SA 17:2{It may be that this futile threat of a wicked man against the king was like the saying of Caiaphas—"not of himself," but written for our learning "more about Jesus." A deadly stroke was to be aimed at "the king only," for he was "worth ten thousand" of the people; if he were smitten, they should escape. Do the words of David in another place tell of his great Antitype's desire that it should be so? "Let Thine hand, I pray Thee, O Lord my God, be on me,... but not on Thy people." "For the transgression of my people was the stroke upon Him" (margin); therefore not upon us, never upon us. The lightning that strikes the conductor instead of the building to which it is joined, has spent its fiery force and strikes no more.
“The King only." For "by Himself He purged our sins.”
Certainly we had nothing to do with it then! Certainly no other man or means had anything to do with it! and certainly nothing and no one now can touch that great fact, so far out of reach of human quibbling and meddling, that Jesus, "His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Is not the fact that He "with whom we have to do," was smitten of God instead of us, enough? What else can we want to guarantee our salvation?
"Now I see!" But not the parting of the melting earth and sky,
Not a vision dread and startling, forcing one despairing cry.
But I see the solemn saying, All have sinned, and all must die;
Holy precepts disobeying, guilty all the world must lie.
Bending, silenced, to the dust, now I see that God is Just.
“Now I see!" But not the glory, not the face of Him I love,
Not the full and burning story of the mysteries above.
But I see what God hath spoken, how His well-beloved Son
Kept the laws which man hath broken, died for sins which man hath done;
Dying, rising, throned above! Now I see that God is love.