The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 29

mo,ed by the capture of Zion, and did not wait to be attacked, but invaded the land and were twice utterly routed. The friendship of Hiram and the defeat of the Philistines seclU'ed peace for Israel along the whole of the sea-coast. Thus far Dand had been urged on by political necessity: it was impossible to undertake higher work till a seat of goYernment was established and a prospect of peace seclU'ed. .13nt his heart had been elsewhere throughout. For fifty years or more the ark o~ .God_ ha_d be~n homeless. It was still in its temporary restmg-place at KiiJath-Jeanm; 1t must be brought to Zion and a new house built for it. First the Philistines' inroad and then the death of U zzah-a te1Tible warning to those who irreverently seek God "not after the due order" (1 Chron. x,·. 13_1-caused delay: but at last the half of David's wish was accomplished, and the ark was brought up to Jerusalem; the othel' half, of building a house for it, he was commanded to learn for his son. It is one more proof of the irreligiousness of the court of Saul that his daughter Michal considered the prominent part which David took on this joyous occasion nothing but a shameful lowering of the royal dignity. Her father had known how to keep priests in order, and now her husband was making himself as one of them : and " she despised him in her heart." Various psahns bear strong evidence of having been composed for this great festival. Chief of these are Psahns cxxxii., lxviii., and xxiv.; to which xv., ci., and perhaps xxix. and xxx., may be. added. The seat of empire and the seat of worship being thus secureu and united, David proceeds to consolidate his kingdom both within and without. The details of his military and civil administration, and of his religious institutions and successful wars, are told us at great length. His victories, celebrated in Psahna Ix. and ex., carried the frontier of Israel to its furthest limits (limits maintained for little over half a century), and then the brightest portion of his reign is over. His great sin, the adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, follows and clouds the rest of his life. Immediately before it we have a fair spot to rest on for a moment, his tender kindness to Mephibosheth, the crippled son, and apparently the only child of Jona- than. Now that the most pressing work of his reign is completed, David remembers his compact with Jonathan, that "Jehovah should be between them and their seed for ever," and that " he would not cut off his kindness from J onathan's house for ernr '' (1 Sam. =· 42, 15). He makes inquiries for the descendants of Saul, hears of Mephibosheth from the crafty Ziba, and generously provides for the depressed and timid prince, who, but for his grandfather's sins, might have been king of Israel. It is the last unclouded spot in David's life. •• Be sw-e your sin shall find you out" (Num. xxxii. 23). The rest of the life of David is one long commentary on the solemn text. In tragic ho1Tor and pathos, in psychological interest, in spiritual instruction, the history of David's sin and repent- ance and punishment has scarcely an equal. Lust and murder, the common sins of Oriental despotism, may be traced in part at least as the natural outcome of what Las already been pointed out as the plague-spot in David's royal state. No con- sideration of prudence, or honour, or gratitude, no fear of God hold's him back. Bathsheba was the granddaughter of Ahitophel his counsellor; Uriah was one of his "thirty mighty men,'' and was at that very moment risking his life for David. It seems to show how prosperity and luxury had weakened David's character that Le remained indolently at Jerusalem while all Israel was in arms against Ammon and Syria. The sending of the ark to Rabbah seems also to indicate a change for the worse. The king's attempt to cover his crime shows the nobility of Uriah's  JOSHUA TO NEHEMIAH. xxxiii ----------· ----------------------- cha.meter, e.nd o,s a, rewo,rcl for it he is m11de to ce.rry hie own clee.th-we.rrant back to the wo,r. The e.trocity of De.vid's plot is sce.rcely excusecl by the fact the.t a similar ono ho,d been foicl 11g11inst himself by Saul; e.nd the empty co=onplace with which Do,vid answers the message that there has been hee.vy loss of life, including that of Uriah (2 Sam. xi. 25), is evidence of the slumber in which his conscience is lulled. But there was soon to be a. full awakening. It is one more. evidence how morally souncl the Chosen People were at heart, that the sin even of one so exalted, of one so clear to them, was not in any way palliated wherever it became known; and it is proof of how trnly, in spite of it all, be was" a man after God's own heart," that he macle no attempt to excuse it, but at once admitted it in its true colours. The noble courage of Nathan in rebuking his sovereign is equalled by the nobility of Davicl's complete confession and submis- sion. " 0 felire culpa I " one is almost tempted to exclaim, when one reads the history of David's penitence, and still more when one appropriates the passionate outpouring of remorseful struggle, of sense of guilt, of sorrow for sin, of yearning for purity, of submission to God, of joy for the peace of reconciliation, in which he bas given a voice to the penitence of the whole worlcl from the.t day to this (Psalms xxxii. and li.). Sin has three consequences in this world-weakening of the sinner's own cha- racter; the force of bad example to others ; misery entailed on the sinner and those connected with him. Every one of these can be distinctly traced in the case of David's sin. For evidence of the first there is the cruelty to the conqnerecl Ammon- ites (2 Sam. xii. 31), the leaving Amnon unpunished, and the other great sin of numbering the people; for the second there is the outrage on Tamar, the murder of Amnon, the revolt of Absalom, with the treatment of David's concubines; for the third there is the death of Bathsheba's first child, the efficient aid given by her grandfather to Absalom, the immense power over David which complicity with the murder of Uriah gave to the headstrong and impetuous Joab, No one can con- sider these facts in themselves and in their pregnant consequences, and then think, because of Nathan's declaration, "The Lord also h11th put away thy sin; thou shalt not die," that God spared sin in the man after His own heart. There is no royal road to forgiveness. And if any one thinks that David's sins are any excnse for his own, let him first try to measure the difference between the Law and the Gospel, and then measure his own by David's repentance. It is among the many curses of polygamy that the children of the different wfres grow up from the first in an atmosphere of sensual indulgence; secondly, that there is sure to be rivah·y between them, ancl intriguing among their mothers, with a view to their father's favour and the succession to his property. All this is abun- c!antly illustrated in the history of David's chilclren, especially of Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. Absalom, the Hebrew Alcibiades, beautiful ancl be.cl, fascinating in manner and hollow of heart, is the instrument by which the curse pronounced by Nathan was fnlfillecl, "Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house'' (eh. xii. 11). The warnings taught by the troubles of Eli and Samuel seem to have been unheeded; fo1· his chilcl1·en also grow up unchastened and unrestrained. It is signi- ficant of the corrupt atmosphere of the harem that Ta.mar thinks that David will consent to an incestuous man-:iage between her and her half-brother (eh. xiii. 13). The murder of Amnon, similar to that of Shechem by Simeon and Levi, probably left Absalom eldest son. In the irksome idleness of his enforced exile he conceived JOSHUA, C nxiv INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL BOOKS: