The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 82

a messenger, unl:nown to David, after Abner, he induces him to return to Hebron and, under pretence of II quiet conference, be leads him asido l\nd assassinates him~ 4-. Hearing of the affair, David at once repudil\tes it, and in strong terms desires that heavy judgments may fall on the head of Joab and his house. 6. David orders a general mourning for Abner, attends his funeral, and utters I\ pathetic lamentation over him. 6. The lting's sorrow assumes I\ solemn and impressive form throughout the day, so 88 to oonvinoe the people of his utter abhorrence of the crimo and his sense of the n&tional loss. 7. David causes his servants to know that he cherished a reaard for the great abilities and possible services to Israel of Abner, and Wl\8 pained band enfeebled in his action as anointed king by the perverse conduct of the sons of Zerui&h, Defectiue sympathy. The first impression, on reading the account of the conduct of Joab, is that of the most villainous treachery, and one at once enters into the anger and ,•exation of David. But the treacherous act professedly in the service of David was the outcome of a permanent condition of mind. Ostensibly it is to be ascribed to the resentment cherished on account of the death of Asahel; but the action of a man occupying a responsible position in a great undertaking is not governed merely by the presence of a feeling of this kind. The resentment would have had no positive power to issue in this deed had not the mind of Joab been out of harmony with the mind of David in the views taken of the kingdom, its principles, and methods of consolidation. A public servant will govern his private passions if his mind is in full sympathy with his master's, so as to see that the indulgence of them would be uncongenial to him and injurious to his interests. Joab was deficient in sympathy with the higher qualities and aims of his great master, and consequently the bad qualities found an outlet which otherwise would have either had no existence or would have been suppressed for hie sake. L THE EMPLOYMENT OF KEN OF DEFECTIVE SYMPATHIES IS, IN THE PRESENT STATE OF THE WORLD, UNAVOIDABLE. 'l'hat Joab was not in full sympathy with David's pure and lofty aspirations is seen both in this account and aiso in the pressure previously put upon David in exile by his chief men to take away the life of Saul, as, again, in the subsequent allusions to his conduct (eh. :i::ix. 7). That such a man should have been at the head of military affairs in David's service is not surprising, for David had from the first to take such men as were disposed to follow his fortunes, and when he set up regal authority in Hebron it was in the nature of things for the man of greatest will-JJOwer to push his way to the front. Kings cannot make their ministers; they can only use what the age produces. It was not David's fault ; it was the natural condition of thin,,as, arising from myriads of concurrent causes, that there was not one man since the death of Samuel and Jonathan that was so spiritual and far-seeing as to enter with full enthusiastic sympat.hy into his conceptions of the kingdom of God and the holy principles on which it should be established and governed. The evil of having to work out great and glorious issues in conjunction with men who do not enter into the inner spirit of the enterprise is remarkably illustrated in the case of our Saviour. There was not one who could enter into the full depth and breadth of his work in the world. Relatively his blundering disciples, often paining his heart by their worldly notions, were as f&r removed from him as was Joab, with his crude ideas and low feel- ings, from David. Nor could it be otherwise unless men were supernaturally trans- formed. The same holds good now in the instruments Christ bas to use in carrying on his work in the world. How defective many labourers and followers are in sympathy with his holy aspirations and methods! Indeed, it is the same in every secular employ- ment. Seldom, if ever, does the servant enter fully into the mind of the master. Ideas and feelings cherished by the directing and originating mind are, of necessity, inade- quately appreciated by instrumentalities not perfectly charged with them. The servant, in this sense, is not equal to his lord. JJ. THE EXIBTENCE OF THIS DEFECTIVE 8Ylll'ATBY BETWEEN SERVANT AND HA.STER 16 THE OCCASION OF VARIOUS EVILS. Because Joab did IJot really understand the pure and generous spirit of David, his very zeal for him assumed forms not only opposed to the king's wishes, but fraught with evil tendencies for the kingdom, It i11 obvious from ver. 24 that Joab misapprehended the peaceful, generous policy of David, and ver. 25 re\'eale the fa.et that he was in bis heart actually opposed to the course which OH, III, 1-39,] 'rHE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. Rt