Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 14:1
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house.
1. Hiram ] Other forms of this name are Huram and (1Ki 5:10; 1Ki 5:18) Hirom.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. Hiram’s [first] Embassy to David
The dislocation of the narrative mentioned in the last note has concealed the occasion of Hiram’s embassy. The narrative of 2Sa 5:9-11 suggests that Hiram heard of the building works which David was carrying on at Jerusalem and so sent materials and workmen to assist. David accepted the welcome offer (which ultimately led to an alliance) as a sign of Divine favour.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Compare 2Sa 5:11-25, the only important variations from which are in 1Ch 14:4-7, the list of the sons of David (see 1Ch 3:1 note), and in 1Ch 14:12, where the fact is added that the idols taken from the Philistines were burned.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ch 14:1-2
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David.
The building of the royal house
In Hirams conduct notice–
I. An instance of true friendship.
1. Genuine.
2. Lasting.
II. An illustration of human agency in the service of God.
III. A proof of Gods providence.
1. In Hirams conduct.
2. In Davids accession to the throne.
3. In the honour and extension of Davids kingdom. (J. Wolfendale.)
Hiram and David
The treaty between these two kings illustrates–
I. The providence of God in the exaltation of a good man.
II. The influence of a good man upon others when thus exalted. Men pay homage to moral worth and holy life. This power every Christian may possess and wield.
III. The design for which God exalts a good man (2Sa 5:12). Not for themselves, but for others are men enriched and honoured. (J. Wolfendale.)
Lifted up
Man throws down. God lifts up:
1. Persons.
2. Societies.
3. Nations.
Lifts up above:
1. Distress.
2. Opposition.
3. Danger. (J. P. Lange.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIV
Hiram sends artificers and materials to David, to build him a
house, 1, 2.
David’s wives and children, 3-7.
He defeats the Philistines in two battles: one in the valley of
Rephaim, 8-12;
and the other at Gibeon and Gazer, 13-16.
His fame goes out into all the surrounding nations, 17.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Now Hiram king of Tyre] See the transactions of this chapter related 2Sa 5:11-25.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. Now Hiram king of Tyre[Seeon 2Sa 5:11]. The alliance withthis neighboring king, and the important advantages derived from it,were among the most fortunate circumstances in David’s reign. Theprovidence of God appeared concurrent with His promise in smoothingthe early course of his reign. Having conquered the Jebusites andmade Zion the royal residence, he had now, along with internalprosperity, established an advantageous treaty with a neighboringprince; and hence, in immediate connection with the mention of thisfriendly league, it is said, “David perceived that the Lord hadconfirmed him king over Israel.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
David’s palace-building, wives and children, 1Ch 14:1-7; cf. 2Sa 5:11-16. Two victories over the Philistines, 1Ch 14:8-17; cf. 2Sa 5:17-25. – The position in which the narrative of these events stands, between the removal of the ark from Kirjath-jearim and its being brought to Jerusalem, is not to be supposed to indicate that they happened in the interval of three months, curing which the ark was left in the house of Obed-edom. The explanation of it rather is, that the author of our Chronicle, for the reasons given in page 170, desired to represent David’s design to bring the ark into the capital city of his kingdom as his first undertaking after he had won Jerusalem, and was consequently compelled to bring in the events of our chapter at a later period, and for that purpose this interval of three months seemed to offer him the fittest opportunity. The whole contents of our chapter have already been commented upon in 2Sa 5:1, so that we need not here do more than refer to a few subordinate points.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| David’s Kingdom Established. | B. C. 1045. |
1 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house. 2 And David perceived that the LORD had confirmed him king over Israel, for his kingdom was lifted up on high, because of his people Israel. 3 And David took more wives at Jerusalem: and David begat more sons and daughters. 4 Now these are the names of his children which he had in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, 5 And Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpalet, 6 And Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, 7 And Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphalet.
We may observe here, 1. There is no man that has such a sufficiency in himself but he has need of his neighbours and has reason to be thankful for their help: David had a very large kingdom, Hiram a very little one; yet David could not build himself a house to his mind unless Hiram furnished him with both workmen and materials, v. 1. This is a reason why we should despise none, but, as we have opportunity, be obliging to all. 2. It is a great satisfaction to a wise man to be settled, and to a good man to see the special providences of God in his settlement. The people had made David king; but he could not be easy, nor think himself happy, till he perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, v. 2. “Who shall unfix me if God hath fixed me?” 3. We must look upon all our advancements as designed for our usefulness. David’s kingdom was lifted up on high, not for his own sake, that he might look great, but because of his people Israel, that he might be a guide and protector to them. We are blessed in order that we may be blessings. See Gen. xii. 2. We are not born, nor do we live, for ourselves. 4. It is difficult to thrive without growing secure and indulgent to the flesh. It was David’s infirmity that when he settled in his kingdom he took more wives (v. 3), yet the numerous issue he had added to his honour and strength. Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord. We had an account of David’s children, not only in Samuel, but in this book (ch. iii. 1, c.) and now here again for it was their honour to have such a father.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
see note on: 2Sa 5:11
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter runs parallel with 2Sa. 5:11-25, and presents a general verbal identity, which is insufficiently represented by the Authorised Version. The only important variations from 2 Samuel 5 are in 1Ch. 14:4-7; 1Ch. 14:12, in the former of which passages the sons of David are given somewhat differently, while in the latter the fact is added that the idols taken from the Philistines were burned [Speak. Com.].
1Ch. 14:1-2.Davids house. H. elsewhere Huram (2Ch. 2:3; 2Ch. 8:18; 2Ch. 9:10; cf. 2Sa. 5:11). A Phnician, a Canaanite, speaking the language of David, and sovereign of a city trading in cedars and abounding with craftsmen in stone and wood [cf. Murphy]. 1Ch. 14:2. Confirmed in contrast to his former state and the fate of Sauls kingdom.
1Ch. 14:3-7.Davids family (cf. 2Sa. 3:5). Concubines in ch. 1Ch. 3:9; a list of children 1Ch. 14:5-8; those born in Jerusalem, 2Sa. 5:14-16. But names of Eliphalet and Nogah not found, and Beeliada appears the same as Eliada.
1Ch. 14:8-17.Davids victories. Seek to ruin him before consolidated in kingdom. 1Ch. 14:9. Rephaim (1Ch. 11:15) south east of Jerusalem, near capital of David. 1Ch. 14:10. Enquired for high priest to give tone to his reign. 1Ch. 14:11. Smote in the engagement at Mount Perazim (Isa. 38:21), in valley of Rephaim. This first victory. 1Ch. 14:12. Gods images carried into battlefields (1Sa. 4:4-11; 2Sa. 5:21).
1Ch. 14:13-17.Second victory. Again in next season campaign renewed. 1Ch. 14:14. Not up to meet them directly; come upon them by stratagem in the rear. 1Ch. 14:15. Sound, the rustling of leaves by strong breeze, the appointed sign and moment for attack. 1Ch. 14:16. Gibeon, now Yefa, in Judah. 1Ch. 14:17. Fane in all the surrounding nations. This verse an appropriate conclusion, not found in Samuel.
HOMILETICS
THE BUILDING OF THE ROYAL HOUSE.1Ch. 14:1-2
David had conquered Jebusites; made Zion capital; had now wisely made a treaty with a neighbouring prince. Magnanimous and godfearing. In Hirams conduct notice
I. An instance of true friendship. History gives noble examples of love and friendship.
1. This was genuine. Real and excellent. David need of artisans. War and disorder had depopulated. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
2. This was lasting. Friends often change with change of principles and circumstances; vary with temperature and desert in meanness. Hiram did to the son what he had done to the father (2Ch. 2:3); for Hiram was ever a lover of David (1Ki. 5:1).
II. An illustration of human agency in the service of God. None independent. All require friends and help. Rich to give to poor; wise to teach the ignorant, and kings to rule subjects. All may communicate, interchange stores of thought, knowledge, and substance.
1. Agency in men. Tyrian workmen renowned and skilful; helped David to build a city, so splendid in cedar structures that Jeremiah exclaimed, Thou dwellest on Lebanon and makest thy nest in the cedars (Jer. 22:23).
2. Agency in materials. Israel agricultural, furnished corn and oil; Tyre commercial, gave its manufactures and foreign produce. Thus mutually helpful. All the treasures of art and materials of nature subserve mans highest interests and Gods work.
III. A proof of Gods providence. David more than fortunate in having a friend in Hiram at this time.
1. Providence in Hirams conduct. God disposed him to render help. The God of infinite wisdom has a purpose in the rise and fall of empires, in all events of life, obscure or illustrious. As a gardener directs rills of water through different parts of his ground, so the kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will (Pro. 21:1).
2. Providence in Davids accession to the throne. David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel. By internal unity, external peace, and friendly connection with Hiram.
3. Providence in the honour and extension of Davids kingdom. And that his kingdom was exalted on high. Respected at home and abroad among nations; elevated as the people of God above others in knowledge, privilege, and destiny. In building characters, churches, and societies rely upon God, not too much upon human friendship and human instrumentality, wealth, eloquent preachers and active evangelists. Recognition, consciousness of God, gives strength and success. David perceived, &c.
HIRAM AND DAVID
The treaty between these two kings illustrates
I. The providence of God in the exaltation of a good man. Confirmed him king. Scholars, ministers, statesmen, fitted and exalted from obscurity to honour. Joseph from prison to prime minister; Garfield from log cabin to White House; Livingstone from Blantyre to Westminster Abbey. The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
II. The influence of a good man upon others when thus exalted. Davids influence far and near. Men pay homage to moral worth and holy life. This power every Christian may possess and wield. The secret is, The Lord was with him.
III. The design for which God exalts a good man. For his people Israels sake (2Sa. 5:12). Not for themselves, but for others are men enriched and honoured. Great interests often sacrificed for selfish ends. Kings, popes, and emperors forget that others are as dear to God as they. Elevation should never separate. Kings created for the people, not the people for kings.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
1Ch. 14:1; 1Ch. 2:1. Davids house built. Fit for his court and homage. Workmen of a wealthy prince helped to rear it. The sons of strangers shall build up the walls of the spiritual house, and their kings shall minister unto thee (Isa. 60:10).
2. Davids kingdom established. Saul not established. Nothing to shake or disturb possession. Exalted before friend and foe. Higher than the kings of the earth.
3. Gods hand recognised in this. Many blessed and honoured do not perceive this, will not acknowledge God, talk about their fortune, star, and chance. David perceived, &c. By this I know that thou favourest me (Psa. 41:1).
1Ch. 14:2. Lifted up. Man throws down. God lifts up persons, societies, and nations; lifts up above distress, opposition, and danger. A good man in great prosperity.
1. He ascribes it all to the Lord.
2. He regards it as given him for the benefit of his fellow-men [Lange].
HOMILETICS
THE EXTENSION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.1Ch. 14:3-7
When the palace was built and the kingdom established, Davids family multiplied and increased. Of his sons, see 1Ch. 3:1-9; and his concubines, 2Sa. 15:16; 2Sa. 16:22; 2Sa. 19:5. This
I. In worldly policy. Always thought to be politic to have many children; marry them into powerful families, and thus strengthen interest and gain support. The custom of Oriental monarchs to gather a numerous harem. This an essential part of court-state, and a symbol of royal power. But David overstepped the mark and went astray. Men who have once broken the fence will wander carelessly.
II. In disobedience to Gods command. Multiplication of wives expressly forbidden to the kings of Israel. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away (Deu. 17:17). Worldly policy often contradictory to Gods design. Expediency never safe. Divine wisdom the only preservative and redemptive force in life. When wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.
To know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom [Milton].
FAMOUS BATTLES.1Ch. 14:8-17
Philistines afraid of Davids growing powerthat he would wipe away the national dishonour of Gilboa, and that his knowledge of the country would give superior advantage in warresolve to attack, surprise, and ruin him. Went up to seek, with intention to crush him before consolidated in his kingdom (cf. 1Sa. 23:15; 1Sa. 24:2), but were overcome in two famous battles.
I. The counsel by which they were undertaken. David enquired of God (1Ch. 14:10); David enquired again of God (1Ch. 14:13). In all affairs look to God for direction. Have his will and word for your guide. Means always at hand to discover his will. Submit thoughts, plans, and ways to Gods approvalto check if wrong, to perfect if right. If depressed by their weight, commit (literally, roll as a burden which you cannot bear) thy way unto the Lord (Psa. 27:5). Roll thy works (thy undertakings) upon the Lord (Pro. 16:3).
II. The help by which they were fought. This from above.
1. In divine direction. The Lord said unto him, go up. Never stir without this.
2. In hearty co-operation. David did not entrench himself in Zion, nor act merely on the defensive, but made the attack and conquered. To serve the gods was to reign, said a heathen writer.
III. The victories which they gained. Brilliant and complete.
1. The enemy overcome. David smote themlike rising waters, overflowing their banks and sweeping everything before them.
2. Their false confidence destroyed. Philistines carried their gods into battle, with the belief, common in ancient nations, that they would grant success. Their owners left them helpless on the field; the victors carried them as trophies to the capital, and consumed them in the flames. They were burned with fire.
3. David became, famous. The fame of David went out unto all lands (1Ch. 14:17). As a great warrior, a powerful monarch, and a good man.
4. God was honoured. Acknowledged as the source of victoryGod hath broken in (1Ch. 14:11)praised for his gift and presence, and feared above all the gods of the earth. Give to him the glory due to his name.
SIGNALS FOR DUTY.1Ch. 14:15-16
In the responses to Davids inquiries we not simply have commands in words, and symbols in sound, but signals for duty or action.
I. Gods answer to mans prayer. Given twice, in terms direct and explicit.
1. Prayer for knowledge of duty. Shall I go?
2. Prayer for assurance of success. Wilt thou deliver them into my hand? David often defeated. For his own encouragement and that of his army, he desires grounds of confidence. True prayer will give knowledge, hope, and strength.
II. Gods help in mans circumstances. These often strange and apparently against us; render powerless and insufficient. Gods help adequate to feeble men and scanty resources. In his service never left without indications of his presence. God is gone forth before thee.
III. Gods signal for mans action. We need not only to know and strength to obey Gods will, but the call to dutythe signal to go at the exact time. A detachment on one occasion waited for orders, longed to join their comrades in battle, instead of standing in silence, exposed to danger. At length Wellington gave the command, and the attack was successful. They serve who stand and wait. A time to stand still and to go forward, but God must give the signal. Wait for his salvation. The vision shall come and not tarry.
THE BATTLE OF BAAL-PERAZIM.1Ch. 14:8-12
Here the Philistines marched from Rephaim, pitched their tent, and offered battle (2Sa. 5:18-20).
I. The spirit in which it was fought. Most commendable and advantageous.
1. A spirit of reliance upon God. Shall I go? An attitude of conscious danger and helplessness.
2. A spirit of humility. David talks of his hand, not his sword. God is the giver, he only receives with the hand. None fit to be great but those who can stoop lowest. Before honour is humility.
3. A spirit of obedience. They came up. Wise to listen to and obey lawto be convinced of its divine authority and justice. Men ever ready to order, to modify and repeal, in danger and doubt. But the wise in heart will receive commandments.
4. A spirit of courage. Victory promised by God, hence bravery and enthusiasm. A good cause makes a stout heart.
He holds no parley with unmanly fears,
Where duty bids, he confidently steers,
Faces a thousand dangers at her call,
And trusting in his God, surmounts them all [Cowper].
II. The scenes by which it was characterised. Battlefields never pleasant to inspect. Great soldiers have often wept on them.
1. Shameful defeat. David smote them, and like an impetuous flood carried all before him. The defeat terrible, and perpetuated in name of place. Baal-perazim water-breach (cf. Isa. 28:21).
2. National disgrace. The gods were forsaken, lost, and destroyed. The disgrace of the Philistines capture of the ark was wiped away, and the idolatrous people dishonoured. God makes men weary of things they love, and compels them to desert what they worship. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats (Isa. 2:20).
THE BATTLE OF GIBEON.1Ch. 14:14-17
Again the enemy renewed hostile attempt with greater force. God interposes in a peculiar way, caused a sound to be heard, and David suddenly attacked from behind the mulberry-trees. Notice
I. A special change in tactics. Much depends upon methods in war. David not permitted to act as in first battle, though successful. This would have been natural. But God alone must be followed; not rules of earthly warfare, not past experience, nor past success must guide. God does a new thing. Thou shalt not go up; fetch a compass behind them.
II. A special sign by which these tactics are carried out. When thou shalt hear a sound of going, &c.
1. A supernatural sign. Sound of goingviz., of God. Soldiers must look to the commander for orders. This, many think, was a noise made by angels, who came to help (cf. 2Ki. 7:6).
2. A disciplinary sign. Requiring an upward look, an open eye to see, an attentive ear to hear. Duty of soldiers to wait and watch in readiness and order.
3. A typical sign. In the setting up of Christs kingdom, disciples waited to be equipped for work. The Spirit came with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. When they heard and felt that, they bestirred themselves, and went forth to conquer.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
1Ch. 14:8.
1. A vigilant foe. Philistines heard.
2. An army on guard. David heard.
3. An army prepared to meet the foe. Went out against them. A Christians duty like that of a soldier. He does not attempt to meet temptation, to fight the enemy in his own strength. His watchfulness lies in observing its approach, telling God of it in prayer, and being prepared in Gods strength.
1Ch. 14:10.
1. The thing to ascertain. Is it Gods will?
2. The power required to perform it when known. Many wish for Gods favour and help without doing Gods will. The order can never be reversed; first Gods will, then Gods help. No answer and no power, if not in right attitude and relation to him.
1Ch. 14:11. God hath broken asunder or through mine enemies as a breach of waters, i.e., as a violent torrent makes a rift or breach. Philistines scattered suddenly, unexpectedly and violently. Gods terrors awful. Thy fierce anger goeth over me (as waves of the sea); thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together (Psa. 88:16-17).
1Ch. 14:9 to 1Ch. 11:1. An instance of self-conquest. David conquered self, and then consulted God.
2. A lesson of dependence upon God. Pray, look up, and expect.
3. An instance of success through obedience.
God fights the battles of a will resigned.
1Ch. 14:15. Sound of going applies figuratively to us also in our spiritual conflict with the children of unbelief in the world. There, too, it comes to nothing that one should make war with his own prowess and merely in the human equipment of reason and science. Success can only be reckoned on when the conflict is waged amid the blowing of the Holy Spirits breath and with the immediate presence of the Lord and of the truth of his word [Krummacher]. God before thee.
1. In the pledge of success.
2. By confounding the enemy. Sound something amazing, like the noise of a mighty host. Hence panic and flight.
1Ch. 14:15. Before thee.
1. A word of consolation in sore distress.
2. A word of encouragement amid inward conflict.
3. A word of exhortation to unconditional obedience of faith.
4. A word of assurance of the victory which the Lord gives [Lange]. The rustling of the Lords approaching help in the tops of the trees.
1. Dost thou wait for it at his bidding?
2. Dost thou hear it with the right heed?
3. Dost thou understand it in the right sense?
4. Dost thou follow it without delay? [Idem]. Victory comes from the Lord.
1. When it is beforehand humbly asked for according to the Lords will and word.
2. When the battle is undertaken in the Lords name and for His cause.
3. When it is fought with obedient observation of the Lords directions and guidance [Idem].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 14
1Ch. 14:1-2. Hiram and David.
A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
Burns with one love, with one resentment glows [Popes Homer].
It was reckoned a crime among the Romans to be without a friend. Friends, says one, are to be inventoried as well as goods.
1Ch. 14:8. David heard of it. Set double guard on that point to-night, was an officers command when an attack was expected.
1Ch. 14:10. Shall I go up? The English Ambassador to the Court of Prussia sat at a table of Frederick the Great, then meditating a war whose sinews were to be mainly formed of English subsidies. Round the table sat infidel French wits, and they and the king made merry over decadent superstitions, the follies of the ancient faith. Suddenly the talk changed to war. Said the Ambassador, England would, by the help of God, stand by Prussia. Ah! said the infidel Frederick, I did not know you had an ally of that name, and the infidel wits smirked applause. So, please your Majesty, was the swift retort, He is the only ally to whom we do not send subsidies [Baxendale].
1Ch. 14:14-16. Luthers strength lay in the way in which he laid the burden of the Reformation upon the Lord. Continually in prayer he pleaded, Lord, this is thy cause, not mine. Therefore, do thine own work; for if this gospel do not prosper, it will not be Luther alone who will be a loser, but thine own name will be dishonoured [Spurgeon].
1Ch. 14:17. Fame of David. Begin with modesty, if you would end with honour.
Some men are raised to station and command,
When Providence means mercy to a land.
He speaks, and they appear; to him they owe
Skill to direct, and strength to strike the blow,
To manage with address, to seize with power
The crisis of a decisive hour [Cowper].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
7. DAVIDS PALACE, WIVES, AND EARLY MILITARY VICTORIES (Chapter 14)
TEXT
1Ch. 14:1. And Hiram king, of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and masons, and carpenters, to build him a house. 2. And David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel; for his kingdom was exalted on high, for his people Israels sake. 3. And David took more wives at Jerusalem; and David begat more sons and daughters. 4. And these are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, 5. and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpelet, 6. and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, 7. and Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet. 8. And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David: and David heard of it, and went out against them. 9. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. 10. And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into my hand? And Jehovah said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thy hand? 11. So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and David said, God hath broken mine enemies by my hand, like the breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim. 12. And they left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire. 13. And the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. 14. And David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Thou shalt not go up after them: turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry-trees. 15. And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle; for God is gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. 16. And David did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gezer. 17. And the fame of David went out into all lands; and Jehovah brought the fear of him upon all nations.
PARAPHRASE
1Ch. 14:1. King Hiram of Tyre sent masons and carpenters to help build Davids palace and he supplied him with much cedar lumber. 2. David now realized why the Lord had made him king and why he had made his kingdom so great; it was for a special reasonto give joy to Gods people!
3. After David moved to Jerusalem, he married additional wives and became the father of many sons and daughters. 47. These are the names of the sons born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishu-a, Elpelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Beeliada, Eliphelet.
8. When the Philistines heard that David was Israels new king, they mobilized their forces to capture him. But David learned that they were on the way so he called together his army. 9. The Philistines were raiding the Valley of Rephaim, 10. and David asked the Lord, If I go out and fight them, will you give me the victory? And the Lord replied, Yes, I will. 11. So he attacked them at Baal-perazim and wiped them out. He exulted, God has used me to sweep away my enemies like water bursting through a dam! That is why the place has been known as Baal-perazim ever since (meaning, The Place of Breaking Through). 12. After the battle the Israelis picked up many idols left by the Philistines, but David ordered them burned.
