2 Sam. 19:1-40
Joab reproaches David for his weakness; Joab is exhorting David! But who other than he alone had brought on this evil and had so wrung the bowels of this father's affections? No doubt, it was according to the ways of God who was giving free course to the chastening that had been announced (2 Sam. 12:10-11), and David must acknowledge His hand in all this. But woe to the unrighteous instrument by whom these ways were carried out. Only, the time of retribution had not yet come. God does not even permit that Joab be replaced by Amasa as David, offended, meant to do (2 Sam. 19:13). David complies with Joab's counsel. I do not doubt that this is because he knows the justice of God's ways toward himself. When he later delegates Joab's judgment to Solomon, it is not actually Absalom's death of which he accuses him, but above all of the murder of Abner and Amasa during a time of peace (1 Kings 2:5). David then sits at the gate of the city where all the people present themselves before him.
The discipline is now ended. Discipline was exercised in 1 Samuel to keep David in the path of dependence. There was no bitterness then, but rather the happy consciousness of divine favor. In the Second Book discipline is bitter for it is accompanied by the consciousness of having dishonored a holy God. But what fruit it bears too! God fills the broken heart as He alone is able to do, and outwardly the life of Jesus is manifested. We enter upon a scene of grace, forgiveness, and peace, the expression of what now occupies the king's heart.
In 2 Sam. 19:9-15 we see grace. The ten tribes had betrayed and abandoned David in order to follow unrighteous Absalom; they are the first to return and speak of bringing back the king. David knows of this and opens his arms to Judah, so slow, so slothful until now to acknowledge the throne of their king, and who ought to have horn the penalty for this. "Ye are my hone and my flesh," he tells them (2 Sam. 19:12). Amasa had been the head of the army that had pursued David, and he was all the more guilty in that he like Joab was the king's nephew. "Art thou not my bone, and my flesh?" David sends to say to Amasa (2 Sam. 19:13). His grace demands nothing; much rather it delights in doing good to his enemies.
In 2 Sam. 19:16- 23 we find forgiveness. The king forgives Shimei who in order to avoid the fate awaiting him comes to submit himself: "Let not my lord impute iniquity to me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely... for thy servant knows that I have sinned" (2 Sam. 19:19-20). Abishai, still the same (cf. 2 Sam. 16:9), would like to take revenge against Shimei. David stops him: "What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries to me? Should there any man be put to death this day in Israel?" No, this is the day of grace and forgiveness. Whether or not the feelings Shimei expresses are sincere David does not stop to consider; he is not judging them now; Shimei will have to give account for them later when his conduct will reveal their reality (1 Kings 2:36-46). "Thou shalt not die," David tells this guilty man.
In 2 Sam. 19:24-30 we have a scene of peace. Mephibosheth comes down to meet his benefactor; he had been in mourning ever since David's departure. Ziha had deceived him and slandered him. Here we discover a new feature of Ziba's character. It was in wicked Shimei's company that Ziha had crossed the Jordan to meet the king (2 Sam. 19:16-17). David's silence as to Ziba is characteristic. Why, it appears that he is reproaching Mephibosheth. Perhaps his infirmity was not as great an obstacle as he had thought for following a fleeing David. Perhaps like Jonathan his father he lacked a certain moral courage to associate himself with the dangers facing his benefactor. This is not revealed to us and we can only guess. But what is certain is that in the king's absence his life had been a life of affliction, mourning, prayers and ardent longing for his return (2 Sam. 19:24). How then can David treat him so rudely? "Why speakest thou any more of thy matters?" (2 Sam. 19:29). These words remind us a little of those, seemingly so hard, that Jesus spoke to the Syrophenician woman. The Lord spoke them to put this woman's faith to the test. When an engineer builds a bridge he has very heavy loads go across it in order to test it. David's words do the same. Mephibosheth's precious faith is put to the test and what comes forth is only the perfume of dependence and self-denial. This faith has three characteristics: Mephibosheth accepts David's will as being the will of God: "My lord the king is as an angel of God; do therefore what is good in thy sight" (2 Sam. 19:27). This will, whatever it may be, is good in Mephibosheth's eyes because it is good in David's eyes (cf. Rom. 12:2). Secondly, he recognizes that he has no right to the king's favor based on his ancestry or personal worth: "For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table. What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?" (2 Sam. 19:28). Finally when David replies, saying, "I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land," Mephibosheth answers: "Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house" (2 Sam. 19:30). He renounces all his temporal advantages; for Mephibosheth it is enough that his lord has recovered the place due him.
Oh! may our faith when put to the test ever produce fruit like this!
In contrast to Mephibosheth, Barzillai (2 Sam. 19:31-40) is tested by the offer of temporal blessings. He was very rich but very different from the young man whom "Jesus loved," and he had placed his fortune at the king's disposition during his stay at Manahaim (2 Sam. 19:32). His great age had not hindered him from giving himself, body and goods, in service to David. David offers him a reward proportionate to his devotion: "Pass thou over with me, and I will maintain thee with me in Jerusalem" (2 Sam. 19:33). But Barzillai had not labored for a reward, and judging himself unworthy of it, he refuses. "How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old: can I discern between good and bad? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink?... why should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?" (2 Sam. 19:34-35). Let his son Chimham profit from the fruit of his labor: far from opposing this, Barzillai rejoices in it (2 Sam. 19:37-38). Later, like Mephibosheth at David's table, Barzillai's sons eat at Solomon's table (1 Kings 2:7).
Three things suffice this man of God beyond the happiness of once more seeing the king's rights acknowledged beyond the Jordan and seeing him established in his kingdom again. The first is the lovely promise of 2 Sam. 19:38: "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which seems good to thee: and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee." The second is that when leaving him David gives him a token of his love: "The king kissed Barzillai." Through this kiss he, like Enoch, receives the testimony of having pleased God in the person of His anointed. The third is that the king "blessed him" (2 Sam. 19:39). Jesus also when leaving His beloved disciples lifted His hands to bless them and today maintains the same attitude with regard to us. His hands although invisible remain lifted up over us, leaving in our hearts the certainty of the full efficacy of His work. Barzillai returns to his place with the warmth of love, the joy of blessings, and with David's promise: "Whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee," and that other glorious promise that his son, yes, even his sons should pass over with the king, never to leave him, and to be seated forever at the king of glory's table!