David and His Nephew Joab – Part 5: Warriors

Posted on August 16, 2024 by The Editor

1 Chronicles 11:4-6

And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Before this Joab was one of David’s chief captains, 2 Samuel 3:22,23, and general of the forces of Judah; but now he is made captain-general of all the forces of Israel and Judah.

THE EDITOR: To be “captain of the host of Israel,” was Joab’s heart desire, the position that he coveted above all else. But David didn’t just hand that exalted rank to him. This was David’s first military campaign as king over “all Israel,” and he had many “mighty and valiant” men in his army, as seen from 1 Chronicles 11:10-47; Joab would have to merit this promotion in competition with every other valiant soldier of Israel. Perhaps David made that condition in a vain hope of freeing himself from Joab’s unruly domineering behaviour.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Joab was a good soldier, but in every respect a bad man, and a dangerous subject.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): After his own contemptuous way, Joab was always true to David—that is, he made short work of anyone else who was false to David. And he performed some splendid services both as a soldier and a statesman in the extension and consolidation of David’s kingdom.

THE EDITOR: After taking Jerusalem, several wars followed against the many enemies that bordered Israel: first, three battles against the Philistines, 2 Samuel 5 to 2 Samuel 8:1; next, the Moabites, and Hadadezer, the Syrian king of Zobah; then the Syrians of Damascus who aided Hadadezer, 2 Samuel 8:1-5. In all these campaigns, David took the field himself, “and the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.” But Joab, and his brother Abishai, a man no less fearsome, played significant roles; against the Edomites, Abishai slew 18,000 men; on another occasion, he slew 300 men with his spear.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): We read particularly that Joab smote every male in Edom, 1 Kings 11:15,16.

THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): Joab is heartened, and hardened with blood.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He was confessedly a great soldier, and one that had so much religion in him as to dedicate of his spoils to the house of God, 1 Chronicles 26:28.

THE EDITOR: David gratefully dedicated much spoil from his campaigns and tribute money to the house of the Lord, knowing the Author of his victories, 2 Samuel 8:10-12. Joab also dedicated a portion of his spoils, 1 Chronicles 26:26-28. But Joab’s later conduct suggests that his dedication was a customary religious formalism, rather than any true heart gratitude to the God of Israel, even as respectable pagans paid temple tributes to appease the gods of their state religion. After the Ammonite king died, David sent peace ambassadors to comfort his son, the new king.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): David’s friendly embassy was suspected of covering hostile intentions, 2 Samuel 10:1-6. Those who have no kindness in their own hearts are slow to believe kindness in others. ‘What does he want to get by it?’ is the question put by cynical ‘shrewd men.’ But the Ammonites need not have rejected David’s overtures so insolently as by shaving half his ambassadors’ beards and docking their robes. The insult meant war.

THE EDITOR: Now David “sent Joab, and all the host, the mighty men,” against the Ammonites, who also had hired Syrian mercenaries to aid them against Israel, 2 Samuel 10:8.

MATTHEW HENRY: Joab found the enemy so well prepared that his conduct and courage were never so tried as now. The enemy disposed themselves into two bodies, one of Ammonites, which were posted at the gate of the city; the Syrians were posted at a distance in the field, to charge the forces of Israel in the flank or rear, while the Ammonites charged them in the front. Joab was soon aware of the design, and accordingly divided his forces.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Joab was an able warrior.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He “chose of all the choice men of Israel;” the most eminent for strength, and valour, and military skill, who had been tried and were famous for warlike exploits, “and put them in array against the Syrians,” who might be the strongest party, and the best soldiers—though being but mercenaries, if hard beset, would sooner give way, as he might suppose, upon which the Ammonites would do the same, 2 Samuel 10:9.

MATTHEW HENRY: The rest of the forces he put under command of Abishai his brother, to engage the Ammonites. He prudently arranges the matter with Abishai, that which part soever was borne hard upon, the other should come in to its assistance. He supposes the worst, that one of them should be obliged to give back; and in that case, upon a signal given, the other should send a detachment to relieve it.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Danger awoke the best in Joab. Fierce and truculent as he often was, he had a hero’s mettle in him, and in that dark hour he flamed like a pillar of light. His ringing words to his brother as they parted, not knowing if they would ever meet again, are like a clarion call.

MATTHEW HENRY: Joab’s speech before the battle is not long, but pertinent, and brave. “Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good,” 2 Samuel 10:12. God and our country was the word. He piously leaves the issue with God: “When we have done our part, according to the duty of our place, let the Lord do that which seemeth to him good.”

JOHN GILL: This Joab said, not only to encourage Abishai and himself, but in the hearing of the rest of the officers of the army, and many of the people, to hearten them to the battle; who might be somewhat intimidated with the number of their enemies, and the position they were in, being before and behind them; and therefore he thought proper to make such a speech to them to animate them.

ADAM CLARKE: This is a very fine military address, equal to anything in ancient or modern times.

THE EDITOR: Joab’s perceptive assessment of the character of his enemies proved right.

MATTHEW POOLE: Joab prudently falls upon the Syrians first, because they were but mercenaries, and not concerned so much in the success as the Ammonites were, whose interest lay at stake; and therefore not likely to venture too far in their defence. “And they fled before him,” 2 Samuel 10:13.

MATTHEW HENRY: Then the Ammonites were routed by Abishai; the Ammonites seem not to have fought at all, but, upon the retreat of the Syrians, to have fled into the city.

JOHN GILL: Joab did not stay to lay siege to their city, the season of the year not being proper for it, winter drawing near, “so Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem” in triumph, to report to David the victory he had obtained, 2 Samuel 10:14.

THE EDITOR: But the war was not over. When the Syrians regrouped, David “gathered all Israel together,” crossed over the Jordan River, and inflicted such a devastating defeat on them that they “made peace with Israel—so the Syrians feared to help the children of Ammon any more,” 2 Samuel 10:15-19. Now the fighting paused for winter, with the Ammonites remaining undefeated in Rabbah.

 

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David and His Nephew Joab – Part 4: God’s Purposes

Posted on August 9, 2024 by The Editor

Isaiah 45:7; Psalm 135:5,6; Daniel 2:21

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.

He removeth kings, and setteth up kings.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  God had chosen David to be king.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): David was anointed three times. First, privately at Bethlehem by Samuel, 1 Samuel 16:13. Second, by the men of Judah, 2 Samuel 2:4. Third, by the elders of Israel, 2 Samuel 5:3. Between the first and the third anointings of David, or between Samuel’s consecrating of him to the kingly office, and his actually ascending the throne, there was a period of severe trials.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): From the forbearance which David manifested during all the persecutions which he experienced from Saul, we can have no doubt that he would have rested satisfied with the government of one tribe, till God in His providence should open the way for the full possession of the throne of Israel. At last, however, a circumstance occurred, which seemed likely to effect the promised union of all the tribes under David.

