1 Kings 2:1-11

Eikon Basilike.

The king, the close of whose chequered and romantic career is narrated in this section, was the pattern king of the Hebrew people, and is in many respects a model for all kings. The portrait drawn here and in the Psalms is a veritable Eikon Basilike, both truer and worthier of regard than that "Portraiture of his sacred Majesty," so famous and so influential in the history of our own country. We see him gathered to his fathers. Let us honestly frame his eulogium.

I. HE WAS ONE OF NATURE 'S KINGS . The first king of Israel seems to have been chosen because of his physical, the second because of his moral, qualifications. His was a kingly soul. "Kind hearts are more than coronets"—yes, and more than crowns. Few nobler and greater men have ever lived. Witness his magnanimity, his chivalry, his loyalty, his bravery, his tenderness, his forgiveness of wrongs. See the records of 1 Samuel 16:12 , 1 Samuel 16:21 ; 1 Samuel 27:1-12 :32-37, 50; 1 Samuel 18:14-16 ; 1 Samuel 22:23 ; 1 Samuel 24:5 , 1 Samuel 24:22 ; 1 Samuel 25:16 ; 1 Samuel 26:9-25 ; 2 Samuel 1:11-15 ; 2 Samuel 2:5 , 2 Samuel 2:6 ; 2 Samuel 3:31-39 ; 2 Samuel 4:9-12 ; 2 Samuel 9:1 ; 2 Samuel 16:10 , 2 Samuel 16:12 ; 2 Samuel 18:33 ; 2 Samuel 19:22 . Such a man, had he lived and died among the sheepfolds, would have been "king of men for all that."

II. HE WAS ONE OF HEAVEN 'S KINGS . "The powers that be are ordained of God." All legitimate monarchs reign de jure divino. But not all equally so. He was expressly chosen of God ( 1 Samuel 16:1 ; Psalms 89:20 ), was taken from the sheepfolds and from perilous watches against the lion and the bear to be the viceroy of Heaven. And he proved himself a king after God's own heart. He is the standard with which subsequent monarchs are compared, and by which they are judged, ( 2 Kings 11:4 , 33; 2 Kings 15:3-5 , 2 Kings 15:11 ; 2 Kings 14:3 , etc.)

III. HE WAS FAITHFUL TO THE KING OF KINGS . "He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only," etc. ( 1 Kings 15:5 ). "His heart was perfect with the Lord his God" ( 1 Kings 11:4 ). He kept God's commandments and statutes ( 2 Samuel 19:34 ). He was qualified to govern by having learnt to obey. He required nothing from his subjects which he did not himself render to his sovereign Lord.

IV. HE FAITHFULLY EXECUTED THE JUDGMENTS OF A KING . The powers that be are appointed "to execute wrath on him that doeth evil." The Church at her altar prays "that they may truly and indifferently minister justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice." "A wise king scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them." "The execution of justice on the guilty is essential even to the exercise of mercy to those whose safety depends on the maintenance of the law" (Wordsworth). David was never more kingly than when he "cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD " ( Psalms 101:8 ).

V. HE WAS A KING TO THE LAST . "David did never so wisely and carefully marshal the affairs of God as when he was fixed to the bed of his age and death" (Bp. Hall). It is the king speaks in this dying charge. It was because he was king, and as such owed obedience to the King of kings, and owed protection and the vindication of law to his subjects, that he could not pardon Joab and Shimei. A private person can forgive private wrongs; a king may not forgive public injuries, for he may not give away what is not his to give. It is true the son of David prayed for the forgiveness of his murderers. It is true that we are to forgive those who have wronged us. But we are not to defeat the ends of justice, and bid the malefactor go free. Nor will the Son of David forgive conscious and inveterate rebellion. He it is, the fount of all mercy, who will say, "Those mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me" ( Luke 19:27 ).

VI. HE SOUGHT AND FOUND MERCY FROM THE KING OF KINGS . He was not perfect, not sinless. "Save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." It is not the "fierce light that beats upon a throne" discloses David's imperfections; it is his own confessions. In Psalms 51:1-19 . he has himself recorded his sin and his profound penitence; in Psalms 32:1-11 , he tells us of his pardon. The king of Israel tells us how the King of Heaven forgives. And here most of all, perhaps, is he a pattern for all kings, for all men, to the end of time. This Eikon Basilike has many goodly and noble features, but the fairest lineament of all is the story of his sin and its forgiveness ( 2 Samuel 12:1-18 ).

HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE