1 Chronicles 11:16
At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.
Sermons
David's Mighty MenF. Whitfield 1 Chronicles 11:10-25
The Moral of the Mighty MenW. Clarkson 1 Chronicles 11:10-14, 20-47
A Modern HeroSunday Companion1 Chronicles 11:15-19
A Royal AfterthoughtW. Clarkson 1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Jashobeam, and Courageous CompanionsJ. Hastings.1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Longing for the Associations of Child-HoodJ. Parker, D. D.1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Self-ForgetfulnessA. Froude.1 Chronicles 11:15-19
The Water of the Well of BethlehemT. Rhys Evans.1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Water Poured Out as a LibationT. De Witt Talmage.1 Chronicles 11:15-19
The Well of BethlehemJ.R. Thomson 1 Chronicles 11:16-19














This is one of the most touching and poetical incidents in the romantic life of the son of Jesse. It exhibits him in a light in which we cannot but discern both his amiability and his piety.

I. DAVID'S DESIRE. He was, with his faithful band of valiant followers, in the stronghold upon the borders of the Philistine territory. The enemy were in possession of his native vale, the scene of his boyish happiness and youthful exploits. It was a position of danger and of privation - this which he occupied at this time. How natural, how human, his desire for a draught of the bright, cool water from the spring that gushed from the hillside near his father's fields! It was a longing for home, it was a clinging to the associations of childhood, it was the unchanged heart, that prompted the desire that found utterance in his words, "Oh that one would give me," etc.!

II. THE FEAT OF THE HEROES. The men David had around him were men ready for any daring exploit - bold, fearless, and prompt. Yet they had tender hearts, that could sympathize with such a wish as that their chief expressed. It was a gallant and heroic feat, this which they performed, in breaking through the ranks of the Philistines, and bringing to David the draught of water his soul desired from the dear well at Bethlehem.

III. THE SELF-SACRIFICING AND PIOUS ACT OF THE LEADER. David appreciated the faithfulness, the sympathy, the bravery, of the noble three. He could not drink the water, for it seemed to him like the life-blood of the heroes. It was too precious for any but for Jehovah. Accordingly he poured it out in a pious libation before the Lord, giving his best to God.

LESSONS.

1. The sacredness and beauty of human feeling. The associations of childhood and of home are precious, and it is no sign of weakness to cherish them.

2. The beauty of self-sacrifice. What more admirable than the willingness to run all risks to serve, to make happy, those whom we honour and love?

3. The supremacy of the Divine claims. God has a right to our hearts and to all that is dear to them. Withhold not from him his own. - T.

Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David.
This incident, although it rests upon a basis of conspicuous bravery, evidently owes its cardinal importance to far deeper considerations. Some might be tempted to think that David's conduct in pouring out the water was fantastic and wasteful — an ill-timed intrusion of a poetic sentiment on the stern realities of life. On the contrary his conduct is penetrated with the sense of the value of life, with deep appreciation of heroism and with a high-minded shrinking from any mean appropriation of the unselfish devotion of his fellow-men. Some lives there are that whatever is done for them are never thrilled by any self-abasing surprise; no sacrifice is above their merit — their bottomless egotism could swallow worlds.

I. THE BASE ACCEPTANCE OF THE INCALCULABLE RISKS AND TOILS AND SORROWS OF OTHER MEN is to be noted in —

1. Those in whom is developed the undue love of command and the imperious appetite for personal distinction. The monarchs of the older world who remorselessly sacrificed blood and treasure to build themselves impregnable cities, or to erect stately sepulchres. The Eastern chieftain who bade his warrior take the needless death-leap. Napoleon Bonaparte.

2. In those simply selfish ones who have not yet risen high enough to afford themselves the luxury of tyranny. Their maxim is "Everybody for himself." I have heard of a farmer, whose parcel of ground one might ride round in a couple of hours, express an eager desire for a war between two great powers, since it would probably enrich him. Merchants and millowners have not been free from such wishes. All this is to batten on flesh and blood.

3. In the indifferent many of us are like the receivers of stolen property, only too satisfied to receive and to ask no questions. We expect all the machinery of our life to work with regularity, but are coldly indifferent to the means. Let us learn from David a view of life diviner and therefore more humane.

II. THINK OF THE HEROIC WATER-FETCHING THAT LIES BEHIND OUR OWN LIFE.

1. Historically. Whole civilisations lie behind us; the Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman — each has contributed its quota and we inherit the best of each. Do we reflect, with sufficient gratitude to God and man, on that costly part of which we are — the result?