THE EDITOR: When Abner came to him, David surely thought that God’s time had come, and Abner would be God’s instrument to deliver Israel into his hands. But he did not consult God about Abner’s proposal, and acted entirely on his own carnal reasonings, as he also did regarding Joab. David did not want Abner killed. But God knew exactly what Joab would do.

CHARLES SIMEON: The establishment of David on the throne of Israel was now nearly completed; yet in the very moment of its completion, as it were, was it counteracted by that horrid crime; the influence that was to accomplish the measure was destroyed; and the rival monarch deterred from his purpose. No prospect now remained but that of continued war: and the very counsels of Heaven appear to have been defeated. But God’s counsel shall stand, though the expected instrument of its accomplishment be taken out of the way.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “When Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled,” 2 Samuel 4:1. All the strength they ever had was from Abner’s support, and now that he was dead, Ish-bosheth had no spirit left in him. Though Abner had, in a passion, deserted his interest, yet he hoped to make good terms with David; but now even this hope fails him—all the Israelites that adhered to him were troubled and at a loss what to do, whether to proceed in their treaty with David or no.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin,” 2 Samuel 2:2—men of Ish-bosheth’s own tribe, whom therefore he trusted the more; and this gave them opportunity to execute their wicked design.

THE EDITOR: They “came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, who lay on a bed at noon…and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped—they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and got them away through the plain all night,” 2 Samuel 4:5-7.

MATTHEW HENRY: “And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the LORD hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed,” 2 Samuel 4:8. They aimed at nothing but to make their own fortunes and to get preferment in David’s court.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): To the doing of this villainous act, some think they might have been encouraged by Joab’s impunity.

MATTHEW POOLE: It may seem strange they were not discouraged by David’s punishing of the Amalekite for killing Saul, 1 Samuel 1:13-16; and by his sharp reproof of Joab for murdering Abner; but they thought the first case much differing from theirs, because Saul was anointed king by God; whereas Ish-bosheth was not, but was a mere usurper; regarding Joab’s murder of Abner, they thought David’s sharp words proceeded from policy, rather than from any real dislike of the thing, because David contented himself with words, and Joab did not only go unpunished, but continued in his former place.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): David’s just detestation of this cruel and unprovoked deed of Rechab and Baanah, could not have been expressed in a stronger manner: “As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings: How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?” 2 Samuel 4:9-11.

THE EDITOR: Abner and Ish-bosheth were leaders that the house of Saul might rally around for further rebellion. To fully secure Israel to David’s throne, they both must die, but not by David’s hand, less political bitterness spring up as a result of it. God knows the hearts of all men, and the end from the beginning; He knew what Ish-bosheth’s captains would because Joab had escaped retribution; when rulers do not punish criminals, it emboldens others to crime. But this time, David didn’t flinch from his duty, showing himself guiltless not only with words, but by executing the murderers: “they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron,” 2 Samuel 4:12.

A. W. PINK: Upon the death of Abner and Ish-bosheth, the tribes of Israel were left without a leader.

THE EDITOR: Whatever men do, God is neither hindered, nor delayed. Now His actual appointed time had come for David to receive the kingdom. “Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed My people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel,” 2 Samuel 5:1-3.

CHARLES SIMEON: Whatever obstructions arise, God’s purposes shall be accomplished.

MATTHEW HENRY: His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways, Isaiah 55:8. He is a better judge than we, what instruments and measures will best serve the purposes of His glory.

THE EDITOR: Even so, it does not excuse David’s failure to punish Joab. Later, David would pay dearly for that.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): It came out afterwards to be a terrible blunder.

MATTHEW HENRY: He ought to have done his duty, and trusted God with the issue. If the law had taken its course against Joab, perhaps the murder of Ishbosheth and others would have been prevented.

 

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David and His Nephew Joab – Part 3: A Funeral

Posted on August 2, 2024 by The Editor

2 Samuel 3:27-39

And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

And afterward when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner: Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread.

So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner, because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him.

And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down. And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the son of Ner. And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel? And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Asahel’s death entered like iron into Joab’s soul, who never rested until his vengeance was satisfied on Abner.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Joab did this willfully, and in great deceit and hypocrisy.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: In some respects, Abner was more admirable than Joab.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Abner had indeed slain Joab’s brother Asahel, and Joab and Abishai pretended to be the avengers of his blood; but Abner slew Asahel in open war, wherein Abner indeed had given the challenge, but Joab himself had accepted it and had slain many of Abner’s friends. Abner did likewise in his own defence, but not until he had given Asahel fair warning—which Asahel would not take, and Abner did it reluctantly—but Joab here shed “the blood of war in peace,” 1 Kings 2:5.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What an evil is revenge! What need have we to guard against the very thought of it rising in our hearts! There is no crime so atrocious but a person under the influence of a vindictive spirit will commit it.

MATTHEW HENRY: What we have reason to think was at the bottom of Joab’s enmity to Abner made it much worse. Joab was general of David’s forces; but if Abner came into David’s interest, he would possibly be preferred before him, being a senior officer and more experienced in the art of war. This Joab was jealous of, and could better bear the guilt of blood than the thoughts of a rival. He did it treacherously, under pretense of speaking peaceably to him, Deuteronomy 27:24. Had he challenged him, Joab would have done like a soldier; but to assassinate him was done villainously, like a coward. “His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords,” Psalm 55:21.

JOHN GILL: If it had been in David’s power, he would have prevented it.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He did his best to exonerate himself from it and pronounced an awful curse upon Joab and upon all his posterity.

MATTHEW HENRY: David laid deeply it to heart, and in many ways expressed his detestation of this villainy. He washed his hands from the guilt of Abner’s blood. He solemnly appealed to God concerning his innocency: “I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever. Let it rest on the head of Joab.” But a resolute punishment of the murderer himself would better have become David than this passionate imprecation of God’s judgments.

W. PINK (1886-1952): Nevertheless, David was not afraid to rebuke him for his slaying Abner. He openly asserted his authority by compelling Joab to rend his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner—a most humiliating experience for Joab’s proud heart.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “And David said to Joab”—partly to bring him to repentance for his sin; partly to expose him to public shame, and to the contempt and hatred of all the people, with whom Joab had too great an interest, which David designed to diminish— “Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier…and the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him.” Thus David reproached Joab to his very face, before all the people, which was a great evidence of his own innocency herein; because otherwise Joab, being so powerful, and proud, and petulant to his sovereign, would never have taken the shame and blame of it wholly to himself, as he did.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This song was a heavy reproof, and must have galled Joab extremely, being sung by all the people.

