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unto the hand of 'Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon.

12 And he said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee.

13 Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.

14 So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh before the Syrians unto the battle; and they fled before him.

15 And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

16¶ And when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the 'river: and 'Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarezer went before them.

17 And it was told David; and he gathered all Israel, and passed over Jordan, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

18 But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host.

19 And when the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and became his servants: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more. (1) Heb. In thine eyes doth David, | (4) Or, young men. (5) Heb. Abshai. (6) That is, Euphrates. (7) Or, Shobach, 2 Sam. x. 16.

&c.

(2) Heb. to stink.

(3) Heb. the face of the battle was.

EVERY thing connected with the history of David demands our utmost attention; and the more so, because he was an eminent type of Christ, and the man after God's own heart. We have seen much of his piety; and we have traced some of his victories. Here we have another circumstance of an opposite character; the unkindness of Hanun, and the insult he offered to David's ambassadors.

The father of Hanun had been kind to David in the day of his distress. This he had not forgotten. On his son's succeeding to the throne, after his father's death,

David took the earliest opportunity to convince him that he was not unmindful of his father's kindness. He desired to sympathise with him in his parental loss; and to congratulate him upon his accession to the kingdom. Surely this spake well for David. It proved, what too many are apt to forget, that present prosperity can never release us from obligations incurred, by the kindness of friends, in seasons of adversity. It proved, also, that David was not insensible to these claims; and that he desired, at least, to fulfil these dictates. Do many persons resemble David in this respect? When you have been poor and needy, or persecuted and slandered, or in trouble and distress, and found some one or other to cast a pitying eye upon you, and cheer you in your trouble, or help you in your sorrows; how have you afterwards felt towards those persons when the scales have been turned in your favour, and you have been brought out of your trouble, and crowned with ease and comfort?

friends?

Have you forgotten those kind Have you looked coldly upon them? Have you shunned and avoided them? Have you demeaned yourself as if you had received no kindness from them; or were under no obligations to them? Behold, then, the baseness of your spirit contrasted with the loveliness of David's disposition. Blush, and be ashamed of your ingratitude; and the Lord to shew pray mercy and forgive you.

But, may we not extend these remarks to a subject of far higher importance? If kindness from man demands our thankful acknowledgments; how much more does the kindness of God claim our thankful love? If ingratitude to man for favours received, betrays a base and wicked disposition, which every one would be ready to condemn; how much more base and wicked must that disposition be, when the mercies and favours of God are slighted or forgotten? Now, has not the Lord been kind to us in our low estate ? When utterly ruined and undone, did he not lend a pitying eye; and, in the yearnings of his love, did he not send his dearly-beloved Son to be our Saviour and Redeemer? Did not that Saviour suffer, bleed, groan, and die for us? us? To say nothing of the work of grace in

the heart, and all other blessings poured out upon believing souls; who feels thankful to God for such kindness as he ought? Is not all this generally forgotten? Is not the bare mention of it distasteful to many? Is there any subject on earth that many people less like to be reminded of than the Saviour's love and salvation? What does this prove? Does it not prove that the heart has never felt the flame of that amazing love; and that the soul has never tasted the power of that salvation? "Who hath ears to hear, let

him hear."

At the same time, let us learn another lesson from the insult offered to David's men. In the treatment which they received, did he feel himself bound to protect their person and uphold the honour of his kingdom? Take care, then, how you treat the servants of Christ. They are ambassadors for Christ; and pray you to be reconciled to God. If you welcome and receive them; you welcome and receive Him; but if you despise and reject them, you despise and reject Him. And, as he knows how to bless and defend his servants; so does he also know how to punish and destroy his enemies.

CHAPTER XX.

1 Rabbah is besieged by Joab, spoiled by David, and the people thereof tortured. 4 Three giants are slain in three several overthrows of the Philistines.

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ND it came to pass, that 'after the year was expired, at the time that the kings. go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it.

