Scripture Notes | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 28, 1868

Scripture Notes.

SELLING THE INHERITANCE.

1 KINGS xxi, 5. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.

Our first parents had for their residence a beautiful garden, which may have had some influence on their immediate descendants, in giving them a predilection for such situations. People in England will scarcely be able to appreciate the value the Orientals place on a garden. The food of many of them consists of vegetables, roots, and fruits; their medicines, also, being indigenous, are mostly produced in their gardens. Here they have their fine fruit trees, and the constant shade; and here they have their wells and places for bathing. See the proprietor, in his undress, walking around his little domain; his fence, or wall, is so high, no one can overlook him; he strolls about to smoke his shroot, pick up the fruit, and cull the flowers; he cares not for the world; his soul is satisfied with the scenes around him. Ahab wished to have Naboth’s garden; but how could he part with “the inheritance of his fathers?” There was scarcely a tree which had not some pleasing associations connected with it: one was planted by the hand of a beloved ancestor, another in memory of some great event (on the day a child is born, parents often plant a number of fruit trees); the water he drank, and the fruit he ate, were from the same sources as those which refreshed his fathers. How then could he, in disobedience to God’s command, and in violation of all these tender feelings, give up his garden to Ahab? To part with such a place is, to the people of the East, like parting with life itself.—Roberts.

DOGS EATING JEZEBEL.

VERSE 23. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

The dogs shall eat.] The dogs of eastern cities wander about half-starved, without an owner, feeding on garbage, and at night are sometimes dangerous. Bruce saw, at Gondar, dogs eating the bodies of some persons killed with the sword.—Jenks.

WALKING SOFTLY.

VERSE 27. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

Went softly.] [Heb. at; Vulg. with his head hung down; Sept. confused and sad; Chal. Syr. and Arab. with naked feet. So Targ. and Cranmer.] See the man who goes into the presence of a superior, in the East: he takes off his sandals, and walks softly—he has a timid air, and you cannot hear his foot tread on the ground. When a dutiful son goes to his father, or a devotee into the presence of a sacred personage, he walks in the same way. Has a proud, boasting man been humbled, the people say, Aha! aha! “he can now walk Mitha-vaka, i. e. softly.” “What, the proud Muttoo walk softly; who ever expected that?” (Comp. 1 Sam. xv, 32, though the Heb. word there for delicately is different.)—Roberts.

FAITHFULNESS IN DECLARING THE COUNSEL OF GOD.

CHAP. xxii, 13. And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.

Perhaps this man intended to be friendly to Micaiah; and thought it a pity that he should hinder his preferment, and expose himself to Ahab’s resentment, by a needless or useless scrupulousness. Perhaps he concluded that the unanimity and confidence with which so great a number of prophets assured Ahab of success in the name of the Lord, proved them to be in the right; and that it would be foolish in Micaiah to oppose his single voice to such a multitude. And indeed, not only Ahab, but Jehoshaphat himself, seems to have been imposed on by the same delusive argument; which, in one form or other, has been urged as cogent, if not unanswerable, by very able and sensible men, in every age of the church. “Thus it is in the church at this day.”—Patrick. Micaiah affords a most noble example in his reply.—Scott.

CHARACTER OF DAVID.

1 Sam. xiii. 14. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.

Dr. Chandler considers that the expression 1 Sam. xiii, 14, is used in opposition to the character and conduct of Saul. It means one who should act prudently, and obey the commandments of God delivered him by his prophets, and whom, therefore, God would thus far approve and continue to favor. One whose ruling motive of action is obedience to God’s will; whose constant prayer is, “Thy will be done.” Thus it is interpreted by Paul, Acts xiii, 22, “I have found David, a man after my own heart, who shall execute my will.” Dr. C. cites many places of Scripture to confirm this, and adds, David certainly was a wise, just, munificent, and prosperous prince; but he had private faults, and those great ones. These, however, were not inconsistent with this character of a man according to God’s heart. For, if he was such a prince as God intended him to be, by faithfully executing his orders, and bringing to pass those great events he was raised up by God to accomplish, he thus far acted according to the heart, i. e. the purpose and will of God, and thereby, in this respect, rendered himself well pleasing and acceptable to him. The particular purposes for which God advanced David were 1. That by his steady adherence to the one true God, and the religion he established by Moses, David might be an illustrious example to all that should reign after him. 2. To save his people from the Philistines, and all enemies, accomplishing the promise, Gen. xv, 18. 3. To exalt the glory of his people Israel, and render them a flourishing and happy people by the wisdom and justice of his government. In these he faithfully performed all the pleasure of God. He was, therefore, “a man after God’s own heart,” in the proper, original sense of the expression.