C. H. SPURGEON: David had not, however, the manly courage to summon Joab to the bar as a murderer.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Was it not a blunder?

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): David answereth: ‘If I provoke Joab, being so potent with the army, they may serve me as Abner did Ishbosheth in a displeasure’—thus carnal reason argued.

A. W. PINK: Joab was too strongly entrenched to be displaced.

THE EDITOR: So David thought. “These men, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard for me,” he said, confessing his weakness in the matter. But as the murder was committed in a public place, Joab could not deny his guilt.

MATTHEW POOLE: David’s indulgence proceeded from a distrust of God’s power and faithfulness; as if God could not, or would not, make good His promise of the kingdom to him without, or against Joab.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: David knew his duty quite well. “The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness,” David proclaimed over Abner’s mangled body. Yes; but David held the sword for no other purpose than to be the Lord’s right hand in rewarding all the evil that was done in Israel. But Joab was the most powerful and necessary man in Israel, and David contented himself with pronouncing an eloquent requiem over Abner, and leaving his murderer to go free in all his offices and honours. Joab was deep enough to understand quite well why his life was spared. He knew quite well that it was fear and not love that moved David to let him live.

JOHN GILL: David was sensible it was known that Abner had been with him; and it might be suspected he had a hand in it, that it was done by his order; therefore, to purge himself from it, he made this public declaration, that neither he nor his council knew anything of it—it was not done with their knowledge and by their order, but through the resentment of a single person. Therefore he hoped no man would impute the shedding of this blood unto them, or that God would punish them for it; and he made this public declaration because he knew that the death of Abner would be resented by the friends of Saul’s family, and be an obstruction to the union of the two kingdoms, which Abner was endeavouring to bring about.

JOHN TRAPP: David not only mourned, but fasted; to testify his unfeigned grief. This was the end that David aimed at and attained, in the carriage of the whole business.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): David’s behaviour towards Abner had its success. The sincerity of his sorrow was seen by all the people, and he was universally acquitted of all guilt in his death.

THE EDITOR: Everyone—Abner, Ish-boseth, Joab, David—had acted entirely from their own motives in this matter. But why did God allow Abner’s murder?

MATTHEW HENRY: Now in this, it is certain that the Lord was righteous. Against the convictions of his conscience, Abner had maliciously opposed David. Then he basely deserted Ishbosheth and betrayed him, under pretence of regard to God and Israel, but really from a principle of pride, revenge, and impatience of control. God will not therefore use so bad a man, though David might, in so good a work as the uniting of Israel. Judgments are prepared for such scorners.

THE EDITOR: God judged Abner, certainly. “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” Amos 3:6. But why did God allow Joab to go unpunished?

 

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David and His Nephew Joab – Part 2: A Murder

Posted on July 26, 2024 by The Editor

2 Samuel 3:6-21

And it came to pass, while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul. And Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and Ishbosheth said to Abner, Wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father’s concubine?

Then was Abner very wroth for the words of Ishbosheth, and said, Am I a dog’s head, which against Judah do shew kindness this day unto the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou chargest me to day with a fault concerning this woman? So do God to Abner, and more also, except, as the LORD hath sworn to David, even so I do to him; to translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.

And he could not answer Abner a word again, because he feared him.

And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying also, Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring about all Israel unto thee.

And he said, Well; I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face. And David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines.

And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish. And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go, return. And he returned. And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you: Now then do it: for the LORD hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies. And Abner also spake in the ears of Benjamin: and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin.

So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast. And Abner said unto David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel unto my lord the king, that they may make a league with thee, and that thou mayest reign over all that thine heart desireth. And David sent Abner away; and he went in peace.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The recent battle at Gibeon did not end the war; Ishbosheth had reigned two years when it was fought and he reigned five years longer—the war carried on, but “David waxed stronger and stronger,” persons continually coming over to his side from several tribes: and “the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker,” 2 Samuel 3:1.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Immediately after Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul, Ishbosheth accused him of a criminal intimacy with his father’s concubine. Both these circumstances put together, excite a just suspicion that Abner meant, when he was strong enough to throw off the mask, to set up for himself, and lay Ishbosheth aside.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This strengthening of himself, and going in to the late king’s concubine, were most evident proofs that Abner wished to seize upon the government.

THE EDITOR: David’s sons, Absalom and Adonijah, later did similar things in their attempts to seize their father’s throne, 2 Samuel 16:20-22; 1 Kings 1:1-7; 1 Kings 2:13-22.

THOMAS COKE: However this might be, Abner was enraged at the charge, and broke out into bitter resentment.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Abner knew God had sworn to David to give him the kingdom, and yet opposed it with all his might from a principle of ambition; but now he complies with it from a principle of revenge, under colour of some regard to the will of God, which was but a pretense.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): He confesses David’s right to the kingdom, as appointed by the Lord: so that he acted contrary to his conscience. It is not said whether the crime Ishbosheth charged him with was true or false. But his resentment was unbounded. Having taken up lshbosheth’s cause, without regard to God’s laws, Abner as easily drops it, without an eye to the Lord’s approbation.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those that are slaves to their lusts have many masters, which drive some one way and some another, and men are violently hurried into self-contradictions. Abner’s ambition made him zealous for Ishbosheth, and now his revenge made him as zealous for David. If he had sincerely regarded God’s promise to David, and acted with an eye to that, he would have been steady and uniform in his counsels, and acted in consistency. But, while Abner serves his own lusts, God by him serves His own purposes, makes even His wrath and revenge to praise Him, and ordains strength to David by it.

THE EDITOR: Pride, rage, revenge, and ambition were the four horsemen driving Abner. He knew Israel would lose the war, but he hoped to remain “captain of the host” by delivering the kingdom to David. Why did David insist that Abner first must deliver his wife to him?

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): David demands her, both for the affection he still retained to her, and upon a political consideration that she might strengthen his title to the kingdom.

THE EDITOR: Well, she was Saul’s daughter. But Abner had approached David in Ishbosheth’s name. Therefore David wrote directly to Ishbosheth about it to test Abner’s sincerity, and to determine if Abner actually had sufficient power and influence over Ishbosheth to deliver Israel to him.

MATTHEW HENRY: Abner conducted her to David, not doubting but that then he should be doubly welcome when he brought him a wife in one hand, and a crown in the other.

ROBERT HAWKER: Certainly it was blameable in David to countenance such a traitor as Abner was to Ishbosheth.

THE EDITOR: Now Joab enters the scene. “The servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a troop…and when Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king, and said, What hast thou done? behold, Abner came unto thee; why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone? Thou knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest,” 2 Samuel 3:22-25. Joab instantly suspected Abner’s motives; both those men were very much alike in their passions of pride, revenge, ambition, and self-interest. And was Joab any less contemptuous of David than Abner was to Ishbosheth?

