1 Chronicles 11:2

1Ch 11:2 And moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, thou [wast] he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel.

Ver. 2. Thou shalt feed,] sc., By procuring for them the wholesome food of the word; by going before them in good example; by driving away the wolf; by tending them, and tendering their good every way.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(2) In time past.—Yesterday, or three days since. A very indefinite phrase, used in Gen_31:2 of a time fourteen years since, and 2Ki_13:5 of more than forty years ago.

Leddest out.—To battle.

Broughtest in.—Of the homeward march. David had thus already discharged kingly functions. (Comp. 1Sa_8:20; 1Sa_18:6; 1Sa_18:13; 1Sa_18:27; 2Sa_3:18.)

The Lord thy God said unto thee.—1Sa_16:13.

Thou shalt feed my people.—Literally, shepherd or tend them. The same term is used of the Lord Himself (Isa_40:11; Psa_80:1). The king then is God’s representative, and as such his right is really Divine (Rom_13:1). The cuneiform documents reveal the interesting fact that the term “shepherd,” as applied to sovereigns, is as old as the pre-Semitic stage of Babylonian civilisation (the second millennium B.C. ).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. And moreover] Omit these words with R.V.

thou wast he that leddest out] R.V. it was thou that leddest out; cp. 1Sa_18:16.

the Lord thy God said] Cp. 1Ch_11:3; 1Ch_11:10; 1Sa_16:1-13.

ruler] R.V. prince; cp. 1Ch_5:2, note.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God said unto thee, or, concerning thee; for it is apparent that they knew of it; and therefore many of them opposed David hitherto against their own consciences.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou shalt feed my people Israel (so 2Sa_5:2 2Sa_7:7; Psa_78:71) Thus to the servant is condescendingly vouchsafed the same description as the Master takes through the Spirit for himself to the under-shepherd the same as the Chief Shepherd acknowledges; note same psalm, ver. 72; Psa_23:1-4 Psa_100:3; 1Pe_5:4.

Ver. 2.

The vicarious aspects of human life twofold toward man and toward God.

In this verse two leading and very important phases of human life are brought to our remembrance. They may seem of unequal importance, the second being of higher character than the first. Yet, perhaps, they are more closely connected and even interwoven with one another than first thoughts might suppose. And so far-reaching and widespread are the issues of both, that it is needless to insist on much comparison between them to the prejudice of the former. The lesson, also, of both of them, charged though it is with serious responsibility, is, on the whole, of a cheerful, elevating kind. We might do well to separate them sometimes in our private meditation, simply in order to fix a more specific attention upon each. But it is not without valuable suggestion that they stand together here, nor shall they be divorced in the present consideration of them. They remind us

I OF THE VICARIOUS PRINCIPLE THAT ENTERS SO LARGELY INTO HUMAN LIFE, PERVADING IT, ALMOST LEAVENING IT, IN MEN"S MUTUAL RELATIONS. In the illustration of it now before us, it shows itself in the shape and the fact of one enjoying royal name and place, wealth and ease and dignity, while another incurs the risk and does the work without pay of that place. The life that was lived as between Saul and David would no doubt produce many instances and forms of this, but the one mentioned in this verse, and mentioned as it would appear by many consentient voices at the same time, is enough to tell the tale. Those instances commenced from the time that David challenged, defied, and successfully overcame Goliath, the Philistine champion. But as time went on, they became systematized and almost the rule, rather than merely matter of frequent occurrence. The general fact is patent. It grows in the structure, it runs throughout and across the texture of human life and society. It is a phenomenon, often merely as such inviting, often provoking, the deep thoughtful study of those who are but onlookers at any time. But again, it is as a personal keen experience that it most commonly opens the eyes and wakens the aching inquiry of those who have first suffered many a pang and rasping mortification. The real inventor is often a very different man from the nominal one, the real workman another than he who carries off the praise. The hand of one takes the gain of what was wrought by the brain of another; and the smile of one has for its correlative the bleeding heart of another. The temples of the fortune and wealth and splendour of the very few are built on the excessive toil and wrecked health of vast numbers. And even in the natural order of things, the fame of the great rests on the substructure of millions of lives of the humble obscure, whose industry, honesty, endurance, are the staple and the strength of the whole community, and whose head and heart are often of the most superior. The edifice that towers the highest, in fact, must rest on the broadest base. These considerations may guide us to the following conclusions upon the general subject, suggested by the particular instance so naively expressed now before us:

1. There is, beyond doubt, a vast amount of gratuitous, unjust, cruel,vicarious suffering in the world, and found in men"s mutual relations.

2. There is also, beyond doubt, a vast amount of vicarious joy and advantage. The striving, the toil, the genius, the self-sacrifice of one often serve, not the private selfish advantage of some one other, but to a most beneficent degree they serve the advantage and help the joy of very many others.

