The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 596

which had been called forth by their success." Or: 3, Both people and ruler may alike participate in the same prevalent, sinful diBposition or tendency of the age, As formerly (eh. xv. 1-6), "soft indulgence" and sensual desire; so now," the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John ii, 16) seem to have taken possession of his mind. 4. The sin of a people may culminate in, and be manifested and represented by, the sin of their ruler. For this he is eminently responsible, and when his piety, which should have checked the evil tendency of the people, e.nd may hitherto have restrained the righteous judgmcnt of God, begins to fail, it becomes the occasion of the breaking forth of his fiery indignation. "It was the final offence which filled up the cup of wrath, and the punishment smote the no.tion, and, through the nation, its ruler" (Kirkpatrick, Hom. Quart., vi.). "The Lord was wearied with the sins of Israel and Judah; and he like- wise beheld the secret pride of David's heart; and for these things be was resolved to ·~isit both the people and the king." "Pride, or. vain-glory, or self-sufficiency, which was the sin of David, and which, for the very reason that it effects us less, because it is not so much against man as against God, offends him the more. It is a. substitution o! ourselves in bis place,; an impious thought of independence, and transference to our- selves of that confidence and admiration which a.re due to him alone. It is an invasion of his throne, an assumption of his sceptre, an attempt to rob him of that glory which he will not give to another, a removing. of the crown from his head to put it on our own. 'Wherefore it is said, God resisteth the proud'" (J. Leifchild). "He W!l.ll, for the time, the image and emblem of a.II who in any age, or in any country, Jove to have arrayed before them the elements of their worldly strength; who delight to see spread out the full enrolment of their powers and resources, and who forget that there is One before whose breath all these things sha.11 be even as the cloud-capped towers and pa.laces before the breath of the whirlwind," III. THE SWFUL MEASURES OF. A BULER ABE SOMETIMES THE EFFECT OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE WITH HIS PEOPLE, whose sin he shares, and of whose punishment he is made the instrument, "And he [Jehovah] moved [incited, provoked] David to say,'' etc. "The thought is-there should come a. pestilence over Israel, and David become the occasion thereof" (Thenius). "The ruler's sin is a. punishment to a. wicked people." Sin implies personal responsibility; and" God tempts no man" (Jas. i 13). But in his universal sovereignty: 1. He appoints the circumstances, which are adapted to test and manifest character, and often conduce to sin. 2. He suggests thoughts which, although right and good in themselves, are sometimes perverted to wrong and evil by human folly and infatuation (ver.. ::.0). "All good thoughts, counsels, just works, come from the Spirit of God; and, at the same time, we a.re in the most imminent peril at every moment of turning the Divine suggestions into sin by allowing our ~elfish and impure conceits and rash generalizations to mix with them" (Maurice). 3. He with- draws his restraining grace in consequence of sin, and permits men to be tempted of Satan (1 Chron. xxi. 1), who readily seizes the opportunity to lead them into trans- gression. Deus probat, Satan te:ntat. 4. He even constrains the manifestation of the iniquity of the heart for holy and beneficent ends. "God's influence, making use of Satan as its instrument, leads the corrupt germ to its dev:elopment, rousing into action that which slumbers in the soul, in. order to bring about the retributive judgment in which man, if otherwise well-intentioned, learns fully to recognize his sinful condition, and is moved to repentance. The question is not of simple permission on the part of God, but of a real action, and that of the nature which each one may perceive in his own tendencies. Whoever once yields to his sinful disposition is infallibly involved in the sinful deed which leads to retributive judgment, however much he may strive against it" (Hengstenberg). "Though it was David's sin that opened the sluice, the sins of the people all contributed to the deluge" (Matthew Henry). IV. AN ADEQUATE REASON IS AFFORDED BY SUOH MEASURES FOB T.HE CHASTISEMENT OF RULER AND PEOPLE. ,, It was needful for an external, visible manifestation of the sin to precede the judgmoot, in order to justify the ways of God to men. The tempta- tion was presented to David; he fell, and in his fall represented truly and faithfully the fall of the nation. 'l'he nation was not punished vicariously for its ruler's sin, but for a sin which was its own, and w11s only embodied and made visible by its ruler's act. And the punishment struck the very point of their pride, by dimiuishing the numbers which had been the ground of their self-confident elation" (Kirkpatrick, 2 Samuel). 613 THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. [on, XXIV, 1-26.