MATTHEW HENRY: Joab very insolently fell foul upon David for treating with Abner, as if he had the same sway in David’s cause that Abner had in Ish-bosheth’s—he chides David, and reproaches him to his face: What hast thou done? as if David were accountable to him for what he did.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Notwithstanding their family relationship, David and Joab were of a similar age, and that accounts for a good deal that went on between them.

JOHN GILL: “When Joab was come out from David,” perhaps as soon as he had spoken his mind—he flew out of the room in a great passion, not waiting for the king’s answer; though maybe the king disdained to give him one, or cared not to confer with him until his passion subsided; or chose not to provoke him more, for it is plain Joab had great power over him. Joab sent messengers in David’s name after Abner to fetch him back; it was not done by David’s order, with his consent or knowledge.

THE EDITOR: No doubt, that deceitful act was what Joab did; Abner would never have returned merely at Joab’s behest.

ADAM CLARKE: Joab feared that, after having rendered such essential services to David, Abner would be made captain of the host: he therefore determined to prevent it by murdering the man, under pretense of avenging the death of his brother Asahel.

JOHN GILL: “When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother,” 2 Samuel 3:27. This was a public place, where people were continually passing, where judicial courts were held; wherefore Abner might think himself safe here with Joab and have no suspicion at all. It shows how fearless Joab was of God or men.

THOMAS COKE: Envy, and jealousy of Abner’s merit with David in gaining over the tribes to him, were principal motives to this base action, as well as revenge.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Thus was Joab’s design; but God had other designs in it, to punish Abner’s manifest wickedness, and particularly his rebellion against David, and against God and his own conscience; and that David might not owe his kingdom to Abner’s revenge and treachery, but wholly to God’s wise and powerful providence.

THE EDITOR: Those are all valid reasons. But the Bible clearly states that Joab’s brother Abishai was his accomplice, and their principle motive was revenge, 2 Samuel 3:30. This reveals another very dangerous aspect of Joab’s character: he waited five years for the most opportune time to exact his revenge—then he struck without a moment’s hesitation.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Joab never once reflected on the account which he should one day give of it to God; but with horrid treachery, and deliberate cruelty, he plunged the dagger into Abner.

 

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David and His Nephew Joab – Part 1: Gibeon

Posted on July 19, 2024 by The Editor

1 Samuel 22:1,2; 1 Chronicles 2:15,16

David, whose sisters were Zeruiah, and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah; Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three.

David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

B. W. NEWTON (1807-1899): Among the followers and closest adherents of David, was Joab. He was found early with David in the cave. Whilst Jonathan tarried in the court of Saul, Joab was sharing the hardships and dangers of David in the wilderness.

THE EDITOR: Joab came with his brothers, Abishai and Asahel. Some of David’s brethren rallied to him from love and family loyalty, but others came in “distress,” with motives of personal preservation; they knew Saul’s blood-thirsty paranoia wouldn’t end with destroying David, but it would extend to themselves as part of David’s family. Still others had economic and political reasons—“debt, and discontent.”

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Joab, the son of David’s sister, was a man of the very foremost ability.

B. W. NEWTON: Throughout all David’s subsequent dangers, Joab stood like a lion at his side, and if an extent of outward service were regarded, David perhaps had no such servant as he.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Joab was a strange and rugged character, at once fierce and faithful. His relation to David forms a strange picture of a troublesome friendship. He was a perpetual source of anxiety, and yet his rugged steadfastness naturally appealed to the king.

THE EDITOR: Joab became more prominent in David’s army after the death of Saul and Jonathan, during an unusual battle in Gibeon, which was much like a personal duel, 2 Samuel 2:12-32. Recently, David had been anointed king “over Judah” in Hebron, 2 Samuel 3,4; but Abner, Saul’s cousin, the “captain of Saul’s host,” had taken Saul’s son Ishbosheth and annointed him king “over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel,” 2 Samuel 2:8,9.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Abner set up Ishbosheth in competition with David, perhaps in his zeal for the lineal succession, or rather in his affection to his own family and relations, and because he had no other way to secure to himself the post of honour he was in, as captain of the host. See how much mischief the pride and ambition of one man may cause. Ishbosheth would never have set up himself if Abner had not made a tool of him to serve his own purposes.

THE EDITOR: “And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together beside the pool of Gibeon, and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.” 2 Samuel 2:12-14.

MATTHEW HENRY: In this battle, Abner was the aggressor.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Joab, like many, entertained those false notions of honour, according to which he dared not refuse the challenge. They buy honour very dear who purchase it at the expense of their brother’s blood. False notions of honour are among the wiles that Satan employs for the destruction both of men’s bodies and souls.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This was diabolical play.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): They accounted the death of men but a sport and interlude.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The sinful play, as it is here called, soon became serious work, and terminated in a bloody battle, so that the place of the slain was called Helkath-hazzurim; that is, “the field of hardy men.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): What a mad sport was that of Joab and Abner!

THOMAS COKE: The men are selected and matched: “Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.” 2 Samuel 2:15. Each man instantly seizes his fellow, plunges his sword into the other’s side, and all of them fell down dead together; so lavish are generals often of the lives of their brave soldiers, to gratify their caprice. The general battle hereupon ensues, and Abner and his forces are routed. They who thus stir up strife, often meddle to their own hurt; and it is just in God, to punish the aggressor, and cover those with shame who seek to advance themselves upon their neighbour’s ruin.

THE EDITOR: Joab’s men went after them.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Asahel, Joab’s brother, pursued after Abner, ambitious of the glory of taking or slaying the general of the army of Israel; trusting to his swiftness, not considering that the race is not always to the swift, and that he had to do with a veteran soldier, and he but a raw young man, though valiant. He kept his eye upon him and pursued him closely, disregarding persons on the right or left he could have made prisoners. Abner looked behind him, and said, “Art thou Asahel?” for it seems he knew him personally, being well acquainted with his family—they were very near to each other, as to be heard and understood by each other.

ADAM CLARKE: Asahel wished to get the armour of Abner as a trophy; this was greatly coveted by ancient heroes. Abner wished to spare him, for fear of exciting Joab’s enmity.

MATTHEW HENRY: Abner, it seems, either loved Joab or feared him; for he was very loth to incur his displeasure, which he would certainly do if he slew Asahel.

THOMAS COKE: The conduct of Abner appears heroic and amiable. He was very desirous of sparing Asahel, advising him not to engage with an old and experienced officer like himself, but to turn against one of the young men, who would be an easy conquest, and whose armour he might carry off as his spoil, 2 Samuel 2:21. Asahel, however, was not to be persuaded.