3. Whether it be in the matter of suffering or of advantage and joy, thispresence is by no means all due to the action, and mournful action, of human selfishness, error, greed. There is Divine design in it, Divine use for it. It is one of the strongest of the cohesive forces that contribute to hold together the conglomerate mass and yet very various fellowship of humanity. The entanglement that results from this unequal system of exchange and substitution (the particular instances of which are so intricate, often so inscrutable, apparently untoward) constitutes probably one of the most ubiquitous and unresting of the mutual attachments and attractions of human society.

4. Even within the experience of the very individual at whose expenseawhile the vicariousness seems to take effect, there are not unfrequently large redeeming and compensating considerations. As for instance here:

(1) David had the opportunity given to him of learning, learning well, the profession of a king, learning it practically, "even when Saul was king" in reality. If he were doing work and encountering risk, which formally did not belong to him, he was deriving untold advantages and the facilities of experience.

(2) He was being divinely permitted to mark himself out for the dignity when it should become vacant, in the eyes of all those with whom, ere long, the decision and gift of it would, under God, rest. How many men, in how many directions, would value just the corresponding opportunity above all things! How much would it be worth to one!

(3) Even during learning, education, and possibly much suffering, David was evidently, to the eye that could see deepest, to the heart that should beat truest, receiving the decoration of real honour. To a great mind, to a pure heart, it is sometimes the highest investment of honour which could be conferred, to be the one divinely selected to do the work, while others take the pay. This is not of man, nor by man, but God"s own chosen children recognize and value above everything else what are also his chosen methods of reward.

II OF THE VICARIOUS PRINCIPLE THAT ENTERS SO LARGELY INTO HUMAN LIFE, IN ITS MOST DIRECT DIVINE RELATIONS. The latter part of the verse before us is of the highest and most precious significance to every Christian man, and certainly not least so to the Christian pastor and minister. "The Lord thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel." Every servant of God from the first was set to be a witness of God and a witness for God, by word and deed before the world. And every Christian is called to be a witness of Jesus Christ and his truth, and a witness for these before the world, in all he says and does. We object to such an appellation as "vicar of Christ," or "viceroy" of Christ, on behalf of the pope or of any other one man exclusively of others. But the description of the latter part of this verse applies accurately to all the pastors the under-shepherds of Christ"s fold and flocks and by inference, in their measure and degree, to all his people whomsoever. All of these have something to say, have much to do, in the stead of Christ." Nor should they repine when they may be called to bear and suffer in the Name and for the sake of Christ. The fact before us is just simply this, that David was entrusted by God and on behalf of God with a great work, which was and could be only the work of God himself in the last resort. The people are emphatically his; none could provide the food but he; (Psa_23:1) none could find the wisdom to rule, "the wisdom profitable to direct," the gift to "rule" but he. And he said, nevertheless, "Thou shalt feed thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel." Out of the one simple but great fact before us we may select some special phases of it.

1. It is a very elevating reality of human life and work that it is not altogether shut off to a drudgery peculiar to itself, but that it is dignified by being called to similar work with that of Christ. The power, the wisdom, the love, the very thought of that work must first come from heavenly source, and be sustained by streams from the heavenly source; but then these should often betray their heavenly origin, and the human worker flash out tokens of the indwelling of Divine principle, gift, grace. It had been quite possible to suppose a hard-and-fast line drawn between the humblest of the Divine work amid men and the very highest of the human. But it is not so. It is far otherwise. And so soon as ever the clear pattern was shown on earth by Jesus himself, of what was to be and to be done, not a very few and a very picked band, but every one of his wide Church, was called to do

2. similar work yes, to do it and to bear the burden of it, and that not with eye-service as to men, but "as the servants of Christ.

3. It is a very elevating and encouraging fact in the renewed life ofhumanity that with such solemn responsibility attaching to it in work to be done, no less than Godlike in character, no less than Christ-like in execution, it is work not severed from Divine co-operation. Let us call it vicarious. Let us the rather prize it as such, and love to have it so. " Yet is it not the cold vicariousness of so large a proportion of our earthly labour unwarmed by the presence, by the help, by the smile, by the reward of at least acknowledgment at the hands of those for whom we both do and bear much. No, indeed. It is work of co-operation, where in those cooperating extremes meet the weakness, the poverty, the ignorance, the finiteness of us men, with the omnipotence, the wealth, the knowledge, and the infiniteness of God the Father; of Christ, the Shepherd of the sheep; of the Spirit of all grace and light. None work for God but his Spirit is with them. None work for Jesus but "lo, he is present in the midst" of their smallest group. Therefore it is plain that God does not so honour us as simply to devolve his work in Christ upon us, but rather to involve us in his doing, and lift us up into his sphere of work. The co-operating of Christ by his Spirit with his servants, when their work and their suffering shall seem most vicarious, is therefore a grand and most noteworthy fact as compared with our labour-relations and our suffering-relations, as fellow-creatures, to one another.

