The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 504

fr.uit of sin. Man's moral nature ie in contact with the physical order by meaus of a material vehicle, and a.s his moral nature is supreme and cannot but affect by its deterioration and wrong direction, the vehicle by which it acts, so the lesser ~ust be disorder!'d by the disorder of the greater. The miseries of human life would not have come had man k4:>t bis first estate. All our painful struggles in commerce and war our diseases and poverty, are the outcome of a heart not as the heart of God. That Sodom should fall under fire, that Pharaoh should be swept into the sea, that Jerusalem should be trodden down, were but physical facts consequent on sin, bold and striking yet not different in essence from the general connection of sin and suffering. Hence' Chri~t•s mission to make mau's physical environment for ever helpful and not hurtfui to him, by rendering his moral nature perfect, and therefore his whole nature in perfect adjustment to all that is. Ill. THE DUTY OF SEARCHING OUT THE MORAL ELEMENTS 0ONNE0TED WITH OUB PHYSICAL TROUBLES. The famine was a reality in the experience of every one; but it was the will of God that the people should notice its connection with national sin. 'l'hey must consider its spiritual bearings; they must associate their difficulties with previous conduct. As a rule, there is an indisposition to do this. Physical law, fate chance, almost anything, is referred to as being occasion or cause of present difficultie; and sufferings, rather than personal sin. Of course, individual sin is not the cause of great public calamities, and not immediately of private sufferings. Yet we ought, as a matter of rigid thought, to trace back the physical troubles of the world, so far as man is sufferer, to the moral cause. In nations troubles are referred to the restlessness of other :nations, or ignorance of political ~nomy, or of sanitary laws, or decaying commerce; but we should go dee.per, and see what pride and arrogance and defiant tone may have done to inflame other nations, and what sinful neglect in' spending money on wars rather than on instruction of the people. In personal life we should search and see to what extent failures in business, in health, and enterprise are connected with persistent violation of some of the primary laws which God has given for our guidance. IV. MISSING CLUES TO THE SOLUTION OF DIFFICULTIES. There are evident difficulties connected with this narrative which press upon the ordinary reader at once. The demand for seven lives, and the yielding to the demand, both perplex us. The pressure of a famine on a whole people, and the use of that famine for purposes of chastise- ment for a sin of years past, do not lessen the perplexity, .A.part from this narrative, we know nothing of any act done by Saul toward the Gibeonites. Now, if instead of this abrupt declaration of tbe existence of a national sin, and of the retribution for it in -the t.errihle form of seven deaths, we were told of the precise circumstances under which Saul violated the national compact of Josh. ix. 15-17, we should then certainly see the wisdom and appropriateness of the famine to arouse the national conscience, and the justice of the t.errible retribution on Saul's family. The clue here missing because of the incompleteness of history ie but an instance of what constantly occurs. In the Bible there are many facts which doubtless would lose all their strangeness and seem- ing discrepancies and moral difficulties did we but know the details left unrecorded. Historians are guided by this remembrance of missing clues in their estimate of □ en and characters. In our jud,,ament on conduct we often fail or are in suspense because a clue to some strange feature is lacking. Especially are we at present lacking the clue to many events in the government of God. When we know more perfectly, we shall eee that to be just which is now perplexing, and, as a rule, we may say that our .ignorance of hidden facts ought to count in our judgments on revealed truth as much as our knowledge. V. Gon RAS IN RESERVE AGENCIES FOR BRINGING THE FACT OF SIN STBAIGHT HOME TO THE CONSCIENCE. The famine aroused conscience. '!'be men of Gibeon were God's agents in bringing all the facts home to the conscience of the nation. The confusion and change of government in the last days of Saul and early years of David, before he left Hebron to be king over the entire people, will explain why the Gibeonites did not press their suit earlier. .Although the sin was so grievous, it must have appeared to a[)y who now and then i;eflected on it as though it were being passed by, and that no means were at baud to bring the new king face to face with the wrong done. But at the proper seaeon God found means for calling forth the Gibeonites to declare the full facts and to bring the sin home to the national conacieoce. They proved what ihc farnine 011ly ott, Xlrl. 1-22.] TBE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 1317