ADAM CLARKE: As Asahel was obstinate in the pursuit, and was swifter of foot, Abner saw that he must either kill or be killed—therefore he turned his spear and ran it through the body of Asahel.

ROBERT HAWKER: “And it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.” The circumstance of everyone that came to the spot whence Asahel died, stopping, seems to have been from the gracious goodness of God, because it thereby retarded the pursuers, and afforded time to Abner’s army to escape.

THE EDITOR: Joab and Abishai, Asahel’s brothers, kept up the pursuit until they found Abner and his men on a hilltop at nightfall. “Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?” Joab blew a trumpet to call off the pursuit, because Abner’s defensive position was too strong to be attacked at night, and Joab’s men were tired. Abner withdrew his men, and after walking all night, they crossed over Jordan; meanwhile Joab buried his brother Asahel, and returned to Hebron. Abner had lost 360 men, but Joab only 19—plus Asahel.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): By temperament, Joab was a daring and energetic man: a bold fighter in lawless times.

THE EDITOR: Joab was a very hard man—definitely not a man to be played with.

 

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Eutychus

Posted on July 12, 2024 by The Editor

Acts 20:6-12

And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): This Eutychus is the father of all such as fall asleep under sermons. And he well deserves all his fame, for he fell sound asleep under an action sermon of the Apostle Paul. We do not know how much there may have been to be said in exculpation of Eutychus and his deep sleep during that sacrament service.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  It was a very long sermon: He “continued his speech until midnight;” for he had a great deal to say, and knew not that ever he should have another opportunity of preaching to them. After they had received the Lord’s Supper, he preached to them the duties they had thereby engaged themselves to, and the comforts they were interested in, and in this he was very large and full and particular…We know some that would have reproached Paul for this as a long-winded preacher, that tired his hearers; but they were willing to hear: he saw them so, and therefore continued his speech. He continued it till midnight; perhaps they met in the evening in conformity to the example of the disciples who came together on the first Christian sabbath in the evening. It is probable he had preached to them in the morning, and yet thus lengthened out his evening sermon even till midnight. We wish we had the heads of this long sermon.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Long sermons tend to quench the fire instead of kindling it…Paul’s power in the churches was very great, and yet he was not always able to maintain attention when his sermon was long, for at least one hearer went to sleep under him with serious result.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This has been viewed by some as a penalty for inattention.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Mark, though the sermon continued till midnight, and it was a youth that slept, yet he fell down as dead. It was a small sin—a sin of infirmity—a boy’s sin; yet God would leave this warning. I do not criticize too severely upon this infirmity, only give you caution. Yet we are to strive against it, and be sure it may be said of us as of them: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” Matthew 26:41. Make conscience of avoiding this sin; do not compose yourselves to sleep; do not come to these duties spent with labours and worldly cares, nor clogged with excess of meat or drink.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): But how regardless are those of this direction, who, instead of hanging on the preacher to hear him, doze or sleep whilst he is speaking to them from God?

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This fellow wasn’t the last man to be overpowered by drowsiness in a meeting!

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Woe to many today, when God shall once send out summonses for sleepers.

MATTHEW HENRY: Now this youth was to be blamed, that he presumptuously sat in the window, unglazed perhaps, and so exposed himself; and that he slept, nay, he fell into a deep sleep when Paul was preaching, which was a sign he did not duly attend to the things that Paul spoke of, though they were weighty things. The particular notice taken of his sleeping makes us willing to hope that none of the rest slept, though it was sleeping time and after supper; but this youth fell fast asleep, he was carried away with it—so the word is, which intimates that he strove against it, but was overpowered by it, and at last sunk down with sleep.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): I see no cause why some interpreters should so sore and sharply condemn the drowsiness of the young man, that they should say that he was punished for his sluggishness by death. For what marvel is it, if, seeing the night was so far spent, having striven so long with sleep, he yielded at length? Whereas, against his will, and otherwise than he hoped for, he was taken and overcome with deep sleep, we may guess by this that he did not settle himself to sleep. To seek out a fit place wherein to sleep had been a sign of sluggishness, but to be overcome with sleep, sitting at a window—what is it but without fault to yield to nature?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): And also from the length of service, and the lateness of the night, all which contributed to bring on this deep sleep. It can hardly be thought that he purposely composed himself to sleep, for he would never have chosen so dangerous a place to sit in as a window, and at so great an height from the ground; but this sleep seemed to come upon him at an unawares; what hand Satan might have had in it, with a view to the young man’s hurt, both as to soul and body, and to bring reproach and scandal upon the church, and the Gospel, it seems evident that the providence of God was in it, which overruled it for a good end, even the greater confirmation of the Gospel, and very probably to the spiritual good of the young man.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: A miracle was wrought by Paul—the young man was raised from a state of death by the power and goodness of God in His servant and the friends were not a little comforted.

C. H. SPURGEON: Under Paul’s preaching, Eutychus went to sleep, and Paul never blamed him.

THE EDITOR: Maybe Paul blamed himself.

MATTHEW HENRY: Paul did not now go on in a continued discourse, as before, but he and his friends fell into a free conversation, the subject of which, no doubt, was good, and to the use of edifying.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: We must add, however, that we do not think the Lord’s table is the place for long sermons.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Paul did not know when to stop that night. Even after the accident to Eutychus, he was still so full of matter and of spirit, that he went on with his post-communion address till the sun rose on the cups still standing on the table, and on the elders standing beside them, and Paul still pouring out his heart from the pulpit.

C. H. SPURGEON: Send hearers away, not loathing, but longing. Long sermons only make people long for the end of them; the best discourses are those which leave us longing for more.

THE EDITOR: By recording this incident, maybe that’s a lesson the Holy Spirit intended preachers to notice—that they should not weary their people. A young lad once stood looking at an old plaque on the church wall, exhibiting the names of congregation members who had died during the World Wars. “What are those?” the boy asked. “Those are all the names of our church members who died in the service,” explained his pastor. “Oh,” the boy replied, “did they die during the morning or the evening service?”

C. H. SPURGEON: I had many things to say, but I remember Paul’s mistake—and as I could not possibly raise a sleeper from the dead, as Paul did, I will not try the experiment of preaching as long as Paul did!

 

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Psalms Written “for the Sons of Korah”

Posted on July 5, 2024 by The Editor

Psalm 87:1; Psalm 48:1; Psalm 88:1; Psalm 46:1,2

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah. His foundation is in the holy mountains.

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee.

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The title may be justly read, A Psalm or Song for the sons of “miserable man;” for such was Korah: and William Romaine so translated it.

WILLIAM ROMAINE (1714-1795): That is—“fallen man.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  Some are of opinion the word “Mahalath,” may be rendered “the afflicting disease,” either a bodily one, or a soul disorder, being under a sense of divine wrath. “Leannoth” signifies “to answer.” “Maschil,” may be translated “causing to understand.”

