“Glorious and solemn hour, on the verge to stand
Of that endless day of worship, of that blessed land!
Nothing but Himself before us, every shadow past—
Sound we loud our word of witness, for it is the last.”
WE must pass over some years in the life of the king of Israel, and then we find one of his own sons rising up in the most deadly rebellion against him. In looking at the history of David we can scarcely fail to see that in his family he allowed his love for them to prevail over his sense of the due chastisement of wrong doing. This is plainly seen in the case of Absalom, his beloved son.
David had allowed his evil conduct to go unpunished, and from him comes one of the hardest blows a father’s heart could ever have to bear. Absalom was one whose appearance naturally attracted those who looked only on the surface. We are told, “In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.” Yet to this pleasing exterior was united the most repulsive wickedness and cruelty shown out undisguised to his own father. The very name of Absalom has become the synonym for the most heartless evil.
Grown up to manhood and ambitious of obtaining the regal power, this son of David, who had been so much forgiven, sets himself to work to steal away the hearts of Israel from his father. He was crafty enough to see that this must be done before anything else could be attempted. David was beloved by his people, for spite of his falls into evil he was characterized by faithfulness to God in the main, and so was faithful to all those over whom he bore sway, and the result was that he had the affection of Israel in a way that no other king ever had. Till this love could be weakened Absalom could do nothing. He sets himself to insinuate doubts of his father’s justice into the minds of the people, and by the falsest flattery and perversion of the truth succeeds only too well. Pretending to skew them the deepest love he makes them at last mere tools in his hand, for “Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”
When this was done he openly shows what he desires. He sends spies through all the country to tell them that he is going to take the kingdom out of the hand of his father, and goes to Hebron. The proclamation is sent out, “Absalom reigneth in Hebron.” Even David’s counselor, Ahithophel, is ensnared and joins the son in his horrible conspiracy against his father. And the people increased continually with him, while David was in ignorance of it all. At last messengers come to him to tell him of the conspiracy, and a terrible blow it must have been to him—loving father as he had ever been!
He bows to it—as from Jehovah—does not attempt, at the moment, to combat it, though strongly fortified as Jerusalem was, especially Mount Zion where he dwelt, he could soon have made it impregnable, as he had many of his own special faithful men around him. Instead of that he says to his servants, “Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom.” He had to feel that this conspiracy was to the death—that no mercy would be dealt to them if they were taken by his son, and for his sake he would avoid this, as well as for the sake of others.
His servants are only desirous to do his will, and prove their fidelity, and obey at once. The king and his household go forth out of their home, and all his own personal attendants, and go to some distance before they stop to rest. Now David gets a touching proof of love from one who is an alien. Ittai the Gittite and the six hundred men of his nation, who had been attracted to the son of Jesse, and appear to have formed the royal body-guard, pass on before the king—the one now flying from his throne and kingdom. Thoughtful for them—even in his hour of distress—David says to Ittai, “Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile.... should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.”
Here we see what David was—the lovely unselfishness which would not take advantage of the service of one not bound to him by birth—would lovingly think of the danger they would be in because of himself, and would prevent it by giving them fullest leave to honorably return to their own land. What wonder that Ittai replied, “As Jehovah liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” No need to speak of love here. One sees the proof of it most touchingly in both David and Ittai. Unable to resist such pleading the king says to Ittai, Go, pass over—for they stood on the brink of the brook Kidron. His one desire to be with David granted, Ittai and all his household—his little ones—pass over before him, his faithful six hundred forming an escort for the royal household.