13. Later the Philistines raided the valley again, 14. and again David asked God what to do. The Lord replied, Go around by the mulberry trees and attack from there. 15. When you hear a sound like marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that is your signal to attack, for God will go before you and destroy the enemy. 16. So David did as the Lord commanded him; and he cut down the army of the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. 17. Davids fame spread everywhere, and the Lord caused all the nations to fear him.
COMMENTARY
As David began to organize his government in Jerusalem he was able to enjoy a friendly relationship with the Phoenician people who shared the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean with Israel. Phoenicia boasted with regard to two great cities, Sidon and Tyre. Sidon was the older of the two cities and had been in contention with Egypt as early as 1500 B.C. When Sidon was subdued by the Philistines in the twelfth century B.C., Tyre came into a position of prominence. From the Biblical viewpoint Hiram was Tyres most illustrious king. There is no certain information as to his background. He was contemporary with David and Solomon. Hiram was ever a lover of David (1Ki. 5:1), and he used his office to establish an alliance between his country and Israel. Such a relationship was mutually helpful. The Phoenicians needed the grain and olive oil produced in Israel. David and Solomon needed the cedar, fir, and marble from Phoenicia and the Lebanon region. From early times the Phoenicians were skilled craftsmen in the use of lumber and stone. While many of their neighbors continued to live in tents, the Phoenicians were already living in well constructed wooden houses. These people were expert builders of ships. These remarkable vessels plied the waters of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean carrying to distant places their works in bronze, the precious purple dye, textiles, and glass products. Hirams reign extended through about forty years. He beautified Tyre and made it one of the truly great cities of the near east. When David made Jerusalem his capital, Hiram moved quickly to offer products and services useful to David and Israel in return for which he hoped to receive Davids good will and substantial food exports. So cedar trees, masons and carpenters provided by Phoenician friends resulted in well constructed kingly quarters for David and his family. The house (1Ch. 14:1) was Davids own residence in Jerusalem. It was this circumstance (2Sa. 7:1) that caused David to originate the idea of the Temple, a House for God. David saw the ark housed in a tent while he lived in a house of cedar. So the Temple idea was born. We are not to presume that the house Hiram built for David would even suggest the splendor of Solomons palaces, yet Davids house was surely the most splendid in Israel in Davids day. The student should observe that this incident introduces a Gentile contribution to the kingdom of God. It looked ahead to that day when Gentiles would receive the Bread of Life from the true Israel. David was well pleased with this turn of events (2Sa. 5:11-12) and saw in them an evident token of Jehovahs blessing.
A review of Davids own family is in order at this point in the record. 2Sa. 3:2-5 lists Davids wives and children in those days when he lived in Hebron. At that time David had six wives; namely, Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah. Ahinoam most likely came from Jezreel, a village in Judah. Abigail originally was the wife of Nabal, the wealthy rancher at Carmel in Judah (1Sa. 25:10; 1Sa. 25:42). Maacah came from the region of Geshur near Mahanaim on the frontier of the Gilead country east of the Jordan river. The origins of the other three wives are not indicated. These six wives each bore David a son. When David came to Jerusalem he brought his six wives plus Michal, Sauls daughter, and his six sons; namely, Amnon, Chileab, Absalom, Adonijah, Shephatiah, and Ithream. The order of birth was a matter of great importance in consideration of the responsibilities resting on the first born. Amnon should have been heir to the throne. He raped his sister, Tamar (2Sa. 13:1; 2Sa. 13:14). Chileab does not figure prominently in the history and may have died in infancy. Maacah was the mother of both Absalom and Tamar. When Amnon, a half brother, outraged his sister, Absalom killed Amnon. So Absalom was in line to be king. He stole the peoples hearts (2Sa. 15:6) and rebelled against David (2Sa. 15:10). As he hung by the hair of this head from the limb of a tree Absalom was slain by Joab (2Sa. 18:14) who may well have hoped that he might be king of Israel. With Absalom removed, Adonijah also rebelled against David as he sought to place himself of the throne (1Ki. 1:5). His hopes were dashed as Benaiah, upon Solomons command, put him to death. So the order in which Davids sons were born determined the course of events in the history
We do not know just how extensive Davids harem was. In addition to the seven wives already named, we are told that he took more wives at Jerusalem (1Ch. 14:3). Among these was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite (2Sa. 11:27).[32] It was she who became Solomons mother. We are told that David was the father of daughters. The only one named is Tamar. In 1Ch. 14:4-7 thirteen sons of David are named in addition to the six born in Hebron. The thirteen include Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet. Whether or not any of these at any time attempted to seize the throne is not known to us. Just prior to his death, David placed Solomon on the throne (1Ki. 1:30) and we hear nothing more of the sons of David. We understand from this record that David was husband to at least eight wives. He was the father of nineteen sons and at least one daughter. Among kings in the near east the harem and the kings household were very important status symbols. In this respect David qualified. There is no evidence that he sought Gods approval for his polygamy. This aspect of his life brought him many sorrows. His lack of self-control in these matters almost ruined him.
[32] Schultz, Samuel J., The Old Testament Speaks, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1960, pp. 136, 137.
He built a great house. David had a rather extensive harem. He allied himself with Hiram and the Phoenicians. This whole situation threatened the position of the Philistines as they shared Judahs territory along the coastal plain. A new kingdom was rapidly being established on the Philistine frontier. It was being set up around a warrior-king well known to this ancient enemy of Israel. The Philistines could not let this go unchallenged. If they could attack David before he made any other alliances or became stronger militarily, they might be successful in strangling this new kingdom in its infancy. They went up to seek David (1Ch. 14:8). David was the key person. He had humiliated the Philistines many times. The Philistines organized their army for an attack on Israel in the Valley of Rephaim.[33] This valley lay just to the southwest of Jerusalem. Perhaps they intended to move through the valley and come directly into the capital. As on other occasions, David inquired of Jehovah. When Abiathar had joined David as David fled from Saul, he brought the ephod with him. The Urim and Thummim probably were carried in the ephod. David had the services of this priest and by use of the sacred lot the immediate will of Jehovah could be determined. He also had the counsel of the prophets, Nathan and Gad. He had no difficulty in finding out what God wanted him to do. As in the account in 2Sa. 5:17-25, so here, two questions were of urgent concern to David. The first was this, Do you want me to fight the Philistines? He may have wondered whether or not he had sinned against God and if the Philistines were being sent by God to chastise him. The second question was, If I am to wage war, will you give me victory? The answer to both questions was affirmative. God said, Go. I will deliver them into thy hand (1Ch. 14:10). The battle between Davids forces and the Philistines raged in that valley. The Philistine army was completely routed. They had brought images of the fertility god, Baal, with them into the battle. Baal was supposed to guarantee victory to his people. In their haste to escape the pursuing Israelites, the Philistines flung their gods to the ground. When the dust of battle settled, the battlefield was strewn with corpses of soldiers and broken idols. So this place of conflict was called Baal–perazim, or the break-up of Baal. Involved in this was the unleashing of the wrath of Jehovah on the Philistine army. The reader is impressed with the unusual power on the side of Davids forces. It was like the breach of waters, as if a great dam had broken loose. The enemy was caught in the flood and swept away before it. The idols were gathered up and burned. Israel was to have no doubt about who gave the victory that day.
[33] Schultz, Samuel J., The Old Testament Speaks, p. 131. Pfeiffer, Charles F The Biblical World, p. 447.
Sometime after this, when the Philistines had had time to gather their forces and forget the stinging defeat of the earlier encounter, they decided to make another attack at the same place. This was their most direct approach to the capital city. The hour was growing late for Philistia. Davids kingdom became stronger with each passing day. So once again they moved into the Valley of Rephaim. David inquired of God again. He took nothing for granted. Each situation was different. This time David was told not to go after the enemy but to turn away from them (1Ch. 14:14). A tactic similar to this was employed when Joshua led Israels army against Ai (Jos. 8:15). When the men of Ai came out to attack, Joshua led Israel in an organized retreat setting up the men of Ai for a maneuver that brought victory to Israel. The mulberry trees probably were a species of balsam. Somewhere in the vicinity of the valley the balsam groves appeared to offer a hiding place for Israels army. In feverish pursuit the Philistines came on. When they could no longer see the Israelite army clearly, suddenly they began to hear the sound of marching (1Ch. 14:15) in the balsam woods. Miraculously once more Jehovah intervened. He caused the Philistines to hear what they could not see and did not need to see. They heard the sounds of mighty armies, not just the sounds of Davids soldiers. Had Davids allies arrived? Where was the enemy they could hear but could not see? Their ears did not deceive them. Jehovah had brought in His host. David and his men turned on the Philistines as they reversed their apparent retreat. The enemy was cut off from the rear and could not get back to the coastal plain. The Philistines were pursued all the way from Gibeon, just north of Jerusalem, to Gezer, which was some fifteen miles west of Gibeon. These two engagements broke the Philistine military power. Never again were they to trouble Israel seriously. All of these events served to accomplish the very thing the Philistines wanted to avoidthe establishment of Davids kingdom.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Hiram.So the Hebrew text of Chronicles spells the name, and the LXX. and all the other ancient versions both of Samuel and Chronicles have it so. But the Hebrew margin of Chronicles writes Huram.
Messengers.Ambassadors.
Timber of cedars.Felled from the Lebanon, and sea-borne to Joppa (2 Chronicles 16).
With masons and carpenters.Literally, and craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timber. 2Sa. 5:11 has craftsmen of wood, and craftsmen of stone of wall.
To build him an house.Samuel, and they built a house for David. (2Sa. 5:11.)
House.Palace. So the Temple was called the house (hab-bayith) as well as the palace (hkl; comp, the Accadian e-gal, great house). We may think of the numerous records of palace building which the Assyrian and Babylonian sovereigns have left us. The cedar of Lebanon (Labnnu) was a favourite material with them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 14:11 So they came up to Baalperazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baalperazim.
1Ch 14:11
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Fame and the Family of David
v. 1. Now, Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, v. 2. And David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, v. 3. And David took more wives at Jerusalem; and David begat more sons and daughters, v. 4. Now, these are the names of his children which he had in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon,
v. 5. and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpalet,
v. 6. and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia,
v. 7. and Elishama, and Beeliada
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
The contents of this chapter belong to a period of time subsequent to the taking of the fort of Zion, and find their parallel in 2Sa 5:11-25. But if found here in the same order of place as there, they would have followed upon 1Ch 9:9; Keil attributes this difference to the desire of our compiler to represent the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem as David’s first undertaking on becoming king of the united people. Considering the contents of this chapter, and remembering that it stands between the unsuccessful attempt to bring home the ark and the final successful bringing of it, it would seem a far more natural thing to suppose that this suggested its present order; for compare 1Ch 15:1, 1Ch 15:2. The parallel is very close. As far as to the word “Elishua” (1Ch 15:5), there is no difference in the least degree material, except that the word “concubines” is found in Samuel, and preceding the word “wives” of our 1Ch 15:3 (yet see 1Ch 3:9). The two names Elpalet and Nogah are also not found in the parallel, but our compiler is consistent with himself; for see 1Ch 3:6, 1Ch 3:7. Further, our 1Ch 3:12 states that the idols of the Philistines were by David’s command “burned with fire,” while the Hebrew text of Samuel only states that “David and his men removed them” (), where the Authorized Version incorrectly translates “burned them.”
1Ch 14:1
The Kethiv abandons here the invariable analogy of Chronicles, and reads Hiram for “Huram,” which latter form, however, is replaced in the Keri. Beside this Hiram or Huram, the king, there was another Hiram or Huram, the same king’s chief artificer, and whom he sent to the help of Solomon (1Ki 7:13, 1Ki 7:40; 2Ch 2:13; 2Ch 4:11, 2Ch 4:16). The willing aid which this king lent to David on this occasion, in supplying cedar timber and workmen, was “the commencement of that amity between the Tyriaus and the Hebrews, so mutually advantageous to the two nations, the one agricultural and the other commercial” (Milman’s ‘History of the Jews,’ 1:239). The meaning of the name Hiram is probably “noble,” or “high.bern.” This disposition, at all events, he seems to have illustrated in his generous friendship to David, Solomon, and their people. Very little to be relied upon is known of him outside Scripture, but his reign is said to have extended from B.C. 1023-990.
1Ch 14:2
Was lifted up. The passage in Samuel reads , the Piel conjugation. The present form is obscure, . It may be considered either an irregular Niphal third pers. fem.; or Niphal infin, absolute (2Sa 19:43); or possibly even an irregular Piel form, in which case the pronoun “he” will need to be supplied as the subject. Supposing that any special connection subsists between this and the previous verse, it is not necessary to consider it remote. Then, as now, the building of a house for one’s self, much more the building of a noble palace on the part of a king, is an indication of feeling settled and “confirmed.” It was a partial indication of the “lifted-up kingdom” that the king should have a palace of unwonted magnificence. This must have weighed all the more in the case of a nation which, not for its sacred things, nor for its king, nor for its people, had ever had as yet any adequate and worthy housing,
1Ch 14:3
David took more wives. As matter of course, we do not look in this connection for any remarks to be made by the writer condemnatory of David’s enlargement of the harem, or of his having an harem at all. Yet it is open to us to note how, at a time when polygamy was “winked at,” and no sin was necessarily to lie on this account at the door of David, yet by this very thing he was undermining the peace and unity of his own family, the comfort of his declining years once and again, and the very stability of his house in the days of Solomon his son. The less necessitated we are to regard David’s polygamy in the light of individual sin, the more emphatic in the light of history does the tendency of the practice proclaim itself as thoroughly and irredeemably bad.
1Ch 14:4-7
The names of his children which he had in Jerusalem. The names of the children born to David in Hebron are given in 1Ch 3:1-4. For a comparison of this list with that of 1Ch 3:5-9, see that place. It will be observed that the present list agrees with that of Samuel in respect of eleven names, and with 1Ch 3:5-8, so far as number goes, with all thirteen.
1Ch 14:8-12
An important victory over the Philistines.
1Ch 14:8
David went out against them. From a careful comparison of this passage with the parallel and with 2Sa 23:12-14, it appears likely that the meaning is that “David went out against them” after having “gone down” first to the “hold,” probably at the “cave of Adullam” (1Ch 11:15-17). When it is said that the Philistines went up to seek David, the sequel makes it evident that they did not seek him as friends. And it is to be remembered that the Philistines held territory near Jerusalem at this time, and to the north of it (1Sa 31:7-9).
1Ch 14:9
Spread themselves. The root, appears here for the of the parallel place. So also again in 1Ch 14:13 of this chapter. In the valley of Rephaim; i.e. of giants, though some translate “healers,” and yet others “chiefs.” Though not Canaanites, they once held portions of Canaan. Their origin is very uncertain. Kalisch thinks they were descendants of Japheth (Gen 14:5; Gen 15:20; Deu 2:9-11; Deu 3:11). The “valley” was south of Jerusalem, but whether more south-east or south-west is not certain; probably the former (Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16; Isa 17:5).
1Ch 14:10
David inquired of God. The “inquiring” was made, as matter of course, through the high priest, and not merely, as we should say, in private prayer (Jdg 1:1, Jdg 1:3; Jdg 20:23, Jdg 20:27; 1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4; 1Sa 30:8; 2Sa 2:1). The directness of the Divine answer was some echo of the old reply when Judah was authorized to go up against the Canaanites (Jdg 1:2).
1Ch 14:11
Baal-perazim; literally, master of breaches. Gesenius traces this meaning, through the intermediate idea of “possessor,” to that (in this case, that place), which “possesses,” i.e. is the subject of such a signal overwhelming as is here described, the scene of overwhelming defeats, like the irresistible rush of waters (Isa 28:21).
1Ch 14:12
And when they had left their gods there. The parallel translates more literally, “And there they left,” as we might also do here; and goes on to read” their images,” in place of “their gods” (2Sa 5:21). These they burned with fire, according to the command of Deu 7:5, Deu 7:25.
1Ch 14:13-17
Another victory over the Philistines.
1Ch 14:13
In the valley; i.e. the valley of Rephaim, as is expressly stated in the parallel place, though left in no obscurity here.
1Ch 14:14
Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. The meaning of the directions as here given is sufficiently evident, yet it is somewhat more forcibly expressed in the parallel place, “Thou shalt not go up,” i.e. “against the Philistines” (see our tenth verse, and note the form of David’s inquiry); “but fetch a compass behind them.” The mulberry trees were evidently behind the Philistines. The Hebrew word for the trees here spoken of is , and the correct rendering of it is probably neither “mulberry” nor, as the Septuagint and Vulgate translate, “pear” trees. But judging from the probable derivation (, to weep), they were trees of the balsam species, and it seems that this is as far as we can safely conjecture. One of the latest authorities pronounces it an “unknown species.” The tree, strange to say, is only mentioned here and in the parallel place. A summary of opinions as to the tree intended may be found in Smith’s ‘Bible Dictionary,’ 2:439, and this is just sufficient to show that it is not as yet identified with any semblance of certainty. However, it is easy to understand hew the balsam species, from which the exuding gum resembles “tears,” might come by the name set forth in the present Hebrew root.
1Ch 14:15
A sound of going. This is net a mere generic or longer form of expression to signify a sound itself. There is significance in the word “going.” The sense of the Hebrew word would be thrown out more emphatically by such a rendering as, the sound of steps (literally, stepping). When the motion of the agitated leaves simulated the sound of steps, the stepping of men, then David and his army were to step forth to battle. Though the root of the “stepping” spoken of as heard in the trees is not identical with that of the “going” repeated twice in the remainder of the verseThen thou shalt go out for God is gone forthyet it does alliterate to some extent with it, and rather creates the impression that it was intended to do so. However, the parallel place does not sustain this impression, inasmuch as a different word, “Thou shalt bestir thyself,” is there employed, in place of the first occurrence of our supposed alliteration, in the clause, “Thou shalt go out.” There is something stirring to the imagination, and probably it was felt so by David and his men, in the signal unseen yet not unheard, and in a sense not of earth, but midway between earth and heaven. The very various voices of the various trees, according to the character of their foliage, may well set poetry going, and startle or fascinate imagination, as the case may be. The music of one tree or grove is as different from that of another as can belisten to the difference between the melancholy plaint so unceasing of some plantation of firs, and the multitudinous, silvery, rippling of but one white poplar of good size. Presumably the sound in the present ease more resembled that of the steady tramp of them that march.
1Ch 14:16
Gibeon. The parallel reads Geba. As Geba and Gibeon were both situate very near to Jerusalem (on the north), as well as near to one another, both texts may be correct, and each mean what it says. But Isa 28:21 confirms the reading Gibeon. It is evident that Gibeon was no appropriate resting-place for the ark (1Ch 13:3, 1Ch 13:4; 2Ch 1:3). The nearness of the Philistines’ approach to the city of Jerusalem marks their daring on the one hand, and the loud call now for the merciful interposition of Jehovah on behalf of his people. Gazer. Hebrew , both here and in the parallel because of the accent. Else the name is Gezer (). It was about two hours distant from Gibeon, and to the north of it (Jos 10:33; Jos 12:12; Jos 21:21; Jdg 1:29; 1Ch 20:4), or “four Roman miles northward from Nicopolis (‘Onomasticon’); now the large ruin of Tell Jezar“.
HOMILETICS
1Ch 14:1, 1Ch 14:2.-An important instance of the presence of the perceiving heart.
There is an obscurity about Hiram which certainly does not serve to diminish interest in him and his place in this narrative. The obscurity referred to affects, not merely himself and his reign, but rather what we now have to do with, the time, occasion, manner, of his introduction to David, and the commencement of the warm friendship between the two. This place, with the parallel, is the earliest scriptural mention of Hiram. Later allusion to him (1Ki 5:1) drops the significant testimony, “For Hiram was ever a lover of David.” This was in the time of Solomon, and goes some way to remind us of other instances in which David won an ardent and generous affection from his fellows. The power to evoke this some natures possess in a high degree. All, however, that we know for certain is that Hiram, hearing of the rising fame of David, and no doubt aware of very much that had led on and up to it, from the time of Goliath, sent “messengers” to him. Their first messages consist presumably of hearty congratulations, and then go on to give assurance of Hiram’s readiness to help, by material and by workmen, to build a worthy royal house for David. It is scarcely to be supposed under these circumstances that Hiram had not received intimation, more or less direct, that David would be likely to be in want of these things. Yet, whatever intimation Hiram had received, his response is large and gracious and full of free will. Something in this David saw, which perhaps no one else saw, but well worth notice.
I. DAVID SAW THAT ONE CONTINUOUS PURPOSE OF GOD WAS MOVING ON. It was one that affected “his people Israel.” Israel he had chosen, Israel he had for his peculiar people, in Israel he had a fixed purpose, to this already for long ages he had held, and the ancient promise and covenant had been a growingly plain performing. This continuity by itself riveted attention, and brought a doubting, tired spirit home again to a strong peaceful faith, when any other circumstance, though it should seem but a trivial one, served to remind of it. Ought we not to be herein reminded of such things as these?
1. That all God’s purposes, yes, all those that affect us as individuals only, are consistent, determined, marked by a faithful continuity in this respect, that they do not cease, do not determine, till they have fulfilled their appointed part. This may be less than we thought, if we thought at all, or it may be more. It may be different from what we thought, if we thought at all; and very certainly may be different from what we wished, because we so readily wish without any sovereign reason guiding our wish. But each little purpose, so to speak, of the Divine mindlittle in our mistaken estimateruns out to its end, and does not miss of the designed end.
2. That assuredly there must very often be Divine purpose in what happens, and as we think merely happens, in our experience. For the man who honestly believes in a supreme Governor of his life, this must commend itself to reason. And what seriousness, reverence, sacredness, dignity, and deep-drawn consolation would it yield to any life, as fervently to believe this, so habitually to remember it!
3. That those purposes are upon a large scale. They affect the whole family in the individual, the whole community in the family or the class, that may be visibly and proximately the first affected, and so on, till the entire race shares in the advantage, and all the long-drawn-out subsequent ages illustrate its beneficence, as was literally the ease for the whole world in the treatment and the checkered history of Israel
4. That, because of the large, scale on which Divine purpose is schemed:
(1) It may easily elude our notice altogether if we are not very heedful.
(2) It will present many difficulties, many obscurities, many dark mysteries, all due to the incapacity of our finite intellects to grasp the whole, to see the end from the beginning, and to be able to gaze all down the long abyss of time.
