We wonder not at the indignation of Abishai,
a 2 Sam. xii. 11. ^ Fs. Ixix. 2G.
or at the proposal which he made to avenge his master's cause on this insulting adversary. But we do wonder at David's forbearance under this heavy trial, and at, II. His meek submission to it —
David would not suffer Abishai to execute his pro- ject, and to inflict on this daring rebel the deserved punishment. He chose rather to endure all the insults that were heaped upon him: and to this he was led by two considerations :
1. He saw the hand of God in this trial —
[Repeatedly does he say, that " God had bidden this virulent adversary to curse him:" and from that considera- tion he puts the question to Abishai, " Who then shall say, Wherefore hast thou done so''?" Of course, he did not imagine that God had enjoiyied this man to behave thus, or had actually infused into his mind a disposition to commit so great a transgression. When " God hardened the heart of Pharaoh '^," he only left him to harden his own heart : and when he " sent forth an e\\\ and lying spirit into the prophets of Ahab," he only gave permission to the evil spirit to enter into them^. In fact, the creature, even whilst he acts most freely, executes, even as the murderers of our blessed Lord did, " what His mind and His counsel had determined before to be done^." The creature, whatever his own mind and pur- pose may be, is only " a rod, or staff, or sword in Jehovah's hand," to execute his holy will^. And though this does not excuse the creature, who, in fact, thinks of doing his own will only, it must reconcile us to what is done, no less than if it had been done directly and immediately by God himself. Thus Job viewed the losses he sustained through the rapacity of the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who took away all his cattle, and slew his servants : " Shall I receive good at the Lord's hands, and shall I not receive evil ? The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord*^." From this consideration, David was enabled to submit with meekness to the invectives of Shimei, and to say, as Eli, " It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good'." This is the account he himself gives us : "I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it'^."]
2. He looked to God to overrule it for his good —
= ver. 10, 1], ^ Exod. iv. 21. ^ i Kings xxii. 21 — 23.
<■ Acts iv. 28. s Isai. X. 5 — 7. h Job i. 21. andii. 10.
' 1 Sam. iii. 18. ^ Ps. xxxix. 9.
321.] David's patience and forbearance. 293:
[It is God's privilege to bring good out of evil, for the benefit of his believing people. Da%id was no stranger to the history of Joseph, nor of the testimony which Joseph bore respecting the sufferings which had been inflicted on him by his brethren : " It was not you that sent me hither ; but God, to save your lives by a great deliverance." " Ye indeed thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive ^." And he fondly hoped that God would in some way sanctify to him this dispensation. He well knew, that God " chastens his people for their profit, to make them partakers of his holiness : and that affliction, though not joyous at the present, but grievous, \\dll, through God's blessing upon it, work out the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby™." And he hoped that God would make this severe Aasitation " work for his good" ;" or, at all events, whatever might be the effect of it here, it would issue well at the last, by " working out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in the eternal world"." This hope pacified and composed his mind, and enabled him to " possess his soul in patience ;" whilst Abishai, yielding to the impulse of an irritated mind, would gladly have executed on the offender the judgment he deserved.]