Bible Commentaries
2 Samuel 19

Verse 10

BACK TO THE THRONE

‘Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?’

2 Samuel 19:10

The rebells had not hesitated to bring what they thought would be the good tidings to the king. Yet a plaintive cry went up from him when he realised the fullness of the news. Little could the people realise the joy of victory or what it meant, and they sent messengers to him one after another, and they held consultations between themselves; and then we come to these words: ‘Why therefore speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?’ There is a spiritual truth in these words which appeals very continuously to some of us.

I. Rebellion against the King.—Realising that Jesus Christ Himself is our lawful King, our Sovereign, and Saviour, may we ask ourselves what our position is in respect to Him? Many of these men had been rebels against the king; they had ranged themselves on the side of Absalom, and were willing to cast in their lot with his. But, rebels as they were, there now came the opportunity of owning their allegiance to the true king. Is it not possible for us to be rebels against our Lord Jesus Christ Himself? We may set something or somebody else up in our hearts to the exclusion of Himself; we may not own Him to be our Lord. If that be the case—if any of us are conscience-stricken and feel that we have been rebels against our Lord and against His kingdom—shall we speak the word to bring Him back to us? The word must be ( a) a word of penitence, ( b) a word of prayer, ( c) a word of faith.

II. Separation from the King.—Or there may be many of us who have not, at any rate consciously, been rebels against our Lord Jesus Christ, but who nevertheless feel that there has been something which has separated us from Him. We know that no longer are we enjoying communion with Him. It seems as though He were a long way from us. We realise not His presence with all the joy, and hope, and light which that presence brought us in the days gone by. It seems that everything is miserable that once was joy.

III. To bring the King back.—‘Why therefore speak ye not a word of bringing the King back?’ Do you think He will come back? Yes; speak the word to bring the King back, for He is wanted now. If we have forgotten Him, He has not forgotten us. If we have been weak in our own love, if we have been an easy prey to our spiritual foes, speak the word to bring Him back. Send a message through prayer to the King to ask Him to come back to the heart from which He has been expelled. Ask Him to return with all the light and joy and sunshine which ever come from His presence with us.

—Prebendary Pennefather.

Illustration

‘We remember, for instance, the time when we could kneel down and pray; or we remember the time when we used to delight to read God’s Word; or we remember when we could realise His presence in our daily life; or we remember when our communions were seasons of joy and spiritual refreshment; or we look back and recollect how we believed that He was not only in the world somewhere, but we believed that He was with us, we felt more joy in doing some work for Him, no matter how feeble it might be. Those were the bright, happy days of our spiritual life. But somehow or other there has been a change. We have lost the happiness which once we had, and things are not so clear and easy as they once seemed to be. We find ourselves walking in the darkness, groping our way and stumbling. We find all sorts of difficulties staring us in the face. We do not believe in prayer now, or, if we do, we do not pray; and we do not read God’s Holy Word, and we have given up our communions, or, if we still attend, it is merely a matter of form. How is it? Many of us, I think, find it very difficult to hold on. We find it so easy to go back. It is so difficult always to realise the presence of the King with us, and there are so many distractions in this world, there are so many influences brought to bear upon us.’

Verse 18

THE KING’S FERRY BOAT

‘There went over a ferry boat to carry over the king’s household.’

2 Samuel 19:18

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

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

Illustration

‘Thou Framer of the light and dark,

Steer through the tempest Thine own ark:

Amidst the howling, wintry sea,

We are in port if we have Thee!’

Verses 31-40

A GRAND OLD MAN

‘And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim.’

2 Samuel 19:31-40

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

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

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

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

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

Illustrations

(1) ‘It is related of the ancient Sibylline books, that the prince to whom they were offered for sale thought the price asked too high; some of them were then burned, but the same price was demanded; yet again the same act was repeated, with the same result; finally, the volumes still remaining were purchased for the price demanded for the whole at first. So is it with our days; the article rises in value as it becomes more scarce. What high significance then attaches to the question of Barzillai in the ceaseless flight of years, and how much reason have the old, especially, to think and choose like him! He who expects nothing for himself in eternity, closes his ear to the ceaseless rustle of the wings of time; and he who in old age desires his heaven on earth, dreams not, like Barzillai, of the still grave, his mother. But to the believing Christian, the older he is the nearer is he to blessed rest, and to the glorious contemplation of “the King in His beauty” in the new Jerusalem, where they reckon not by years.’

(2) ‘In this narrative we see the priceless value of a kind, thoughtful, generous deed, to a sad and weary soul.

We thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made

Joy to abound;

So many gentle thoughts and deeds

Circling us round;

That in the darkest spot on earth

Some love is found.’