(3) For all this, some vivid personal incident will occasionally be charged with suggestion and significance that will light up a vast area of human life in a moment of time, and will display convincingly how Divine knowledge, wisdom, purpose, are intersecting and traversing all the tangle and the labyrinth of fitful human working! And it was a gleam of convincing light of this kind that now shone in on David’s mind.
II. DAVID SAW THAT CERTAIN DIVINE PROVIDENTIAL METHOD WAS BEING OBSERVED. In the first place, an individual human kingdom, a personal dynasty, is being “lifted up” for “the sake of the beloved people and the settled purpose.” Never was there such a comment, such a clear criticism on the “Divine right of kings.” Kings and the right of kings, it would certainly seem to be here testified, are means to an end, and then only is the right most Divine when used most divinely, and under most solemn sense of responsibility. The “people Israel” are those whom he loves, are what he loves. It is not the “kingdom,” nor the government, nor the land, nor the national bent and genius, nor even the king himself merely as such, that he loves, but the “people” Israel. “All is for their sakes,” as St. Paul in later times said. This kingdom of David, this dynasty which he represented, of which he was to be such a brilliant exponent, were to count nothing in and of themselves. They were for the sake of something else. But passing this greater general consideration, in the second place, David saw tokens of Divine providential method in the willing heart, willing hand willing speech, of a neighbouring king The willingness and the generosity may not have been altogether unknown, but when all the circumstances were combined, and when we remember the exceptional position of Israel among nations that often wondered at Israel’s God, often envied Israel’s unseen mighty protection and defence, there could scarcely have been many precedents, scarcely many parallels, to be quoted. All the rather was David secretly in deepest heart convinced of the reality of Divine interposition, of providential forces at work. When we allow that Hiram had received some “hints” and some intimation of the likely desire of David to build a house worthy of his people and royal state, we have gone as far as we are warranted in going. And to set against all the rest, if not against this also, we have here David’s evident language, and the evident meaning and drift of it. David “perceived” certain things when Hiram “sent messengers, and timber,” or promise of it, and “masons and carpenters,” or promise of them, and these “to build him,” forsooth, David, “a house.” He “perceived” that something unseen was herea power, a hand, a person invisible, at work. That all this kindness should have come upon him; and that all this glory should be about to come upon him, and the quondam shepherd-boy, and more recently hunted refugee of mountain and cave and wilderness, should be about to be magnificently mansioned,was demonstration to him that a mighty and benignant providence was at work; that it was bent on its own old purpose, and advancing by its own new methods as well. He found that Hiram’s heart was in the hand of some One, nor did he mistake whose hand that must be, even the hand of him who holds all hearts. And as to that house that was to be, now at a glance he saw and spake it, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build.” He was convinced that God was building.
III. DAVID RECOGNIZED MOST FULLY THE PRINCIPLE OF WHAT WE CALL HUMAN. INSTRUMENTALITY. He recognized it now in a twofold sense. It is the same twofold sense we ever need to bear in mind and carry out in practice.
1. With deepest humility, with most unreserved confession, David pronounces himself, in all his growing power and likely splendour, the servant of God and his people, the instrument in the mighty and the good hand of God, the authorized means to a great end. That is all. That was honour for him, and honour enough. The Lord has confirmed “him king” over Israel, and “his kingdom” is lifted up on high, not for his own sake, not for any merit of his own, not for self-aggrandizement, not to feed personal luxury, pride, ambition, not for any most flattering, mysterious reason, but for his people Israel! When we do remember that we are servants of God, we cannot too well remember thisthat it is this very relation we holdof servants. We are to inquire for and to do, and to speak his will, and to have the least possible of our own.
2. He “perceives” that he is being made use of in order that he may fall in more than ever with God’s work and service. His humility is real, therefore it does not swamp his sense of duty and responsibility. In one breath he admits himself only the instrument, but one divinely raised up, divinely fashioned, divinely called; and therefore he is both the more stirred to duty and sustained by the strongest sense of support. The really humble servant proves the really faithful servant. Happy David, that herein too the Lord had given him an heart to perceive and understand!
1Ch 14:8-12.-The type of enmity on the alert, foiled by watchfulness and prayer.
From the conduct of our foe, not less than of the best friend, may we sometimes learn lessons of supreme importance and interest. Feeling and action both own to possibilities not seen on the surface, and seldom disturbed in their solemn depth. They are, however, always liable to be evoked, and, when evoked by any of the forms of enmity, they are almost sure to show in their own more intensified forms. It cannot be maintained that enmity is a mightier impelling principle than love, that the force of the one intrinsically surpasses that of the other; the contrary of this is to be maintained. But a very mighty force it is, and it has signal power to prevail in any conflict where indifference, lax energy, or but a slightly diminished watchfulness characterizes the object of it. Something of the skill of enmity and of its habit is set before us here, and what is said suggests to thought much left unsaid. We have here a little wayside picture of enmity. And we may observe in this aspect of the history
I. SIGNS OF WATCHFUL OBSERVATION ON THE PART or AN UNREMITTING ENEMY. Men like to be at their ease, and rapidly does the tendency grow, We like to rest on our oars, and delicious awhile are sensation and thought. And these resting-times and resting-places are not merely welcome; they are necessities at certain intervals, they are the appointed rewards of certain conflicts and victory, and they are the preperation for fresh effort. On the other hand, life is spent here in the presence of the foe, and one of watchful observationthe children of light not so wise in their generation nor so awake as he. Keen is the eye of enmity. It searches all round its own armoury for the weapon fittest for its purpose, and all round its opponent’s armour to find the joint of his harness. And now, nothing goes on with David and Israel butthe Philistines know it, and take care to know it.
II. SIGNS OF CIRCUMSPECT AND FAR–SEEING OBSERVATION. The Philistines, whose chief leader we are not here told, do no doubt take great care to be apprised of all that is going on within the kingdom of Israel. And they can afford to let much pass without any counter moves on their part. They learn much, but it awakens no keen anxiety, no special interest, no practical activity. But an unusual note is heard at last; it is the note of warning; they hear it as the note of opportunity sounded, and of opportunity that must not slip by. They cannot afford to be inactive now. It is a time when, even if all depended on one throw, that throw must be ventured. They had known David as a boy; as a remarkable young man, but with a very doubtful future; as a persecuted refugee; as a very rising man; as king of part of a people; but the critical and vital point was now at length, when they “heard that he was anointed king over all Israel”king over a united people, king over a people the whole of whose resources were now available and could be wielded as by one arm, king over a people of one mind and one enthusiastic heart. And this was what the wisdom of the enemy was equal toto see and act as though it saw that the hour of a united enemy was the hour to strike, if haply it might break the power of that enemy at one stroke, or otherwise, that it was the hour most to be feared for himself. One sang
“And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees?
But there is another time when Satan trembles, and that is when he sees his enemy united, and the ranks of his enemy held well together. That “trembling“ would be both more and more apparent but for the prompt and unequivocal activity he brings to bear on the situation, while others were but “trembling.”
III. SIGNS OF PRACTICAL AND VERY DETERMINED RESOLUTION. Difficulty, danger, critical responsibility, disarm many, but arm these Philistines. The courage, the practical wisdom, is to be noted, though it be in a bad cause, in order that these may be the rather learnt and copied for the good cause. These Philistines do not timidly wait and put off a doubtful dangerous day; they court the conflict; they go “up to seek David;” they offer battle and give the challenge. Little time is lost before they are “spread” in battle array and everything is ready for the decisive verdict. Evident stress also is laid upon their unity. It is not only said that “all” the Philistines went up to seek David, but it is written by the historian as though the emphasis of a significant antithesis were intended. When the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over “all” Israel, they “all” went to seek him.
IV. SIGNS IN ALL THIS OF THE DERIVATION OF VERY MUCH OF HUMAN ENMITY. Strong is the resemblance both of nature and of method between the hostility of human foe and that exhibited by the source of all evil. It is abundantly well to note this resemblance, for could we persuade ourselves to see in our own malignant dispositions, ill will, and hostility the features that are then striving only too successfully to take form of the dark original of all evil, we should dread the presence in us, and dread few things more. The short gratification of that which must be, under any circumstances, ruled the lower side of our nature, would be then instinctively acknowledged too dearly bought, when the eye, the lip, the thought, the strong force of purpose, and the hand must all be lent to one in the background, so odious in himself, and so tyrannical as soon as ever his hold is once yielded to. The shapes and methods assumed by human enmity are in reality often nothing short of accurate copies of those of the great foe of God and man. Surely it would act as a deterrent influence in many a mind not yet gone too far, and in which it was not yet too late to interpose, if it were distinctly seen that as much as love, goodness, and friendship are of God, so much are hate and all the kinds of malignity, and in general enmity to a fellow-creature, of the devil. Let us observe, on the other hand, in this portion of the history, the foil of David in the presence of that enmity.
1. Here is proof of a wakeful ear. Many an opportunity is lost for want of “ear to hear.” And some things the most essential to hear are crowded out unheard because of the rush of sounds to the ear, hollow as ever sound could be. But the wakefulness of an open ear is here, and the irreparable does not happen, and the disastrous stroke does not fall upon a whole kingdom and people ere yet the tidings of the danger have reached the responsible persons. David might now have said, with the prophet (Isa 50:4), “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” And how much depends on this daily opening of our ear, and this opening of it in the morning, before the dangers of the day’s life have opened upon us, instead of that opening of it that may come perforce at evening, or in the very night, or after some startling calamity, when all except the dead have no choice but to hear! Though Jesus first warned us, and after him some of the most solemn connection of all Scripture repeated the strain, how much do we lose by altogether under-estimating the message of the words, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”!
2. Here is proof of wakeful care. The enemy’s daring front and adventurous challenge scarcely anticipate David’s firm front and readiness to accept the challenge. His preparedness is quite as noticeable as their initiating energy. Some initiating energies have much cause to repent of themselves, and court their own destruction; and it proved so now for the Philistines. The victory does not often lie with those that are “first in their own cause.” David does not live every hour all in a tremble of apprehension and suspicion, it is true; but it is also true that he has wisely not allowed himself to live forgetful, unheedful of the constant proximity of a constant foe. He is not now caught napping. He is not found now lapped in luxury. He is not betrayed as one living in a fool’s paradise, lulled in false peace, mistaking security for safety, choked by pride in the height and dignity of his position, and deceiving himself as though he were the unassailable and unimpregnable itself. The sound of alarm entered full sonorously into his ear, but no panic of alarm entered into his heart. Does the “foe” seek him, and insolently and defiantly scan his proportions and his armour? he does not forget that old matter of Goliath and the sling and stone on the one hand, nor is he the man, either by character or by the emergence of unguarded position, to hide himself or to have a moment’s inclination to hide himself, but he “goes out to meet” the foe, well prepared to face him and, if God speak the word, to encounter him also in actual conflict. Nor does he forget the spirit of the old confidence and the source whence he derived his own confidence. “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”
3. Lastly, here is proof positive of prayer. David has shown the courage of the man and of the king and of the commander of God’s people and army. He presents himself and them in front of the foe that courts the trial of battle. But before he lifts a hand, strikes a blow, draws a sword, he asks of the Lord. He asks for knowledge of duty, “Shall I go up?” He asks for warrant of the language which he may hold to his own people and to the defying foe. “Wilt thou deliver them into my hand?” This last thing he had been permitted to add in his forewarning to Goliath of what awaited him: “This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel… for the battle is the Lord’s” (1Sa 17:45-47). And he wishes to be able to do so again. There would be great advantage in being able to use confident language on the matter on this occasion also. God had occasionally permitted his own people to go to defeat (as he certainly does for our discipline and for after advantage permit us often to find defeat awhile), so that David might desire for his own heart’s sake to be assured that this was not going to be the case now. But there was other reason why authority to speak on the matter of victory certain would be great advantage. He announces it to the foe, and it comes true, and then strikes a deep, lasting residuum of terror and of reverence for the next like occasion. He announces it to his own people, and it comes true; and with what confidence both towards their God and towards their king does it invest them in many a future! Prayer brings blessing, prayer brings knowledge, prayer strengthens and exhibits to just view that connection between himself and his weak creature and child, which the condescending Hearer of prayer loves to acknowledge.
1Ch 14:13-17.-The faith that is content to leave self in the background and unhesitatingly obey God.
One of the most remarkable of the characteristics of Scripture is its freedom from repetition and monotony, even when engaged on subjects that may very closely resemble one another in their matter. In the present instance, the connection, the subject, the time, all closely correspond with what has immediately preceded, and the important event or issue is identical. Yet how greatly the scene differs, and with what exceedingly quickened interest do we read of this second appearance and challenge of the Philistines I The general facts of the situation are still the same. The courage and determination, however, of the Philistines in repeating their attack so soon, and after so thorough and crushing a defeat, show well the stuff of which they were made, and offer an additional touch to the picture. David on his part repeats his inquiry addressed to One whom he had come to be well persuaded was “the God of his salvation.” From this point the course of events differs and pursues a new and unwonted direction. David is divinely assured of victory over the enemy, but he is directed not to go up in the face of that enemy. He is to go to some plantation of trees, to await there a certain sound in them, to take that as the omen and sign that God is his Leader and the Leader of his hosts to the battle, and then to make his attack. Faith and practical obedience follow on the part of David, and the enemy suffer a great defeat, while David’s fame sustains great advancement. Let us notice some special peculiarities that mark the ordering of this battle, and observe the probable lessons of them.
I. A DISTINCT LESSON OF PUTTING SELF INTO THE BACKGROUND. As surely as there are cases innumerable when the active exercise of our best practical powers is the appointed and expected test of our earnestness and reality, so surely are there some cases when we are permitted, invited, nay, even commanded, to approve a dutiful spirit, in “standing still to see.” Vast is the difference between the man whose disposition it is always” to stand still and see,” and him who, when the command comes, can consent to renounce the endeavour and the effort and the force of self, and so “stand still and see.” The one is the disposition of supineness and even sloth, the other calls for the exercise of a very high measure of self-command and temperate restraint. The instance before us is remarkable in this aspect on every account. It is a warrior, who is to lay aside some of the most characteristic qualities of the warrior. He is not to foresee, not to provide, not to prepare, for the battle! It is a warrior, who was to the manner born, and who has intrinsically not a few of the highest gifts of the warrior. It is a warrior the very day before the battle, when desire and chivalry and courage are near their height. It is a warrior also the day after an engagement; he, together with his hosts, is flushed with triumphant conflict, elated with success, and feeling that he is safe for another decisive victory. Nature tells us of such a man and of such a host, that they burn for the fray. The Divine word, however, told them now that they must count themselves and their martial ardour and their very bravery as nothing. As little like brave soldiers as possible, they are not so much as to confront their foes face to face, but to steal unawares to the rearward of them. The battle is to be won, but it plainly is not to be by the strength of human arm, nor by the force of human wisdom. It will be won in a way to humble the pride of self, to cast self into the shade, most of all to lower it in its own deep conviction, and to exalt the presence and power of another.
II. A DISTINCT INSTANCE OF THE FAITH AND OBEDIENCE THAT CONSENTED TO THAT LESSON. “David therefore did as God commanded him.” We have here a very simple but very clear case of faith. The directions given to David were not merely contrary to individual predilection and character, but they were contrary to the methods and discernment of sense. David does neither disdain these in his mind nor practically disregard them in his act on that account. By faith he goes to the trees; by faith he expects and waits for the appointed sign there; faith pours a stream of confidence into him when he hears that signal for battle and “the sound of going in the tops of the trees,”simulates perfectly for him “the going forth before him” of God to “smite the host of the Philistines.” To the temper of the typical warrior and general all this would have been equally unnatural and trying but for the force of faith. There are times when sense and unbelief, superstition and the love of the marvellous revel just herein, that is to say, in a “sign.” But this sign will be something very different from one so simple as “the sound of going in the tops of the trees.” This was no miracle, except as faith had power to transmute it into the best form of miracle. Faith can feed on what shall seem slender material, and can find richest enjoyment in what shall seem familiar trifles to sense. This is the grandeur of faith, when nothing is great, nothing little to it except as they bring the invisible to sight, and make things that are not as though they were. That faith then becomes the secret aid and precursor to obedience.
III. A DISTINCT GAIN OF RESPECT, FEAR, REVERENCE, FOR THE MAN WHO RENOUNCED SELF AND ACCEPTED THE GUIDE OF FAITH. “The fame of David went out into all lands; and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations.” This was the direct consequence of his having surrendered himself entirely into the hands of the great Commander himself, the Lord of all hosts. How often had Saul used all earthly power and been impatient to do so, so that he could not wait even for the right human agency! But he failed, and for every failure lessened his influence among those round him far and wide. God made the victories of David marvellous, and therein made him marvellous, from the time of Goliath up to the present moment. To trust self and self’s well-nigh superhuman exertions shall still leave a man an utter failure. To trust God and rigidly follow his bidding will exalt a man, and will save him from his own liability to error and inevitable loss of reputation thereby. From all this narrative we may be very forcibly reminded of two things.
1. How God would teach us that it may be often dangerous to go up direct against even the very worst of foesour spiritual foes.
2. That with these foes it is above all necessary to have God himself to fight before us, for us, with us.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
1Ch 14:2.-The Lord confirmed him king.
To many readers this phraseology seems simply the language of superstition, to be classed with similar language in which primitive and heathen nations are wont to attribute the triumphs of their warriors and the greatness of their kings to their tutelar and national deities. But believers in the inspiration and authority of Holy Scripture will see in this declaration an assurance of that wise and watchful care which God exercises over all men and all communities, and which is, for wise purposes, so clearly and devoutly related and recorded in the documents of Hebrew history.
I. THE QUALIFICATIONS AND THE PREPARATION OF RULERS ARE FROM GOD. The strength of character, wisdom and sagacity, firmess, justice, clemency, affability,all qualities that make an able ruler of men, are the endowment of the supreme Lord. In the case of David we observe peculiar gifts lavishly bestowed. The same providential care is to be recognized in the long and severe discipline by which the son of Jesse was fitted for a throne. It was doubtless this preparatory training, combined with the sore experience through which the nation had passed, which rendered David’s accession so popular.
II. THE JUST EXERCISE OF CIVIL POWER IS DIVINELY AUTHORIZED. The Lord having prepared David for the throne and the throne for him, the monarch proceeded to fulfil his royal duties with the happy assurance that the hearts of his people were subject to him, and with the knowledge that he was supported by faithful and powerful allies. It cannot, indeed, be said that monarchy is the favourite form of government with the Lord of all; for when he gave Israel a king it was in condescension to their infirmities. The form of government is of secondary importance, but the necessity of civil rule is written upon the constitution of man and of society. Equity, impartiality, righteousness,these are the principles of all true moral rule, human and Divine. The governor who is guided by personal ambition, who is the prey of petty prejudices, who is given to intrigues, who rules by oppression, is no true king of men.
III. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A DIVINE COMMISSION GIVES POWER AND GRACE TO THE EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY. “David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king.” Thus his faith was strengthened and his courage was sustained. The man who, in the fulfilment of life’s duties, cannot see beyond his own purposes and plans, is for all high intents enfeebled by this unworthy view of his life; whilst he who recognizes that he is the “minister of God,” is supported by this conviction, his aims are ennobled and his influence is hallowed by it. Especially must this be the case with those whose influence and responsibility are unusually great.
IV. IF AUTHORITY IS FROM GOD, ACCOUNTABILITY IS TO GOD. Some rulers have been called to account by their fellow-potentates and some by their subjects. There is, however, danger lest the powerful should forget their inevitable responsibility. At the bar of God all kings must stand; at his throne they too must sue for mercy, when there they take their places with their subjects, as before the highest and the final tribunal. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.”T.
1Ch 14:9-11.-The God of battles.
This is one of the many passages in the Old Testament where God is represented as presiding over and prospering the military expeditions of the Israelites. Rationalists see in such passages nothing more than evidence that the Hebrews were a warlike people, and that they, like other nations, attributed their successes in war to the intervention and favour of their Deity. But those who believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture cannot be satisfied with such an explanation. The text suggests some reflections which may cast light upon this difficulty.
I. THERE IS A GENERAL SENSE IN WHICH JEHOVAH WAS AND IS THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF BATTLES. It would be barbarous and absurd to suppose that the benevolent Ruler of all prefers war in itself to peace, that he takes pleasure in the carnage and agony, the bereavement and desolation, which are distinctive of war. But as all strength and valour, all foresight, skill, and patience are his gifts, to him must ultimately be traced the force, the generalship, by which victories are won.
II. THERE IS A DIVINE PROVIDENCE WHICH OVERRULES THE CONFLICTS OF THE NATIONS. There can be no question that the course of human history has been, to a large extent, governed by the wars which have occupied so much of the energy and have consumed so much of the blood and the treasure of mankind. We have read of “the fifteen decisive battles of the world.” They who believe in the providential government of the world at all can scarcely refuse to believe that the warfares of the nations have been permitted and overruled for good by God. Great principles, even principles of a moral kind, have sometimes been fought upon the field of battle. Civilization and barbarism, slavery and freedom, brute force and enlightenment, have thus contended together for the mastery and the victory.
III. THERE WERE SPECIAL REASONS WHY GOD SHOULD HAVE INTERESTED HIMSELF IN THE WARS OF THE JEWS.
1. The contests between Israel and Israel’s enemies were contests between a morally superior and certain morally inferior races. When wars took place between the Israelites and the Canaanites or Philistines, it is plain to every student of history that the victory of Israel was the victory of monotheism and morality over idolatry and the most flagrant and disgusting vice. The cause of Philistia was the cause of heathenism, cruelty, and pollution; the cause of David was that of comparative justice, purity, and spirituality.
2. The victories of Israel furthered the best interests of mankind. Had Israel been subjugated or annihilated, the best prospects of the human race would have been clouded with awful darkness. The independence and nationality of the Hebrews formed a distinct step forward in the march of humanity.
3. The triumphs of David were a link in that chain which led to the redemption of mankind. We cannot separate the Old Testament, historically or religiously, from the New. The kingdom and the conquests of David have relation to the kingdom and the conquests of him who was Son of David and Son of God.T.
1Ch 14:12.–Hatred of idolatry.
The conduct of David, in directing that the idols of the Philistines should be “burned with fire,” arose from the fervour of his religious feelings and his contempt for idolatrous usages. It must always be berne in mind, in reading of the warn between Israel and Philistia, that these, like other wars recorded in Old Testament history, were more social and religious than political. Isolated from surrounding nations, the people of Israel were providentially appointed to be witnesses to the one true God. Hence their repugnance to and hatred of polytheism in all its offensive and degrading manifestations.