J. J. STEWART PEROWNE (1823-1904): The “Korah” whose “sons” are here spoken of, is the Levite who headed the insurrection against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Korah, Dathan and Abiram perished because of their presumption—they went down alive into the pit—and the earth closed upon them. They and all that appertained unto them were swallowed up, Numbers 16:32,33. But we are astonished to read, “Notwithstanding, the children of Korah died not,” Numbers 26:11. Why they were spared, we cannot tell.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): They were his sons that died not, “departing,” as it seems, “from their father’s tents,” as all were counselled, Numbers 16:24-26.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Or because Moses interceded for them, or because God would glorify His own free mercy in sparing some, while He punished others.

C. H. SPURGEON: I attribute their singular escape to the Sovereign Grace of God who spared them when their kinsmen were destroyed.

J. M. NEALE (1818-1866): Mediæval writers remark how here, as so often, it was the will of God to raise up saints where they could have been least looked for.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): The people who deserved least of all, as man would have thought, to be exempted from destruction were precisely those for whom God did reserve this special grace—the sons of Korah!—the leader and organiser of the apostasy, from his position as well as in his conduct, above all others most guilty! The sons of Korah were the objects of a most singular deliverance. Is not this the true grace of God? It is the same God whom we now know, the same God from first to last. Grace is no new thing with Him; but where can you find a finer sample of its power and superiority to all circumstances than in the distinguishing grace that saved from destruction the children of gainsaying Korah, the most infamous of those who had conspired against Moses and Aaron, the types of Christ’s royalty and priesthood.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): Who were “the sons of Korah?”

JOHN GILL: The immediate “sons of Korah,” were Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph, Exodus 6:24.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): But who are these sons of Korah?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): These sons of Korah were afterwards—in their posterity, eminently serviceable to the church.

JOHN TRAPP: Of them came Samuel the prophet, Heman the music master, and others.

J. J. STEWART PEROWNE: The Korahites were a part of the band who acknowledged David as their chief at Ziklag; warriors “whose faces,” it is said, “were like the faces of lions, and who were—for speed, like gazelles upon the mountains,” 1 Chronicles 12:1,6-8. The Korahites were in David’s time, keepers of the threshold of the tabernacle, 1 Chronicles 9:17-19; and still earlier, in the time of Moses, watchmen at the entrance of the camp of the Levites. We find two branches of this family associated with that of Merari, as guardians of the doors of the Temple, 1 Chronicles 26:1-19; and probably an allusion to this, their office, is in Psalm 84:10, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” The Korahites were also celebrated musicians and singers, 1 Chronicles 6:16-33. The musical reputation of the family continued in the time of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:19, where we have the peculiar doubly plural Hebrew form בּגי הקּרהים, “Sons of the Korahites.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Grace upon grace shadowed forth in these sons of Korah. The royal guards of the hidden king—guards of the house, 2 Chronicles 3-5,19. One more privilege of these sons of Korah—sanctified in holiness, they had the happy service of distributing the oblations of the Lord, and the most holy things, 2 Chronicles 31:14-18. They are also thought to have written some of the Psalms. Their names are connected with eleven of them; but their authorship is by no means certain.

THE EDITOR: Eight of those Psalms are addressed “To the Chief Musician, for the Sons of Korah,” as is twice quoted in our opening verses.

WILLIAM KELLY: This is, I think, an important key to the book of Psalms. Every attentive reader will have noticed that the second of the five divisions of the Psalms gives us at its beginning, psalms entitled, “For the sons of Korah,” Psalms 42-49. A few follow in Book 3, Psalms 84-88. These mean the descendants of the men in question.

MATTHEW HENRY: Perhaps they were made to bear his name so long after, rather than the name of any other of their ancestors, for a warning to themselves, and as an instance of the power of God, which brought those choice fruits even out of that bitter root.

C. H. SPURGEON: They who are saved by sovereign grace are the most fit to praise the name of the Lord. The sons of Korah became door-keepers to the house of the Lord. Surely they would sing with peculiar emphasis these words, “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed,” Psalm 46:2. They saw the earth open her mouth and swallow up the offenders of their household while they were preserved by Sovereign Grace. Surely the tears must have stood in their eyes when they sang this verse and thought of the opening gulf at their feet. The circumstance under which a man is saved will influence the rest of his life. To be saved by God from between the teeth of judgment is a rescue so special and vivid that the subject of it learns to sing aloud unto the preserving Lord! Delivered from so great a death, believers learn to trust that the Lord will yet deliver them. When conversion is especially remarkable, the music of gratitude is pitched in a high key and the converts reach notes which are impossible to others.

WILLIAM KELLY: And who were so fit to have such psalms and songs as the sons of Korah?

ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): “A song upon Alamoth,” in Psalm 46, suggests “a choir of virgins,” as if this virgin-choir were selected to sing a Psalm that tells of perils and fears and alarms abounding, to show that even feeble virgins may sing without dread, because of “The Mighty One” on their side.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is for sons of Korah to sing, “Therefore we will not fear.”

ROBERT HAWKER: Such a Psalm, or Song, was composed for the daily use of the sons of Korah; these miserable sons of fallen nature, who, but for the redemption through the sufferings and soul-travail of Jesus, must have thus groaned forever!

THE EDITOR: As believers in Jesus Christ, saved by grace, we are all “sons of Korah.”

WILLIAM ROMAINE: Every such person is entitled to sing this sacred hymn, and he is called upon to do it.

 

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The Spiritual Significance of God’s Rainbow

Posted on June 28, 2024 by The Editor

Psalm 19:1; Genesis 9:8-17

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is not merely glory that the heavens declare—but the “glory of God.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God gave the rainbow for a sign to all the descendants of Noah, by whom the whole earth was peopled after the flood. Thus the celestial bow speaks a universal language.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We do not know the atmospheric conditions of the atmosphere that existed from the time that sin came in the fall of man, until God smelled the sweet savour of Noah’s offering. Indeed, before the fall we read, “the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth…But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,” Genesis 2:5,6. If the whole face of the ground was covered, and no sunshine, there could be no rainbow…If, for the first time when Noah stepped into the new world, the sun shone out as the rain descended—and the covenant bow appeared, as the offering ascended—it would be a most striking figure of the gloom that settled on this earth through sin, and the future glory of God shining on man through the one offering of Christ.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): I think the celestial arch had before existed naturally, but is here consecrated into a sign and pledge; thus a new office is assigned to it.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Now, for the first time, it was made ‘a sign,’ the visible pledge of God’s promise. Mark the emphasis with which God’s agency is declared and His ownership asserted: “I do set My bow.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): As the old world was ruined to be a monument of justice, so this world remains to this day, a monument of mercy, according to the oath of God, that the waters of Noah should no more return to cover the earth…God, by flowing seas and sweeping rains, shows what He could do in wrath; and yet, by preserving the earth from being deluged, shows what He can do in mercy, and will do in truth.

