The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 224

direct, that David would be likely to be in want of these things. Yet, whatever intimation Hiram had received, his response is large and graciowi and full of free will. Something in this David saw, which perhaps no one else saw, but well worth notice. I. DAVID SAW THAT ONE CONTINUOUS PURPOSE OJ' GoD WAS HOVING ON. It was one that affected " his people Israel." Israel be bad chosen, Israel he had for his peculiar people, in Israel he had a fixed purpose, to this already for long ages he had held, and the ancient promise and covenant had been a growingly plain performing. This continuity by itself riveted attention, and brought a doubting, tired spirit home again to a strong peaceful faith, when any other circumstance, though it should seem but a trivial one, served to remind of it. Ought we not to be herein reminded of such things as these ?-1. That all God's purposes, yes, all those that affect us as individuals only, are consistent, determined, marked by a faithful continuity in this respect, that they do not cease, do not determine, till they have fulfilled their appointed part. This may be less than we thought, if we thought at all, or it may be more. It may be different from what we thought, if we thought at all; and very certainly may be different from what we wished, because we so readily wish without any sovereign reason guiding our wish. But each little purpose, so to speak, of the Divine mind~ little in our mistaken estimate-runs out to its end, and does not miss of the designed end. 2. That assuredly there must very often be Divine purpose in what happens, and as we think merely happens, in our experience. For the man who honestly believes in a supreme Governor of his life, this must commend itself to reason. And what seriousness, reverence, sacredness, dignity, and deep-drawn consolation would it yield to any life, as fervently to believe this, so habitually to remember it! 3. That those purposes are upon a large scale. They affect the whole family in the individual, the whole community in the family or the class, that may be visibly and proximately the first affected, and so on, till the entire race shares in the advantage, and all the long-drawn-out subsequent ages illustrate its beneficence, as was literally the case for the whole wol'ld in the treatment and the checkered history of Israel. 4. That, because of the large scale on which Divine purpose is schemed: (1) It may easily elude our notice altogether if we are not very heedful. (2) It will present many difficulties, many obscurities, many dark mysteries, all due to the incapacity of our finite intellects to grasp the whole, to see the end from the beginning, and to be able to gaze all down the long abyss of time. (3) For all this, some vivid personal incident will occasionally be charged with suggestion and significance that will light up a vast area of human life in a moment of time, and will display convincingly how Divine knowledge, wisdom, purpose, are intersecting and traversing all the tangle and the labyrinth of fitful human working I .And it was a gleam of convincing light of this kind that now shono in on David's mind. II. DAVID SAW THAT CERTAIN DIVINE PROVIDENTIAL METHOD WAS BEING OBSERVED. In tliefirstplace, an individual human kingdom, a personal dynasty, is being " lifted up" for " the sake of the beloved people and the settled purpose." Never was there such a comment, such a clear criticism on the "Divine right of kings." Kings and the right of kings, it would certainly seem to be here testified, are means to an end, and then only is the right most Divine when used most divinely, and under most solemn sense of responsibility. 'I'he "people Israel" are those here called" his people," i.e. the people of the Lord, the Lord God. The "people Israel" are those whom ho loves, are what he loves. It is not the "kingdom," nor the government, nor the land, nor the national bent and genius, nor even the king himself merely as such, that he loves, but the "people" Israel. "All is for their sakes," as St. Paul in later times said. This kingdom of David, this dynasty which he represented, of which he was to be such a brilliant exponent, wero to count nothing in and of themselves. They wero for the sake of something else. But passing this greater general consideration, in the second place, David saw tokens of Divine providential method in the willing heart, willing hand, willinu speech, of a neighbouring king. The willingness and the generosity may not have been ~!together unknown, but when all the circumstances were combined, and when we remember the exceptional poHition of Israel among nations that often wondered at Israel's God, often envied Israel's unseen mighty protection and defenc(•, there could sr.arcely have been many precedents, scarcely many parallels, to be quoteJ. 218 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [oH. xiv. 1-17.