2 Samuel 20:16-22

Then cried a wise woman out of the city.

Abel’s oracle; or prudence and peaceableness

I. The people in Abel of Bethmaachah are on the verge of ruin, for Joab is battering away at the walls. Soon his soldiers will be pouring into the city, and the sword will devour and destroy. Now if a man could do wrong and suffer alone it would be more tolerable. No man can, how, ever, suffer alone. We always suffer in greater or less degree by any sin committed by our fellows. We are all so co-related, interwoven. We may even, as one has said, “sin in the persons of other men,” for those who received an evil influence from us may go on sinning through that influence, and so suffer through their own sin and ours. Even when we have passed from this stage of existence our influence will still live. “Being dead we speak,” either for evil or for good. It is so hard to check evil once committed, much more to stop it altogether. Every day we meet with instances of similar suffering. A father has forged a cheque, and his children must suffer, although it is not their fault that they are his children. A mother is fretful and gloomy, and the whole household is made wretched. A brother defrauds another; or over-speculates with money entrusted to him, and his sisters are ruined; or a marriage just about to take place is checked, and the sister’s hopes blighted. Sin is terrible. Its near and remote consequences are beyond our power of conception. The deed of folly and sin soaks into the lives of others, and breaks out or flows on in channels undreamt of. We can do nothing that shall have an end in ourselves. “One sinner destroyeth much good.” The rough, unskilled hand touching a picture, or attempting to repair the delicate mechanism of a watch, may do much greater damage than can be conceived. So one Sheba can imperil a city. So one hidden sin can endanger salvation--can ruin a soul.

II. But we see, on the other hand, that the power of an individual to bless may balance the evil wrought by the careless and selfish. While Joab’s soldiers are battering the walls, above the din is heard the voice of a woman--“Hear! listen! listen, I pray you!” “Deliver him up, and I will depart from the city.” This was the concession the wise woman wanted, and soon Sheba’s head was thrown over the wall. Then Joab blew the trumpet of recall, and his soldiers dropped their arms and refrained from further attack. The city was saved.

1. We may learn that as no city is safe with a traitor in it, so no heart is safe where a single sin is cherished. We must pluck out or cut off the sin that besets or absorbs us.

2. We should in all circumstances seek to act in a commonsense manner. Wisdom is not merely extraordinary knowledge, but perception.

3. There was no sacrifice of principle in the action of the woman or of the citizens. Caiaphas in after ages suggested that it was better that Christ should die than that the whole nation should perish. Caiaphas cared not that Christ was innocent. Christ had not brought the evil Sheba had. It was better for a nation to suffer than to permit an innocent man to be condemned.

4. The wise woman chose a suitable time for ending the strife. Some good projects are marred through being inopportune, but it was not so in this ease. The woman had done all she could to save the city. Conclusion. In the matter of our salvation, we would say, let not the traitor of pride and procrastination be permitted to remain within the soul. Cast away self-will and pride, and seek peace. Law is terrible, so long as we are not in harmony with it, not when our sin is forgiven. Christ has come to make peace. He is our peace. He saw our danger. At the right moment he interposed. He allowed Himself to bear contumely and crucifixion that we might be delivered. He took, as it were, the place of Sheba. He was made sin for us, and permitted Himself to be case out, that we might be saved. He died in our place, for sin-enslaved, defiant, rebellious souls. He did it unasked. He did it from pure love. He saw not one man, but a whole world perishing, and He said, “Better that I should die than that all these should perish.” (F. Hastings.)