The chivalrous devotion of the three touched an answering chord in
their chivalrous chief. His heart filled at the thought of what they
had risked, and revolted from employing what had been thus won for no
higher use than to gratify a piece of sentiment in himself. The
sparkling water was too sacred to be taken for any baser use than as a
libation to Jehovah. And who can doubt that the three were more fully
repaid for their devotion, as David poured it out unto the Lord, than
if he had drunk it eagerly up? His feeling and his act indicate
beautiful delicacy of instinct, and swiftness of perception of how to
requite the devotion of the three.
We may separate into its two parts the generous impulse which sprang as
one whole in David's breast. There was the shrinking from using the
water to slake his thirst merely, and there was the resolve to pour it
out as a libation to God. Both parts of that whole may yield us
profitable thoughts.
To risk their lives for the water was noble in the three; to have
quaffed it as if it had been drawn like any other water from a well,
would have been ignoble in David. There are things that it may be noble
to give and ignoble to accept. There are sacrifices which we are not
entitled to allow others to make for our sakes. Gratifications which
can only be procured at the hazard of men's lives are too dearly bought.
Would not a civilisation, that draws much of its comforts and
appliances from 'sweated industries,' and is languidly amused by seeing
men and women performers peril their lives nightly, and lose them too,
for its gratification, be the better for copying David's recoil from
drinking 'the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives'? Is
there not 'blood' on many a woman's ball-dress, on many an article of
luxury, on many an amusement?
There are sacrifices which we have no right to accept from others. The
three had no right to risk life for such a purpose, and David would
have been selfish if he had drunk the water. Do not such thoughts lead
us by contrast to Him who has done what none other can do? 'None of
them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give his life a ransom
for him'; but Jesus can and Jesus does, and what it would be
impossible, and wrong if it were possible, for one man to do for
another, He has done for us all, and what it would be base for a man to
accept from another if that other could give it, it is blessed and the
beginning of all nobleness of character for us to accept from Him.
David would not drink because the cup seemed to him to be red with
blood. Jesus offers to us a cup, not of cold water only but of 'water
and blood,' and bids us drink of it and remember Him.
The generous devotion of the three kindled answering emotions in
David's breast. It would be a churlish soul that was not warmed into
some faint replica of such self-sacrifice, and most of us would be
ashamed of ourselves if we were unmoved by such love. But does the
supreme example of it affect us as much as the lesser examples of it
do? How many of us stand before it like the peaks of the Alps that
front full south, and lift an unmelted breastplate of snow to the
midday sun! How many of us have lived all our lives in presence of
Jesus' infinite love and self-surrender for us each, and never have
felt one transient touch of answering love!
The other part of David's impulse was to offer to God what was too
precious for his own use. That is the fitting destination of our most
precious and prized possessions. And whatever is thus offered becomes
more precious by being offered. The altar sanctifies and enhances the
worth of the gift. What we give to God is more our own than if we had
kept it to ourselves, and develops richer capacities of ministering to
our delight. It is so with our greatest surrender, the surrender of
ourselves. When we give ourselves to Jesus, He renders us back to
ourselves, far better worth having than before. We are never so much
our own as when we are wholly Christ's. And the same thing is true as
to all our riches of mind, heart, or worldly wealth. If we wish to
taste their most delicate and refined sweetness, let us give them to
Jesus, and the touch of His hand, as He accepts them and gives them
back to us, will leave a lingering fragrance that nothing else can
impart. Was not the water from the well of Bethlehem sweeter to David
as he poured it out unto the Lord than if he had greedily gulped it
down?