“And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you: Now then do it: for the Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out or the hand of all their enemies.”—2 Sam. 3:17, 1817And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you: 18Now then do it: for the Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies. (2 Samuel 3:17‑18).
“Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold we are thy bone and. thy flesh. Also in times past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anointed David king over Israel.” —2 Sam. 5:1-31Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. 2Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 3So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel. (2 Samuel 5:1‑3).
DAVID, as many of my readers will doubtless know, is a most beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a type of the Lord during His time of present rejection by the world, and therefore I use this Scripture as an illustration,—an illustration at once most simple and most blessed.
David is a lovely type of Christ, both as to His personal worth, His personal beauty, and the majesty of His work. We have the wonderful way in which David disposes of the giant who was the terror of Israel, and yet, though he did that work, the fact that he was not accepted, and that is exactly like Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ did that wondrous work, defeated Satan and destroyed his power, and men east Him out. I ask you, Have you taken your place by His side yet? or do you too refuse to acknowledge Him? The moment Christ is persecuted, it is an utter impossibility for you and me to be neutral, we must either be for or against Him.
In this chapter, Saul was dead, and there was a movement to make David king; but the moment had not arrived yet. There goes out, before the manifested power of David as king, this man Abner, and he had communication with the elders of Israel. He goes out, as the Evangelist goes out, and says, “Ye sought for David in times past, to be king over you, now then do it.”
The Evangelist says, “In times past you sought for Jesus to reign in your hearts, now then do it!” I suppose few, if any, who read these pages, have not known some moment in their history when they thought they would like to know Jesus as their Saviour; but has He ever had His right place in your heart yet?
“Never!” you say. Why? I leave you to answer my question.
But if Jesus has never been really known by you yet, I bring you this message from God— “Now then do it?” Now, as you read these lines, bow to Jesus; bow before that blessed One who died and rose again; yield Him your heart; give Him your confidence; let Him be the One who reigns supreme in your soul’s affections, and controls your life.
Abner gives a good reason why David should be their king; and I have a good reason why you should yield your hearts to the blessed Jesus.
Abner says, “By the hand of David Israel will be saved from all their enemies.” And what shall I say to you of the Lord Jesus?
When He is born into the world, God says of Him, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Are you among His people, my reader? If so, you are one of those whom He saves from their sins; if not, you must bear your sins for yourself, and bear the consequences of them for all eternity.
You may have been born and brought up under the sound of the Gospel, but that is not enough; God calls on you personally for a decision, and for a decision now. Whenever the soul is addressed by God, it is always “Now.” He always brings a soul to the point.
In the sixteenth chapter of 1 Samuel, we have the person of David brought out. “Of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to.” There is a type of Christ. If I were to ask a Christian, What about Christ? he would answer as the Bride in the Canticles, “He is altogether lovely.” He is the One on whom God’s heart is set. What is like the moral beauty of Christ, coming down into this wretched world of sinners to make God known? In Him all fullness dwelt.
And therefore, if I tell you of a Saviour, Who is this Saviour? Son of God, and Son of man, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” Death had no claim on Him, because He was the absolutely sinless One.
How do I know I am not fit for God? Because Christ was absolutely sinless, and God has taken Him into glory, and I am sinful, and therefore not fit to go there; and therefore, if all the Gospel were contained in a description of what He is, His perfection would be no comfort to me, for it only puts Him further from me.
But what do I get in the 17th chapter of 1 Samuel 2? There I get David’s work. Jesse sends his son to see how his brethren fare.
And the Father sent His Son not merely to see how we fared, but to be our Saviour. He saw how we fared. Under Satan’s power, ruined, wretched, and miserable, and unable to extricate ourselves. Man was at a distance from God, and under the power of a terrible foe too mighty for him to cope with.
Israel was terribly afraid of this giant, who stood and, cried “Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.” None answered this fearful challenge; not one was found to fight this awful foe. Where was Jonathan that day? Where were the other sons of Jesse who followed Saul to the battle?
All dismayed. They could not fight, because they knew it was hopeless David goes down alone to the valley of Elah, he fights the giant, and comes off a victor.
The giant falls. He uses no armor, he carries no weapons, but a sling and a stone; alone he faces the foe, and kills the one who had been Israel’s terror, with his own sword. What does this all mean? What does it point to?
The Philistine disdained David for his youth and apparent weakness. Does not this remind us of what the Spirit of God says, “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness?” Go and tell a man he is to be saved from death by the blood-shedding and agony of the Son of God; he does not like that, does not understand it. Yet this is the power of God though men deem it foolishness. The power of God is a spectacle of deepest weakness, when Jesus the Son of God went out of this world hanging between two thieves!
Betrayed by a false friend, and denied by a true one, and when He could have exercised power not doing it, wearing a crown of thorns, buffeted, scorned, and derided, sent from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod to Pilate again, and from Pilate to a gibbet, and there dying in solitary agony outside Jerusalem. Every one forsaking Him, even those who loved Him.
