1 Samuel 11

Chapter 11. Shimei’s CurseA man from the same clan as Saul’s family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out….Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king Let me go over and cut off his head"But the king said, “What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’“David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.” (2 Samuel 16:5, 2 Samuel 16:9-12)There are flowers that bloom only in the glaciers of the Alps and the wild sirocco of the Sahara desert. And so there are virtues and graces that only appear in the wintry atmosphere of obloquy, calamity and sorrow. No man can be sure that he knows himself or is proved and tried until he has passed through the experiences of cruel misunderstanding and shameful wrong. The Son of man was made perfect through sufferings, and in the perfecting of the Christian character, patience is the last of the graces. Even charity, the queen of all graces, reaches her maturity in the school of sorrow. The first feature in her portrait is, she is “patient,” and the last, she “always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:7). And so we see the highest qualities of David in the hour of his keenest trials and in the face of the most humiliating experiences. It is one thing to bear the cool treachery of such a son as Absalom. It is another thing, and in some respects a little harder, to endure the taunts and scoffs of a creature like Shimei. There is a sense in which the bite of a sandfly is more annoying than the artillery of a battalion. And so the present subject speaks to our own life in a place which many have found to be intensely irritating and often intensely hard. The Curse of the Wicked Primarily it is the curse of the devil.

1. This is his peculiar business. His very name means “accuser” (Revelation 12:10). It is natural for him to throw stones, hurl epithets and utter curses. This alone should arm us against his blows. When we know they come from him, we need not greatly mind them since they are almost certain to be found unjust and in the end harmless. The spirit of fault-finding, sarcasm, criticism and calumny are all satanic, and every one who indulges in them is voluntarily wearing the devil’s livery.
2. But the devil has some human voices to repeat his curses—the critic, the calumniator, the backbiter, the passionate and profane. These are all of the race of Shimei, and the business is not by any means wound up. No man or woman can pass through life without having to face the detractor and feel the keen wound of the slanderer.
3. It is a comfort to know as Solomon has so well expressed it, “An undeserved curse does not come to rest” (Proverbs 26:2). Unjust accusations and false calumniators can never harm us in the end.
4. The curse of the wicked almost always, comes in the hour of our calamity. It made it doubly hard for David because Shimei took advantage of the darkest hour of his life. It was mean and cowardly. If ever there was a time when common humanity would have looked in respectful silence upon so great a sorrow as his, it was the hour when his own child was seeking his father’s life. But this was the time when the cowardly Shimei chose to strike his defenseless king, and add sharpness to the wound which was already stinging him to death.
5. It was made still harder by David’s own sensitive conscience, and the sense of his own sin for which God was doubtless chastening him. At such a time it is so easy for the great adversary to inject into our hearts his most cruel poison, and to make our own errors seem darker and more malignant. It is a very dark hour in human life when, with circumstances arrayed against us and calamity overwhelming us with its angry billows on every side, our own heart turns against us, and the devil tries to make us seem worse than we are and to undermine even our confidence in the mercy of God and our very right to call Him our Father. At such a time the curse of the wicked seems to the sensitive and morbid conscience like the very voice of divine judgment, and the great accuser loves to play the part of a divine messenger, and torture us with his reproaches and forebodings. The Spirit in Which David Endured This Trial
6. He saw God in it above the devil and the devil’s miserable instrument. “Let him curse,” he said, “for the Lord has told him to” (2 Samuel 16:11). This is the highest ground that faith can take in the most trying hour. This was the way Joseph was able to look back over his distressing experience. “It was not you who sent me here,” he could say, “but God” (Genesis 45:8), “because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you” (Genesis 45:5). When we can look over the devil’s head and see our blessed Master ruling and overruling, we can endure anything that He may permit. God does allow the wicked to assail us and the devil to tempt us. Sometimes it is to make manifest their wickedness and allow them to fill their cup of judgment. Sometimes it is to glorify Christ by our example of patience and gentleness.
7. David overlooked the petty trial of Shimei’s cursing in the light of the greater trial of Absalom’s crime. “My own son,” he said, “is seeking my life; why should I be unduly tried by this trifling nettle that seeks to sting my hand?” Nearly all our troubles would become trifling and seem unworthy of our notice if we looked above them to the greater issues of life. At the very time that we are fretting over some petty wrong, there is a graver issue pending that needs our whole attention—perhaps some child or friend in great temptation, danger or sin, perhaps some great peril threatening our life and work, perhaps some duty that we are neglecting in the pursuit of this miserable side issue, perhaps the very crown of our eternal future is being risked while we let the devil preoccupy us about our reputation, our rights, or the punishment of some petty slanderer whom we might better leave to God. I have known a minister of the gospel to spend years of his life in hunting down petty adversaries and following up contemptible assaults upon his character while his work suffered continued distraction and finally destruction and he came out in the end as a man always comes out who goes in to fight all the dogs in the street. He may succeed in defeating the dogs but he will bear away scratches to last him for a lifetime and find he has lost his time in the bargain. That was wise advice that Abraham Lincoln gave to his son. “My boy,” he said, “men tell you to be slow to quarrel, but when you do quarrel make your quarrel so strong that you will not need to quarrel again, for your enemy will respect you for life. My boy, do not take their advice. My counsel is, never quarrel. Even if you succeed in your contest you make an enemy and you lose more than you gain.” Let us be so preoccupied with the great issues of life that we shall pass by all these trifling things, and with a wide estimate of life’s real values shut our eyes to the devil’s side shows and treat him and his emissaries with that which he least can stand, silent contempt.
