1 Kings 2:10

1 Kings 2:10

There is a rounded completeness about these words which is peculiarly applicable to the man of whom they were spoken. His day had been a long, an active, and a troubled one. He was the greatest general of his time. He bequeathed to his son a broad and well-consolidated empire. He sinned deeply, but he also suffered terribly and repented bitterly.

I. The expression "David slept with his fathers" is the well-known Hebrew formula for death, having primary reference, no doubt, to the fact of burial, but beyond that denoting the fact of being received into the happy portion of Hades and being there rejoined to the blessed spirits of their fathers. The two thoughts are undoubtedly conjoined. The phrase is applied in cases where it was not true that the bodily remains were laid side by side with those who had gone before, as, for example, in the case of Abraham.

II. There is another expression for death, also taken from the Hebrew, but used with greater frequency in the Greek of the New Testament, and from it transferred to the language of the whole Christian world: "falling asleep." By Him who was the Truth itself we are taught to regard sleep as the symbol of death. All that in His mind the symbol conveyed we do not know. The symbol itself is a mystery, as well as the thing symbolised. There may be inner and subtle resemblances between sleep and death, as well as those outer analogies which lie upon the surface and are patent to all. These we must be content to leave with God.

III. Sleep at last we all shall, but we may sleep well or ill. And then the awaking what shall that be? A happy awaking depends upon the soundness of the sleep; the soundness of the sleep depends upon a healthy state of body and mind, and upon hard, honest work. There is no sleep so calm as the sleep in Jesus; and if we wish to sleep in Jesus, we must be in loving communion with Him now..

J. Macgregor, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. i., p. 65.

References: 1 Kings 2:10. J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation,vol. ii., p. 471. 1 Kings 2:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 269; F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel,p. 527; G. T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 328.