The people of Jerusalem, who loved David were weeping at seeing him leaving them—for many could not leave their homes—and they saw all the troops who were faithful to their king passing over the brook Kidron on the way out of the city that led toward the wilderness. Now it is seen that the priest Zadok is also there, and with him the Levites bearing the ark of the covenant of God. They rightly feel that their true place is with Jehovah’s anointed king. The wonderful faith and unselfish devotion of David again comes out here, for with all his deep love for the ark as the sign of the presence of God he will not use it as a defense in his hour of extremity, nor place it in danger for his sake. He valued the fidelity that led the priest and Levites to bring it to him, but with the reverence due to it, he commands them to carry the ark back to its place, saying that if he shall find favor in the eyes of Jehovah, He will bring him again to his home on Zion and show him the ark and his habitation.
We see how truly David was a man of faith. He bows to the government of God as deserving the chastisement, but never loses his confidence in the grace that was beneath it all. He blesses God while bowing to His will. The ark is therefore carried back to the city, and the king gives the priest a command to send his son and the son of Abiathar to him in the wilderness with the tidings of what Absalom shall do. From the brook Kidron the band of sorrowful fugitives passes up Mount Olivet, and David could no longer restrain himself but wept as he went up. Was it really a truth or only a painful dream, that he and all his were fleeing in fear of their lives from the son he had so loved, Absalom his cherished one? Ah I it was a painful reality, and with heads covered and feet bare the monarch and his followers toiled up the steep ascent weary and sad at heart.
Now the news is brought to him that his most trusted counselor, Ahithophel, is amongst the conspirators with Absalom. This must have been another painful blow, but the king simply turns it into prayer, saying, “O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” The Lord did so, and fully answered this petition. When the summit of the Mount of Olives was at last reached—where David worshipped God—his chief friend, Hushai the Archite, is there to meet him with every sign of sorrow and mourning. He at least was faithful. However, the king will not allow him to go with the band who are around him, but sends him back into Jerusalem to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. David goes on the way to the wilderness, but at a place called Bahurim, a village that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, a man named Shimei, of the household of Saul, comes out against them, and heaps insult upon the fallen monarch, casting stones at him and at his followers.
Only a hard heart could have thus heaped humiliation upon the humbled king. As far as he was concerned it only proved more fully how the grace of God worked in him to enable him to submit quietly to it. His officers were naturally indignant and would have killed the man whose conduct was so cowardly and cruel. They little understood the faith that caused their master to be meek and patient under it. He tells them to let Shimei curse, for Jehovah has said it, and adds, “It may be that Jehovah will look on mine affliction, and that Jehovah will requite me good for his cursing this day.” Adversity was the time when David’s faith shone most brilliantly. In prosperity he often fell below his true place, but in his troubles he generally is a bright example of real confidence in God.
He had still to bear from this descendant of Saul. “As David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hill’s side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.” He was taken no notice of and is at length left behind.
The whole band of fugitives, strengthened with many of those of Judah who loved David, and with Joab and his men, reach the Jordan, and weary as they were encamped there. News now came to the king of Absalom having entered Jerusalem, and of the counsel that Ahithophel had given him to pursue after David at once. In his power God so ordered that Hushai the Archite was asked to give his advice by Absalom, and he reverses the former counsel and advises to wait before pursuing the king. Angered at seeing his own counsel not followed Ahithophel goes to his house, puts it in order, and then hangs himself—a terrible end to his treachery!
The Jordan is crossed by the king’s company and they reach Mahanaim, a city and district near the mountainous forest country of Gilead, a beautiful part of the land, and chosen by the people of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh rather than the other side of Jordan on account of its many pasture lands in the valleys and on the slopes of the mountains. Here in Gilead Absalom pitches his camp, having pursued his father with the army of Israel with him. At Mahanaim that father is greatly cheered by the kindness of the son of the king of Ammon, of Machir of Lo-debar, and of Barzillai the Gileadite, who bring to him all manner of provisions for his household and his people, for with him now was the army of Judah. Great must have been the need of such numbers, but it was abundantly met by the kindly generosity of these allies of David, who remained true to him in his extremity.
