2 Samuel 18:3

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"... thou art worth ten thousand of us." 2 Samuel 18:3 .

David was determined to go forth with the people, but they resisted and said, "Thou shalt not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us: therefore, now it is better that thou succour us out of the city." This was a right estimate of human worth. Whilst there is a sense in which one man is as good as another, there is a larger sense in which one man may be equal to ten thousand. Caesar was greater than all his legions. Sometimes a name carries with it magic. To know that such a man is in the war or in the council, is to know precisely how war and council will end. Sometimes it is better to serve a cause intellectually than in a military sense. The sword will cut down the greatest as well as the meanest. We may actually, therefore, be showing more bravery by devoting our attention to the moral aspect and the intellectual need of the case, than by going forth with sword and buckler and spear. When some men are taken out of the way the hearts of other men are filled with dismay. So long as men of magical name and influence live, their very life is an inspiration to their followers. We should be careful not to expose our leaders to needless danger. The people showed a true and philosophical economy by requesting David to keep out of the way of physical danger, and to help the nation by prayer and counsel and music and words of stimulus and inspiration. The king accepted the position, saying, "What seemeth you best I will do," and he who was a leader of soldiers, the very captain and glory of the army, "stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands." We may be great in waiting. We may serve most by doing least. In the Christian warfare we must not abuse this doctrine; we must remember that the Christian warfare is throughout spiritual, not carnal, and that every man is called to go forth to this war to fight for himself and to fight for the general good. This is not a battle in which some men may remain at home merely for the sake of giving counsel; they can give the best counsel by showing the best example. Armour is provided for every man, exactly adapted to his stature, and to the conditions tinder which he is to do battle, and to the peculiarity of his temperament "Take unto you the whole armour of God." This does not destroy the difference between one Christian leader and another, nor between Christian leaders and their followers. There are great men in the Church, great psalmists, great expositors, great preachers, great defenders of the faith, men who are mighty in prayer and mighty in sympathy. There is nothing monotonous in all the providence of God over his Church: even its commonplaces are miracles; even the smallest men in the Church are greater than the mightiest men outside. Jesus Christ declared this to be the case in reference to John the Baptist how much more so in reference to those who have neither John's intellectual capacity or intensity of spiritual consecration?