Bible Commentaries

Tried Weapons

1 Samuel 21:9

THE world is old enough now to have laid by in store weapons upon whose quality and strength it can pronounce with the emphasis of experience. What occasion is there for us to try newfangled instruments of fantastic shape and unproven temper? Is there an old steel? Are there no historical swords? Are we left altogether without the spell of rousing memories? Are there yet amongst us swords whose touch is an inspiration, because they connect us with the heroisms and victories of other days? It appears from the context that David was flying from the face of Saul, that he came in his course to Nob to Ahimelech the priest, and made a statement of his case more or less correct. At the conclusion of the interview, David told the priest that he had no sword, and asked him for his assistance under these destitute circumstances. "And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is none other save that here." All the weapons of the enemy will one day fall into the hands of the Church, and great will be the slaughter in the name of the Lord. Goliath never dreamt of the destiny of his sword. It was Philistinian property, intended for Philistinian purposes, and lo! it was wrenched from his hand, and reddened with his own blood. It is so with all evil. It is always preparing a weapon for its own destruction, and twisting a rope for its own neck.

What a companion and friend would this sword be to David! How it would link him with events gone far away! How he would speak in pathetic soliloquy as he looked upon that sword! Would not old stains come upon it and say to him, "All that do wrong shall be put down, and every foul tyranny shall be slain and hidden in the dust, where no man can find it any more"? Would he not think of the call of Samuel, and of the anointing oil, and of the secret with which he had been entrusted; and as he regarded the sword that was in his hand, would not his soul feel the inspiration of a new impulse, would not his lips be opened in a new and tender prayer at the throne of the heavenly grace? It is even so with ourselves. We have old books in our libraries the very touch of which makes us young again; we have passages marked in books the very marking of which causes us to forget the years that have taken away aught of our strength, and rouses us to do, with the old prowess, the old and beautiful deeds. Blessed are they who are rich in memories, who can commune with old milestones on the road, and old stiles where they have lingered, and old trysting-places, and yellow old memories that have the keeping of life within their grasp. Are we living so as to lay up such memories? Or is our life just a superficial scramble, leaving behind us no footprints, no wayside marks, and never enriching our hearts with one recollection that can destroy time and make us young, as if we could draw upon eternity?

How ignoble a thing for Goliath to have been slain with his own sword! To have the weapon wrenched out of one's own hand, and thrust into one's own heart! Well might the eagle, on the poet's page, be made to mourn that out of its own breast had been taken the feather which caused the arrow to fly with a deadlier speed to drink the blood of its heart! It is always so. Whoever is doing wrong will be slain with his own sword; whoever is building upon false foundations will be "hoist with his own petard." You know the case of the minister who, speaking to his friends, in tones too solemn to be other than artificial and untrue, said to them, "Do not read Shakespeare; it is a waste of time to read the pages of such a writer; read other and better literature; else what an account will you be called upon to give when you go to that "undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns"!" Goliath slain with his own sword; and the minister quoting in the pulpit the very author against whose writings he was cautioning the young geniuses that waited upon his ministry!

We propose to treat this text with special reference to the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and to contend that in all the conflicts of life there is none like it for routing the foe and adding victories to truth. "The word of the Lord is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The Bible is a complete armoury, as we may read in the sixth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. We in these latter days have seen some curious specimens of cutlery. We have seen the boy with that wonderful thing in his hand of which he is so proud. He says, "That is the great blade for cutting wood and leather and hard substances; and this is a little blade for making pens and cutting pencils; and this is a lancet blade, and this is a bodkin, and this is a piercer of another kind, and this is a screw." And so he turns them all out under one haft. It is even so with this better haft. We can turn all sorts of blades out of it in every possible direction, and hold it up like a complete armoury. We now propose to do 1 Samuel 21:7.

Such words are to be used simply by way of accommodation, either for private meditation or for public preaching.—There is a detention before the Lord that amounts to imprisonment, the accused having a sense of being arrested and charged at the bar of heaven.—Men are detained before the Lord in various ways, as, for example, (a) by conscience,—when some moral charge presses its claim upon us; (b) by gratitude,—when we stand in the act of counting the divine mercies we have received, and numbering the divine blessings which surround us, our hearts all the while overflowing with a sense of thankfulness to the Giver of all good; (c) by religious contemplation,—when wonder is excited at the greatness of the universe, when amazement seizes the mind because of the minuteness and beneficence of providence, when events so shape themselves as to prove superior to human direction, and yet to be tending in a course filled with blessedness to the human family; (d) by loving and exultant devotion,—as when the heart is bowed down with pure emotion, and the soul is lifted up in high and unselfish expectation because of the conscious nearness of God and his evident willingness to create for himself an opportunity in our life that he may enlarge all his former gifts in one supreme blessing.—Then there is a detention before the Lord that involves the exercise of patience; we do not get an answer so soon as we want it; we think we have an urgent petition, demanding an instantaneous reply, and yet we are kept waiting day by day.—Who can tell the meaning of all these detentions?—Blessed are they who are detained before God because the Lord has much to say to them in the way of instruction, comfort, and stimulus.—Who has not felt the words rising to his lips in many an hour of glowing realisation of the divine presence—"Abide with us"?

"... the king's business required haste."— 1 Samuel 21:8.

This is another instance in which the expositor can only proceed by way of accommodation.—The accommodation, however, is full of suggestion of a most practical and useful nature.—We are always called upon to work as if we had but one day to work in:—" I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."—Whatever we can do let us do it now.—There is no to-morrow in the life of a Christian who is fully consecrated to the service of his Lord; every day is the last day, every coming day is the day of judgment, the judge always standeth at the door.—How many things we are going to do by-and-by!—We have no right to talk so, for our breath is in our nostrils.—This is a boasting of to-morrow that is forbidden by the Holy Ghost.—If we have a gospel to carry we must carry it instantly, or the man for whom it is designed may die.—If we have any revelation to declare we must lose no time in the declaration, or we may lose our ability to reveal the message with which God has entrusted us.—Such impetuosity need not involve carelessness.—The impetuosity that is useful is also earnest.—Sometimes men hasten slowly, and therefore hasten the more.—The most deliberate things are to be done with the intensest earnestness, and the intensest earnestness is never to allow itself to be deprived of the advantage and utility of the highest spiritual dignity.—When the king's business relates to the salvation of souls, who dare say there is a moment to be lost?—Are men prodigal of time who are called to extinguish a conflagration?—Do men proceed at leisure when the swimmer is struggling with the billows and may at any moment be lost?—We should be urged by the necessity of others, and not merely impelled by our own sense of the fitness of things.—Where there is need there is a call for help, and need always calls not for remote but for immediate assistance.—In all things let us hear the voice of the Saviour saying, "That thou doest, do quickly,"—whether it be prayer, or gift, or offer of sympathy, or proclamation of the gospel; the next moment may be the last; therefore fill the present breathing space with all faithful action.