None to take pity, none to comfort; alone He hung there; and when every one else had forsaken Him, God forsook Him too, in those hours of darkness, and that awful cry comes from the darkness, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
Oh, my reader, can you make light of this story? Hell will be an awful hell to you, as you remember it there, as you think there of what that cross might have been to you, and that you have despised it, made light of it, and that now it is of no more avail to you forever.
Look at this valley of Elah and the conflict there. It is a picture of the cross. David cuts off the giant’s head with his own sword, and the Spirit of God says in Hebrews, of Jesus, that He took a body that “through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Satan had the power of death, and after, death is the judgment, and therefore death is an awful thing for an unconverted soul. Satan wields that power of death over you, and you are afraid, for you know well that after death is the judgment.
You must die, because you are man; and Jesus became a man that He might die to give you life. What a blessed Saviour! Will you not give Him your heart just now? Or, will you risk dying with your sins upon you, and the judgment of God before you? Will you risk standing before the great white throne, and listening to the awful catalog of your sins, as they are read out from the opened books, and this the crowning sin of all that you were afraid to confess Christ—a coward?
You have heard of Christ often. You have listened to God’s testimony concerning Him. Now I ask you what are you going to do Are you going to decide for Him now? to give Him your heart’s allegiance now?
Abner says, “You sought for David in times past to be king over you” —and do not you remember a day when sickness came upon you, and you thought of death, and feared to meet God, and then you thought you would like to have Jesus as your Saviour? But the time went by, and you recovered; and the world got its hold on you renewed, and you are unsaved today. You have not received Jesus yet. “Now then do it!”
Or, I doubt not, many of you who read this paper will remember the time when you were impressed under a gospel preaching; when you almost decided to come to Jesus; almost, but not quite, and you are undecided today. Be undecided no longer. “Now then do it!”
Possibly some of you will remember a day when the one you loved best was taken away from you, and in your sorrow you longed to have Jesus as your Friend—to have Jesus to turn round to. You desired to have Him, but you did not take Him; and today your heart is still a stranger to His love, His sympathy; let it be so not another day. “Now then do it!”
Be decided today; open your heart today, to receive the message God sends to you, lest God should leave you alone, leave you to mourn forever in bitter agony and remorse, your folly and your indecision.
Perhaps you say, “I have often thought of these things, and almost made up my mind many a time.” “Now then do it,” says Abner to the elders of Israel; and “Now then do it,” say I to you. Now then belong to Christ. How long does it take to decide? A moment is enough. Unconverted soul, “Now then do it.” Undecided soul, “Now then do it.”
Will He have me, do you ask? Try Him.
Will He receive me? Put Him to the test.
He has shown His desire to have you by His death. He says, “Whosoever will.” Are you willing to be saved by Him? That is the only thing needed, In times past you wanted to be the Lord’s.
“Now then do it.” In times past you thought you would come to Jesus; “Now then do it.” Decide for Jesus, and decide now.
In chapter 5, all the tribes come to David, and say, “Behold, we are thy bone, and thy flesh.” They say, We are yours. That is all you have to do. Just simply come to Jesus; trust in Jesus. What a moment it is when you make Jesus Lord of your soul, Lord of your heart—when you own His authority.
“Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse.” Thine are we, Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God. Is it so with you, my reader? Can you look up to that blessed Saviour, and say, “I am thine, Lord Jesus, Thy love I own, has broken every barrier down”? You have waited long enough, “Now then do it!” You were going to give Him your heart long ago, “Now then do it!” The Lord press this word home on your soul. The moment a sinner comes to Jesus, the Lord says as the first thing, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” and then the soul gets the knowledge of being united to Christ. We become bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.
The Lord Jesus died for our sins; but, He rose again from the dead, and links with Himself every soul that believes in Him, so that He can say to Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren, and say, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Christ is the other side of death, and judgment, and the wrath of God, and so is every soul that trusts in Him, for it is United to the risen man in glory by the Holy Ghost sent down, and given to every soul that trusts His name.
What a portion! Accepted in the Beloved, past death and judgment, and linked with the living Lord, and soon to be with Him in glory.
Oh, my reader, if you have never bowed to Him yet, “Now then do it,” the Lord says; “Now then do it, “heaven says; “Now then do it,” the evangelist says; “Now then do it,” the church says; “Now then do it,” angels say; “Do not do it,” Satan says. The great adversary says, “Do not do it now; put it off!” Satan whispers in your ear “No one denies that you can only be saved by the blood of Jesus; it is all quite true, but—but—put it off; do not decide now; there is time enough.”
Do not listen to his whisperings, my reader.
If you want to escape the damnation of hell, if you want to be the Lord’s, if you want to be with Christ in glory, if ever you are going to be Christ’s, if ever you want to be in heaven with Him, put off your decision no longer, nay “Now THEN DO IT.”
W. T. P. W.