2 Samuel 13
WE come now, to the beginning of David’s reaping as he had sowed. The sorrows of his later years would never have been felt, had he kept before himself that standard of conduct which is set before the Christian in Colossians 3:1-171If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. (Colossians 3:1‑17).
Nor would Jacob have gone through the character of trial he endured, we may conclude, if he had not first deceived his father (Gen. 27).
God has laid it down as a principle of His dealings with mankind (Gal 6:7, 87Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7‑8)) that the sower must reap what he sowed, and David who smothered the protest of his conscience to take the wife of Uriah, and afterward to have Uriah exposed to certain death, must learn by example what he would not learn by precept, that is, from the word of God.
When Jacob’s father-in-law, and his sons deceived him, do you not suppose that his thoughts ran quickly back to the time when he had stood before his aged father, pretending to be Esau, that he might get the blessing of the heir? And similarly when David’s eldest son, Amnon, brought the shame and dishonor of the thirteenth chapter upon his father, and presently the third son. Absalom became guilty of the murder of Amnon, was there no voice within that spoke to the king of Israel of his own sin? Assuredly there was. God is not mocked.
While David was a shepherd boy, and fought the giant Goliath, and when a fugitive, his home the cave of Adullam, he was near to God: but once on the throne there was quickly a change, as we have seen in chapter 11. His eight wives, Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail. Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah. Bathsheba, contrast with the one wife of earlier men of God, and they gave him but one son of whom David could think well, (Solomon, the youngest); three sons met violent deaths, and as to the other six the Scriptures are silent. Is it not likely that if they had been godly, we should have been told it in the inspired record?
When Absalom murdered his brother Amnon, he escaped to his grandfather’s home (see chapter 3:3), and David instead of demanding his return that punishment might be meted out according to the divine command (Exo. 21:1212He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. (Exodus 21:12); Deut. 19:11-1311But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities: 12Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee. (Deuteronomy 19:11‑13)), forgave the murderer and longed after him.
We turn with relief from the sad details of this chapter to consider the Perfect One, the Lord Jesus, of Whom a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)), of Whom the redeemed say with rapture, “The Son of God Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).
ML 01/23/1927