1 Chronicles 22:9

"Handfuls of Purpose,"

For All Gleaners

"Behold a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest." 1 Chronicles 22:9 .

This is a beautiful expression, as signifying a departure from the ordinary law of heredity, and as indicating the speciality of divine creation. It would be quite proper to recognise a law of evolution in the succession of families, and indeed it is impossible to deny the operation of such a law, yet, curiously. again and again, with quite remarkable repetition, God undertakes, so to say, to start a new family point, or a new-family line. The time comes when the warrior departs, and the man of peace enters into the household genealogy. Singularly enough, the genealogy is still one, yet there are specialities about it which seem to proclaim the directing providence of God in certain singular actions, which detach themselves from the common run of events, and create new eras in family history. This is a forecast which is full of moral instruction; for example, it shows how God knows every man who is coming into the world, what his character will be, what function he will have to discharge, and what will be the effect of his ministry upon his day and generation. Solomon could not have come before David, because the day in which David lived was marked by characteristics which he alone could adequately and usefully handle. By-and-by we shall see that history could not have been inverted even in its smallest details without injury having been done to the indwelling spirit of progress. We wish that certain persons were living now, or that certain men now living had lived long ago to have exerted a happy influence upon a remote age: here we speak in our ignorance: the Christian believes that every event is ordered from above, that every man is born at the right time, is permitted to live for a proper period if he be obedient to providence, and that the mission of every man is assigned, limited, and accentuated: all we have to do is to say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me do?" and to obey what we honestly believe to be the voice from heaven. The prophecy was delivered to David after Solomon's birth, and yet it is delivered as if it were yet to be fulfilled. Again we are reminded, that we must make ourselves familiar with the Biblical usage of words. We have often affirmed the doctrine that we can only understand parts of the Bible by living in the spirit of the whole Bible. The Bible is more than a book of grammar; we have said, and we repeat, that the Bible is not a piece of literature, but is a divine revelation, and a divine revelation which must be judged by standards and tests peculiar to itself. The name of David's successor was to be "Solomon." That is the emphatic word. The very word is indicative of peace. The name was the character. Yet mark carefully how God does not allow Solomon to be the fount and origin of peace, but rather how Solomon represents the then idea of the divine administration of affairs, "I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days." So the Lord still keeps everything within his own power and uses even the highest men as his agents and instruments. The Lord does not only give peace, he gives unrest, tumult; he is a man of war, he is a God of battles; his banner is often stained with blood. We should read history incorrectly if we looked only at its religious side, expressive of contentment, dependence, and thankfulness, and regarded that side alone as under the care of God. The Lord is in every battlefield; in a sense which will be explained when we are able to receive the explanation; the Lord is the author of war, and without tumult he could not have brought in peace: without David he could not have brought in Solomon to rule over his people Israel.