4 . Over and above all other elevating and cheering thoughts suggested bythis fact of God"s calling us to work for him, and yet uniting himself with us therein, there remains such a one as this. It is a token of a certain harmony of plan and thought between human society and the perfection of that above. It is some "shadow of things to come." It is some foreshadowing of Divine goodness. The condescension and the grace are some indications of what shall be. They are not mere fictitious, tempting, beguiling persuasions of the way, for the "pilgrims of the night;" but they are rather snatches and earnests of the temper prevailing in the "city yet to come." It is a large and far from ignoble principle, the vicarious principle cost what it may of smart, occasionally or systematically, amongourselves. But it is an indefinite extension, an immense expansion, it is a very glorification of the principle, when Christ enters on a similar footing and makes the circle henceforth a sacred circle. After doing and suffering all which he has done, "even unto death," for his people, he not simply hallows by his own example the summons to us to work and to suffer for our fellow-creatures and for him, but also favours therein the thought, in its very highest development, of our being "one with him, even as he is one with" the eternal Father. In a word, to work or to suffer in the stead of Christ is some earnest of entering in clue time the society of which he is the Head.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 2.

A true leader.

David"s life was made up of several successive stages; and, as we read his biography and so trace his course, we see clearly what at the time he could not see how one position, one experience, prepared for the next. His youth was a preparation for his manhood, his court life for the throne, exile for power, rule over Judah for sway over united Israel. The seven years during which Saul"s son ruled over the other tribes were the years of David"s reign over Judah. At the close of this period, upon the death of Ishbosheth, the elders of all Israel came to David at Hebron and offered him the crown. This was the occasion upon which they made the acknowledgment, "Even when Saul was king, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel." This was a recognition of the inborn qualities of true leadership, called forth by circumstances, and cultivated by responsibility and action.

I HUMAN SOCIETY IS, ACCORDING TO THE APPOINTMENT OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, COMPOSED OF THE LEADERS AND THE LED. Whilst in government there is much which is artificial, there is a natural foundation for the relationships which subsist. Parents direct the course of their children; elder brothers to some extent that of the younger; the capable, the self-confident, the experienced, are the natural leaders of the timid and submissive. In all human communities there are born leaders of men. If all distinctions were abolished to-day, to-morrow they would be revived in other forms. There is doubtless injustice in many political and social arrangements; but whilst the unjust acquisition and use of authority is of man, the principle of authority is from God.

II LEADERSHIP OFTEN CALLS OUT GREAT QUALITIES. The fact of a man being placed in a position of influence and authority is sure, if he be capable and strong and under the domination of high principle, to elicit his best and most useful qualities. Especially will such a position foster habits of sound judgment and quick decision, habits of self-control and self-reliance, a just discernment of character, and aptness in recognizing ability and trustworthiness in others. Thus it is that a high position is fitted to lead to one yet higher (see this admirably shown in Henry Taylor"s "Philip van Artevelde"). It was leadership which made of the shepherd son of Jesse the warrior and King of Israel. As in other departments of life, so here, exercise promotes strength and development. Let none shrink from the responsibility of guiding others when Providence calls him to this work; strength and wisdom shall be "as his day.

III IT IS FOR THE ADVANTAGE OF THOSE WHO ARE LED WHEN A SUITABLE AND CAPABLE LEADER IS PROVIDED BY THE DIVINE RULER. The power of "use and wont" is very strong. When men have been accustomed to be well led, their confidence in their leader grows with rapidity, and their attachment is consolidated by time. When the throne was vacant, the eyes of all Israel were turned to David. Their experience of his ability and valour, his designation by God"s prophet, were the indications to them that the son of Jesse was the right man to rule over them. Events proved that they were not mistaken. The sway of David made the chosen people one great nation, and fitted them for the work appointed for them by the theocratic governor. There is in this passage a lesson specially suitable to young men of ability, education, and position. For such God in his providence has assuredly a work to do. It is for them quietly and patiently to await the indications of Divine providence, in the persuasion that faithfulness and diligence in present duty are the best preparation for future responsibilities. It is God"s prerogative to train the workman and to provide the work. T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

You shall shepherd My people Concerning this, David said, (Ps. 23:1): “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” “You say to me: You shall shepherd. How can I shepherd? The matter does not depend on me, but the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, and I, too, shall not be wanting to you.” A similar instance is found in Samuel (II 21:17): “Then the men of David swore to him, saying, ‘You shall no longer go out with us in battle, so that you extinguish not the lamp of Israel.’” David replied (ibid. 22:29): “For You are my lamp, O Lord; and the Lord does light my darkness.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.