C. H. SPURGEON: Partial floods there have been, and parts of provinces have been inundated, but no flood has ever come upon the earth of such a character as that which Noah saw. Therefore the rainbow, every time it is painted upon the cloud, is an assurance to us that God cannot lie.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): See in the rainbow a token of God’s covenant love.

ADAM CLARKE: The rainbow is an illustrious token of mercy and love.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Consider, how is the rainbow formed? It is the effect from the sun’s beams upon the watery clouds. And Christ, the Sun of righteousness, forms by His shining, the whole effects of the Covenant of Grace, upon all that is cloudy in our nature.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): In the sun, see an emblem of Christ, the Sun of righteousness; in the rainbow, behold a token of God’s covenant love; in the showers and dews of heaven, see an emblem of the refreshing influences of divine grace.

C. H. SPURGEON: Observe that the covenant made with Noah was a covenant of pure grace, for “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” Genesis 6:8. The Lord will deal with us, also, according to His grace…The lovely rainbow, while it comfortably reminds us of the Divine faithfulness, is also a memorial of that universal depravity of our race which necessitated a Covenant of Grace to stand as a barrier for our protection, lest the righteous wrath of God should break forth upon us…The rainbow in the clouds is the token of the covenant of preservation which He made with all His works—but when you come to the spiritual covenant, that Everlasting Covenant is made of God in Christ Jesus, with His chosen—and with them only! None but His own believing people can be said to be partakers in the Covenant of Grace, ordered in all things and sure—for the Man, Christ Jesus, was the Representative of those who are His own body, His own brethren, of whom He says, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me,” John 17:9.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): But is that all there was to the Noahic covenant?

MATTHEW HENRY: The rainbow has fiery colours in it, to signify that though God will not again drown the world, yet, when the mystery of God shall be finished, the world shall be consumed by fire.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): A fire of love to His people, and a fire of wrath to His enemies.

THE EDITOR: What a fearful awakening God’s Day of Judgment will be for those who have turned God’s rainbow, His covenant symbol of mercy and love, into a banner of arrogant pride under which they annually parade sexual perversities which God clearly condemns as “abominations,” Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:22-27. As our Lord said, “the cry of it, which is come unto me,” Genesis 18:20,21. Such open wickedness will have its recompense, as surely as it did in Noah’s day with a devastating flood, and in God’s fiery judgment upon Sodom.

JOHN CALVIN: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness,” Ezekiel 16:49. God says that they began by pride, and surely pride is the mother of all contempt of God.

JOHN GILL: “They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves,” Isaiah 3:9. They commit it openly, without fear or shame; glory in it, and boast of it.

THE EDITOR: “They are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame,” Philippians 3:18,19.

MATTHEW HENRY: Now observe—they had fair warning of the ruin that was coming upon them for their sins. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” to the old world; so was Lot to the Sodomites. They gave them timely notice of what would be the end of their wicked ways, and that it was not far off. They did not regard the warning given them and gave no credit, no heed to it. They were very secure, and went on in their business as unconcerned as you could imagine; “they did eat, they drank,” indulged themselves in their pleasures, and took no care of any thing else, but to “make provision for the flesh.”

EDWARD PAYSON: Though they had disbelieved God’s threatenings, they soon found, as sooner or later all sinners will find, that their unbelief did not render them false, nor prevent their fulfilment.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): Wicked men who now doubt His truth and dare not trust His Word, will hereafter, in the most convincing, affecting manner, find His Word to be true in all that He has threatened, and will see that He is faithful to His promises in rewarding His saints.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Lord has mercy in His right hand for those who will turn from their sin; but He has a sword in His left hand for those who will abide in their iniquities…Oh, turn, ye heathens—some of you as vile as the inhabitants of Sodom—turn! turn to God!

 

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Sorcerers Past and Present

Posted on June 21, 2024 by The Editor

2 Timothy 3:1-13

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Concerning this resistance of Moses by Jannes and Jambres, the Holy Scripture saith nothing but in this text.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We should not have known the names of these ancient opposers of the truth of God, had they not been recorded by the Holy Ghost, in connection with “the perilous times” of which the Apostle Paul warns his son Timothy.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Their names Paul had either by tradition, or out of Jewish records.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): That these names existed in the ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan, on Exodus 7:11, they are called Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical arts.

THE EDITOR: Targum means “translation.” The Targum of Jonathan is an Aramaic translation of the first five books of the Bible. A Talmud “is a collection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and tradition.” But it was by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration that Paul recorded their correct proper names for our learning. Jackson’s 1909 Dictionary of Proper Names, suggests that Jannes means “he vexed,” and Jambres, “foamy healer.”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Greek word translated “seducers,” in verse thirteen, properly signifies sorcerers, magicians, jugglers, witches, or enchanters. Jannes and Jambres were evidently such; impostors who endeavoured to vend a false religion for a true one, and to support it by their incantations.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The reason why there were two of them may be conjectured to have been that, because the Lord had raised up for His people two leaders, Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh determined to place against them the like number of magicians…Although Paul names two, Jannes and Jambres, it is probable that they were not the only ones, but the chief ringleaders. But I will not dispute this questionable point. The admonition of Paul is more to the purpose, that “as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,” so also there should always be false teachers, who would oppose Christ’s true ministers, and indeed should “wax worse and worse.”

THOMAS COKE: “But they shall proceed no further” than the magicians did, nor be able essentially and finally to deceive the faithful saints of God—and “their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, mark the nature of this resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. We do not find that they attributed his actings to a false or evil energy, but rather that they sought to neutralise their power upon the conscience, by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so that, after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in; so where was the difference?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You know Satan always works by trying to counterfeit the work of the Spirit. Jannes and Jambres in Egypt could imitate some of the miracles. They “did so with their enchantments,” Exodus 8:7. There is much in true religion which men can successfully counterfeit. But, as in Egypt, a point was reached wherein the magicians were foiled, so that they confessed, “This is the finger of God.” Jannes and Jambres were soon, by the power and wisdom of God, proved to be fools.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: There were only three things in which the magicians of Egypt were able to imitate the servants of the true and living God, namely, in turning their rods into serpents, Exodus 7:12; turning the water into blood, Exodus 7:29; and bringing up the frogs, Exodus 7:8; but, in the fourth, which involved the exhibition of life, in connection with the display of nature’s humiliation, they were totally confounded, and obliged to own, “this is the finger of God,” Exodus 8:16-19. Thus it is also with the latter-day resisters of the truth. All that they do is by the direct energy of Satan, and lies within the range of his power.