I. IDOLATRY IS DISHONOURING TO GOD. It is the substitution of God’s work for himself. Idolaters “worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” Whether adoration be paid to the handiwork of the great Maker of all or to the workmanship of men’s own hands, God is robbed of the reverence and service which are due to him alone.
II. IDOLATRY m UNREASONABLE AND VAIN. How strikingly is this portrayed in the hundred and fifteenth psalm!“They have mouths, but they speak not,” etc.; “They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.” It is the absurd and superstitious confidence that men have placed in idols which has rendered religion the laughing-stock of the thoughtless and superficial.
III. IDOLATRY IS DEGRADING AND DEBASING TO THOSE WHO PRACTISE IT. History abounds with proofs of this. The greater the hold which idolatry has over a nation, and the more cruel, sensuous, and capricious are the deities worshipped, the more degraded is the moral condition of the community. We know well how sunk were the Philistines and their neighbours, by reason of their religion, in the depths of vice and sin.
IV. IDOLATRY IS DOOMED TO PERISH AND TO GIVE PLACE TO A PURER AND NOBLER FAITH. David’s “rough and ready” method of dealing with the Philistine “gods” was natural to his impulsive disposition. We are assured by inspired predictions that the time shall come when the idolatrous peoples, illumined by the rays of the gospel, shall of their own accord “cast their idols to the moles and to the bats.” So far from the abolition of idolatry being the precursor to universal irreligion, we have every reason to believe that upon the ruins of heathenism shall be reared the stately and holy temple of Christianity, in which an enlightened and regenerated race shall offer unceasing adorations to the one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Saviour of all men.T.
1Ch 14:15.–A sound of going.
In his frequent contests with the Philistines. David was assured of the constant support and guidance of the God of hosts. The king sought the honour of his God, and God prospered the exploits of his servant. On the occasion referred to in this passage, Divine wisdom is said to have directed the strategy of the army of Israel, to have indicated the moment of assault, and to have assured the warriors of certain victory. The signal was, strange to say, “a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” This incident has usually been regarded as indicative of the tokens of the Divine presence accorded to such as are engaged in the spiritual service of their God. We are reminded of
I. THE POWERLESSNESS AND INSUFFICIENCY OF MEN FOR THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICT. Christians have a warfare to wage against foes many and mighty, and for this warfare their native resources are inadequate, scanty, and feeble. If we know ourselves we must needs look above, to the Strong for strength, to the Wise for wisdom.
II. THE GRACIOUS TOKENS OF A DIVINE PRESENCE AND CO–OPERATION. The “sound of going” told David that God was nearwas on his side. God’s people are never left without indications of the Divine presence, and these assure them that they are not alone, that the “Lord of hosts is with them.” Sometimes by events in his providence, sometimes by lessons from his Word, sometimes by the suggestions of his Spirit, he gives his people to understand, in the hour of their need and helplessness, that he is on their side.
III. THE DIVINE SIGNAL FOR HIS PEOPLE‘S ACTION. As we have not only to know but also to do God’s will, we need not only revelation of truth but summons to practical service. God gives his soldiers the watchword, the signal to advance. Then is the moment to “go forward,” to repel and to defeat the foe. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” It is well that we should not run before the word is given; yet it will not do to tarry when he directs us to advance.
IV. THE OMEN AND PRESAGE OF TRUE VICTORY. When the sound of going was beard in the tree-tops, it was as the movement of angels’ wings; the mighty rushing was as the tramp of the host of God, the earnest of victory to David’s arms. If the Lord our God goes forth with us to the spiritual war, we shall surely overcome. Ours shall be the victory of faith, even that which overcometh the world.T.
1Ch 14:17 -Fame and fear.
David, notwithstanding his follies and sins, was “the man after God’s own heart.” Devout, obedient, diligent, courageous, he was eminently adapted both to govern the nation, to lead the army, to promote the revival of true religion. Providence exalted him to a lofty position and enabled him to adorn the station to which he was raised. Hence so large a part of the historical books of the Old Testament are occupied with the events of his reign; and hence he is so frequently alluded to in the national annals, and so often quoted both by our Lord and by his inspired apostles.
I. DAVID‘S FAME. It was the fame of:
1. A successful warrior. A man of war from his youth, he owed his throne to his valour and generalship.
2. A powerful king. When he wielded the forces of a nation, God gave him victory over many enemies.
3. A pious man. His steadfastness in worshipping the true God, his liberality in providing for the services of the sanctuary, his habitual devotion, all were well known, and stamped David as a truly religious man.
4. A sacred poet and musician. It is as” the sweet singer of Israel” that he is held in lasting remembrance, and remembered with gratitude both widespread and sincere.
II. DAVID‘S FEAR.
1. His subjects held him in honour and had respect to his righteous laws.
2. His officers and troops were devoted to his person and obeyed his authoritative behests.
3. Traitors stood in awe of his vigour, promptness, and power.
4. His alliance was sought by neighbouring nations, who dreaded to have him as an enemy, and who courted his friendship.
5. His foes feared him, for he defeated their armies and held themselves in subjection and tribute.
PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. All greatness is from God, to whom all praise is due.
2. The great are responsible for the use of their power to him who is “King of kings and Lord of lords.”T.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
1Ch 14:1, 1Ch 14:3-7.-The house and the home: wisdom and folly.
The first verse of this chapter presents the character of David in a very different aspect from that of the other verses in our text. His conduct in building himself a house was in contrast with that in turning his home into a harem. We have, then
I. THREE THOUGHTS CONCERNING DAVID‘S ACTION. We judge:
1. That he was wise in building himself a royal mansion. (1Ch 14:1.) It would be likely to give an aspect of stability to his throne, and thus add to the security of his position. It was due to his family that they should have the full benefit of his exaltation. It was wise to make domestic life as attractive to himself and as honourable in the eyes of his people as he could make it appear. By taking greatest pains, and even going outside the limits of Israel to furnish himself with a “house of cedar,” David was doing the wise and right thing.
2. That he was foolish and wrong in multiplying the number of his wives. (1Ch 14:3.) He departed from God’s intention, if not from his positive precept, when he “took more wives” at Jerusalem. He availed himself of his royal position to do that which was unbecoming and inexpedient as well as at variance with national usage. It was in accordance with the promptings of the flesh, but out of accord with the teachings of his better judgment.
3. That his error outweighed his wisdom. Better far the humble structure with one family dwelling therein in harmony and love, than the imposing mansion wherein dwelt domestic jealousy and strife. David’s after history only too sadly proves that he laid the foundation of his worst troubles when he “took more wives” to his royal palace and converted what would have been a happy home into an intriguing harem. His folly outweighed his wisdom. We turn to regard
II. THE APPLICATION OF THESE THOUGHTS TO OURSELVES. And we conclude that the wise Christian man will:
1. Spare no trouble to provide an inviting home. The Christian home is the hope of the world. As it becomes more extensively the centre and source of piety and purity, of righteousness and wisdom, so the kingdom of God will come on the earth. Therefore let the Christian home have everything about it that is attractive; let it be strong and beautiful; let all labour and care be expended on it that it may have all possible things to please the pure eye and gratify the cultivated taste.
2. Put all needful restraint on himself. He will not merely not “take more wives”refrain from that which is positively disallowed by the society in which he movesbut guard himself against all indulgence which will injure his influence at home or leave a stain on his reputation outside.
3. Remember that one serious mistake may mar much good. As David has certainly lost something of the lustre with which his name would otherwise have shone, and now exerts somewhat less of power than he would otherwise have wielded, because he did not adhere to true domestic morality, so shall we inevitably and irrecoverably lose weight, influence, usefulness, as well as peace and gladness of heart, if we make any one serious mistake in the ordering of our life. This is true of the choice of our vocation, of the selection of our friends, and (more especially) of the decision we make as to the lifelong alliance of marriage. How many have cut their joy and usefulness in twain by one sad error here! How needful in this respect, above most other matters, to act not on impulse but conviction, to ask the guidance of the Divine Friend, to act as those who are responsible for all the great choices of our life!C.
1Ch 14:2.–Selfward, Godward, manward.
Here is
I. SOMETHING ON WHICH DAVID COULD CONGRATULATE HIMSELF. He “perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king his kingdom was lifted up on high.” He observed that the first success was being satisfactorily sustained, and that his power was being felt beyond the limits of his own land. We may congratulate ourselves when we have made a good beginning, whether of school life, or of apprenticeship, or of management of affairs or official position, or of alliance with another, or of life itself; but we have greater reason for congratulating ourselves when the first start has settled down into lasting strength, has solidified and become an established success. Too often the first brilliancy proves to be nothing more than the shooting blaze of the rocket. It is well when it proves to be nothing less than the lasting light of the beacon-fire. We have also reason to congratulate ourselves when success rises so high as to attract the attention of those beyond our own circle; we are then making ourselves felt as well as known; and while a wise man will care but little for the mere breath of fame, a good man, if he be also a wise man, will care much that he is a power and not a cypher in the world.
II. SOMETHING WHICH TURNED DAVID‘S THOUGHTS TO GOD. “David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him.” He had shown much statesmanlike ability since he had been made king, and might have been, as we all are, under the temptation to attribute his success to his own sagacity. But he did not yield to the enemy if thus assailed. He let his prosperity direct his thoughts to him from whom cometh down every good gift. So also shall we, if the spirit of Christ be in us. We shall let all things speak to us of the Father, of his presence with us, his mindfulness of us, his love toward us, his wisdom in all his dealing with us. And we shall not permit our prosperity to do that which it has a tendency to doelevate us in our own esteem, and hide the Divine Author of all our mercies from the view of our soul. We shall see that it, with all other experiences, turns our thoughts in reverential love to him.
III. THE TRUE ASPECT IN WHICH PROSPERITY SHOULD BE VIEWED. “His kingdom was lifted up on high, because of his people Israel,“ or “for his people Israel’s sake’ (2Sa 5:12). David perceived that God had exalted him, not only nor chiefly that he and his family might be distinguished, but that the nation might thereby be blessed; that he might confer on the people over whom he was to rule the unspeakable blessings of a pious and upright reign. It is an admirable thing in rulers when they “perceive” that they are lifted up for the sake of the people, and not for their own sake. It is an equally desirable if not an equally important thing that all who occupy posts of prominence and powerstatesmen, magistrates, councillors, presidents, ministers, secretaries, etc.should perceive the same truth, should regard their elevation in the same light. If God sends us prosperity, power, influence, it is not only that we may rejoice therein ourselves, but it is also, and principally, that we may use our opportunity to confer light, healing, help, hope, blessedness, on those who are less favoured than we are, and whom we can reach with our ministering hand.C.
1Ch 14:8-17.-The spiritual campaign.
Our Christian life is no holiday excursion or exhilarating walk; it is an earnest battle, or rather a protracted campaign. We may be reminded here
I. THAT THERE ARE NOTORIOUS ENEMIES WITH WHICH EVERY CHRISTIAN MAN MUST EXPECT TO FIGHT. David knew well that he would have to fight the Philistines before he could gain full possession of his throne. They were bent on disputing his power, and it was inevitable that a series of engagements would take place between the servants of Jehovah and these idolaters, “All the Philistines went up to seek David” (1Ch 14:8). When a man becomes the servant of the great King, he knows that his spiritual adversaries will seek to slay him; or, if he does not, he soon discovers that no one is more certain to be assailed by temptations than he who has just entered the army of the living God.
1. “The world“ will come up against himthe various hostile influences which breathe and move in unregenerate or unsanctified society.
2. “The flesh“ will assail himall those impulses toward evil which are born of the lower appetites and passions.
3. “The devil“ will seek to “devour” himthe “principalities and powers,” the spiritual forces which, though unseen, are strong opponents in the field.
II. THAT HE MUST CONSULT THE WILL OF GOD IN THE CONDUCT OF THE CAMPAIGN. “David inquired of God” (1Ch 14:10); “David inquired again of God” (1Ch 14:14); “David did as God commanded him” (1Ch 14:16). The King of Israel was far from relying on his own generalship; and when he had succeeded so well (1Ch 14:11, 1Ch 14:12), his good fortune did not tempt him to presume; he still inquired of God, and acted in strict accordance with Divine direction. This spirit of inquiry and obedience must be ours also. We must not lean on our own understanding, but ask for the guidance of his Spirit, both for his direct illumination and for his help through the written Word; and when we have been victorious, we must see that the spirit of presumption is not admitted, but carefully excluded, and we must still inquire and obey.
III. THAT HE SHOULD SEEK TO INFLICT UPON THE ENEMY A COMPLETE DEFEAT. David not only smote the enemy (1Ch 14:11), but he burnt their gods with fire (1Ch 14:12). And again he smote and pursued them “from Gibeon even to Gazer” (1Ch 14:16). It is our wisdom to extirpate our enemy; not only to stun but to slay the spiritual foe. It must be war a outrance or it will prove to be unsuccessful. Nothing can be more dangerous and unwise than to maintain a dubious and wavering contest with some besetting sin. We are to be conquerors, “more than conquerors,” completely and thoroughly successful, as generals who not only keep possession of their ground, but drive the enemy before them and take possession of their camp, seizing or burning their goods.
IV. THAT HE MUST BE CAUTIOUS AS WELL AS COURAGEOUS. God did not allow David to fight the Philistines when he would have had to engage them at a disadvantage. He instructed his servant to adopt a plan more suited to the occasion (1Ch 14:14, 1Ch 14:15). We are not to expect victory from God if we are negligent of the means we take to win it. If we are obviously unequal to the task under one set of conditions, we must change them and place ourselves in more favourable ones.
V. THAT HE MUST ASCRIBE THE VICTORY TO THE DIVINE ARM. David said, “God hath broken in,” etc. (1Ch 14:11). Our spirit, if not our language, must be that of the psalmist, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,” etc.C.
HOMILIES BY F. WHITFIELD
1Ch 14:1, 1Ch 14:2.–Hiram and David.
The act of Hiram here in sending messengers to David with timber and masons and carpenters to build a house for himself, shows how David’s influence had made itself felt far and near. We are furnished with the reason of this influence (see 1Ch 11:9). It was because “the Lord was with him.” Thus it ever is with the Christian: “The Lord is with him.” Hence his influence. Christ in us is the mighty power for a holy life and for producing a permanent impression. Men like Hiram will pay homage to this, however morally distant they may be from conversion to God. And this is the power the true Christian should seek to possess, and the influence he should wield. “And David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, for his kingdom was lifted up on high, because of his people Israel.” Observe the latter part of this passage. Kings are to remember why they are kings. It is on account of God’s kingdom and God’s people. When they forget their relation to God, God’s people, and God’s work, they forget their true mission in God’s world. “By me kings reign.” The subject should never forget the relation in which he stands to God; how much less should the king forget it!W.
1Ch 14:8-12.–First battle in the valley of Rephaim.
No sooner was David anointed than the Philistines were stirred up in opposition. This opposition arose, doubtless, from the conviction that, if he were established on the throne, he would take revenge on them for the national dishonour at the battle of Gilboa, in which Saul was slain. They therefore resolved, before his throne was consolidated, to accomplish his destruction. David’s characteristic feature was, in every emergency of this kind, to east himself upon God and seek his guidance. The assurance of victory was clear and unqualified: “And the Lord said, Go up, for I will deliver them into thine hand.” The result of the battle was a great victory for Israel. Another feature in David’s character was to ascribe all victory to God. “Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters.” Observe, be calls himself the Lord’s “hand.” This is our true relation to God at all times. Ourselves and all we have are but the “hand” to be put into God’s hand to use. Observe, too, that David burns the “gods” which the Philistines, in the hurry and confusion of flight, had left behind. They were no temptation to him to idolatry, but they might have been to some among his ranks; therefore every vestige of idolatry shall be stamped out and every temptation removed. In all our battles for the Lord, if we would have him with us and ensure success, every idol must be stamped out and God alone exalted. It must be Christ and Christ alone in every heart and before every eye.W.
1Ch 14:13-17.–Second battle in the valley of Rephaim.
The utter discomfiture of the Philistines and the victory of Israel had filled the former with alarm, and a second attempt was made against Israel. David again cast himself upon the Lord. This time the mode of attack by David was, at the command of God, to be varied. The attack was not forbidden, but, instead of advancing against the Philistines openly. David was to strike off in such a direction as to turn their flank and to come upon them from the front of the mulberry trees or baca bushes. An important spiritual truth underlies this part of the narrative. In this second attack it would only have been natural that David should have adopted the same mode as before, especially when his plans had met with such success. But, however right and in every respect preferable that course might have appeared, it was not God’s way. God will have his people entirely dependent upon himself, and not upon past experiences. The manna gathered to-day will not do for to-morrow. It must be gathered each day afresh. The successful way in the past may not be his way in the future, and must never be relied on. It is not past dealings or ways with us; it is himself. The look of the soul in every step must be upward. I must put nothingnot even God’s past ways with me in lifebetween my soul and him. It must be God, and God alone, all the way. And “the sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” as the sign of God’s leading, is not without meaning. It indicates still the upward look. The sign was to come from above. There the eye and the ear too were to be directed. It was nothing in itself, any more than any ordinance or means of grace. It was an “outward sign” of an “inward” and deeper realityGod; “God is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.” The breeze of wind moving the tops of the mulberry trees was the vehicle of the Holy SpiritGod’s presence going before, which is at all times the Christian’s safety, strength, and victory.W.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1Ch 14:10.–Inquiring of God concerning common things.
Explain the anxiety of the situation in which David was placed, and show what he might have done. From the point of view of the skilful general, he might have counted his forces, estimated their strength, set them on vantage-ground, drawn out a plan of battle, and, swayed by his own energy, he might have led them on to victory. But then he would only have acted as Saul had acted. He would have taken up the position of the independent sovereign, rather than that of the prince and vicegerent of Jehovah. It was important that, at the very outset of his kingly career, he should make it publicly and distinctly known that he was king only as Jehovah’s servant. He could not make this known better than by “inquiring of the Lord” on the first occasion of national anxiety. It is always of great importance that we start right. But it might be said that this was only a business matter, and so quite within the power of David to arrange, and he need not “inquire of God” at all about it. That sentiment is a common, but a sadly mistaken one. It divides our life into two parts, the one of which we can manage ourselves, but for the other we need the help of God. There can really be no distinction of the “sacred” and the “secular.” There can properly be no circle drawn round within which alone prayer can be acceptable. Nothing interests us that does not interest our God. “In everything, by prayer and supplication, we may make known our requests unto him.” This may be further enforced.
I. WHAT IS THE GOD–SPHERE? The difficulties into which men get, and the subtle self-seeking they manifest, when they try to make the God-sphere limited and narrow. The awakened and sincere heart is prepared to say before God
“Take my body, spirit, soul;
Only thou possess the whole?
The God-sphere is a man’s whole life, his whole thought, his every interest. Nothing is too great for God to compass; nothing too small for him to use and glorify. The things we count most commonair and sunshine and rainare his. And the things in our lives that seem most trivial fit into his great plan and should be referred to him. Illustrate from the teachings of the Apostle James, that our very “journeyings,” our very “buyings and sellings,” must be made dependent on the Lord’s will (Jas 4:13-15). Modern sentiment tends to limit the sphere within which prayer is appropriate; it is assumed that it should not deal with the material world, which is under fixed law. But law is not something out beyond the control of Godor we misname him; for there is something greater than he. All laws are within the God-sphere, so we may “inquire of God” about them.
II. WHAT IS GOD‘S CLAIM WITHIN HIS SPHERE? That everything shall be referred to him, and in everything his counsel and direction shall be taken. Illustrate from David’s feeling of the claims of the theocracy. The entire life of the Israelitish nation being the God-sphere, absolutely everything had to be referred to him, and he recognized and punished all failures to meet his claim. By the mouth of his prophet the claim is distinctly expressed: “For all these things will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” This claim may be shown in detailed application to the circumstances of our lives. The kind of reference to God takes different forms for different kinds of things.
III. THE OBEDIENCE OF MEN IS BETTER TESTED BY THE LITTLE THAN BY THE GREAT. Practical observation of life proves that it is harder to do little things in a right spirit than to do great ones. Many a man stands well before mighty swords and spears, and falls before a pebble slung by a youth. Few of us can stand the serious testing of the commoner scenes and relations of our lives. Yet the Divine testings come most frequently in connection with them; and sometimes God even makes us do nothingwait; and he watches to see whether, even concerning this, we will “inquire of him.”R.T.
1Ch 14:12.–Loyalty to the one God.
It is noted that, in the excitement of their defeat the Philistines left behind them their idol-images, and that, as a wise and prudent act as well as a truly religious one, David had them all destroyed by fire. This at once made a public testimony of their vanity and helplessness, and prevented their exerting any evil influence on David’s own people, whose history shows that they were very sensitive to the attractions of idolatry. “The practice of carrying images of the gods to battle was common among the nations of antiquity, and arose from the belief that there was virtue in the images themselves, and that military success would be obtained by means of them. A similar belief seems to have induced the Israelites to carry the ark of the covenant with them to battle in the days of Eli.” Comparing this passage with the answering one in 2Sa 5:21, margin, we may assume that the images were carried as trophies to Jerusalem, and, after being exhibited there, were destroyed by fire. David’s loyalty to the one God was shown in the vigorous destruction of these rival gods. This, however, must not be confounded with religious persecution. David had a recognized right to deal as he pleased with the spoils of battle; and he was in no way bound to recognize the sanctity which the Philistines might be pleased to attach to their idol-figures. Distinguish between the destruction of idol-figures and the persecution of idol-worshippers. Man is not alone. He has often to act for others, for the family, the class, or the nation. In this way David acted on this occasion. Show what idol-gods may be about now, within reach of our children, etc. We do not call them idols, but they are such if they attract and draw away from God, or push him out of his rightful placefirst in heart and lip and life.
I. MAN MAY NOT INTERFERE WITH HIS NEIGHBOUR‘S RELIGION. That is, not in any physical way. He may by moral forcesby argument, by persuasion, but not by force, in either private spheres of social life or public spheres of law and magistracy. And yet it has taken all the Christian ages to get this truth taught to men, and it is only half learned yet. A modern preacher says, “What a blunder persecution for religious convictions is! Has there ever been a disability put upon religious belief, has there ever been a persecution short of absolute extermination, that has not strengthened the faith it was meant to discourage? Persecution drives men in upon their convictionsmakes them hold more firmly by their principles.” Yet we must as clearly see that we are held responsible for our neighbour’s religion, so far as the use of moral forces is concerned. The sense of this responsibility is the impulse of all missionary labour. We must preach Christ’s kingdom, and with all moral suasion “compel them to come in.”
