cultivation and refinement of any organ or faculty, while it greatly increases your capacity of enjoyment, increases at the same time your capacity, and it may be your occasions, of suffering. Let us take, for example, the habit of cleanliness. Where this habit prevails, there is much more enjoyment in life; but let a person of great cleanliness be surrounded by filth, his suffering is infinitely greater. Or take the cultivation of taste, and let us say of musical taste. It adds to life an immense capacity of enjoyment, but also a great capacity and often much occasion of suffering, because bad music or tasteless music, such as one may often have to endure, creates a misery unknown to the man of no musical culture. To a man of classical taste, bad writing or bad speaking, such as is met with every day, is likewise a source of irritation and suffering. If we advance to a moral and spiritual region, we may see that the cultivation of one's ordinary affections, apart from religion, while on the whole it increases enjoyment, does also increase sorrow. If I lived and felt as a Stoic, I should enjoy family life much less than if I were tender-hearted and affectionate; but when I suffered a family bereavement I should suffer much less. These are simply illustrations of the great law of Providence that culture, while it increases happiness, increases suffering too. It is a higher application of the same law, that gracious culture, the culture of our spiritual affections under the power of the Spirit of God, in increasing our enjoyment does also increase our capacity of suffering. In reference to that great problem of natural religion, Why should a God of infinite benevolence have created creatures capable of suffering? one answer that has often been given is, that if they had not been capable of suffering they might not have been capable of enjoyment. But in pursuing these inquiries we get into an obscure region, in reference to which it is surely our duty patiently to wait for that increase of light which is promised to us in the second stage of our existence.
Yet still it remains to be asked. What comfort can there possibly be for Christian parents in such a cast as David's? What possible consideration can ever reconcile them to the thought that their beloved ones have gone to the world of woe? Are not their children parts of themselves, and how is it possible for them to be completely saved if those who are so identified with them are lost? How can they ever be happy in a future life if eternally separated from those who were their nearest and dearest on earth? On such matters it has pleased God to allow a great cloud to rest which our eyes cannot pierce. We cannot solve this problem. We cannot reconcile perfect personal happiness, even in heaven, with the knowledge I hat beloved ones are lost. But God must have some way, worthy of Himself, of solving the problem. And we must just wait for His time of revelation. "God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." The Judge of all the earth must act justly. And the song which will express the deepest feelings of the redeemed, when from the sea of glass, mingled with fire, they look back on the ways of Providence toward them, will be this: "Great and marvelous are Thy works. Lord God Almighty; just and true are all Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who would not fear Thee and glorify Thy name, for Thou only art holy?"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v19 David’s Lament for Absalom
David’s Lament for Absalom
v. 19. Then said Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, who was with the troops, let me now run and bear the king tidings how that the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies, it was the direct divine interposition which had brought David justice.
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v. 20. And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not bear tidings, be a messenger, this day, but thou shalt bear tidings an other day; but this day thou shalt bear no tidings because the king’s son is dead. Joab felt that the king might be angry because Absalom had been put to death, and he did not want Ahimaaz to be exposed to this anger.
v. 21. Then said Joab to Cushi, probably an Egyptian slave in his service, Go tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab and ran.
v. 22. Then said Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, yet again to Joab, but, howsoever, no matter what may happen, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi. He was anxious to convey what he thought was excellent news to David. And Joab, still unwilling to let the young man incur the anger of David, said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready? His message would not be profitable, since the king was bound to consider it bad, from his standpoint, and would therefore look upon him as a messenger of evil.
v. 23. But, howsoever, just the same, said he, let me run. He was willing to take the risk. And he said unto him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain and overran Cushi, reaching Mahanaim before the real messenger arrived.
v. 24. And David sat between the two gates, the space between the outer and the inner gates; and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, over the outer gate, which was connected with the city wall, and lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.
v. 25. And the watchman cried and told the king, whom his voice could reach, as he sat beneath the entrance arch or vault. And the king said, if he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth, he came as a messenger, for in the other event there would be several fugitives. And he, the runner, came apace, and drew near.
v. 26. And the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called unto the porter, the keeper of the gate, and said, Behold, another man running alone. And the king said, He also bringeth tidings, he also must surely be a messenger.
v. 27. And the watchman said, Me thinketh that the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, for by this time he could distinguish the peculiarities of the runner’s gait. And the king said, He is a good man, and cometh with good tidings, since Joab would certainly not have chosen him for evil news.
v. 28. And Ahimaaz, as soon as he came into hailing distance, called and said unto the king, All is well, literally, "Peace!" or, "Hail!" And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the king, in an attitude of reverence, and said, Blessed be the Lord, thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king. The revolt was so effectually quenched that the rebels could no longer stir.
v. 29. And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz, in an attempt to temporize, to evade the question, answered, When Joab sent the king’s servant, namely, Cushi, and me, thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. He made the impression that Absalom’s fate was not get decided when Joab sent him off.
v. 30. And the king said unto him, Turn aside and stand here, making way for the second messenger. And he turned aside and stood still.
v. 31. And, behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said, Tidings, my lord the king, he came as an official messenger; for the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee, that was the way in which the victory must be regarded, as a direct interposition of God.
v. 32. And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, the enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man Isaiah It was an indirect announcement of Absalom’s destruction, and in a manner which properly expressed condemnation of Absalom’s hostile attempt against his father and king.
v. 33. And the king, weakly losing sight of the avenging hand of God in this death, was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, probably that used by the watchmen of the city, and wept, and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! He was more deeply afflicted by the death of this rebellious son than by any event in his life. It is a blessing of God if dangerous and rebellious people, who lead others into temptation and destruction, are destroyed by God’s wrath. In such cases the believers have all reason to thank and praise God for the justice of His punishments.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 31 See how you translated this man's name in 2…
Ahimaaz
See how you translated this man's name in 2 Samuel 15:27. (See: How to Translate Names)
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run to the king with the good news
Here Ahimaaz speaks of running to go and tell the king the good news as if the good news were a object that he were carrying. AT: "run to tell the king the good news" (See: Metaphor)
the hand of his enemies
Here "hand" refers to control. AT: "the control of his enemies" (See: Metonymy)
the bearer of news
"the one who tells the news"
you will bear no news
This refers to not bearing the news to the king. AT: "you will not tell the news to the king" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
son
Zadok
king
good news
Yahweh
die
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv19, 21, 25, 28, 33 18:19 Zadok: See study note on 15:24.
18:19 Zadok: See study note on 15:24.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.