CURSING TO GOD’S ORDER
‘Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him.’
2 Samuel 16:11
Shimei called abusive names, he hurled wicked charges against David; he declared that God was fighting against him, and fighting justly against such a man of blood, such a man of Belial. And, as if this were not enough, he stung him in the most sensitive part of his nature, reproaching him with the fact that it was his son that now reigned instead of him, because the Lord had delivered the kingdom into his hand. But even all this accumulation of coarse and shameful abuse failed to ruffle David’s equanimity.
I. What was done long since to the house of Saul is the only thing which Shimei can recall, and with which he upbraids David, because that was the thing that he himself was a loser by. No man could be more innocent of the blood of the house of Saul than David was. Once and again he spared Saul’s life, while Saul sought his. When Saul and his sons were slain by the Philistines, David and his men were many miles off; and when they heard it lamented it. From the murder of Abner and Ish-bosheth he had sufficiently cleared himself; and yet all the blood of the house of Saul must be laid at his door; innocency is no fence against malice and falsehood.
II. David observes the hand of God in it.— The Lord hath said unto him, Curse David, and again, So let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him. As it was Shimei’s sin, it was not from God but from his own wicked heart; nor did God’s hand in it excuse or extenuate it, much less justify it, any more than it did their sin who put Christ to death. But as it was David’s affliction, it was from the Lord, one of the evils which He raised up against him. David looked above the instrument of his trouble to the supreme Director, as Job, when the plunderers had stripped him, acknowledges, The Lord hath taken away. Nothing more proper to quiet a soul under affliction than an eye to the hand of God in it: I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it. The scourge of the tongue is God’s rod. As Bishop Hall has put it, ‘The sin of Shimei’s curse was his own; the smart of the curse was God’s. God wills that as David’s chastisement, which he hates as Shimei’s wickedness. Wicked men are never the freer from guilt or punishment for that hand which the holy God hath in their offensive actions. Yet David can say, “Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him”; as meaning to give a reason of his own patience, rather than Shimei’s impunity. The issue showed how well David could distinguish betwixt the act of God and of a traitor.’
III. It may be the duty of one who is maligned to repel falsehood and vindicate truth in the world; but all thoughts of vengeance are absolutely forbidden by the law of Christ.—‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ This is not only a prohibition, it is also a privileged exemption. From this rough and dangerous work the Son makes his people free. When a neighbour assails our good name, our own hearts too readily prompt to vengeance. A son of Zeruiah is ready within us to say, Let me go over and take off his head. But, beware! like David, see rather God’s hand permitting the trial to come, and adjust yourself to meet it so that it will press you nearer to your Lord, and keep you closer in His steps.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The fortitude of the soldier’s heart was almost second nature to David. He was not at all the man to pale before scenes of martial conflict or the agonies of wounds and death. But here are far other ingredients of grief and woe. David saw in this cursing, and, indeed, in this whole conspiracy, the Lord’s rebuke of his own great sins. He could bear any and every trial involved in it save this one—the frown of his own holy Lord God! We see yet more of David’s heart in those Psalms (42 and 43) which obviously relate to this period of his history.’
(2) ‘What is to be done when, on account of our sins, God leads us by a path that is full of thorns and thistles? The history of David answers the question: he bends, he prays, he acts. He neglects no legitimate means to maintain himself as much as possible in his difficult position; but above all, he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God, and bears what he has merited with patience. He who knows thus to bear his cross, is evidently already on the road to win the lost crown. While we follow in his footsteps of trust and submission, yet when heart and flesh faint and fail, let us rest upon the Greater than David, Who trod this same path through the valley of Kedron for our deliverance.’