1 Kings 20:40 And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said to him, So shall your judgment be… This story was originally told in order to tough the conscience of King Ahab, who had allowed Ben-hadad, King of Syria, to escape when Providence had put the cruel monarch into his hand on purpose that he might receive his doom. Ahab is no more, but this Scripture is not, therefore, like a spent shell — there is truth and power in it yet. Its teaching is applicable to us also. I. THE OBLIGATION which the text suggests, that we may solemnly own that we are under a higher obligation still. This man being engaged in warfare, was bound to obey the orders of his superior officer; that officer put into his custody a prisoner, saying, "Keep this man," and from that moment he was under an obligation from which nothing could free him. 1. That we are bound to serve God is dear, because we derive our being from Him. 2. It was for this end that the Almighty made us, and for nothing short of this, that we might glorify God and enjoy him for ever. 3. To the service of God a thousand voices call us all 4. A great argument for our obligation to glorify God is found in the fact that in this service men find their highest honour and their truest happiness. 5. Let this, also, never be far from our memories, that there is a day coming when we must all of us give an account of our fives, and the account will be based upon this inquiry — How have we served and glorified God? II. A CONFESSION: "He was gone." The man was under obligation to take care of his prisoner, but he had to confess that he was gone. 1. We have lost many opportunities for serving God which arise out of the periods of fife. I hope you will not have to say, "My childhood is gone; I cannot praise Jesus with a girl's voice or a boy's tongue now, for my childhood passed away in disobedience and folly." You cannot talk to your son now, as you might have done when you could take the fair-haired boy upon your knee and kiss him and tell him of Jesus. 2. Another form of regret may arise out, of the changes of our circumstances. A man had once considerable wealth, but a turn of Providence has made him poor: it is a very unhappy thing if he has to confess, "I did not use my substance for God when I had it. I was an unfaithful steward, and wasted my Master's goods, and now I am no longer trusted by Him, my property is gone." Another may have possessed considerable ability of mind, but through sickness or declining vigour he may not be able now to do what he once did. 3. As time has gone so also have many persons gone to whom we might have been useful. 4. Sometimes, however, the confession of the thing gone concerns noble ideas and resolves. You had great conceptions, and if they had but been embodied in action something good would have come of them; but where are the ideas now? Were they not smothered in their birth? 5. And there may be some from whom a vast wealth of opportunity has passed away. They have been blessed with great means and large substance, and if these had been laid out for Jesus Christ year after year many a lagging agency would have been quickened, and many a holy enterprise which has had to be suspended for want of means might have gone on gloriously. III. THE EXCUSE which was made — "As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone." 1. The excuse is, "I was so busy"; which, first of all, is no excuse, because a soldier has no business to have any business but that which his commander allots to him. 2. When the man said he was "busy here and there," he cut away the only excuse he could have had, because that showed he had ability. 3. Then, again, what he had done was evidently done to please himself. He was "busy here and there." IV. THE UNALTERABLE FACT. "While I was busy here and there, he was gone." Could you not seize him again? "No, he is gone." Is there no making-up for past neglect? No recapturing the missing one? No, he is gone, clean gone. 1. With the time, remember, your life has gone, and there is no living it over again. 2. Remember, also, that future diligence will not be able to recover wasted time. I suppose Luther was past forty before he began his life-work, and yet he accomplished a splendid result for Christ; but even Luther could not get back his years of unregeneracy and superstition. Time is on the wing; use it now. Do not loiter, for thou canst pluck no feather from the wing of time to make it loiter too. It flies, and if thou wouldst use it, use it now. Arouse thyself, and sleep no longer. If thou wouldst indeed be true to God who made thee and to Christ who bought thee with His precious blood, use thyself now to the fullest conceivable extent for the glory of thy Lord and Master. What shall we do? Let us all fly to Jesus, who can forgive the guilt of the past. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. |
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