We will not linger over the sorrowful details of the civil war that followed; David sent forth his army, in which Ittai the Gittite was commander of a third part, Joab and his brother Abishai being the chiefs of the others. The end was that Israel was utterly defeated and Absalom slain. His death and the sad details of it, with David’s pathetic, if weak, lamentation over him, are so well known that we may pass on to the brighter day when the people of Israel repented of their sin and folly in conspiring against their king given of God.
They see how they had been deluded and deceived by the wicked and crafty prince, and their hearts turn again to the one who had saved them out of the hand of their enemies. Throughout the land men were saying to each other, Why speak ye not of bringing the king back? David hears of this, but not till a message comes to him—Return thou, and all thy servants—will he advance towards Jerusalem. Then Judah and Israel vie with one another as to who shall be first to take David in triumph to Mount Zion.
David thus is brought back again to the place where he had established the ark, and in a short time the rebellion that had been headed by Absalom was almost as if it had never been, only that the effect of it remained in blessing on the spirit of the king, and that Absalom was no more. Some time is taken up, after the return of the royal household, in wars with the Philistines, and four battles followed in quick succession, but Israel was each time victorious.
In the second book of Samuel we are told—after these wars—that the “anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.” Joab expostulates with the king as to this, knowing that it is contrary to the will of Jehovah and a great mistake at the least; for though we can hardly credit Joab with caring for the will of God, yet he was too clever a statesman to willfully do anything to bring wrath upon the nation. Nevertheless, the king’s command was carried out. For nine months Joab and his servants were occupied in taking this census throughout the whole land, and for nine months the longsuffering of God waited. At last the stroke fell, and fell upon Israel as a people.
At the end of nine months Joab returned from numbering them, and gave the number to the king. And David’s heart smote him, and he said unto the Lord: “I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.” The prophet Gad, who had been one of those who went to David when he was in the cavern of Engedi, and had shared his sufferings, and later his glory, now comes to him charged with a message from God. “Thus saith Jehovah, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.... Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? ““The sword of Jehovah and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.”
No wonder that David said unto Gad, “I am in a great strait.” Happily the Lord sustains his faith, even while He tries it to the utmost; so he said to the prophet, “Let me fall now into the hand of Jehovah: for very great are his mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” A terrible three days followed. The pestilence appeared suddenly all over the land—in most houses some were stricken down, and there was a long wailing cry of distress and death throughout the country. It was the hand of God in chastisement upon the nation, and He allowed Satan in this to provoke David to number the people, as we are told in 1 Chronicles 21:11And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1). But the king also was led to see that he had given way to the pride of his own heart in being head over the many thousands of the twelve tribes. Now at one blow those tribes are weakened by the loss of seventy thousand men.
David is allowed to see the angel of the Lord having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. He and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth in sign of humiliation, fall upon their faces, and, taking the sin of guilty Israel upon himself, the king intercedes for them that the plague may be stayed. God hears his prayer and commands the destroying sword of the angel to be sheathed after David had offered an atoning sacrifice, which is proved to be accepted by Jehovah by the fire which fell from the heavens and consumed it upon the altar he had built upon Mount Moriah.
Now the pestilence ceases, and the heart of the king, guided by Jehovah, fixes upon Mount Moriah where this sacrifice had been offered as the place where the temple is to be built. The place where the grace of God showed that henceforth everything of blessing for David and for Israel was to be founded on sacrifice. Looking on to the moment when, on that green hill outside the city of Jerusalem, the Lamb of God should offer Himself as the one sacrifice for sin. Though not in the depth and fullness of it, yet David must have been taught something of what would come to pass in the future, for he not only speaks of the salvation that was to be brought in, but of the resurrection of the One who should in grace accomplish it for all His own. Peter speaks of this in Acts 2:3131He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. (Acts 2:31), where he calls David a prophet, though we do not usually think of him as such.
Soon after this, his son Adonijah made a feeble attempt to usurp the kingdom, but by David’s wise promptness the rebellion was at once put down. Joab was amongst the conspirators and slain as a traitor.
