“Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So he sent a second time, but he refused to come. Then he said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. Then Joab did go to Absalom’s house and he said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” [2 Samuel 14:29-31]
I trust that you remember the historical narrative. Absalom had fled from Jerusalem fearing David’s anger, and in time he was permitted to return, but he was not admitted into the presence of the king. Sincerely desiring to be restored to his former posts of honor and favor, he begged Joab to come to him, intending to ask him to act as mediator. Joab, having lost much of his fondness for the young prince, refused to come; and, though he was sent for repeatedly, he refused to submit to Absalom’s desire. Absalom therefore thought of a most wicked, but most effective plan of bringing Joab into his presence. He commanded his servants to set Joab’s field of barley on fire. This made Joab very angry and caused him to go to Absalom to ask the question, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” This was all that Absalom wanted; he wanted an interview with Joab, and he was not scrupulous as to the method by which he obtained it. The burning of the barley-field brought Joab into his presence, and Absalom’s ends were accomplished.
Ignoring the sin of the deed, we have here a picture of what is often done by our gracious God in His wisest and best plan. He often sends for us, not for his benefit, but for ours; he wants us to come near to him and receive a blessing from his hands, but we are foolish, and cold-hearted, and wicked, and we will not come. Knowing that we will not come by any other means, He sends a serious trial-he sets our barley-field on fire, which he has a right to do, seeing that our barley-fields are far more his than they are ours. In Absalom’s case it was wrong: in God’s case he has a right to do what he pleases with his own. He takes away from us our most choice pleasures, on which we have set our heart, and then we ask him, “Why do you contend with me? Why am I struck with your rod? What have I done to provoke you to anger?” And thus we are brought into the presence of God, and we receive blessings of infinitely more value than those temporary mercies which the Lord had taken from us. You will see, then, how I intend to use my text this morning.
As the pastor of this large Church, I am constantly brought into contact with all sorts of human sorrow. Frequently it is poverty-poverty which is not brought on by laziness or wickedness-but real poverty, and a most distressing and afflicting poverty too, because it visits those who have valiantly fought the battle of life, and have struggled hard for years, and yet in their old age scarcely know where the next meal will come from, and are trusting in the promise, “Your bread will be given to you, and your water will be sure.” Members of our church come to me, sometimes as fast as they came to Job, bearing sad tidings concerning their lives. One says, “Sir, I ask for your prayers for me; God has been pleased to take away my wife with a stroke; she now lies in the cold grave.” Another cries, “O sir, my wife is very sick, and the physician says that there is very little hope: pray for her, that she may be strengthened in the hour of her death, and for me, that I may be enabled to praise the Master’s wisdom.” Then comes another, “My son is very sick; he is to undergo a painful operation; pray that the surgeon’s knife may not cause my son’s death, but that he may be enabled to bear up under it.” And when I have sympathized with all these sad situations, more suffering brothers and sisters will be waiting at the door. How few families experience life without severe trials: hardly a person escapes for any period of time without tribulation. With an impartial hand sorrow knocks at the door of the palace and the cottage. Why does all of this happen? The Lord, we know, “Does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men” without reason. Yet we wonder why he uses so many frowning servants, and so often sends out his usher of the black rod? Why is this? Perhaps I may be able to give an answer to this very important question, and it may be that I can be as helpful to the afflicted as the jailer was to Paul and Silas, when he washed their wounds.
I will use my text, first of all, in reference to believers; and then, with regard to the unconverted. O for help from above!
I. First of all, brothers and sisters, let us apply the text WITH REFERENCE TO BELIEVERS IN CHRIST.
My beloved brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we cannot expect to avoid suffering. If other men’s barley-fields are not burned, ours will be. If the Father uses the rod nowhere else, he will surely make his true children feel the sting of it. As Paul said, and as our hymns declare it:
“Illegitimate children may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly vain delight,
But the true-born child of God
Must not–would not if he might.”
Your Savior has left you a double legacy, He said, “In this world you will have trouble, but in me you will have peace.” You enjoy peace: you must not expect that you will escape without the privilege of the trouble. All wheat must be threshed: and God’s threshing-floor witnesses to the weight of the beating as much as any other. Gold must be tested in the fire: and truly the Lord has a fire in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem.
But you, beloved, have four very special comforts in all your trouble.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
