1 Chronicles 20:3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes… There are signal inconsistencies in the character of David. He was capable of kindness, self-denial, and generosity, but he was capable also of cruelty amounting to inhumanity and savagery. Perhaps no act more disgraceful and inexcusable is related to have been performed by him than that recorded in the text. The people of Rabbah had long resisted his arms; and when the city fell David seems to have given the reins to his passions, and to have treated the captive population with what seems to us all but incredible cruelty. But allowance must be made for the manners and morals of the age. Humanity towards enemies is comparatively a modern virtue. Though history records a few striking exceptions to the general rule, that rule was undoubtedly one of utter insensibility to the miseries of a vanquished foe. The chronicler here relates, evidently as a matter calling for no surprise or indignation, that David in cold blood cut the people with saws, broke their limbs with threshing-instruments, and flung them, whilst still alive, into the red-hot brick-kilns! I. CRUELTY IS AN OUTCOME AND A FORM OF SIN. From the time, and in consequence of, man's original departure from God, human society has been cursed with all the horrors which result from the violation of Divine law, the defiance of Divine authority. Hatred, envy, and strife have run riot, and their manifestations have been the main factors in what is called human history. Hence the barbarities heartlessly and ruthlessly practised among all rude nations. Modern war is nothing but a disgraceful survival of the savage barbarism of the sinful and inhuman past. Even now the practices common in war are enough to sadden and to sicken every sensitive mind. "Whence come wars and fightings? Come they not hence of your lusts?" II. RESTRAINTS AND CHECKS UPON CRUELTY HAVE BEEN COMPARATIVELY FEEBLE AND INEFFECTIVE. David was a very religious man, but his religion did not preserve him from adultery and murder; nor did it restrain him from cold-blooded cruelty. The ancient civilizations, the ancient religions, failed to check the prevalent insensibility to suffering, the prevalent habit of revenge. Even the religion of the Old Testament had very partial power to secure these ends. Mitigations of the horrors of war have doubtless been introduced by Christianity and by chivalry. Yet the professed servants of the meek and holy Jesus have too often sanctioned and applauded the barbarities of war, the infamies of slavery, the tortures of the Inquisition. III. VITAL AND SCRIPTURAL CHRISTIANITY ALONE CAN COPE WITH AND VANQUISH THIS EVIL. Rules and maxims are of little avail to contend with the fierce passions of our fallen nature. The new heart, with its changed dispositions, is alone sufficient. The example and the spirit of our Divine Saviour are incompatible with cruelty. In proportion as Christ himself lives in the hearts and governs the lives of men, will inhumanity diminish until it disappear, and until such deeds as those described in the text become impossible. The prophecies and promises of God's Word point forward to a day when the "new commandment" shall be everywhere observed, and when cruelty shall be no more. - T. Parallel Verses KJV: And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. |
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