2. The present day. Our life is enriched by the multitudinous toil of those who remain unknown, and often scantily rewarded. David's words are not without meaning to us under existing social conditions.

3. Let us step on to more personal ground.(1) Some of us are where we are through the wonderful devotion of our parents.(2) Some of us, later on in life, have been saved by the generous resolve and clinging faithfulness of those whom it cost a great effort to befriend us.

III. WHAT DOES DAVID'S VIEW LEAD US TO?

1. Solemn thoughtfulness. What are we that all this should have been done for us? We ought to learn reverence for that majesty of history which the children of the market-place deride. We ought to view our privileges with a more anxious sense of responsibility.

2. The acceptance of such services as have been referred to is inevitable, for we cannot unmake history or sever ourselves from the complex influences of the present order of society. But what does rest in every man's power is to form his own estimate of the value of such services and to decide what use their sacred splendour or gentle unselfishness urge him to put them to.

3. The impulse to self-abnegation which we see in David. This is the practical tendency of all such lives and deeds. The legend of Curtius, self-devoted that he might save the State, may have been simply a concrete personification of the general patriotism of early Rome; but it gave memorable impulses to later generations. It was not absent from the mind of Regulus; it helped to cheer the Roman legions in Parthia and Persia and amid the German swamps and forests. God has set our lives in a framework of noble and unceasing sacrifice. In this old Jewish story we have a significant though undesigned illustration of the transcendent sacrifice of Christ. He has brought us the true "living water."

(T. Rhys Evans.)

It was just like David with his intense nature to speak and act in the way recorded in these verses. Just as an Italian in a northern region longs for the fruits and blue skies of his own land, so David longed for the water. We have here —

I. A MANIFESTATION OF DEVOTED LOYALTY. What ought we to venture for our King Jesus?

II. HIGH APPRECIATION OF SERVICE. David pours it out before the Lord as the only One who is worthy to receive so great a sacrifice. Some might blame him for appearing to throw a slight on the act of the brave men — judicious waste. Some had indignation when the woman broke the alabaster box of ointment over Christ's feet; but He looked at it in another light — He approved that loving, loyal, lavish "waste." Only selfish souls could be indifferent to the lives of others. His act was not like that of the Pasha in the Russo-Turkish war who, when English doctors went to him at a great cost, eager to help the wounded Turkish soldiers, repulsed them and firmly declined to receive their services. What ought to be our feeling towards our King who has broken through the ranks of evil, to gain for us the water of Life?

(J. Hastings.)

There are times in life when our childhood comes up with new meaning and with new appeal. We long for the old homestead, for the mountains which girdled us round in early life, for the friends who heard our first speech and answered our first desires; we want to leave the far country and go home again, and, forgetting all the burden of the past, start life with all that is richest in experience. Any water would have quenched David's thirst, but there are times when mere necessaries are not enough; we must have the subtle touch, the mysterious association, the romantic impulse, all the poetry of life. In our spiritual life we cannot be satisfied with great conceptions, brilliant thoughts, miracles of genius, words employed by the tongue of the master; we need a tone, a look, a touch, a peculiar and distinctive something which belongs to the very root and core of life, being charged with a poetry and a force all its own.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Some years ago in the State House of Georgia, at Atlanta, this scene occurred: A coloured minister, standing in the State House, said he was thirsty, and he was looking for something to drink. A white gentleman standing by, said, "I'll get you a drink," and departed from the room. As the white gentleman was coming back with a glass of water for this black clergyman some one said to the clergyman, "Do you know who that is who is bringing you a glass of water?" "No I who is it?" "That is Governor Colquitt." Then the black man took the glass of water and said, "Thank you, Governor, but I cannot drink this under such circumstances," and he poured it on the floor, saying: "I pour this out as a libation on the altar of Christian feeling between the two races." Dramatic? Yes, but Christian.

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

Sunday Companion.
A window in the chapel of the Lichfield Cathedral has a special meaning. It is one of several windows presented by the officers and men who had served in New Zealand during the Maori War, in token of their gratitude for Bishop Selwyn's attention to their welfare in that campaign. It is a medallion depicting David in the act of pouring out the longed-for "water of the well of Bethlehem," procured for him by "the three mighty men" at the risk of their lives. This medallion commemorates the similar heroic action of a Christian Maori who had been a pupil of Dr. Selwyn's when he was Bishop of New Zealand. This Maori, Henere Taratoa, when the war broke out, felt hound to join his tribe. He was placed in charge of a fortified village known as the formidable "Gate Psalm" The British troops stormed the pa, and were repulsed with great slaughter. Several wounded officers were left inside the village, mad one of them feebly moaned for water. There was no water to be had, the nearest being within the British lines. At night this young Christian Maori crept down, at the risk of his life, within the line of English sentries, filled a vessel with water, and carried it back to the pa to refresh his dying enemy's lips. The next day the British again stormed the place, and Henere was killed. On his person was found the text of Holy Scripture which had suggested the deed: "If thine enemy thirst, give him drink!"