THE EDITOR: None but God by His Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, can create life; thus Aaron’s rod smote “dust of the land, and it became lice,” Exodus 8:17. That Aaron’s serpent swallowed up their serpents, shows also that there is none other salvation but by Jesus Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON: So in the regeneration of our nature—in the changing the heart—the Lord alone is seen. Who shall pretend to give another a new heart? Of regeneration we may say, “This is the finger of God.”

JOHN TRAPP: Thus Jannes and Jambres were silenced and convinced, but not converted.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:5-6 also resist the truth. This is one of the Divinely-delineated characteristics of the “perilous times.” The reference is to men and women supernaturally endowed by Satan to work miracles. Such are found today, we believe, not only among Spiritualists and Christian Scientists, but also in some leaders of the Faith-healing cults. There are those now posing as evangelists of Christ who are attracting large crowds. Their chief appeal is not the message they bear—but their readiness to “anoint” and pray over the sick. They claim that “Jesus,” in response to their faith, has through them removed paralysis, healed cancers, given sight to the blind. When their claims are carefully investigated, it is found that most of the widely-advertised “cures” are impostures. But on the other hand, there are some cases which are genuine healings, which cannot be explained apart from supernatural agency. So it was with the miracles wrought by the magicians of Pharaoh.

THE EDITOR: Deceptive “lying wonders” and fame are their tools to gain money. Beware of charismatic “faith-healers” and multi-millionaire television “evangelists.” Are they much different from these two Egyptian sorcerers, or Balaam, who used “enchantments,” and desired a reputation as God’s prophet, Numbers 22:15-18; Numbers 24:1? Or Elymas, the sorcerer who resisted Paul, Acts 13:8? Or Simon Magus?

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Simon Magus desired the gifts of the Holy Ghost that he might be a man of fame and name, Acts 8:18-21. And do not some labour to bring the gospel to town as an expedient?

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Simon Magus “used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.”—he claimed to be a miracle worker and by his trickery and so-called magic had deceived the people: “To whom all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God,” Acts 8:9,10.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What Simon Magus said in answer to Peter, Acts 8:24, is to the same effect as Pharaoh desired Moses, that he would pray for him, Exodus 10:17. But, like Pharaoh, the heart remained hardened. He dreaded the punishment likely to follow, and would have avoided it—but we hear no cry of soul from either, for a change of heart.

 

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God the Father Manifested in His Son

Posted on June 14, 2024 by The Editor

John 14:1,6-11

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): God is “the Father of glory,” Ephesians 1:17. He is called the “Father of glory” by way of an eminency of fatherhood; there is no such father as He.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): God is the only Father, to speak properly, Matthew 23:9. The Father of all the fatherhood in heaven and earth.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Now it is perfectly true that God may be known through creation. We are told that in the first chapter of Romans—“the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse,” Romans 1:20. So men who deny God, who refuse to believe in a God, who live as if there were no God, are without excuse. But the Fatherhood of God could only be revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ. Nature tells me there is a God, that He must be infinite in wisdom and power, but it does not tell me He has a Father’s heart. I would not know that except from the revelation He has given in His blessed Son.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He that has seen the one, must know the other; and indeed, “no one can know the Father, but he to whom the Son reveals Him,” Matthew 11:27. The knowledge of both go together.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He is “the only-begotten Son,” John 3:16; and Who so likely to know the Father as the Son? or in whom is the Father better known than in the Son? He is of the same nature with the Father, so that he who hath seen Him hath seen the Father. He is “in the bosom of the Father,” John 1:18. He had lain in His bosom from eternity. When He was here upon earth, yet still, as God, He was in the bosom of the Father, and thither He returned when He ascended.

H. A. IRONSIDE: I love those verses with which the epistle to the Hebrews opens: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:1-3. Those words, “the express image of his person,” might well be rendered the “exact expression of His character.” Everything in the character of Christ tells out that which is in the heart of God: His love for holiness, His delight in righteousness, His interest in men—even unconverted men.

JOHN GILL: “Holy Father,” John 17:11. The epithet “holy” is exceeding suitable, as it perfectly agrees with Him who is essentially so—and “righteous Father,” John 17:25. God is righteous—the Father is righteous, the Son is righteous, and the Holy Spirit is righteous: God is so in His nature; righteousness is a perfection of it; He is so in all His purposes and promises; in all His ways and works of providence and grace; in predestination, redemption, justification, pardon of sin, and eternal glory.

H. A. IRONSIDE: And it is the Holy Spirit Who told us God is love, and the evidence He gave of it was this: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” 1 John 4:10. Oh, we could have known that God was great, that God was powerful, that God was wise. We might even have known from the abundant provision He has made for His creatures that He is good, but we would never have known that He is love, if Jesus had not come to reveal the Father. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14. I repeat, we would never have known the Fatherhood of God apart from the revelation given us in our Lord Jesus Christ.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): How close and mysterious is the union of God the Father and God the Son! Four times over this mighty truth is put before us in unmistakable words—“If ye had known Me, ye would have known my Father;” “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;” “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me;” “The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” Sayings like these are full of deep mystery. We have no eyes to see their meaning fully, no language to express it, no mind to take it in. Let it suffice us to know that the Father is God and the Son is God, and yet that they are one in essence though two distinct Persons.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): None can know the Father, except they to whom the Son should reveal Him; yet, in these words, He invites all to come and learn of Him the mysterious truths, which, though already recorded in the written word, cannot be apprehended aright, unless He unfold them to us, and enable us to understand them: “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls,” Matthew 11:29.

J. C. RYLE: These are high things, and we cannot attain to a full comprehension of them. Let us take comfort in the simple truth, that Christ is very God of very God; equal with the Father in all things, and One with Him. He Who loved us, and shed His blood for us on the cross, and bids us trust Him for pardon, is no mere man like ourselves. He is “God over all, blessed forever,” and able to save to the uttermost the chief of sinners. Though our sins be as scarlet, He can make them white as snow. He that casts his soul on Christ has an Almighty Friend—a Friend who is One with the Father, and very God.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,” John 17:3. By this, then, we can know whether we have eternal life or not. Do we know the Father? Do we know Jesus Christ as the Messiah the Sent One? Are we resting in that blessed knowledge? If so, He has given us eternal life.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Do you say to yourself, “Oh, I wish I understood God better. I wish I could know just how God the Father looks at things, how He feels about things, and what His attitude is toward men in general, and His people in particular.” Well, all you need to do is read the four Gospels and get better acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ, for He has made the Father known in all His fullness.

J. C. RYLE: The more we know of Christ, the more we know of the Father.

 

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