2 Sam. 15.
A CAREFUL reader of Scripture easily distinguishes two characters of suffering as belonging to the Lord Jesus; one in which he suffers as a righteous man from the hand of unrighteousness,― “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth; this did not Abraham: “and the other, the sufferings which He had directly from the hand of His Father at the cross,― “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Peter puts these two characters in close connection, when he says, “who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not:” * * * * who “His own-self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:23, 2423Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:23‑24)).
Joseph exhibits more prominently the sufferings of Christ among His unbelieving brethren. Joseph was eminently righteous: hence the jealousy, the malice, the typical death which he underwent at their hands―all with the meekness of a lamb. But David, in the scene before us, seems more to resemble Christ, as the sin-bearer, but with this weighty difference, ―that David, at the ascent of Olivet, is there for his own sin; whereas the Lord was there for the sins of His people.
Let us review some of the circumstances which preceded this solemn scene. It had been said to David, by Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1010Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. (2 Samuel 12:10)). “The sword shall never depart from thine house;” and no doubt, when the conspiracy of Absalom broke out, we must in this way account for David’s haste to escape, ― “Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom;” although “the king’s servants said unto the king, behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint.” The best solution of such haste is to be found in the supposition that David felt the Lord’s chastisement was to be upon him, and that he would receive the cup from His hand.
And now the real grace of David begins to appear. First we have the moving scene (18:20) between him and Ittai with his Gittites. It was as if he had said, “If, therefore, ye seek me, let these go their way.” How ready he is to give to Absalom, if the Lord so wills it, the title of king, ― “Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.” What an harmonious blending of humility and dignity in these words! But Ittai, like the centurion of old, had “not so learned Christ.” It is surely not unreasonable to suppose, that it was the grace of David, seen by Ittai at the court of Achish, that had attracted him and his companions to seek his presence at Jerusalem. They might have had the glory of arms and of a kingdom at Gath, but it was the person of David which they loved and followed; hence the noble answer, “Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or in life, even there also will thy servant be.” It should be ever so with us. It is the person of Christ which should fill up our picture.
It was the mercy and truth that were found with David that had attracted Ittai. “And all the country wept with a loud voice: * * * * the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron” (comp. John 18:11When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. (John 18:1)). Although it had been told David,” the hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom; “yet the true sorrow was for David, even as it was, in an after day, for David’s Lord.
Then occurs the touching circumstance of David declining to be accompanied by the Ark. He would be entirely alone. No sign of the presence and power of God, as to outward circumstances, should go with him. He voluntarily allowed himself, as it were, to be forsaken. He had sung of old, in his prosperous days, ― “Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou and the Ark of Thy strength; for the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation.” And now, if he be, by the righteous judgment of God, to be cast out of Jerusalem, he refuses to take the Ark from its proper dwelling-place. A faint resemblance to Him who said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how, then, shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”
We do well to observe the way in which David behaves himself under these adverse circumstances― in his own estimation he goes for nothing. He knew full well his own deserts. What are ours? As a whole, however, in particular cases, men may have misjudged us. Surely we must confess ourselves vile. There was no right on Absalom’s side: but David knew his sin; he knew what the Lord had against him; and the words by which he expresses it are above all comment, “If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation; but if He thus say, —I have no delight in thee; behold here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him” (vss. 25, 26), But let us here remark, that this blessed state of soul does not put aside prayer and watchfulness. David is quick-sighted as to Zadok, and prayerful about Ahithophel. The Lord, though in quite a different way, (for He asked for forgiveness for His enemies,) poured out intercessions in the midst of His deepest agonies and desertion. Oh the mystery of godliness!
Verse 30. “And David went up by the ascent of Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: * * * and they went up, weeping as they went up.”
How meekly the blessed Lord bore His own cross (John 19:1717And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (John 19:17)), and how solemn, whilst bearing it, was that warning which he uttered, ― “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
As he proceeds on his way, Ziba meets him with refreshments, of which, be it spoken with reverence. Christ had none. The cursing of Shimei now begins, and the shameless indignities heaped upon the sacred person of the king, and this with all his chiefs and soldiers around him. This provokes the pride of David’s attendants―of these sons of Zeruiah, ―politic as regards the things of the kingdom, skillful as to David’s affairs in a certain sense, but utterly ignorant of the heart of that king about whose earthly glory they were solicitous. It was this want of heart which occasioned their downfall in Solomon’s reign. Irritated however, by Shimei’s words, and indignant at his insolence, Abishai says, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?” and he proposes to kill him. Note well, that there are always those to be found who are anxious for the respectability of Christianity; whose flesh works in a religious way, but who are both ignorant of, and averse to the true place of the cross―the place of willing weakness, when one might, all it were, be strong. Such was Abishai at this moment, he was a warrior, when he ought to have been a penitent, a hindrance when he ought to have been a help. David’s sin lay too deep in his bosom; his soul was too much occupied with the controversy that God had with him to heed the cursing of Shimei. His soul was cut open, so to speak, and he would let the wound be probed to the bottom. “So let him curse,” is his answer; “because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore past thou done so?” “It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day;” and, indeed, David himself, and greater than he, the true David, was richly requited. Resurrection is the proof. “He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,” &c. (Phil. 2:8,98And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Philippians 2:8‑9)).
How precious should the study of any part of the word be, which brings before us the grace of Christ, and teaches us the way in which He went through His sufferings! Surely, nothing helps us so much in our daily circumstances, more especially when we remember that He entered in grace into our trials, whilst we get them by the necessity of our condition. “What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not.” These provings of David do but faintly trace what the blessed Lord went through in the hall of Caiaphas, before Pilate, amid the soldiers and the High Priests, but above all at the cross. Oh! that we might follow, although but feebly, in His footsteps!
And yet in this beautiful scene, when David being at his lowest, we might suppose him least liable to err, we can trace mistakes, to which we can find no parallel in our blessed Lord. His distrust of Mephibosheth, the adopted child, and the giving of his possessions, by the impulse of a moment, to Ziba the homeborn servant―the difficulty he found on his return to rectify this unjust judgment, which he passes over by the vague words, “Have I not said, thou and Ziba divide the land,” sufficiently indicate that “judgment had not yet returned unto righteousness.” They also forcibly contrast with almost the last words which Christ spoke to His disciples―those poor, infirm, and failing men, who, whilst they had been with Him bodily, had failed in entering either into the object of His mission, or of His death, “Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto Me.”
How wondrous is that grace, which can, among the adopted children, find virtues, where we suspect some evil, and which contrives to put Honor upon those who are conscious of too often dishonoring Him!
“In ME is thy fruit found.”