When the king found that God heard his prayer and accepted the death of the sacrifice, and proved this by staying the destroying angel in his course, on Mount Moriah, he said, “This is the house of Jehovah God, and this the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.” All his energies are now directed to gather together the materials for the building of the temple. He provides everything that could be needed, and gives Solomon his son the fullest instruction as to every detail of it. Masons are set to work to prepare the stones, each with its beveled edges, and numbered so as to show where it was to be laid. Cedar trees are brought from the Tyrians and Zidonians, and the gold and silver and brass all arranged in the most perfect order. Then the service of the sanctuary was appointed also by the king as directed of God—the work of the Levites and of the priests arranged in such a way that all could be carried out in harmony and without the least confusion or distraction. Even the porters for the various gates were all appointed, the tribe and family from which they were to be chosen being given.
It is very wonderful to see how, even to the patterns of the vessels for the house, David was inspired by God. He it is who orders everything, from the service of the priests down to the opening of the doors. In all this we see a shadow of the time of glory soon to come, when the Son of David—the Prince of peace—shall order everything in the universe for God. The honor put upon David was very great, and fully did he answer to it in this. He esteems it the greatest joy of his life, and desires his beloved people to share in it.
He assembles all his princes and officers of his army, with all the mighty and valiant men, to Jerusalem, and there in a great council the now aged king stands up and speaks his last words to them as head of the whole nation. With simple pathetic speech he tells them how it was in his heart to build the house for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, for the footstool of God, but this was not permitted him because he had been a man of war. It was reserved for his son Solomon, who would be a man of peace. Then in the presence of the whole assembly he gives to his son the pattern, or, as we should say now, the plans, for the porch and for the treasuries, the place for the mercy-seat, for the whole building: “the pattern of all that he had by the spirit.... of the house of God” (1 Chron. 28:1212And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: (1 Chronicles 28:12)).
Then he tells the whole assembly how with all his might he had prepared for the house—for the palace was not for man but for the Lord God—and that because he had set his affection upon this house of God he had devoted his own personal gold and silver to it over and above what he had otherwise prepared. The princes and chiefs of the nation desire to have a part in this great work, and now they bring their offerings in such a generous way—gold, silver, precious stones—that David rejoiced with a great joy. The people also were glad of heart, for they offered it to Jehovah, and He gave them the joy of so doing. A most beautiful and touching ascription of praise to God now burst from the lips of the king, and when he ceased speaking the whole of the vast assembly bowed their heads and praised the Lord.
The day after this memorable assembly of all Israel they held a special feast of burnt offering to Jehovah, when a thousand lambs, a thousand bullocks and a thousand rams were offered for the nation. Solomon is proclaimed king before all, and anointed unto Jehovah as chief governor, and David saw it and blessed God. Thus ended his public life as king over Israel. We are privileged to follow him into his own house, or royal palace, and hear some of his last words. We do not know to whom they were spoken, but the last words of a great man are generally valued and noted. The Spirit of God has recorded these of David for us; for he was the man whom God had raised up on high—His anointed—and the sweet psalmist of Israel. “The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.... He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds.” Here we see how he looked on to the day—still future—when “David’s greater Son” shall take the kingdom, and be in truth the Sun of righteousness. But there was more. He goes on to say, “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.”
Happy David he forgets himself—leaves himself—for the Lord. We may do the same, and in a far deeper way than he could. We may have Christ instead of ourselves—Christ as life, Christ everything. In Psalm 72 David prays for the king’s son, but he is inspired to look on and see the reign of Christ; his heart and mind are filled with the blessedness of that Person—the true King—and when the wonderful vision of all His glory has been seen by him in spirit, he has done with earth and all its cares, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel passes away from us saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.”
For consolation there is none
Like that Thy Name Both give,
Thy Jesus-name, O David’s Son
And Lord, by whom I live.