8. David refused to avenge himself. He would not allow Abishai to cut off Shimei’s head as he easily might have done, but he left his cause unvindi-cated, and he committed his case to the hands of his faithful Creator as we are commanded likewise to do (1 Peter 4:19).
9. Better still, he even took Shimei’s curses as the promise of blessings and said with deep ingenuity and lofty faith, “It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today” (2 Samuel 16:12). That is a fine view to take of the devil’s unkindness, to ask the Lord to enter a credit in our account and balance the books with a blessing for us in consideration of his curse. God does requite His children for the devil’s cruel blows. He gives them grace and strength through the trial, and He makes up to them for every blow by His loving kindness and His faithful providences. A dear friend once remarked to me respecting a child of God who had met with a terrible affliction and borne it with heavenly patience. “It seemed to me that ever afterward her God was trying to make up to her by His goodness for the sorrow that she had borne.” And so God does make up to us now. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13). And by and by we shall find in the reversion yonder a chain of gold for every chain of iron Satan forged; a crown of glory for every curse, teardrops transformed into diamonds and thorns and thistles blooming as myrtles in the Paradise of God. So when the devil rages, scolds, strikes and blasphemes, let us calmly look up and say, “Lord, remember his wrong and give me judgment against my adversary.” The Issue of Shimei’s Curse and David’s Trust
10. David was vindicated. His trial at length passed away, the sunshine came again, the rebellion was suppressed, the king was restored and the millions of Israel came to pay their homage at his feet. Shimei found himself in the cold minority, an object of contempt and helplessness, obliged even to plead for his own worthless life.
11. The punishment that he so well deserved came at last upon him through his own folly and recklessness. David never lifted his hand to touch him, but when Solomon came to the throne, he called Shimei to account for his former wickedness. Solomon gave Shimei perfect immunity while he remained in his own house in Jerusalem, but Shimei broke his parole. Disregarding his solemn covenant, one day on a trifling pretext Shimei left his home and returned to find himself condemned by his own folly to the execution that had waited so long for his wicked old head. So if we leave our enemies in the hands of God they will bring upon themselves the judgment of that we would avert from them if we could. Could we only see the sorrow and ruin that await many of those who have often wronged and tried us we would weep with compassion and we would kneel at their feet and implore them to save themselves from retribution and ruin. There are laws of inexorable consequence by which the bitter word which we send forth against another, and the unjust act by which we strike an innocent head, after describing their parabolic course through our mingled lives, come back in the end and strike our own head with all the accumulated force they have gathered on their way. These things can afford to wait, but the issue is as certain as the eternal laws of God. “As you have done, it will be done to you” (Obadiah 1:15), is the principle that has been inscribed on every page of human history and stands emblazoned on the records of God’s providences and pillars of the judgment throne.
12. David also got his blessing as well as Shimei his curse. The best of it was, not the deliverance of David from the calamities that Shimei prophesied, but the fact that this little chapter could be written with its beautiful story of meekness, Christlikeness and heavenly patience. It gave David an opportunity to be a truer type of Christ and to leave a portrait in the galleries of eternity for which it would have been worthwhile to live. This, after all, is the greatest meaning of life. Our situations come to us not so much that we may get out of them or get into them, but that they may furnish occasions for our exemplifying the Christian spirit. Like the dummies in the shop windows that are there to hold the various wares and robes that are exposed for exhibition and sale, so we are called to show forth the excellencies of Christ before a careless world. Our various circumstances come to us in the providences of God as opportunity for us to exhibit the life of our Master to a world that can see Him only through us. When circumstances smile upon us, we are to exhibit the spirit of humble gratitude and unselfish joy. When sorrow comes we are to show a spirit of patience and trust. When others revile and wrong us, we are to exhibit the character which David displayed under the circumstances of our text. Everything is to be looked upon as an occasion for testimony and service for our Master. “This will result in your being witnesses to them” (Luke 21:13) was the master’s intimation to His disciples as they went forth to witness for Him and to be imprisoned and persecuted by their fellowmen. He did not say, “You shall be delivered, you shall be protected,” but He said rather, “You shall find the prison a pulpit and the judgment hall an auditorium where you can preach My gospel and set forth My character before sinful men.” Thus we are making our eternal records. By and by we will find that God has kept the record correctly and completely, and that, while we have been endeavoring to represent Him, He has been standing for us weaving our sorrows into chaplets and crowns of eternal recompense. The little pearl oyster receiving accidentally into its shell a rough fragment of rock or sand tries in vain to expel the intruding and irritant substance. It only suffers in the struggle until rasped and bleeding it gives up in agony and helplessness. Then a new force comes into play. From its peculiar physiological system, the little mollusk sends forth a crystal fluid which covers and coats the rough piece of rock with a soft crystalline cushion. As this grows and hardens, it becomes a beautiful pearl. It ceases to irritate and soothes and rests the wounded side of the little creature until the curse has become a blessing, and some days later the pearl fisher discovers the hidden treasure, opens the shell and takes forth a gem of purest luster and boundless value which is worn in the coronets of kings and adorns the highest rank and grandest occasions. So some day our sorrows, irritations and wrongs, having first been sweetened by the Holy Spirit into heavenly virtues, will become the jewels of an immortal crown and will shine in the diadem of Jesus and adorn our brow forever. Don’t let us be turned aside by sandflies, barking dogs and biting thorns from the glorious possibilities of a life of sweetness, righteousness and victory, and “the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4).