2 And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it 'to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David's head: and he brought also excceding much spoil out of the city.

3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children

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THIS is a short chapter; but it includes great things. It relates the siege of Rabbah by Joab; and informs us how it was taken and spoiled by David. Three other battles, also, with the Philistines, and victories over them, are likewise recorded.

An important question is here suggested to the mind. Do we really believe that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God?" Being so given, do we believe that all Scripture is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness?" You say, so it is written: but we ask, do you believe this to be the case? If so, then, of course you believe that this is a fact to be acted upon, as well for the life of our soul, as for the regulation of our walk and conduct.

Admitting the fact thus believed, let us advance a step further. Suppose in the course of the sacred narrative, we found circumstances or events which are recorded at one time or place, entirely omitted when the general thread of the history is narrated at another; what should we say? Should we say that the narrative is incorrect; that something is wanting to make it good? Or, should we not rather say that, as it seemed

of Ammon. And David and all the people good to the Holy Ghost to record such circum

returned to Jerusalem.

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stances or events in one place, with every possible minuteness; so, if such circumstances or events are omitted in another place, or at another time, the latter narration as well

as the former being written under the power of immediate inspiration, the omission in the one, as well as the specific detail in the other, must have been made as the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth willed it to be done. This truth can never be evaded when the authority of divine inspiration is fairly and fully admitted.

Now, does any one ask, what is the object

CHAPTER XXI.

1 David, tempted by Sutan, forceth Joub to number the people. 5 The number of the people being brought, David repenteth of it. 9 David having three plagues propounded by Gad chooseth the pestilence. 14 After the death of seventy thousand, David by repentance preventeth the destruction of Jerusalem. 18 David, by Gad's direction, purchaseth Ornan's threshingfloor : where having built an altar, God giveth a sign of his favour by fire, and stayeth the plague. 28 David sacrificeth there, being restrained from Gibeon by fear of the angel.

of making this remark? Compare this chapter AND Satan stood up against Israel, and

with 2 Sam. ch. xi., and you will see. The whole history of David's fall, in the matter of Bath-sheba and Uriah, there recorded, is here entirely omitted. Why is this? Was not the hand that wrote the one chapter as much guided by the Spirit of God as the hand that wrote the other? Undoubtedly it was. The omission here, then, is as much inspired, as is the record there. Can we account for this? Blessed be God there is a clue by which we may unravel this apparent mystery. The Lord, who then put away David's sin that he should not die, here seems purposely to shew us that, having forgiven him, he would remember that sin

no more.

Oh, this blessed truth! Oh, the glorious doctrine of the full and free forgiveness of all sin through the Saviour's blood, according to the riches of his grace! Hence, the sins of all believers are said to be "blotted out as a cloud;" and as a "thick cloud their transgressions." Hence, they are said to be "cast behind the back, never to be seen any more;" cast into the "depths of the sea," never to be found any more; and so forgiven as never to be remembered any more! (Is. xliv. 22; xxxviii. 17; Micah vii. 19; Heb. x. 17.) Such is the glorious doctrine of the gospel. Such is the sweet and silent intimation of it in the chapter before us. Such is the joyful assurance of it which the gospel openly affords. Such is the precious testimony of it which the Spirit imparts. Such will be the glorious realisation of it, when, in the last day, "the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found;" for, when the Lord "pardons them whom he reserves," their sins are done away for ever. (Jer. 1. 20).

provoked David to number Israel.

2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?

4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

5 ¶ And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

71And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.

8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. 9¶ And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,

10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee

3

12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of

the LORD; for very 'great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

18¶Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.

20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.

24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

26 And David built there an altar unto the

LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28¶ At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

(1) Heb. And it was evil in the | (5) Or, Araunah, 2 Sam. xxiv. 18. eyes of the LORD concerning (6) Or, When Ornan turned back this thing. (2) Heb. stretch out (3) Heb. Take to thee. (4) Or, many.

and saw the angel, then he and his four sons with him hid themselves. (7) Heb. Give.

