I now return unto that part which I shall a little more distinctly open unto you, that concerns David himself, as he was chosen to be the great type of Christ. Saith he, " This Ruler of men, he shall be as the clear morning without clouds; although my house be not so with God."
There are two things in the words : — First, A supposition of a great disappointment and surprisal. Secondly, A relief against and under that disappointment and surprisal.
First. A great surprisal and disappointment: "Although my house be not so with God." " I have looked that it should be otherwise," saith he, — "that my house should have a great deal of glory, especially, that my house should be upright with God ; but I begin to see it will be otherwise." You may observe, David's heart was exceedingly set
of the passage; which agrees substantially with the version proposed by Ken-
nicott : —
4. " Riding over man is a Righteous One,
Ruling in the tear of God :
Even as the light of the morning shall he arise,
Jehovah, the sun ;
A morning without clouds for brightness,
[As] after rum the herbage from the earth.
5. Truly thus is my house with God ;
For an everlasting covenant he hath fixed with me, Ordered in every thing and secured ; For [this is] all my salvation, and all [my] desire: 6 But the wicked shall not grow."
Owen himself, as will be seen above, very properly corrects the authorized version in one point; and thus warrants our reference to subsequent discoveries, by which greater accuracy has been imparted to the original text in this part of Scripture. His own reasoning in the discourse principally depends upon the nega- tive in the beginning of verse 5, which Kennicott would omit, on the slender autho- rity, as it appears, of one manuscript dating from the close of the thirteenth cen- tury. It is a fair question, therefore, if the external evidence for the rejection of the negative be as strong as for the insertion of " Jehovah " in the preceding verse. Boothroyd, attaching an interrogative sense to the particle ^ throws the clause into the form of a question, and elicits the best meaning with the least violence to the text, — " Is not my house thus with God 2 "
It will be found, however, that the chief aim of Owen is to educe from the co- venant of grace considerations fitted to sustain and console the minds of Chris- tians under the grief of blighted hope. His argument is conclusive, whatever becomes of the mere criticism of his text. — Ed.
412 THE EVERLASTING COVENANT
upon his house ; therefore, whenever God spake to him concerning his house, it mightily wrought upon him; as 2 Sam. vii. 18, 19, " Who am I, O Lord God ? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, 0 Lord God ; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?" Verse 25, " And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said." I am sometimes afraid that David had (as under the Old Testament they generally had) some carnal apprehensions of those spiritual promises that God gave to David's house, — which were, principally, to bring Christ out of his loins, that should reign for ever: but David thought all things would come well out of his house also. How stands the case now ? Now David sees that in his house Amnon had defiled Tamar, Absalom had slain Amnon for his sin, and he was cut off in his rebellion ; and he fore- saw, by a spirit of prophecy, that his whole house was like to perish and be cut down: and so comes to that now, " Although my house be not so with God." So that from hence we may take this observation, —
That the best of the saints of God do oftentimes meet with great surprisals and disappointments in the best of their earthly comforts: their houses are not so with God.
I will give you one or two places for this: — 1 Chron. vii. 23, " Eph- raim went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bare a son, and he called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house." Ephraim had received a special blessing from God by Jacob, for the multiplying of his house: "He also shall be great, and his seed shall become a mul- titude of nations," Gen. xlviii. 19. Now, in Ephraim's old age, some of the chief of his sons are killed, 1 Chron. vii. 21, 22, " There were Zabad, and Shuthelah, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim their father mourned many days." And he called his other child Beriah, " because it went evil with his house." It was a great surprise unto him, because he had a promise for his house; though God afterwards retrieved it.