II. MAN MAY KEEP HIS NEIGHBOUR‘S RELIGION FROM INTERFERING WITH HIS. And in resisting he may find it necessary to use physical forces. David would not have been justified in going to Philistia and burning other people’s idols. Had he done so, he would have been very properly resisted. But when these idols were left behind, as the spoil of the victors, he was quite justified in destroying them, and so preventing them from becoming a snare to his people.
Apply to the agencies of moral and religious mischief in our day, such as evil literature, self-indulgent pleasures, infidel maxims, etc. We are bound in our loyalty to God to keep these awayto take them and burn them, if need be, and so keep them away from our children and our servants. We should realize that, if the day of idolatrous images is passed, thingsartistic things, symbolic things, literary thingsmay and often do become the most fascinating and degrading idol-forces.R.T.
1Ch 14:15.–Signs and sounds of the Divine presence.
The circumstances connected with the second enterprise of the Philistines are more fully detailed; and it seems the design of the chronicler to remind us that, in answer to prayer and dependence, God may not only give a general approval, but also minute and careful directions, and such as may involve waiting on him and watching for the right situation and the right moment. In some manifest and impressive way the Divine presence would be declared, and the Divine will made known. Often God finds it necessary to teach his people that he must be waited for as well as waited on. A sound as of marching or stepping would presently be heard; it would be a rustling of the leaves of the bach trees, as if a wind were passing through them; and this would be the sign that the heavenly host had come to assure the victory; and immediately upon hearing this sign, David was to act with vigour; he was to “bestir himself,” or be sharp. “The sound of a going in the tops of the trees” had a double significance. It was the sound of the viewless march of “the Lord going out before him to smite the host of the Philistines.” It was the sound of God going forth to smite their gods, even as he smote the gods of Egypt (comp. Psa 29:4).
I. THE DIVINE PRESENCE RESPONDS TO MAN‘S DEPENDENCE AND PRAYER. To his dependence, which is the appropriate state of mind and feeling. To his prayer, which is the appropriate mode of expressing the right feeling. That which shuts a man’s door against God is self-confidence. If a man feels that he can “go the warfare at his own charges,” he does not need God, and God can but leave him alone to learn the lesson of his own self-impotence. The assurance on which the dependent man may rest is this: “To that man will I look, and with him will I dwell, who is humble, and. contrite of heart, and trembleth at my word.” If we but win and maintain this right attitude, then we may have perfect confidence that God is with us, although the confidence may be more a matter of faith than of feeling. God was really with David, though the sensible sign of his presence did not come until, when the wind was still, there was that suggestive “sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.”
II. THE DIVINE PRESENCE MAY BE RECOGNIZED ONLY IN RESULTS. It sometimes seems right to God to make us go quite through our working-time only holding the faith of his presence and hell), and not in any way aided by sensible signs. But such faith is a practical inspiration and strength. It is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Sometimes the issues and results plainly show that God was with us; and the final issues of life will have this for the conviction they seal: “It was a good way wherein the Lord our God led us.”
III. THE DIVINE PRESENCE MAY BE RECOGNIZED IN CONSCIOUS STRENGTH FOR DUTY. This truth is effectively illustrated in St. Paul (2Co 12:7-9). He was taught to see God with him just in this, that “strength was made perfect in his weakness.” In view of the practical character of our life, it is a more important thing to have strength for doing than, without strength, mere comfort of feeling. And yet men yearn most for sensible signs, and undervalue the inward strengthenings.
IV. THE DIVINE PRESENCE MAY BE INDICATED BY GRACIOUS SIGNS. As in the case of our Lord at his baptism and at his transfiguration. Also in his great agony in Gethsemane, there appeared an “angel from heaven, strengthening him.” On several occasions of St. Paul’s life he was favoured with special visions. With the pious servant of God we may say, “The best of all is that God is with us;” but we may also ask for the comforting sense of that presence through the aid of gracious signs. And God will grant these, both for our own sakes and for the sake of others who may be blessed through us. While watchful against extravagance and superstition, we ought not to deny the truth of visions and signs and Divine communications granted nowadays to God’s people. There might well be a fuller expectancy of direct dealings with dependent and prayerful men, manifest Divine leading by inward impulse, and providential direction, and signs plain enough to sensitive souls.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
. Davids House-Building, Family, and Victories over the Philistines: 1 Chronicles 14
1Ch 14:1 And Hiram1 king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-wood, and masons, and carpenters, to build him a house. 2And David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel; for his kingdom was lift up on high, because of his people Israel.
3And David took more wives in Jerusalem; and David begat more sons 4and daughters. And these are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon. 5And Ibhar, and Elishua, and 6Elpelet. And Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia. 7And Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet.
8And the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel; and all the Philistines went up to seek David: and David heard it, and went out against them. 9And the Philistines came and spread themselves in the 10valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and wilt Thou give them into my hand? And the Lord said 11unto him, Go up, and I will give them into thy hand. And they went up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there: and David said, God hath broken my enemies by my hand, like the breaking of waters; therefore they 12called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And they left their gods there; and David ordered, and they were burnt with fire.
13, 14And the Philistines came again and spread themselves in the valley.2 And David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them by the bacas. 15And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound going on the tops of the bacas, then go out to the battle; for God is gone out before thee to smite the camp of the Philistines. 16And David did as God commanded him: and they smote the camp of the 17Philistines, from Gibeon even unto Gezer. And Davids fame went out into all lands; and the Lord brought his fear upon all nations.
EXEGETICAL
Preliminary Remark.On the different position of this section in 2Sa 5:11-25, namely, before the history of the removal of the ark from Kiriath-jearim, comp. the Preliminary Remark on 1 Chronicles 13. The motive of the Chronist for the transposition is evidently the wish to represent the preparations for the removal of the national sanctuary to Jerusalem as the first undertaking of the king after the taking of the capital, to exhibit the building of his own palace as a work certainly taken in hand soon after, but still standing behind that all-important concern. To the history of the beginning of the palace-building is attached in the sources common to both historians a description of the blessing which attended David as a father and a captain in the battles with the Philistines; Our author took this description, in the main unaltered, along with the notice of the beginning of the palace-building, over into his narrative, undeterred by the appearance thence arising of the events in question, especially the two successful battles with the Philistines, having fallen in the three months between the removal of the ark to the house of Obed-edom and its introduction into Jerusalem. This grouping is here, as often in his representation of the history of David, determined by the order of thought rather than of time.
1. Davids Palace-building and Family: 1Ch 14:1-7.The text of the older parallel, 2Sa 5:11-16, agrees in the main with the present, only here and there more precise.And cedar-wood, and masons, and carpenters, literally, and timbers (beams) of cedars, and craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timbers (Vulg. artifices parietum lignorumque).
1Ch 14:2. And David perceived (concluded from the high honour which was conferred upon him by this message from the Phenician king) that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, definitely transferred the kingdom to him, established (besttigt, Luther) him as king.For his kingdom was lift up on high. , if genuine, would be an irregularly formed 3 fem. perf. Niph. (not, as 2 Sam. 14:43, an inf. abs. Niph.) from , intensified by the , on high; comp. 1Ch 22:5, 1Ch 23:17, 1Ch 29:3-25. But perhaps, as in 2Sa 5:12, the perf. Piel is to be read, and Jehovah taken as the subject: and that He had exalted his kingdom. For , 2 Samuel 5, our text presents the later (occurring also 1Ch 17:11; 1Ch 17:14) form , perhaps merely by a slip of the pen; see Wellh. p. 164.
1Ch 14:3. And David took more wives in Jerusalem. Before in 2 Samuel stands , which may have fallen accidentally out of our passage, as the concubines of David are mentioned in 1Ch 3:9. Comp. on 1Ch 3:5-9, where the names of the thirteen sons of David born in Jerusalem, and the partly different spelling here and there, are fully handled.
2. The First War with the Philistines: 1Ch 14:8-12 (comp. 2Sa 5:17-21).To seek David, to attack, , sensu hostili, as in 1Sa 23:15; 1Sa 23:25; 1Sa 24:3; 1Sa 26:2.And David heard it, and went out against them, properly, before them; comp. 1Ch 12:17. Into this general and indefinite expression our author has changed the more concrete, but also more obscure, statement of Samuel: and went down to the hold (the hold of Zion), perhaps designedly.
1Ch 14:9. And spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim; comp. on 1Ch 11:15, 2Sa 5:18 : sat down in the valley of Rephaim. The perhaps more original , 2Sa 5:18; 2Sa 5:22, the Chronist has here and 1Ch 14:13 exchanged for the simpler and more intelligible .
1Ch 14:11. Like the breaking of waters, like an outburst of water ( ). We may think of the rending or outbursting of enclosing dams by rapid floods, perhaps after a water-spout. The situation of Baal-perazim cannot be exactly ascertained. Mount Perazim, Isa 28:21, is not essentially different from it.
1Ch 14:12. And they left their gods there. 2 Samuel 5 : their idols (). The present phrase is the stronger; it yields, along with the following statement regarding the burning of these gods, a bitterly sarcastic sense. The burning took place, moreover, on the ground of the divine command in Deu 7:5; Deu 7:25. The text of Samuel weakens the statement in a strange way: and David and his men took them away. If the more concrete and stronger statement of our author is a traditional expansion of that text, the tradition on which it rests is at all events credible; comp. Movers, p. 224. By this victory, David wiped out the old disgrace of Israel, which rested on the people since Elis time. As then Israel lost the ark, 1Sa 4:11, so now the sacred things of the Philistines fell into the hands of the Israelites (Berth.).
3. The Second War with the Philistines: 1Ch 14:13-17 (comp. 2Sa 5:22-25).And spread themselves in the valley, that is, as the parallel text (so as the Sept. and Syr.; see Crit. Note) shows, in the same valley as above, 1Ch 14:9, scarcely in another at Gibeon, as Movers, p. 243, thinks.
1Ch 14:14. Go not up after them, that is, as Samuel shows: go not directly towards them; seek not to drive them before thee by a direct attack. Perhaps also our text is somewhat faulty, and to be amended, according to 2Sa 5:23 : , by the change of in (Berth.).And come uponthem by the bacas, literally, over against the bacas. These we must suppose, as the divine command implies a going round the Philistine army, to be behind them. The baca, mentioned only here and 2 Samuel 5, and perhaps Psa 84:7, is, according to Abulfadi (in Celsius, Hierobot. i. 339), a plant related to the balsam tree, and resembling it, which, when cut, discharges a white, sharp, and warm resin in the manner of tears, and appears to have received its name from , flare. The older expositors, wavering uncertainly, render the term variously: Sept. , Vulg. pyrus; Luther, after the Jewish expositors, mulberry tree.
1Ch 14:15. The sound going on the tops of the bacas, namely, the rustling of their leaves in the wind (Sept.: ), not the sound occasioned by the entrance of God (supernatural, as in Gen 3:8). As the baca has much larger leaves than the ordinary balsam, the rustling of them may occasion a sufficiently loud sound; the rendering baca trees (Kamph.) is therefore unnecessary.
1Ch 14:16. And they smote the camp of the Philistines, from Gibeon even unto Gezer. Two places of this name lie to the north-west of Jerusalem, the former (now el Jib) 2, the latter 4, hours distant from it. If the battle-field is to be sought between the two, in the region of Upper and Nether Beth-horon, the valley, 1Ch 14:13, may still be the valley of Rephaim; only the site of it should be sought not so far south, as Thenius and Bertheau suppose (who also read for Gibeon in our passage, Geba, according to 2Sa 5:25), and the battle must be regarded as moving in a north-westerly direction from its starting-point (comp. Wellh. on 2Sa 5:25, also Ew. Gesch. d. V. Isr. ii. 610).
1Ch 14:17. And Davids fame went out into all lands; and the Lord brought his fear upon all nation, literally, gave his fear upon all nations; comp. Est 8:17. A pragmatic reflection of our author added to the original text, as its absence in 2Sa 5:25 shows. Comp. the similar reflections in 2Ch 17:10; 2Ch 20:29. On especially, comp. 2Ch 24:15.
Footnotes:
[1] Kethib: . Keri: , as always in Chronicles (Sept. , as ever).
[2]For the Sept. and Syr. read , which is perhaps original; comp. 2Sa 5:22.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We are here again introduced to the acquaintance between Hiram, king of Tyre, and David. We have also, an account of David’s family and of his victories.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
We were before informed of Hiram’s message to David, and the events of it, with the king’s views, that his greatness came from the Lord. 2Sa 5 related these things, to which therefore I refer the Reader, without adding any further observation on that subject, than what the Commentary there contains.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Divine and the Human
1Ch 14
THIS section is a duplicate of 2Sa 5:11-25 . The order of chronology has not been particularly observed. It has been thought indeed by some that “the chronicler may have transposed the two accounts, in order to represent the removal of the ark to the new capital in immediate connection with the acquisition of the city.’ This chapter treats of two subjects: the first, David’s palace-building, and family; and the second, the two victories which he won over the Philistines in the valley of Rephaim. When David observed the effect of concurrent circumstances such as the sending, by Hiram king of Tyre, messengers and timber of cedars with masons and carpenters to build him an house he took knowledge that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, and that his kingdom was lifted up on high because of the people Israel.
In studying the great subject of Providence we should carefully watch how one circumstance combines with another, and how the element which we designate by some such term as “unexpectedness” unites the whole, shaping it into evident meanings. It was thus that David regarded the willing alliance of the great sovereign of Phoenician Tyre. David looked upon this alliance as a practical miracle. Such miracles abound in human life, if we carefully note them. Enemies are subdued, strangers are brought into friendship: men whom we have not known before have suddenly developed into friends: and persons whom we regarded as implacable have become unaccountably gracious and approachable. These changes do not pass in life under the name of miracles, yet they deserve to be so ranked, for they are conquests of spirit if not of matter, overrulings of stubborn will and obstinate prejudice, such overrulings as are possible only to Almightiness. This could not go on without an effect being produced upon the observers. When the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, they came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim, determined to oppose one whose might was visibly growing day by day. This opposition may be a sign of power, not on the part of those who oppose but on the part of those who are opposed. When a man is envied, he should reason that there is something in himself which excites that envy, and that the something which excites the evil passion may be something really good: no man envies poverty, meanness, worthlessness; no burglar attacks an empty house if there be a full one at hand into which he can effect an entrance: orchards are not robbed in winter, but in summer and autumn when every tree is loaded with fruit. It is so in human relations, and herein is the comfort of the man who suffers from envy and jealousy. Let him reflect how much there is in him, wrought by the grace of God, which bad men may envy and which they may wish to turn aside. The envy of bad men is a tribute to the power of good men. Before David did anything in the matter of the Philistinian attack he made diligent inquiry of God. How did he do this? Was it through the high priest Abiathar, who sought divine direction by means of the Urim and Thummim? Or was it by direct personal prayer? When men have no established ordinances they often take the great work of approaching God into their own hands, the heart forcing its way through all difficulties, and crying mightily to heaven for light and strength. The Bible has no hesitation in declaring that prayer is answered. Thus we find these words in this chapter: “And the Lord said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thine hand” ( 1Ch 14:10 ). How these communications are made to the heart may never be fully explained in words; but that they are made there can be no doubt in any Christian mind. They come in the form of convictions, deep impressions, impulses that cannot be resisted without doing injustice not to feeling only but to reason and judgment; and if any man can venture to say that he has received such and such an answer from heaven, he is justified in putting those convictions and impulses into words which best express their scope and energy. Let us not be critical about the mere words; the fact is wholly within the terms namely, the gracious fact that a great necessity has been expressed, and a great conviction has followed, which conviction the religious heart represents as an answer to prayer. In all this process there is nothing to violate reason nor to trouble conscience.
When the victory was won, David did not hesitate to ascribe it to God, saying, “God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters” ( 1Ch 14:11 ). Here is a happy combination of the divine and the human. The leader was God, the soldier was David. God works by instrumentality. The instrumentality must never imagine itself to be the original cause. When lands are converted to Christ, and deserts blossom like a garden, the miracle is wrought in heaven, and as for man he has but the honour of the service, the glory of having obeyed a divine mandate glory enough for the human heart, an infinite satisfaction indeed. Observe that the Philistines also took their gods with them to battle. They were not ashamed of their religion. We should learn something from Pagans even in this matter. Idolatry is not to be scorned, but is rather to be respected as marking the highest height to which men have come under darkness. Contempt is not to be uttered as regards men who are doing their utmost according to the light they have; they are to be instructed, not sneered at; the sneering may come afterwards when the mind has been emancipated, and the higher and purer thought has been established as the standard of judgment; but at first he will make no progress in winning idolaters who begins by sneering at their idols. What is true of Pagan idolatry is true also of intellectual perversion or self-worship: reveal the higher truth; establish the larger reason; and when progress has been made on the constructive side, that very progress will itself set in a contemptuous light that which before was believed in by the uninstructed and undisciplined mind.
As the result of a second inquiry David was commanded not to go up after the Philistines, but he was ordered to “come upon them over against the mulberry trees” ( 1Ch 14:14 ). In connection with this arrangement, a miracle is supposed to have been wrought “And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle: for God is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines” ( 1Ch 14:15 ). “A sound of going” has been translated “The sound of marching,” and it has been supposed that the sign may have been natural, not miraculous. Investigators of ancient history have reminded us that all ancient people attached a religious or prophetic import to the motion and rustling of leaves. There were speaking oaks at Dodona. In Judges ( Jdg 9:37 ) we read of Meonenim, “the oak of the diviners;” Deborah refers mysteriously to a palm-tree; and some of the most reverent commentators have not hesitated to refer the burning bush itself to the same order of ideas. The Arabs believe that certain thorny bushes are capable of uttering prophetic words; they regard the Egyptian thorn as sacred. All these are matters of history, yet they need not be regarded as throwing any doubt upon the miracle which is supposed to have occurred in connection with this attack upon the Philistines. If we have to struggle our way up to miracles, there can be no wonder if we often find them too high for reason, and often fail in faith absolutely and implicitly to receive them: but if we so live in God, in the noblest religious excitement, as to come down upon miracles as from an infinite heavenly height, then even the most wonderful of the miracles will appear to our inspired reason but as commonplaces, mere undulations in the serene progress of nature: nature now high, now low, but always obeying the decree of God, and always signifying his deep and gracious purposes. We can judge the miracles either by a cold reason or an ardent faith, and according as we look at miracles from the one or the other consequent standpoint will be our judgment of them.
“The fame of David went out into all lands; and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations” ( 1Ch 14:17 ). If we did more work we should have more influence. Were we more obedient the fact of our religiousness would more deeply impress observers. Where we are calculating, worldly, selfish, like other men, there can be no wonder if they ascribe our progress to natural causes. If on the other hand we are filled with the, spirit of religious adventure and enterprise, and if we are so self-controlled as to await in all things the bidding of God, men will see that our religion is not a sentiment or a superstition, but a living and ruling force, and in proportion as this impression is deepened will our fame go from land to land, not as a noise excited by admiration, but as a character mighty because holy. The fear which God brings upon men is a religious fear. The nations did not fear David simply because he was a great soldier, but because there was behind him a mysterious force which nothing could resist. Religion is not only a mystery, it is a power. When men observe what this power can do in us, and when what they see is great, pure, and noble, they will begin to think that our religion is the higher reason, and respect it even where they cannot understand it.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVIII
THE WARS OF DAVID
2Sa 5:11-25
Our last chapter intimated that the union of the nation under such a king as David, in such a capital, would naturally excite the jealousy and alarm of all neighboring heathen nations. This section commences thus: “And when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David.”
Your attention has already been called to the necessity of breaking the power of the hostile heathen nations lying all around Judah, if ever the Jewish nation is to fulfil its mission to all other nations. The geographical position of Judah, which is the best in the world for leavening the nations with the ideas of the kingdom of God, if it maintained its national purity and adherence to Jehovah, also made it the most desirable possession for other peoples having far different ideals. As the salvation of the world including these very hostile nations, depended on the perpetuity and purity of Israel, these nations, through whom came idolatry and national corruption, must be broken, hence the seeming cruelty and partiality of Jehovah’s order through Moses to destroy the Canaanites, root and branch, and to avoid the corruptions of the other nations, were meant as mercy and kindness to the world.
The nations against which David successfully warred, so far as our text records them, were the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Syrians of Zobah, the Syrians of Damascus, the Moabites, and the Edomites. He had previously smitten the Amalekites of the Negeb. On these wars in general the following observations are noteworthy:
1. He was never the aggressor.
2. He never lost a battle.
3. His conquest filled out the kingdom to the boundaries originally promised to Abraham.
4. The spoils of all these wars, staggering credulity in their variety and value, were consecrated to Jehovah, making the richest treasury known to history.
5. By alliance without war he secured the friendship of Hiram, king of Tyre, most valuable to him and to his son Solomon. As Phoenicia, through the world-famous fleets of Tyre and Sidon, commanded the Mediterranean with all its marine commerce, and as David ruled the land through whose thoroughfares must pass the caravans carrying this traffic to Africa, Arabia, India, Syria, and Mesopotamia, it was of infinite value to both to be in friendly alliance. To these merchant-princes it was of incalculable advantage that all the land transportation of their traffic should lie within the boundaries of one strong and friendly nation rather than to have to run the gauntlet between a hundred irresponsible and predatory tribes, while to David, apart from the value of this peaceful commerce, the whole western border of Judah along the Mediterranean coast was safe from invasion by sea so long as friendship was maintained with Hiram, king of the sea.
6. By the voluntary submission of Hamath after his conquest of Damascus, he controlled the famous historic “Entrance into Hamath,” the one narrow pathway of traffic with the nations around the Caspian Sea, thus enabling David to reach those innumerable northern hordes so graphically described in later days by Ezekiel, the exile-prophet.
7. By the conquest of Damascus he controlled the only caravan route to the Euphrates and Mesopotamia, since the desert lying east of the trans-Jordanic tribes was practically impassable for trade and army movement from a lack of water, We have seen Abraham, migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, low down on the Euphrates, compelled to ascend that river for hundreds of miles in order to find an accessible way to the Holy Land through Damascus. In his day, also Chedorlaorner’s invasion had to follow the same way, as we will see later invasions do in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, which at last conquered David’s Jerusalem.
8. By the conquest of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, all the Arabah passed into his hands, checkmating invasion by Arabian hordes, as well as barring one line of invasion from Egypt. By the conquest of the Philistines and Amalekites the other two ways of Egyptian invasion were barred. You should take a map, such as you will find in Huribut’s Atlas, and show how David’s wars and peaceful alliances safeguarded every border, north, east, south, and west.