ANOTHER remarkable circumstance in David's history, involving many others, is here again brought before us. Many useful and important lessons may be learned from the whole. May the Lord give us grace to

profit thereby!

First, David's bitter foe. Many were the enemies that opposed him; and many were the foes he had to contend with: but there was one more bitter, more envious, more malicious, and more implacable, than all. Ask you who, or what, that foe could be? Here you are told that it was Satan; the great enemy of mankind; the great murderer and destroyer of men's souls. Israel had been happy and prosperous under the reign of David; who had been greatly favoured and highly blessed of the Lord; and this | he could not endure. That evil spirit, therefore, now "stands up" against Israel, and "provokes" David to number Israel. Mark here the subtilty and malice of Satan. He stood up against Israel. He wished, if possible, to effect the ruin of that people. He would have them, if he could, all cut off, and all destroyed; and by what means we shall soon see. As David had been the instrument, in the hand of God, of their exaltation; so now, if possible, he would make David the means, by his own subtilty, of their utter destruction. What a deep laid scheme

was this! What enmity and malice are here! Possibly this was intended as a sort of infernal revenge for all that David and Israel had done in the destruction of idolatry and the overthrow of Satan's dominion in the nations around. And thus by one deep laid scheme, and one bold effort, he aimed, if possible, to effect the ruin of both.

Now, is not this the enemy of your soul? Is not this he that seeks your ruin? Is not this the foe that plots your overthrow, and aims to accomplish your destruction? Have you not need, then, to watch and pray? Have you not cause to be on your guard; to buckle on your armour; to take the sword of the Spirit; and make your stand against the foe? He that thinks himself secure, is in the greatest peril. He who expects no enemy, is most ready to fall. He who imagines his path is now safe, is most likely to meet with some of the deepest wiles of Satan, and to endure some of his fiercest or most artful assaults. After a long series of much usefulness and great piety, the enemy still assaults this devoted servant of the Lord; and by one bold push seeks the utter ruin of himself and his people. Had not the Lord been pleased to disappoint the design and arrest the course of the pestilence, no tongue can tell what the final issue might have been. Let us, then, remark

Secondly, David's happy resource. That vast numbers of the people were wicked and impenitent, is certain. That David himself had done foolishly and committed great sin in numbering the people, there can be no doubt. The manner in which even that wicked man Joab abhorred the command; the inward voice of his own conscience; the alarming message which God sent him; the humbling and awakening alternative put before him; together with the tremendous judgment that ensued in the fearful destruction of seventy thousand of the wicked and rebellious people, within the space of three days, throughout the land; all these things clearly proved that the Lord had been greatly provoked both by the sin of David in numbering the people, and by the sin of the people in probably wishing to be numbered, or in some other respect that greatly incensed the divine displeasure. Where was his re

source? "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord; for very great are his mercies" (v. 13). Oh, let us never forget this happy choice. Our only resource is in the Lord's many and great mercies. Are you at any time in a great strait? Are you sore perplexed? Are you greatly cast down? Are you painfully tempted? Have you grievously sinned? Have you unthankfully provoked the Lord? By the pride of your heart; by your yielding to temptation; by your hearkening to the lies of Satan, and forgetting the truth of God; have you exposed your soul to the divine rebuke and heavy indignation? What will you do? Do as David did? Go to God. Go to Christ. Own your sin. Cry for mercy. Plead for forgiveness. Ask him to pardon and bless you. Ask him to pardon and save you for the sake of Christ the Lord; and then, like David, you will soon have abundant cause to pour forth your grateful praises and thanksgivings.

CHAPTER XXII.

1 David, foreknowing the place of the temple, prepareth abundance for the building of it. 6 He instructeth Solomon in God's promises, and his duty in building the temple. 17 He chargeth the princes to assist his son.

THE

HEN David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.

2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;

4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

6 Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel.

7 And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God:

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