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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Barzillai the Gileadite.’
2Sa_17:27 (cf. 2Sa_19:31-40)
I. His sense of the nearness of death.—‘How long have I to live?… I am this day fourscore years old.’ To him the thought of death seemed to be neither unfamiliar nor unpleasant. Remembering his fourscore years he knew it could not be far distant, and he seems quite reconciled to the fact of its approach. His calmness in the prospect does not appear to have arisen from apathy or distaste for life. His sensibilities, even at his advanced age, were keen and tender. The whole tenor of the narrative goes to show that his composure in the thought and near prospect of death was the fruit of piety. This superiority to the terrors of death was quite possible even in Old Testament times, and was enjoyed by many during that period.
Christian men and women who are advanced in years should seek to copy Barzillai’s example, accustoming themselves to the thought and approach of death. How many aged ones, alas! dread to think of their end; delight to be told how hale and fresh-looking they are, how likely they are to be long-lived, as if these things could prolong their days or postpone the appointed hour! Better far, when whitening hair, dimming sight, faltering step, and trembling hand, remind such of Barzillai’s apostrophe, ‘How long have I to live?’ and turn their thoughts towards the other world.
II. His contentment under the infirmities of age.—‘Can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?’ He had no wish for court life, for he was no longer fit to enjoy it. His powers were waning; he was no longer able to find enjoyment in that which ministered pleasure to others. There is no discontent in his admissions of infirmity. He cheerfully acquiesces in the common lot of the ‘outward man perishing.’ Resignation marks his words. Some aged people are fretful over their infirmities. Peevishness is a common characteristic of advanced life. Others endeavour to conceal the ravages of time, and eagerly mingle in the pleasures of youth. With one foot in the grave, they wish to appear and be considered as young as possible. Both courses are alike unbecoming in those who are in ‘the sere and yellow leaf.’ Better far when old age, with all its drawbacks and infirmities, is meekly accepted and patiently borne.
III. His unworldliness.—‘Why should the king recompense it me with such a reward?’ David’s proposal would have been greedily grasped at by many. Notwithstanding its attractiveness Barzillai courteously declined it. How beautiful to see at a time of life, when men, as a rule, cling more closely to worldly things, such an unregretful renunciation of worldly honour and prosperity! Avarice, the besetting sin of old age, seems to have had no place in Barzillai’s heart. His lavish hospitality to the king and his company (2Sa_17:29), and his prompt declinature of all that the king’s invitation implied, show how liberal and unselfish was this aged man. He was satisfied with what he already possessed of worldly good. How many are so? Is it not too true that in all this he is a great contrast to many old people, even professed Christians? How distressing to notice the worldliness of many aged men! On the very borders of eternity, eager to ‘lay up treasures on earth’; hoarding, pinching, saving, as if a life-time were again before them wherein to spend their gains. It is painful to see the tottering step of the grey-haired competing in the race for riches. Old age is the time for being utterly weaned from all such worldliness.
IV. His unselfishness.—‘Behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to thee.’ He manifested a kindly solicitude in the welfare of his son Chimham. The things in which the parent was no longer able to take delight, were not unsuited to a younger man. He had no selfish wish to prevent another from obtaining and finding pleasure in honours, privileges, and pursuits for which he himself was unfitted by reason of his age. How refreshing to see in one so aged this generous, kindly interest in behalf of one so far behind himself in the journey of life! Too often aged people, no longer able to ‘enjoy life,’ frown upon those younger than themselves who do enjoy it. Forgetful that they themselves were once young, they seek to crush the harmless desires and damp the seasonable enjoyments of youth. How vain and unbecoming! Can those who live mostly in the past, expect those who live the present and the future to feel as they feel, to think as they think, to act as they act? Barzillai had not only no objection that his son should enjoy that in which he himself could take no pleasure, but unselfishly made petition to the king on his behalf. Here we have a ‘looking not only on one’s own things, but also on the things of others’ in a spirit worthy of the New Testament. The most beautiful old age is that which is young-hearted, smiling and not frowning on the innocent pleasures of youth.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The “Young Men of the Bible” form a considerable and interesting group, and there has been no lack of sermons, preached and printed, concerning them. But the “Old Men of the Bible” are a no less interesting study; not merely those whose life-history is traced from youth through manhood to old age, but those who come upon the stage of Scripture history for the first time as old men, and of whose earlier life we know little or nothing. To this latter class belong such as Eliezer, Jethro, Eli, the nameless “old prophet in Bethel” (1 Kings 13), Zacharias, Simeon, Mnason. Not the least remarkable of his class is the “very aged man” Barzillai, the wealthy sheep-master of Rogelim in Gilead. Scripture notices concerning him take us back to the “troublous time” in the reign of King David.’
(2) ‘Barzillai never dreamed of being paid for what he did to David, “The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness,” was the only consideration which prompted the deed. True sympathy needs only the sight of misery and distress, activity instantaneously will follow. Thank Heaven, there is a large and noble army of self-sacrificing men and women battling bravely every day with the enemy in the courts and alleys of our cities and large towns, who have not the remotest idea of having their names trumpeted before men, neither have they ever dreamed of being invited to a king’s table! They do it from love to the great King.’
‘And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim.’
2Sa_19:31-40
II. We have here a man who is rich, but who is satisfied with his natural position.—It is at the stage of prosperity that the dissatisfaction of many men begins. If Barzillai had been of the mind of many, he would have made his wealth buy wings for his vanity, and, old as he was, would have tried to flutter in the sunshine of the court. But he was a wiser man, and a happier, and stands in higher honour this day than if he had wronged his nature and finished his life with an act of folly.
III. We have a man of long experience, who has kept up his love of simple pleasures.—We can infer this from the tone in which he speaks. He had reached an age when the love of sensational things fails in all but the most frivolous, yet the way in which he speaks of them puts them quietly aside, as not to his taste and never likely to have been so.
It is not a dream that man can keep the love of natural things in his heart and can call them up in fancy as he reads. If a man will but read his Bible with a fresh heart, he may walk with patriarchs in the world when it was young and green, may rest with Abraham under the shade of the oak of Mamre, and see the upspringing of the well to which the princes of Israel sang. He may sit on the mountain-top with Christ, among the lilies and the birds, to understand what they say and sing, and he may listen till he hears far off the final hymn which shall be a concert of nature round regenerated man.
IV. We have a man who is attached to the past, but who does not distrust the future.—For himself he has grown up in the old way, and cannot change, but he thinks, ‘The new has its rights, and the world will be on. My son is here; the future is beaming in his face and beating in his heart; I give him into hands I can trust for leading him in the way of truth, of righteousness.’ If the old can thus pass over into the new, there is security in all changes.
Illustrations
(1) ‘It is related of the ancient Sibylline books, that the prince to whom they were offered for sale thought the price asked too high; some of them were then burned, but the same price was demanded; yet again the same act was repeated, with the same result; finally, the volumes still remaining were purchased for the price demanded for the whole at first. So is it with our days; the article rises in value as it becomes more scarce. What high significance then attaches to the question of Barzillai in the ceaseless flight of years, and how much reason have the old, especially, to think and choose like him! He who expects nothing for himself in eternity, closes his ear to the ceaseless rustle of the wings of time; and he who in old age desires his heaven on earth, dreams not, like Barzillai, of the still grave, his mother. But to the believing Christian, the older he is the nearer is he to blessed rest, and to the glorious contemplation of “the King in His beauty” in the new Jerusalem, where they reckon not by years.’
(2) ‘In this narrative we see the priceless value of a kind, thoughtful, generous deed, to a sad and weary soul.
We thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round;
That in the darkest spot on earth
Some love is found.’