Besides these general observations, we may note a special feature characterizing these, and indeed all other wars, prior to the leveling invention of gunpowder and other high explosives, namely, much was accomplished by individual champions of great physical prowess and renown. David himself was as famous in this respect as Richard, the Lionhearted, until in a desperate encounter, related in this section, his life was so endangered that a public demand justly required him to leave individual fighting to less necessary men and confine himself to the true duty of a general the direction of the movements of the army.
Your text recites the special exploits of Jashobeam, Eleazer, Shammah, Abishai, Benaiah, or Benajah, after whom my father, myself, and my oldest son were named. With them may be classed the ten Gadites whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were as swift as the mountain deer, the least equal to 100 and the greatest equal to 1000. These crossed the Jordan at its mighty flood and smote the Philistines in all its valley, east and west.
Quite to the front also, as giant-killers, were Sibbecai, Elhanan, and Jonathan’s nephew. Of others, all mighty heroes, we have only a catalogue of names as famous in their day as Hercules, Theseus, and Achilles, Ajax, Ulysses, Horatius, and .King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, but, as philosophizes Sir Walter Scott in lvanhoe concerniog the doughty champions at the tourney of Ashby de la Zouch: “To borrow lines from a contemporary poet, ‘The knights are dust, And their good swords rust, Their souls are with the saints, we trust,’while their escutcheons have long mouldered from the walls of their castles; their castles themselves are but green mounds and shattered ruins; the place that once knew them knows them no more. Nay, many a race since theirs has died out and been forgotten in the very land which they occupied with all the authority of feudal proprietors and lords. What then would it avail to the reader to know their names, or the evanescent symbols of their martial rank?”
One exploit of three of these champions deserves to live forever in literature. It thrills the heart by the naturalness of its appeal to the memory of every man concerning the precious things of his childhood’s home. David was in his stronghold, the Cave of Adullam, weary and thirsty. Bethlehem and his childhood rise before him: “O that one would give me water to drink of the Well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” His exclamation thrills like Woodworth’s famous poem, “How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, As fond recollections presents them to view! The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood, And ev’ry loved spot which my infancy knew”.
David’s longing for water from that particular well, and Woodworth’s “Old Oaken Bucket” harmonize with my own experience whenever I am delirious with fever. I always see a certain spring on my father’s plantation issuing from the mosscovered, fern-bordered rocks, and filling a sucken barrell. Hard by, hanging on a bush, is the gourd which, when dipped into the cold, clear spring, is more precious to thirsty lips than the silver tankards or gold drinking cups of kings; only in my fever-thirst I never am able to get that gourd to my lips. Three of David’s mighty men heard the expression of his longing for that water out of the Well of Bethlehem, and slipping quietly away, not caring that a Philistine garrison held Bethlehem, the three men alone break through the defended gate and under fire draw water from the well and bring a vessel of it over a long, hot way to thirsty David. It touched his heart when he saw their wounds. He could not drink water purchased with their blood, but poured it out as a libation to such great and devoted friendship.
Some other incidents of the Philistine war are worthy of comment:
1. So great was the defeat of the Philistines in their first battle, where David, under divine direction, attacked the center of their army, the scene is named “Baal-Perazirn,” i.e., “The place of breaking forth.” Splitting their column wide open at its heart, he dispersed them in every direction. They even sat their gods behind them to be burned by David’s men. We need not be startled at the burning of such gods, for history tells of one nation that ate their god, made out of dough, in times of famine. This breaking of a battle-center was a favorite method with Napoleon later, and vainly attempted by Lee at Gettysburg.
2. In the second great battle, again following divine direction, he avoided the center where they expected his attack as before and were there prepared for him this time, and “fetched” a compass to their rear, sheltered from their view by a thick growth of balsam trees, and on hearing “a sound of a going” in these trees, struck them unawares and overthrew them completely.
So Stonewall Jackson, his movements sheltered from observation by the trees of the wilderness, marched and struck in his last and greatest victory at Chancellorsville. And so did that master of war, Frederick the Great, screened by intervening hills, turn the Austrian columns and win his greatest victory at Leuthen. Major Penn, the great Texas lay-evangelist, preached his greatest sermon from “This fetching a compass,” and “When thou hearest the sound of a going in the mulberry trees, bestir thyself.” His application was: (a) Let great preachers attack the center, as David did at Baal-Perazim. (b) But as I am only a layman I must fetch a compass and strike them in the rear where they are not expecting attack. (c) As the signal of assault was the sound of a going in the mulberry trees, which we interpret to mean the power of the Holy Spirit going before, we must tarry for that power, for without it we are bound to fail. (d) But that power being evident, let every member of the church bestir himself. On this last point his zealous exhortation put every man, woman, and child to working.
3. The third incident of this war was its culmination. He pressed his victory until “he took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines;” that is, he captured Gath and the four other cities, or daughters, that had gone from it. To take the bridle of a horse from the hand of a rider is to make that horse serve the new master, so Gath and her daughters paid tribute to David and served him quite a new experience for the Philistines.
4. The result of these great achievements is thus expressed: “And the fame of David went out into all lands; and the Lord brought the fear of him on all nations.”
The occasion of his next war, the one with Ammon, was remarkable. Nabash, the king of Ammon, held very friendly relations with David. The fact is that he may have ‘been the father of Amasa, a son of David’s sister, Abigail. Anyway, the relations between them had been very pleasant, so when Nahash died, David, out of the kindness of his heart, always remembering courtesies shown him, sent a friendly embassy to Hanun, the son of Nahash, but the princes of Ammon said to the young king, “Do you suppose that love for your father prompted David to send these men? He sent them to spy out the land so that he can make war successfully against us.” This evil suggestion led the young king to do a very foolish thing, and one that violated all international policy. He arrested these ambassadors and subjected them to the greatest indignity. Their venerable beards were cut off. I don’t know whether that means cut off half-way or just shaved off one side of the face. Then he cut off their long robes of dignity so they would be bob-tailed jackets striking about the hips, and sent them home. No mortification could exceed theirs. Somebody told David about it and he sent this word to them: “Tarry at Jericho until your beards grow out.”
A deacon of the First Church at Waco, when I was pastor, whenever a young member of the church would propose some innovation on the customs of the church, would draw up his tall figure he was quite tall and would reach out his long arm and point at the young man and say, “My young brother, you had better tarry at Jericho until your beard grows out.” It was very crushing on the young brother, and I used to exhort the deacon about his curt way of cutting off members who, whether young or old, had a right equal to his own to speak in conference.
Having practiced that unpardonable indignity upon the friendly ambassadors, the Ammonites know they must fight, since they have made themselves odious to David, so they raise an enormous sum of money, 1,000 talents of silver, and hire 33,000 men from the Syrians, the different branches of the Syrians. Some of them were horsemen from across the Euphrates, some from Tob, some from Maacah, and the rest of them from Zobah. David sends Joab at the head of his mighty army of veterans to fight them. The Ammonites remain in their fortified city of Rabbah, and as Joab’s army approaches, 33,000 Syrians come up behind them, and Joab sees that there is a battle to be fought in the front and in the rear, so he divides his army and takes his picked men to attack the Syrians, and commands Abishai, his brother, to go after the Ammonites as they pour out of their city to attack in front. Joab says to his brother, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, you help me, and if the Ammon-ites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you,” and so they fight both ways and whip in both directions with tremendous success. Joab destroys the Syrians, and Abishai drives the Ammonites back under the walls of their city.
That victory leads to another war. When the Syrians heard of the overthrow of the contingent sent to succor Ammon, they sent across the Euphrates again for reinforcements and mobilized a large home army to fight David. David met them in battle and blotted them off the map, and having disposed of the Syrians, at the return of the season for making war, he sent Joab with a mighty army to besiege the city of Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites. Joab besieges them and when he sees them about to surrender he sends for David to come and accept the surrender and David puts the crown of the king of Ammon on his own head. Then having destroyed the Ammonites, he marches against their southern ally, Moab, and conquers them. Following up this victory he leads his army against Edom, and conquers all that country. This war lasts six months. He gains a great victory over the Edomites and through Abishai, his leader, 18,000 of the Edomites were slain. The heir of the king escapes with great difficulty to Egypt, and is sheltered there. Joab remained six months to bury the dead and gather up the spoils. So ends this period of conquest.
The text tells you, in conclusion, who were the administration officers during this period. You will find it on page 122 of the Harmony. Joab was over the host, Jehoshaphat was recorder, Zadok and Ahimelech were priests, Seraiah was scribe, Benaiah, or Benajah, was over the Cherethites and Pelethites and David’s sons were chiefs about the king.
That great round of successes is followed by the magnificent song of thanksgiving, which needs to be analyzed specially and which is transferred to the Psalter as Psa 18 .
That you may have a connected account of these wars, the consideration of three periods is deferred to the next chapter:
1. The great sin of David, with its far-reaching consequences, 2Sa 11:2-12:24 .
2. His treatment of the Ammonites after the fall of Rabbah, 2Sa 12:31 and 1Ch 20:3 .
3. His treatment of the Moabites, 2Sa 8:2 .
QUESTIONS
1. What is the necessity of breaking the power of the hostile nations within and around Judea?
2. Show why the geographical position of Judea was favorable to its mission of leavening all nations with the ideas of the kingdom of God, and why Judea was a desirable possession to those nations.
3. What event brought a tide of war on David?
4. According to the record, with what nations did he wage successful war?
5. What eight general observations on these wars?
6. What special feature characterized them and all other ancient wars, and what modern inventions have now divested war of this feature?
7. Cite the names of some of David’s champions and their exploits.
8. How does Sir Walter Scott, in Ivanhoe, philosophize on the speedy oblivion coming to great champions?
9. Recite one exploit that deserves to live in literature, and why?
10. Cite the notable characteristic of the battle of Baal-Perazirn.
11. Name the more decisive battle which followed, and give illustrations from history of the different methods of attack in those two battles.
12. Give Major Penn’s text and sermon outline on some words concerning this battle.
13. Explain: ”He took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.”
14. What was the result of these great achievements?
15. Recite the occasion of the war with Ammon and its results, and describe the first battle.
16. Give a brief statement of wars with Syria, Moab, and Edom.
17. With a map before you, show just how by these wars and alliances David safeguarded all his borders.
18. How did he commemorate his victories?
19. How did he celebrate them?
20. Into what other book was his thanksgiving song transferred, and how numbered there?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Ch 14:1 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house.
Ver. 1. Now Hiram king of Tyre. ] See Trapp on “ 2Sa 5:11 “ See Trapp on “ 2Sa 5:12 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Chronicles Chapter 14
“Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house. And David perceived that Jehovah had confirmed him king over Israel, for his kingdom was-lifted up on high, because of his people Israel.” 1Ch 14:1 , 1Ch 14:2 . The effect upon the Gentiles showed how truly it was Jehovah who had exalted David. Nobody ever thought of that when Saul was there.
We find, then, David in Jerusalem, and the Philistines now thinking that as he was anointed king it was time to bestir themselves. “So all the Philistines went up to seek David. And David heard of it, and went out against them. And the Philistines came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.” But David abides in the simplicity which brought him to the throne. He inquired of God. He did not say, Now I have got an army; if I was a conqueror over the Philistines in the days of my weakness, how much more when now in power! Not so. He inquired of Jehovah. It requires more faith to be dependent in the day of prosperity than in the day of adversity; and there is where we are often put to the test, and souls that stand well when they are tried, often fall deeply when they have been blest greatly of the Lord. This does not prove that the blessing was not of God; it does prove that we may fail to walk in dependence on God. But as yet David stood, and stood because dependent. “And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt Thou deliver them into mine hand?” – for that was the great point. “And Jehovah said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thine hand.” There was his answer. “So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters; therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim” (the place of breaches). “And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire.”
Thus you see vengeance was taken, according to Israel’s God, on the insult done to the ark of God. If they had carried off the ark, they never burned it. It burned them, rather, and obliged them to consult how it should be restored to the God of Israel – to His people. But in this case they left their gods, and David burned them. Such was the requisition of the law of God as we find in Deuteronomy. David, therefore, walks not only in dependence and in obedience, but, further, “the Philistines yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley.” That might have been an accident; “therefore David inquired again of God, and God said to him, Go not up after them.” How beautiful! We learn that God would have us ever to wait on Him; for the answer of God at one time may not at all be the answer at another. “Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle; for God is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer. And the fame of David went out into all lands; and Jehovah brought the fear of him upon all nations.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Hiram. See note on 2Sa 5:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 14
Now Hiram the king of Tyre sent David down cedars, and workmen [and so forth], to build a palace for David. And while David was in Jerusalem he took more wives: and he had more sons and daughters ( 1Ch 14:1 , 1Ch 14:3 ).
And their names are listed there in chapter fourteen.
And the Philistines came [against David], spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? will You deliver them into my hand? And the LORD said, Go up; I will deliver them into your hand. So they came to Baalperazim; and David smote them there. And David said, God hath broken in on my enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of the place Baalperazim ( 1Ch 14:9-11 ).
Now it is interesting to me how that David sought guidance from the Lord and asked direct questions and received direct answers. I think that it is important that we ask God direct questions. We seek the guidance of the Lord by asking direct questions. Too many times we have our plans all set, and then we say, “Now, God, please bless my plans.” Rather than seeking the guidance of the Lord and asking direct questions. “Lord, shall we go up? Lord, will You be with us and deliver them into Your hands?” Asking direct questions, he received direct answers. And I believe that you can ask God a direct question and get a direct answer.
I had an old Oldsmobile car, and it was beginning to use a lot of oil. And I said, “Lord, what’s causing this silly car to use so much oil?” And the Lord spoke to me and said, “Look at the speedometer.” And I looked down and I was doing eighty miles an hour. So I slowed down. In those days the speed up was sixty-five. I slowed down to sixty-five. And I, He said, “You got a lead foot. That’s why it’s using so much oil.” So I just started driving slower. I was, of course, having to drive to Idyllwild three times a week and up the mountain. And man, I had all those curves all wired, and you know, just floor boarding up the hill. And when I started driving like a normal person should drive, car quit using oil. So, thank You, Lord. Direct question, direct answer.
And I do believe that you can ask God direct questions and start listening and start getting direct answers. David was asking direct questions. God began to give him direct answers and guiding him.
Now the Philistines came up again and rather than just, “Alright, let’s go again, fellows. At it once more.” He waited and inquired of God again. And he said, “Shall we go up?” And the Lord said, “No, don’t go up. But go around behind them and wait. And when you hear the sound of the wind in the top of the mulberry trees, then attack.” So David went around behind the Philistines and they waited there. And when the wind began to blow in the top of the mulberry trees, then David and his men attacked and they wiped out the Philistines the second time.
And the fame of David and the fear of David spread throughout all the lands ( 1Ch 14:17 );
And it was then at this point that David brought back the ark of the covenant, doing it after the manner that God had prescribed to Moses bringing it back the right way. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Ch 14:1-17
1Ch 14:1-17
DAVID BUILDS HIMSELF A CEDAR HOUSE;
TAKES MORE WIVES AND CONCUBINES;
AND DEFEATS THE PHILISTINES TWICE
“And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and masons, and carpenters, to build him a house. And David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel; for his kingdom was exalted on high, for his people Israel’s sake.
“And David took more wives at Jerusalem; and David begat more sons and daughters. And these are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpelet, and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, and Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet.
“And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David: and David heard of it, and went out against them. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into my hand? And Jehovah said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thy hand. So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and David said, God hath broken mine enemies by my hand, like a breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And they left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire.
“And the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. And David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Thou shalt not go up after them: turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And it shall be, that when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle; for God is gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gezer. And the fame of David went out into all lands; and Jehovah brought the fear of him upon all nations.”
Here also we have a chapter exactly parallel with 2Sa 5:11-25, where my commentary on these events is found on pp. 59-65, and where the slight and unimportant variations are also noted.
“For his people Israel’s sake” (1Ch 14:2). David’s life, like that of all mortals, was marred by many sins and mistakes; and this significant phrase indicates that David fully realized that God’s blessings upon him were not for David’s sake, but for the sake of God’s people and the purpose of salvation for all men that was destined in the purpose of God to come through Israel.
“Like a breach of waters” (1Ch 14:11). The RSV renders this ambiguous phrase, “like a bursting flood.”
In spite of the fact that David’s notorious sins against Bathsheba and Uriah are not mentioned here, there is no effort whatever to conceal his multiplying unto himself wives and concubines specifically contrary to the Law of God.
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 14:1-2. From a strictly religious standpoint, there should have been no fellowship between Hiram and David. The former was of the heathen nations while the latter was of the nation of God. But the Mosaic system was a combination of civil and religious government. From the civil standpoint it was in order for the two to be on friendly terms. The fact that Hiram contributed valuable materials toward the building of a house for his kingdom, indicated to David that Providence was in his favor and that his acquiring the entire kingdom of Israel was to be permanent. These verses, however, are introductory only, and nothing will be done for some time about the building.
1Ch 14:3-7. In a book of this kind we may expect to find a repetition of some details and see them scattered. The list of David’s sons is given in 1Ch 3:3-9. In that place it is shown that Nathan and Solomon were his sons by the same woman, who was Bath-sheba. This is interesting from the fact that the full brothers were ancestors of Christ. Nathan headed the line ending with Mary the mother of Jesus, and Solomon headed the line ending with Joseph, the foster father.
1Ch 14:8. News of David’s rise to power over the whole nation of Israel was displeasing to the Philistines, the old enemies of God’s people. They came up to oppose him, but he went out against them.
1Ch 14:9. The valley of Rephaim was a field south of Jerusalem. It was the scene of some of David’s greatest conquests. The Philistines spread in this locality in a position threatening to David.
1Ch 14:10. David was a man with great faith in God. He depended on his counsel and help in the duel with Goliath, now he asked for divine guidance in the matter of meeting the Philistines. Upon inquiry the Lord told him to attack the enemy with the promise that he would win.
1Ch 14:11. Baal-perazim was a place within the valley of Rephaim. At that spot David won a great victory over the enemy and gave the credit to God.
1Ch 14:12. In their flight the Philistines left their gods behind; David commanded that they should be burned.
1Ch 14:13. The enemy was persistent in the conflict and returned to the valley.
1Ch 14:14. The Lord directed David to make a different mode of attack. The reason for it is not stated.
1Ch 14:15. According to Smith’s Bible Dictionary the mulberry trees referred to are not the same as our trees of that name, but something like the aspen tree. The original word is defined by Strong, “The weeping tree (some gum-distilling tree, perhaps the balsam).” As the leaves of the aspen tree are very sensitive to the slightest disturbance it is significant that God used the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees as the signal for attack. See my comments at 2Ki 2:8 as to unusual and arbitrary means used in connection with a miracle.
1Ch 14:16. From Gibeon even unto Gazer means David defeated the Philistines who were pitched against him in the territory between those two cities.
1Ch 14:17. The nations feared David in the sense of respecting him. They regarded him as a man of such dignity and power that it would be unwise to ignore him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In this chapter a most interesting reference is made to the long commercial friendship with Hiram which commenced with David and was continued into the reign of Solomon. Here again the chronicler is silent concerning the sin of David. It is stated boldly that he took more wives at Jerusalem, and a list of his sons is given. Among these are the sons of Bathsheba. Two victories over the Philistines are described. In each case David took counsel of God whether he should go up to battle against them. In the first case he was told to do so, and victory resulted. It is stated in this connection, which we shall do well to ponder, that the defeated Philistines left their gods behind them. David at once recognized the peril of leaving them among the people, and they were destroyed by fire.
Again, before the second victory David took counsel of God, and was forbidden to go until there should be granted to him the supernatural indication of the sound of marching in the mulberry trees. This would have a twofold effect on the king, first, to keep him conscious of his dependence on God; and, second, to maintain his confidence by the evidence of the presence and activity of God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
4. Davids Increase and Blessing
CHAPTER 14
1. Hiram (1Ch 14:1-2)
2. Davids family (1Ch 14:3-7)
3. The Philistines defeated (1Ch 14:8-17)
The reader is referred to 2Sa 5:11-16 for the comment on verses 1-7. Beeliada is called in 2Sa 5:16 Eliada. Beeliada was probably changed to Eliada. Davids great victory over the Philistines is also recorded in 2Sa 5:17-25. He inquired of God and being permitted to go, he smote them at Baal-perazim, where also the idol images were burned with fire (in obedience to Deu 7:5; Deu 7:25). It was a great victory. Baal-perazim means possessor of breaches. In Isaiah the victory over the Philistines is used as a prophecy of the coming future judgment of the earth. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, his strange act (Isa 28:21). A second time the Philistines came, and David, obedient to the divine instructions, gained another great victory. His fame went into all lands and the fear of him was brought by the LORD upon all nations.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am 2961, bc 1043, An, Ex, Is, 448
Hiram: 2Sa 5:11, 2Sa 5:12-16, 1Ki 5:1, 1Ki 5:8-12, 2Ch 2:11, 2Ch 2:12, Huram
and timber: 1Ch 22:2, 1Ki 5:6, 1Ki 5:9, 1Ki 5:10, 1Ki 5:18, 2Ch 2:3, 2Ch 2:8-10, Ezr 3:7
to build him: 1Ch 17:1, 2Sa 7:2, 1Ki 7:1-12, Jer 22:13-15
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A.M. 2961. B.C. 1043.
David is confirmed in his kingdom, 1Ch 14:1, 1Ch 14:2. His wives and children, 1Ch 14:3-7. His victories over the Philistines, 1Ch 14:8-17.
NOTES ON CHAPTER 14.
1Ch 14:2. David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel By the remembrance of Gods promise, and his providence conspiring with it. For his kingdom was lifted up on high, because of his people Israel But of this and the following verses of this chapter, see notes on 2Sa 5:12-25, where the same history is related.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 14:3-7. David begat more sons and daughters. This list is imperfect, or the sacred writer mentions only the more distinguished ones, or such as were then living.
1Ch 14:15. A sound of going in the tops of the mulberry-trees. See the note on 2Sa 5:24.
REFLECTIONS.
The congratulations of Hiram, the consequent treaty for the supply of timber and artificers, contracted with that prince, and the two signal victories over the Philistines, as has already been observed, were very encouraging events in the commencement of Davids reign.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 14:1-17. Davids Victory over the Philistines.See notes on 2Sa 5:11-25.
1Ch 14:17. An addition by the Chronicler.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2. Restoring fellowship with Yahweh ch. 14
God blessed David and his kingdom because David had honored God by seeking to bring the ark into Jerusalem. The Chronicler recorded three instances of divine blessing in this chapter. First, God gave David favor in the eyes of his neighbor allies. This resulted in his kingdom experiencing great honor in the ancient Near East (1Ch 14:1-2). Second, God increased David’s personal fertility by giving him many children (1Ch 14:3-7).