(Sunday Companion.)

That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man — that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness — is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetful. hess, it is self-sacrifice, it is the disregard of personal pleasure and personal indulgence, personal advantages remote or present.

(A. Froude.)

People
Abiel, Abiezer, Abishai, Adina, Ahiam, Ahijah, Ahlai, Anathoth, Ariel, Asahel, Azmaveth, Baanah, Benaiah, Benjamin, Benjaminites, David, Dodai, Dodo, Eleazar, Elhanan, Eliahba, Eliel, Eliphal, Elnaam, Ezbai, Gareb, Hachmoni, Haggeri, Hanan, Hashem, Heled, Helez, Hepher, Hezro, Hotham, Hothan, Hurai, Ikkesh, Ilai, Ira, Israelites, Ithai, Ithmah, Ittai, Jaasiel, Jashobeam, Jasiel, Jebusites, Jediael, Jehiel, Jehoiada, Jeiel, Jeribai, Joab, Joel, Joha, Jonathan, Joshaphat, Joshaviah, Maacah, Maachah, Maharai, Mibhar, Moabites, Naarai, Naharai, Nathan, Obed, Reubenites, Ribai, Sacar, Samuel, Saul, Shage, Shama, Shammoth, Shimri, Shiza, Sibbecai, Sibbechai, Uriah, Uzzia, Zabad, Zelek, Zeruiah
Places
Adullam, Anathoth, Baharum, Beeroth, Bethlehem, Carmel, Gaash, Gibeah, Harod, Hebron, Jebus, Jerusalem, Kabzeel, Millo, Moab, Netophah, Pas-dammim, Pirathon, Tekoa, Valley of Rephaim, Zion
Topics
Armed, Bethlehem, Beth-lehem, Cover, David, Force, Fortress, Garrison, Hold, Philistine, Philistines, Station, Strong, Stronghold
Outline
1. David Becomes King over All Israel
4. Jerusalem
10. David's Mighty Men

Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Chronicles 11:16

     5315   fortifications

1 Chronicles 11:10-47

     5544   soldiers

1 Chronicles 11:11-23

     5776   achievement

1 Chronicles 11:15-19

     5087   David, reign of

1 Chronicles 11:15-25

     1652   numbers, 3-5

1 Chronicles 11:15-42

     1654   numbers, 11-99

Library
The Story of a Cup of Water
BY THEODORE T. MUNGER [From "Lamps and Paths," by courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.] Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. --James Russell Lowell: Sonnet IV Restore to God his due in tithe and time: A tithe purloined cankers the whole estate. Sundays observe: think, when the bells do chime, 'Tis angels' music; therefore come not late. God there deals blessings. If a king did so, Who would not haste, nay give, to see
Philip P. Wells—Bible Stories and Religious Classics

Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo.
Mount Sion did not thrust itself so far eastward as mount Acra: and hence it is, that mount Moriah is said, by Josephus, to be "situate over-against Acra," rather than over-against the Upper City: for, describing Acra thus, which we produced before, "There is another hill, called Acra, which bears the Lower City upon it, steep on both sides": in the next words he subjoins this, "Over-against this was a third hill," speaking of Moriah. The same author thus describes the burning of the Lower City:
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Epistle cxxii. To Rechared, King of the visigoths .
To Rechared, King of the Visigoths [82] . Gregory to Rechared, &c. I cannot express in words, most excellent son, how much I am delighted with thy work and thy life. For on hearing of the power of a new miracle in our days, to wit that the whole nation of the Goths has through thy Excellency been brought over from the error of Arian heresy to the firmness of a right faith, one is disposed to exclaim with the prophet, This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps. lxxvi. 11 [83]
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician .
To Theoctista, Patrician [153] . Gregory to Theoctista, &c. We ought to give great thanks to Almighty God, that our most pious and most benignant Emperors have near them kinsfolk of their race, whose life and conversation is such as to give us all great joy. Hence too we should continually pray for these our lords, that their life, with that of all who belong to them, may by the protection of heavenly grace be preserved through long and tranquil times. I have to inform you, however, that I have
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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