Poole’s view of 1 Sam. xiii, 14, is, “Such a man as I desire, one who will fulfill all the desires of my heart, and not oppose them as thou (i. e. Saul) dost.”

Vain cavils appear to have arisen from not considering that the phrase may be interpreted, with equal propriety, as referring to the divine purpose, as to designate peculiar favor and affection. The latter undoubtedly was true, yet the former is most clearly the meaning here. Surely we may learn hence how God overrules all things to his own praise.

Robinson says, We admire the exceeding grace of God in David’s spiritual attainments; and when we consider the depth of his contrition, the strength of his faith, the fervor of his love, the activity of his obedience, we do not fear to assert, that, in this sense, he found favor before God, and was a man after his own heart.

Yonge observes, Too true and sad it is that David fell, with all the aggravations of accumulated guilt. He stands an alarming memento of the frailty of man in his best estate. Excuse there can be none. However strong temptations are, we have, or may have, power to resist them. But what was his anguish! how deep his sorrow! how sincere his repentance! Sincere we may be sure it was, for God forgave him. True sorrow consists in a deep grief that we have erred, with a continual recollection of our fault, with a future fear of ourselves, and a return to every duty with double assiduity. Such was the repentance of David. He returned from his fall to the most diligent performance of his duties; and though he felt he was forgiven by God, he could scarcely forgive himself. He occasionally bursts out into condemnation of himself, and grief at times overpowers him. He continues to the end of his days serving God and man. Never was repentance more severe, or sorrow more keen; so that he may justly be said (his repentance included, though not his fall), to be a man after God’s own heart.

Delany says, David, in his personal character, is vastly superior to any one hero of all antiquity. It is indeed a mixed character, and where is the character that is not so? Is it fair to consider David only in the light of guilt? or should he, in common justice, be estimated as all men are, by the main of his life? Millions have fallen, have sinned, as David did; but who ever repented and recovered like him? Revolve his whole life before the matter of Uriah; it is almost one train of wise, generous, pious, and valiant conduct. Revolve his whole life from the hour of this guilt, and it is little else than one train of humiliation and repentance before God, and this, too, after assurance of pardon from God himself, by his prophet. Or, if he varied his conduct, it was only from penance to praise; to turn all his thoughts and attention, to employ his whole heart and soul, to the glory and in the service of God—of that God who pardoned all his sins, and crowned him with mercy and loving-kindness. And if, after all this, the Scriptures are to be reviled, for styling this man, in this character, “a man after God’s own heart,” what is to be reverenced?

Again, I challenge all mankind to produce any instance, from the foundation of the world, wherein virtue was so signally rewarded, and guilt so signally chastised as in that of David; consequently, to those who look most to rewards and punishments, from a solicitude for the interests of virtue, there is no case in which true religion and true virtue are so nearly and intimately interested, as in the history of David’s rise, fall, and recovery.—Henry.

If we except the abuse of the paternal and amatory feelings, for which “no man suffered more in his body, soul, and domestic affairs,” we have a just view of David’s well-endowed, well-balanced, well-harmonized, and almost perfect character, in these few but glowing words of Dr. Delany, “To sum up all: David was a true believer, a zealous adorer of God, teacher of his law and worship, and inspirer of his praise! A glorious example, a perpetual and inexhaustible fountain of true piety. A consummate and unequaled hero; a skillful and fortunate captain; a steady patriot; a wise ruler; a faithful, generous, and magnanimous friend; and, what is yet rarer, a no less generous and magnanimous enemy. A true penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an inspired prophet. By birth a peasant; by merit a prince! In youth a hero, in manhood a monarch, and in age a saint!”—Jenks.