A problem that bothers some students of David’s life is this. In view of the high moral standards that God requires for qualification as an elder in the church, why did God bless David as He did since he had many wives (1Ch 14:3)? First, an appreciation of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament is crucial to understanding this apparent inconsistency. References to the Holy Spirit’s ministry to select Old Testament saints connect with His enabling them to gain military victories to deliver His people from their enemies (e.g., Jdg 3:10; Jdg 6:34; Jdg 11:29; Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:19; 1Sa 11:6; et al.). The Spirit’s indwelling ministry to every Christian after the day of Pentecost focuses on the transformation of the believer’s character into Christ’s image (e.g., Gal 5:16-24; et al.). Second, an appreciation of God’s different purposes in Israel and the church is helpful. In Old Testament Israel, God was manifesting His glory primarily through the uniqueness of Israel and through its national institutions. In the New Testament church, God is glorifying Himself primarily through the lives of the individual and corporate temples that He indwells. These are Spirit-controlled people and churches. God was more merciful with David’s polygamy in view of His purposes then. In view of His purposes now, He requires a higher degree of personal holiness. Third, the progress of revelation helps us understand this issue. Old Testament saints had revelation concerning the sin of polygamy (Gen 2:24; Deu 17:16-17). However, they did not have the added privilege and responsibility of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles on this subject (Matthew 5; Matthew 19; 1 Corinthians 7; Ephesians 5; Colossians 3; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; Hebrews 13; 1 Peter 3). Greater privilege always results in greater responsibility. David’s understanding of God’s will was not as comprehensive as ours is, and consequently God did not hold him as culpable as He holds us in this particular matter.
The third instance of God’s blessing in this chapter is that God gave David victory over his enemies, the Philistines (1Ch 14:8-17). Since Saul’s death the Philistines had dominated Canaan. Finally David brought them under his control. The result was that other nations feared David (1Ch 14:17).
In the renaming of Baal-perazim (1Ch 14:14), as well as Perez-uzza (1Ch 13:11), David and the Chronicler emphasized God breaking into the life of His people. In the first instance it was for judgment, but in the second it was for blessing. This record would have encouraged the restoration community to remember that God could do the same for them.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
DAVID
1. HIS TRIBE AND DYNASTY
KING and kingdom were so bound up in ancient life that an ideal for the one implied an ideal for the other: all distinction and glory possessed by either was shared by both. The tribe and kingdom of Judah were exalted by the fame of David and Solomon: but, on the other hand, a specially exalted position is accorded to David in the Old Testament because he is the representative of the people of Jehovah. David himself had been anointed by Divine command to be king of Israel, and he thus became the founder of the only legitimate dynasty of Hebrew kings. Saul and Ishbosheth had no significance for the later religious history of the nation. Apparently to the chronicler the history of true religion in Israel was a blank between Joshua and David; the revival began when the Ark was brought to Zion, and the first steps were taken to rear the Temple in succession to the Mosaic tabernacle. He therefore omits the history of the Judges and Saul. But the battle of Gilboa is given to introduce the reign of David, and incidental condemnation is passed on Saul: “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord, because of the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for that he asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire thereby, and inquired not of the Lord; therefore He slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”
The reign of Saul had been an unsuccessful experiment; its only real value had been to prepare the way for David. At the same time the portrait of Saul is not given at full length, like those of the wicked kings, partly perhaps because the chronicler had little interest for anything before the time of David and the Temple but partly, we may hope, because the record of Davids affection for Saul kept alive a kindly feeling towards the founder of the monarchy.
Inasmuch as Jehovah had “turned the kingdom unto David,” the reign of Ishbosheth was evidently the intrusion of an illegitimate pretender; and the chronicler treats it as such. If we had only Chronicles, we should know nothing about the reign of Ishbosheth, and should suppose that, on the death of Saul. David succeeded at once to an undisputed sovereignty over all Israel. The interval of conflict is ignored because, according to the chroniclers views, David was, from the first, king de jure over the whole nation. Complete silence as to Ishbosheth was the most effective way of expressing this fact.
The same sentiment of hereditary legitimacy, the same formal and exclusive recognition of a de jure sovereign, has been shown in modern times by titles like Louis XVIII and Napoleon III. For both schools of Legitimists the absence of de facto sovereignty did not prevent Louis XVII and Napoleon II from having been lawful rulers of France. In Israel, moreover, the Divine right of the one chosen dynasty had religious as well as political importance. We have already seen that Israel claimed a hereditary title to its special privileges; it was therefore natural that a hereditary qualification should be thought necessary for the kings. They represented the nation; they were the Divinely appointed guardians of its religion; they became in time the types of the Messiah, its promised Savior. In all this Saul and Ishbosheth had neither part nor lot; the promise to Israel had always descended in a direct line, and the special promise that was given to its kings and through them to their people began with David. There was no need to carry the history further back.
We have already noticed that, in spite of this general attitude towards Saul, the genealogy of some of his descendants is given twice over in the earlier chapters. No doubt the chronicler made this concession to gratify friends or to conciliate an influential family. It is interesting to note how personal feeling may interfere with the symmetrical development of a theological theory. At the same time we are enabled to discern a practical reason for rigidly ignoring the kingship of Saul and Ishbosheth. To have recognized Saul as the Lords anointed, like David, would have complicated contemporary dogmatics, and might possibly have given rise to jealousies between the descendants of Saul and those of David. Within the narrow limits of the Jewish community such quarrels might have been inconvenient and even dangerous.
The reasons for denying the legitimacy of the northern kings were obvious and conclusive. Successful rebels who had destroyed the political and religious unity of Israel could not inherit “the sure mercies of David” or be included in the covenant which secured the permanence of his dynasty.
The exclusive association of Messianic ideas with a single family emphasizes their antiquity, continuity, and development. The hope of Israel had its roots deep in the history of the people; it had grown with their growth and maintained itself through their changing fortunes. As the hope centered in a single family, men were led to expect an individual personal Messiah: they were being prepared to see in Christ the fulfillment of all righteousness.
But the choice of the house of David involved the choice of the tribe of Judah and the rejection of the kingdom of Samaria. The ten tribes, as well as the kings of Israel, had cut themselves off both from the Temple and the sacred dynasty, and therefore from the covenant into which Jehovah had entered with “the man after his own heart.” Such a limitation of the chosen people was suggested by many precedents. Chronicles, following the Pentateuch, tells how the call came to Abraham, but only some of the descendants of one of his sons inherited the promise. Why should not a selection be made from among the sons of Jacob? But the twelve tribes had been explicitly and solemnly included in the unity of Israel, largely through David himself. The glory of David and Solomon consisted in their sovereignty over a united people. The national recollection of this golden age loved to dwell on the union of the twelve tribes. The Pentateuch added legal sanction to ancient sentiment. The twelve tribes were associated together in national lyrics, like the “Blessing of Jacob” and the “Blessing of Moses.” The song of Deborah told how the northern tribes “came to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” It was simply impossible for the chronicler to absolutely repudiate the ten tribes; and so they are formally included in the genealogies of Israel, and are recognized in the history of David and Solomon. Then the recognition stops. From the time of the disruption the Northern Kingdom is quietly but persistently ignored. Its prophets and sanctuaries were as illegitimate as its kings. The great struggle of Elijah and Elisha for the honor of Jehovah is omitted, with all the rest of their history. Elijah is only mentioned as sending a letter to Jehoram, king of Judah; Elisha is never even named.
On the other hand, it is more than once implied that Judah, with the Levites, and the remnants of Simeon and Benjamin, are the true Israel. When Rehoboam “was strong he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.” After Shishaks invasion, “the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves.” {2Ch 12:1; 2Ch 12:6} The annals of Manasseh, king of Judah, are said to be “written among the acts of the kings of Israel.” {2Ch 33:18} The register of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is headed “The number of the men of the people of Israel.” {Ezr 2:2} The chronicler tacitly anticipates the position of St. Paul: “They are not all Israel which are of Israel”: and the Apostle might have appealed to Chronicles to show that the majority of Israel might fail to recognize and accept the Divine purpose for Israel, and that the true Israel would then be found in an elect remnant. The Jews of the second Temple naturally and inevitably came to ignore the ten tribes and to regard themselves as constituting this true Israel. As a matter of history, there had been a period during which the prophets of Samaria were of far more importance to the religion of Jehovah than the temple at Jerusalem; but in the chroniclers time the very existence of the ten tribes was ancient history. Then, at any rate, it was true that Gods Israel was to be found in the Jewish community, at and around Jerusalem. They inherited the religious spirit of their fathers, and received from them the sacred writings and traditions, and carried on the sacred ritual. They preserved the truth and transmitted it from generation to generation, till at last it was merged in the mightier stream of Christian revelation.
The attitude of the chronicler towards the prophets of the Northern Kingdom does not in any way represent the actual importance of these prophets to the religion of Israel; but it is a very striking expression of the fact that after the Captivity the ten tribes had long ceased to exercise any influence upon the spiritual life of their nation.
The chroniclers attitude is also open to criticism on another side. He is dominated by his own surroundings, and in his references to the Judaism of his own time there is no formal recognition of the Jewish community in Babylon; and yet even his own casual allusions confirm what we know from other sources, namely that the wealth and learning of the Jews in Babylon were an important factor in Judaism until a very late date. This point perhaps rather concerns Ezra and Nehemiah than Chronicles, but it is closely connected with our present subject, and is most naturally treated along with it. The chronicler might have justified himself by saying that the true home of Israel must be in Palestine, and that a community in Babylon could only be considered as subsidiary to the nation in its own home and worshipping at the Temple. Such a sentiment, at any rate, would have met with universal approval amongst Palestinian Jews. The chronicler might also have replied that the Jews in Babylon belonged to Judah and Benjamin and were sufficiently recognized in the general prominence given to these tribes. In all probability some Palestinian Jews would have been willing to class their Babylonian kinsmen with the ten tribes. Voluntary exiles from the Temple, the Holy City, and the Land of Promise had in great measure cut themselves off from the full privileges of the people of Jehovah. If, however, we had a Babylonian book of Chronicles, we should see both Jerusalem and Babylon in another light.
The chronicler was possessed and inspired by the actual living present round about him; he was content to let the dead past bury its dead. He was probably inclined to believe that the absent are mostly wrong, and that the men who worked with him for the Lord and His temple were the true Israel and the Church of God. He was enthusiastic in his own vocation and loyal to his brethren. If his interests were somewhat narrowed by the urgency of present circumstances, most men suffer from the same limitations. Few Englishmen realize that the battle of Agincourt is part of the history of the United States, and that Canterbury Cathedral is a monument of certain stages in the growth of the religion of New England. We are not altogether willing to admit that these voluntary exiles from our Holy Land belong to the true Anglo-Saxon Israel.
Churches are still apt to ignore their obligations to teachers who. like the prophets of Samaria, seem to have been associated with alien or hostile branches of the family of God. A religious movement which fails to secure for itself a permanent monument is usually labeled heresy. If it has neither obtained recognition within the Church nor yet organized a sect for itself, its services are forgotten or denied. Even the orthodoxy of one generation is sometimes contemptuous of the older orthodoxy which made it possible; and yet Gnostics, Arians and Athanasians, Arminians and Calvinists, have all done something to build up the temple of faith.
The nineteenth century prides itself on a more liberal spirit. But Romanist historians are not eager to acknowledge the debt of their Church to the Reformers; and there are Protestant partisans who deny that we are the heirs of the Christian life and thought of the medieval Church and are anxious to trace the genealogy of pure religion exclusively through a supposed succession of obscure and half-mythical sects. Limitations like those of the chronicler still narrow the sympathies of earnest and devout Christians.
But it is time to return to the more positive aspects of the teaching of Chronicles, and to see how far we have already traced its exposition of the Messianic idea. The plan of the book implies a spiritual claim on behalf of the Jewish community of the Restoration. Because they believed in Jehovah, whose providence had in former times controlled the destinies of Israel, they returned to their ancestral home that they might serve and worship the God of their fathers. Their faith survived the ruin of Judah and their own captivity; they recognized the power, and wisdom, and love of God alike in the prosperity and in the misfortunes of their race. “They believed God, and it was counted unto them for righteousness.” The great prophet of the Restoration had regarded this new Israel as itself a Messianic people, perhaps even “a light to the Gentiles” and “salvation unto the ends of the earth.” {Isa 49:6} The chroniclers hopes were more modest; the new Jerusalem had been seen by the prophet as an ideal vision; the historian knew it lay experience as an imperfect human society: but he believed none the less in its high spiritual vocation and prerogatives. He claimed the future for those who were able to trace the hand of God in their past.
Under the monarchy the fortunes of Jerusalem had been bound up with those of the house of David. The chronicler brings out all that was best in the history of the ancient kings of Judah, that this ideal picture of the state and its rulers might encourage and inspire to future hope and effort. The character and achievements of David and his successors were of permanent significance. The grace and favor accorded to them symbolized the Divine promise for the future, and this promise was to be realized through a Son of David.
DAVID
2. HIS PERSONAL HISTORY
IN order to understand why the chronicler entirely recasts the graphic and candid history of David given in the book of Samuel, we have to consider the place that David had come to fill in Jewish religion. It seems probable that among the sources used by the author of the book of Samuel was a history of David, written not long after his death, by some one familiar with the inner life of the court. “No one,” says the proverb, “is a hero to his valet”; very much what a valet is to a private gentleman courtiers are to a king: their knowledge of their master approaches to the familiarity which breeds contempt. Not that David was ever a subject for contempt or less than a hero even to his own courtiers: but they knew him as a very human hero, great in his vices as well as in his virtues, daring in battle and wise in counsel, sometimes also reckless in sin, yet capable of unbounded repentance, loving not wisely, but too well. And as they knew him, so they described him; and their picture is an immortal possession for all students of sacred life and literature. But it is not the portrait of a Messiah; when we think of the “Son of David,” we do not want to be reminded of Bathsheba.
During the six or seven centuries that elapsed between the death of David and the chronicler the name of David had come to have a symbolic meaning, which was largely independent of the personal character and career of the actual king. His reign had become idealized by the magic of antiquity; it was a glory of “the good old times.” His own sins and failures were obscured by the crimes and disasters of later kings. And yet, in spite of all its shortcomings, the “house of David” still remained the symbol alike of ancient glory and of future hopes. We have seen from the genealogies how intimate the connection was between the family and its founder. Ephraim and Benjamin may mean either patriarchs or tribes. A Jew was not always anxious to distinguish between the family and the founder. “David” and “the house of David” became almost interchangeable terms.
Even the prophets of the eighth century connect the future destiny of Israel with David and his house. The child, of whom Isaiah prophesied, was to sit “upon the throne of David” and be “over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness from henceforth even forever.” {Isa 9:7} And, again, the king who is to “sit in truth judging, and seeking judgment, and swift to do righteousness,” is to have “his throne established in mercy in the tent of David.” When {Isa 16:5} Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem, the city was defended {Isa 37:35} for Jehovahs own sake and for His servant Davids sake. In the word of the Lord that came to Isaiah for Hezekiah, David supersedes, as it were, the sacred fathers of the Hebrew race; Jehovah is not spoken of as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” but “the God of David.” {Isa 38:5} As founder of the dynasty, he takes rank with the founders of the race and religion of Israel: he is “the patriarch David.” {Act 2:29} The northern prophet Hosea looks forward to the time when the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord “their God and David their king”; {Hos 3:5} when Amos wishes to set forth the future prosperity of Israel, he says that the Lord “will raise up the tabernacle of David”; {Amo 9:11} in Micah “the ruler in Israel” is to come forth from Bethlehem Ephrathah, the birthplace of David; {Mic 5:2} in Jeremiah such references to David are frequent, the most characteristic being those relating to the “righteous branch, whom the Lord will raise up unto David,” who “shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judgment and justice in the land, in whose days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely”; in Ezekiel “My servant David” is to be the shepherd and prince of Jehovahs restored and reunited people; {Eze 34:23-24} Zechariah, writing at what we may consider the beginning of the chroniclers own period, follows the language of his predecessors: he applies Jeremiahs prophecy of “the righteous branch” to Zerubbabel, the prince of the house of David: similarly in Haggai Zerubbabel is the chosen of Jehovah; {Hag 2:23} in the appendix to Zechariah it is said that when “the Lord defends the inhabitants of Jerusalem the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” {Zec 12:8} In the later literature, Biblical and apocryphal, the Davidic origin of the Messiah is not conspicuous till it reappears in the Psalms of Solomon and the New Testament, but the idea had not necessarily been dormant meanwhile. The chronicler and his school studied and meditated on the sacred writings, and must have been familiar with this doctrine of the prophets. The interest in such a subject would not be confined to scholars. Doubtless the downtrodden people cherished with ever-growing ardor the glorious picture of the Davidic king. In the synagogues it was not only Moses, but the Prophets, that were read; and they could never allow the picture of the Messianic king to grow faint and pale.
Davids name was also familiar as the author of many psalms. The inhabitants of Jerusalem would often hear them sung at the Temple, and they were probably used for private devotion. In this way especially the name of David had become associated with the deepest and purest spiritual experiences.
This brief survey shows how utterly impossible it was for the chronicler to transfer the older narrative bodily from the book of Samuel to his own pages. Large omissions were absolutely necessary. He could not sit down in cold blood to tell his readers that the man whose name they associated with the most sacred memories and the noblest hopes of Israel had been guilty of treacherous murder, and had offered himself to the Philistines as an ally against the people of Jehovah.
From this point of view let us consider the chroniclers omissions somewhat more in detail. In the first place, with one or two slight exceptions, he omits the whole of Davids life before his accession to the throne, for two reasons: partly because he is anxious that his readers should think of David as king, the anointed of Jehovah, the Messiah; partly that they may not be reminded of his career as an outlaw and a freebooter and of his alliance with the Philistines. It is probably only an unintentional result of this omission that it enables the chronicler to ignore the important services rendered to David by Abiathar, whose family were rivals of the house of Zadok in the priesthood.
We have already seen that the events of Davids reign at Hebron and his struggle with Ishbosheth are omitted because the chronicler does not recognize Ishbosheth as a legitimate king. The omission would also commend itself because this section contains the account of Joabs murder of Abner and Davids inability to do more than protest against the crime. “I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me,” {2Sa 3:39} are scarcely words that become an ideal king.
The next point to notice is one of those significant alterations that mark the chroniclers industry as a redactor. In 2Sa 5:21 we read that after the Philistines had been defeated at Baal-perazim they left their images there, and David and his men took them away. Why did they take them away? What did David and his men want with images? Missionaries bring home images as trophies, and exhibit them triumphantly, like soldiers who have captured the enemys standards. No one, not even an unconverted native, supposes that they have been brought away to be used in worship.
But the worship of images was no improbable apostasy on the part of an Israelite king. The chronicler felt that these ambiguous words were open to misconstruction; so he tells us what he assumes to have been their ultimate fate: “And they left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burnt with fire.” {2Sa 5:21 1Ch 14:12}
The next omission was obviously a necessary one; it is the incident of Uriah and Bathsheba. The name Bathsheba never occurs in Chronicles. When it is necessary to mention the mother of Solomon, she is called Bathshua, possibly in order that the disgraceful incident might not be suggested even by the use of the name. The New Testament genealogies differ in this matter in somewhat the same way as Samuel and Chronicles. St. Matthew expressly mentions Uriahs wife as an ancestress of our Lord, but St. Luke does not mention her or any other ancestress.
The next omission is equally extensive and important. It includes the whole series of events connected with the revolt of Absalom, from the incident of Tamar to the suppression of the rebellion of Sheba the son of Bichri. Various motives may have contributed to this omission. The narrative contains unedifying incidents, which are passed over as lightly as possible by modern writers like Stanley. It was probably a relief to the chronicler to be able to omit them altogether. There is no heinous sin like the murder of Uriah, but the story leaves a general impression of great weakness on Davids part. Joab murders Amasa as he had murdered Abner, and this time there is no record of any protest even on the part of David. But probably the main reason for the omission of this narrative is that it mars the ideal picture of Davids power and dignity and the success and prosperity of his reign.
The touching story of Rizpah is omitted; the hanging of her sons does not exhibit David in a very amiable light. The Gibeonites propose that “they shall hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord,” and David accepts the proposal. This punishment of the children for the sin of their father was expressly against the Law and the whole incident was perilously akin to human sacrifice. How could they be hung up before Jehovah in Gibeah unless there was a sanctuary of Jehovah in Gibeah? And why should Saul at such a time and in such a connection be called emphatically “the chosen of Jehovah”? On many grounds, it was a passage which the chronicler would be glad to omit.
2Sa 21:15-17 we are told that David waxed faint and had to be rescued by Abishai. This is omitted by Chronicles probably because it detracts from the character of David as the ideal hero. The next paragraph in Samuel also tended to depreciate Davids prowess. It stated that Goliath was slain by Elhanan. The chronicler introduces a correction. It was not Goliath whom Elhanan slew, but Lahmi, the brother of Goliah. However, the text in Samuel is evidently corrupt; and possibly this is one of the cases in which Chronicles has preserved the correct text. {2Sa 21:19 1Ch 20:5}
Then follow two omissions that are not easily accounted for 2Sa 22:1-51; 2Sa 23:1-39, contain two psalms, Psa 18:1-50, and “the Last Words of David,” the latter not included in the Psalter. These psalms are generally considered a late addition to the book of Samuel, and it is barely possible that they were not in the copy used by the chronicler; but the late date of Chronicles makes against this supposition. The psalms may be omitted for the sake of brevity, and yet elsewhere a long cento of passages from post-Exilic psalms is added to the material derived from the book of Samuel. Possibly something in the omitted section jarred upon the theological sensibilities of the chronicler, but it is not clear what. He does not as a rule look below the surface for obscure suggestions of undesirable views. The grounds of his alterations and omissions are usually sufficiently obvious; but these particular omissions are not at present susceptible of any obvious explanation. Further research into the theology of Judaism may perhaps provide us with one hereafter.
Finally, the chronicler omits the attempt of Adonijah to seize the throne, and Davids dying commands to Solomon. The opening chapters of the book of Kings present a graphic and pathetic picture of the closing scenes of Davids life. The king is exhausted with old age. His authoritative sanction to the coronation of Solomon is only obtained when he has been roused and directed by the promptings and suggestions of the women of his harem. The scene is partly a parallel and partly a contrast to the last days of Queen Elizabeth; for when her bodily strength failed, the obstinate Tudor spirit refused to be guided by the suggestions of her courtiers. The chronicler was depicting a person of almost Divine dignity, in whom incidents of human weakness would have been out of keeping; and therefore they are omitted.
