Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 950
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 11, 1870
“Neither does God respect any person: yet does He devise means, that His banished are not expelled from Him.” 2Samuel 14:14.
THE woman of Tekoah, in arguing with David for the recall of his son Absalom, argued with great shrewdness. After craftily entrapping the king by her parable, she then pleaded with him in persuasive terms—the cleverness of which we must admire—though the end aimed at was not consistent with the impartial justice which every magistrate ought to exercise. In effect she pleaded thus—“It is true that Absalom slew his brother Amnon. But nevertheless spare his life, and permit him to return from exile. What is done cannot be undone. Death is the common lot of all, and one way or another we must all become like water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up.
“By the death of his brother the slain man cannot be brought to life again. Have pity, therefore, upon Absalom, and quench not the coal of Israel’s hope by executing the death penalty on your successor. It is true you must have no respect to persons, neither does God have any, but still He has been pleased in His infinite mercy to ordain a way by which the refugee manslayer may be restored to his home.” It was well known to David that on the death of the High Priest, man-slayers who had found shelter in the cities set apart for refuge were allowed to go home and take full possession of their lands, being by the High Priest’s death absolved from further liability to revengeful kinsmen of their victims, and allowed to mingle with other Israelites in the worship of God.
“God then,” says she, “has devised means by which His banished should not always be expelled from Him—do you likewise. Though Absalom may have fled for awhile, and been in banishment, have pity upon your son, and restore him.” Thus much concerning the woman’s argument, and no more. She gained her point, and we hear no more of her, nor need we think further of her and her shrewdness.
Last Sunday morning we addressed you upon the infinite grandeur of God, upon His Sovereignty, and the way in which He exercises His will, unaided of mortal hand. Now, from the greatness of God to His mercy is no step, for the two should always be blended in our thoughts as they are in His Nature. Great as He is, He stoops to consider His side, His creatures, and Sovereign though He is, His name is Love. He regards not the person of any man, for what is man to God? What is man that God is mindful of him, or the son of man that He visits him? Man is so utterly insignificant in comparison with God, that whole nations are as nothing—yes, less than nothing and vanity.
Yet despite the greatness of God, His wisdom is put to work to devise means by which guilty ones who have been banished from Him may be restored to Him. And it is of this devising means, this blessed thoughtfulness and ingenuity for restoring His banished ones that I hope to have Divine Grace given me to speak this morning. First we shall talk with you upon our first outlawry, and how God devises means to deliver us from that. Secondly, we shall speak upon some secondary banishments through which certain of God’s people have passed, and how God devises means to bring them back from those. And lastly, we shall have a practical lesson to gather from the subject.
I. First, there was A GREAT AND UNIVERSAL OUTLAWRY proclaimed by God against us all, as members of a rebel race. We have all broken His Law. Willfully and wickedly have we rebelled against the majesty of Heaven. We are, therefore, in our natural estate, banished ones—expelled from His love and favor—waiting the time when the sentence of His wrath shall be fulfilled, and, “Depart, you cursed,” shall flash its lightning flame into our spirits. The Ever-Blessed God has devised means by which we may be delivered from this state of exile. And the means are very similar to that which was alluded to by the woman of Tekoah.
He has set apart Jesus Christ to be to us a City of Refuge and a High Priest, and precisely what occurred to the man-slayer occurs to us. Now, what did happen to the manslayer? First of all, as soon as he had killed a man inadvertently,
knowing that the next of kin would be after him to avenge the death, he fled, hot foot, as we say, to the nearest City of Refuge. And when he had once reached the gates of that city, he was secure. Dear Brothers and Sisters, even thus the Lord Jesus Christ was to us in days gone by a City of Refuge, and we fled to Him. Do you not remember the moment when you passed the portal, and were safe within the salvation which God appoints for walls and bulwarks?
It was a happy thing to feel secure from vengeance. It was delightful to be able to feel—“Sin may pursue me, but it cannot slay me. The blood of Jesus stands between me and punishment. I am now, through my Substitute, secured from the wrath to come.” Happy day when we thus began to realize that we were safe in the Savior, shielded by the Atonement. At the first we thought this was all, and we were content that it should be all. But after awhile deeper Truths of God began to open up to us, and the type was more completely fulfilled.