Davids charge to Solomon is equally human. Solomon is to make up for Davids weakness and undue generosity by putting Joab and Shimei to death; on the other hand, he is to pay Davids debt of gratitude to the son of Barzillai. But the chronicler felt that Davids mind in those last days must surely have been occupied with the temple which Solomon was to build, and the less edifying charge is omitted.
Constantine is reported to have said that, for the honor of the Church, he would conceal the sin of a bishop with his own imperial purple. David was more to the chronicler than the whole Christian episcopate to Constantine. His life of David is compiled in the spirit and upon the principles of lives of saints generally, and his omissions are made in perfect good faith.
Let us now consider the positive picture of David as it is drawn for us in Chronicles. Chronicles would be published separately, each copy written, out on a roll of its own. There may have been Jews who had Chronicles, hut not Samuel and Kings, and who knew nothing about David except what they learned from Chronicles. Possibly the chronicler and his friends would recommend the work as suitable for the education of children and the instruction of the common people. It would save its readers from being perplexed by the religious difficulties suggested by Samuel and Kings. There were many obstacles, however, to the success of such a scheme; the persecutions of Antiochus and the wars of the Maccabees took the leadership out of the hands of scholars and gave it to soldiers and statesmen. The latter perhaps felt more drawn to the real David than to the ideal, and the new priestly dynasty would not be anxious to emphasize the Messianic hopes of the house of David. But let us put ourselves for a moment in the position of a student of Hebrew history who reads of David for the first time in Chronicles and has no other source of information.
Our first impression as we read the book is that David comes into the history as abruptly as Elijah or Melchizedek. Jehovah slew Saul “and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.” {1Ch 10:14} Apparently the Divine appointment is promptly and enthusiastically accepted by the nation; all the twelve tribes come at once in their tens and hundreds of thousands to Hebron to make David king. They then march straight to Jerusalem and take it by storm, and forthwith attempt to bring up the Ark to Zion. An unfortunate accident necessitates a delay of three months, but at the end of that time the Ark is solemnly installed in a tent at Jerusalem. {Cf. 1Ch 11:1-9; 1Ch 12:23; 1Ch 13:14}
We are not told who David the son of Jesse was, or why the Divine choice fell upon him or how he had been prepared for his responsible position, or how he had so commended himself to Israel as to be accepted with universal acclaim. He must however, have been of noble family and high character; and it is hinted that he had had a distinguished career as a soldier. {1Ch 11:2} We should expect to find his name in the introductory genealogies: and if we have read these lists of names with conscientious attention, we shall remember that there are sundry incidental references to David, and that he was the seventh son of Jesse, {1Ch 2:15} who was descended from the Patriarch Judah, though Boaz, the husband of Ruth.
As we read further we come to other references which throw some light on Davids early career, and at the same time somewhat mar the symmetry of the opening narrative. The wide discrepancy between the chroniclers idea of David and the account given by his authorities prevents him from composing his work on an entirely consecutive and consistent plan. We gather that there was a time when David was in rebellion against his predecessor, and maintained himself at Ziklag and elsewhere, keeping “himself close, because of Saul the son of Kish,” and even that he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle, but was prevented by the jealousy of the Philistine chiefs from actually fighting against Saul. There is nothing to indicate the occasion or circumstances of these events. But it appears that even at this period, when David was in arms against the king of Israel and an ally of the Philistines, he was the chosen leader of Israel. Men flocked to him from Judah and Benjamin, Manasseh and Gad, and doubtless from the other tribes as well: “From day to day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God.” {1Ch 20:1-8}
This chapter partly explains Davids popularity after Sauls death; but it only carries the mystery a stage further back. How did this outlaw, and apparently unpatriotic rebel, get so strong a hold on the affections of Israel?
Chapter 12 also provides material for plausible explanations of another difficulty. In chapter 10 the army of Israel is routed, the inhabitants of the land take to flight, and the Philistines occupy their cities; in 11 and 1Ch 12:23-40 all Israel come straightway to Hebron in the most peaceful and unconcerned fashion to make David king. Are we to understand that his Philistine allies, mindful of that “great host, like the host of God,” all at once changed their minds and entirely relinquished the fruits of their victory?
Elsewhere, however, we find a statement that renders other explanations possible. David reigned seven years in Hebron, {1Ch 29:27} so that our first impression as to the rapid sequence of events at the beginning of his reign is apparently not correct, and there was time in these seven years for a more gradual expulsion of the Philistines. It is doubtful, however, whether the chronicler intended his original narrative to be thus modified and interpreted.
The main thread of the history is interrupted here and later on {1Ch 11:10-47; 1Ch 20:4-8} to insert incidents which illustrate the personal courage and prowess of David and his warriors. We are also told how busily occupied David was during the three months sojourn of the Ark in the house of Obededom the Gittite. He accepted an alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre: he added to his harem: he successfully repelled two inroads of the Philistines, and made him houses in the city of David. {1Ch 13:14}
The narrative returns to its main subject: the history of the sanctuary at Jerusalem. As soon as the Ark was duly installed in its tent, and David was established in his new palace, he was struck by the contrast between the tent and the palace: “Lo, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord dwelleth under curtains.” He proposed to substitute a temple for the tent, but was forbidden by his prophet Nathan, through whom God promised him that his son should build the Temple, and that his house should be established forever. {1Ch 17:1-27}
Then we read of the wars, victories, and conquests of David. He is no longer absorbed in the defense of Israel against the Philistines. He takes the aggressive and conquers Gath; he conquers Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Amalek; he and his armies defeat the Syrians in several battles, the Syrians become tributary, and David occupies Damascus with a garrison. “And the Lord gave victory to David whithersoever he went.” The conquered were treated after the manner of those barbarous times. David and his generals carried off much spoil, especially brass, and silver, and gold; and when he conquered Rabbath, the capital of Ammon, “he brought forth the people that were therein, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. And thus did David unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.” Meanwhile his home administration was as honorable as his foreign wars were glorious: “He executed judgment and justice unto all his people”; and the government was duly organized with commanders of the host and the bodyguard, with priests and scribes. {1Ch 18:1-17; 1Ch 20:3}
Then follows a mysterious and painful dispensation of Providence, which the historian would gladly have omitted, if his respect for the memory of his hero had not been overruled by his sense of the supreme importance of the Temple. David, like Job, was given over for a season to Satan, and while possessed by this evil spirit displeased God by numbering Israel. His punishment took the form of a great pestilence, which decimated his people, until, by Divine command, David erected an altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite and offered sacrifices upon it, whereupon the plague was stayed. David at once perceived the significance of this incident: Jehovah had indicated the site of the future Temple. “This is the house of Jehovah Elohim, and this is the altar of burnt, offering for Israel.”
This revelation of the Divine will as to the position of the Temple led David to proceed at once with preparations for its erection by Solomon, which occupied all his energies for the remainder of his life. {1Ch 21:1-30; 1Ch 22:1-19; 1Ch 23:1-32; 1Ch 24:1-31; 1Ch 25:1-31; 1Ch 26:1-32; 1Ch 27:1-34; 1Ch 28:1-21; 1Ch 29:1-30} He gathered funds and materials, and gave his son full instructions about the building; he organized the priests and Levites, the Temple orchestra and choir, the doorkeepers, treasurers, officers, and judges; he also organized the army, the tribes, and the royal exchequer on the model of the corresponding arrangements for the Temple.
Then follows the closing scene of Davids life. The sun of Israel sets amid the flaming glories of the western sky. No clouds or mists rob him of accustomed splendor. David calls a great assembly of princes and warriors; he addresses a solemn exhortation to them and to Solomon; he delivers to his son instructions for “all the works” which “I have been made to understand in writing from the hand of Jehovah.” It is almost as though the plans of the Temple had shared with the first tables of stone the honor of being written with the very finger of God Himself, and David were even greater than Moses. He reminds Solomon of all the preparations he had made, and appeals to the princes and the people for further gifts; and they render willingly-thousands of talents of gold, and silver, and brass, and iron. David offers prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord: “And David said to all the congregation, Now bless Jehovah our God. And all the congregation blessed Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped Jehovah and the king. And they sacrificed sacrifices unto Jehovah, and offered burnt offerings unto Jehovah, on the morrow after that day, even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel, and did eat and drink before Jehovah on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon king; and David died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor, and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.” {1Ch 29:20-22; 1Ch 29:28} The Roman expressed his idea of a becoming death more simply: “An emperor should die standing.” The chronicler has given us the same view at greater length; this is how the chronicler would have wished to die if he had been David, and how, therefore, he conceives that God honored the last hours of the man after His own heart.
It is a strange contrast to the companion picture in the book of Kings. There the king is bedridden, dying slowly of old age; the lifeblood creeps coldly through his veins. The quiet of the sick-room is invaded by the shrill outcry of an aggrieved woman, and the dying king is roused to hear that once more eager hands are clutching at his crown. If the chronicler has done nothing else, he has helped us to appreciate better the gloom and bitterness of the tragedy that was enacted in the last days of David.
What idea does Chronicles give us of the man and his character? He is first and foremost a man of earnest piety and deep spiritual feeling. Like the great religions leaders of the chroniclers own time, his piety found its chief expression in ritual. The main business of his life was to provide for the sanctuary and its services; that is, for the highest fellowship of God and man, according to the ideas then current. But David is no mere formalist; the psalm of thanksgiving for the return of the Ark to Jerusalem is a worthy tribute to the power and faithfulness of Jehovah. {1Ch 16:8-36} His prayer after God had promised to establish his dynasty is instinct with devout confidence and gratitude. {1Ch 17:16-27} But the most gracious and appropriate of these Davidic utterances is his last prayer and thanksgiving for the liberal gifts of the people for the Temple.
Next to Davids enthusiasm for the Temple, his most conspicuous qualities are those of a general and soldier: he has great personal strength and courage, and is uniformly successful in wars against numerous and powerful enemies; his government is both able and upright; his great powers as an organizer and administrator are exercised both in secular and ecclesiastical matters; in a word, he is in more senses than one an ideal king.
Moreover, like Alexander, Marlborough, Napoleon, and other epoch-making conquerors, he had a great charm of personal attractiveness; he inspired his officers and soldiers with enthusiasm and devotion to himself. The pictures of all Israel flocking to him in the first days of his reign and even earlier, when he was an outlaw, are forcible illustrations of this wonderful gift; and the same feature of his character is at once illustrated and partly explained by the romantic episode at Adullam. What greater proof of affection could outlaws give to their captain than to risk their lives to get him a draught of water from the well of Bethlehem? How better could David have accepted and ratified their devotion than by pouring out this water as a most precious libation to God? {1Ch 11:15-19} But the chronicler gives most striking expression to the idea of Davids popularity when he finally tells us in the same breath that the people worshipped Jehovah and the king. {1Ch 29:20}
In drawing an ideal picture, our author has naturally omitted incidents that might have revealed the defects of his hero. Such omissions deceive no one, and are not meant to deceive any one. Yet Davids failings are not altogether absent from this history. He has those vices which are characteristic alike of his own age and of the chroniclers, and which indeed are not yet wholly extinct. He could treat his prisoners with barbarous cruelty. His pride led him to number Israel, but his repentance was prompt and thorough; and the incident brings out alike both his faith in God and his care for his people. When the whole episode is before us, it does not lessen our love and respect for David. The reference to his alliance with the Philistines is vague and incidental. If this were our only account of the matter, we should interpret it by the rest of his life, and conclude that if all the facts were known, they would justify his conduct.
In forming a general estimate of David according to Chronicles, we may fairly neglect these less satisfactory episodes. Briefly David is perfect saint and perfect king, beloved of God and man.
A portrait reveals the artist as well as the model, and the chronicler in depicting David gives indications of the morality of his own times. We may deduce from his omissions a certain progress in moral sensitiveness. The book of Samuel emphatically condemns Davids treachery towards Uriah, and is conscious of the discreditable nature of many incidents connected with the revolts of Absalom and Adonijah; but the silence of Chronicles implies an even severer condemnation. In other matters, however, the chronicler “judges himself in that which he approveth.” {Rom 14:22} Of course the first business of an ancient king was to protect his people from their enemies and to enrich them at the expense of their neighbors. The urgency of these duties may excuse, but not justify, the neglect of the more peaceful departments of the administration. The modern reader is struck by the little stress laid by the narrative upon good government at home; it is just mentioned, and that is about all. As the sentiment of international morality is even now only in its infancy, we cannot wonder at its absence from Chronicles; but we are a little surprised to find that cruelty towards prisoners is included without comment in the character of the ideal king. {2Sa 12:31 1Ch 20:3} It is curious that the account in the book of Samuel is slightly ambiguous and might possibly admit of a comparatively mild interpretation; but Chronicles, according to the ordinary translation, says definitely, “He cut them with saws.” The mere reproduction of this passage need not imply full and deliberate approval of its contents; but it would not have been allowed to remain in the picture of the ideal king, if the chronicler had felt any strong conviction as to the duty of humanity towards ones enemies. Unfortunately we know from the book of Esther and elsewhere that later Judaism had not attained to any wide enthusiasm of humanity.
DAVID
3. HIS OFFICIAL DIGNITY
IN estimating the personal character of David, we have seen that one element of it was his ideal kingship. Apart from his personality his name is significant for Old Testament theology as that of the typical king. From the time when the royal title Messiah “began to” be a synonym for the hope of Israel, down to the period when the Anglican Church taught the Divine right of kings, and Calvinists insisted on the Divine sovereignty or royal authority of God, the dignity and power of the King of kings have always been illustrated by, and sometimes associated with, the state of an earthly monarch-whereof David is the most striking example.
The times of the chronicler were favorable to the development of the idea of the perfect king of Israel, the prince of the house of David. There was no king in Israel; and, as far as we can gather, the living representatives of the house of David held no very prominent position in the community. It is much easier to draw a satisfactory picture of the ideal monarch when the imagination is not checked and hampered by the faults and failings of an actual Ahaz or Hezekiah. In earlier times the prophetic hopes for the house of David had often been rudely disappointed, but there had been ample space to forget the past and to revive the old hopes in fresh splendor and magnificence. Lack of experience helped to commend the idea of the Davidic king to the chronicler. Enthusiasm for a benevolent despot is mostly confined to those who have not enjoyed the privilege of living under such autocratic government.
On the other hand, there was no temptation to flatter any living Davidic king, so that the semi-Divine character of the kingship of David is not set forth after the gross and almost blasphemous style of Roman emperors or Turkish sultans. It is indeed said that the people worshipped Jehovah and the king; but the essential character of Jewish thought made it impossible that the ideal king should sit “in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” David and Solomon could not share with the pagan emperors the honors of Divine worship in their life-time and apotheosis after their death. Nothing addressed to any Hebrew king parallels the panegyric to the Christian emperor Theodosius, in which allusion is made to his “sacred mind,” and he is told that “as the Fates are said to assist with their tablets that God who is the partner in your majesty, so does some Divine power serve your bidding, which writes down and in due time suggests to your memory the promises which you have made.” Nor does Chronicles adorn the kings of Judah with extravagant Oriental titles, such as “King of kings of kings of kings.” Devotion to the house of David never oversteps the bounds of a due reverence, but the Hebrew idea of monarchy loses nothing by this salutary reserve.
Indeed, the title of the royal house of Judah rested upon Divine appointment. “Jehovah turned the kingdom unto David and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of Jehovah by the hand of Samuel.” {1Ch 10:14; 1Ch 11:3} But the Divine choice was confirmed by the cordial consent of the nation; the sovereigns of Judah, like those of England, ruled by the grace of God and the will of the people. Even before Davids accession the Israelites had flocked to his standard; and after the death of Saul a great array of the twelve tribes came to Hebron to make David king, “and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.” {1Ch 12:38} Similarly Solomon is the king “whom God hath chosen,” and all the congregation make him king and anoint him to be prince. {1Ch 29:1; 1Ch 29:22} The double election of David by Jehovah and by the nation is clearly set forth in the book of Samuel, and in Chronicles the omission of Davids early career emphasizes this election. In the book of Samuel we are shown the natural process that brought about the change of dynasty; we see how the Divine choice took effect through the wars between Saul and the Philistines and through Davids own ability and energy. Chronicles is mostly silent as to secondary causes, and fixes our attention on the Divine choice as the ultimate ground for Davids elevation.
The authority derived from God and the people continued to rest on the same basis. David sought Divine direction alike for the building of the Temple and for his campaigns against the Philistines At the same time, when he wished to bring up the Ark to Jerusalem, he “consulted with the captains of thousands and of hundreds. even with every leader; and David said unto all the assembly of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and if it be of Jehovah our God let us bring again the ark of our God to us and all the assembly said that they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.” {1Ch 13:4} Of course the chronicler does not intend to describe a constitutional monarchy, in which an assembly of the people had any legal status. Apparently in his own time the Jews exercised their measure of local self-government through an informal oligarchy, headed by the high-priest; and these authorities occasionally appealed to an assembly of the people. The administration under the monarchy was carried on in a somewhat similar fashion, only the king had greater authority than the high-priest, and the oligarchy of notables were not so influential as the colleagues of the latter. But apart from any formal constitution the chroniclers description of these incidents involves a recognition of the principle of popular consent in government as well as the doctrine that civil order rests upon a Divine sanction.
It is interesting to see how a member of a great ecclesiastical community, imbued, as we should suppose, with all the spirit of priestcraft, yet insists upon the royal supremacy both in state and Church. But to have done otherwise would have been to go in the teeth of all history; even in the Pentateuch the “king in Jeshurun” is greater than the priest. Moreover the chronicler was not a priest, but a Levite; and there are indications that the Levites ancient jealousy of the priests had by no means died out. In Chronicles, at any rate, there is no question of priests interfering with the kings secular administration. They are not even mentioned as obtaining oracles for David as Abiathar did before his accession. {1Sa 23:9-13; 1Sa 30:7-8} This was doubtless implied in the original account of the Philistine raids in chapter 14, but the chronicler may not have understood that “inquiring of God” meant obtaining an oracle from the priests.
The king is equally supreme also in ecclesiastical affairs; we might even say that the civil authorities generally shared this supremacy. Somewhat after the fashion of Cromwell and his major-generals, David utilized “the captains of the host” as a kind of ministry of public worship; they joined with him in organizing the orchestra and choir for the services of the sanctuary, {1Ch 25:1-2} probably Napoleon and his marshals would have had no hesitation in selecting anthems for Notre Dame if the idea had occurred to them. David also consulted his captains {1Ch 13:1} and not the priests, about bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. When he gathered the great assembly to make his final arrangements for the building of the Temple, the princes and captains, the rulers and mighty men, are mentioned, but no priests. {1Ch 28:1} And, last, all the congregation apparently anoint {1Ch 29:22} Zadok to be priest. The chronicler was evidently a pronounced Erastian (But Cf. 2Ch 26:1-23). David is no mere nominal head of the Church; he takes the initiative in all important matters, and receives the Divine commands either directly or through his prophets Nathan and Gad. Now these prophets are not ecclesiastical authorities; they have nothing to do with the priesthood, and do not correspond to the officials of an organized Church. They are rather the domestic chaplains or confessors of the king, differing from modern chaplains and confessors in having no ecclesiastical superiors. They were not responsible to the bishop of any diocese or the general of any order; they did not manipulate the royal conscience in the interests of any party in the Church; they served God and the king, and had no other masters. They did not beard David before his people, as Ambrose confronted Theodosius or as Chrysostom rated Eudoxia; they delivered their message to David in private, and on occasion he communicated it to the people. {Cf. 1Ch 17:4-15 and 1Ch 28:2-10} The kings spiritual dignity is rather enhanced than otherwise by this reception of prophetic messages specially delivered to himself. There is another aspect of the royal supremacy in religion. In this particular instance its object is largely the exaltation of David; to arrange for public worship is the most honorable function of the ideal king. At the same time the care of the sanctuary is his most sacred duty, and is assigned to him that it may be punctually and worthily discharged. State establishment of the Church is combined with a very thorough control of the Church by the state.
We see then that the monarchy rested on Divine and national election, and was guided by the will of God and of the people. Indeed, in bringing up the 1Ch 13:1-14 the consent of the people is the only recorded indication of the will of God. “Vox populi vox Dei.” The king and his government are supreme alike over the state and the sanctuary, and are entrusted with the charge of providing for public worship. Let us try to express the modern equivalents of these principles. Civil government is of Divine origin, and should obtain the consent of the people: it should be carried on according to the will of God, freely accepted by the nation. The civil authority is supreme both in Church and state, and is responsible for the maintenance of public worship.
One at least of these principles is so widely accepted that it is quite independent of any Scriptural sanction from Chronicles. The consent of the people has long been accepted as an essential condition of any stable government. The sanctity of civil government and the sacredness of its responsibilities are coming to be recognized, at present perhaps rather in theory than in practice. We have not yet fully realized how the truth underlying the doctrine of the Divine right of kings applies to modern conditions. Formerly the king was the representative of the state, or even the state itself; that is to say, the king directly or indirectly maintained social order, and provided for the security of life and property. The Divine appointment and authority of the king expressed the sanctity of law and order as the essential conditions of moral and spiritual progress. The king is no longer the state. His Divine right, however, belongs to him, not as a person or as a member of a family, but as the embodiment of the state, the champion of social order against anarchy. The “Divinity that doth hedge a king” is now shared by the sovereign with all the various departments of government. The state-that is to say, the community organized for the common good and for mutual help-is now to be recognized as of Divine appointment and as wielding a Divine authority. “The Lord has turned the kingdom to” the people.
This revolution is so tremendous that it would not be safe to apply to the modern state the remaining principles of the chronicler. Before we could do so we should need to enter into a discussion which would be out of place here, even if we had space for it.
In one point the new democracies agree with the chronicler: they are not inclined to submit secular affairs to the domination of ecclesiastical officials.
The questions of the supremacy of the state over the Church and of the state establishment of the Church involve larger and more complicated issues than existed in the mind or experience of the chronicler. But his picture of the ideal king suggests one idea that is in harmony with some modern aspirations. In Chronicles the king, as the representative of the state, is the special agent in providing for the highest spiritual needs of the people. May we venture to hope that out of the moral consciousness of a nation united in mutual sympathy and service there may arise a new enthusiasm to obey and worship God? Human cruelty is the greatest stumbling-block to belief and fellowship; when the state has somewhat mitigated the misery of “mans inhumanity to man,” faith in God will be easier.